Rana Omer Hussain's RegEdit

WebFldr (explorer view) SharePoint explorer does not display

nawaeinstine — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:34:55 +0000

Problem: Please wait while Explorer View is loaded. If Explorer View does not appear, your browser may not support it

In SharePoint, if your “Explorer View” doesn’t work and give “Please wait while Explorer View is loaded. If Explorer View does not appear, your browser may not support it.” error then please make sure your “WebClient” service is up and running as shown in below screen clipping:

Also make sure you are running the service with “Local Service” account.

For more info view this post : IIS WebDAV service required for SharePoint webdav

The Best Way to Add Custom JavaScript and jQuery to SharePoint

nawaeinstine — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:39:44 +0000

During extensive SharePoint user interface customization you’ll likely encounter a scenario where you need to make a web part or user control do something it was not intended to do or have a look that cannot be accomplished using the CSS hooks provided out-of-the-box. The solution is to create a custom master page and include a reference to a JavaScript file where you can modify the Document object. While straight JavaScript will do, I prefer to use the jQuery JavaScript library, which is far more robust, easier to use, and allows for plugins. Follow the steps below to add jQuery to your master page.

Go to jquery.com and download the latest jQuery library to your desktop. You want to get the compressed production version, not the development version.
Open SharePoint Designer (SPD) and connect to the root level of your site’s site collection.
In SPD, open the “Style Library” folder.
Create a folder named “Scripts” inside of the Style Library.
Drag the jQuery library JavaScript file from your desktop into the Scripts folder.
In the Scripts folder, create a new JavaScript file and name it (e.g. “actions.js”).
Open your master page file in SPD.
Within the tag of the master page, add a script reference to the jQuery library just above the content place holder named “PlaceHolderAdditonalPageHead” (and above your custom CSS references, if applicable) as follows:
// src="/Style%20Library/Scripts/{jquery library file}.js" type="text/javascript">
// ]]>
Immediately after the jQuery library reference add a script reference to your custom scripts file as follows:
// src="/Style%20Library/Scripts/actions.js" type="text/javascript">
// ]]>

Your custom master page now includes jQuery and a reference to your custom scripts file where you can add jQuery scripts. SharePoint includes a number of JavaScript files throughout the site, so be careful that the scripts you add do not conflict with SharePoint’s; the jQuery library itself does not conflict with SharePoint.

The Best Way to Add Custom CSS to SharePoint

nawaeinstine — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:48:22 +0000

To thoroughly customize your SharePoint site, you’ll need to use a custom CSS. SharePoint offers a way to specify a single CSS file to use via the “Master page” settings for the site. However, using this approach still limits you to customizing only those IDs and classes that are included on the pages by SharePoint. Moreover, using this setting applies to both site and system pages, which may not be desirable.

With these downsides in mind, the best approach is to create a custom master page and include references to one or more custom CSS files. Follow the steps below to include a custom CSS file in your master page.

Open SharePoint Designer (SPD) and connect to the root level of your site’s site collection.
In SPD, open the “Style Library” folder.
Create a new CSS file and name it (e.g. “customstyles.css”).
Open your master page file in SPD.
In the tag add a link to your custom CSS just above the content place holder named “PlaceHolderAdditonalPageHead” as follows:

Your custom master page is now using your new CSS file in addition to all of the CSS files SharePoint uses out-of-the-box. The idea is that you are taking advantage of the “cascading” property of cascading style sheets by layering your custom styles on top of what SharePoint creates in order to alter the SharePoint look-and-feel as desired—like a skin.

How to Create a Custom SharePoint Master Page

nawaeinstine — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:35:44 +0000

The first step in customizing your SharePoint site is to create a custom master page. The following steps will help you do just that (please note there are differences indicated between SP 2007 and SP 2010).

Open SharePoint Designer (SPD) and connect to the root level of your site’s site collection.
In SPD, open the “_catalogs” folder, then open the “masterpage” folder.
Identify the out-of-the-box (OOTB) most like your ultimate design.
1. (SP 2007) If your SharePoint’s site design is to be fixed-width and centered on the page, select BlueBand.master and copy it.
2. (SP 2007) If your SharePoint’s site design is to be a liquid layout that fills the page regardless of the user’s screen resolution, select default.master and copy it.
3. (SP 2010 beta) You want v4.master.
In SPD, right-click on the master page you want to duplicate and select “Copy,” then paste it back into the same folder.
Rename the new file something project-specific. For instance, if this master page is to be used on the sales portal, you might rename the new master page SalesPortal.master.
Publish and approve the new master page.
In your browser, navigate to your site’s Site Settings page. Under the “Look-and-Feel” column click “Master page.”
Select your new master page as the site master page (the need to set the system master page will vary by project). Save the settings change.

Your site is now using the new master page you created. From here you modify the master page to your liking, including adding custom CSS and custom JavaScript and jQuery.

SharePoint 2007 and 2010 CSS Reference Chart

nawaeinstine — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:38:20 +0000

Just came across these good SharePoint CSS Reference Charts, its worth reading.

SharePoint 2007 CSS Reference Chart

SharePoint 2010 CSS Reference Chart

The difference between web parts and lists

nawaeinstine — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 09:42:43 +0000

Did you try adding another web part to a page and it displays the same data as another web part on the page? Here is the answer.

As part of my habit of posting in this site an answer for any question I see more than once in the forums, I want to share with you an explanation I use in the forums to let sharepoint beginners realize what is the difference between a web part and a list.

The confusion sounds like this:
“I’m a newbie to the SharePoint world so if this is a really amateur question, you know why. I am currently tasked with setting up the SharePoint site for my department. I have tried to put two instances of the Links web part on the top-level of my site. It will allow me to do this but when I make a change to one of the web parts the change also occurs in the other Links web part.” (taken from an msdn forum post)

To which I reply:
You are confusing “web parts” and “lists“
A “web part” is a mechanism to display data, while a “list” is like a small database – a mechanism to store data.

What you did, is have one list (links, or contacts) and two web part displaying the same list - same data.

If you want two different sets of data then the easy way would be to create another list, and add a web part to look into that list.

Another option is to create a field in the list by the name (for example) “show in web part 1″ of type boolean, and then configure the two webparts that show the same information to show based on that field (this method is known as a filter).

How to copy attachments from one list item to another

nawaeinstine — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 09:20:58 +0000

The microsoft support article for WSS 2 shows us how to download attachments from a list item. Basically, the attachments for a list item are stored as SPFile objects under a hidden folder in the list where those attachments are (a folder called “Attachments”) – where each list item that has an attachment has its own folder – with the ID of the item being the folder’s name. Here is a code sample for a function to copy attachments from one item to another.

private void CopyAttachments(SPListItem sourceItem, SPListItem targetItem){

try {//get the folder with the attachments for the source item

SPFolder sourceItemAttachmentsFolder = sourceItem.Web.Folders["Lists"].SubFolders[sourceItem.ParentList.Title] .SubFolders["Attachments"].SubFolders[sourceItem.ID.ToString()];

//Loop over the attachments, and add them to the target item

foreach (SPFile file in sourceItemAttachmentsFolder.Files)

{byte[] binFile = file.OpenBinary();

targetItem.Attachments.AddNow(file.Name, binFile);}

} catch { }finally { sourceItem.Web.Dispose();}}

Ref : Sharepoint Tips And Tricks

Event handler to archive items when deleted

nawaeinstine — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 09:15:52 +0000

The requirement – copy a list item that is deleted to an archive list. The solution – event receiver that copies the item. The code below does the job, but again is only a sample – you still need to implement error handling, and there are hard coded variables there you will want to change.

Note: this code is specifically for list items, not for documents in document libraries. You can easily change the code to support documents as well (see the CopyAttachments function for an example on how to copy files).

public override void ItemDeleting(SPItemEventProperties properties) {

//note: may require permission elevation. //TODO: add error handling //get the item being deleted

SPListItem item = properties.ListItem;

//get the target list

SPList targetList = properties.Web.Lists["Announcements Archive"];

//create the new item

SPListItem newItem = targetList.Items.Add();

//copy the list item to the target

foreach (SPField f in item.Fields) {

if (!f.ReadOnlyField && newItem.Fields.ContainsField(f.InternalName)) newItem[newItem.Fields.GetFieldByInternalName(f.InternalName).Id] = item[f.Id]; }

//copy “special” read only fields that can be written to

newItem["Created By"] = item["Created By"];

newItem["Modified By"] = item["Modified By"];

newItem["Modified"] = item["Modified"];

newItem["Created"] = item["Created"];

newItem.SystemUpdate(false);

CopyAttachments(item, newItem);

base.ItemDeleting(properties); }

Note: for the “CopyAttachments” View this Page : How to copy attachments from one list item to another

Ref : Sharepoint Tips And Tricks

Change the Welcome Page / Homepage in SharePoint 2010 Programmatically

nawaeinstine — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:08:39 +0000

When exporting and importing sites throughout SharePoint 2010 that are upgraded sites from SharePoint 2007, you probably noticed that the homepage for the imported site is defaulted to SharePoint 2010′s wiki-style page at /SitePages/Home.aspx. However, until you start using these new pages you may want to revert or keep the homepage as the default.aspx page.

To do this manually, you need to go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Look and Feel > Welcome Page.

However, this Welcome Page link is only available for those sites where the Publishing feature is activated at the Site Collection and Site level.

This could be pretty tedious if you have to do this for every site in the web application. So, if you need to do this fast for multiple sites and don’t have direct access to the Welcome Page link, what do you do? You use Power-Shell!

Below is a script I created that will prompt to enter in the Web Application and Welcome Page and then loop through each site in the Web Application and set the Welcome Page. Save this as a .ps1 file and run it from the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell:

$webapp = Read-Host "Enter Web Application"

$welcomepage = Read-Host "Enter Welcome Page"

$webs = Get-SPSite -WebApplication

$webapp -Limit All | Get-SPWeb -Limit All

foreach ($web in $webs){

$rootFolder = $web.RootFolder

$rootFolder.WelcomePage = $welcomepage

Write-Host "Setting"$web.Title"homepage to"$welcomepage $rootFolder.Update()

$web.Dispose()

}

Now, navigate back to a site and see that the homepage is now set to the given page!

ASP.NET Dynamic HTML with HTML Controls

nawaeinstine — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:29:39 +0000

There are many times that you need to process a data list and generate HTML to output to an ASP.NET page. Most of the time, a Repeater is the best choice for this, but sometimes using a Repeater is not practical because the HTML has too many levels or is built with too many conditionals. In these cases, you could use a StringBuilder and output the result to a Literal control, but working with strings can be error prone. My preferred method to add a Placeholder control to the page and then just add Controls to its Controls collection in the code behind.

This works out well if you want to use web controls, but not if you want to use HTML controls. One of the goals with web controls was to make the properties more consistent across controls, but if you are familiar with HTML, then using the HTML controls might be more natural because the properties match the attributes you are already familiar with.

The issue with HTML Controls is that they are not as friendly to work with. For many elements, such as divs, you will have to use the HtmlGenericControl class. Although web controls have a property for CssClass, this is not available for HTML controls. If you want to add a new div control with a CSS class, you will end up with something like this:

var divContainer = new HtmlGenericControl(“div”);
divContainer.Attributes.Add(“class”, “div-class”);

To improve on this syntax, I added a derived control with a CSSClass property:

public class HtmlClassedControl : HtmlGenericControl
{
public HtmlClassedControl(string tag) : base(tag)
{
}

public string CssClass
{
get { return GetAttribute(“class”); }
set { Attributes.Add(“class”, value); }
}
}

Next, I added another derived class for the div control to eliminate the constructor parameter:

public class HtmlDiv : HtmlClassedControl
{
public HtmlDiv() : base(“div”)
{
}
}

With these changes, the syntax becomes:

var divContainer = new HtmlDiv {CssClass = “div-class”};

That may not seem like much of a change, but if you are adding 20 or 30 controls with nesting and looping, it makes a huge difference in readability and maintainabiliy… not to mention less code to write. You could easily add classes for other HTML elements such as ordering list, list item, etc.