SharePoint:FormField in a custom webpart? - sharepoint

On my home page, I want a simple webpart that allow users to quickly fill an entry in a list.
The list have, let's say, three fields : title (text), body (rich text), category (lookup).
I don't want to use the standard DataFormWebPart because I have a bit of code-behind that also fill some technical hidden fields of my list (actually, I don't exclude the DataFormWebPart, but I didn't find how to use it with code behind).
So I started to implement a custom webpart. Because I don't want to have to handle manually each field input, I started to use the FormField control, which automatically choose the rendering control, and provide a Value property with the correct format :
<SharePoint:FormField runat="server" id="fldTitle" FieldName="Title" />
This code is not sufficient, I have to specified the listid :
<SharePoint:FormField runat="server" id="fldTitle" FieldName="Title" ListId="{title list guid}" />
This is working quite correctly. I can in code access the fldTitle.Value to retrieve the user input.
BUT I have to include the webpart in a properly packaged and deployed feature, that can be activated. The webpart will always target the same list, but as the list is also instanciated in the feature (ListInstance element), I can't know the Guid in advance.
I've tried using several technics to set the list ID on the fly, but without success.
I've also "reflectored" the SP dlls to notice FormComponent class are using a "Context" that is set by ListFormWebPart.
Finally, my questions are :
is it the correct way to create a custom input webpart on the home page (not a list custom form) ?
how can I keep the behavior of the FormField (choose the right control and handle the input and its conversion to the storage format) ?
Will I have to create a custom ListFormWebPart ?
May I play with ControlTemplates ?
thanks in advance for the help... I'm struggling with this simple case for days now...

I think that customizing form templates is the easiest way to customize list forms. Since custom form templates are implemented as user controls you can add whatever code you want.
See the following article:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/sharepoint/SharePointListForms.aspx

Related

Kentico clone and customize cms.file

Here's what I'm trying to do. When a user uploads a file, i need them to make one of three options. I'll then create a transformation to link to the file, with the option they selected determining the which icon.
I started with cloning the cms.file, and then created the new field i needed for the options. I then uploaded a file using that page type. I don't see my option list (Drop-down list) on the upload screen, or after the file has been saved.
I'm been playing with the Layout but that doesn't seem to help. What am I missing here?
You could create a simple page type that has a file upload field, that would solve your issue, and also you could include your extra field or fields in your new page type.
I'm not sure we have enough information to debug why your custom page type might not be showing the field you added, but a possible workaround: depending on what you are basing the icon on, it may work to just use different icons based on the file type? Kentico even has a method you can use to get a file icon based on the extension:
<%# GetFileIcon(Eval("FileExtension")) %>
Otherwise, maybe you can include some more information about your custom page type such as a screen shot of the fields and of the form tab for that page type. Is the "icon" field you added simply not showing up in the form?

Proper Kentico object for non-user-editable block of static html/javascript

The Situation: I've got a mid-sized chunk of html/javascript that contains an authentication script/input (it's a text input, radio control, and a combo box and a few buttons). What it is is less important than the concept that it's a mass of static client side code that the marketing department can pretty easily accidentally the whole thing.
The Desire: I want the users to be able to add it as a whole to a page, but not be able to modify it. When something needs to change, I want to change it in one place and have it be changed on all the pages.
What I've Tried: Widget with a default text. It works, but feels wrong. Users can edit it, and if they do when I fix it one place it doesn't propagate to all the instances. I'm a bit of a Kentico noob, but it seems like there should be a better way to do this.
Also note: I'm using portal engine if that makes a difference.
A widget is the proper usage. What you make your widget inherit from is the key in this case. I'd suggest creating a new widget based on a static HTML webpart. This way you can set the static HTML markup and hide the property from the content editor on the front end. You can do this by going to the Properties tab of the widget and setting the visibility of the field on the form. Don't delete the field, just hide it. It should be a checkbox that says hide on public form or editing form.
** Edit **
As I read through my answer and comments, I realized I meant to say clone the static HTML webpart and set its default text to your javascript. Then create a widget based on that cloned webpart. The text will reside in the web part and will allow you to update it in one place later, if needed.
I will not do it this way because you will be not able to make changes in the future. You can better create a new webpart this can be an empty webpart and then create a custom layout. In this layout you can put you're code. In this way you can always change you're code in the future and then it will be changed on all the places where the widget is placed.
I'd use a new widget based on the Static HTML webpart (make the field read only or hide it as Brenden mentioned), but store the data in a new custom setting.
no coding needed (only a macro to read the custom setting)
able to edit the script on the fly on any instance in the settings module. If you have multiple of these settings you won't need to go through all kinds of widgets to adjust their default setting but find them on a central place.
Cheers!
David
In this case I think it makes sense to create a custom web part to store all your code in it and use it that way. If you want to achieve it without creating a custom web part, you have to store the code in some non-web part and not widget specific object. I like the suggestion of creating a custom setting. You can then access this custom setting via a macro. This macro can be used as a default property of a newly created web part (inherited e.g. from the static text web part, you'd use the text property). You may as well create a widget out of it. Another approach is to use Kentico localization keys as a workaround. you can create a key in the Localization application and access it again, via a macro, e.g. {?customkey.myhtml?}. The approach with a custom setting however sounds cleaner to me.
This syntax should be working to access a custom setting value via macro:
{%Settings.CustomSettings.xxx%}
{%Settings.CustomSettings["xxx"]%}
{%Settings.CustomSettings.GetValue("xxx")%}

Modifying sharepoint edit dialog

I have successfully created a feature in sharepoint that modifies the existing edit dialog and adds a custom button to it like this.
and I am aware that I can pass back data when the user clicks the custom button like this.
<CommandUIHandlers>
<CommandUIHandler Command="ActivateUser" CommandAction="/_layouts/MyFeature/MakeUserActive.aspx?ListID={ListId}&ItemID={ItemId}&ItemUrl={ItemUrl}&ListUrlDir={ListUrlDir}" />
</CommandUIHandlers>
As detailed here
I can now handle the list item and perform my required actions on it BUT given that this button has been added in the modify context (IE: Inside the sharepoint edit item dialog) what if you want to save changes to the data itself?
To me it seems like using your custom button would always mean losing any changes the user has made to the data. Is there a way around this?
Good question!
You actually already linked to the solution: Right now you are simply redirecting the user by using a URL as your CommandAction: CommandAction="/_layouts/MyFeature/MakeUserActive.aspx?ListID={ListId}&ItemID={ItemId}&ItemUrl={ItemUrl}&ListUrlDir={ListUrlDir}"
This if course redirects the user to another page without saving the current entry. What you want to do is use Javascript as linked in the MSDN article:
CommandAction="javascript:alert('here be dragons');"
You can either work the the SharePoint Javascript object model here and use something like SP.ListOperation.Selection.getSelectedItems(); or you could use complete custom code.
From your aspx page name I can see you want to "make a use active" (btw: wouldn't "ActivateUser.aspx" be nicer?). If this simply means setting a property in another list you could do that with the SharePoint OM, if it is some custom stuff you would need a webservice which you can call from JavaScript and "activate the user" like that. You can of course always access the current form and pass on the values the user entered. Or you could create a custom save button which does some stuff (activate user) before saving.
Lastly: You can also have postbacks in your custom button where you could do anything you'd like.

Sharepoint SPUserField

Is it possible to use the SPUserField in a custom aspx page without the SPUserField being bound to a field (it always asks for FieldName).
I basically have a custom page which ultimately creates a list item, i want the user to be able to pick another user from the standard Sharepoint control...
??
Thx
In this case you can use PeopleEditor control from Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls namespace. For instance, in one of my pages:
<wssawc:PeopleEditor
AllowEmpty="false" id="allReviewers" runat="server"
SelectionSet="User" width='500'/>

Using a MulitpleLookupField in MOSS '07 Layout Page

I have a page layout for my MOSS '07 site that I want put a MultipleLookupField in. The field will point to a multiple lookup column in my custom content type that points back to the pages library so I can have a "Related Articles" field.
I've gotten the field to show up correctly--it's even editable when the page is in edit mode! But when you click on the link that shows up there, it display the page's properties view instead of the page itself.
There's lots of properties on the control, but there's little documentation at MSFT as to what they do.
Does anyone know how to change the link's URL to the actual page instead of the properties view?
Here's the tag I'm using:
<SharePointWebControls:MultipleLookupField
ID="MultipleLookupField1"
FieldName="RelatedIssues"
runat="server"></SharePointWebControls:MultipleLookupField>
The link takes me to here: /Pages/Forms/DispForm.aspx?ID=6&RootFolder=*
I want it to take me here: /Pages/faq1.aspx
Unfortunately the lookup control is designed to be compatible with generic lists and does not understand that the document libraries have a file with a specific url associated.
You will probably have to find a custom lookup control on the web or roll your own.

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