The result is out

Hi All,

Finally the result is out and it looks like people do not want Google to come up with any gaming console.

The result is out

Hi All,

Finally the result is out.

Looks like people want Microsoft to bring something like Google TV to the market.

Showing twitter followers and friends in SharePoint

Hi All,

Social networking has already a hit in the internet now and almost every site has one or the other social networking integration. At least they show the followers and friends for sure.

So why SharePoint stay behind? SharePoint has one very powerful web part, which is content editor web part. Twitter provides a fantastic way to display the list of followers and friend. All you need is internet connection and you are good to go.

Open any page where in you want to show the twitter followers and friends. Add content editor web part. And add the following code.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter-friends-widget.googlecode.com/files/jquery.twitter-friends-1.0.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
$('#friends').twitterFriends({
debug:1
,username:'sharepointkings'
});
});
</script>

<div id="friends"></div>


<div class="twitter-friends" options="{
friends:1
,username:'sharepointkings'
}"></div>

Replace SharepointKings username to your own name.

And here is the result that you get. Here it is a snap only; however you’ll get animated follower list and friends. Try it in your SharePoint site and you will get the animated list.

Getting SharePoint Rich text field data using JavaScript

Hi All,

We all know that we can get a value of single line text field, drop downs, choice field value using jQuery very easily using jQuery.

However the same is not true in case of using multiline rich text field. When you try to apply same methods of jQuery, it fails to returns you the value.

Well, to get the same stuff done with multiline rich text field, we need to use the same technique but in some different way.

To demonstrate, add one column in your list which is multiline rich text field. And now on NewForm of that list, add one content editor web part. (I prefer take up the SharePoint discussion list which has default rich text field)

I have done the same using JavaScript even have not used jQuery file. I have added content editor web part and placed the following code in it. To demonstrate, I have replaced the onclick handlers of the page to our own handler which pops up the content of rich text field as alert.

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
var objForm = document.forms[0];
var count;

window.onload = StartUpCustomScript;
function StartUpCustomScript() {
ChangeOkButtonOnclickEvent("Input", "SaveItem");
}

function ChangeOkButtonOnclickEvent(tagName, identifier) {
var len = identifier.length;
var tags = document.getElementsByTagName(tagName); /*find all Input type controls on page (ie. control with tag <Input/>)*/
for (var i = 0; i < tags.length; i++) {

var tempString = tags[i].name;

if (tempString.indexOf(identifier) == tempString.length - len) /*find any Input type controls on page has its name ending with 'SaveItem'*/
{
//alert(tempString);
if (tags[i].attributes["onclick"] != null) {
/*if found, replace it default onclick with our custom script*/

var func = tags[i].attributes["onclick"].value.replace("if (!PreSaveItem())", " return function1('" + tags[i].name + "');if (!PreSaveItem())");
/*remove its default onclick event*/
tags[i].onclick = null;
/*re-register its onlick event with new script*/
tags[i].attachEvent("onclick", new Function(func));
}
}
}
//return null;
}

function function1(z)
{
var textName = "ctl00_m_g_1a3ed0d9_ea62_4a4e_adc0_30d1184b5ad0_ctl00_ctl04_ctl01_ctl00_ctl00_ctl04_ctl00_ctl00_TextField";
var bodyText, spamWordText, clientWordText;
var rtClientCount=0;
var arrBodyText = new Array();
var arrSpamWordText = new Array();
count=0;
spamWordText="";
clientWordText="";

var docEditor = RTE_GetEditorDocument(textName);
var textRange=docEditor.body.createTextRange();
bodyText=textRange.htmlText;
alert(bodyText);
return true;
}
</script>

I n function1(z) we have taken rich text field control client ID, you can get the same by looking into the page view source.

var textName = "{rich field client ID}"

and when you add the above code to the content editor web part and then create New Item and click on Ok, and see what you get.



Clicking on OK button is replaced by our own code just to demonstrate how to fetch the value of rich text field in SharePoint. In real scenarios, this can be done in different ways.

Hope that this idea of how to fetch value of multiline rich text field will help many.

Finally the result is out

Hi All,

We asked about new Internet Explorer 9 and this is what we got. Looks like IE9 is heating up the market.

SharePoint Cascading drop downs using jQuery

Hi All,

How many times you require functionality where in based on the selection of parent drop down generates the values to the child drop down. Examples, selection of country fills the states drop down.

Well, of course there is a way like creating custom field which can definitely achieve this job. However this requires us to write down the code and .ascx custom fields and deploy on the server to get it to the action.

We can achieve the same with the help of jQuery. Yes, no files and no code. Without them we can achieve this. So why to wait? Let’s explore more in this.

Before we start the exam, you will need to fantastic jQuery from

jQuery 1.3.2.min.js

and SPServices jQuery from

SPServices jQuery

Once you download these two .js files, upload them to any of the document library where you have the permission over the site.

Now go ahead and create one list. I am calling it a CategoryType and adding two values in the list.



Now I am creating one more list and call it as a CategoryRelationList and create one column called Category which is a look up column to the CategoryType title column and add few items.



And now to put it in action, we will create one more list and we call it RequestForm and create two columns, Category look up to CategoryType list title column and Product look up column to the CategoryRelationList title column. This is the list where we will use the cascading drop down service from SPServices jquery library




Now here comes a good part. Now you have two ways to achieve this, the simplest which I believe is by using Content editor web part on both new form and edit form. Add content editor web part and add following lines to it. (Check your document library path in src attribute where you have kept two js files which we downloaded earlier)

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src=" /Shared%20Documents/jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script>

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src=" /Shared%20Documents/jquery.SPServices-0.5.6.min.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
$().SPServices.SPCascadeDropdowns({
relationshipList: "CategoryRelationList",
relationshipListParentColumn: "Category",
relationshipListChildColumn: "Title",
parentColumn: "Category",
childColumn: "Product",
debug: true
});

});
</script>

OR the other way to achieve this is open SharePoint designer and then open site where this list is located, open NewForm.aspx, check out the form and find the following line.

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">

Add the above script exactly below this. Save it and check in. This will also do the job for you. Do the same for edit form as well.

Now let me explain each parameter in the script.

relationshipList – This is the name of the list where we have kept the relationship.
relationshipListParentColumn – This is the parent column in the relationship list.
relationshipListChildColumn – This is the child column in the relationship list.
parentColumn – parent column in the list where we want to implement this.
childColumn – child column in the list where we want to implement this.

Now see it in action. Open the list and click on new and see the magic.





Hope that you have enjoyed this post. Keep giving the comments. we love them. :)

Integrating twitter with SharePoint

Hi All,

Interesting integration with SharePoint has come. And yes, you have heard it right. It is the integration of twitter with SharePoint. We have done this for MOSS 2007. If this can be done with 2007 version of SharePoint, it certainly can be done in SPS 2010.

Before starting this topic, first we need to understand the structure of twitter XML file that we will be using in this post. We all know the so popular and ever increasing twitter site. So many people updates some or the other thing on twitter. In twitter they are called statuses.

If you already have an account in twitter or do not have, this XML file has no concern with this, because we can anyways see tweets of anybody even though you do not have account. This XML file read the latest tweet, followers, following and updates. Also shows your user name, photo, location, description and website. Well, actually you need to observe the XML file properly and from there you can get an idea about what all parameters you can retrieve.

For example, if I talk about my profile, malayvasavada, then I need to look for this XML file.

http://twitter.com/users/show/malayvasavada.xml

http://twitter.com/users/show/{twitter user name}.xml

Open this XML in Internet explorer. (In Google chrome, it cannot display properly) And you can see similar to this.

So I get following XML file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<user>
<id>100438644</id>
<name>Malay Vasavada</name>
<screen_name>malayvasavada</screen_name>
<location>Pune</location>
<description />
<profile_image_url>http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/600111137/Copy_of_Malay1_normal.JPG</profile_image_url>
<url />
<protected>false</protected>
<followers_count>2</followers_count>
<profile_background_color>EBEBEB</profile_background_color>
<profile_text_color>333333</profile_text_color>
<profile_link_color>990000</profile_link_color>
<profile_sidebar_fill_color>F3F3F3</profile_sidebar_fill_color>
<profile_sidebar_border_color>DFDFDF</profile_sidebar_border_color>
<friends_count>10</friends_count>
<created_at>Wed Dec 30 07:43:33 +0000 2009</created_at>
<favourites_count>0</favourites_count>
<utc_offset>19800</utc_offset>
<time_zone>New Delhi</time_zone>
<profile_background_image_url>http://s.twimg.com/a/1284676327/images/themes/theme7/bg.gif</profile_background_image_url>
<profile_background_tile>false</profile_background_tile>
<profile_use_background_image>true</profile_use_background_image>
<notifications />
<geo_enabled>false</geo_enabled>
<verified>false</verified>
<following />
<statuses_count>24</statuses_count>
<lang>en</lang>
<contributors_enabled>false</contributors_enabled>
<follow_request_sent />
<listed_count>1</listed_count>
<show_all_inline_media>false</show_all_inline_media>
<status>
<created_at>Sat Sep 18 04:01:32 +0000 2010</created_at>
<id>24819814760</id>
<text>Silverlight 5? Hummm....something very good is coming to web. Keep watching.</text>
<source>web</source>
<truncated>false</truncated>
<in_reply_to_status_id />
<in_reply_to_user_id />
<favorited>false</favorited>
<in_reply_to_screen_name />
<retweet_count />
<retweeted>false</retweeted>
<geo />
<coordinates />
<place />
<contributors />
</status>
</user>

As you can see, from the XML, you can get so much information. Name, location, photo URL, even the background color of my twitter profile site, latest tweet, date and time of tweet. So now the point is how to use this XML file and how to present it in SharePoint.

Okay, let us go ahead and use XML web part that SharePoint provides. Create one web part page in any site under any document library. Click on add web part and then add XML web part. Now in the XML Web part, modify shared we part properties. In the XML link, provide the twitter XML file path. Click on Apply and Ok.

Now see what you have got.



You can see profile, latest tweet and followers and so on so forth. However, it is not formatted. It looks ugly. So we need to format this output. When we have XML file with us, the formatting options comes with XSLT files.

You can use Visual Studio to create XSLT file because Visual Studio gives you a fantastic UI to create and suggestions for the attribute and tags.

I have already created one XSLT file here. See below code. You can format according to your need. Just make sure that XML tag remains the same. You can change the layout in term of tables, td and tr, width and height.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl">
<xsl:output method="html" indent="yes" />
<xsl:template match="/user">
<style type="text/css">
.dsc{ font-weight:bold; vertical-align:top; text-align:left; } .prof { background-color:#
<xsl:value-of select="profile_background_color" />
; color:#
<xsl:value-of select="profile_text_color" />
; } .prof a { color:#
<xsl:value-of select="profile_link_color" />
; text-decoration:none; overflow:auto; }
</style>


<table width="100%" style="background-image:url({profile_background_image_url}); text-align:center;">

<tr>
<td colspan="3" align="center">

<img src="http://assets1.twitter.com/images/twitter_logo_s.png" />

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td colspan="3" align="center">
<a href="http://twitter.com/{screen_name}" target="_blank">
<xsl:value-of select="screen_name" />
</a>
<img src="{profile_image_url}" />
</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td align="center" colspan="3">
City: <xsl:value-of select="location" />
</td>

</tr>


<tr>

<td align="center" colspan="3">
Language: <xsl:value-of select="lang" />
</td>

</tr>


<tr>

<td align="center" colspan="3">
Status: <xsl:value-of select="status/text" />
</td>

</tr>


<tr>

<td align="center" colspan="3">
Last Status Created Date: <xsl:value-of select="status/created_at" />
</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>
Friends count: <xsl:value-of select="friends_count" />
</td>
<td>
Followers_count: <xsl:value-of select="followers_count" />
</td>
<td>
Statuses_count: <xsl:value-of select="statuses_count" />
</td>

</tr>



</table>


</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Open XSL editor in the web part property. Copy and paste the above XML file. Just make sure that the first line has to be at first column, first row area. Exactly at the top of the window and left corner, otherwise you will get an error. "The XSL specified by the XSL property or XSL Link property is not valid, or the XSL file cannot be accessed. Make…..". You might stretch your head whole day finding what went wrong.

And this is the overall result combining XML and XSLT. You have just integrated twitter with SharePoint. Cool, isn’t it?

Finally the result is out

Hi All,

Finally the result is out.

SharePoint designer does not update email body and email 'to' list

Hi All,

Well here comes one more limitation of SharePoint Designer 2007. I have created one workflow which sends an email for some action. Now I needed to add one more person into email list. So I went to SharePoint designer workflow, and changed to list by adding person email.

I was comfortable thinking that now mail also will go to new person whom I included. But wait a minute, this does not seems to be true, when somebody created new item, mail went off, however new person whom I included didn’t get that mail.

Okay, this is one problem. What is next? Next is the email body problem. I changed the email body as well to include some more details and some formatting, however even this does not seem to be reflecting in the email.

Hence I went through several articles and finally come to know that once it is applied to the list, then you cannot make such changes for emails. Even though you may feel after clicking final finish button that workflow is updating, but it is not.

So I had to recreate entire workflow just to include one more person and to change email body. I am not sure if this problem still persists in SharePoint Designer 2010. Yet have to experiment on this.

Set default search to list scope in SharePoint

Hi All,

We know built in search functionality in SharePoint. When configured properly, you can search from entire site just anything and search will categorize the results for you.

However a simple scenario came to me last week. When you are on any list AllItems.aspx page and if you have observed, by default search scope on top right is set to “This site: {site name}”.

This List: {list name} by default instead of This Site: {site name} so that they directly can put in words and search from that list.

So go ahead and open view source of the page, search for This List: {list name} and take out its ID. It should be ending with SBScopesDDL.

And add content editor web part on AllItems.aspx and paste the following code. Do not forget to reference correct jQuery js location.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" >

$(document).ready(function() {
//Below function makes sure that if the status is not suspended in edit mode, it disables the reason text //area
var text = $("select[title$='Search Scope'] :selected").text();

$("#ctl00_PlaceHolderSearchArea_ctl01_SBScopesDDL").val("This List: YOUR LIST NAME ");

});

</script>
</script>

And you are good to go. Observe the top search box, you will find by default This List : {list name} selected.