Tag Archives: sunil singhal

sunil singhal

Javascript, Sharepoint, Technical

Customize or Override core.js file functions in Sharepoint

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Core.js JScript file located @ 12 or 14 hive , depending upon the SharePoint version installed on a system, provides several in-built javascript functions. This is an out-of-box aka OOB sharepoint file.
[12/14 hive is @ %PROGRAMFILES%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\]

These functions are invoked internally by OOB visual webparts in sharepoint.

For e.g.,
Any Document library View page listing all items, hosted in a sharepoint site, references core.js file. Functions may get invoked when a user hovers any item name column or when an Add New Item link is clicked.

You may be thinking about the scenarios where you may need to customize a function defined in core.js file.

Where\Why?
There can be many. Yes. One of them which i faced is related to Browser compatibility.

  • Add modal pop up opening as a full page

    • On XP SP3 build’ IE7, a javascript error was thrown on clicking “Add New Item”. Due to this, an AddItem page was opening as a full page rather than a modal pop-up. This was not even reproducible on IE9 running into IE7 compatibilty and document mode.
    The faulty function was: function UseDialogsForFormsPages(c){…}

    You may face other problems but cause could be the same.

Note: However, my recommendation is NOT to OVERWRITE the core.js.

You may now be confused. Many questions may be coming into your mind – What is the purpose of this blog then?, How should i achieve if i ever need to?

Well, i recommended not to overwrite core.js. The reason being that this is OOB file and may get modified in the next version of sharepoint.
What you should do is provide a method override. Another javascript function which has a same prototype but a body definition as per your requirements.
Continue reading Customize or Override core.js file functions in Sharepoint →

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Sharepoint, Technical

Setting Custom Permission Levels in Sharepoint Programmatically

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Before going into How part, lets first understand What is a Permission Level (known as Site Groups prior to WSS 3.0) in Sharepoint? Why do we need it?

What is a Permission Level?
It is a group or set of permissions\actions. By action, i mean that what a particular user is allowed to do in an application.
These permissions can then be assigned to a user or a group of users to allow\restrict certain actions based upon his role in the application.

Why?
Security. Making application secure, defining roles and responsibilities of it’s users.
Obviously, every application has users [otherwise why would it exist?]. Each user has it’s own set of roles and responsibilities. As per those responsibilities, he can perform tasks or take actions which are laid down for him.

Have you ever seen a Software Developer doing a job of CA, Finance Head? Surely, it is not meant for a poor developer.
This is where Permission Levels are needed. These permission levels segregate permissions, clearly demarcating or creating a boundary for users what they are supposed to do and what they are not.
Continue reading Setting Custom Permission Levels in Sharepoint Programmatically →

Sharepoint, Technical

XSLTListViewWebpart in Sharepoint 2010 Uncovered

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Successor and much more powerful webpart than Dataform or ListViewWebpart provided in Sharepoint 2010, yes, that’s true.

As mentioned in msdn, it handles view rendering for lists which can be document libraries as well as announcements. As the name suggests, it uses a XSLT i.e transforms for Html rendering. Xml data obtained as per Query and XmlDefinition, explained later, is converted into html using Xslt. It, by default, applies styles [ViewStyles] as provided by Sharepoint.

It provides an option to enable column filtering, sorting, Paging and AJAX as well. Yes, filtering, sorting, Paging can be done async, without whole page refresh using AJAX option.

What’s more? You can even define your own custom xsl defining styles, rendering and you have a data rendered the way you want. Custom xslt can override default templates and thus has a power to completely replace default XSLTs which is rarely needed.

For e.g. Dates to be shown in a particular format or you want to specify custom header names rather than display names defined in a list definition or a view.

Isn’t it powerful from what we had earlier?

Why am i writing this?

In my project, i had a requirement to show latest 5 documents with a More… button at the bottom in a page which had other data as well. It should support sorting, filtering but without paging. And most importantly, to show list data which exists in a different site collection.

Surely this is achievable by writing a custom visual web part and a backend code but how much time does this require? If you are following a layered approach and are following a well-defined architecture :), which you will be as a good coder, it can take a lot of time with a filtering, sorting support. And what if Client demands for Paging later. This usually happens in Agile methodology. Plus why to forget a testing?

This is where XsltListView webpart can be handy, inbuilt webpart, already test proven, just set few properties as per your requirements and you are good to go.

But…

What to set, when, why? If you want to use this webpart and you don’t have knowledge how to use it, I pray to God.

You have now 2 options:

  • Either spend a lot of time yourself, exploring this XsltListViewWebpart, or
  • Refer to this blog :). If not 100% , it will definitely save more than 75% of your efforts in fiddling around

How to use?

Following are the few properties which must be considered when using this webpart:

You can either make use of SharepoingDesigner (SPD) or your skill 🙂 to define XsltListViewWebPart definition declaratively.

Continue reading XSLTListViewWebpart in Sharepoint 2010 Uncovered →

.NET, Technical

How to read or write excel file using ACE OLEDB data provider?

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This article describes the way to read or write into the excel workbook(or a file, used interchangeably) pro-grammatically using C#.NET language and ACE Oledb data providers by Microsoft.
This covers the following topics:

  • System Requirements
  • Development Environment
  • Versions of Excel files which can be read or written
  • How to build a connection string?
  • How to build a command string?
  • Possible errors and exceptions

System Requirements
To read/write the excel worksheet using ACE oledb providers, MS office need not to be installed on a machine. An installable package containing ACE oledb providers can be installed from ACE OLEDB Installer Location
Go to this link to install the required version and also check the system requirements.
Note: You can install either 32 bits version or 64 bits version but not both. Also, if you have 64 bits office installed then you can’t install 32 bits ACE oledb and vice versa.
Check the requirements carefully on the page.

Continue reading How to read or write excel file using ACE OLEDB data provider? →