SharePoint: Locking a Completed Task

 

Yet another JavaScript and CEWP trick!

 

Goal: Prevent a completed task from being edited.

Tools:

• Content Editor Web Part (CEWP)
• JavaScript that:
• Finds table cells with the word “Completed”
• Finds the parent row and then the second cell in the row
• Replaces that cells contents with the name of the task and a hyperlink to a message

Steps:

• Display the task list view to modify (each view will need its own web part and JavaScript)
• Add a Content Editor Web Part:
• Go to Site Actions, Edit Page
• Add a Content Editor Web Part and move it below the task web part
• Click in the web part, click Edit, Modify Shared Web Part, and in the Appearance section change "Chrome" to "None".
• Add the JavaScript:
• Click the Source Editor button
• Type or paste the JavaScript (example below)
• Note that this example assumes that the cell with the link and dropdown list is the second cell in the row (cell 1).   i.e. “childNodes[1]”

The JavaScript:

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

  // for info: http://techtrainingnotes.blogspot.com
  var x = document.getElementsByTagName("TD") // find all of the TDs
  var i=0;
  for (i=0;i<x.length;i++)
  {

    if (x[i].className=="ms-vb2") //find the TDs styled for lists
    {

      if (x[i].innerHTML=="Completed")
      {
        var theTargetNode = x[i].parentNode.childNodes[1]

       // The following is all one line:
        theTargetNode.innerHTML = "<a class='ms-vb2' href='javascript:TaskHasBeenCompleted()'>" + theTargetNode.getElementsByTagName("TD")[0].childNodes[0].innerHTML + "</a>"
      }
    }

  }

function TaskHasBeenCompleted()
{
  alert('This task has been completed and cannot be edited.')
}

</script>

 

Watch-outs:

• Remember to add this to your rebuild / disaster recovery plan documentation!
• Users will be able to get to the task and edit it through a direct URL to the task edit page or through any other views you have not modified.

.

SharePoint: How to Hide Delete Site

 

Site Owners can delete their own sites. A cool power user feature, but… do you trust them with this power?

Before we go on, even if you remove the ability to delete a site, you should still install the site undelete tool from CodePlex.  Just in case, you know…

Here’s two ways I’ve thought of to deal with Delete Site…

• Replace the Delete Site page
• Hide the Delete Site link using a feature

(both require access to the web servers)

 

Idea #1 – Get rid of the site delete page!

Well, not get rid of it, but hide it. The site delete page is in the 12 hive: …\12\template\layout\deleteweb.apx.  The quickest way to make this page unavailable is to just rename it, say to deletewebforadminonly.aspx. You can then still use the page to delete a site by going directly to http://servername/sitename/_layouts/deletewebforadminonly.aspx.

What will the site owners see if they click the Delete Site link? The standard SharePoint “Unknown Error” error page. Want something better? After renaming the deleteweb page create a new deleteweb page with something like “To delete this site please contact your SharePoint Administrator at 123-1234”.

Sample deletesite.aspx page:

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/_layouts/application.master"%>

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderPageTitle" runat="server">
Delete Web Site
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderPageTitleInTitleArea" runat="server">
Delete Web Site
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">
The "Delete Site" command has been disabled. <br><br>
To delete this site please contact your SharePoint Administrator
</asp:Content>

 

Idea #2 – Use a Feature:

A SharePoint feature can be enabled and disabled at any time without modifying a site or page. Using this feature described here will hide the Delete Site command from your Site Owners, but they can still go directly to the deletesite.aspx page if they can guess the URL.

Create these files in the Features folder with a name like: …\12\Features\HideDeleteSite

In the feature.xml file pick the Scope you would like to use: Farm, WebApplication, Site or Web.

Feature.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Feature Id="00BFEA71-A83E-497E-9BA0-7A5C597D0106"
    Title="Hide the Delete Site option"
    Description="Remove the ability for the site owner to delete sites."
    Version="1.0.0.0"
    Scope="Web"
    Hidden="FALSE"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
    <ElementManifests>
        <ElementManifest Location="HideDeleteSite.xml" />
    </ElementManifests>
</Feature>

HideDeleteSite.xml

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<HideCustomAction
      Id="HideDeleteSite"
      HideActionId="DeleteWeb"
      GroupId="SiteAdministration"
      Location="Microsoft.SharePoint.SiteSettings" />
</Elements>

 

Then run the STSADM’s install feature command.

STSADM -o installfeature -name HideDeleteSite

Go to Central Admin or the site or site collection, depending on the scope you selected, and enable the feature.

 

Watch outs, got-yas, etc.

• If you delete or rename deletesite.aspx you may find it restored after a service pack update.
• If you use a Feature, remember that if you set the Scope to Web or Site the Site Owner or the Site Administrator will be able to disable it.
• Remember to add this little fix to your disaster plan. Just one more thing to do when you have to rebuild your servers, or add a new web server to the farm.

.

SharePoint: Site Title - Change the Font Size, Face or Hide It

 

Just some more little CSS and CEWP tricks…

 

Hiding the title

If you have replaced the site icon (Site Action, Site Settings, Title Description and Icon) with a large banner image you will probably want to get rid of site title.

You could just go into Site Settings and delete the title, but that cause problems down the road with search and site navigation (crumb trail, etc). Better, just make it disappear. Just use this fragment of CSS:

    <style type="text/css">
      .ms-sitetitle h1 
     {
        display:none
     }
    </style>

Note: the “h1" is needed so you also don’t hide the table cell containing the title.

You can either put this in your masterpage just below the SharePoint:CssLink and SharePoint:Theme tags and this will hide the title for all pages in the site (except for application pages which have their own masterpage).

Or… you can put the CSS in a Content Editor Web Part (CEWP). Add the CEWP, edit the properties and click the Source Editor button. Add your CSS and save. This would need to be repeated for each page in the site.

 

Changing the title size or font:

Big site icon and just a little site title? To fix just add this CSS:

    <style type="text/css">
      .ms-sitetitle a 
      {
        font-size:48pt;
        color:blue;
        font-family:"Comic Sans MS"
      }
    </style>

Note: the “a” is needed as the title is enclosed in an anchor “<A>” tag.

Again, you can put the CSS in either the masterpage or in a Content Editor Web Part.

 

Using a Content Editor Web Part

Note that using a CEWP will only update the page with the web part. To update the site title on all pages in your site you will need to add the CSS to the master page.

Add a Content Editor web part:

• Edit Page (from ribbon, Site Actions, etc. depending on the versoin) 
• Add a Content Editor web part (using the ribbon or web part zone buttons)
• Click in the web part, click Edit, Modify Shared Web Part, and in the Appearance section change "Chrome" to "None".

Add the CSS:

• Click the Source Editor button
• Type or paste the CSS

.

SharePoint: One library, multiple sites!

Update:

I finally got around to testing this in SharePoint 2010, and it works!  Every once and a while I got an error message when saving the page after adding the web part, but it was random and I could not duplicate it. If you try this in 2010, then please add a comment to this article and share if it worked or not.

 

Article summary:

• I will show how to create a custom web part that represents a list or library’s view and use this web part in other sites (at least in the same site collection) without copying documents between sites.
  
• This custom web part supports a tool bar so files can be uploaded and maintained in a single library, but viewed and maintained from any site in the site collection that has this web part.
  
• Tools needed:
  • SharePoint Designer (to make one quick change, export the web part, and then optionally roll back the change)
  • Some way to find the site’s GUID (see link to a tool below)

The Question:

What started out as a simple question has led to some interesting results. So interesting that someone somewhere else must have written this up. I’ve not found it, so here goes…

The question that started this was “why don’t list and library web parts have a ‘Export’ option?” Most other web parts do.

First some observations:

• While editing a web part page, click a web part’s menu and you will usually see an Export option, except for list and library web parts.
• List and library view pages are web part pages (they have “Edit Page” in the Site Actions menu") and the displayed list is a web part.

So how can you export a list web part?

Turns out to be pretty easy. Edit the page in SharePoint Designer and change one word.

1. Open the site in SharePoint Designer and double click on a page with the web part (default.aspx, Shared Documents/Forms/Allitems.aspx, etc)
2. In the code view find the web part and find
   <ExportControlledProperties>false</ExportControlledProperties>
   and change from “false” to “true”
3. Save the page (this will “unghost” the page, but you can undo the changes after the export is complete – right-click the file in the Folder List and select Reset to Site Definition)
4. Go to a browser and visit this page. Go to Site Actions, Edit Page.
5. Click Edit in web part you just modified and click Export.
6. Give the file a name and save it somewhere where you can find it in the next step.

To import the exported settings as a new web part:

1. Visit your top level site in the site collection and go to Site Actions, Site Settings, and in the Galleries column click Web Parts

To add the web part.

1. Nothing special here. Add this web part just like any other web part.

Some differences…

Oddly, the displayed columns are different. The AllItems view displayed Type, Name, Modified and Modified By. The new web part displays Type, Name and Modified By. This is easy to fix. Edit the web part and change the Selected View property to All Documents then you will get the same list of columns in both displays.

The new web part does not display a toolbar by default, but this can be enabled from the web part’s properties panel. If the toolbar is enabled you will see all of the buttons found in the AllItems page, New, Upload, Actions and Settings (depending on the current user’s security rights).

 

Now test the web part in a sub site….

Error!

    Unable to add selected web part(s).
    List does not exist.
    The page you selected contains a list that does not exist.

On the first attempt it appears that the new exported web part will not work on another site. Time for more research…

 

Find the missing GUID

Open the .DWP (.WEBPART in 2010) file created by the Export. Find these two lines:

SP 2007
   <ListName …..>{ list_guid_here } </ListName>
   <WebId ….> all_zeros_guid_here </WebId>

SP 2010

   <property name="ListName" type="string">{ list_guid_here } </property>
   …
   <property name="WebId" …>all_zeros_guid_here </property>

 

SharePoint uses Globally Unique IDs (GUIDS) to identify just about everything stored in the databases. Notice that the ListName has a GUID, but the WebId is all zeros. Replace the zeros with the GUID for the site that owns the list and all will then work.

 

How to find a GUID

I can’t find any place in the the pages exposed in SharePoint Designer where the web site’s GUID is used, although the list’s GUID can be found in some of the URLs (for example after clicking Settings, List or Library Settings). I wrote two little utilities to display a site’s GUIDs, one a Windows application and the other a page you can deploy to the LAYOUTS folder on the server.

See: http://techtrainingnotes.blogspot.com/2009/03/sharepoint-finding-sharepoint-guids.html

Quick note: Internally a site is call a “web” and a site collection is called a “site”. (go figure…) The utilities above use the web and site names.

 

Update the web part file

Edit the WebId element and replace the all zeros GUID with the site’s GUID:

  SP 2007”   <WebId ….> all_zeros_guid_here </WebId>

  SP 2010    <property name="WebId" …>all_zeros_guid_here </property>

After updating the DWP file with the site’s (web’s) GUID, re-upload it to the web part gallery and go and test the web part in a sub site.

And for the “Strange Things” list… the GUID for the web site does not include brackets ( { } ) and is in lower case. The GUID for the list must have brackets and MUST be in UPPER CASE or it will not work.

 

 

Watch outs and warnings!

• This has not been tested in a production environment – you are on your own! (Please let me know if it works or does not work for you)
  
• So far I have only tested this on MOSS 2007 Enterprise and SharePoint Server 2010, but it should work in WSS and SharePoint Foundation.
  
• I have tested this so far with document libraries and several lists such as Announcements, but not with every list and library.
  
• This will only work within the same site, or within the same site collection. It will not work between site collections, between applications or between servers.
  
• The view displayed in the web part is a copy of the view in the original list or library. Use Edit, Modify Shared Web Part to pick another view or to refresh the view.
  
• Users will need rights to the original list or library. This web part is only a view of the real list.
  
• Alerts will be stored in the site with the original list so alert management will need to be done from that site’s Site Actions, Site Settings menu.
  
• Most menu options will display screens from the site with the original list, but when the user clicks OK, Cancel, Close, etc, they will return to the site with the web part. One exception is if an operation generates as error, the “Go back to site” link will take them to the list’s site, not the web part’s site.
  
• Batteries not included, your mileage may vary…

 

Have fun, and let me know if this works or does not work for you.

 

.

SharePoint: Finding SharePoint GUIDs

 

Update… I put together a PowerShell version of this here: http://techtrainingnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/finding-sharepoint-guids-using.html  (so now you have four versions!)

Update… I put together a version of this that uses the SharePoint web services so you can get the GUIDs without having to be on the server. The EXE and the C# project can be downloaded here.

So now you have three versions, API from a Windows app, API from a LAYOUTs page and Web Services from a Windows app.

---

 

 

Just a little code to share….   :-)

 

I needed a quick way to find the GUIDs used on a SharePoint site so I wrote a little C# routine to display them. Below is the sample code for both a Windows app and a SharePoint Layouts ASPX page.

 

The Windows Version:

As this calls the API instead of the web services so this will need to be run from one of the SharePoint servers.

Add a textbox, a button and a listbox on a form then…

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace WindowsApplication2
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {  InitializeComponent();    }

        private void listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            textBox1.Text = listBox1.SelectedItem.ToString();
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            listBox1.Items.Clear();
            SPSite site;
            try
            {
                site = new SPSite(txtSiteURL.Text);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
                return;
            }
            listBox1.Items.Add("Site: " + site.ID.ToString());
            SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;  //site.RootWeb;
            listBox1.Items.Add("Web: " + web.ID.ToString());
            foreach (SPList list in web.Lists)
            {
                listBox1.Items.Add(list.Title + ": " + list.ID.ToString());
            }

        }

    }
}

 

The Layouts folder version:

Create a text file in the SharePoint LAYOUTS folder with a name like “getGuids.aspx” and paste the following code. Run the page from any site:  http://youserver/yoursite/_layouts/getGuids.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#"  %>
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<script runat="server">
    private void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        ListBox1.Items.Clear();
        SPSite site;
        site = SPContext.Current.Site;
        ListBox1.Items.Add("Site: " + site.ID.ToString());
        SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;   // site.RootWeb;
        ListBox1.Items.Add("Web: " + web.ID.ToString());
        foreach (SPList list in web.Lists)
        {
            ListBox1.Items.Add(list.Title + ": " + list.ID.ToString());
        }
    }

    private void ListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        TextBox1.Text = Request.Form["ListBox1"];
    }

</script>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server" Width="530px" />
        <br /><br />
        Click to copy to the text box.<br />
        <asp:ListBox ID="ListBox1" runat="server"
          OnSelectedIndexChanged="ListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged"
          Rows="20" AutoPostBack="True"/></div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

SharePoint: Past Due / Late Tasks in a Task List

 

Update: If you have users who display dates in formats other than MM/DD/YYYY you will find that the following will not work consistently. Here’s is some background on the date problem in SharePoint and JavaScript and how to fix it: http://techtrainingnotes.blogspot.com/2011/03/sharepoint-javascript-and-dates.html (includes replacement code for this article)

 

The code below and in the above link works with both SharePoint 2007 and 2010.

 

Here’s another JavaScript trick to deal with a common request, highlighting past due tasks in a SharePoint Task List.

Here’s a few non-JavaScript ways that this has been done:

• Create a custom workflow (too much work and not portable, but it can also send reminder emails!)
• Use a trick to add a calculated field using [Today] (only works when the trick is reapplied every day or each task is manually edited)

This example uses a bit of copy-and-paste JavaScript and requires the following:

• A Content Editor Web Part to hold the JavaScript
• Some JavaScript you can copy from below
• An extra column to hold the past due message (optional)

The goal:

 

To add the extra column:

If you would like to display a message such as “Past Due” or display an image then you will need an extra column, preferably one your users cannot edit. A calculated column that displays a blank will do this.

• Add a new column to your list (Settings, New Column)
• Give it a title (any will do) such as “Past Due”
• Make the column a Calculated column and set the formula to ="" (and equal sign followed by two quotes)

To add the Content Editor web part and JavaScript:

• Display the task list view to color code (each view will need its own web part and JavaScript)
  
• Add a Content Editor web part
  
  • Site Actions, Edit Page
  • Add a Content Editor web part and move it below the calendar web part
  • In the web part, click Edit, Modify Shared Web Part, and in the Appearance section change "Chrome" to "None".
    
• Add the JavaScript
  
  • Click the Source Editor button
  • Type or paste the JavaScript (examples below)
  • Count the columns displayed in your task list to find the “Due Date” and “Past Due” columns. The Attachments column is column zero and the Due Date is typically column five (0,1,2,3,4,5).
  • Edit the JavaScript to set these two numbers:
    var colDueDate = 5;
    var colPastDue = 7; // set to -1 to ignore
  • Click Save, OK and Exit Edit Mode to see the results
    
  • If you would like to display an image in place of the text change this line:
    
    x[i].parentNode.childNodes[colPastDue].innerHTML='Past due!'
    
    to:
    
    x[i].parentNode.childNodes[colPastDue].innerHTML='<img src="/_layouts/images/ERRLG.GIF" />'
    
    and set your SRC to an image in your library or in the SharePoint install folder (“images”).

Making this work in views other than “All Tasks”

You probably will first test this in the “All Tasks” view and then switch to one of the other task views and mumble something about Mike’s hacks don’t work everywhere!

Well… each view page is, well… it’s own page. Check the URLs.

All Tasks: http://…../AllItems.aspx
Active Tasks: http://…../active.aspx
My Tasks: http://……/MyItems.aspx

Each page will need it’s own Content Editor Web Part with the JavaScript, the extra column will need to be displayed and the column numbers in the JavaScript adjusted.

As an example, here are the steps for the “Active Tasks” view:

• Modify the view to display the “Past Due” column
• Check your column numbers for the “Due Date” and “Past Due” columns
• Add the Content Editor Web Part and the JavaScript as described above, adjusting the column numbers as needed.

Bugs? Issues?

• You cannot sort the “Past Due” column as this data is not in SharePoint. It has only been added in the user’s browser. (Another plus for a workflow solution?)
• Each new view created will need the CEWP and the JavaScript added.
• Changing or reordering the columns in a view will require an update to the column numbers in the JavaScript.
• As the CEWP is not visible, you will probably forget that it is there, and then wonder why the color highlighting no longer works after you modify the view!
• As the CEWP is not visible, the next person to inherit your SharePoint site will have no idea how this works. (You do document everything you do in your site, right?)

The JavaScript:

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

  // Stolen from techtrainingnotes.blogspot.com !

  // this routine needs to know:
  // column with the Due Date (attachment column is #0)
  //      (in the default task list Due Date is #5)
  // optional column to display the "past due" message
  //      (can be any "single line of text" column)
  var colDueDate = 5;
  var colPastDue = 7; // set to -1 to ignore

  var i=0;
  d=new Date() //current date/time

  var x = document.getElementsByTagName("TD") // find all of the TDs
  for (i=0;i<x.length;i++)
  {
    if (x[i].className=="ms-vb2") //find the TDs styled for lists
    {
      //find a row with a key phrase
      if (x[i].innerHTML=="Not Started"
           | x[i].innerHTML=="In Progress"
           | x[i].innerHTML=="Waiting on someone else" )
      {
        if (d.getTime() >= Date.parse(x[i].parentNode.childNodes[colDueDate].childNodes[0].innerHTML) )
        {
        x[i].parentNode.style.backgroundColor='red'; // set the color
        if (colPastDue > -1)
        x[i].parentNode.childNodes[colPastDue].innerHTML='Past due!' 
        }

      }

    }

  }
</script>