Problem
If you run into a scenario where you have modified the web.config file on the root IIS Site to output the stack trace and and in addition you have switched your customErrors=off but still cannot see the stack trace, what do you do?

Solution
You can temporarily modify the web.config file located under the virtual directory _layouts, restart IIS and you should see the error details at that point.

Hope this helps,

-Oscar

It has been a while since my last post, my apologies.  But hey that is a good thing it only means I have been busy with billable work :)

Anyway, I thought I’d share this cool implementation of jQuery Tabs that allow a user to update tab content for each tab.  I am using the jQuery plug-in for accessible, unobtrusive tabs found at http://www.stilbuero.de/2006/05/13/accessible-unobtrusive-javascript-tabs-with-jquery/

A recent project called for the ability to use a “tab interface” that would have the following functionality:

• Do not refresh entire page when clicking on tab
• Allow non-technical users to update content on each tab

And of course, I quickly realized jQuery was the right tool - plus combine that with SharePoint WebPart Zones to allow users to add content to said Tabs…all good!

Here is what my solution looks like. 

DISCLAIMER: I should tell you, in order to have new pages with the Tabs Feature, you do need the SharePoint Designer 2007 (um, yes not thoroughly accepted by all yet to me, it is the army swiss knife in the SharePoint Realm)

SOLUTION DETAILS

Basically, for each Tab you drop a WebPart Zone in a custom Layout Page.  Via the browser, the user simply drops a Content Editor WebPart and that is all!

NOTE: Nothing prevents one to add any type of WebPart….think of the possibilities :)

FIGURE 1 – jQuery Tabs Interface using WebPart Zones to allow non-tech user add content

FIGURE 2 – Tabs Page in edit-mode

Notice the rounded corners??? Um yes that would be also a jQuery plug-in by Mike Alsup 

(http://jquery.malsup.com/corner/)

And that does it!  Hope this helps you in brainstorming solutions when using jQuery and SharePoint!

-Oscar

While working on SharePoint 2010, I thought it would be interesting to view some of the pages via my iPhone.  Not all pages have a mobile view, but one can also use the query string “?mobile=1”.  Also, I believe there is a server-side function that may allow developers to render a page in mobile view!

I am using NTLM authentication on this sample site (the infamous fictitious Contoso, hey at least is not Fabrikam!). 

The following screenshots show you the a partial experience.  I purposefully made this post short and sweet so I am not covering every detail…

FIGURE 1 – Windows Login Credentials  Box on iPhone

FIGURE 2 – Contoso Intranet Home Page

FIGURE 3 – View All Site Content page
This page shows all the Document Libraries, Lists and Sub-sites (see figure 4)

 

Calendar List Views on the iPhone look decent, you can filter on most Lists as well!

FIGURE 4 – Viewing a Calendar Event on the iPhone



FIGURE 5 – Selecting a View on the Calendar List via the iPhone

FIGURE 6 – Creating a new Calendar Event from the iPhone

This post is short and sweet, but thought I’d share this!

Oscar

I have been playing with SharePoint 2010 for a while now, and have found the enhanced platform quite exciting.  One of the areas that I have recently explored is the Rich Media capabilities - now offered out of the box.

The new platform makes it very easy for anyone to share videos, pictures, music and more.  Microsoft certainly has paid close attention to what is happening in the enterprise 2.0 environments and it is no surprise why. “Gartner Predicts that by 2013, More than 25 percent of the Content that Workers See in a Day will be Dominated by Pictures, Video or Audio” Gartner, Inc. December 10, 2008

The Media Field Control

Although there are several enhancements that allow for sharing rich media on SharePoint 2010, I will focus on the Media Field Control, which is also used on the Media WebPart that allows for sharing media in an ad hoc manner.

Out of the Box Capabilities

• It plays videos from within SharePoint or remote locations
• It is built on Silverlight 3.0 or higher
• You can skin it to change the appearance using Expression Blend 3, since the skin is a XAML file
• It is extensible via the JavaScript Object Model, you can play, pause, change properties, etc.

Business Scenario – Creating a custom Publishing Page Layout and using the Media Field Control

So, if we have the Media WebPart, why use the Media Field Control?  Great question!  Here is one scenario, let’s say you are looking to create a Publishing Page Layout for a Press Release on your SharePoint Site.  This Publishing Page Layout needs to support the ability for users to insert a video and enrich user experience.

This article will not go into details on creating a Publishing Page Layout and it assumes you have created one.  Now let’s get started and embed the Media Field Control on our Publishing Page Layout.

Embedding the Media Field Control on a Publishing Page Layout

1. Open SharePoint Designer 2010
2. Open your Site
3. On the left navigation, click on Page Layouts and double click on your custom page layout
4. On the top left, click on Edit Page in Advanced Mode.  This will allow for you to insert the Media Field Control and view the code.
   
   FIGURE 1 – Page Layouts left navigation, custom Page Layout page
    
   
   In my case, I created a Content Type called SharePointAce Welcome Page, I then edited the Content Type and added a Column of type Media Field. Having that column within my custom Content Type allowed for the SharePoint Designer 2010 to show that column as a Content Field (see figure 2 below)
   
   FIGURE 2 – Shows the Page Field of type Media Field
   
   
   
   NOTE: The Media Field Control resides within the Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls namespace, so you must ensure the following tag exists on top of your page.
   
   <%@ Register Tagprefix="PublishingWebControls" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
   
5. Once you have finished the HTML layout, simply place the code below where you desire.  Alternatively, you can drag the Media Field Page Field and configure it as you like.  Most of the properties can be overridden via the browser screen.  It is worth noting that the PresentationLocked property, if set to True, does not allow the user to customize the style, width, or height of the Media Control.
   
   

   <PublishingWebControls:MediaFieldControl 
       FieldName="Media_x0020_Field" 
       runat="server" 
       id="MediaFieldControl1" 
       DisplayMode="Overlay" 
       ErrorMessage="cannot display media field" 
       Loop="True" 
       PresentationLocked="False" 
       TemplateSource="" 
       MediaSource="http://localhost:6100/Movies/FighterPilot.wmv" InDesign="True">
   </PublishingWebControls:MediaFieldControl>
   

6. Next, open the browser and create a new Page from your custom Publishing Page Layout and add content.
   
7. While in edit mode, click once on the Media Field Control.  This will display additional options on the Ribbon. 
   
   FIGURE 3 – Media Options Ribbon Menu
   
8. On the Change option, select where your video is located and set it.  You can select from your local computer, a web address or from SharePoint itself.
   
9. The Change Image option can be handy when you would like to show a preview image of your video.
   
10. Next you can give your video a Title and specify if it should automatically start when the page loads, and if you would like for the video to loop until the user stops it.
    
11. On the Styles option you can specify the appearance or skin to apply to the Media Field Control.  The default  Style is called AlternateMediaPlayer.xaml   The Styles available are located within your Site Collection at the following location: /Style Library/Media Player.  You can create your own style or “Skin” to apply to the Media Field Control (See Skinning the Media Field Control later on this article) 
    
    In addition, you can change the Horizontal Size and Vertical Size as well as specify if you would like to lock the Aspect Ratio. This is due to the fact that I myself decided to set the property PresentationLocked to False within my Page Layout.
    
12. Once you have specified all properties including the media source, put the page in Browse mode.  If you indicated to start the video automatically, you should see it play immediately.
    
    FIGURE 4 – A Publishing Page with the Media Field Control (default Style)
    
    

Skinning the Media Field Control

So, now that we’ve gone through the process of creating a custom Publishing Page Layout with the Media Field Control embedded, you are probably wondering if it is possible to change the appearance of the Media Field Control.  It is absolutely possible to control the appearance, and I will show you how.

As I explained earlier, the Media Field Control uses a Skin or Style to render it’s appearance.  This Style file can be found within the root Site Collection location (/Style Library/Media Player), under this folder you will find the default Style file which is actually a XAML file.   If you have used Microsoft Expression Blend, you would know that it produces XAML and allows you to edit that in a visual way.

So let’s get started! 

1. It is considered Best Practice to always make copies of any out of the box SharePoint files you intend to customize and this case is no exception.  So, copy the AlternateMediaPlayer.xaml file to your local machine.
2. Next, open Microsoft Expression Blend (I am using Blend 3)
3. Select File > New Project and use the appropriate project for your scenario
4. Right click on your project and select Add Existing Item, select the XAML file you saved on your computer.  I added my file called SharePointAceMediaPlayer.xaml
   
   FIGURE 5 – Adding the XAML file by right clicking project, then select Add Existing Item
    
   
   TIP: When you open the XAML file, you will immediately get an error message that says “The name “SkinableMediaPlayer” does not exist in the namespace “clr-namespace:Microsoft.SharePoint.MediaPlayer;assembly=MediaPlayer” and therefore you cannot see the Design View.  To resolve this, you can temporarily while editing remove the following TargetType="mp:SkinableMediaPlayer" and you should now be able to view the file in design view.  You can learn more about mapping namespaces to custom CLR objects at MSDN  Great way to potentially use your own Controls within your SharePoint Silverlight Applications!
   

   <ControlTemplate xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/client/2007" 
       xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
       xmlns:s="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
       xmlns:vsm="clr-namespace:System.Windows;assembly=System.Windows"    
       xmlns:mp="clr-namespace:Microsoft.SharePoint.MediaPlayer;assembly=MediaPlayer"
       TargetType="mp:SkinableMediaPlayer">

   
   
5. Now that we are able to see the design view, we are going to implement a light branding on the Style to show a company logo at the top. 
6. On the Objects and Timeline, click on the TitleOverlay item and expand it.  Drag the logo right underneath and modify the exact location of your logo.  Your screen should look something similar to Figure 6 below.
   
   FIGURE 6 – Shows the newly added logo in the correct location
   
   
7. Click on Code View, and find the Image tag, then change the Source property to a URL to that points to an image on your SharePoint site or elsewhere. I changed it to a URL on my Site Collection.  You must specify an absolute URL.
   
   TIP:  Ensure that all the customization artifacts are uploaded folder at (/Style Library/Media Player) location.  Also, ensure that the PresentationLocked property on your custom Publishing Page Layout is set to False so that users can change the Media Field Control Style via the browser
   
8. Create a Publishing Page with your custom Publishing Page Layout (or use the one previously created)
9. Place the page in Edit mode, click once on the Media Field Control
10. Select Media Options on the Ribbon and configure the media source as needed
11. Next, under Styles, you should see your custom Style (the filename) on the dropdown, select it and save the page
    
    FIGURE 7 – Styles dropdown shows my custom Style (SharePointAceMediaPlayer.xaml)
    
    
12. As soon as you apply your custom Style, the Media Field Control will reflect it immediately.
    
    
    FIGURE 8 – Shows the Media Field Control with my custom Style/Skin
    
    
    

Conclusion

There is far more you can do with the Media Field Control, but this should give you a glimpse of just a couple of cool things you can do to enhance the user experience.

-Oscar

SharePointAce Consulting Group, LLC has reached the Microsoft Certified Partner status.  Currently with the Information Worker Solutions Competency which covers the following areas:

• Office Solutions Development Specialization
• Enterprise Content Management and Forms Specialization
• Portals and Collaboration Specialization
• Search Specialization
• Legacy Assets

We are in the process of getting all prerequisites for the Business Intelligence competency very shortly.

-Oscar

If you’ve ever experienced the SharePoint/Exchange hosted services with Outlook 2007, you would know that there is a plug-in that is needed to provide a Single Sign-on experience for the end users.  This same experience will be available for Mac users soon!  You can read more on this article Microsoft beefs up its hosted Exchange/SharePoint suite

Recently I published a quick overview of what the Mac User Experience is like within the Enterprise, obviously assuming all server products are internally hosted.  You can read it at Exchange and Mac User Experience – A quick overview

It is great to know that Microsoft continues to further enhance the Mac client experience.

Oscar

A while back, I talked about only taking into account business days on any SharePoint Designer workflow or SharePoint List calculated column.  It seems to be a very popular post to date (based on Google Analytics Reports), and I thought it would be great to point people to it today!

In case you missed it: http://blogs.sharepointace.com/post/SharePoint-List-Calculated-Column-Calculate-Business-Days.aspx

Regards,
Oscar

We at SharePointAce Consulting Group are delighted to be part of the vast amount of SharePoint blogs that are being aggregated by Planet SharePoint and look forward to continuing contributing our experience.  You can view our profile here

Recent Improvements for the SharePoint User Experience

There are a few recent updates that one can immediately benefit from if he/she is a Mac User:

1. Microsoft Office 2008
2. Document Connection Add-On
3. Snow Leopard – Tight integration with Exchange 2007 

The nice thing about the Document Connection add-on is that one can browse documents very much like the Web Folders on Vista.  In addition, some of the things one can do using this add-on are:

• Check-in/out
• Work on documents offline
• Add documents to Favorites
• Track SharePoint multiple Sites you work with including Workspaces
• Track your Drafts, much like the SharePoint Drafts folder on your Vista machine

FIGURE 1 – Shows the Document Connection Add-On browsing a SharePoint Site

FIGURE 2 – Add a document to Favorites context menu

FIGURE 3 – Shows documents that you have added to your Favorites

If you are trying to access a site which is using Forms Based Authentication (FBA) or non NTLM, you will get a credentials box as shown below.

FIGURE 4 – Authentication box when you try and access a SharePoint site not using NTLM

Snow Leopard – Exchange 2007 tight integration

Leave it to Apple to take the lead in making sure they continue enticing users who obviously use their Macs for more than just home.  Apple now has captured the attention of the Enterprise User by not only having Exchange 2007 account setup on the iPhone, but now full integration on their latest OS X, Snow Leopard.

With said integration you now have the following:

1. Exchange Contacts synched in the Address Book
2. Mail Program (mostly better than Entourage and an awesome alternative now in my mind)
   NOTE: It seems that Microsoft is looking to replace Entourage with the release of an Outlook for the Mac version, checkout this post
3. iCal – your Exchange calendar is synched with iCal
4. Notes are also synched!
5. Tasks – These are shown as “To-Do’s” on the Mac!

I patched my Exchange 2007 server, then configured the Address Book and Mail Program, they worked flawlessly!

Exchange Tasks on iCal

On Mail, the Exchange Tasks are called To Do.  You can see them FIGURE 5 how this looks on Mail vs Exchange (FIGURE 6)

FIGURE 5 – An Exchange Task is shown on the Mail program on the Mac

FIGURE 6 – An Exchange Task (Mac To Do) on Outlook Web Access

Exchange Notes on the iCal

When you browse the iCal, you will see on the left navigation a list of both, Exchange and local (Mac) Notes.  iCal groups them, in my case they are under SharePointAce Consulting Group, LLC To Do.

FIGURE 7 – Exchange Notes using iCal Notes

FIGURE 8 – Outlook Web Access shows same Note as iCal

RSS Feeds

Since RSS is a big part of SharePoint (see chapter 6 on the book I contributed to Social Computing with SharePoint 2007), it makes sense to also include such capability on the Document Connection add-on.  Figure 7 shows the RSS subscription I am using.  Great for keeping track of all SharePoint data!

Well, I hope this makes sense to you and helps you understand a little detail on how the Exchange and SharePoint User experience looks.

-Oscar

If you have a .NET background, you are bound to have many questions as to how things can be done on SharePoint.  Given the fact that SharePoint 2007 is written on top of .NET 2.0, anything and almost everything you can think of, can be accomplished using the .NET web app typical techniques.

Recently, I ran into a scenario where my client had completely scratched the “look n feel” of SharePoint.  One of the requirements was to have a custom navigation WebPart available on all pages.  What to do?

Well, I added the custom WebPart to the Master Page!  Easy!


FIGURE 1 – declare the custom WebPart DLL on Master Page

FIGURE 2 – Code on the Master Page that places the custom WebPart

So, you have a WebPart you have developed and you are deploying it as part of a Solution (at least you should be).  Your WSP includes CSS, Images and other artifacts that are dropped into the _layouts folder when your featureis activated.

Now you need a way to ensure that the CSS Classes you are referencing on your WebPart code are available to the WebPart, BUT you do not want the person deploying the WebPart to modify the Master Page.  In other words, your WebPart should not have any dependencies outside of your Solution.

There is a way to simply add a CSS link within code.  You can use the Class available on the Object Model

protected override void CreateChildControls()
{
    Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.CssLink cssLink = new Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.CssLink();
    cssLink.DefaultUrl = "/_layouts/MyAppFolder/CSS/tabBasic.css";

    this.Page.Header.Controls.Add(cssLink);

more code………

Simple yet effective!

-Oscar

SharePointAce LLC is going through a transformation right now.  We are expanding!  I have been practicing what I preach, meaning I will run my public site on MOSS 2007!

So, what does that look like?  Take a look!



 

I did this in a day!  A Master Page and a Publishing Layout Page!

Going live soon…

-Oscar

My friend and SharePoint MVP Brendon Schwartzand I are working hard to get an online store live by end of this month!

The vision is to have an online store where other SharePoint Developers and companies can sell and promote their products.  This store will offer a turnkey solution for anyone that wishes to sell their SharePoint custom components.

Among the first products we will sell is an entirely enhanced version of the CQWPRCE WebPart currently available on CodePlex at http://cqwprce.codeplex.com/ One of the features that makes this new version of the WebPart so much more desirable is the fact that it will show the recurring rolled up events in a calendar view, just like the out of the box views!  It will also show events that span (see figure 1)

FIGURE 1 – CQWPRCE shows an event that spans across several days using an out of the box calendar view.


In addition, we will offer support for our products and professional services around SharePoint.

We both are very excited and look forward to our grand opening!

Oscar

Today I am going to show you the different built-in technologies you may take for granted, always have been curious about or simply do not know about.  My scenario in this case is building a dashboard using the SharePoint Designer 2007. 

Our end result will look something like what you see in Figure 1.  It is a DataViewWebPart created using the SharePoint Designer 2007

1. Use of Linked Data Sources in SPD 2007 to form a relationship between two SharePoint Lists (you can use this method to form a relationship with any other Data Source type)
2. Custom XSL to render the conditional image using XSL as well as importing your own XSL templates for reusability of those.

Figure 1 – The end result of our scenario shows Courses with related Tasks.   The indicator image is determined by calculating how many tasks are either past due (red) or are due within a week (yellow)

Linked Data Sources

Linked Data Sources are very powerful, on code these are called Aggregate Data Sources.  As an example you may have the following hierarchical relationship in order to display your data using XSL.

As you can see on Figure 2, each Course has many Events, and each Event has many Tasks associated with it. The Task List has a Lookup column to the Event List, and the Event List has a Lookup Column to the Courses List.  Both Course and Event Tasks are stored on the same List.

Figure 2 – shows SharePoint List relationships

In order to display this on a DataViewWebPart, here are the steps you may take:

1. Drag the Course List on to the page, modify the columns as you wish
2. Select a row on that table, right click and insert a row below (this will make room for the Events table)
3. Create a Linked Data Source called it Events and Associated Tasks, it links the Events and Tasks as the name implies.  Add the Events List and the Event Task List to this Data Source.  So now your Data Source properties should look something like Figure 3 below.
4. Create another Linked Data Source, I called it Courses and Tasks plus Event Tasks, this Data Source will contain our first Data Source, so go ahead and click on Configure Data Source button, and add the first the Events and Associated Tasks Data Source.  Now your properties should look like Figure 4
   
   Figure 3 – Event and Tasks Data Source Properties
   

Figure 4 – Shows the Courses and Tasks plus Events Task Data Source with a nested Linked Data Source (Events and Associated Tasks – an SQL Data Source)

If you view Data Source Details on the right of the Designer screen, you should see the relational data, much like what Figure 5 shows.  
 

At this point, it is easy to drag data and make it look pretty with XSL.  Your end result is what you see in Figure 1 above.

The related Data Sources could have been say an SQL Data Source linked to a SharePoint List Data Source for when you need to show related data from a database that matches your SharePoint List data.  The possibilities are endless!  You can link almost any type of Data Source such as BDC, SQL, and Web Service so long as you have a field that relates the two Data Sources.

XSL Fun!

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy the challenge of pushing the limits with XSL and XSLT, this technology is extremely versatile and powerful.  With a little work, you can create complex rendering tables that show your data in pretty much any way you want (almost all the time, there are exceptions)

On this dashboard project I previously worked on, there was a requirement to show “KPI” images based on some business rules.  Now you may ask; why not use the out of the box KPI WebParts? 

For this particular project there were many date calculations that determined the image to display.  For example, if any tasks for a given Event where past due, show red image.  For any tasks that are due in 5 days, show yellow image.

FIGURE 5 – Shows you the XSLT expressions I used



FIGURE 5 – Shows the output of my XSLT expressions shown on FIGURE 6

Reusing your own custom XSL Templates

What if you are an XSL enthusiast and over time have created some utility XSL Templates and maybe even Functions that you would like to use on a SharePoint DataFormView WebPart?

You can!  All you need to do is import the XSL file and call your Templates.  I used this technique recently to do data comparison calculations

FIGURE 7 – Shows you how to import your custom XSL templates file


FIGURE 8 – Shows how to call the custom Template and save result in a variable and hen use that variable to display my images.

 

Well, I hope you found this article useful and can make use of the information on your existing or future projects.  If you have any questions or feedback, please contact me.

Oscar

Below is the equivalent of the US SharePint event for Mexico :)

{the following is taken directly from Ricardo Munoz’s blog}

SharePoint by Day, SharePint by Night 22 y 23 de Abril MEXICO 2009

Luego del Segundo Simposio Latinoamericano de Sharepoint a realizarse en mexico este 23 de abril (increible ya solo faltan 10 dias) estaremos realizando una gran costumbre en estos eventos que es el sharepint by nigth en la cual estaremos compartiendo con todos los expositores del evento (entre ellos joel olsen y mis amigos Hector,Luis, Vladimir y Rodrigo) y las personas que nos quieran acompanar (estoy moviendo cielo y tierra para poder estar presente en el evento).
La idea de esta actividad Postevento es llegar a conocer un poco mas a las personas que trabajan con Sharepoint en un ambiente mas cordional y tranquilo

Just another reason why I love SharePoint…

-O.