Merry Christmas

 

Wish all blog readers and followers the Merriest Christmas of them all!

A geeky Christmas Blog Posting

Recently, I came across a blog posting that a T-SQL Script that generates a Christmas Card. It is the best one I have encountered yet.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I have:

T-SQL Script Christmas Card Generator

Single Server Install – SharePoint 2010 with a Local Account

If you have had the chance to download either SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint 2010 it is most likely that you have attempted to install with a local account on a Single Server Install. Odds are you have probably gotten disappointed because the wizard did not allow the installation with a local account. You were not the only one disappointed, although that disappointment did fuel the need to find a solution.

After some research, I did find a useful blog posting from the field that had the exact solution to my dilemma. The solution consisted in using PowerShell and a script named: “New-SPConfigurationDatabase”; this script is to be executed through the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

The step-by-step process would be like this:

1- Open the PowerShell Management Shell

Entering the prompted items:

DatabaseName

DatabaseServer

FarmCredentials

Passphrase

The process will take a while, when completed the cursor will appear in the command line.

2- Open the Configuration Wizard

Click Next Button

3- Restart the Services

Click Yes Button

4- Leave the Do not disconnect from this server setting selected

Click Next Button

5- Continue the normal course of the Configuration Wizard

There you go, now you have a Single Installation Server with a local account, this will work for both SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint 2010.

2010 Suite esta disponible para descarga!

Microsoft mantuvo su promesa, estan disponibles:

• Office 2010
• Visio 2010
• Project 2010
• SharePoint Designer 2010
• SharePoint Foundation 2010
• SharePoint Server 2010 

Apurate a descargarlos, estan en MSDN

2010 Suite is available for download!

Microsoft did keep their promise, the download of:

• Office 2010
• Visio 2010
• Project 2010
• SharePoint Designer 2010
• SharePoint Foundation 2010
• SharePoint Server 2010 

All are available on MSDN, go check them out!

Office 2010 Public Beta as early as next week?

I also was very excited as soon as I heard that news to, while it is not set in stone. Some CTP participants for the Office 2010 have received an email that hints to something like that.

If you would like to see more details about that email it can be found at this link:

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/11/09/offcie-2010-public-beta-to-begin-next-week

What to expect with SharePoint 2010

The details regarding SharePoint 2010 have long been awaited and while many have listed or blogged about it, this a compilation of many of these changes and enhancements.

While it is not in depth, it can be expanded with your comments and suggestions; feel free to leave comments so that we can improve upon this list.

• Exclusive for 64 Bit Operating Systems
• If you thought that MOSS 2007 was big SharePoint Server 2010 is huge!
• No backward compatibility

• In case you wanted to use SharePoint Designer 2010 to modify SharePoint 2007 sites; it is not possible
• User Interface is Ribbon based
  • It is all over the place and a major and welcome improvement
• Composites
  • A nice word to describe applications that have been created by the use of InfoPath, Designer, BCS, Web Parts, etc.
• Improved and Enhanced Lists and Document Libraries
• These can go easily into the millions!
• External Lists – residing outside of SharePoint
• More Event Receivers!
• Editions
  • MOSS no more - It is SharePoint Server 2010
  • WSS - Now SharePoint Foundation
• Services
  • PerformancePoint – Improved Business Intelligence
  • Visio
  • Project Gemini – An attempt to simplify BI for everyone
  • Access
• Business Connectivity Services – New naming for what Business Data Catalog
• Enhancements to the API
• Online Services
  • Standard
  • Dedicated
  • Multi-Tenancy
• Search
  • Improved and faster responses
  • Ability to deploy with FAST Technology
• Social Computing Integration
• SilverLight Integration
  • Through out of the box Web Part
• SharePoint Designer 2010
  • Reusable Workflows – Same workflow can be used on multiple Lists in different Sites
• New Theming Model
  • Ability to deploy themes from within Microsoft Office
• Content Types
• Can be shared to other Site Collections
• Improved Management
• No longer tied to Windows Server Operating Systems
• You can install on Windows 7
• Shared Services Providers are no longer used
• Visual Studio 2010 Integration
• Interface for Web Part Development – Finally!
• SandBoxed Solutions
• Method to restrict Object Model and Resources based on a point based system, when a Solution reaches it it can be shutdown
• Support for REST, LINQ
• Office 2010 Integration
• Workspace
• Ability to customize the Forms for entering Data into Lists or Document Libraries

SharePoint 2010

Like with any new product there are new naming conventions, terms and concepts that emerge along with the product itself. Yes; there are many of those being brought to the light with the launch of SharePoint 2010.

Does that mean that everything has changed? Yes and No, some concepts and terms have remained the same although they have been improved upon. While others, are completely new and certainly deserve a detailed overview for a good understanding on how they can be applied and used in the real world.

In future blog postings we will be taking a look at all these new functionalities that will be part of the SharePoint 2010 Platform.

Stay tuned!

SharePoint 2010 Public Beta

The public beta will be available in November 2009.

Managing Techniques for Site Columns and Content Types

Thank you for attending the presentation at the Rocky Mountain SharePoint User Group, as promised enclosed you will find the slides and the sample code.

Managing Techniques for Site Columns and Content Types - Slides

Managing Techniques for Site Columns and Content Types - Code

New blog in town!

Yes! There is a new blog in which I have already subscribed to, it is located at:
http://www.sharepointmonk.com

The blog belongs to an extremely talented SharePoint Architect that has decided to join the blogging world: Joshua Hicks. Personally, I am looking forward to reading his blog posts.

Microsoft Security Essentials is no longer in Beta!

Almost everyone nowadays has or should have an Antivirus on their computer. The available choices usually come in the form of: free or purchased. While most of the time the free versions would not be as great as the purchased ones, a new contender is now available and no longer in Beta from Microsoft, this new product is named: “Microsoft Security Essentials”.

The purpose of Microsoft Security Essentials is to protect against:

• Viruses
• Spyware
• Trojans
• Rootkits

So far it is very impressive, quick and simplifies the whole process; not to mention that it even has some nice videos available for: installing, scanning and fixing problems.

How to resolve the message: “The Web site wants to run the following add-on: 'Name ActiveX Control' from 'Microsoft Corporation'. If you trust the Web site and the add-on and want to allow it to run, click here...”

Recently, I was asked if I had an idea of how to resolve this problem; the most common and easiest solution to fixing this problem is to add the site to the Trusted Sites in Internet Explorer; while this is the easiest way to fix the problem, some of the users might not like the fact that they will have to do this the first time they access the site.

The second method to fix this problem is more involved and requires the modification of the master page, the steps for achieving this are listed in great detail in the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/931509

Spending to much time reading blog postings?

If your list of blog feeds is growing out of control, try taking a look at Google Labs Fast Flip; it really does make it fast and easy to catch up with the news very quickly.

Give it a try at: Google Fastflip

Want to learn more about Office 2010 ?

If you are itching to know more about Office 2010, below you will find two links will be very useful:

1- Office 2010 Home
2- Introduction Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

Updating the Templates contained in the Document Libraries of the Case Management Site Template of the Fabulous 40

Recently I was asked an excellent question:

“How do you update the templates contained in the Document Libraries of the ‘Case Management’ Site Template?”

It is a great and common question, the quick technical answer is:

“Update the document in which the Content Type of the Document Library is derived from”

Instead of keeping the answer technical thought a quick Hands on Lab would easily illustrate and answer much easily, with that in mind what you will need to complete this quick lab is:

Requirements

· A site based on the “CaseManagement.stp”

· Office 2007 as the default Office Suite

· Around fifteen minutes to complete this lab

· For the purposes of this lab we will use:

o Document Library: Case Documents

o Document: Expense Report.xls

o Content Type: Expense Report

Steps

1. Ensure enough permissions to modify the Case Documents Document Library, administrator permissions should work fine

2. Navigate to the Case Management Site

3. Navigate to the Case Documents Document Library in which you wish to change the template

4. Click on the Expense Report WorkSheet

5. Select the Edit Radio Button

6. Click the OK Button

7. Modify the Expense Report Worksheet to match your needs

8. Save it to the Desktop or a location of your choice

9. Click the Settings Link of the Document Library

10. Click the Document Library Settings Link from the list of choices of the DropDown

11. Under the Content Types section click the Expense Report Content Type

12. Click the Advanced settings link under the Settings section

13. Select the Upload a new document template Radio Button

14. Click the Browse… Button

15. Locate the recently modified Expense Report Worksheet

16. Click the OK Button

17. Navigate to the Case Documents Library

18. Click the New Link

19. Click the Expense Report Link from the choices in the DropDown

20. Click the OK Button

21. The updated template is now displayed

22. Congratulate yourself, you did a great job!

Conclusion
After you complete the lab, you might be wondering:

“Do I have to repeat these steps for all the templates I wish to update?”

The answer is:

“Yes”

You might also end up wondering why so much complexity has been added to a simple process, the reason for this is because it does add tremendous flexibility when sharing this same template across your entire Site Collection.

Imagine that this template will be used all across the entire Site Collection which encompasses 50 Sites and dozens of Document Libraries, making a modification to a centric Site Content Type does simplify the entire process of maintenance. Mostly, because you make the modification and it will replicate across the entire Site Collection. One thing to keep in mind is that it will modify all those new documents based on the recently updated template only, in other words it is not a retroactive process; previously created documents will not updated the change.

Enjoy updated the templates!

Custom Workflow Tutorials

In case you are looking into an introduction about how to create workflows and wondering how or where to start; I will save you a few searches and let you know that the following two hyperlinks are great resources for an introduction for building custom workflows and for building one.

It is a two part series from a great blogger: Robert Shelton. Below are the hyperlinks to the postings and materials, they are very complete.

1. http://rshelton.com/archive/2007/10/08/free-workflow-part-1---introduction-to-building-workflows-with.aspx
2. http://rshelton.com/archive/2007/10/08/free-workflow-part-2---building-custom-workflow-activities-with.aspx

Enjoy!

Windows 7 Upgrade

You have probably heard all the buzz and excitement about Windows 7 RTM being released last week. Was feeling a bit adventurous and thought I would go ahead and install it on a couple of machines that I do rely upon heavily.

The results were quite impressive:

• The upgrade from Vista 64 Ultimate bit towards Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit went as smooth as it could no problem that I could find at all!
• An upgrade from Windows 7 RC was not possible, but a clean install did proceed smoothly
• All in all, the elapsed time was around 2 and 3 hours

Since the upgrade I have been working flawlessly, all applications upgraded without having to be re-installed or activated again.

In case you are wondering the upgrade path this article has great details about it:
Windows 7 Upgrade Path

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview disponible!

Este pasado fin de semana recibi la noticia de la disponibilidad de Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview. Ciertamente, esto me inclino a empezar a descargarlo e instalarlo. Procedi a remover Office 2007 para prevenir cualquier error de instalacion. A pesar de esto, no pude instalarlo directamente; intente hacer un upgrade y tampoco funciono.

Despues de varias horas de intentar hacer la instalacion, recurri a re-instalar Office 2007.

A pesar de estos problemas, estoy esperando la resolucion a este problema para poder hacer pruebas.

Microsoft Office 2010 Tecnical Preview released!

Received the news that Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview this past weekend. This was certainly a cause for some excitement, proceeded to remove Office 2007 to prevent any installation failures. Unfortunately, the installation did not succeed; since a clean install did not work attempted an upgrade which also failed.

After a few hours of trying to make it work, recurred to move back to Office 2007.

In spite of these problems, still looking forward to installing and working with it as soon as this problem is fixed.

SharePoint 2010 Technical Preview – Documentación para Desarrolladores

La mayoría de la comunidad de SharePoint espera ansiosamente información relacionada a SharePoint 2010. Con esto en mente, tengo un par de vínculos que les interesará:

• Documentación para Desarrolladores de SharePoint 2010 Technical Preview
  
• Documentación de Protocolos de Productos y Tecnologías de SharePoint
  

 

Bastante información interesante.

SharePoint 2010 Technical Preview – Developer Documentation

Most of the SharePoint Community is eagerly waiting for any news related to SharePoint 2010. That said, I do have a couple of links related to SharePoint 2010:

• Developer Documentation for the SharePoint 2010 Technical Preview
  
• SharePoint Products and Technology Protocol Documentation
  

 

Lots of interesting information, enjoy!

Windows 7 Ultimate Gratis

Este artículo menciona una encuesta official de Microsoft en la cuál los ganadores serán elegibles a ganar una copia gratis de Windows 7 Ultimate. La idea de la encuesta es que Microsoft desea saber cómo buscan información relacionada a Windows 7.

 

La encuesta está disponible en www.surveymonkey.com y solamente necesitan contester 4 preguntas simples.

 

Ya terminaron de llenar la encuesta? Sino nada pierden con probar.

Free Windows 7 Ultimate

This article mentions of an official Microsoft hosted survey in which the winners will be eligible for a free Windows 7 Ultimate. The idea behind the survey is that Microsoft would like to know how you find information about Windows 7.

 

The survey is hosted on www.surveymonkey.com and you have to fill in 4 simple questions.

 

Have you submitted your survey already? I know I have.

Windows 7 Hasta el Momento

Varios usuarios de PC han estado utilizando Windows 7 cómo su Sistema Operativo Principal; de hecho muchos han hecho el saldo de Windows Vista hacia Windows 7 Beta o RC. Esto dicho, pensé que listaría algunos problemas que encontré durante el upgrade a Windows 7:

32 Bit	64 Bit
La mayoría del software funcionó sin problema despues del upgrade, algunos fueron removidos porque era pre-requisito para el upgrade
Las licencias de software que fué comprado requirieron re-ingreso
Webcam fué reconocido y funciona perfectamente	Webcam no fué reconocido a pesar de que había sido instalada antes del upgrade
Webcam requirió instalación antes del upgrade
Upgrade sin dificultad de Windows 7 Beta a Windows RC	Aún no ha sido puesto a prueba

 

A pesar de Windows 7 estar aún en Beta y ahora en RC; casi listo para RTM. Estos problemas son relativamente mínimos comparados a previas versions de Windows.

Pensé que esta lista sería útil cómo referencia si están a punto de migrar a Windows 7.

Windows 7 So Far

Many PC users have been enjoying Windows 7 as their main Operating System; in fact most people have made the leap from Windows Vista into Windows 7 Beta or RC. That said, thought I would share a few hiccups that have encountered during the upgrade to Windows 7:

Windows 7 - 32 Bit	Windows 7 - 64 Bit
Most software has been upgraded without a problem, some were requested to be removed The keys for Purchased software the keys had to re-entered
Webcam was recognized and fully functional	Webcam was not recognized even if installed prior to upgrade
Webcam had to be installed prior to upgrade
Seamless upgrade from Beta 7 to RC	Have not tested yet

 

Even though Windows 7 is still in Beta and now in RC; almost about for RTM release. These problems are relatively minimal compared to prior versions of Windows.

Thought this might come in handy for a reference if you are about to do the leap into Windows 7.

Windows 7 RTM en Julio 13 2009?

Como la mayoria de tecnologistas, he estado usando Windows 7 como mi sistema operativo principal. Si, si, esto es un gran riesgo. Pero honestamente, ha funcionado bastante bien hasta el momento.

Con esto dicho, este posting me llamo la atencion; si es cierto, es tiempo de empezar a alistarnos para el RTM en menos de un mes.

Definitivamente espero que esto sea el caso!

Windows 7 RTM by July 13 2009?

Like most technologists, have been enjoying using Windows 7 as my main operating system.
Yes, yes, it is a risk to have it as a main operating system. But honestly, it has worked very well so far.

That said, this posting caught my attention; if true, we can start getting ready for the RTM in less than a month away.

Will definitely be hoping that is the case!

Mobile Entree

If you have been developing with SharePoint, you have probably noticed that not much is mentioned when it comes to developing mobile applications. An interesting approach is now available by means of using a Framework for SharePoint and Mobile Applications. This new Framework is named: Mobile Entree.

It is a framework that looks very promising. While it is not a free, it does add simplify mobile development quite well. You do not have to take my word for it; in fact you should go ahead and take a look for yourself.

There is available a 3 part series tutorial at: http://www.mobileentree.com/forums/yaf_postst8_What-is-Mobile-Entr233e-A-3-part-series.aspx

The tutorials cover:

• Introduction to Mobile Entree's Potential
  
• Introduction to Mobile Entree's Configuration and Management
  
• Developing Mobile Applications with the Mobile Entrée Framework
  

Go ahead and take a look at it, it will be worth your time.

Windows 7 RC Kit para Programadores

Para todos ustedes que han estado utilizando Windows 7, recientement el kit de entrenamiento para Windows 7 RC fue hecho disponible. El kit busca cómo audiencia todos aquellos que desean incorporar todas las características de Windows 7 en sus aplicaciones.

Antes de que lo instalen en sus máquinas, tengan en cuenta que necesitan cómo pre-requisito tener Visual Studio 2008 instalado.

El kit cubre los siguientes temas

• Taskbar
  
• Libraries
  
• Multi Touch
  
• Sensors and Location
  
• Ribbon
  
• Trigger Start Services
  
• Instrumentation
  
• Application Compatibility
  

Que esperan?

Procedan y descarguenlo en: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=12100526-ed26-476b-8e20-69662b8546c1&displaylang=en

Windows 7 RC Training Kit for Developers

For all of you that have been enjoying working with Windows 7, recently the Windows 7 RC Training Kit for Developers has been released. It is aimed for all those who wish to make their applications leverage the Windows 7 Operating System.

Before you go ahead and install it on your main current machine, keep in mind that one of the requirements is to have previously installed Visual Studio 2008.

The training kit delves into the following features

• Taskbar
  
• Libraries
  
• Multi Touch
  
• Sensors and Location
  
• Ribbon
  
• Trigger Start Services
  
• Instrumentation
  
• Application Compatibility
  

So what are you waiting for?

Go ahead and download it at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=12100526-ed26-476b-8e20-69662b8546c1&displaylang=en

Makeover for Groove

Interesting new developing for Groove, according to the Groove Team Blog groove is being renamed to SharePoint Workspace 2010.

Quite a few changes:

• Name makeover
  
• Facilitate easy access to SharePoint content
  
• Changes in how the product is delivered – added to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
  

  
  

For more details go to: http://blogs.msdn.com/groove_development_team/archive/2009/05/13/makeover-for-groove-sharepoint-workspace-2010.aspx

Preventing Item Deletions

I wanted to take a moment to thank all the readers which have contributed to this blog, their comments have been very useful. In fact, this posting is related to a particular situation that many SharePoint Administrators or Site Administrators might encounter when using SharePoint Lists or Document Libraries. The particular situation is when you are using a List or a Document Library to provide data to other depending Lists, Document Libraries, Content Types, etc. It even applies to Site Columns which are a useful way to provide data within your portal.

In order to prevent Items to be deleted from a List or a Document Library, a few things must happen first:

• An assembly must have been installed to the Global Assembly Cache ( GAC )
  
• An Event Receiver must be attached to the List or Document Library, in particular to the ItemAdding Event
  

All these technology terms sound overwhelming, so let's stop for a moment and explain briefly what we are talking about here. In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and MOSS 2007, Lists and Document Libraries have a variety of events that are fired when an Item is processed; to mention a few of the most important ones:

• ItemAdding
  
• ItemUpdating
  
• ItemDeleting
  

For a complete list go to: MSDN - Event Fundamentals

Making it simple, we can specify code that will be processed when any of these events happen. This code to executed must be deployed to the GAC ( Global Assembly Cache ), once it is there the next step is to communicate to SharePoint by indicating the following:

• ClassName, PublicKeyToken, Culture, Version and safety
  
• Assembly and ClassName
  
• Event to Attach to be attached to
  
• Add this information to the SharePoint List or Document Library
  

To illustrate this process you will find the following two projects at www.codeplex.com/illustris :

• Event Receiver Assembly
  
• Event Receiver Manager
  

These must be downloaded and extracted. Complete the following steps prevent the deletion of items on a desired SharePoint List or Document Library:

• Deploy assembly ( Demo.ProcessItemDeletion.dll ) contained in the Process Item Deletion project to the GAC
  
• Locate the bin/debug folder
  
• Open the Command Line
  

Ensure you have access to the Visual Studio SDK Tools

• Install by using the GACUTIL –I –f Demo.ProcessItemDeletion.dll
  
• Execute the Attach / Remove Event Receiver to List or Document Library Utility indicate the following parameters:
  
  • SharePoint Site URL
    
  • SharePoint List or Document Library Name
    
  • ClassName, PublicKeyToken, Culture, Version and safety
    
  • Assembly and ClassName
    
• Click the Add Button
  

Once all these steps are completed successfully, any user who is not a Site Administrator will not be able to delete an Item.

Understanding the code

You are probably wondering what is really happening behind the scenes, and this is the explanation:

When you install the Demo.ProcessItemDeletion.dll Assembly:

public override void ItemDeleting(SPItemEventProperties properties)

{

base.DisableEventFiring();

if (!properties.OpenWeb().CurrentUser.IsSiteAdmin)

{

properties.Cancel = true;

properties.ErrorMessage = "Items cannot be deleted from this list.";

}

this.EnableEventFiring();

}

This code does the following:

• Disables the code to execute recursively
  
• Verifies if a Site Administrator is currently logged in
  
• Cancels the deletion from happenning
  
• Displays the folowing error message: "Items cannot be deleted form this list."
  

When you click the Add Button the following code is executed:

SPSite oSite = new SPSite(txtSite.Text.ToString());

SPList oList = oSite.OpenWeb().Lists[txtList.Text.ToString()];

oList.EventReceivers.Add(SPEventReceiverType.ItemDeleting, txtAssemblyName.Text.ToString(), txtClassName.Text.ToString());

oSite.Dispose();

This code does the following:

 Opens the URL specified in the TextBox

 Opens the List or Document Library specified in the TextBox

 Communicates to SharePoint and tells it to execute the code in the previously installed assembly when the ItemDeleting Event is fired

Where to go from here?

That really depends on you, mostly because you can expand this code and make it more functional. For instance, you could provide a more detailed explanation of why the user could not delete the item. Or maybe you want to apply the same idea to updating items as well ( which would require the development of code in the Demo.ProcessItemDeletion project for the ItemUpdating Event ).

The whole purpose of this posting is to ignite ideas that will help you customize your portal to better fit your needs.

Displaying and Filtering Lists in another SharePoint Site with SharePoint Designer 2007

By popular demand, I am dedicating this posting to the avid readers of the blog.

As mentioned in the title, we will be addressing how to display and filter ListItems contained in another SharePoint Site by using SharePoint Designer 2007.

This is a very easy way to maximize the use of a powerful tool such as SharePoint Designer 2007 is for SharePoint Technologies. Now, let's start customizing:

Connecting to another library

• Open SharePoint Designer 2007
  
• Click File -> Open Site
  
• Enter the URL of the SharePoint Site that we will customize
  
• Click the default.aspx Page
  
• Scroll down to the bottom of the TreeView
  
• Click the Connect to another library Link
  
• Click the Add Button
  
• Enter the Display Name for the Site
  
• Enter the URL of the SharePoint Site
  
• Click OK Button
  
• Click OK Button
  

Adding and Displaying the SharePoint List with the Data View Web Part

• Position the cursor where we desire the Data View Web Part to be displayed
  
• Click Insert -> SharePoint Controls –> Data View on the SharePoint Designer Top Menu
  
• Click the Data Source Library Tab located at the right corner of SharePoint Designer Toolbox
  
• Expand the Node corresponding to the recently created connection to another SharePoint Site
  
• Expand the Node named SharePoint Lists
  
• Hover over the desired SharePoint List to display
  
• Click the Show Data Link
  
• Select the SharePoint List Columns to display
  
• Drag and Drop them onto the Data View Web Part
  
• Click the Save Button on the SharePoint Designer 2007 Top Menu Toolbar
  
• A Message Box indicating that the current SharePoint Site will be customized is displayed
  
• Accept and Continue
  
• Refresh the Browser
  
• The SharePoint List is now displayed
  

Filtering the SharePoint List with the Data View Web Part

• Click the Data View Web Part
  
• Click the > Button
  
• Click the Filter Link
  
• A Filter Criteria Box is displayed
  
• Click the Click here to add a new clause Link
  
• Select from the Dropdown the Field Name to be used for filtering
  
• Select the desired value in the Comparison Dropdown
  
• Select the filtering value in the Value Dropdown
  
• Click OK Button
  

While this approach easily accomplishes the tasks of displaying and filtering a SharePoint List from another SharePoint Site, it can become an inconvenience for a SharePoint Administrator in a scenario in which multiple sites will require a specific filter for the SharePoint List.

Enjoy!

WSPBuilder Extensions v 1.01 Released

Tom Clarkson uploaded on March 11, 2008 a new release of WSPBuilder.

In a previous blog posting we quickly glanced at WSPBuilder, with this new Release 1.01 there are a few niceties added:

• WSPBuilder Template Project
  
• Creating and Naming the WSP solution file based on the manifest.xml file created by the tool itself. The naming is based on the name of the folder in which the project resides
  
• Two new useful Tasks when right clicking the Project:
  
  • Create Deployment Folder
    
  • Attach to IIS Worker Processes
    

Besides the WSPBuilder Project and WSPBUilder Project with Workflow Templates available for Visual C#, a new one has been added:

From Doug Ortiz's Blog

When Right-Clicking the project two new additional task items are available:

From Doug Ortiz's Blog

I encourage you to download and review the features of WSPBuilder.

WSPBuilder Extensions 1.01 is available for download at: http://www.codeplex.com/wspbuilder.

There are more details regarding the new additions by click on the Releases Tab on codeplex.

Displaying Concatenated Columns in a Calendar View

Displaying Concatenated Columns in a Calendar View

Sometimes, the need to display columns that contain values from other

existing columns in a SharePoint List arises. For those times, a quick and easy

solution is to create a calculated column that will contain the columns we desire

to display.

A real world example for using a Calculated Column that comes to mind is in a

Calendar View ListItem: Merging the Title Column with the Date and Time of the ListItem.

This can easily be accomplished by creating a calculated column that concatenates the

values in those columns.

For this example, we will assume you already created a standard Calendar List. Under the

Calendar List Settings of your List:

• Click Create column
  
• Set the Column name: to: TitleAndDate
  
• Select the Calculated (calculated based on other columns) Radio Button
  
• In the Formula: Text Box type:
  

=Title & " " & TEXT([Start Time],"mmm-dd-yyyy")

• Select the Single line of text Radio Button for The data type to be returned from this formula is:
  
• Click OK Button
  

In order to displaying the newly created TitleAndDate Column in the Calendar View, we

must modify the Calendar Columns View and set:

• Month View Title
  
• Week View Title
  
• Day View Title
  

DropDowns to: TitleAndDate

• Click OK Button
  

The end result will display the Title and the Start Date separated by a space.

Before From Doug Ortiz's Blog	After From Doug Ortiz's Blog

Reviewing the Formula

The magic occurs in the TEXT function that converts the Start Time Column into text,

followed by the text being formatted into "mmm-dd-yyyy".

In case you need to add the time, just replace "mmm-dd-yyyy" with "mmm-dd-yyyy HH:MM:SS".