English

Before we continue, I suggest you read the first part here ; it gives basic idea of how it works. The purpose of part-2 is to make real implementation of Custom Web Service , but it is not the only way to do it. There are some key points that I want to show here:

1. We will put our custom Web Services in a Custom folder under _vti_bin. In this case we will create new folder WSCustom under (12hive/ISAPI for SharePoint 2007 or 14hive/ISAPI for SharePoint 2010)
2. We will need a helper to read SharePoint context (SPVirtualPath) before passing the request to the real ASMX. In this case we will copy WSDISCO.ASPX  and WSWSDL.ASPX from original _VTI_BIN to _VTI_BIN/WSCustom folder
3. We will need custom SPDisco.aspx for our web services, in this case I will name it WSCustomSPDisco.aspx. This is the file, where we will register our web service. (Note the registration is optional, but it is required for truly SharePoint integration)
4. We need an interceptor so that request to SPDisco.aspx will return combination between original SPDisco.aspx and WSCustomSPDisco.aspx. In this case, we will create WSCustomHttpHandler that combine XML from the two files.
5. We need rules to add rules to redirect request to _vti_bin/spdisco.aspx to our WSCustomHttphandler.

In the diagram, the scenario will look like this

1. Create ASPNET Web Services using Visual Studio. 
   You can follow instruction in MSDN here (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd583131(v=office.11).aspx) and stop until “To copy the Web service files to the _vti_bin virtual directory”).

2. Create custom folder for your project under _vti_bin (for example 12hive/ISAPI/CustomWS for SharePoint 2007 or 14hive/ISAPI/CustomWS for SharePoint 2010). In this custom folder, we will put 3 files for every web service (*.asmx) which are:
   • <service>.asmx , where <service> is your web service file.
   • <serviceDISCO>.aspx , where <serviceDISCO> is corresponding DISCO file of your web service.
   • <serviceWSDL>.aspx , where <serviceWSDL> is corresponding WSDL file of your web service.
     
3. Copy ISAPI\spdisco.aspx to ISAPI\spdisco.disco.aspx . We need copy of original spdisco.aspx, since we don’t want to have infinite loop in our HttpHandler later.
4. Create ISAPI\customws.spdisco.aspx. In this file, we will register our custom web service. This is important to avoid modifying SharePoint built-in file.
5. Create HttpHandler to combine content of spdisco.aspx and *.spdisco.aspx.
6. Register HttpHandler in web.config. We will intercept all _vti_bin/spdisco.aspx with our HttpHandler.

More Information

1. Tutorial video, Writing Custom Web Services for SharePoint in Supported Mode.
   [See post to watch Flash video]
    
2. Download source code for this article Visual Studio 2010 + SharePoint 2010 (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Writing-SharePoint-Web-in-cb9de1be)

English:

Some of you may be not aware that we can use SharePoint List for Visio Diagram data source. So how can we configure SharePoint List for Visio Diagram data source?

Following steps demonstrate how to do it using SharePoint 2010 and Visio 2010, however it also applies to SharePoint 2007 or Visio 2007.

Step-by-step

1. Open Visio (.vsd) file.
2. On Data tab, and  Link Data to Shapes.

   

3. On  Data Selector window, choose Microsoft SharePoint Foundation list.

   

4. Type SharePoint website URL

   

   Note: Enter username and password combination if necessary.

   

5. Choose SharePoint list that you want to use, then click Next and Finish.
   
   
6. You will return to the main Visio diagram with data table from SharePoint list. Then you can use the table (linked-to-SharePoint List) as data source for your diagram.

   

Source: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4225.aspx

English:

Conditional formatting now becomes easier using SharePoint Designer 2010. We can create intelligent view which able to highlight some important pointer in the display. There are 3 types of conditional formatting:

1. Show content , show content based on the pre-specified conditions
2. Hide content , hide content based on the pre-specified conditions
3. Apply formatting , apply formatting based on the pre-specified conditions.

Visual Touch for Easy Reading

Imagine, that you have developed a workflow that uses task list to assign task to the users. The standard task list, may look like this:

Actually there is nothing wrong with the task list web-part. However, since there isn’t any pointer on important information in the task list – then the message may not be conveyed efficiently to the reader.

Using conditional formatting, we will be able highlight overdue tasks, so that the task will get more attention from the user. In the picture below, we add red hand icon, if the task is overdue.

So, how would we do that?

Following step-by-step will show how to create conditional formatting using SharePoint Designer 2010. I will demonstrate how to add red-hand icon to the overdue task.

1. Open original task list view in SharePoint Designer 2010.

2. Select Title column tag and then create conditional formatting by selecting Apply formatting….

3. Define formatting condition as follows:

Due Date  <  [Current Date]     And

Status      <>  ‘Completed’

and then click Set Style.

4. I have uploaded the icon in Site Assets gallery, so that I can use it as background-image.

And finally I have configure my style to:

background-image: url(‘../../SiteAssets/Pointer_red_22x17.gif’); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: left bottom; text-indent: 20px

5. Save the changes, and you’ve done with the conditional formatting.

Finally, adding visual touch using conditional formatting is also adding more value to the user. It will make the information more knowledgeable than plain presentation.

English

You may already read this following article “Writing Custom Web Service for SharePoint Products and Technologies” (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd583131(v=office.11).aspx) or “Walkthrough: Creating a Custom ASP.NET Web Service” (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms464040.aspx). The steps can be summarized as follows:

1. Create normal ASPNET web service
   In this step you will create ASPNET Web Services using Visual Studio as you always do. From this step, you will have <Service>.asmx, where <Service> is your web service asmx file.
2. Create corresponding .disco file and a .wsdl file
   In this step you will create extract of DISCOvery  file and WSDL of ASPNET web service from step #1, and add reference to Microsoft.SharePoint assembly. From this step, you will have 2 files <Service>disco.aspx and <Service>wsdl.aspx.
3. Copy the 3 files to _vti_bin (12hive\ISAPI)
   In this step you will copy the 3 files (<Service>.asmx, <Service>disco.aspx and <Service>wsdl.aspx) into 12hive\ISAPI. Of course in real deployment, you can use WSP.
4. Register the new web service in spdisco.aspx
   In this step you will modify built-in SharePoint file spdisco.aspx, so that your web service will be recognized by SharePoint.

Until here you will have working custom web service in SharePoint but  are you sure that your SharePoint farm is still supported?

If you read “Modifying Built-In SharePoint Files” (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb803457(v=office.12).aspx) rules, the step #4 is unsupported. Step#4 is to modify spdisco.aspx so that the custom web service will work.

So do you still want to built custom web service using that technique?
My suggestion, think twice! In fact you can still use ASPNET web service without SharePoint integration – it will work but lost SharePoint context. Moreover, you can’t tell WSP to modify spdisco.aspx unless you use event handler – which mean more complexity.

English

Microsoft just released cumulative update package for December 2010. The CU will contains hotfix package for Office 2010 Client and Servers.

See full release from Microsoft in this KB :KB2479673.

English

Today I find a strange behaviour, my Office 2010 can not browse to the SharePoint 2010 document library. In short, I can not save my document directly to SharePoint 2010.  Office 2010 provide Save and Send functionality, which should give me functionality to save directly to SharePoint 2010 as what it does in previous version; so what could be the problem?

Saving to SharePoint 2010 document library requires WebDAV functionality via Web Client service. Unfortunatelly the Web Client service is not enabled by default, and it is part of Desktop Experience features.  So, how can we enable it using PowerShell?

# Open PowerShell console and then type

import-module servermanager
Add-WindowsFeature Desktop-Experience

English

In the previous version, creating cascading lookup field was becoming a problem. At least 2 or more technique have been proposed for example using Javascript , or custom field. In this video cast, I will continue the InfoPath and SharePoint 2010 productivity series by implementing the cascading lookup field using InfoPath. In this video, I will extend Members list with City – Province – Country , information. Province and Country are cascading lookup field.

Update:
See other post on How to create Cascading Lookup Field using Client Object Model.

English

Imagine a business scenario where we have a lookup field in our list. The reference list contains items Title and their status.  Previously it always difficult to create filtered lookup field with minimal development task. But now, we can use InfoPath 2010 to achieve that functionality.

Part III , InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Productivity series webcast shows how to create filtered lookup field.  There are two lists in the scenario “Books” and “Members” list.  The Books list contains list of books Title, Author and Status. There are 2 status of books, “Available” , “In-Used” and “Missing”.

“Members” list has Books  , lookup field – which should show only the “Available” books.

English:

Imagine that user wants to build Book lending application using SharePoint 2010. Initially they must register the book description , and sub-sequently they will update book lending status.  On the registration, the status should not be available in the form – however on lending event , they have to modify the status of the book.
Following webcast shows how to use InfoPath Designer 2010 to customize New/Edit/View form in SharePoint List to build that application.

Faboulous 40 have become a good showcase for us for SharePoint 2007 implementation.  I personaly deployed it in some of my clients – and it is a good start to play with SharePoint 2007 business implementation.  They are not perfect tough – but they create conversation on the functionalities and enhancements.

So far, Microsoft has not release Fab40 for SharePoint 2010 – but we can find un-official Fab40 by Khalil here : http://techsolutions.net/Blog/tabid/65/EntryId/17/Fab-40-Templates-for-MOSS-2010.aspx