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.

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In SharePoint 2010 there we have more option to customize list form. For instance, you can use SharePoint Designer 2010 or InfoPath Designer 2010. Since modifying list form using SPD is already exist in previous version. I will just show you how to customize list form using InfoPath Designer 2010.

When customizing list form using InfoPath Designer 2010, you will get all form designer benefit. For example, you can define the field validation rules, parent-child relation etc. And bet what, the process is straight forward. In this very basic how-to, I will demonstrate how to start customize list form using InfoPath Designer 2010. I will create an Book List with “Title” – “Author” – “Status” column. In the New form, I will only show “Title” and “Author” – while in Edit form, “Title” and “Author” will be readonly, but “Status” is editable.

How to customize list form using InfoPath Designer 2010.

1. Prepare the custom list.

   

   Prepare custom “Book List” with 3 columns: “Title” – “Author” – “Status”. “Status” field is choice “Available” – “In Used” – “Missing”. After creating the list and preparing columns, we can start to use the list and add a new item in this form.

   

2. Start InfoPath Designer

   Start InfoPath Designer and select to design SharePoint List form.

   

   Type in the SharePoint site URL

   

   And then select the Book List from the list of available data.

   

   Finally, click on Finish.

   

3. When the form editor open , you can start to edit the New form. I add a title “Book List Entry” and delete the “Status” row.

   

   And here is the result:

   

4. Add “Edit Form” view in the designer, and set Title and Author as readonly.

   

   Type-in the view title.

   

   Design the form – add “Status” column in the form.

   

   Set “Title” and “Author” textbox property to “ReadOnly”

   

   

5. Publish the form to the list.

   

6. Configure the “Book List” to use designated form.

   Open the list setting page, and expand context menu for the Forms.

   

   Since the first view will be the default – our interest is only to the “(Item) Edit Form”. Click on (Item) Edit Form link, and change the Form view.

   You will realize that now you are seeing form services in web part.

   

   Click on Web Parts Tools tab, and then click on Web Part Properties.

   

   In the Web Part Properties, select the designated view.

   

7. And here we go with the custom “New Form” and “Edit Form” for the list.

   New Form.

   

   Edit Form.

   

   Happy design.
   [Update: Follow the InfoPath and SharePoint 2010 Productivity Series]

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SharePoint 2010 relies on 64 bit infrastructure and higher hardware specifications, where it is not always affordable for freelance consultant to upgrade existing laptop for that requirement. Then, a single box development server will become a choice. Sometimes, it also mean for simplification where everything run in the same box ; Domain Server – SQL Server 2008 – SharePoint 2010 – Office 2010 and Visual Studio 2010. There is nothing special when installing or configuring those roles / application in the server , EXCEPT SharePoint 2010 installation process will strangefully follow different path. There will be no selection on the installation type anymore. You will not be prompted for Standalone or Farm installation option anymore.

How to install SPS2010 in Single Box Development Server?

1.  After you have finished installing OS, start to add Active Directory Domain Service roles.
      Complete the installation procedure and configure the roles.

2.  Then, start to add Application Server and Web Server roles.
      This installation is straight forward, and you will be easily get your Application Server and Web Server roles configured in the machine.

3. Install SQL Server 2008 SP1 + CU KB970315
     Download SQL Server 2008 SP1 here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=66AB3DBB-BF3E-4F46-9559-CCC6A4F9DC19&displaylang=en
     Download CU KB970315 here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970315

And here is the tricky part, installing SPS2010

4.  Extract SPS2010 installer to a folder

 <spsinstaller.exe> /extract:e:\sps2010

That command will extract <spsinstaller.exe> to folder e:\sps2010. Replace <spsinstaller.exe> with your own distribution.

5. You will see that there is several sub-folder under Files folder in the extracted location. Each sub-folder represents different setup option. For example, SetupFarm contains configuration files for farm installation option etc.

6. Start the installation sequence by executing following command in the extracted location.

        Setup.exe /config Files\SetupFarm\config.xml
 

If you want to know other options, you can execute : setup.exe /? command.

7.  Remember you will not see following installation option, so just follow the dialog and wait untill installation completed.

And now everything is normal again,

8.  Next start the Configuration Wizard. (If you have been doing SharePoint 2007, it is just straight forward and as easy as it was).

9. And finally you can start configuring the other development tools.

Remember that the step 4-7 are only necessary when you install Active Directory Domain Service in a Single Box – otherwise you can always execute the installer directly.

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Remember about critics to “stsadm –o copyappbincontent” to deploy SharePoint resource in my previous post here.

At the end of the post, I think that it should be “stsadm –o copyfarmappbincontent” instead.

Why?
Because the last will work in centralized deployment mode, same as solution deployment.

But what’s the secret? Why the standard copyappbincontent doesn’t work in farm configuration?

I’ll post in another article. But now, I have created the project in Codeplex. You can grab the code or download the binary here.

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I know that Microsoft has fabulous 40, a collection of 40 site templates in this link. I have played with all the templates, without any problem – but today when I tried to install it in my Windows 2008 server I was stuck in the wsp deployment. It seems that I couldn’t deploy the WSP.

Then, I remembered that Windows 2008 has increased security model which prevent accidental execution using privileged account. So, what I did to solve it – was just simply open the cmd console using privileged account.

Right click on “cmd.exe” and select “Run as Administrator”. And here we go, all wsp finally deployed to my MOSS installation.

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Before you continue reading this post, I hope you have read the basic task to start using lambda expression in SOM here.

A.  Find any Event list in site.

SPWeb spWeb = SPContext.Current.Web

var lists = spWeb.Lists.OfType<SPList>().Where(
             l => l.BaseTemplate == SPListTemplateType.Events);
  foreach (SPList list in lists)
{
       Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", list.BaseTemplate.ToString(), list.Title);

  }

B.  Find any list based on custom list definition with Type=20080

SPWeb spWeb = SPContext.Current.Web

var lists = spWeb.Lists.OfType<SPList>().Where(
             l => (int) l.BaseTemplate == 20080);
  foreach (SPList list in lists)
{
       Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", list.BaseTemplate.ToString(), list.Title);

  }

C. Find any “Daily” alert in the site

SPWeb spWeb = SPContext.Current.Web

var alerts = spWeb.Alerts.OfType<SPAlert>().Where(
                                  a => a.AlertFrequency == SPAlertFrequency.Daily);

  foreach (SPAler alert in alerts)
{
      // Do something with alert

  }

D.  Find any user which are Domain group

SPWeb spWeb = SPContext.Current.Web

var users = spWeb.SiteUsers.OfType<SPUser>().Where(
                              u => u.IsDomainGroup );

  foreach (SPUser user in users)
{
      // Do something with alert

  }

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When you are working in multi-sites environment you may sometimes confused with the timestamp given by the server. The timestamp (Created Date, Modified Date) is combination of several factors :

a. Server TimeZone   , is physical server timezone configuration.
b. Web Application TimeZone , is application level timezone configuration.
c. Site   , is subsite, web timezone configuration.

How would you make sure that you are working on correct timezone in SharePoint? This post will explain how to configure personal regional settings.

1. Click on Logon User menu, and select My Settings

2. On the User Information page, click on “My Regional Settings”

3. On Regional Settings page, uncheck “Always follow web settings” and configure your personal Time zone setting and click OK.

4.Sample of same page with different time zone configuration

   Original view.
   Website timezone : GMT+7
   Webserver timezone : GMT+8
   Client timezone        : GMT+8

   After configuring regional setting view.
   Website timezone : GMT+8
   Webserver timezone : GMT+8
   Client timezone        : GMT+8

So, don’t be fooled by website timezone configuration.

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When you start to create a page, you will be presented a Create page form. In that page, you will have opportunity to select the page layouts for the new page. This howto will describe how to limits page layouts availability in create page. 

See picture below, instead of having all page  layouts listed – we only have 3 page layouts related to the site.

Howto:

1. Open Site Settings, and click on “Page layouts and site templates”

2. Select “Pages in this site can only use the following layouts:” and subsequently select the page layouts for current site.

3. Click “OK” to apply your changes.

English

Before you continue reading this post, I hope you have read the basic task to start using lambda expression in SOM here.

A. Find existing job definition, named “Change Log”

SPWebApplication spWebApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication;
var jobs = spWebApplication.JobDefinitions.Where(x => x.Title == "Change Log");
foreach(SPJobDefinition job in jobs)
               Console.WriteLine(job.Id);

B. Find existing custom job definition MyCustomJobDefinition, named “My Custom Job”

SPWebApplication spWebApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication;
var jobs = spWebApplication.JobDefinitions.OfType<MyCustomJobDefinition>().Where(x => x.Title == "My Custom Job");
foreach(SPJobDefinition job in jobs)
               Console.WriteLine(job.Id);

C. Find site collection from “STS” template

SPWebApplication webApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication;

var allSPSite = webApplication.Sites.OfType<SPSite>().Where(s => s.RootWeb.WebTemplate.Equals("STS", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));

foreach(SPSite spSite in allSPSite)

{

      // operation in the SPSite

}

D. Find All RootWeb (of Site collection)

SPWebApplication spWebApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.webApplication;
var rootWebs= spWebApplication.Sites.OfType<SPSite>().Select ( s => s.RootWeb );
foreach (SPWeb spWeb in rootWebs)
{
   // Do your task here
}

E. Find if Site Collection with RootWeb contains list named “Sample List”

SPWebApplication spWebApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.webApplication;
var sites = spWebApplication.Sites.OfType<SPSite>().Where(
                    s => s.RootWeb.Lists.OfType<SPList>().Where(
                         l => l.Title.Equals("Sample List",StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)).Count() > 0);
foreach (SPSite spSite in sites)
{
   // Do your task here
}

F. Find if RootWeb which contains list named “Sample List”

SPWebApplication spWebApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.webApplication;

var rootWebs = spWebApplication.Sites.OfType<SPSite>().Select(s => s.RootWeb).Where(
                                 r => r.Lists.OfType<SPList>().Where(
                                     l => l.Title.Equals("Sample List",StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)).Count() > 0);

foreach (SPWeb spWeb in rootWebs)
{
   // Do your task here
}

English

Lambda expression has been introduced since .NET framework 3.5, it is an anonymous function that can contain statement and expression. For more understanding on lambda expression you can read directly in MSDN page here. I will assume that you have read the topic and you can remember the lambda simply as:

(input parameters ) => operation

We will start with very basic operation of using lambda expression in SOM, and I hope you’ll find your path for more complex one. (note some code may not be efficient, for the clarity purpose)

A.  Start with OfType<TResult>() function to get IEnumerable that implement query pattern.

Example:

Originally to browse to all Site collection in WebApplication we will write,

SPWebApplication webApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication;

SPSiteCollection allSPSite = webApplication.Sites;

foreach(SPSite spSite in allSPSite)

{

      // operation in the SPSite

}

the equivalent for our lambda starter is,

SPWebApplication webApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication;

var allSPSite = webApplication.Sites.OfType<SPSite>();

foreach(SPSite spSite in allSPSite)

{

      // operation in the SPSite

}

B. Use lambda expression in the IEnumerable

Example :

You need to list all Site collection which uses STS site template.

Originally you will write,

SPWebApplication webApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication;

SPSiteCollection allSPSite = webApplication.Sites;

foreach(SPSite spSite in allSPSite)

{

      if(spSite.RootWeb.WebTemplate.Equals(“STS”,StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))

     {

           // Do operation in selected site

     }

}

the equivalent using lambda is,

SPWebApplication webApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication;

var allSPSite = webApplication.Sites.OfType<SPSite>().Where(s => s.RootWeb.WebTemplate.Equals("STS", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));

foreach(SPSite spSite in allSPSite)

{

      // operation in the SPSite

}

Ok, now I believe you will get the idea of how to use lambda expression in SOM collection. In next posting, I’ll cover directly to the sample usage of the lambda.