Mart Muller's Weblog

In a lot of Sharepoint cases, there are document templates that are managed in one particular document library. For example, project document templates have to be managed at one central space, but the saved documents based on that template should be used and stored in a project site. In these cases, when opening a templates, the default "save as" location is the document library in where the template is stored, not the project document template.

This is not what we want, because the documents have to be saved in the project document library. There is a solution for this problem:

Sharepoint comes with a lot of Javascript functions that are stored in the ows.js file. One of these functions is the "createNewDocumentWithProgID" function. This function opens a document in the right program for editing (for example MS Word) and sets the saving location to the given location. So, a url like below, will solve the problem:

<a href="[target document library url]" onclick="createNewDocumentWithProgID('http://[template url]/[template filename]', makeAbsUrl('[target url]/[target filename]'), 'SharePoint.OpenDocuments', false);">Template</a>

This way, the document will be stored in the target location, with the target filename. You have to make sure of course, that the user has reading rights on the template source site. Creating a webpart that automatically loads the templates in the format above, will do the trick. The browser url will automatically become the target doucment library.

Via Michael and Carlos 's blog: Sharepoint - PocketPc sharepoint list Explorer.

"I am making a Pocket PC application to show in the today screen the list content of some lists of my sharepoint server and update it each x minuts. Before beginning the development I have made a small example that is interesting similarity to me to place here with the source code since it can be interesant for other developers.This simple application, needs the user credentials and the direction of the web service to use, shows all lists available and later it shows the content of the list selected in a datagrid."

Daniel McPherson wrote an article about property promotion in Sharepoint document libraries, giving answers to to following questions:

• When are properties promoted?
• When are properties demoted?
• What document types are supported?
• What property types are supported?
• Which properties are supported?
• How are XML properties handled during "Property Promotion"?

Read full article

.. is available on the Microsoft site:

"In this solutions learning platform, developers at a fictitious enterprise created solutions for common business processes. FabriKam, a furniture manufacturer with about 10,000 employees, faces business problems and challenges not unlike many of today's enterprises. Starting with a set of realistic infrastructure assumptions, FabriKam developers built six solutions and four reusable components that address FabriKam's needs in innovative ways, with extensive use of Web services, XML, integration of front-end applications and back-end systems, and full use of the Office environment with which most information workers are already familiar. The FabriKam 3.1 Solutions Learning Platform represents the essence of the efforts of FabriKam developers."

FabriKam, a Microsoft Office System Solutions Learning Platform Read the online documentation that describes how FabriKam incorporates tools, processes, and technologies that developers can use to build powerful solutions on the Microsoft Office System. (April 2005)

Download the FabriKam Documentation Get a single compiled help file that features all the same documentation as the online version. (April 2005)

Order the FabriKam Solutions Kit Order a copy of the FabriKam DVD which includes the six FabriKam solutions in a virtual PC image and technical documentation. The solutions are configured with all required software, including source code and Microsoft Visual Studio projects. In addition, this DVD includes all the development resources available in the Microsoft Office System Developer Kit 3.0. (April 2005)

There are a few ways to show Excel content in Sharepoint. One of them is creating a list in Excel and publish it to a Sharepoint list. This way, the data stays synchronized which is a nice example of Office integration. Sometimes however, this way is not statisfying because only the data is shown in Sharepoint. Other elements like layout are lost in Sharepoint. in this case there is another way to achieve Excel - Sharepoint integration.

1) First, create or upload an Excel document to a Sharepoint document library

2) And open the document to edit it

3) Then go to 'File -> Save as Web Page'. The file will now be saved as .HTM file in the same document library. Hit 'Save'

3) Now go to the Area on where you want to publish the Excel data (and layout). Choose 'Edit Page' and 'Add Webpart', 'Browse'.

4) Select the Pageviewer webpart and drag it to the page. Open the toolpane to edit the URL.

5) Change the URL to the ExcelSheet.htm file and hit OK

That's it! The Excel content is now displayed on the sharepoint Area.

Again a Sharepoint user sample on GotDotNet. A Sharepoint utility to show all portal sites, manage site users and roles globally in one common interface. This utility will will also manage Sharepoint portal areas, area users, site groups and cross site groups globally in one common interface.

Download

On GotDotNet.com there are some new Sharepoint related user samples:

• Document Library Explorer
  Document Library Explorer is a web part for enhancing the user interface of SharePoint document libraries. It contains a treeview for navigating folders and allows files and folders to be moved or copied using drag and drop  Update: this sample turns out to be a commercial product with an annoying "please register me" popup. By default the webpart doens't even work.
• Infopath - Sharepoint integration
  Integration of Infopath with SharePoint
• OWA Like Web Part for Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)
  Web part that functions like the OWA web part that comes with SPS, only this works in WSS. It doesn't require SPS, but does require Exchange 2003. Also this part is not designed to work on the Internet, only intranet.

..and some new workspaces:

• Sharepoint Explorer
  In the same genre as the Sever/Solution/Biztalk Explorers, the Sharepoint Explorer will allow the developer to administor/explore the site from Visual Studio .Net.
• SAST (SharePoint Advanced Search Tools)
  Matthew's SAST project has moved to GotDotNet

Microsoft will release a beta version of its Microsoft Office Live Communications Server client for Microsoft Windows Mobile devices in the H2 of this year. It will support IM on Windows Mobile 5.0 devices including devices that use the Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition and Smartphone mobile operating systems.

Patrick mentions that an overview of WSS 2.0 SP2 beta can be downloaded from the Microsoft site. Things improved according to this document:

• ASP.Net 2.0 support
• Support for IP-bound virtual servers
• Support for advanced extranet configurations
• Kerberos enabled by default

Read Patrick's article

Download document

download

New on MSDN: Best Practices for Ensuring Application Reusability and Upgrade in WSS

"This article revisits guidelines contained in the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Software Development Kit (SDK), and helps you consider the kinds of code customization you should perform on front-end Web servers to make those customizations more reusable and safer when software updates, upgrades, or security updates are applied to a deployment of Windows SharePoint Services. By following SDK guidelines, and by planning ahead for the kinds of customizations you need to make, you can help protect your code and enhance the prospects of its reuse. Use custom site definitions to lay out the logic of future sites, lists, or pages, and use Web Parts or Microsoft .NET Framework controls and Microsoft .NET Web applications to implement types and members of the Windows SharePoint Services assembly."

Read full article

Funny how an article that has been on the net for almost a year gets so much attention... but it's certainly worth it! :)

"Instead, I created a little app specifically for this: Give it the URL of your server's search web service, enter your search terms (the keywords for a "keyword" search; the SQL full-text query SELECT statement for a "SQL Fulltext" search) and click "Execute Query" - the program goes out to your search service, registers to search, gets the list of available catalogs and search scopes, and executes your query. You can see the form the query packet takes and the results you received from that query. You also have the option of changing search settings to different limits - start at a particular record number in the results, retrieve a certain number of results, only retrieve certain types of results, etc."

Seems like a great tool, made by Travis.

Finally, with thanks to Michael for mentioning it, there is a hot fix (kb894092) for the mixed languages problem in Sharepoint when using different language packs.

"When you use impersonation in your Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 (SP1) based application and the impersonated user account does not have permissions to access the application .config file, the application cannot load resources from satellite assemblies.

When this problem occurs, neutral resources are returned instead of the resources that are contained in the satellite assembly."

I think Mad will be glad to hear this too.

In some cases you want a user to automatically create alerts on particular lists, for example an action list. It's very easy to achieve that:

SPWeb thisWeb = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context);
thisWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;    
SPList myList = thisWeb.Lists["[list name]"];
// in this case a daily alert on all list actions
thisWeb.CurrentUser.Alerts.Add( myList,SPEventType.All,SPAlertFrequency.Daily);
thisWeb.CurrentUser.Update();

The same way, alerts can be added for list items. 

I've been posting about competencies, keywords and user profiles in Sharepoint a while ago and I've promised some code, so here is the "Keywords and Best Bets" part (User Profiles will follow up).

Keywords are basically just Portal Area's, so creating keywords is a matter of creating an Area in the keywords Area. This Area is a special Area and can be retrieved using the Object Model.

It's quite simple as you can see, but what about Best Bets? Keywords are just Area's in a special keyword Area, Best Bets are the Area Listings in this Area. So, creating a Best Bet is about the same code when creating Area Listings in an Area.

This way you're able to create a structure of Keywords and Best Bets dynamically and have influence on the search results. In my opinion this method is quite underestimated because it can improve a lot of efficiency in Information Worker organisations.

Alex talks about changing the Sharepoint Portal's background color depending on the user that is logged on. This way, each type of user gets a personalized portal style. The idea is quite simple: A control that overrules the background color style.

"The control checks the rights of the current user and sets the background color to one of the defined colors in the web.config."

A nice example of Sharepoint personlization.

Read the full article including code

(Re)visited via Michaels blog: It's more then a year old, in some occasions very usefull, the The SharePoint Configuration Analyzer for WSS.

Download here

Joe Shurman wrote a SharePoint Backup & Recovery Test Plan.

"The purpose of this document is to provide a test plan for Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services implementation."

Renaud points to a French product called WebObs 2005 which is an analysis tool for Sharepoint based on Reporting Services.

With stats in PDF, WebParts and XML this tool sounds usefull for statistics inside Sharepoint.

WebObs website

Renaud's article

Via The Code Project:

For use in Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS), this custom placeholder control (WssListItemsPlaceholder) lists items in a Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) list. The list can almost be any WSS list, like Document Library, Image Library, Announcement, Events, Contacts etc.

Download

Read full article

Great work by Michael:

So finally it's done: the English SharePointPodcast

Download: SPPE-2005-04-11 (7,1 MB)

Paul Schaeflein wrote an article on intranetjournal.com where he explained how to build a searchable phone directory in WSS using webpart pages, Frontpage and webpart connections. Nice article which shows how simple it is to build usefull applications for Sharepoint with external datasources.

Read the full article

Mark refers to an article about personalization in ASP.Net 2.0:

• Part 1 - article explains how to implement personalization with ASP.NET 2.0 using Membership API, Membership Providers and Membership objects. Includes setting up membership, creating a user, Web Application Administration Tool, Login and Login Status Controls, Setting Up a Role Manager and more
• Part 2 - article explains how to implement personalization in ASP.NET 2.0 using the Profile object. It presents profiles in ASP.NET 2.0 including how to create a profile and setup a SQL Server Personalization Provider and more.
• Part 3 - article explains the use of the new Web Parts and Web Part Manager in ASP.NET 2.0 Personalization Services.

Michael is making his long awaited English Sharepoint podcasts!

"Several SharePoint users have asked for an English version of my SharePointPodcast. So here we go...
Here is the promo and the podcast will start within the next few days.
Subscribe to this feed and you will receive the first edition automaticly when it's online."

Lately, we can read some information about the next version of Sharepoint. Especially Mike Fitzmaurice talks about it now and then. He points at some technical detailes like CAML, Frontpage RPC and the Sharepoint 2003 webpart compatibility. Great new of course, but I haven't heard anything yet from changes to the Sharepoint design and HTML. On this area there is a lot to achieve:

• CSS - a proper and consistent use of CSS classes. Right now, classes are missing, used twice on different UI elements or the same UI element have different classes! It's a real mess!
• HTML - The HTML on Sharepoint sites is nasty as well. Inconsistent use of quotes, invalid HTML and wierd constuctions. (lots of examples)
• Design options - Right now, there are several CSS classes. Sharepoint Portal is quite easy to customize, with pointing to a custom CSS in the general property page. However, WSS sites is a totally different story. When changing the OWS.CSS, the portal inherits these changes. Themes are an option ofcourse on this one, but even then, styles are very hard to implement. Frontpage isn't an option, because it only edits one page a time, there are hunderds of underlying pages as well to edit. These pages are mostly messed up when changing the CSS files.

Of course, we've done lots of customizations, but even after all these projects styles are still an issue. So, please, make it better in v3! :) Does anyone have some info on this?

Stephane Cordonnier created a document recovery tool that is able to abstract documents directly from the database.

Great tool, read the description here (in french).