Creating Custom Tool Part !

Hi All,

First let me just highlight you what do we mean by toolpart. When you create your webpart and place it on your page and when you modify the webpart, at the time what appears right hand side is a panel and if you want to place any specific control there as a property, then we can create toolpart for the webpart.

Here we go with the example. Let’s say that we already have one web part which inherits from Microsoft. Sharepoint.WebpartPages.Webpart

So all you need to do is this.

Step 1: First you need to define the property. At the time of defining the property, do keep in mind what kind of a property is that, is it personal property (per user based) or shared property (common for every user)


Check out its two attributes named WebPartStorage and PersonalizationScope which will tell you the scope (personal or shared)

Let’s say we define one property called CustomerName

private string strCustomerName = string.Empty;

[Browsable(false),//Display the property in property pane
Category("CustomToolPart"),//Create a Customer Details category in property pane
DefaultValue(""),//Assign a default value
WebPartStorage(Storage.Personal),//Make available in both personal and shared mode
Personalizable(PersonalizationScope.User),
FriendlyName("Customer Name"),//The caption display in property pane
Description("The name of the customer")]//The tool tip
public string CustomerName
{

get
{
return strCustomerName;
}
set
{
strCustomerName = value;
}
}

Just like this, as many properties that you want to define, define them in the code of your webpart class.


Now is the time of override one method which is GetToolParts(), but before proceeding here let us understand these two classes.

(1) WebPartToolPart – It actually represents a tool part that can be used to show and modify Web Part base class properties.

And

(2) CustomPropertyToolPart – Same as above, the only difference is that it is used to show and modify the custom propoerties that we have defined in the webpart class that are not the webpart base class propoerties.

So coming back to our GetToolParts method. Here toolpartclass is class that we are soon going to create.

public override ToolPart[] GetToolParts()
{
ToolPart[] toolparts = new ToolPart[3];

WebPartToolPart wptp = new WebPartToolPart();

CustomPropertyToolPart custom = new CustomPropertyToolPart();

toolparts[0] = wptp;

toolparts[1] = custom;

toolparts[2] = new {toolpartclass}

return toolparts;
}

Actually this method returns you the instance of the different toolparts that comes right hand side when you modify the webpart.

Here as you can see, we have got webparttoolpart and also custompropoertytoolpart along with the toolpart class that soon we are going to develop.

Ok, let’s develop and create ToolPart class which will have RenderToolPart and ApplyChanges method.

Create a class which inherits from Microsoft.Sharepoint.WebpartPages.ToolPart.

Declare a variable which will be the name of the control renders in toolpane

private string strHTMLinputControlName = "Mycontrol";

Write down the RenderToolPart method which is vey important.

protected override void RenderToolPart(HtmlTextWriter output)

{

// Establish a reference to the Web Part.

// CustomWebPart is the web part class name.

{webpartclassname} customWebPart =

(webpartclassname)this.ParentToolPane.SelectedWebPart;

//Create the input control

output.Write("Enter the customer name: ");

output.Write("<input name= '" + strHTMLinputControlName);

output.Write("' type='text' value='" +

SPEncode.HtmlEncode(customWebPart.CustomerName) + "'><br>");

}

Here if you observe, we have first taken the reference of the webpart class for which we are creating this toolpart. So parentToolPane.SelectedWebPart will be the webpart for which we are creating toolPart.

Now write down ApplyChanges method which will be called when we press OK or Apply after applying property in propoertypane of webpart.

public override void ApplyChanges()
{

// apply property values here

//Get a reference to the web part class

{webpartclassname} cw1 =

(webpartclassname)this.ParentToolPane.SelectedWebPart;

//Pass the custom text to web part custom property

cw1.CustomerName = Page.Request.Form[strHTMLinputControlName];

}

Here as you can see, we have gain taken reference of webpart class for which we are creating propoerty with custom toolpane. And then take the entered data with request.form and passing control’s name and setting to the propoerty defined in the webpart class which is CustomerName in our case.

That’s it. You are done with your job. All you have to do is go to your webpart page. Edit the webpart in pursonalize this page mode as because we have defined our propoerty as per user basis, edit webpart, click on modify my webpart and then as you can see for each different user will be able to set their own customerName.

And then simple, refer this.CustomerName as part of code in your webpart class, per user bases you will get the values set by individual user.

Have a fun. Try to explore toolpart class more.

Thank you.

Creating and Working with SharePoint Timer Job Definitions !

Hi All,

Many times we require creating a timer job definition because of requirement logic. Let’s say, we have some requirement something like whenever list gets added to the site, site administrator should get email saying that this list is being added by so and so person at this time.

Second example, you are supposed to write a job which starts the workflow every night for an approval process of some data calculations.

Now we do not have anything like ListAdding and ListAdded event that gives the answer of our question or any other event that solves some requirement like second example.

In these cases, we can create custom timer job and specify when to run and what to do when it runs.

So let us go ahead and create a custom timer job.

For this, I suggest creating a feature class which installs the job definition when activated and removes the job definition when feature is deactivated or other way is to go to timer job definitions under Operations in central administration and disable that specific job definition.

Before starting up the example, I also would like to explain you few classes for scheduling. Depending upon the schedule that you want to set, you need to take the classes. For example we have SPWeeklySchedule, SPDailySchedule, SPMonthlySchedule, SPYearlySchedule, SPHourlySchedule, SPMinuteSchedule.

You must have got the idea by the name of these classes when to use them. If you want to run your job every hour, you have SPHourlySchedule; if you want it to run every minute then you have SPMinuteSchedule. You can get the idea about the properties that needs to be set when using respective classes from searching MSDN.

Here I am taking an example of SPMinuteSchedule to explain you the example. Do keep in mind that different classes have different properties to be set.

First thing, create a Feature class.

namespace xyz
{
public class ListAddedFeature : SPFeatureReceiver
{
const string LIST_ADDED_JOB_NAME = "ListJobNameAddingCheck";

public override void FeatureInstalled (SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {
}

public override void FeatureUninstalling (SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {
}

public override void FeatureActivated (SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {
SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;

// make sure the job isn't already registered
foreach (SPJobDefinition job in site.WebApplication.JobDefinitions) {
if (job.Name == LIST_ADDED_JOB_NAME)
job.Delete();
}

// install the job
ListAddingLatestJob taskLoggerJob =new ListAddingLatestJob(LIST_ADDED_JOB_NAME, site.WebApplication);

SPMinuteSchedule schedule = new SPMinuteSchedule();
schedule.BeginSecond = 0;
schedule.EndSecond = 59;
schedule.Interval = 5;
taskLoggerJob.Schedule = schedule;

taskLoggerJob.Update();
}

public override void FeatureDeactivating (SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {
SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;

// delete the job
foreach (SPJobDefinition job in site.WebApplication.JobDefinitions) {
if (job.Name == LIST_ADDED_JOB_NAME)
job.Delete();
}
}

}
}

This gives you an idea that when feature will be activated at that time job will be scheduled, if exists then removed and then scheduled and at the time of deactivating job will be removed. When you will activate the feature you will find the Job name in the Timer Job Definitions in the operations section of central administration under global configuration section and you can also see the timer job status but you won’t find your custom timer job there untill it executes atleast once. This will run every 5 minutes.

Here I also would like to share is what is the significance of BeginSecond and EndSecond and any such propoerty for Begin and End for any above class is that timer job starts at any random time between sub specified time durations. This is because if you have many timer jobs running at the same time, then it could put a heavy load on server.

Here is actual job definition class.

namespace xyz
{
public class ListAddingLatestJob : SPJobDefinition
{


public ListAddingLatestJob()
: base(){
}


public ListAddingLatestJob (string jobName, SPService service, SPServer server, SPJobLockType targetType)
: base (jobName, service, server, targetType) {
}

public ListAddingLatestJob(string jobName, SPWebApplication webApplication)
: base (jobName, webApplication, null, SPJobLockType.ContentDatabase) {
this.Title = "ListAdding Check";
}


public override void Execute (Guid contentDbId) {
// get a reference to the current site collection's content database

SPWebApplication webApplication = this.Parent as SPWebApplication;

SPContentDatabase contentDb = webApplication.ContentDatabases[contentDbId];

SPWeb objWeb = contentDb.Sites[0].RootWeb;

DateTime objTISiteCreationtime = objWeb.Created;

SPList taskList = contentDb.Sites[0].RootWeb.Lists["Tasks"];


SPQuery objQuery = new SPQuery();

objQuery.Query = "<Where><Gt><FieldRef Name=\"ID\"/><Value Type=\"Counter\">0</Value></Gt></Where>";

SPListItemCollection objCollection = taskList.GetItems(objQuery);

DataTable dtAllLists = objCollection.GetDataTable();

ArrayList objArrayList = new ArrayList();

if (dtAllLists != null)
{
if (dtAllLists.Rows.Count > 0)
{

for (int iCnt = 0; iCnt <= dtAllLists.Rows.Count - 1; iCnt++)
{

objArrayList.Add(Convert.ToString(dtAllLists.Rows[iCnt]["Title"]));
}
}
}


for (int iCnt = 0; iCnt <= objWeb.Lists.Count - 1; iCnt++)
{
if (!objArrayList.Contains(objWeb.Lists[iCnt].Title))
{
if (objWeb.Lists[iCnt].Created.ToShortDateString()
!= objTISiteCreationtime.ToShortDateString())
{

SPListItem newTask = taskList.Items.Add();

newTask["Title"] = objWeb.Lists[iCnt].Title;

newTask.Update();
//Write a logic to send a mail to admin

}
}
}


}

}
}

Do not go deep into the logic, as this is just to give an idea about the creation of timer job and along with that simple logic which checks for the lists created by default at the time of site creation which will have the created time same as time created for site.

What I am doing here is first I am storing List Names in the Tasks List (Just to demonstrate you, you can change the logic suiting to your need). I get all items from the tasks list and compare stored Title (List Name) with the each list name of the site, if not there that means it is newly created, send mail to admin and then add the list name again to tasks list title column. So this will keep on working and every five mintes, it will keep checking if newly list has been added or what and sends mail.

Please note that logic is not perfact, just to demonstrate you and give you an idear about Timer job definition and at the same time idea about how to implement List added logic. You can share the best idea with us.

IMP : How to debug the timer job definitions.

Other very important thing is debugging the timer job definitions. Debugging timer job definition is something different because its not about attaching w3wp process because this doesn’t run under web. So we do have other process here to attach to get this thing debug. Name of the process is OWStimer.exe. When you attach this process, then just wait for your timer to get to the right defined time by you and then it will automatically come for debugging. Means if you have set it to 2 minutes, then attach the OWStimer.exe process and just wait for 2 minutes. Every 2 minutes you will get the breakpoint hitting the location.

Ok, one more thing. If you have observed the Timer job definition in central administration, then it gives you an option to disable the job definition but it doesn’t allow to execute it at force.

One way to go about this is to use the stsadm –o execadmsvcjobs but the problem with this is it will execute all the administrative timer jobs without waiting for any job to run in schedule because it doesn’t take any parameter.

So solution is again code. Here is that one liner code that does stuff for us.

foreach (SPJobDefinition job in site.WebApplication.JobDefinitions) {
if (job.Name == LIST_ADDED_JOB_NAME)
job.Execute(site.WebApplication.ContentDatabases[0]);
}

That;s it. Your job is done.

Understanding Feature activation dependencies !

Hi All,

When you create the feature, it can also include the dependencies. Let’s say, we have one feature that is dependent on the other feature, that means when we activate one feature, it actually requires the other feature already been activated, at that time we can use this feature dependencies.

A very good example of this is TeamCollab feature which activates many other features automatically. It creates several list templates and makes it available for the site.

Let me give you a very simple example of Feature Dependencies.

<Feature
Id={GUID}
Title={title}
Description={Description}
Version={version}
Hidden={value}
Scope={value}
xmlns={namespace} />

<ActivationDependencies>

<ActivationDependency FeatureId = {dependent Feature GUID}/>

</ActivationDependencies>

That means the feature inside the ActivationDependency must be activated before the main feature gets activated.

If the main feature is A and inside ActivationDependency we write feature B, then activating Feature A first activates feature B and then activates feature A.

Note that Feature B must be installed first at specific scope.

Other very important thing to note here is you must have to define feature B (Feature that goes inside ActivationDependency) as Hidden, otherwise SharePoint will throw error saying that the dependant feature is not enabled.

That's it. your job is done.

Getting all documents in document library inside all folders !

Hi All,

Many times we require getting all documents in the entire document library including sub folders. For this we need to use the ViewAttributes property on SPQuery object and set it to specify Scope=\"Recursive\

If we don’t do this, then result we will get it all documents from the top folder only.

Here is a simple way, we will achieve this.

SPList objList = objWeb.Lists["{name of the doc lib}"];

SPView objView = objList.Views["name of the view"];

SPQuery objQuery = new SPQuery(objView);

objQuery.ViewAttributes = "Scope=\"Recursive\"";

SPListItemCollection objItemColl = objList.GetItems(objQuery);

Sometimes we may require returning the result from specific folder inside the document library.

At this time, we need to use SPFolder class and set the SPQuery object’s Folder property to the object of SPFolder.

Here is a way.

SPFolder objFolder = objList.RootFolder.SubFolders["name of the folder"];
objQuery.Folder = objFolder

That is it. Your job is done.

Changing redirection in SharePoint with HttpModule and HttpHandler !

Hi all,

SharePoint is maintaining some redirection by it’s on like error page, by clicking on user or group it will redirect to profile page and so many other…

In one of our requirement we have to implement custom profile page and custom error page.

So for this we need to over ride default SharePoint navigation.

And that can be implemented using HttpModule and HttpHandler.

To know the concept of HttpModule and HttpHander here is great article from Gustavo Velez

So here we go for changing Error page (check comments between the code for understanding)

class RedirectErrorModule : IHttpModule
{

//Custom error page relative URL
const string errorUrl = "/_layouts/CustomForder/CustomError.aspx";

// implement dispose method to dispose used object
public void Dispose()
{
//dispose you objects
}

public void Init(HttpApplication context)
{
//Define event for application error so that you can override.
context.Error += new EventHandler(context_Error);
}

//implement error event
void context_Error(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string strURL = string.Empty;

//Current site URL
string strSiteURL = SPContext.Current.Site.Url;

//Current web url
string strWebURL = SPContext.Current.Web.Url;

//Clearing context error
HttpContext.Current.Server.ClearError();

//Clearing the response
HttpContext.Current.Response.Clear();

//redirecting to our custom error page.
HttpContext.Current.Response.Redirect(strWebURL + errorUrl, false);
}

}

After doing this we need to add entry in web.config for the same.

Enter following tag in <httpModules> section of your web.config

<add name="CustomHttpModule" type="<<Full assembly name with class>>" />

Check syntax from existing tags from web.config.

The same way we can implement any redirection with the use of end request Event.

public void Init(HttpApplication context)
{
//end request handler
context.EndRequest += new EventHandler(context_EndRequest);
}

//End request implementation
void context_EndRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
HttpApplication httpApp = sender as HttpApplication;
HttpContext context = httpApp.Context;
string httpUrl = context.Request.Url.ToString();
string strWebURL = string.Empty;
string struserID = string.Empty;
//compare your URL and redirect it to custom one
// this is example to redirecting userdisp page (profile page) to custom page.
if (httpUrl.ToLower().Contains("/_layouts/userdisp.aspx"))
{

//implement business logic and generate url if needed
HttpContext.Current.Server.ClearError();
HttpContext.Current.Response.Clear();
HttpContext.Current.Response.Redirect(<<Custom URL>>);

}
}

And same can be incorporated in one class no need to create another one.

And remember in web.config enter your module at the end after all SharePoint’s event handler so it will not create any problem. There is not at all problem if you write it before SharePoint’s but better to play safe :)

Hiding field in SharePoint through JavaScript !

Hi All,

Many times we require to hide specific field in new form, disp form and edit form. This time we will do it with the help of javascript. We can do the same thing with the help of SharePoint API. However we will cover here that how to achieve the same with the help of JavaScript.

Let us go to calendar and click on new. You will now be on Newform.aspx. We can see here one field named “WorkSpace”. If we don’t want user to create any workspace here, then we can hide this field with the help of JavaScript code.



To hide a specific field, insert one content editor web part on the page and then just copy and paste the following code. Insert this web part below the new form web part.

<script type="text/javascript">
function HideField(title){
var header_h3=document.getElementsByTagName("h3") ;

for(var i = 0; i <header_h3.length; i++)
{
var el = header_h3[i];
var foundField ;
if(el.className=="ms-standardheader")
{
for(var j=0; j<el.childNodes.length; j++)
{
if(el.childNodes[j].innerHTML == title || el.childNodes[j].nodeValue == title)
{
var elRow = el.parentNode.parentNode ;
elRow.style.display = "none"; //and hide the row
foundField = true ;
break;
}
}
}
if(foundField)
break ;
}
}

HideField("Workspace");

</script>

After you’ve inserted this code, just look at the result shown below.



That’s it. Your job is done. You can apply the same code in disp and edit form as well.

Hide Content Place Holder Programmatically !

I was working on replacing a control from the master page by a custom web part. Initially i commented everything inside the content place holder and added my web part. If you want to know how to add a web part in the master page, have a look at my previous post at :

http://www.sharepointkings.com/2009/09/add-web-part-inside-master-page-in-moss.html

Later on i moved the web part reference out of the content place holder and made the visible attribute of the content place holder to false.

But now the requirement is to dynamically turn it ON and OFF (i.e through code)

Lets follow the steps given below to achieve this:

1. Go to the page_load method of the web part.
2. Write the following lines of code.

if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
ContentPlaceHolder contPlcHolder = (ContentPlaceHolder)Page.Master.FindControl("PlaceHolderGlobalNavigation");
contPlcHolder.Visible = false;

//Rest of the code

}

If there is any nested content place holder then append that number of FindControl("ControlName") to the above code where we are finding the control.

That's it. Save the code and deploy the latest web part code.

Add Web Part inside a Master Page in MOSS 2007 !

Imagine that you are designing a master page for your MOSS site and you have a requirement to have a functionality that is not possible out of the box. You brain storm on it and concludes that only custom web part can solve your problem.
But now your concern is how you can make this custom web part as part of your master page?
It’s easy! Just follow the steps given below to add a web part inside a master page.

1. Deploy the web part in your web application as you do normally.
2. Check whether the web part is showing up in the web part gallery.
3. Create a web part page by navigating to the site settings, create web part page.
4. Add your custom web part on the web part page.
5. Start SharePoint designer and open the newly created web part page.
6. You will now find two entries corresponding to the web part you added on the page
i. In the page declaration you will find a entry which looks something like this:


<%@ Register TagPrefix="WpNs0" Namespace="MyNamespace.MyClass" Assembly=" MyNamespace.MyClass, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null"%>

ii. Click on the web part section in the page and you will see an entry like this:


<WpNs0:WebPartName runat="server" ID="g_34cdbb90_38c6_4561_9182_8fbc0d2423a6" ExportMode="All" Title="WebPartTitle" __MarkupType ……………..

7. Copy these entries in separate notepad, and close the page opened in the SharePoint designer.
8. Now open the master page in SharePoint designer and add the first entry in the declaration section and second entry at the place where you want to add the web part to.
9. Save the page, check in and publish it and that’s it. Your job is done.


Do let us know in case you are facing any issue following the steps mentioned.

Dynamic Connected Lookup For Sharepoint !

Project Description

A custom field control for WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007 to acces the list items easily .

This is one of my projects having a custom list which acces data :

The custom field is ;


The Dynamic Connected Lookup is ;

The Final is;



rafetcomu@gmail.com

Cross-site lookup in Sharepoint !

Project Description
This project creates a custom SharePoint lookup field that offers new functionalities to default SharePoint lookup field by allowing filters to be applied to retrieved data. Applied filters can be either dynamic CAML queries or pre-defined list views residing in source lists

Below is a few of the features offered by Filtered Lookup field over standard SharePoint Lookup field:

• Cross-site lookup (all sites within same site collection)
• Filter retrieved data using list views
• Filter retrieved data using dynamic/ad-hoc CAML queries. This means you don't need to create a list view each time you want to apply a lookup filter to source data
• Supports retrieving data recursively using either list views or dynamic queries
• Supports MultiLookup with filtered data
• Same look and feel as default SharePoint Lookup and MultiLookup (i.e. in list forms)

The project is packaged as a Windows installer using the SharePoint Solution installer; to install, simply run setup.exe.

Please do let me if you find any issues or bugs or useful enhancement that could be added

Configuring the breadcrumb for pages in _layouts !

If you have ever added a page to the _layouts or _admin folders in SharePoint 2007 you may have wondered how to get the breadcrumb to appear at the top of the page. As with many things in MOSS they are using the standard ASP.Net 2.0 navigation features, in particular the sitemap.

To see how it’s done you can simply open the layouts.sitemap (or admin.sitemap) in the ‘_app_bin’ folder of a MOSS IIS site to see how the breadcrumb is built. By editing this file you can ensure your own pages have a breadcrumb and the navigation works.

Now, having done that the chances are that you are going to create a feature so that this page can be used on other sites or farms. Great, you can create a Solution Package and add a file to the LAYOUTS folder which has a specific naming convention – layouts.sitemap.???.xml – where ??? is the name of your feature (has to be unique). This will then get merged into layouts.sitemap when you create a new application.

This is where there appears to be a problem…existing sites will not get updated with your new entries. I have found no way of updating the existing layouts.sitemap (or admin.sitemap) for every server in a farm using the SharePoint API. This problem is compounded by the fact that the sitemap is copied when the IIS site is created and so each IIS site (zone) in a application has to be updated.  

Ideally you could update the layouts.sitemap when your feature gets activated on every server in the farm and for every IIS site within the site collection.

This is where the UpdateLayoutsSitemap class comes in. UpdateLayoutsSitemap gives this functionality by creating a SharePoint job which is executed by OWSTIMER. Updating the layouts.sitemap can be as easy as this…

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)

{

    SPWeb oWeb = (SPWeb)properties.Feature.Parent;

 

    SPThings.UpdateLayoutsSitemap uls = new UpdateLayoutsSitemap(oWeb.Site.WebApplication);

    uls.AddEntry(“Our Settings”, “/_layouts/oursettings.aspx”, “/_layouts/settings.aspx”);

    uls.AddEntry(“Add New Thing”, “/_layouts/addnewthing.aspx”, “/_layouts/oursettings.aspx?List=1″, “List”);

    uls.SubmitJob();

}

This will cause two new entries to be added to the layouts.sitemap for the specified WebApplication. The second entry will be a child of the first. But wait, if you have gone to the trouble of creating your layouts.sitemap.???.xml file would it not be better to use that? Of course you can…just don’t forget to replace the ??? with your own unique name.

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)

{

    SPWeb oWeb = (SPWeb)properties.Feature.Parent;

 

    SPThings.UpdateLayoutsSitemap uls = new UpdateLayoutsSitemap(oWeb.Site.WebApplication);

    uls.AddSitemap(“layouts.sitemap.???.xml”);

    uls.SubmitJob();

}

It should also be noted that you can update admin.sitemap as well by adding true to the constructor…

SPThings.UpdateLayoutsSitemap uls = new UpdateLayoutsSitemap(oWeb.Site.WebApplication, true);

UpdateLayoutsSitemap inherits from SPJobDefinition and works by keeping track of the entries and adding them on every server that executes the job. SPJobDefinition is a very helpful class in that it inherits from SPAutoSerializingObject and so can persist all the class members you specify when the job is submitted. This means that when your job executes it is in the same state as when it was submitted. To enable this functionality you need to add an attribute to your class members so that they are persisted

[Persisted]

private System.Collections.Generic.List<string[]> _entries;

If you find it useful feel free to use this class as you see fit.

 

Download UpdateLayoutsSitemap Class File

Sharepoint Access Checker Web Part !

Project Description

Quickly check what objects within a Sharepoint site hierarchy a user has access to.

The Access Checker Web Part is a Windows Sharepoint Services Web Part, for use within Windows Sharepoint Services v3 and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007, that displays a tree view showing permissions on objects for a user scoped to a Site hierarchy. It also has a second mode which will show the permission inheritance of objects within a Site hierarchy.



More specifically, The nodes within the tree are colour coded. If the user's permissions on the content match or exceed the level of access specified, the node is coloured green, red otherwise. Enabling a Site Administrator to determine what access a user has and to which content within a Site.

Background

Frequently I would receive emails from site administrators fed up with managing permissions for users. A common scenario would be that a user needed to be able to read all content within a site. For a site admin to be certain of this, they would need to visit each list and library permissions page and check that a) the list was inheriting permissions or b) the list has unique permissions and the user needs to be added directly. (Not to mention folder and list item permissions, but that's outside the scope of what this web part addresses!)

Expand this problem out to groups of sites and it gets really scary...

This Web Part hopes to solve this management issue for site administrators. The web part will confirm what permissions a user has to each list and site at a certain level in a Sharepoint hierarchy. It can also show the permission inheritance hierarchy for a better understanding of how permissions are setup.

I would like to get some feedback on its usefulness and if you have any suggestions on improving this web part i would like to hear about them.

Additional Features

- View Permission Inheritance on Sites and Lists. Useful for site administrators to understand how permissions are configured on their sites.
- Sharepoint Feature included in the Solution that adds two links to the Site Settings Page.



Check User Access - Page with embedded Access Checker, configured for User Access Mode
View Permission Inheritance - Page with embedded Access Checker, configured for Permissions Inheritance mode.

Limitations

- List Items are not displayed.
- Does not currently work with Forms Based Authentication.

Download Sharepoint Access Checker Web Part !

SharePoint Cascading Drop Down List (With Filter) Field Type !

SharePoint Cascading Drop Down List (With Filter) Field Type

Top 25 Downloads For SharePoint On Codeplex !

A little earlier I saw a fellow SharePoint Twitter user lamenting about a lack of built in SharePoint tools for pulling reports around permissions. I posted a note that there was a utility up on Codeplex for pulling those type of reports when I realized that there were many Codeplex projects for SharePoint than many are probably unaware of. Below you will find listed the top 25 most downloaded SharePoint projects on Codeplex. If you want a greater listing just head on over to www.codeplex.com and select the SharePoint tag cloud on the right hand side of the page.

WSPBuilder

SmartTools for SharePoint

MOSS Faceted Search

SharePoint Learning Kit

SmartPart for SharePoint

STSDEV: Simple Tools for SharePoint 2007 Development

Microsoft SQL Server Community Samples: Integration Services

SharePoint SmartTemplates for Visual Studio

Podcasting Kit for Sharepoint

SharePoint Manager 2007

Useful Sharepoint Designer Custom Workflow Activities

iLove SharePoint

ChartPart for SharePoint

SharePoint Forums

SharePoint SUSHI

SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard

SPSReport

RSS FeedReader

FAST ESP Web Parts for SharePoint Server 2007

SharePoint 2007 Test Data Population Tool

Sharepoint lookup with picker !

Project Description
Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2007 lookup control with element picker for custom list.
This control is useful if you need to choose lookup data from large lists. This control supports single and multi select mode.

Download Sharepoint lookup with picker

Easily print SharePoint lists using your own template !

Recently I have really wanted to easily print some SharePoint lists, but I always had to open them in Excel, format the columns and then print...this takes time. I looked at  Ishai Sagi's solution, but it didn't really do what I wanted...I really wanted the ability to print directly from the browser using a variety of templates. This also coincided with Brent starting a new CodePlex project to easily add functionality to a SharePoint site without having to use features or solutions. Essentially the project provides functionality for people where no binaries or layouts and can be deployed, and so can be can be used by people on shared hosting. I had agreed to work with him on the project and so thought I could combine the two!

The plan

The idea I had was to add some menu items to the standard WSS menus using javascript and to do all formatting client side. Obviously I chose XML & XSLT to do this, mainly because the SharePoint web services return XML, but also because it makes creating new templates so easy.

How it works

The javascript adds menu items to both the 'Actions' menu of a list view and also the to drop-down menu of the list items within the view...how this is done I will leave for another post! In response to choosing print a new window is shown, the list is retrieved using web services and then transformed using XSLT. This is shown in a DHTML dialog from which you can print it, print preview it or select a different template. Templates are defined in a document library using XSLT and you can add as many as you like.

What does it look like

Here are some screen shots from my blog admin site...

In the last screenshot you see the print dialog displaying what is actually going to be printed shown. From here you can choose to print, print preview or change the template...

Samples

You can download some sample prints ...

Item print sample (.xps) 

List print sample (.xps)

These samples show the pretty basic templates which are included. However they are generated using XSLT and so you can easily create your own by uploading them to the document library.

Installation

The functionality is provided as a list template. You need to download the .stp from the CodePlex project site and then upload it as a new List Template...

Once uploaded you can create a new document library using the template...

The template contains all the files required for the feature and once created you should see the templates...

You can now add the following lines to your default.master for your site just above the </body>...

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/PrintTemplates/printwindow.css"/>
<script language="javascript" src="/PrintTemplates/printwindow.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" src="/PrintTemplates/PrintFunctions.js"></script>
<script>_tk_enablePrintFunctions("/", "PrintTemplates")</script>   

Change the 'PrintTemplates' to be the same as the name of your document library.

You should now be able to navigate to any list and print the items.

Problems

Currently the two main problems are that I have only tested it with IE7 (no VM with IE6) and I have to use an ActiveX browser object for the print preview. Therefore in order for the print preview to work your site needs to be in the 'Local Intranet'  zone, if not you will see the following error...F5 will return you to the list.

Try it out

Brent has created a demonstration of the functionality Sharepoint Templates site.

Visit the SharePoint templates project on CodePlex for more information

You can download the ZIP containing the required files here. These can be placed in any document library or on the file system...as long as you can reference them in the src= of your SCRIPT tag.

Sample CustomActions for SharePoint !

SharePoint gives a lot of opportunities to customize the user interface and add your own customizations. There are a lot of examples of modifying the 'EditControlBlock', the drop down actions list shown on list items in a list view, and adding custom functionality to the 'Actions' menu of the list view.

I thought I would add my own to the mix, with a couple of samples which I have found useful in testing recently. The sample project adds two items to a list view...one to the 'EditControlBlock', which allows you to make a copy of the selected list item and another which adds an items to the Actions menu, which allows you to delete all the items in the current list.

Adding the items is done via a feature and some custom actions. The actions are just pointers to .aspx pages in the _layouts folder and these pages actually perform the copying and deletion of SPListItems.

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

    <CustomAction

        Id="TheKid.DuplicateListItem"

        Location="EditControlBlock"

        Title="Copy Item..."

        RegistrationType="ContentType"

        RegistrationId="0x01">

        <UrlAction Url="~site/_layouts/TheKidListActions/CopyListItem.aspx?List={ListId}&amp;ID={ItemId}"/>  

    </CustomAction>

    <CustomAction

        Id="TheKid.ClearListItems"

        Location="Microsoft.SharePoint.StandardMenu"

        GroupId="ActionsMenu"

        Title="Delete All Items"

        RegistrationType="List"

        Sequence="10">

        <UrlAction Url="~site/_layouts/TheKidListActions/ClearList.aspx?List={ListId}"/>

    </CustomAction>

</Elements>

Note the query string parameters which have tokens representing various values you may need to use in your .aspx page. Here I use ListId and ItemID...the other two possibilities are ItemUrl and SiteUrl.

It is also worth noting the RegistrationType of the copy item CustomAction. This you can see is registering itself by content type and is using a RegistrationId of 0x01. This will register it for all lists in SharePoint. For more details of how SharePoint decides which items appear in the EditControlBlock you should have a look at the CORE.JS file in SharePoint. The CORE.JS file contains a function called InsertFeatureMenuItems which decides which items will be displayed in the menu for each item in the list.

The functionality for the two actions are completely contained within the .aspx pages and the project contains no DLLs and only installs the .aspx pages. To modify the functionality simply open the .aspx and change the code.

You can also use code to create the Custom Action URL.

You can download the WSP to install, or you can download the full source for the project.

UPDATE: I have another article which shows how to use code to achieve similar results.