Free SharePoint Website for trying stuff out

I know there is now Office 365 accounts but sometimes you don’t want all the clutter of that product.

So here is a free website you can play with. Enjoy

http://www.freesharepoint.com/

SharePoint HTML Calculated Column and Unicode Graphics

The number one application of the ”HTML Calculated Column” method is the display of visual indicators in SharePoint lists. You’ll find many examples on my blog:
- KPIs
- Progress bars
- Color gradients
- etc.

If you haven’t used this method yet, you’ll need to learn it to take advantage of these tutorials. For the latest information on the HTML Calculated Column, start with this post… or attend one of our live online workshops.

Most examples are about color coding backgrounds or text. But what if you want to take it a little further? For example display:
- up/down arrows ➘➙➚
- check marks ✗✓
- star ratings ✭✭✭✭✭
- traffic lights ✹✹✹ ✹✹✹ ✹✹✹
- etc. ✉☎☀☁

What immediately comes to mind is to use a set of icons. But the above examples offer a lighter solution: welcome to the world of unicode graphics!

Unicode is an international standard that references character sets. This includes some graphics, see for example the page below:
http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/index.html
For the graphics, scroll down to the “Symbols” category.

Some benefits of unicode, compared to icons:
- unlimited choice of colors, for both the graphic and the background.
- the rendering is not bound to an external image. This means better performance. Also, it makes it easier to save the SharePoint list as template for reuse in other environments (I’ll provide such a template in an upcoming post).

An example: traffic lights

As an example, here is the formula I used in a calculated column to generate the above traffic lights:

1
="<span style='background-color:black;font-size:24px;'><span style='padding:-10px;color:"&IF([Color]="Green","green;'>✹","gray;'>✹")&"</span><span style='padding:-10px;color:"&IF([Color]="Amber","RGB(255, 191, 0);'>✹","gray;'>✹")&"</span><span style='padding:-10px;color:"&IF([Color]="Red","red;'>✹","gray;'>✹")&"</span></span>"

Where the [Color] column can take the values Green, Amber or Red.

How about Wingdings?

Why use unicode characters, and not simply fonts like Webdings, Wingdings, or Zapf Dingbats? Those too offer graphics, but there is a downside: these fonts are not standard, and they don’t work cross-browser (and never will, from what I read). Such graphic fonts could still work for you if you are in a corporate environment where your internal policy enforces the use of Internet Explorer.

Unicode seems to work in all modern browsers. I tested it in IE7, IE8, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

SharePoint Calculated Column :: Set default date to first day of the current month

This is small requirement I received to make a date column in a list and make it to
default to the first day of the current month.
I'm sure that for most of you it will not be something difficult to do, but for those struggling here are the steps:
1. create a date type column.
2. In the default value of this column to the following formula
=DATE(YEAR(Today),MONTH(Today),DAY("1-Apr-2008"))
instead of "1-Apr-2008" you might want to use any date that reflects the first day of the month, DAY() function will extract the needed number 1.

A Great Video on SharePoint 2013

Hey everyone, no doubt you have heard that SharePoint is getting a facelift as the RTM version of SharePoint 2013 is now in production.

Here is a great YouTube video on what is coming…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD6ebRtjn5M 

Whats new in Sharepoint 2013 Preview

Mapping a local drive letter to a SharePoint Document Library

Drive mapping can be created to any SharePoint document library to facilitate document management using the standard Windows Explorer applet (rather than the more cumbersome Internet Explorer (IE) interface.

Prerequisites:

Windows XP is required (or a WEBDEV updated Windows 2000) operating system.

Mapping Procedure:

1. Use Internet Explorer (IE) to navigate to the desired SharePoint Library. The screen below shows an example library:

a. Note the URL for the SharePoint library; the one for the above is:
 https://companyweb.alleycat.org/ACA/admin/NetAdmin/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx
b. The critical portion of the URL is the part up to the /Forms…; that is;
https://companyweb.alleycat.org/ACA/admin/NetAdmin/Shared%20Documents
c. Also note the “%20” characters – these characters represent a “space” character for WEB browser text strings. We will replace these characters with the actual space character for the mapping operation.


2. Open up Windows Explorer (WE)
and select the Tools menu and then “Map Network Drive…” item. You will see the Map drive dialogue box shown below:

3. Next select the drop-down menu arrow

to the right of the Drive entry box and select an available drive letter of your choice:


Drive letter W: has been selected as shown above.

4. Now TYPE (do not cut and past) the SharePoint folder URL as shown below:

 http://companyweb.alleycat.org/ACA/admin/NetAdmin/Shared Documents

a. Note: http: is used instead of https:; this seems to work more reliably for this procedure.
b. Note: the “Reconnect at logon” checkbox is checked so this mapping will be retained until you decide to disconnect the drive mapping at some future date.

5. Click the Finish button to complete the mapping process.

a. After a brief period of time an Explorer window will pop-up showing the new mapped SharePoint folder:

b. Close the Window and return to the main WE window; you should now see the newly mapped drive as shown below

c. You can now right-click on the new mapping and select the “Rename” entry from the pop-up menu. Rename the mapping to better identify its SharePoint folder location:

6. Removing the SharePoint mapping.

a. Right-click on the drive mapping in WE and select the “Disconnect” entry


That’s it! However, if you have problems, refer to the trouble=shooting tips that follow.

Trouble-Shooting Tips

Various Windows setup issues might interfere with the mapping process. Here are several things to consider if you experience problems.
Remote Users
1. Remote users should be connected to the main office system with a VPN connection for the most consistent behavior. This is actually not necessary, but it VPN connectivity sets up a complete environment that includes finding network resources and WEB access.
2. Make sure you have the Proxy settings set up for the VPN connection:
a. Open IE and select the Tool/Internet Options menu item:

b. Select the Connections tab; you will see the “Dial-up and Virtual Private Network settings box as shown below. Highlight you VPN connection entry and click the Settings button to the right of the box.

c. Note the Proxy server section shown below: Make sure you have the same entries as show below.

d. Next, click the Advanced button to see the following screen:

e. Note the entry in the Exceptions box. This entry provides direct internal access to the CompanyWeb site.
f. OK out of the windows to complete the process.

Internet Security Settings

The SharePoint WEB site uses authentication security to allow access to the site and to various documents in Libraries. You can avoid the need to enter you user name and password repeatedly by making the following settings to the Security settings in IE.
1. Select the Tools/Internet Options menu item as shown below:

2. Select the Security tab and Trusted sites item. Click the Sites… button.

3. Enter the https://Companyweb.alleycat.org address as shown below and click the Add button:

4. Click OK to return to the previous screen. Next click the Custom level… button to see the following screen:

5. Scroll to the bottom of the list of options to the User Authentication/Logon section. Make sure the third Logon option is selected: “Automatic logon with current username and password.”
a. Note: This assumes that you have used your domain user name and password for your local system profile.

WEB Client (WEBDev) Service

The WEB Client service provides the support necessary for mapping SharePoint WEB sites and libraries. Occasionally, this service may become disabled. If you obtain “network cannot be found” messages when trying to map SharePoint resources, check to see if the WEB Client service has been disabled as follows:
1. Open Control Panel from the Start menu and double-click the Administration Tools item.

2. From the Administrative Tools screen; double-click the “Services” entry:

3. Scroll down the services list and find the WebClient entry:

4. It’s Status should be “Started.” If it is not, double-click the entry and set the Startup Type: to “Automatic.” You can then click the Start button to start the service.

5. Close all the Windows and try the Mapping procedure again.

Training for SharePoint

So you want to learn more?

Below are some ways to accelerate your knowledge in SharePoint.

http://www.testking.com/ - Download actual exams for various supplier

http://sharepointtests.blogspot.co.nz/ - Blog on sharepoint

http://joelblogs.co.uk/practice-exams/ - Practice exams

The Practice exam above.

This exam has 43 questions that are SharePoint 2010 developer specific in C#, in the style of the Microsoft 70-573 exam – “TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development”.
These are not questions from Microsoft, MeasureUp, Self-Test or any other vendor.

Addons, Plugins and WebParts that Rock for SharePoint - Part 1

Hi there

I am going to be bringing you lots of addons, plugins and webparts that have made my life REALLY easy when deploying solutions for my clients.

I have spent 6 years working with and designing solutions for hundreds of clients and I have had my fair share of crappy webparts and promises that don't work.

So this is a chance for you to learn from my mistakes.

In this post I have got the first list of webparts that are pretty cool.

Document Previewer

http://www.vizit.com/

Vizit is a fantastic Thumbnail preview tool for Document Libraries. If you need road warriors to be able to quick see a word document or an engineer to preview a CAD file in the browser then this is the tool you need.

Publishing to Sharepoint

You can utilise 3 solutions I have used before. 

Spring solutions put out a product and Microsoft do with Live Writer. The Microsoft product is free.

http://www.ispringsolutions.com/articles/publishing_content_directly_to_sharepoint.html

The last option is setting up a drive mapping directly to the Document library.
http://stemrc.aihec.org/SharePoint%20Tips%20and%20Tricks/Creating%20a%20Windows%20Drive%20Mapping%20for%20a%20SharePoint%20Document%20Library.pdf

Squeezing Info

Here are some great Tab and Accordian webparts for squeezing more info onto pages.
http://www.amrein.com/apps/page.asp?Q=5808 - Tabs and Accordians

Playing Media Files in the Browser

Here is an Audio player for your media document Libraries
http://www.amrein.com/apps/page.asp?Q=5756 - Audio Player

Getting Social with Sharepoint

http://www.newsgator.com/products/social-sites-for-sharepoint-2010.aspx - Social Site Setup