Tasks For You Web Part for SharePoint Portal Server Released

Tasks For You Web Part Do you need to publish Tasks from SPS and/or WSS Task Lists to SharePoint Portal Server Audiences? The ability to target content to Audiences in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is one of the hallmark features of the product. Unfortunately, out-of-the-box, only Portal Listings can be targeted to specific Audiences (in conjunction with the Grouped Listings web part). Now, with the Tasks for You web part from SharePoint Solutions, you can target any Task from any Task List, whether in SPS or WSS, to any Audience! Advanced features include the ability to include/exclude specific Audiences from being displayed by the web part. If you'd like to download a fully-functional TrialWare version of the Tasks For You Web part for evaluation on your own servers, please visit the Product Downloads page. Click for Larger View Click for Larger View Click here for more information...

Announcements For You, Documents For You Web Parts for SharePoint Portal Server Released

Documents For You Web Part Do you need to publish documents from SPS and/or WSS Document Libraries to SharePoint Portal Server Audiences? The ability to target content to Audiences in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is one of the hallmark features of the product. Unfortunately, out-of-the-box, only Portal Listings can be targeted to specific Audiences (in conjunction with the Grouped Listings web part). Now, with the Documents for You web part from SharePoint Solutions, you can target any document from any document library, whether in SPS or WSS, to any Audience! Advanced features include the ability to include/exclude specific Audiences from being displayed by the web part. If you'd like to download a fully-functional TrialWare version of the Documents For You Web part for evaluation on your own servers, please visit the Product Downloads page. Screen Shot - Click for Larger View Click here for more information...

---

Announcements For You Web Part Do you need to publish Announcements from SPS and/or WSS Announcement Lists to SharePoint Portal Server Audiences? The ability to target content to Audiences in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is one of the hallmark features of the product. Unfortunately, out-of-the-box, only Portal Listings can be targeted to specific Audiences (in conjunction with the Grouped Listings web part). Now, with the Announcements for You web part from SharePoint Solutions, you can target any Announcement from any Announcement List, whether in SPS or WSS, to any Audience! Advanced features include the ability to include/exclude specific Audiences from being displayed by the web part. If you'd like to download a fully-functional TrialWare version of the Announcements For You Web part for evaluation on your own servers, please visit the Product Downloads page. Screen Shot - Click for Larger View Click here for more information...

Free SharePoint Portal Server Web Part: Events for You

The Events for You Web Part functions in a manner very similar to the Links for You Web Part that can be found on the Home Page and Personal MySite page of SharePoint Portal Server. With this free Web Part, Event Items from the Events List located in the portal’s root web are presented to portal users based on their Audience membership. The Events for You Web Part can also be configured to override a user’s Audience membership, targeting Events to a definable set of one or more Audiences. In order to function properly, the Events for You Web Part requires that the Events List located in the portal’s root web be customized with the addition of an “Single line of text” type column named Audience. The Audience column can contain a semicolon delimitted list of Audiences for targeting that particular Event Item. The Events for You Web Part also requires that the Events List has the “Current Events” view.

Here’s a screenshot of Events For You in action:

Setup Instructions

Follow these steps to setup your portal’s Events List for use with the Events for You Web Part:

1. Modify Events List	2. Modify Settings and Columns	3. Add a New Column
4. Single Line of Text Column Type	5. Poplulate Audience Values

Customizing Behavior

Once you have the Events list setup and populated with data, you can customize how the Events for You Web Part behaves:

1. Modify Shared Web Part	2. Deselect ‘Use default user audiences’	3. Target Specific Audiences

Technical Perspective: A few highlights

The Events for You Web Part makes use of the SPQuery object and CAML to query the Events list.

SPQuery query = null;
string caml = string.Empty;
SPListItemCollection results = null;

// CAML uses ISO8601 date format: yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ
string todaysDate = SPUtility.CreateISO8601DateTimeFromSystemDateTime(DateTime.Today).ToString();

try
{
query = new SPQuery(events.Views["Current Events"]);

// Build the CAML Query to get all Events which belong to the current Audience (a)
// and have start date of today or in the future
// Apparently there is a problem with using CAML to get recurring events, so they're not supported.
// More info about DateRangesOverlap element at http://wss.collutions.com/Lists/FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=320
caml = string.Format("<Where><And><Contains><FieldRef Name='Audience'/><Value Type='Text'>{0}</Value></Contains>"
+ "<And><Geq><FieldRef Name='EventDate' /><Value Type='DateTime'>{1}</Value></Geq><DateRangesOverlap>"
+ "<FieldRef Name='EventDate'></FieldRef><FieldRef Name='EndDate'></FieldRef><FieldRef Name='RecurrenceID'>"
+ "</FieldRef><Value Type='DateTime'><Month/></Value></DateRangesOverlap></And></And></Where><OrderBy><FieldRef Name='EventDate'/></OrderBy>",
audienceName, todaysDate);
query.Query = caml;
results = events.GetItems(query);

// If the results collection contains items, we have some hits
if(results.Count > 0)
hasEvents = true;
}
catch(ArgumentException ex)
{
// 'Current Events' View doesn't exist
_messages.Text += "<p>This portal's 'Events' List must have a 'Current Events' View defined in order for this web part to function properly.</p>";
_hasHandledErrors = true;
break;
}
catch(NullReferenceException ex)
{
// No items in results collection
_hasHandledErrors = true;
break;
}
catch(Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException ex)
{
// 'Audiences' column not defined
_messages.Text += "<p>This portal's 'Events' List must have a 'Single line of text' type Column named 'Audience' defined in order for this web part to function properly.</p>";
_hasHandledErrors = true;
break;
}

The AudienceManager object is used to determine Audiences for the current user:

// Returns an array of audience names for the current portal user
public static string[] GetUserAudiencesNamesArray(string url)
{
// Get the portal context
SPSite portal = new SPSite(url);
PortalContext context = PortalApplication.GetContext(portal.ID);

// Get the list of audiences for the user
AudienceManager manager = new AudienceManager(context);
string[] names = new string[manager.GetUserAudienceIDs().Count];
IEnumerator enumer = manager.GetUserAudienceIDs().GetEnumerator();
int i = 0;
while(enumer.MoveNext())
{
AudienceNameID temp = (AudienceNameID)enumer.Current;
names[i] = temp.AudienceName;
i++;
}
return names;
}

The MSOPGrid_doBuilder() JavaScript function located in ows.js is used to launched the Audience Chooser Custom Property Builder:

private void RegisterJavaScripts()
{
try
{
// Client-side code to apply changes
string applyFunction = "ApplyProperties" + _qualifier;
string EmbeddedScriptFormat = "<script language=jscript>function " + applyFunction + "(){\n";
EmbeddedScriptFormat += "document.forms[MSOWebPartPageFormName].MSOTlPn_Button.value = 'apply';\n";
EmbeddedScriptFormat += "document.forms[MSOWebPartPageFormName].elements['" + _shortId + ":MSOTlPn_AppBtn'].click();\n";
EmbeddedScriptFormat += "}\n";
EmbeddedScriptFormat += "</script>\n";
if(!Page.IsClientScriptBlockRegistered(applyFunction))
Page.RegisterClientScriptBlock(applyFunction, EmbeddedScriptFormat);

// Client-side button click handler
string onClick = "MSOPGrid_doBuilder('"
+ "_layouts/1033/Audience_Chooser.aspx" + "', " + "EventsForYou" + _qualifier
+ ", '" + "dialogHeight:510px;dialogWidth:560px;help:no;status:no;resizable:yes" + "');";
onClick += applyFunction + "();";
_button.Attributes.Add("OnClick", onClick);

// Client-side checkbox click handler
_chkDefaults.Attributes.Add("OnClick", applyFunction + "()");

}
catch (Exception ex)
{
System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine(string.Format("{0} {1} {2}",ex.GetType().ToString(), ex.Message, ex.StackTrace), "ERROR");
}
}

The source code and binaries for the Events for You Web Parts are released to public domain. Download source and binaries from the links below.

EventsForYou-1.0.0.0.zip

EventsForYou-1.0.0.0–Source.zip

Leveraging Custom Property Builders in SharePoint Web Parts

A few months ago, I posted an article about decorating your custom SharePoint web part's properties with the HtmlDesignerAttribute to provide users with a richer, more functional interface for setting custom web part properties. These specialized user interfaces for setting web part properties are called Custom Property Builders.

While it is possible to create your own Custom Property Builders, there are several Custom Property Builders provided with SharePoint out-of-the-box. In this article, I'll take a few moments to expand on a few of the Custom Property Builders that come with SharePoint, and review how to leverage these Custom Property Builders in your own Web Parts.

To begin with, here's a table with some (not all!) of the Custom Property Builders that are installed with SharePoint. A few are specific to SharePoint Portal Server, and others come with Windows SharePoint Services.

Location	Function
_layouts/1033/Audience_Chooser.aspx	Audiences Picker
_layouts/1033/CategoryPickerPopUp.aspx	Areas Picker
_layouts/1033/PickerContainer.aspx	Select Users, Distribution Lists, and Security Groups
_layouts/1033/zoombldr.aspx	Basic Text Editor

One of the simplest Custom Property Builders to use is zoombuilder.aspx, which provides a basic text editor for setting a string-based web part custom property.

Communication with the Custom Property Builder from you web part's code is done through a hidden form field. This hidden form field is used to pass data into and receive output back from the Custom Property Builder. Place the code to create this hidden form field in the overridden OnPreRender() method of the Tool Part.

protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e)
{

base.OnPreRender(e);
if(Page != null)
{

// Get the calling Web Part's Instance
WebPart1 wp = new WebPart1();
wp = (WebPart1)this.ParentToolPane.SelectedWebPart;
// Get the value for the custom web part property
string parameters = wp.Text;
// Create a unique identifier for the hidden form field
string uniqueId = "MyCustomProperty" + this.UniqueID.Replace(":","_");
// Place hidden form field on the page
Page.RegisterHiddenField(uniqueId, parameters);

}

}

You’ll want to have the property value change take effect as soon as the Customer Property Builder is closed. To do this, you’ll need to programmatically “click the Apply button”. Here’s the JavaScript function to click the Apply button, which should also be placed in the Tool Part’s overridden OnPreRender() method.

string shortId = this.UniqueID.Substring(0,this.UniqueID.IndexOf(":"));
string EmbeddedScriptFormat = "<script language=jscript>function ApplyProperties(){\n";
EmbeddedScriptFormat += "document.forms[MSOWebPartPageFormName].MSOTlPn_Button.value = 'apply';\n";
EmbeddedScriptFormat += "document.forms[MSOWebPartPageFormName].elements['" + shortId + ":MSOTlPn_AppBtn'].click();\n";
EmbeddedScriptFormat += "}\n";
EmbeddedScriptFormat += "</script>\n";
if(!Page.IsClientScriptBlockRegistered(“applyFunction”))
Page.RegisterClientScriptBlock(“applyFunction”, EmbeddedScriptFormat);

Now, to Apply the return value of the Custom Property Builder to your web part property, place the necessary code in the Tool Part's overridden ApplyChanges() method. The ApplyChanges() method will be called after you programmatically “click the Apply Button”.

public override void ApplyChanges()
{

// Get the calling Web Part's Instance
WebPart1 wp = new WebPart1();
wp = (WebPart1)this.ParentToolPane.SelectedWebPart;
// Create a unique identifier for the hidden form field
string uniqueId = "MyCustomProperty" + this.UniqueID.Replace(":","_");
// Set the web part property with the value from the hidden field
wp.Text = this.Context.Request.Params[uniqueId];

}

Launching the Custom Property builder from your custom Web Part's Tool Part is done through JavaScript. SharePoint provides a JavaScript Method for doing this called MSOPGrid_doBuilder(). For your reference MSOPGrid_doBuilder() is located in the ows.js file. MSOPGrid_doBuilder() takes as parameters the path to a Custom Property Builder's location, the Element ID for the hidden form field, and some details on how to the display the Custom Property builder's dialog window. You'll want to call MSOPGrid_doBuilder() from the OnClick event of an element in the Tool Part. This snippet is from the CreateChildControls() method of a Tool Part.

string designerUrl = "_layouts/1033/zoombldr.aspx";
string designerProperties = "dialogHeight:510px;dialogWidth:560px;help:no;status:no;resizable:yes";
string uniqueId = "MyCustomProperty" + this.UniqueID.Replace(":","_");
Label lbl = new Label();
// Client-side button click handler
string onClick = "MSOPGrid_doBuilder('" + designerUrl + "', " + uniqueId + ", '" + designerProperties + "');ApplyProperties();";
lbl.Attributes.Add("OnClick", onClick);

That's about it for handling how to launch a Custom Property Builder and passing data to/from your web part. The zoombldr.aspx is about the simplest Custom Property Builder, using just an regular text string for input and output. Other Customer Property Builder will use comma delimited strings of data for input/output. For example, Audience_Chooser.aspx takes and returns a list of Audience GUIDs e.g. 'E76ADC57-C430-4464-AFA0-028A625D5C2D','332F0A00-55ED-4ae3-BCE3-9B465B675E6F','53C26C1D-4422-4625-BA94-6DCB63F4800E'.

With a bit of reverse engineering you can figure out how to use each of the Custom Property Builders. As further reading, here's a post from SharePoint MVP Gary Bushey that covers using the PickerContainer.aspx Custom Property Builder to select Users, Distribution Groups, and Security Groups from AD.

To wrap up, here are some screenshots for a few of the Custom Property Builders installed with SharePoint:

Feed Monitor Beta 2 Now Available

SharePoint Solutions is happy to announce the release of Feed Monitor Beta 2 for public testing.

New in the Beta 2 release:

• Improved support for retrieving content feeds through HTTP proxies and behind corporate firewalls.
• Improved error handling and error reporting.
• Lots of minor bugfixes.
  

SharePoint Solutions' Feed Monitor provide an easy to use, high performance, highly configurable, dynamic experience for consuming syndicated content feeds in SharePoint. The Feed Monitor web part aggregates and presents content from Podcasts, video blogs, RSS, RDF and Atom syndication formats. In addition, the Feed Monitor web part provides a hierarchical catalog of content feed channels based on the OPML specification.

For some screenshots of the Feed Monitor web part, see our blog.

To explore the dynamic, rich user experience provided by SharePoint Solutions’ Feed Monitor web part, visit our public Feed Monitor demonstration sites.

To participate in the public Beta of SharePoint Solutions’ Feed Monitor web part, visit the Feed Monitor Beta Program page for further information.