SharePoint : Guessing the attachment path before updating a list item - sharepoint

I have some code that inserts a list item into a list...
I then have this code
SPFolder folder = web.Folders["Lists"].SubFolders[list.RootFolder.Name].SubFolders["Attachments"].SubFolders[item.ID.ToString()];
foreach (SPFile file in folder.Files)
{
string attachmentName = this.downloadedMessageID + ".xml";
if (file.Name == attachmentName)
{
SPFieldUrlValue value = new SPFieldUrlValue();
value.Description = this.downloadedMessageID + ".xml";
value.Url = this.SiteAddress + file.Url;
item["ZFO"] = value;
}
}
this is fine except for one problem... before this code actually works... I need to call the item.update() method to save the item to SharePoint...
But as you can see there is more work to do ... after item.update is called...
So this means... I have
work
item.update();
more work
item.update();
The problem I am having is I really want just
work
item.update();
So that in any event of failure the whole thing will fail at once or pass at once.... (almost like a SQL transaction).
So whats preventing me from doing this is - I need to set a hyperlink to one of the fields in the list item, this will be to an attachment in the list attachments collection.
Is there any way I can predict this address without having saved the list item to MOSS?

An attachment path depends on the item ID, and I don't believe your item will have an ID until you save it. Have you considered storing the attachments in a document library instead, linked by the field you're trying to set?
Transactional operation isn't exactly SharePoint's strong suit.

Related

Can't set Orchard field values unless item already created

I seem to be having a problem with assigning values to fields of a content item with a custom content part and the values not persisting.
I have to create the content item (OrchardServices.ContentManager.Create) first before calling the following code which modifies a field value:
var fields = contentItem.As<MyPart>().Fields;
var imageField = fields.FirstOrDefault(o => o.Name.Equals("Image"));
if (imageField != null)
{
((MediaLibraryPickerField)imageField).Ids = new int[] { imageId };
}
The above code works perfectly when against an item that already exists, but the imageId value is lost if this is done before creating it.
Please note, this is not exclusive to MediaLibraryPickerFields.
I noticed that other people have reported this aswell:
https://orchard.codeplex.com/workitem/18412
Is it simply the case that an item must be created prior to amending it's value field?
This would be a shame, as I'm assigning this fields as part of a large import process and would inhibit performance to create it and then modify the item only to update it again.
As the comments on this issue explain, you do need to call Create. I'm not sure I understand why you think that is an issue however.

getting a list of forms that contain a specified field, is there a better method

The following code is a script object on an XPage in it I loop through an array of all the forms in a database, looking for all the forms that contain the field "ACIncludeForm". My method works but it takes 2 - 3 seconds to compute which really slows the load of the XPage. My question is - is there a better method to accomplish this. I added code to check to see if the sessionScope variable is null and only execute if needed and the second time the page loads it does so in under a second. So my method really consumes a lot of processor time.
var forms:Array = database.getForms();
var rtn = new Array;
for (i=0 ; i<forms.length; ++i){
var thisForm:NotesForm = forms[i];
var a = thisForm.getFields().indexOf("ACIncludeForm");
if (a >= 0){
if (!thisForm.isSubForm()) {
if (thisForm.getAliases()[0] == ""){
rtn.push(thisForm.getName() + "|" + thisForm.getName() );
}else{
rtn.push(thisForm.getName() + "|" + thisForm.getAliases()[0] );
}
}
}
thisForm.recycle()
}
sessionScope.put("ssAllFormNames",rtn)
One approach would be to build an index of forms by yourself. For example, create an agent (LotusScript or Java) that gets all forms and for each form, create a document with for example a field "form" containing the form name and and a field "fields" containing all field names (beware of 32K limit).
Then create a view that displays all these documents and contains the value of the "fields" field in the first column so that each value of this field creates one line in this view.
Having such a view, you can simply make a #DbLookup from your XPage.
If your forms are changed, you only need to re-run the agent to re-build your index. The #DbLookup should be pretty fast.
Place the form list in a static field of a Java class. It will stay there for a long time (maybe until http boot). In my experience applicationScope values dissappear in 15 minutes.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 sync entities into an outside database table

I have a requirement to sync some entities (account, lead, contact etc) to a database table outside of the crm database but on the same server. I am looking for a supported way for doing this. Here's what I have tried, that don't work:
I first created table in the outside database that matches the schema from dbo.account (view). Then I wrote post create, post update, post assign and post delete plugins to create, update or delete the record in the outside table (using ADO.Net). I have written the plugin in the most generic way so that it can be registered for any entity with minimum changes to the plugin (by not hardcoding the field names). Doing it this way, the problem I am running into is with the fields that are foreign key to other tables. Eg. in dbo.account, there are fields like PrimaryContactId and PrimaryContactIdName, PreferredSystemUserId and PreferredSystemUserIdName, ParentAccountId and ParentAccountIdName etc. In the input parameters for the plugin, the xxxxId fields are available when they are updated, but not the 'xxxxIdName' fields. Because of which I am not able to 'sync' the table as is.
Is there a solution to make my plugin solution work?
Is there a better supported way for having a sync table?
Thanks in advance,
PS: 1. The data sync has to be in real time
PS: 2. Here is my function to get the query that does the update
private static string PrepareUpdateQuery(ITracingService tracingService, IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, object>> attributeCollection, string entityName, string entityIdName)
{
var query = "Update MainDb.MSCRM." + entityName + " set ";
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> keyValuePair in attributeCollection)
{
tracingService.Trace("Key: {0}", keyValuePair.Key);
if (keyValuePair.Key != entityIdName && keyValuePair.Key != "modifiedonbehalfby")
{
query = query + keyValuePair.Key + " = ";
if (keyValuePair.Value == null)
query = query + "null, ";
else
{
var typeOfValue = keyValuePair.Value.GetType().Name;
tracingService.Trace("typeOfValue: {0}", typeOfValue);
switch (typeOfValue)
{
case "EntityReference":
query = query + "'" + ((EntityReference)keyValuePair.Value).Id + "', ";
break;
case "OptionSetValue":
query = query + ((OptionSetValue)keyValuePair.Value).Value + ", ";
break;
case "BooleanManagedProperty":
query = query + (((BooleanManagedProperty)keyValuePair.Value).Value ? "1" : "0") + ", ";
break;
default:
query = query + "'" + keyValuePair.Value + "', ";
break;
}
}
}
}
return query;
}
If all you're after is the name of the entity that is an attribute on your currently executing plugin, the EntityReference object has a Name property that should contain that name. If it doesn't you you can query CRM with the id and logical name to get any value that you're looking for on the referenced entity.
Edit 1
If you're just moving the data, why even bother setting the referenced name? I'd removed those names from your database table, and just create a view that looks up the corresponding entity's name. It's what CRM is doing. It also makes your other database more normalized. IE. If you update the name of an entity that is referenced by another entity, you will have to search for and update all of those names...
the xxxIdName fields are just a helper for the views really, you can easily figure out what they
should contain.
For example, say you have an account 'some company' with a primary contact called 'bob bobson'.
when processing the account entity the primarycontactId will be a guid and the primarycontactIdName will be 'bob bobson', the accountIdName will be 'some company'.
easiest way to do this in your plugin is to look up the related entity and get the value from there - 90% of the time it's just the name field.
you also need to consider however if you are doing the right thing in using the CRM schema, perhaps it would be better to copy only the fields you need and use your own schema for the sync table.
UPDATE: just saw your code, you are overwritting the value contained in query and not setting it back to the base query, so you will get odd results/errors on the second pass through the foreach
If you're dead set on putting the related entity name in the primary entity table you can always grab it like this:
var entityEntityRef = (EntityReference)keyValuePair.Value;
var relatedEntity = service.Retrieve(entityRef.LogicalName, entityRef.Id, new ColumnSet(true));
Now relatedEntity as all the attributes available. You'll mostly be looking for the Name field, but some entities are different, like contact which uses the full name field I believe.
You can, in fact, register a single plugin for all entities (checking, of course, that the one that's firing the message is in the list of treated ones).
IEnumerable<String> supportees = new String[]{ "account", "contact" };
if(!supportees.Any(element
=> element == targetLogicalName))
return;
As for the linked entities, you have three choices.
Just skip them. Not full data sync but easies to implement.
Store the guids only. Data sync is instance-wide - limited but moderately easy.
Get all the linked data. Full information but a recursive PIA to develop.

SPList Item get value - ArgumentException

I have an SPListItem and I have an array of column names.
When I try to access the SPListItem values using the code below:
for(int i=0;i<arrColName.length;i++)
{
string tempValue = item[arrColName[i]].ToString();
// Works fine in case the the specific column in the list item is not null
// Argument exception - Values does not fall witing expected range
// exception in case the value //is null
}
I think that you used an SPQuery to get the list items and forgot to add the field into the viewfields property of SPQuery.
query.ViewFields = string.Format("<FieldRef Name=\"{0}\" Nullable=\"True\" />", mFieldName);
Usually when you test your program with the farm account the code will work, with normal users you get an ArgumentException.
Another problem/feature which causes ArgumentException is the new ListView Threshold. If th elist you try to access has too many items, this Exception is raised. A way to handle this is to increase the threshold with powershell for the list.
Not only check if item != null but also item["FieldName"] != null. Because if you will try to call .ToString() on null, you will get exception.
And if that field with internal name "FieldName" name does not exist, you will also get an exception. So you would probably try
SPFieldCollection fields = list.Fields;
foreach (SPListItem item in list.Items) {
if (fields.Contains("FieldName") && item["FieldName"] != null) {
string fieldValue = item["FieldName"].ToString();
}
}
I had a similar situation with custom cascade field (or column). I did it following way and it seemed to work for the custom field types.
item.Properties["Country"] = "Mexico"; // custom field
item.Properties["nCity"] = "Cancun"; // custom field
item["Document Descriptions"] = "Test document description.";
Note: I added item.Properties for the custom columns. No need to add properties for built in field type (else they don't work).
Does your array contain the internal names or the display names of the columns? If it's the latter you might try item[item.Fields[arrColName[i]].InternalName].ToStrinng(); instead.
Sharepoint Lists aren't stored as a array with a static size.
You have to use the built in sharepoint iterator to go through each element
For example:
SPList checklist = //Some initiliaztion
foreach (SPListItem item in checklist.Items){
//work
}
This will do work on each item in your SPlist
Edit:
Wrong advice, I didn't see the code until after the edit.
Maybe try a cast?
(String)item[colname]

Accessing SPLIstItem properties in SharePoint

I'm trying something very simple - accessing my SharePoint list's items and their properties.
However, SPListItem.Properties count is zero for all normal lists. Everything works as expected for document and pages libraries. So, if the list items are based on document type, all is good. If they are based on item, properties are not returned.
I've tried in two environments, with new sites created from OOTB publishing templates, with new lists which are based on OOTB content types etc. Always the same thing.
Right amount of SPListItems is always returned. Title and Name are fine. It's just that the .Properties hashtable is totally empty.
In desperation, I wrote a web part that outputs the following (ugly!) diagnostics.
foreach (SPList list in SPContext.Current.Web.Lists)
{
foreach (SPListItem item in list.Items)
{
Label label = new Label();
label.Text = "Name: " + item.Name + "Property count: " + item.Properties.Count;
this.Controls.Add(label);
}
}
The only observation is that it works exactly as I described earlier. I just share the code to show that this is the most basic operation imaginable.
Here is sample output - I've added the line breaks for readability ;-)
Name: Test Property count: 0
Name: default.aspx Property count: 21
Obviously item "Test" is an item based list item and default.aspx is a page.
Has anyone ever encountered anything like this? Any ideas?
item["FieldName"] is the canonical way to get a value of a metadata column in a SharePoint list. If you need to get the list of available fields for a SharePoint list, check the parent SPList object's Fields property which is a collection of the fields in this list. Each of those field objects will have a property called InternalName and that is what you should use to access its value when you are working with an instance of SPListItem.
Are you trying to get the field Values? Sadly, they are not strongly typed:
string ModifiedBy = (string)item["Author"];
To get the proper names of the fields (they have to be the internal names), go to the List and then List Settings. You will find the List of Columns there. Click on any Column Name to go to the Edit Page, and then look at the URL in the Address Bar of your Browser. At the very end, there should be a parameter "Field=Editor" or similar - that's your internal field name.
If you wonder why a field like "Test Field" looks strange, that is because Sharepoint encodes certain characters. A Space would be encoded to x0020 hence the Internal Name for "Test Field" is "Test_x0020_Field".
In order to get the proper field type to cast to:
string FieldType = item["Author"].GetType().FullName;
(The Intermediate Window in Visual Studio is tremendously helpful for this!)
I have found the following extension to the SPListItem class to be very helpful.
internal static class SharePointExtensions
{
internal static Dictionary<string, object> PropertiesToDictionary(this SPListItem item)
{
// NOTE: This code might be temping - but don't do it! ...itdoes not work as there are often multiple field definitions with the same Title!
// return item.Fields.Cast<SPField>().ToDictionary(fld => fld.Title, fld => item[fld.Title]);
Dictionary<string, object> dict = new Dictionary<string, object>();
var fieldNames = item.Fields.Cast<SPField>().Select(fld => fld.Title).Distinct().OrderBy(sz => sz).ToArray();
foreach (fieldName in fieldNames)
dict.Add(sz, item[fieldName]);
return dict;
}
}
with it you can simply do:
item.PropertiesToDictionary()
...and you will have a nice Linq dictionary object that will work just the way you'd expect. Is it a little heavy-weight / low-performance? Sure. Are most people willing to make that trade-off? I think so...
Do you run SPListItem.Update() or .SystemUpdate() after setting the properties?
If you want to get an object out of a SPField of a SPListItem you've got to do like this:
SPField field = ((SPList)list).Fields.GetField("FieldName");
object fieldValue = field.GetFieldValue(((SPListItem)item)[field.Title].ToString());
The ListItem.Properties hashtable will be empty unless you assign to it.
SPListItem item = properties.ListItem;
item.Properties["Key"] = "value";
int total = item.Properties.Count;
Answer:
"total == 1"
SPList yourList = web.Lists["Your list name"];
string sColumnValue = oSPListItem[yourList.Fields["yourSiteColumn display
name"].InternalName].ToString();

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