Sharepoint - create blank page with only webpart - sharepoint

A client has asked that I create a series of filters on a list, with some heavily customised output. To get the output correct I'll need to style a content query webpart using XSL - which is fine, that's pretty simple.
However, my main problem is how to apply multiple filters to the webpart. I don't know how to have one webpart insert parameters into a content query webpart, so my solution was to use Ajax to load seperate pages (containing webparts) into the page.
So... unless this is all crazy and a bad idea, how can I create a .asp page which has absolutely NOTHING except a single webpart which I can preconfigure and then hard code into the .asp page?
I'm not a .asp man, in fact I'm only really doing this as a favour, so please don't respond saying that I need to do xyz in SharePoint Designer (to which I don't have access) or build a custom module from scratch. :)
Any ideas?

Since you are specific about not wanting a SharePoint Designer solution, I will give you one using 'Tommy'
In 'Tommy':
File => New => ASPX Page
Insert => SharePoint Controls => WebPartZone
Go in the browser, http://server/mycustompage.aspx
Edit, insert your WebPart.
'Tommy' is a free download, by the way, get it here.

Related

XSLT Web Part to display HTML

Please excuse if there is a better way to do this, I'm not too familiar with SharePoint web parts, I'm only just now getting into creating them.
What I want to do is have a web part that I can drop into a page, give it a parameter, and then the web part does it's API calls with said parameter, does some XSL transformation, and spits out the HTML that I want to display on the page. In my mind it seems like a simple little web part to write, I just want to make sure this is the best way to go about it and not be duplicating something that could already be existing.
I've gone through this creating a basic web part walkthrough, and I figure I can use the web part property to get the parameter from the user. How would I get it to output HTML though? I changed the "Hello, world!" text to output some HTML and it seemed to have gotten stripped out?
Thanks a ton, and sorry if anything seems noob-ish!
From what I see, there are two main parts to what you want to do.
Get your parameter into your query
Format the results with some HTML
Reuse it later
There are a lot of ways to do this, but I'm going to outline what I believe to be the fastest and most simple.
Getting your parameter into your query
In SharePoint 2010, SharePoint designer has some great options for this.
So step 1 is to open the webpage in SharePoint Designer.
Click the Insert tab and click the Data View dropdown and select the list you want to get data from.
Now click on the Options tab and click on Parameters
The dialog shows you some of the options for pulling info into your query.
A query string parameter is easy to use. And the server variables are also really handy.
For our example, we'll pick query string and set the default value to 1 (which will be the ID of an item we want to be retrieved). Since we've set this as the default, even if the query string is blank we'll still get our default in our parameter.
Then click on Filter.
We set our Field Criteria to use the parameter we just made.
Now you can save the page in SharePoint Designer and test your results. Pretty fast.
Format the results with some HTML
In SharePoint, XSLT is the best way to put your own HTML around some data you've retrieved from SharePoint.
Also, for getting a parameter into your query, we can add that with a parameter binding:
If you're new to XSL, here's the best xsl tool:
http://spexp-blog-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/files/spe-magic-data-view-builder.xsl
To use the magic dataview builder, save this file to documetn library in your farm.
If you’d like to centralize your XSL template for greater reuse (highly recommended), you can put the individual XSL files into a central location for storage. In a WSS or SharePoint Foundation environment, I’d recommend using a Document Library in the root site of your Site Collection. In a MOSS or SharePoint Server 2010 environment, I’d recommend placing the XSL files in the /Style Library/XSL Style Sheets location, as this is where SharePoint stores its XSL by default.
Then paste the url to the file into the XSL Link to replace main.xsl and change Default to FALSE. This property is located near the end of the <XmlDefinition> tag as you view the webpart in Designer.
... <XslLink Default="TRUE">main.xsl</XslLink><Toolbar Type="Standard"/></View></XmlDefinition>
From there, you can save the page and the XSL wizard from magic data view builder will walk you through creating your own xsl to output your html.
Reusing Your Webpart
To reuse it, click save "To Site Gallery" while your cursor is on the wepart in SharePoint Designer. This will save the webpart into the gallery under the "Custom" group. From there, you an insert your webpart into other pages just like the out of the box webparts.
I think we need more information about what you are trying to get the web part to do. If you use a SharePoint Data View web part, you can point it at a data source, write some XSL to transform the data to render the way you want it will output the HTML to the page. For example, let's say I have a SharePoint list of training classes. I could create a data view web part that takes a query string or other input parameter as its filter, and filter the list of classes to show me just the one that matches the ID of my query string or input param. Then I could format my XSL to output details about the class rendered in whatever fancy HTML I want.
Does that help?
"I changed the "Hello, world!" text to output some HTML and it seemed
to have gotten stripped out?"
Please be aware that in your sample, it uses a LiteralControl() which by default HTML Escapes any text. So if you need HTML outputed via the LiteralControl.Text element, you will need to set the Mode to "Passthrough".
protected override void CreateChildControls()
{
base.CreateChildControls();
LiteralControl message = new LiteralControl();
// !! add this !!
message.Mode = LiteralMode.PassThrough;
message.Text = DisplayMessage; // <-- containing HTML
Controls.Add(message);
}

SharePoint 2010 Survey View

I need to add an ability for users to add custom views for a Survey List. Using Designer is not an option.
In order to add a new View I now open the standard SharePoint form "/_layouts/ViewNew.aspx?List={SurveyListID}".
I setup a new view selecting the fields I want to see. Then, when I look at this View it looks like standard "{SurveyTitle}/overview.aspx" view no matter what I do. But I need it to look more like a SharePoint list view. I've seen dozens blog posts where people used this method and no one mentioned any problems like I am having. I've tried this method using 3 different SharePoint farms and I get the same behavior.
I was able to create a view that works OK using Designer by copying "All Responses" View and editing . However, forcing users to use Designer is not a great idea.
Does anyone know an easy method to force my custom views to display properly in Survey List?
Finally, I've found solution.
Open the page /_layouts/ViewType.aspx?List={SurveyListID}
Create a view based on "All Responses" View
Done! No need to use Designer

Sharepoint 2010 search: How to modify search query before submit (programmatically?)

I'm making a custom search box Web Part, similar to the OOTB Web Part from SharePoint
(SearchBoxEx class).
I'm interested in modifying the search query with additional text before it is submitted, based on a custom checkbox added on the Web Part.
Any help on how I can achieve this?
UPDATE:
I've used the AppendToQuery and AppQueryTerms properties, but this will rewrite the text in the search box as well. I'm interested in passing the values "in the background", maybe as an extra parameter. Point is that the query modification should happen without the user seeing it explicitly.
In the core result webpart there is a property where you can append text to the query and you will not see that in the textbox.
Best,
Bibhu
I when I had to customize People Search, I opted to roll my own web part and just called Response.Transfer to the Results.aspx and appended query string parameters to the URL. This wasn't the most elegant solution, but it was a quick way to modify the query "behind the scenes."
I'm sure you could develop an application page and set it as the Search Box web part's Results page. Put your custom logic in the page_load and then transfer (or do a form POST) to the actual results.aspx page.
I'm now developing an Extension of SearchBoxEx myself, and I'm currently trying to figure out how to call the base method that submits the query too. This blog shows how to call the internal CreateAdvanceSearchLink method of the SearchBoxEx class: http://pholpar.wordpress.com/category/search/

Sharepoint Branding

I'm just tasked by my boss to create a Sharepoint solution for the scenerio below.
(I'm a total newbie to Sharepoint. So please forgive me if i use the terminology wrong)
The portal should open in a custom look than the default Sharepoint design and it should have links to the products. Every product page should have different look and feel but have same types of content. For example every product should have Published Materials list but with different set of content.
So, an example of the desired map is like this:
/Home
-Latest News
-Core Team List
-Products
-Product 1
-Product 2
-Product 3
I found Sharepoint a whole new and strange world. I thought i'm good at learning, until i met Sharepoint. Everything seems very detailed and i'm living difficulties in finding useful information quickly. Because i have no Sharepoint background and i don't event know what i'm lookin' for.
Could you please help me by telling me how can i accomplish this or even just telling me the name of "thing" that i'm trying to accomplish.
Thank you in advance.
PS. Oh, by the way, I learned the word Branding in my search for the holy grail. I don't even know that the word fits or not...
I did try the method you post on other page (Restaurant review site in SharePoint) but unfortunately i couldn't succeed. I stucked at choosing what type of content type in the "Create Content Type" page at first and then tried some parent types but i couldn't get it show up in Sharepoint Designer 2007's New Sharepoint Content "Publishing Page" dialog.
So i tried something else.
At my homepage created a new Document Library of type "Web Part Page" called "Products". It created me a some sort of list whose all items are web pages. At this point i felt that i'm near to accomplish something at last.
Here are some questions i've collected: :)
I add two Announcements web part to different "Products" pages. When I add a new announcement to the list from one product page, it shows up in the other one too! How can I make their content only visible in page that the content created on?
*[Theming is a recurring theme in my posts]* Is it possible to change the view of each Product page at this setup so they have different design and color?
Thanks.
Check out the links I posted in the answer to this question for some links to SharePoint 101 tutorials online:
Restaurant review site in SharePoint
Given you're looking for 'branding' that will mean a custom Master Page. A Master Page is what will determine the overall layout of your SharePoint Web Application's pages. After creating a standard SharePoint application, connect with SharePoint Designer and play with that Master Page for a while until you get the hang of it.
In modifying or creating custom Master Pages, it is important to take note of all the controls (special ASP.NET server-side tags) in particular Content Place Holders; if you create your own Master Page and these are missing you're in a world of uninformative-error-message hurt.
You're going to want to create Lists ( http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/HA011199881033.aspx ) to represent 'News' and 'Products'... for Products you may even want to create a Content Type.
Once you create 'News' and 'Products' lists, to see those lists of Products you'll want to make views and use List View Web Parts ( http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA100240521033.aspx ) to include those views in Pages... but at the subject of Web Parts this is probably getting a bit overwhelming so I'll stop here. Comment me if you'd like more.
Addendum
"Is is possible to show only categories of a document library in home page and documents of the selected category in another page?"
-> Yes, and there are several ways. I'd suggest you look into either defining a View for that list which filters based on the category field, then add List View Web Parts to your home page, or writing custom XSLT for the Content Query Web Part, and then add it to your home page. Writing the XSLT for he Content Query web part is a little more difficult, but using the List View has it's short comings in being not-as-configurable, much like this guy is finding out: No-code solution for calendar view of SharePoint news items
"But how can i change a list item to show its details as a whole new page with its own web parts and theme?"
-> Here's the kicker; in SharePoint, each Site you create has a special list for Pages, and each Page actually belongs to a Content Type.
So you can take any content type and turn it into a page; all you have to do is create a Page Layout for it, and add that Content Type to the list.
(So, an example. This is purely speculative; I'm not saying do this specifically, and you probably can't do it exactly as I describe it as I'm oversimplifying a little)
You create a Content Type 'Product', but you also decide 'Category' should be a Content Type too. So you create a content type for 'Catagory', and you give it a lookup column, which refers to items in the 'Product' List. You specify that the lookup can contain multiple items.
Now you want a Page where people can see a category, and all the Products which belong to it. You create a 'Page Layout' (an aspx file) for the 'Catagory' Content Type. In the Page Layout aspx file you can include web controls which render the Catagory's fields, such as 'title' and 'description' and you can probably even add one to render the 'Products' lookup field. (maybe you'll have to code it yourself)
I hope I haven't lost you.
Now that you've created a Page Layout for 'Catagory' you can add 'Catagory' to the Pages list/library and then create pages which represent Catagories, and when people edit those pages, they will also edit the Catagory.
More Addendum
If "Announcements" is a list, the web part you added was a list view web part, and so it just shows the contents of the list (which is independent of the product pages)
You'll want o specify filters of your view. I dunno if you can specify unique filters on the web part... but you can try :)
You might want to consider looking into The Content Query Web Part.
I don't fully understand your second question, but I get the feeling the answer is yes... what do you mean by "view"? You gotta be careful with the lingo; do you mean the Page Layout? or the List View Web Part? or the List View? or the Master Page? ...
you HAVE to check out Heather Solomon. She is the shiznat when it comes to sharepoint branding.
A good start would be using Sharepoint Designer.
Use SharePoint Designer to do your CSS work, particularly in discovering the CSS rules in play. DO NOT publish the finished work from SD; if you do, future Windows Updates may wipe out your files. Instead, deploy your customizations as a Feature. In MOSS 2007, you can add a single custom CSS file using Central Admin - this will then be applied AFTER core.CSS at runtime, To the best of my knowledge, this is the only practical way of doing this.
You need to indicate whether you are using WSS or MOSS. With WSS, you can use themes.

How do I add Paging to a sharepoint DataFormWebPart?

I'm creating an archive of news articles in a sharepoint publishing site. users can browse or search the archive. browsing is a simple list of article dates titles. I'm using the DataFormWebPart to display the contents of the Pages (articles). as there are thousands of articles, i'l like to show maybe 50 on a page. I see no built in paging on the DataFormWebPart. I'm seeking guidance on the proper way to add paging. I'm feeling like the XSL template is the proper place to start.
If you look at the page using the sharepoint designer in 'design' mode, you can click the common task arrow ( > ) and customize the data view properties.
One of the tabs will be about 'paging' and you can set how many items per page.
Hope this helps!
The XSL template is where you need to start. Unless you are dealing with multiple data sources setting a list as the datasource on a new DataFormWebPart in SharePoint Designer (SPD) will create an XSL template with paging (10 items default). You can then review and edit the XSL if you want to modify the appearance or operation. After the initial XSL template take a look at the webpart properties in either the browser or SPD. There are some other settings (e.g. async) that you may want to alter. The paging technically works with mutiple data sources but it is only on the parent data source. If the child count is large it often times is too large to see the paging control in SPD.

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