I have added a column called Customer to my documents library, this is a business data column.
What I want to do is relate a document to multiple customers by entering customer codes into this box.
Currently I can add 'FLC' for example, but I want to put 'FLC, MFT, SAL' for a specified document as it relates to many customers.
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Albert
You might need to develop a Custom Field Control derived from the BDC column to make this Possible.
I dont see any out of the Box Solution that is available to achieve what you want.
Related
Ok - so here's the preface. I realize that SharePoint isn't really the best solution for this, and if I have to use SharePoint, then coding this would be preferable. However, my wings are clipped due to IT policy, and they have no time to do this "for me".
I am developing a document control system for an Environmental Management System. The basic concept is that there is a list of 'General Responsibilities', which identifies a regulatory agency, some category info, links to laws, etc... There's a second list 'EMS Responsibilities', which basically just links (via a lookup) a particular site to a general responsibility, to identify which sites have which responsibilities. We have many sites, and most have most responsibilities so it doesn't make sense to combine the two lists and repeat all this stuff 10x. Finally, I have a document library (for simplicty sake I am ignoring the draft/published libraries aspect) which contains the actual documents. These documents should reference an EMS Responsibility, which in turn references a General Responsibility. The categorization from 'General Responsibilities' needs to propagate all the way to the document library.
Currently, I use workflow to automatically copy the secondary lookup columns referencing the 'General Responsibility' to a 'Single Line of Text' column in 'EMS Responsibilities' so that it is available to the lookup in 'EMS Documents'. However, despite the values being present in both responsibility lists, the values do not propagate to my final list.
This workflow-based approach is stupid. The lookup columns are stupid. There's no way to get this to work elegantly using out of the box components. I want to believe that the reason this isn't working is because I am missing something... but I have searched for hours and can't find any more effective relational capabilities.
First of all, any theories as to why the values do not end up in the final list despite referencing a single line of text column that is filled?
Second, is there a better overall approach that doesn't rely so much on workflows copying data back and forth, and these pathetic lookup columns?
Thanks in advance!
Given the requirements you gave above together with your answer to my question I believe you won't need a workflow to link all three items together. I have two options for you:
1st Option:
Create a General Responsibility list. This list should contain at least two columns. The ID and Title column.
Create an EMS Responsibilities list. This list should contain at least three columns. The ID, the Title column and a lookup column linked to the General Responsibility list.
Create a Document Library. Add a lookup column linked to EMS Responsibilities.
Since the lookup list you are using is already linked to General Responsibilities then there is no need to have another column solely dedicated to point to General Responsibilities. If however, you need to have specific columns in your document library so that it explicitly has columns for both General Responsibilities and EMS Responsibilities use option 2 below.
Option 2
Create a General Responsibility list. This list should at least contain the ID and Title column.
Create an EMS Responsibility list. This list should at least contain the ID, lookup column linked to General Responsibility and Title columns.
Create a document library. You should add two lookup columns. One pointing to General Responsibility the other to EMS Responsibility.
(now the fun part starts)
Follow the guide to edit both your NewForm and EditForm aspx in this link so that your lookup dropdowns will be a cascading dropdown. This will make sure that items from EMS dropdown will only be populated once you select a value from the General dropdown.
Let me know if you need any more clarifications.
I have a list of products that has two columns, product and product family.
I want to create another list that uses this first list as a lookup for one of the columns. This I can do, i.e. I create a custom column and then use the "Add from existing site columns" linko the "List Settings" page of the second list.
However, what I'd really like is that the custom column only proposes products that belong to a specific product family. I can create a View in the first list which allows me to display only the products in a specific family. However I don't see any way to specify only this view when I create the custom column.
Anyone have any ideas ?
Best regards,
Colm
If I understood you correctly you are trying to make a dynamic select field that will populate based on what the user has chosen in a select field before it. You will not be able to configure this with out of the box SharePoint. It is possible to add some javascript to a form to achieve this. I believe you can also do this in InfoPath but I am double checking that.
I would like to know if it's possible and how to do something like this in SharePoint 2010:
I want to add to a document library some custom columns; 2 of them will be of type choice.
I want one of them to be populated after the first has been selected and it will be populated based on the valued chosen by the user in the first drop down list.
Is that possible? How?
Thanks a lot, bye!
you are talking about a master-detail field. There are lots of ways to solve those problem and they all involve creating a custom field. Here's a write up of my offered approach, with links to various alternatives.
http://www.turimsaint.com/turimBlog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=2
I have a Person field in my custom list. I want to have a view that will show multiple fields from that Person instead of the one I had to choose when creating the Person column.
So basically I want to have one column for Person and then in the view see Name, title, email, phone. All of those are valid choices but I can only pick one right now.
I really want to avoid typing in the username lookup for each column I choose to display.
This is SP 2007
It sounds like you need to create a custom fieldtype (with a fieldcontrol) that inherits from the userfield but in viewmode renders out the different columns you need. Is that something along the lines you are looking for?
http://www.sharepointblogs.com/nicksevens/archive/2007/08/31/create-custom-field-types-for-sharepoint.aspx
Note: This link is broken
You probably want a Computed Field. Note that this is not a Calculated Column. A Computed Field is what is used to display the same data is different ways. In SharePoint there is a Title field, but there is also a "Title (linked to item with edit menu)" computed field as well as a "Title (linked to item)" computed field.
See midway down this link for more details. I'm not sure if it will have all of the power that you need, but if it does it is almost certainly what you are looking for if you don't mind getting into the Schema XML file a little.
Could you use a DataView web part for this? If it's just a question of viewing the data that might be suitable.
Came across this thread and thought I'd add a tip. This suggestion is clearly not for every use case, but may work well in situations where you're managing a list rather than allowing manual inputs (verified to work with SP 2013):
Create a spreadsheet with columns to match your SharePoint list that contains multiple profile fields. (for example: name, phone number, email address)
In the spreadsheet, enter the same email address in all of the person/group field types in that row. (e.g., boss#company.com, boss#company.com, boss#company.com)
Select and copy the row(s) you wish to transfer to SharePoint.
In SharePoint, change the list view to "Quick Edit" and paste the row(s) into the grid.
SharePoint will process each field and convert the email address to the profile value you selected during the list setup.
In a SharePoint list I want an auto number column that as I add to the list gets incremented. How best can I go about this?
Sharepoint Lists automatically have an column with "ID" which auto increments. You simply need to select this column from the "modify view" screen to view it.
You can't add a new unique auto-generated ID to a SharePoint list, but there already is one there! If you edit the "All Items" view you will see a list of columns that do not have the display option checked.
There are quite a few of these columns that exist but that are never displayed, like "Created By" and "Created". These fields are used within SharePoint, but they are not displayed by default so as not to clutter up the display. You can't edit these fields, but you can display them to the user. if you check the "Display" box beside the ID field you will get a unique and auto-generated ID field displayed in your list.
Check out: Unique ID in SharePoint list
If you want to control the formatting of the unique identifier you can create your own <FieldType> in SharePoint. MSDN also has a visual How-To. This basically means that you're creating a custom column.
WSS defines the Counter field type (which is what the ID column above is using). I've never had the need to re-use this or extend it, but it should be possible.
A solution might exist without creating a custom <FieldType>. For example: if you wanted unique IDs like CUST1, CUST2, ... it might be possible to create a Calculated column and use the value of the ID column in you formula (="CUST" & [ID]). I haven't tried this, but this should work :)
I had this issue with a custom list and while it's not possible to use the auto-generated ID column to create a calculated column, it is possible to use a workflow to do the heavy lifting.
I created a new workflow variable of type Number and set it to be the value of the ID column in the current item. Then it's simply a matter of calculating the custom column value and setting it - in my case I just needed the numbering to begin at 100,000.
it's in there by default. It's the id field.
If you want something beyond the ID column that's there in all lists, you're probably going to have to resort to an Event Receiver on the list that "calculates" what the value of your unique identified should be or using a custom field type that has the required logic embedded in this. Unfortunately, both of these options will require writing and deploying custom code to the server and deploying assemblies to the GAC, which can be frowned upon in environments where you don't have complete control over the servers.
If you don't need the unique identifier to show up immediately, you could probably generate it via a workflow (either with SharePoint Designer or a custom WF workflow built in Visual Studio).
Unfortunately, calculated columns, which seem like an obvious solution, won't work for this purpose because the ID is not yet assigned when the calculation is attempted. If you go in after the fact and edit the item, the calculation may achieve what you want, but on initial creation of a new item it will not be calculated correctly.
As stated, all objects in sharepoint contain some sort of unique identifier (often an integer based counter for list items, and GUIDs for lists).
That said, there is also a feature available at http://www.codeplex.com/features called "Unique Column Policy", designed to add an other column with a unique value. A complete writeup is available at http://scothillier.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8F5DEA8AEA9E6FBB!293.entry
So I am not sure I can really think of why you would actually need a "site collection unique" id, so maybe you can comment and let us know what is actually trying to be accomplished here...
Either way, all items have a UniqueID property that is a GUID if you really need it: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.splistitem.uniqueid.aspx
Peetha has the best idea, I've done the same with a custom list in our SP site. Using a workflow to auto increment is the best way, and it is not that difficult. Check this website out: http://splittingshares.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/auto-increment-a-number-in-a-new-list-item/
I give much appreciation to the person who posted that solution, it is very cool!!