Generating charts from SharePoint lists

patrikluca.blogspot.com — Business requirement: Generating charts from SharePoint lists Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 doesn't have OOTB features to generate charts from SharePoint lists. This post describes a solution which can be found on CodePlex to make this possible with just a few clicks. Multiple graph types such as bars, columns and lines are possible. read more...

add a comment | category: ASP.NET | Views: 6

Show ID field on the DispForm.aspx form page

patrikluca.blogspot.com — Business requirement: Show ID field on the DispForm.aspx page The ID field of a SharePoint list is not shown by default on the DispForm.aspx form page. This can be very annoying, especially in cases where an Issue Tracking list is used: most of the time business users want to see the ID for an Issue Tracking list item. read more...

add a comment | category: Products | Views: 3

Disable view duplicates search functionality

patrikluca.blogspot.com — Business requirement: Disable view duplicates search functionality When performing a search query in SharePoint, the search results group duplicate search results by default. For me it is unclear which criteria make SharePoint think some search results are duplicates for each other, and hence make SharePoint group them together as one search result. This can be pretty confusing, as end-users not always are finding back everything because some stuff is hidden away in such a grouped search result. For example, ungrouping the above search result reveals following hidden search results: For me, these files shouldn't be grouped together as duplicates in the search results: these files are financial reports for different quarters. The filename as the title of these files are different, nevertheless SharePoint groups these files as duplicates in the search results. End-users not so familiar with SharePoint may overlook the View duplicates link in the search results: as such they may start complaining that they don't find some files they've uploaded before (f.e. here: they may complain they don't find the financial report for Q3-04). Solution: Disable view duplicates search functionality read more...

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Restoring configuration database

patrikluca.blogspot.com — Problem Description: UpdatedConcurrencyException: The object MySiteCleanupJob Name=mysitecleanup Parent=SPWebService was updated by another user After restoring the configuration database of our SharePoint, we ran into problems: we were unable to change some settings on web application level in the SharePoint Central Administration. Investigating the SharePoint log files in the 12 hive revealed following error: UpdatedConcurrencyException: The object MySiteCleanupJob Name=mysitecleanup Parent=SPWebService was updated by another user. Determine if these changes will conflict, resolve any differences, and reapply the second change. This error may also indicate a programming error caused by obtaining two copies of the same object in a single thread. Previous update information: User: ********** Process:OWSTIMER Machine:********* Time:October 29, 2008 04:31:38.0000 Current update information: User: ********** Process:OWSTIMER Machine:********** Time:November 02, 2008 05:30:20.0593. read more...

add a comment | category: Products | Views: 1

Customize SharePoint list form rendering in new, edit and display mode

patrikluca.blogspot.com — Business requirement: Hide list fields upon creation / modification of a SharePoint list item with the SharePoint GUI In a previous blogpost Hide list fields upon creation of a SharePoint list item, I talked about how to hide a SharePoint list field upon creation of a list item and to show it upon modification of that same list item. Unfortunately, this is something which cannot be achieved by using merely the out-of-the-box administration tools of SharePoint, but the SharePoint Tips Utility Pack could help you out. This great tool has some disadvantages: You can only run it on the SharePoint server itself. If you are a SharePoint implementator, you can set the properties of each field with this tool. Unfortunately, if power users of the SharePoint environment afterwards want to change anything to a field, they are not able to do this anymore (whereas they are able to change views,add content types or add columns on a SharePoint list you have set up for them by going to the appropriate settings forms). read more...

add a comment | category: Products | Views: 38

How to trigger a workflow based on a non-empty Comments field?

patrikluca.blogspot.com — At an installation where I created a helpdesk functionality based on the Help Desk template, one of the Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, I was asked to create a workflow which sends out an email automatically when a comments is added to a service request. The email may not be sent out if the comments added was empty. read more...

add a comment | category: Windows Workflow Foundation | Views: 12

Getting rid of logon prompts when opening Office documents

patrikluca.blogspot.com — Problem description: You are prompted to enter your credentials each time you open a Microsoft Office document stored in a SharePoint document library Each time you open a Microsoft Office document, you are prompted to enter your credentials again, even if you check the box remember my password. For non Microsoft Office documents, such as PDF files, you are not prompted to enter your credentials. The credentials prompt is not taken into account apparently: if you choose Cancel in the prompted window without entering your credentials, the Microsoft Office document is still opened. read more...

2 comments | category: Vista | Views: 44

Bulk update of a field for existing SharePoint list items

patrikluca.blogspot.com — Suppose you have created a SharePoint list or document library with some metadata columns. End-users start adding list items to this SharePoint list. After a while, they want to change the value for a particular column of already created list items. They could do this manually through the Edit in Datasheet mode, but suppose they have already created hundreds of list items in the SharePoint list... It would save a lot of time if an option would exist to bulk update a SharePoint field from one value to another in all list items for a particular SharePoint list. An ideal scenario is off course a SharePoint column created with as type of information Lookup. Changing the value of the item where the Lookup column is getting its information from would update in mass all already existing SharePoint list items. But if this isn't the case, there is no real out-of-the-box SharePoint functionality to bulk update a field (except the Edit in Datasheet mode). read more...

add a comment | category: Products | Views: 48