Author: Peter Birkholm-Buch (Page 16 of 17)

In this interview we asked Lenny Fenster of Microsoft Consulting Services to show us the recently released “Connector” for Team Foundation Server 2005 and Project Server 2007. This connector makes it easier for organizations to manage their development projects by providing a synchronization and workflow between Team Foundation Server and Project Server.

Introducing the Team Foundation Server / Project Server 2007 Connector

Body:

UPDATED (12/07/2007): Issue arises in last block of code when calling $bodyContent, should be $formattedBodyContent. Also fixed the case issue as noted by Matthew. 🙂

Well I am currently working on a project that has a great need to use the Content Query Web Part for exposing different content onto a central page. The solution will be made up of a top level publishing portal with various different types of private and public sites and site collections that will exist underneath. In this post I wanted to take you through a step-by-step look at exposing the content into a CQWP and customising it slightly to display the correct fields. There are various people who have already posted about elements of this such as:

Steven Van de Craen

http://www.microsoft.com/belux/msdn/nl/community/columns/stevenvandecraen/contentquerywebpart.mspx

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/vandest/archive/2006/10/30/15487.aspx

Microsoft

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa981241.aspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms497457.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2006/11/06/building-tylerbutler-com-part-2-building-content-types-and-page-layouts.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2006/11/16/building-tylerbutler-com-part-3-customizing-content-query-styles.aspx

To begin with we will need to look at creating some custom content types that will be used within the portal solution. Just for information the basic structure of the sites will be as below:

Now that we have the basic structure let’s look at the various content that we need. Firstly we will create a content type called “Demo News” and create various columns to it. This will then be added to a list that we will create on the department public site.

To create the content type, open up the portal and select the following:

Once the page loads you need to select the “Site Content Types” from the “Galleries” section.

Press the “Create” button and complete as below:

Now we need to add some site columns to the content type, this is done by pressing the “Add from new site column” link shown below.

In this example we will add two extra columns as per the table below:

Column Name

Column Type

Column Required

Column Values

Begins

Date & Time

Yes

N/A

News Category

Choice

Yes

Local

Internal

External

Global

When the above have been created the list should then look as below:

No we need to access department public site and create a new list based on the announcement template. Once this has been created we need to add the new custom list content type to it. To create the list open up the public site and select the “View All Content” link from the “Site Actions” menu. The select the “Create” button and select the link shown below.

The list has been configured as below.

Once this has been created we then need to firstly allow management of content types and then associate the “Demo News” content type with this list. This is done by accessing the properties of the list and selecting the “Advanced Settings” option. Then we can enable the following option.

Now we can select the content type from the list of existing ones as below.

When we look at the content types that are associated with the list now, we should see the standard one plus the “Demo News” one.

So now we have the plumbing let’s add some sample news, be sure to select the menu next to the “New” button and select “Demo News” as the content type.

I have added the following items and ensured that I selected a different new category as we will use these later.

So now we have some news items and the main structure we need to add a Content Query Web Part to the main parent portal and then attach this to the correct data.

To do this open up the main portal page and select the “Edit Page” option from the “Site Actions” menu.

Then when the page has loaded navigate to the web part zone you wish to use and select the “Add a Web Part” link.

From the popup windows select the “Content Query Web Part” from the “All Web Parts” section.

Once this is done it will be loaded onto the main page and automatically populated with some content from the site. In order to display our custom data we need to modify the configuration for the web part. To do this press the “Edit” button on the web part and then the “Modify Shared Web Part” menu item.

The configuration for the web part should then load. The configuration that needs modifying is contained within the “Query” section. The default configuration is shown below.

We will now change the configuration to the following:

After you apply the above, the content query web part should then display the following:

Even though is a good view it does not show the rest of detail, also I would like the content to be grouped by the “News Category”. To group the content modify the web part and select the presentation section. Within the Group dropdown menus you will see the “New Category” field.

Select the “New Category” and apply. The web part should then render as below.

To make it look a little more exciting than the plain standard style we can use some of the built in styles. To change the styles modify the web part and select the “Presentation” section again but this time scroll down to the styles section.

As a test to show you what the base ones look like simply select the “Title with Background” option and apply this to the web part. This should then be displayed as below.

As you can see they are quite basic and probably not what you would want to use. So let’s look at changing it slightly but using XSL to display extra fields and change the layout. Firstly you need export the web part to our machine. To do this, select the export menu item from the edit menu of the web part.

You will then be prompted to save the file as below.

Now open up the file in any text editor, I will use Visual Studio but notepad will work just as well. Now in the file there is a property called “CommonViewFields”. This needs to be changes as below.

Before

<property name=”CommonViewFields” type=”string” />

After

<property name=”CommonViewFields” type=”string”>Body, Text</< span>property>

Now we need to upload the newly edited web part into the page and remove the current one. This is done by editing the page again clicking the “X” icon to close the current one then clicking the “Add a web part” button again. This time instead of picking a web part from the windows press the “Advanced Web Part gallery and options” link as below.

This will now load the gallery of web parts into the right hand side of the window. At the top of the new window click the arrow on the right side of the browse button and select the “Import” menu item.

Now navigate to your edited web part and press ok to import. This should then appear in the list below and can be dragged onto the page just like any other web part.

The web part will now load as before but still not show the extra field we added in. To add this field in we need to make some changes to the XSLT for the content query web part. All of the styles that we looked at earlier for the content query web part are stored within two XSL files. These files are stored in a style library stored within the site. The easiest way to make the changes is to simply take a copy of the “ItemStyle.xsl” and open it in Visual Studio. Once this is opened you can change the relevant template section as below. For this example we will use the “Image on Left” style. Within the template is a section as below:

This needs to be changed as below, so it will now show the “@Body” field instead of the description one listed by default. The new code is listed as below:

If you now save the file and upload this file into the “Style Library” and select the overwrite with a version checkbox. Once this is done, simply refresh the main page and the web part should now list as below:

Notice that the CQWP is showing the HTML code, obviously we do not want this for our live solution. To fix this we can create a function within the XSLT to fix this. A great example of all of the work I am doing here and a specific function can be found here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2006/10/25/configuring-and-customizing-the-content-query-web-part.aspx

The function that we will use is as below.

This needs to be added to the “ItemStyle.xsl” file. The code block is shown below.

version=”1.0″

exclude-result-prefixes=”x d xsl msxsl cmswrt”

xmlns:x=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema”

xmlns:d=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp”

xmlns:cmswrt=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v3/Publishing/runtime”

xmlns:xsl=”http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform” xmlns:msxsl=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt”>

The display code we changed earlier now needs to be changed as below.

No we have done this and saved the file back, when we refresh the page the web part should now display as below.

Now what we would also like to see is a [more] button instead of showing the full details as above. This can be added by simply using the “substring” function to split the body up and then add some extra fields to the XSLT to turn the [more] into a hyperlink. The code would look as below.

…[

more]

The CQWP should then display as below.

So as you can see with a little modification you can create highly customized CQWP to display your content. Just want to say, a great big thanks to George Perantatos who posted some of the content I have used here. J

Hopefully you will find this useful, I had great fun in working out all the steps that needed to be taken to achieve this.

Category: SharePoint

Published: 15/01/2007 20:21

BlogTitleForUrl: moss2007-–-content-query-web-part-step-by-step

Categories: Development;SharePoint;Office System 2007

MOSS2007 – Content Query Web Part step by step
Liam Cleary
Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:58:35 GMT

Microsoft has just relased a whitepaper which gives a great overview of VS2008. VS2008 is centeret around three pillars:

Improve Developer Productivity

In Visual Studio 2008, developer productivity doesn’t end with the code editor and wizards. By extending this concept to application architectures and the underlying platform, Visual Studio 2008 delivers not only a productive development tool, but also enables developers to tackle new business problems while decreasing the total cost of solution construction. In Visual Studio 2008 developers, designers, and database professionals will see new tools and frameworks become available to simplify their tasks.

Manage the Application Life Cycle

Visual Studio 2008 enhances the end-to-end value of Visual Studio Team System by increasing its role-based coverage and delivering enhanced traceability throughout the software development life cycle. With deep integration across roles in the software life cycle and the Team Foundation Server, Team System enables customers to amplify the impact of their teams and improve software quality.

Employ the Latest Technologies

As users look for new ways to comprehend and retain information, developers must still grapple with basic desktop and application security. Visual Studio, Windows Vista, and the 2007 Office system, enable developers to deliver a safe, robust and compelling user experience in any type of application. These fundamental advances enable customers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality, rich user experiences regardless of project complexity or organization size.

Highly recommeded reading:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/f/d/bfdb8b1b-323a-435e-b328-cadc8b67bbee/An%20Overview%20of%20Visual%20Studio%202008.xps

“Cider” is the codename for the WPF designer in Visual Studio 2008.  These screencasts covers some of the new features in Cider and walks you through building a small application to apply the features.

Part 1 shows you how to create a WPF application using VS2008.

Part 2 shows you how to use Blend to style a WPF application created with VS2008;  see how you can seamlessly go back and forth between the two tools to get the best out of a developer (intellisense, code wiring, etc.) and designer ( styling, templating) tools for creating WPF applications.

This is a completely personal post about children surfing the web.

My kids are 6½ and the surf the web on their own computers. Until now there’s been no need to guard against unwanted sites and content, but now they’re starting to write things like “spiderman” and “ben10” in the search field in IE7 and then browse the different sites in the search results list. Now, I’m at a point where I need to be able to control which sites my kids may or may not stumble upon.

There’s already built-in parental control in Windows Vista; here’s a great post on that – and I was going to upgrade their computers to Vista, but not quite yet.

So I needed a Windows XP solution, and after a bit of surfing I found

They offer a completely free filter for Windows XP (and Vista) which based on a central repository of rating and categorization of sites. If your kid accidentally tries to open site which has been classified as inapropriate – the filter blocks access and displays a block page with an error message.

Since the software is of US origin I find the filter a bit too restrictive, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

To quickly get an introduction Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 go and view these excellent webcasts:

TechNet Webcast: Windows SharePoint Services: Overview and What’s New (Level 200)

This webcast covers the technical fundamentals of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, the next generation of Web workspace technology from Microsoft. Find out what is new with Windows SharePoint Services, what has changed, how it works, and why you should use it to develop and deploy information sharing solutions. We recommend that you view this session before viewing the “Office SharePoint Server 2007: Overview and What’s New” webcast.

Presenter: Mike Fitzmaurice, Senior Product Manager – Portals, Microsoft Corporation

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Overview and What’s New (Level 200)

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is much more than an upgrade from Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft Content Management Server 2002. This webcast provides an overview of the features in SharePoint Server 2007, and covers technical fundamentals, new sets of server functionality, and other factors developers and IT professionals must consider. Since Office SharePoint Server 2007 is built on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, it is recommended that you attend the “Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – Overview and What’s New” webcast first.

Presenter: Mike Fitzmaurice, Senior Product Manager – Portals, Microsoft Corporation

Just in from the web is the unfortunate shooting at Virginia Tech — my feelings go out to the families left behind.

On a more serious note – when will the US realize that the only way to stop this is absolute gun control? The historic right to bear arms and protect yourself against the government expired 198 years ago…

Link to What’s up with all these Shootings!? ~ Chris Pirillo

I bought a Nova 500 Watt external PSU from www.nesteq.de and it came today.

Here’s what it looks like:

The installation went very smooth and I replaced the old noisy internal PSU with the external one in about 15 minutes.

Now I can enjoy my Vista MCE in silence 🙂