Michael Hofer – SharePoint Blog

Ich freue mich sehr, mitteilen zu können, dass ich an der vom  21. bis 25. September 2009 in Mainz stattfindenden ShareConnect 09 als Sprecher mit dabei sein werde .

Im Moment ist leider noch die alte Beschreibung aktiv, meine Session wir aber folgenden Titel und Inhalt haben:

Extreme SharePoint UI – Was ist möglich mit SharePoint, AJAX und Co.?

Haben Sie schon einmal daran gedacht, Ihren Intranet-Benutzern eine Startseite à la www.bbc.com zur Verfügung zu stellen? Unmöglich? Dieser Vortrag zeigt anhand eines Beispiels aus der Praxis wie das mittels mit dem  SharePoint WebPart Framework, ASP.NET AJAX Controls und ein bisschen Zauberei  bewerkstelligt werden kann. Für jedes Entwicklerherz ist etwas dabei: Von eigenen WebPartZones und –Chromes bis hin zu asynchron ladenden, AJAX-Control bestückten WebParts!

Ich denke, dies wird eine sehr spannende Session, da ich ein real existierendes Kundenprojekt vorstellen darf, in dem wir einiges and Coding einbringen durften.

Übrigens wird auch eine 2. Person von 1stQuad Solutions mit an der ShareConnect 2009 als Speaker zugegen sein: Reiner Ganser, ebenfalls Solution Architect bei 1stQuad wird folgende Session präsentieren:

SharePoint Governance: Aufbau einer MOSS 2007 Governance

MOSS 2007 bietet eine Unmenge an Funktionen an, die bei den internen Kunden viele Begehrlichkeiten wecken. Eine Strategie für die SharePoint-Angebote im eigenen Unternehmen ist deshalb wichtig. Die Session zeigt die wichtigen Punkte für eine MOSS 2007 Governance auf, um MOSS-2007-Systeme betreibbar zu halten, aber gleichzeitig den Mitarbeitern die bestmögliche Plattform zu bieten.

Andere spannende Sessions:

Administration & Management
SharePoint und Enterprise 2.0 (Michael Greth)
Planung und Aufbau von hochverfügbaren SharePoint-Infrastrukturen (Björn Schneider)
Effiziente Verwendung der SharePoint-Konzepte bei der Generierung von Mehrwert-SharePoint-Implementierungen (Harald Konnerth)
The „Fuzzy Tail“- Wie entwickelt man ein Suchkonzept? (Christoph Müller)
Das erfolgreiche SharePoint-Projekt (Sebastian Gerling)
Möglichkeiten und Grenzen beim Einsatz von SharePoint als Extranet-Plattform (Denis Holtkamp)
Dokumentablagen in SharePoint effektiv organisieren (Robert Dräger)
Self-Service-BI mit Excel Services (Markus Raatz)
SharePoint Governance (Sven Häfker)

Development & Solutions
WebPart-Entwicklung – Tipps und Tricks (René Hézser)
Behavior-driven Development mit SharePoint 2007 (Gregor Biswanger)
The SharePoint Freak Show (SharePoint Scripting) (Christian Glessner)
Professionelle SharePoint Workflows (Jörg Krause)
Visual Studio pimps SharePoint Designer (Thomas Hauser)
SharePoint und Office an SAP-Geschäftsprozesse anbinden (Markus Dopp)
SharePoint Workflows schnell und einfach mit Nintex Workflow 2007 (Matthias Bender)
Mit SharePoint, SSIS und BizTalk auf SAP- und ORACLE-Daten zugreifen (Andreas Winterer)

Ich würde mich natürlich sehr freuen, den einen oder anderen Leser meines Blogs an der ShareConnect 2009 begrüssen zu dürfen!

If you are using a ASP:NET Web Control Adapter (System.Web.UI.WebControls.Adapters.WebControlAdapter) to give Textboxes a specific look'n'feel in your web application you might encounter a strange problem:

TextBoxes set to TextBox.TextMode = TextBoxMode.Multiline will not render any content / text

I found a couple of people experiencing this problem, but I haven't found a proper solution that was not "create your own textarea control"…

I believe that the problem is that when a TextBox is rendering Multiline-content, it is not rendering an <input>-Element but a <textarea>-Element. So the property TextBox.Text will not be rendered within the value-Attribute of the <Input> but within the <textarea>-Element, like a ChildControl, or better said as Element.InnerText. However, I have not investigated too much in what is going on.

A proper solution to address this issue is by overriding the RenderContents method and handle Multiline-Textboxes specifically:

        protected override void  RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter writer)
        {
            TextBox textBox = (TextBox)Control;
            if (textBox.TextMode == TextBoxMode.MultiLine)
                writer.Write(HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(textBox.Text));

          base.RenderContents(writer);
        }

UPDATE 2009-06-25:

As I've hoped somebody pointed me to a much more "standardized" solution for achieving this: Use the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.InputFormTextBox if you want the SharePoint RichText/HTML-Editor in your WebPart or control, so you don't have to worry about JavaScripts and ServicePack/Migration-Issues (i hope at least….).

My implementation is now very smooth:

<%@ Register Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"
    Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" TagPrefix="sharepoint" %>

<sharepoint:InputFormTextBox TextMode="MultiLine" Title="Email Body" class="ms-input" Rows="6" ID="txtEmailBody"
        RichText="true" RichTextMode="Compatible" Runat="server"  />

Thanks go to the commenters below who pointed me very quickly to the above control, especially to"Dissing // Ameq"  from the "SharePoint Bruger Gruppe"

————————————————-

Did you ever wanted to provide your users the ability to enter RichText/HTML in your input controls within a WebPart or Server Control? This post will show you (conceptionally) how this can be achieved using the standard SharePoint RTE.

Scenario: We've got a textarea that should allow users to enter RichtText/HTML, for instance:

<asp:TextBox ID="txtEmailBody" runat="server" TextMode="MultiLine" Rows="10" />

 please note that "MultiLine" is mandatory, because we need a <textarea> to be rendered.

If we want to make this control to show the formatted RichText/HTML and provide a toolbar that allows for formatting, there are 4 steps required (I do them in the PreRender event):

Step1: Adjust the text that is passed to the <textarea>

In order to render you exisiting field content, you must ajust the text that is set to the textbox like this:

 if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(txtEmailBody.Text))
    txtEmailBody.Text = txtEmailBody.Text.Replace("x00a0", "&nbsp;");

Step 2: Ensure that "forms.js" is present on the page

This javascript-File contains especially "RTE_ConvertTextAreaToRichEdit" and "RTE_TransferIFrameContentsToTextArea".

// Only needed if the page does not include forms.js anyway
if (!Page.ClientScript.IsClientScriptIncludeRegistered("forms")) {
   Page.ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptInclude("forms", "/_layouts/" + SPContext.Current.RegionalSettings.LocaleId + "/form.js"); 

Step 3: Add the client-side script that converts the TextArea to the RichText/HTML Editor

For the conversion, you need to add a javascript after(!) your TextBox. I did this by adding a <span>:

<span id="rteScript" ="server" /></span> 

 Now add the BLOCKED SCRIPT

// Registers the client-script that converts the text-area to the richt-text editor
string script1 = "<script>if (browseris.ie5up && browseris.win32 && !IsAccessibilityFeatureEnabled()){RTE_ConvertTextAreaToRichEdit(""
   + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(txtEmailBody.ClientID) + "", true, true, "", ""
   + SPContext.Current.RegionalSettings.LocaleId + "", null, null, null, null, null, "FullHtml", ""
   + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(SPContext.Current.Web.ServerRelativeUrl)
   + "",null,null,null,null);}else{document.write("&nbsp;<br><SPAN class=ms-formdescription>"
   + "<a href='BLOCKED SCRIPTHelpWindowKey(\"nsfullrichtext\")'>Click for help about adding HTML formatting.</a></SPAN>&nbsp;<br>")};</Script>";
rteScript.InnerHtml = script1;

Step 4: Register the OnSubmit client-side script

 // Registers the OnSubmit client-script that transfers the contents of the richt-text editor back to the text area

string script2 = "if (browseris.ie5up && browseris.win32) RTE_TransferIFrameContentsToTextArea('"
   + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(txtEmailBody.ClientID) + "');";
Page.ClientScript.RegisterOnSubmitStatement(typeof(SPUtility), "RTE_" + txtEmailBody.ClientID, script2);

There you go!

Some thoughts about this solution:

• Don't even think about this as "standard solution": You must check after every service pack etc. if the scripts are still the same etc. Not even thinking about the migration to SharePoint 2010.
• If you need validators on your field, make sure you disable client-side validation and do it on the server.
• I have not checked this, but I believe that the text entered by the user is not filtered on the client side. This could be used to include new functionalities such as "insert movie" which inserst <object> and other tags that the standard RichTextField-Control would filter out. But don't forget to implement an XSS-Filter to prevent scripting attacks.
• If you need more details on how it is done for the RichTextField control have a look at Microsoft.SharePoint.dll with .NET Reflector

Short one – nothing to do with Sharepoint, but Wheeeeew!… Finally http://www.1stquad.com has been released in it's first version… Don't expect anything fancy for the moment, we are just happy that we could piece together some texts that we like and will keep on enhancing the site bit by bit over the time. As for now, there is only a german version, as the german speaking area will remain our focus. But i'm positive we will come up with a multi-language version of the website sometime soon, together with news, events, blogs and so on. But as for now, I'm happy with what we have – next will be some foto shootings for the company – that's why we go for now with only one picture without investing in more research and design. 

Sometimes I struggle with the "easiest" things and end up even fighting through all the various blog posts – sooooo time consuming [:'(]. In short: If you want to use a standard "Target Audiences" column in your SharePoint list, simply add it by ID:

new Guid("61cbb965-1e04-4273-b658-eedaa662f48d")])

And since it took me a "foreach"-loop and Debug-statements to find the site columns and their ID's, here is a complete list of what I've got on site columns in a site that was based on the "Collaboration Portal" template:

In these days we had to decide where to have our SharePoint collaboration site(s) hosted. As for a very small business, we use mainly the document libraries, calendar, tasks etc. so mainly the standard WSS features. There are many hosters offering dedicated or non dedicated hosted SharePoint-sites, the prices are mainly the same across the providers.

Of course we've also tried out the new SharePoint hosting service from Microsoft Online Services, actually the whole Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting and Office Communications Online.

When looking at what I'm getting with SharePoint Online, these are my most significant findings:

• Very, very fast!
• Only WSS functionality, plain vanilla
• Only standard 5 WSS templates for new site collection available (Teamsite, Wiki, Blog etc.)
• 250MB of content space per user, but you can buy also additional space

What makes me really wonder is the prizing, but maybe i haven't understood the licensing model fully, so please let me know if i'm not correct.

Scenario: I want a SharePoint (site collection) with my own domain that should accomodate 250 users. I won't need any special fancy stuff, just SharePoint (even WSS is fine) plain vanilla.

Evaluating the standard WSS offerings that are today on the market, I am looking for instance at webhost4life. I'm getting there 250 Users with 1GB of disk space on a dedicated WSS server. Interestingly i'm getting as well 40+ Built-In templates (I assume the fantastic 40 plus standard ones), muliple lanugage packs and – even more interesting – the options "custom Templates & WebParts" – for 30$ per month.

Calculating this scenario with Microsoft Online Services for SharePoint Online Standard (250 users –> 62.5 GB of space!) using the "Microsoft Online Services Cost Estimator". I'm getting the following estimated cost per month: 1745$ per month.

Errrrrrrrrr…. Uuuuuuuuuuupssss…

I know, I know, I am probably comparing apples with pears (your input is really welcome here!), but i am looking at it from the "small-business-customer"'s perspective… All i want is a SharePoint on the intranet.

OK, maybe the scenario is crap as we don't have 250 users anyway… I'm sticking with the offering from webhost4life since we don't want to sacrifice the 1GB disk space by going down to the next cheaper offering (50 Users, 200MB, 12$ per month). Calculating again with the more realistic number of 20 named users (= 20×250MB –> 5GB disk space) for SharePoint Online Standard: 145$ per month.

Even with only 20 users, this is still almost 5 times as much as with another hoster. Dear friends, I am very confused and wondering if I don't see the forest because of all the trees… – Can anyone add a little bit of light into this?

Scenario: You have several SharePoint web-applications (only only site collections). Whenever a user opens one of those using just an entry-URL (such as http://intranet) you want to redirect him/her to another site collection (not necessarely in the same web-application – for example to http://intranet/my .

This can be achieved in various was:

• Create a HttpHandler
• If using the Publishing Feature: Create a page derived from "Redirect Page"
• …

All of the above have some disadvantages: Either you have to write code, create custom configurations or – in the case of the "Redirect Page", there is a delay that is visible to the user.

I found a very easy way to create a "direct" redirect that requires no code and just uses SharePoint standard functionality.

1. Go to the web you want to create the redirect.
2. If it is a publishing web, go to the "Pages" library, otherwise, you can use any other library that is of type "Document Library"
3. Go to the "List Settings"
4. Ensure that under "Advanced Settings" "Allow management of content types" is set to "yes"
5. In the "Content Types" section click on "Add from existing site content types"
   
6. Add the "Link to a Document" content type
   
7. Your content types lis should now include the "Link to a Documet" content type:
   
8. Back on the list with its items, create a new item of type "Link to Document":
   
9. Don't forget to publish your link if you have a publishing/approval process setup for your library!
10. Now go to the "Site Settings" of your web and choose in "Look'n'Feel" section "Welcome Page":
    
11. Enter your link as the welcome page of this web.

Now whenever your users will open the web without specifiying a specific page the "Welcome Page" (in german it is called more accurately (and so much german) "Homepage" ) comes into play, goes to your link and the link redirects directly to the page the page/document you want.

Enjoy…