Determine the property name in a SharePoint Webpart for XML - sharepoint

I'm employing a custom webpart that is made by an unaffiliated third party. I've created a feature which adds this webpart to a page. It's working mostly fine, except that I can't figure out the name of a specific property that needs to be defined. I tried obvious ones that match the display name on the tool pane view, adding the company's name in front of said display name, and many similar permutations. All of which to no avail. I would much prefer to include the property to the feature, as this will be necessary to deploy across multiple sites in the future. Manually configuring it every time will be a pain for my client.
The short, obvious answer is "Ask the third party". This can potentially work, particularly for this specific one (it is a CodePlex webpart and the author has posted a comment as recent as last week). But my experience with previous third party solutions has been less than optimal, usually even getting no response until they ask me three weeks later if I still like their product. So, since this is not always a reliable method to obtain this information, I was thinking the best option is to find out a way to figure out the name of properties in a webpart that I can use not just with this particular one, but in all future situations.
I did check out this earlier question which addresses a similar topic. However, I don't have access to the class for the webpart so I can't just find a convenient property in the code to modify. Or, at least, if I do have access to it in some fashion, I'm certainly unaware of it.
Thank you in advance!

From what I understand, you are trying to set a certain webpart property for which you do not know the corresponding XML attribute name.
Did you try to export the web part? One possible check might be to try to export the webpart to see what properties come up in the webpart XML. If it is a common property, chances are the webpart XML will have that property already defined with no value e.g.
<data>
<properties>
<property name="Your property Name" type="yourType"></property>
<properties>
</data>
To export the webpart, go to Edit Page mode, click the down arrow on the webpart and choose Export.
Also, if you have the webpart code in a dll, can you use reflector to open it and see what properties are being set in code?
Hope this helps.

Related

How can I make Content Items without a CommonPart appear in the content list?

I created a custom Type that has a UserPart attached to it.
According to this issue on GitHub you can't add a CommonPart to content that also has a UserPart because it causes a StackOverflowException but I would still like items of my custom Type to show up in the content list. I already store CreatedUtc and PublishedUtc in the custom PartRecord, can I manually plug these in somewhere?
EDIT: For clarification, my specific scenario is that I am building a public facing Orchard website based on existing data that was used in a private application up to this point. I have a legacy table with user accounts that need to be mapped to Orchard Users but they also represent travel agencies that visitors should be able to browse and that Orchard admins should easily be able to edit and create through the Dashboard. I got the idea to create a TravelAgency type with a UserPart from Sipke's webshop tutorial
Content Types do not require to have a CommonPart to show in the Content List. If i remember properly its done by triggering the Creatable() in your migrations.
Also if you have a UserPart, you could Lazy loaded or just reference it via Foreign Key.
Why would you like something like that to be part of the Content List? I usually keep my business-specific Content Types tucked away in a nice section, so there are easier to visualise and use for users.
There is definitely a bug but as they comment you could extend taxonomies to accomplish your task and keep in mind sometimes changing the Orchard Codebase might fit your purposes, you only have to keep track of your changes when you upgrade next time. I have done it a couple of occasions to fit my projects.
If i remember properly, its been a while.. If you look in the core code where the Content List is created it looks for Creatable() Types. digging even more inside the code, chances are the Query in charge will join the CommonPart, hence your problem. You could easily add another query in the controller and add whatever you are after. The problem though, will be refactoring the rest of actions to accommodate your your type too. Way easier isolating your new Type. had to look at it for you, check this baby: Orchard.Core.Contents.Controllers.AdminController

Access to document web parts and widgets in code for a given Kentico TreeNode

I asked this question over on the Kentico devnet but haven't had a definitive answer.
I have a particular requirement for a Kentico 8.2 implementation where in code, given a specific TreeNode, I'd like to find first all the zones on the template being used then, for each zone, get the details of all web parts and widgets used in those zones.
In my case I do not need to worry about template inheritance. None of my pages implement template inheritance.
I found this post on the old Kentico forums which suggested I might be able to do use PageInfoProvider to get a PageInfo object for the relevant TreeNode then use its PageTemplateInfo property to gain access to what I need.
However, I don't see a PageTemplateInfo property of CMS.DocumentEngine.PageInfo. There is DesignPageTemplateInfo and UsedPageTemplateInfo. I thought maybe UsedPageTemplateInfo would be the one, and it does indeed include the correct zones in its WebPartZones collection. But I don't see the web parts (actually, widgets) I'm expecting in the zones' WebParts collections.
I guess what I'm asking is, how can I use API to gain access to the content of the DocumentWebParts column from dbo.CMS_Document as a structured object? I've realised I can get access to the information I need by calling .GetProperty("DocumentWebParts") on TreeNode, but this is unstructured XML. I presume somewhere in the API I can get this information as a structured object.
Does anyone know how I might access the details I need? Thanks.
P.S. My template uses the ASPX+portal model.
As I mentioned in my second answer on the DevNet, you cannot specifically use the cms_document table simply because webparts function within templates and not with a specific page. Widgets on the other hand are specific per page even if the page has the same template as another page. Take a look at the example on the DevNet I provided, it should get you what you're looking for.

SharePoint 2013 KnockoutJS Lookup columns

I have a basic knockoutjs project loading data from a SharePoint 2013 list scenario. Getting data and displaying data is easy, the problem that I'm running into is on the edit mode displaying the proper control. Everything should not be a textbox. This means the people picker control to dropdownmenus to calendar controls.
MSFT has some pretty good documentation on using the client side people picker control here"http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj713593.aspx
The problem that I have is calling this control inside my viewmodel.
Setting the value of the control doesn't look difficult courtesy of this blog post: http://www.sharepointcolumn.com/sp2013-setting-people-picker-value-in-newform-aspx/
I attempted to looking into computed values, but that doesn't seem to work. Does anyone have a blog post that I skipped over? The closest related post that I can find: http://yetanothersharepointblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/working-with-sharepoint-lookup-columns-in-knockout-js/
Lastly since it seems that I'm the only one doing this, does anyone think that I should not be reinventing the wheel with my forms and should just link each item to the appropriate SharePoint list item in edit or display view? I suppose that would be easier.
From a SharePoint Professional to another, I would highly recommend you to do that.
Just redirect the user to the item edit/display item page an let SharePoint take the leash of how to handle UI form elements.
Because, assume that you implement your custom form, what if the user decides to add one more site column to the list? Will you update your code to support another field?
From my personal experience with the beast I've come to the conclusion that structural implementation over already existent functionality tends to go wrong.
Also, if you have some kind of listing of items custom made and you want to provide editing, try to do something opening a pretty SP.UI.ModalDialog, its elegant and you use the sharepoint to do the work for you.
But it's just an advise.

Change template html in sharepoint discussion reply box

I have a wss 3.0 install which needs an "anonymous" discussion board. I can modify the view so no usernames are displayed, however when I click on "reply", the message I'm replying to shows up in the rich text box with the username of the previous poster.
Is there a way to remove that username? or Remove the previous posted text altogether? I've found the schema.xml file with lots of relevant info under the ..12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\DiscussionsList\Discuss folder, but not sure if this is the easiest way to adjust this setting.
Any comments appreciated.
Best practice says that you should always create a custom list definition instead of trying to modify the OOB assets.
The easiest way to do this is take a copy of the 12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\DiscussionsList\Discuss folder, modify the feature Ids and names so that its unique. Then your free to change the schema render template (i.e view schema) and modify the edit and display forms.
If you need to modfify the actual entry form you may consider a custom control template : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa543922.aspx
Custom list definition : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms466023.aspx
Agrothe,
I have a similar requirement (hide or mask the author inside the reply thread.). What exactly inside of schema.xml do you think will allow you to do accomplish that?
Not sure if the list forms are exposed to xslt. If so, then perhaps this is another approach.
FWIW, the other solutions I have investigated:
(1) A custom event handler. Unfortunately, I can't pinpoint which event fires when someone click reply.
(2) Anonymous blog comments (http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/08/06/anonymous-comment-feature-for-sharepoint-blog-now-available-on-codeplex.aspx).
(3) the other thing I am considering, is to introduce a global anonymous active directory login, which users can use to post anonymously. Not ideal, but for the amount of time I have spent researching a solution, might be my last hope.

SharePoint SPContext.List in a custom application page

I have a custom SharePoint application page deployed to the _layouts folder. It's a custom "new form" for a custom content type. During my interactions with this page, I will need to add an item to my list. When the page first loads, I can use SPContext.Current.List to see the current list I'm working with. But after I fill in my form and the form posts back onto itself and IsPostBack is true, then SPContext.Current.List is null so I can't find the list that I need to add my stuff into.
Is this expected?
How should I retain some info about my context list across the postback? Should I just populate some asp:hidden control with my list's guid and then just pull it back from that on the postback? That seems safe, I guess.
FWIW, this is the MOSS 2007 Standard version.
Generally speaking I try and copy whatever approach the product group has taken when looking to add functionality of my own. In this case they add their own edit/view/add pages via the list definition itself.
I built a solution that also needed its own custom "New" form, not open source unfortunately, though if you are interested you can download it, its called "Tagged Links" (Social Bookmarking for SharePoint) and you can find some links on my blog.
To give you a few hints and tips, the following should set you off in the right direction:
Created a new list definition.
Created a new Content Type In the content type you can define your own "FormTemplates" that references a Rendering Template which determine what gets displayed in the "Middle" bit of those forms.
Copied the standard Rendering Template, but then made the changes to it that I
needed.
Wrapped it all up in a solution, and deployed.
My Rendering Template actually included an overridden "Save" Button where I did a lot of the extra work I needed to do during the save.
Anyway, it is a little too much work in my opinion but, I think, it most closely matches the standard approach taken by the product developers. Let me know if you need more detail and I will see if I can put together a step-by-step blog post, but hopefully this gets you off on the right direction.
I would be surprised if you could do something in a _Layouts file that you can't do in a forms template. You have pretty much the same technologies at your disposal.
Looking at the way SharePoint works with ListItems and Layouts pages (for example "Manage Permissions" on a list item), I can see that they pass some variables in via querystrings:
?obj={76113B3A-FABA-4389-BC85-4BB2CC5AB423},6,LISTITEM&List={76113B3A-FABA-4389-BC85-4BB2CC5AB423}
Perhaps they grab the context back each time programmatically using these values.
I'm not using a custom "new form", so this might not apply. I added an event receiver to my custom content type and then do my custom code in the ItemAdded or ItemAdding events. This code fires when the event is added to a list. You can use the event receiver properties to get to the parent List, Web, and Site.
I'd like to think my issue is "special" here, since I am using a custom form. I chose to use a custom form rather than a custom FormTemplate simply because I'm doing a lot of stuff that's not very SharePoint list-like (making ajax calls to get info from a third-party app then generating some dynamic form elements based on that ajax result, then subsequent processing of that data on postback). I thought it'd be a nightmare to try this within the usual custom rendering template mechanism.
I also don't think I can supply the custom form declarations in the list definition itself, because I have multiple content types associated with this list, and each content type has its own custom form (the other type is thankfully much simpler).
Actually, my simple way of keeping the list guid in my hidden field was a very low impact way to address this specific problem. My main concern is that I'm not sure why the SPContext just loses all its usefulness when I postback here, which makes me think I'm doing something wrong.

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