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  • SharePoint Server 2010 (Part 7 of 8): Developing with SharePoint 2010 Sandboxed Solutions (Level 100

    In this webcast, we explain what sandboxed solutions are, and we demonstrate how to create sandboxed solutions with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and how to deploy and monitor these solutions on SharePoint farms....Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • Question about API and Web application code sharing

    - by opendd
    This is a design question. I have a multi part application with several user types. There is a user client for the patient that interacts with a web service. There is an API evolving behind the web service that will be exposed to institutional "users" and an interface for clinicians, researchers and admin types. The patient UI is Flex. The clinician/admin portion of the application is RoR. The API is RoR/rack based. The web service component is Java WS. All components access the same data source. These components are deployed as separate components to their own subdomains. This decision was made to allow for scaling the components individually as needed. Initially, the decision was made to split the code for the RoR Web application from the RoR API. This decision was made in the interests of security and keeping the components focused on specific tasks. Over the course of time, there is necessarily going to be overlap and I am second guessing my decision to keep the code totally separate. I am noticing code being lifted from the admin side being lifted, modified and used in the API. This being the case, I have been considering merging the Ruby based repositories. I am interested in ideas and insight on this situation along with the reasoning behind your thoughts. Thanks.

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  • How to share a folder using the Ubuntu One Web API

    - by Mario César
    I have successfully implement OAuth Authorization with Ubuntu One in Django, Here are my views and models: https://gist.github.com/mariocesar/7102729 Right now, I can use the file_storage ubuntu api, for example the following, will ask if Path exists, then create the directory, and then get the information on the created path to probe is created. >>> user.oauth_access_token.get_file_storage(volume='/~/Ubuntu One', path='/Websites/') <Response [404]> >>> user.oauth_access_token.put_file_storage(volume='/~/Ubuntu One', path='/Websites/', data={"kind": "directory"}) <Response [200]> >>> user.oauth_access_token.get_file_storage(volume='/~/Ubuntu One', path='/Websites/').json() {u'content_path': u'/content/~/Ubuntu One/Websites', u'generation': 10784, u'generation_created': 10784, u'has_children': False, u'is_live': True, u'key': u'MOQgjSieTb2Wrr5ziRbNtA', u'kind': u'directory', u'parent_path': u'/~/Ubuntu One', u'path': u'/Websites', u'resource_path': u'/~/Ubuntu One/Websites', u'volume_path': u'/volumes/~/Ubuntu One', u'when_changed': u'2013-10-22T15:34:04Z', u'when_created': u'2013-10-22T15:34:04Z'} So it works, it's great I'm happy about that. But I can't share a folder. My question is? How can I share a folder using the api? I found no web api to do this, the Ubuntu One SyncDaemon tool is the only mention on solving this https://one.ubuntu.com/developer/files/store_files/syncdaemontool#ubuntuone.platform.tools.SyncDaemonTool.offer_share But I'm reluctant to maintain a DBUS and a daemon in my server for every Ubuntu One connection I have authorization for. Any one have an idea how can I using a web API to programmatically share a folder? even better using the OAuth authorization tokens that I already have.

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  • API Wordpress & Inksoft

    - by user105405
    I am new to this whole website design and API bit. My husband has bought a license for the program InkSoft. Their site does not offer very much customization, so we decided to buy a Wordpress.org site that is hosted through godaddy. With all of that said, I am trying to figure out a way to take the products that are on InkSoft's website, which get their information from the suppliers' warehouses (for things like inventory), and put them on the Wordpress site. There is an area on InkSoft where I can access "Store API...API feeds." I guess I am just confused on where to put this type of stuff in the WordPress site or how to put it in there? If I go to the "Products" area on this Store API, I am given a URL that deals with the product stuff and I am also given a HUGE list of stuff that contains stuff such as: < ProductCategoryList < vw_product_categories product_category_id="1000076" name="Most Popular" path="Most Popular" thumburl_front="REPLACE_DOMAIN_WITH/images/publishers/2433/ProductCategories/Most_Popular/80.gif" / Can everyone give me directions on what and how to use all this stuff? Thank you!!

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  • Implementation details of database synchronisation API

    - by Daniel
    I want to achieve a database synchronisation between my server database and a client application. The server would run MySQL and the applications may run different database technologies, their implementation isn't important. I have a MySQL database online and web accessible via an API I wrote in PHP (just a detail). My client application ships with a copy of the online data. As time passes my goal is to check for any changes in the online database and make these updates available to the client app via an API call, by sending a date to an API endpoint corresponding to the last date the app was updated, the response would be a JSON filled with all new objects and updated objects, and delete IDs, this makes possible to update the local store appropriately. Essentially I want to do this: http://dbconvert.com/synchronization.php My question is about the implementation details. Would I need to add a column to my database tables with a "last modified" date? Since the client app could be very out of date if it's been offline for a long time, does that also mean I shouldn't delete data from the online database but instead have another column called "delete" set to 1 and a modified date updated appropriately? Would my SQL query simply check for all data with a modified date superior then the date passed into the API request by the client? I feel like there's a lot more to it then having a ton of dates everywhere. And also, worry that I will need to persist a lot of old data in order to ensure that old versions of the client app always have the opportunity to delete parts of their data when they are able to sync.

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  • Unit testing ASP.NET Web API controllers that rely on the UrlHelper

    - by cibrax
    UrlHelper is the class you can use in ASP.NET Web API to automatically infer links from the routing table without hardcoding anything. For example, the following code uses the helper to infer the location url for a new resource,public HttpResponseMessage Post(User model) { var response = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Created, user); var link = Url.Link("DefaultApi", new { id = id, controller = "Users" }); response.Headers.Location = new Uri(link); return response; } That code uses a previously defined route “DefaultApi”, which you might configure in the HttpConfiguration object (This is the route generated by default when you create a new Web API project). The problem with UrlHelper is that it requires from some initialization code before you can invoking it from a unit test (for testing the Post method in this example). If you don’t initialize the HttpConfiguration and Request instances associated to the controller from the unit test, it will fail miserably. After digging into the ASP.NET Web API source code a little bit, I could figure out what the requirements for using the UrlHelper are. It relies on the routing table configuration, and a few properties you need to add to the HttpRequestMessage. The following code illustrates what’s needed,var controller = new UserController(); controller.Configuration = new HttpConfiguration(); var route = controller.Configuration.Routes.MapHttpRoute( name: "DefaultApi", routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}", defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional } ); var routeData = new HttpRouteData(route, new HttpRouteValueDictionary { { "id", "1" }, { "controller", "Users" } } ); controller.Request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "http://localhost:9091/"); controller.Request.Properties.Add(HttpPropertyKeys.HttpConfigurationKey, controller.Configuration); controller.Request.Properties.Add(HttpPropertyKeys.HttpRouteDataKey, routeData);  The HttpRouteData instance should be initialized with the route values you will use in the controller method (“id” and “controller” in this example). Once you have correctly setup all those properties, you shouldn’t have any problem to use the UrlHelper. There is no need to mock anything else. Enjoy!!.

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  • SharePoint 2010 and Windows Server Backup

    - by Enrique Lima
    A couple of months ago, a friend found a bit of information on TechNet that has proven to be quite useful. See, I am of the opinion SharePoint allows for smaller deployments to be made, and with that said, I am talking about SharePoint Foundation 2010 being used for the most part. But truly the point here is not to discuss whether or not a deployment of SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010 is right or not.  The fact is they do take place and happen.  And information will reside there. Now, the point of this post is to raise awareness on options available for companies that have implemented it and maybe are a bit “iffy” on how to protect the information being placed in libraries and lists.  In many cases I have found SharePoint comes first and business continuity becomes an afterthought.  The documentation piece from TechNet states: “You can register SharePoint Server 2010 with Windows Server Backup by using the stsadm.exe -o -registerwsswriter operation to configure the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) writer for SharePoint Server. Windows Server Backup then includes SharePoint Server 2010 in server-wide backups. When you restore from a Windows Server backup, you can select Microsoft SharePoint Foundation (no matter which version of SharePoint 2010 Products is installed), and all components reported by the VSS writer forSharePoint Server 2010 on that server at the time of the backup will be restored. Windows Server Backup is recommended only for use with for single-server deployments.” Even in the event of single-server deployments you will have options to safeguard your data. The process will require that after you have executed the stsadm command above, you will then use Windows Server Backup to do a Full Server Backup.  Then when the restore operation is needed you will be able to select specifically the section that has the SharePoint technologies backup. The restore process: Hope you find this to be a helpful post.  I have found this to be specially handy in SharePoint deployments that are part of a Team Foundation Server deployment and that are isolated from any other SharePoint farm and such.   Credits:  Sean McDonough for passing along the information available on TechNet.

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  • SharePoint Designer Workflow: Unruly 'Collect User Data' Action

    - by Jeremy
    I'm a student in a SharePoint class online. This problem has riddled everyone I've discussed it with, including the teacher. There seems to be some sort of problem when I create a workflow with the collect data action. I can create workflows that send e-mails and use the other actions just fine. What could be causing this problem? My reproduction steps are simple: Create a new Site Collection with the Blank Site template. Create a new Custom List. In SharePoint Designer, start a new workflow on the Custom List. Add the collect data action to the workflow. Set the user to the one that created the task. Set the data to anything. A single check box, a string, Choice, doesn't matter. Leave the output variable as default. Mystery error appears! When the Check Workflow button is pressed, nothing happens. No message box appears at all. The warning icon in the Steps panel merely points out that there are some errors, it isn't specific as to what they are. Additionally, when I click on the data object again after it's been created, it doesn't populate the form with the old values. It goes back to the default name with no fields. So there's definitely something going wrong here. I've narrowed the problem down to the data object, but I don't know what to do about it. The workflow acts like normal for other activities. For example, delete the Collect Data action and add a Send Email one instead and it compiles and runs successfully.

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  • Synchronizing Outlook 2010 Calendar with Sharepoint 2010 website Calendar

    - by Henry
    How do I synchronize my Outlook 2010 calendar to SharePoint 2010 website? I am able to synchronize SharePoint Calendar into my Outlook calendar but not able to do Outlook Calendar (meetings, Data) into SharePoint Calendar. When my office people go into our intranet site, I just want them to see my calendar in SharePoint which updates the data from Outlook and displays it but this calendar data on SharePoint should only be read-only to other users.

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  • MOSS2007 tries to use ActiveDirectory when I have configured an alternative membership provider

    - by glenatron
    I've got a MOSS site that I am trying to configure using Forms authentication and absolutely any kind of membership provider whatsoever. Thus far ActiveDirectory has proved obstructively difficult so I've just whipped up a simple stub membership provider and put it in the GAC. It's a very basic and simple provider but it works fine with an ASP.Net site, I just can't make it work with Sharepoint. On Sharepoint I get the following error when I look for StubProvider:Bob ( or anything else for that matter) from the "Policy For Web Application" people picker: Error in searching user 'StubProvider:bob' : System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: Unable to contact the global catalog server at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPActiveDirectoryDomain.GetDirectorySearcher() at Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.PeopleEditor.SearchFromGC(SPActiveDirectoryDomain domain, String strFilter, String[] rgstrProp, Int32 nTimeout, Int32 nSizeLimit, SPUserCollection spUsers, ArrayList& rgResults) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUserUtility.SearchAgainstAD(String input, SPActiveDirectoryDomain domainController, SPPrincipalType scopes, SPUserCollection usersContainer, Int32 maxCount, String customQuery, TimeSpan searchTimeout, Boolean& reachMaxCount) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPActiveDirectoryPrincipalResolver.SearchPrincipals(String input, SPPrincipalType scopes, SPPrincipalSource sources, SPUserCollection usersContainer, Int32 maxCount, Boolean& reachMaxCount) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.SearchPrincipalFromResolvers(List`1 resolvers, String input, SPPrincipalType scopes, SPPrincipalSource sources, SPUserCollection usersContainer, Int32 maxCount, Boolean& reachMaxCount, Dictionary`2 usersDict). The Provider is named as Authentication Provider for the Site Collection in question. As far as I can tell this is because Sharepoint is still trying to access ActiveDirectory rather than talking to the provider I'm asking it to use. My Sharepoint Central Administration section includes this: <membership> <providers> <add name="StubProvider" type="StubMembershipProvider.Provider, StubMembershipProvider, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=5bd7e2498c3e1a03" /> </providers> </membership> And also: <PeoplePickerWildcards> <clear /> <add key="StubProvider" value="%" /> </PeoplePickerWildcards> Is there a clear reason why this would not be accessible from the PeoplePicker or why it is still trying to use ActiveDirectory? I've made sure I reset IIS and even restarted the server to see if either of those helped but they made no difference.

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  • Google Analytics API - Super simple?

    - by Jens Törnell
    Google Analytics API - Too complicated? I've read about Google Analytics API but heard of others that it is a bit complicated to make it work. I use PHP. Copy / paste example My question is if there is a copy / paste example anywhere on the web for getting a stats curve of the latest month, or just the numbers for that period? Important I need to use the new Google Analytics API version for 2012. The other one is going to die soon.

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  • Developing JSON API for a Carpool Engine

    - by Siddharth
    I am developing a new set of API methods for carpooling/cab booking, so if a developer needs to develop an app or webportal for carpooling, he can call my JSON API. Basically making it easy for developers. My API current has: AddVehicle AddJourney SearchJourney SubscribeToThisJourney(journey) SubscriberList(journey) to get list of people who have subscribed for this journey AcceptSubscription(subscriber) AcceptedSubcriberList SubscriberList to get list of providers I have subscribed to I need help with replacing subscriber with something else. It's difficult to remember, and confusing when you see 3 methods that mean very different things: SubscriberList, SubscribedToThisJourneyList and AcceptedSubscriberList. Confusing to remember. One is a list of who I have subscribed to Who has subscribed to me Whose subscription I have accepted How can I name these methods to make them easier to understand and remember?

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  • Google Site Search -- How to use as API?

    - by John Isaacks
    I am trying to get an API that I can use to do searches on my own site. Google has something called site search and something called custom search. What is the difference? I make a new site search, then it is listed on a page with "custom search" in the heading. This is really confusing. I just want an API that I can use to search my site. I would prefer json to xml as the results. And if this service is offered by someone other than Google, that is fine too. The ones that I create at Google want me to embed a premade search box into my site. I do not want that, I want an API that I can call from PHP or JS. How can I get this?

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  • Translating error messages from an external API?

    - by Jan Fabry
    If I am localizing a piece of software that uses an external API, how should I handle error messages that originate in this API? I do not control the API, I only consume it. The error responses are not very structured: some contain error codes, some contain verbose details in the text, others almost nothing. Some errors can be fixed by the user (incorrect configuration), some are caused by the external service (server overload), some could be caused by a bug in my software (of course, this would be very unlikely...). I would like to provide a smooth experience to my end-users, so they know what went wrong and what they can do to fix it. What is the best strategy to use here? (This is a generalization of a question from the WordPress Stack Exchange. I thought it would be worth re-asking here, because it is not limited to WordPress plugins.)

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  • Open Source Web-based CMS for writing and managing API documentation

    - by netcoder
    This is a question that have somewhat been asked before (i.e.: How to manage an open source project's documentation). However, my question is a little different because: We're not developing open source software, but proprietary software The documentation has to be hand-written, because we do not want to publish the actual software API documentation, but only the public API documentation I do want developers and project managers to write the documentation collaboratively Obviously, wikis are a solution, but they're very generic. I'm looking for a more specialized tool for this job. I've looked around and found a few like Adobe Robohelp, SaaS solutions and such, but I'd like to know if any open source software exists for that purpose. Do you know any Open Source Web-based CMS for writing and managing API and software documentation?

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  • Designing an API on top with Java RMI and Rest APIs

    - by user1303881
    I'm working on the backend of a java web application. We have a document repository (Fedora Commons specifically) where we house xml files. I want to abstract the API of the repository internally so that we aren't tightly coupled to one product. I'd also like to give the flexibility of connecting to to a repository via Java RMI or REST APIs. I was hoping to get advice or resources on how to implement something like this. My thought it that I'd have some abstract repository class that had methods like getRecord, updateRecord, and deleteRecord. In the constructor I would pass the URI for the repository and the API method and port. This would allow some flexibility in the future so that if the REST api became more practical, but allow the flexibility or using RMI which could (should?) have better performance. Am I over thinking this or am I on the right path?

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  • Choose Graph API or old REST API for Facebook application

    - by Andree
    Hi there! I should have asked this in Facebook developer forum instead, but somehow I can't register to the forum and the Facebook connect feature is not working at the time I'm writing this. Anyway, I am still confused whether to use Graph API or the old REST API for my Facebook app. Generally, this is what I want to achieve in my app: Get profile picture and name of the user. Get profile picture and name of the user's friends who are also using my app. Post into the user's stream. Allow users to invite their friends to use the application. Can someone provide me an insight, which one is better for my application?

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  • Versioning APIs

    - by Sharon
    Suppose that you have a large project supported by an API base. The project also ships a public API that end(ish) users can use. Sometimes you need to make changes to the API base that supports your project. For example, you need to add a feature that needs an API change, a new method, or requires altering of one of the objects, or the format of one of those objects, passed to or from the API. Assuming that you are also using these objects in your public API, the public objects will also change any time you do this, which is undesirable as your clients may rely on the API objects remaining identical for their parsing code to work. (cough C++ WSDL clients...) So one potential solution is to version the API. But when we say "version" the API, it sounds like this also must mean to version the API objects as well as well as providing duplicate method calls for each changed method signature. So I would then have a plain old clr object for each version of my api, which again seems undesirable. And even if I do this, I surely won't be building each object from scratch as that would end up with vast amounts of duplicated code. Rather, the API is likely to extend the private objects we are using for our base API, but then we run into the same problem because added properties would also be available in the public API when they are not supposed to be. So what is some sanity that is usually applied to this situation? I know many public services such as Git for Windows maintains a versioned API, but I'm having trouble imagining an architecture that supports this without vast amounts of duplicate code covering the various versioned methods and input/output objects. I'm aware that processes such as semantic versioning attempt to put some sanity on when public API breaks should occur. The problem is more that it seems like many or most changes require breaking the public API if the objects aren't more separated, but I don't see a good way to do that without duplicating code.

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  • Sharepoint and its template/master pages

    - by jhuang
    I'm trying to learn how to customize a sharepoint site. I've seen a lot of examples and they all seem to have one thing in common, the navigation are all the same. Ie the left nav with the different pages and docs. top nav with mostly links to sub-sites or other sites. Does anyone know of a good tutorial or example i can grab that has a horizontal layout of the left nav? i haven't found any.

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  • SharePoint weekly summary alert with calculated columns

    - by Geoff
    I have a SharePoint list that accepts incoming email and has two calculated columns based on the Email Subject. Immediate alerts, RSS etc all work fine but the Weekly Summary Alert has #VALUE! for all the calculated columns. Is there a reason for this? Can I get it to show that actual calculated value?

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  • mailto link sharepoint desgner

    - by raklos
    In sharepoint designer I have a control <SharePointWebControls:TextField FieldName="Title" runat="server"></SharePointWebControls:TextField> I want to have a mailto link that will use this title as the subject of the email and i need the body of the email to contain some text e.g. "My Example Text" how do i do this? thanks

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  • Problems with Google Maps API v3 + jQuery UI Tabs

    - by Bears will eat you
    There are a number of problems, which seem to be fairly well-known, when using the Google Maps API to render a map within a jQuery UI tab. I've seen SO questions posted about similar issues (here and here, for example) but the solutions there only seem to work for v2 of the Maps API. Other references I checked out are here and here, along with pretty much everything I could dig up through Googling. I've been trying to stuff a map (using v3 of the API) into a jQuery tab with mixed results. I'm using the latest versions of everything (currently jQuery 1.3.2, jQuery UI 1.7.2, don't know about Maps). This is the markup & javascript: <body> <div id="dashtabs"> <span class="logout"> <a href="go away">Log out</a> </span> <!-- tabs --> <ul class="dashtabNavigation"> <li><a href="#first_tab" >First</a></li> <li><a href="#second_tab" >Second</a></li> <li><a href="#map_tab" >Map</a></li> </ul> <!-- tab containers --> <div id="first_tab">This is my first tab</div> <div id="second_tab">This is my second tab</div> <div id="map_tab"> <div id="map_canvas"></div> </div> </div> </body> and $(document).ready(function() { var map = null; $('#dashtabs').tabs(); $('#dashtabs').bind('tabsshow', function(event, ui) { if (ui.panel.id == 'map_tab' && !map) { map = initializeMap(); google.maps.event.trigger(map, 'resize'); } }); }); function initializeMap() { // Just some canned map for now var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(-34.397, 150.644); var myOptions = { zoom: 8, center: latlng, mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP }; return new google.maps.Map($('#map_canvas')[0], myOptions); } And here's what I've found that does/doesn't work (for Maps API v3): Using the off-left technique as described in the jQuery UI Tabs documentation (and in the answers to the two questions I linked) doesn't work at all. In fact, the best-functioning code uses the CSS .ui-tabs .ui-tabs-hide { display: none; } instead. The only way to get a map to display in a tab at all is to set the CSS width and height of #map_canvas to be absolute values. Changing the width and height to auto or 100% causes the map to not display at all, even if it's already been successfully rendered (using absolute width and height). I couldn't find it documented anywhere outside of the Maps API, but map.checkResize() won't work anymore. Instead, you have to fire a resize event by calling google.maps.event.trigger(map, 'resize'). If the map is not initialized inside of a function bound to a tabsshow event, the map itself is rendered correctly but the controls are not - most are just plain missing. So, here are my questions: Does anyone else have experience accomplishing this same feat? If so, how did you figure out what would actually work, since the documented tricks don't work for Maps API v3? What about loading tab content using Ajax as per the jQuery UI docs? I haven't had a chance to play around with it but my guess is that it's going to break Maps even more. What are the chances of getting it to work (or is it not worth trying)? How do I make the map fill the largest possible area? I'd like it to fill the tab and adapt to page resizes, much in the way that it's done over at maps.google.com. But, as I said, I appear to be stuck with applying only absolute width and height CSS to the map div. Sorry if this was long-winded but this might be the only documentation for Maps API v3 + jQuery tabs. Cheers!

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  • Do’s and Don’ts Building SharePoint Applications

    - by Bil Simser
    SharePoint is a great platform for building quick LOB applications. Simple things from employee time trackers to server and software inventory to full blown Help Desks can be crafted up using SharePoint from just customizing Lists. No programming necessary. However there are a few tricks I’ve painfully learned over the years that you can use for your own solutions. DO What’s In A Name? When you create a new list, column, or view you’ll commonly name it something like “Expense Reports”. However this has the ugly effect of creating a url to the list as “Expense%20Reports”. Or worse, an internal field name of “Expense_x0x0020_Reports” which is not only cryptic but hard to remember when you’re trying to find the column by internal name. While “Expense Reports 2011” is user friendly, “ExpenseReports2011” is not (unless you’re a programmer). So that’s not the solution. Well, not entirely. Instead when you create your column or list or view use the scrunched up name (I can’t think of the technical term for it right now) of “ExpenseReports2011”, “WomenAtTheOfficeThatAreMen” or “KoalaMeatIsGoodWhenBroiled”. After you’ve created it, go back and change the name to the more friendly “Silly Expense Reports That Nobody Reads”. The original internal name will be the url and code friendly one without spaces while the one used on data entry forms and view headers will be the human version. Smart Columns When building a view include columns that make sense. By default when you add a column the “Add to default view” is checked. Resist the urge to be lazy and leave it checked. Uncheck that puppy and decide consciously what columns should be included in the view. Pick columns that make sense to what the user is trying to do. This means you have to talk to the user. Yes, I know. That can be trying at times and even painful. Go ahead, talk to them. You might learn something. Find out what’s important to them and why. If they’re doing something repetitively as part of their job, try to make their life easier by including what’s most important to them. Do they really need to see the Created *and* Modified date of a document or do they just need the title and author? You’ll only find out after talking to them (or getting them drunk in a bar and leaving them in the back alley handcuffed to a garbage bin, don’t ask). Gotta Keep it Separated Hey, views are there for a reason. Use them. While “All Items” is a fine way to present a list of well, all items, it’s hardly sufficient to present a list of servers built before the Y2K bug hit. You’ll be scrolling the list for hours finally arriving at Page 387 of 12,591 and cursing that SharePoint guy for convincing you that putting your hardware into a list would be of any use to anyone. Next to collecting the data, presenting it is just as important. Views are often overlooked and many times ignored or misused. They’re the way you can slice and dice the data up so that you’re not trying to consume 3,000 years of human evolution on a single web page. Remember views can be filtered so feel free to create a view for each status or one for each operating system or one for each species of Information Worker you might be putting in that list or document library. Not only will it reduce the number of items someone sees at one time, it’ll also make the information that much more relevant. Also remember that each view is a separate page. Use it in navigation by creating a menu on the Quick Launch to each view. The discoverability of the Views menu isn’t overly obvious and if you violate the rule of columns (see Horizontally Scrolling below) the view menu doesn’t even show up until you shuffle the scroll bar to the left. Navigation links, big giant buttons, a screaming flashing “CLICK ME NOW” will help your users find their way. Sort It! Views are great so we’re building nice, rich views for the user. Awesomesauce. However sort is not very discoverable by the user. For example when you’re looking at a view how do you know if it’s ascending or descending and what is it sorted on. Maybe it’s sorted using two fields so what’s that all about? Help your users by letting them know the information they’re looking at is sorted. Maybe you name the view something appropriate like “Bogus Expense Claims Sorted By Deadbeats”. If you use the naming strategy just make sure you keep the name consistent with the description. In the previous example their better be a Deadbeat column so I can see the sort in action. Having a “Loser” column, while equally correct, is a little obtuse to the average Information Worker. Remember, they usually don’t use acronyms and even if they knew how to, it’s not immediately obvious to them that’s what you’re trying to convey. Another option is to simply drop a Content Editor Web Part above the list and explain exactly the view they’re looking at. Each view is it’s own page so one CEWP won’t be used across the board. Be descriptive in what the user is seeing but try to keep it brief. Dumping the first chapter of I, Claudius might be informative to the data but can gobble up screen real estate and miss the point of having the list. DO NOT Useless Attachments The attachments column is, in a word, useless. For the most part. Sure it indicates there’s an attachment on the list item but in the grand scheme of things that’s not overly informative. Maybe it is and by all means, if it makes sense to you include it. Colour it. Make it shine and stand like the Return of Clippy on every SharePoint list. Without it being functional it can be boring. EndUserSharePoint.com has an article to make the son of Clippy that much more useful so feel free to head over and check out this blog post by Paul Grenier on the task (Warning code ahead! Danger Will Robinson!) In any case, I would suggest you remove it from your views. Again if it’s important then include it but consider the jQuery solution above to make it functional. It’s added by default to views and one of things that people forget to clean up. Horizontal Scrolling Screen real estate is premium so building a list that contains 8,000 columns and stretches horizontally across 15 screens probably isn’t the most user friendly experience. Most users can’t figure out how to scroll vertically let alone horizontally so don’t make it even that more confusing for them. Take the Steve Krug approach in your view designs and try not to make the user think. Again views are your friend. Consider splitting up the data into views where one view contains 10 columns and other view contains the other 10. Okay, maybe your information doesn’t work that way but humans can only process 7 pieces of data at a time, 10 at most (then their heads explode and you don’t want to clean that mess up, especially on a Friday night before the big dance). It drives me batshit crazy when I see a view with 80 columns of data. I often ask the user “So what do you do with all this information”. The response is usually “With this data [the first 10 columns] I decide if I’m going to fire everyone, and with this data [the next 10 columns] I decide if I’m going to set the building on fire and collect the insurance”. It’s at that point I show them how to create two new views “People Who Are About To Get The Axe” and “Beach Time For The Executives”. Again, talk to your users and try to reason with them on cutting down the number of columns they see at once. Vertical Scrolling Another big faux pas I find is the use of multi-line comment fields in views. It’s not so bad when you have a statement like this in your view: “I really like, oh my god, thought I was going to scream when I saw this turtle then I decided what I was going to have for dinner and frankly I hate having to work late so when I was talking to the customer I thought, oh my god, what if the customer has turtles and then it appeared to me that I really was hungry so I'm going to have lunch now.” It’s fine if that’s the only column along with two or three others, but once you slap those 20 columns of data into the list, the comment field wraps and forms a new multi-page novel that takes up your entire screen. Do everyone a favour and just avoid adding the column to views. Train the user to just click through to the item if they need to see the contents. Duplicate Information Duplication is never good. Views and great as you can group data together. For example create a view of project status reports grouped by author. Then you can see what project manager is being a dip and not submitting their report. However if you group by author do you really need the Created By field as well in the view? Or if the view is grouped by Project then Author do you need both. Horizontal real estate is always at a premium so try not to clutter up the view with duplicate data like this. Oh  yeah, if you’re scratching your head saying “But Bil, if I don’t include the Project name in the view and I have a lot of items then how do I know which one I’m looking at”. That’s a hint that your grouping is too vague or you have too much data in the view based on that criteria. Filter it down a notch, create some views, and try to keep the group down to a single screen where you can see the group header at the top of the page. Again it’s just managing the information you have. Redundant, See Redundant This partially relates to duplicate information and smart columns but basically remember to not include the obvious in a view. Remember, don’t make me think. If you’ve gone to the trouble (and it was a lot of trouble wasn’t it?) to create separate views of your data by creating a “September Zombie Brain Sales”, “October Zombie Brain Sales”, etc. then please for the love of all that is holy do not include the Month and Product columns in your view. Similarly if you create a “My” view of anything (“My Favourite Brands of Spandex”, “My Co-Workers I Find The Urge To Disinfect”) then again, do not include the owner or author field (or whatever field you use to identify “My”). That’s just silly. Hope that helps! Happy customizing!

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