Dot Net team at OffshoreSoftwareDevelopmentIndia.com has developed Microsoft SharePoint Server Mini Calendar Webpart. This MOSS 2007 Mini Calendar Webpart allows administrator to select any of the list to configure with the calendar. Calendar displays all the tasks, events in the calendar. Upon selecting the list, all the events/tasks will show in Mini calendar by highlighted background to the date. On mouse hover to that date, a popup will appear with all the events/tasks for that day. On clicking that link of the events/tasks, the page will redirect to that task/event page.

It is easy to install. Easy to configure. With rich functionalities.

Working with MOSS Mini Calendar:

There is often need to share information about important dates, appointments and meetings. The MOSS Mini Calendar provides all information.

When you import MOSS Mini Calendar on site it looks like as follows:

(Fig. 1)

When click on Modify Shared Web Part (right top corner) of Fig. 1, it looks like as follows:

( Fig. 2 )

What you see on right side of Fig. 2 are custom properties of the mini calendar.

1. About us: When click on this, it displays company details in popup window.
2. Select a list: It contains variety of contents like documents, form and templates, master page gallery, web part gallery etc.
3. Select a display column: It contains different columns like name, title, created by, modify by related to selected list item. What you want to display on calendar please select from this list.
4. Select a view to filter calendar items: select which items to display related to calendar item.
5. Select a date column to base the calendar on: Means which items to display related to date column (e.g. created, modify).
6. Select a Background Color: It sets calendar date cells background color.
7. Select a Body Text Color: It sets calendar date cells text color.
8. Select a Border Color: It sets calendar border color. It also sets calendar?s title back color.
9. Select a Border Font Color: It sets calendar?s title fore color.
10. Select a Highlight Color: It sets color on that cells where there are some events display in popup window by moving mouse over on cell as follow-



11. Select a Highlight Font Color:



12. Select a Day Header Background Color: It sets the calendar?s day header background color.



13. Select a Day Header Fore Color: It sets the calendar?s day header font color.



By setting all above properties, click on OK button it display as Fig.1. Now When you take mouse over the highlight cell it display popup window as follow ?



When click on any items it goes to that particular page.

Calender Webpart Configuration: Webpart Properties













Prerequisites:

1. We need to make sure that timer job is running from:

Administrative Tools >> Services >> Windows SharePoint Services Timer



If service is not started please start it.

2. Check whether solution is deployed or not.

From - Central administration >> Operations >> Solutions



3. If it is deployed then they can go ahead and activate feature manually by going to site collection

Site Actions >> Site Settings >> Modify All Site Settings >> Site Collection Features.



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This article will help you to develop webpart quickly and easily. Remember following things during the werpart development. That will speed up the creation and deployment of the webpart.

Things to remember when creating and deploying webpart to the site:

• Give Assembly name and namespace name for that right click on the project name in solution explorer and select properties. On Application tab give assembly name and namespace name.

• On Build tab in output path give the bin directory path of the site on which you want to deploy the web part.

• Open AssemblyInfo.cs file and add system.security namespace and also add [assembly: AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers()] and then save the file.

• Open the web.config file of the site on which you have to deploy the web part. Site bin directory is under the vitual directories. Path is C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories.

• In web.config file add safecontrol entry under safe controls section.

• Also Change the trust level: and change it to Full (Write Full trust level).

• Deploy the web part.

• When you deploy the web part the dll of the web part that you have created had been created in the bin directory of that site folder under virtual directories.

• On the site go to the web parts section. Click on the site settings menu under site action dropdown list and select web part click new tab and select the web part check mark the web part that you have deployed. And click on populate gallery button now you can add a web part on the web part zone.

• Now you can add the web part on the web part zone.

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Dot Net team at OffshoreSoftwareDevelopmentIndia.com has developed many extensions for Outlook with the SharePoint. This blog is for how to integrate Outlook with SharePoint Server.

Integration of Outlook with the SharePoint:

To use Outlook 2007 to view Share Point Server 2007 resources, we must connect the Share Point Server 2007 resources to Outlook 2007. The steps that described below uses a document library as an example but we can use these steps to connect other resources, including Calendar, Task List, Discussion Board, or Contact List.

Notes:

Share Point Server 2007 permission carry over to Outlook 2007. For example, if you have permission to edit a document or list on a team site, you can also edit the document or list in Outlook 2007.

Steps to integrate Outlook with the Share Point:

• On a SharePoint Server 2007 site, go to the Shared Documents Document Library. A link to this library should appear on the left navigation menu (Quick Launch).

• On the Action menu, click Connect to Outlook.

• In the Connect this SharePoint [Resource] to Outlook window, click yes.

The Shared Documents library appears in a folder in the Mail pane, under the SharePoint Lists.

Note:

When you connect resources to Outlook 2007, the resources appear in their respective sections of the Outlook 2007 navigation pane. Calendars appear in the Calendar pane, under Other Calendars; Tasks appear in the Tasks pane, under Other Tasks; Contact Lists are similar to Document Libraries and appear in the Mail pane, under SharePoint Lists.

Send a Sharing Message:

If you have resources connected to Outlook 2007, you can share the connection with others through a Sharing Message.

• In Outlook 2007, right-click the listing, and then click Share” [SharePoint resource].”

• In the message window, add recipients to the To line, type a message, and then click send.

• Recipients click a link in the message to connect to the resource.

Note:

In order for recipients to access the shared resource, an owner of the resource must provide appropriate access permission.

Connect from a Sharing Message:

• Open the Sharing Message in Outlook 2007.

• In the Open group on the Outlook 2007 Ribbon, click Connect to this [SharePoint Resource].

Edit Document Library Files in Outlook 2007

When we connected to the corporate network, changes you make to most resources in Outlook 2007(Calendar, Task List, Discussion Board and Contact List) are automatically updated on the SharePoint Server 2007 site.

• In Outlook 2007, double-click a Document Library file to open it.

• In the Opening File dialog box, click to Open.

• In the Message bar, at the top of the document, click Edit Offline. (The file opens as read-only until you click Edit Offline).

• In the Edit Offline dialog box, click Ok.

The file is stored on your computer, in your SharePoint Server 2007 Drafts folder.

• Edit the file. When you have finished, save your changes and then close the file.

• In the Edit Offline window, click Update.

Tips

• To ensure others do not make changes to the file while you are working on it, check it out in SharePoint Server 2007 before you being editing. Be sure to check it in when you have finished.

• To find working copies of SharePoint Server 2007 documents that have not been updated to the SharePoint Server 2007 site, in the Outlook 2007 Mail pane, under SharePoint Lists, look in the SharePoint Drafts search folder.

Remove a Connected Document from Outlook 2007

When you have finished work on a SharePoint Server 2007 file, you can remove it from Outlook 2007. This keeps your SharePoint Server 2007 Lists folder organized and helps you focus on current needs.

• In the SharePoint Lists folder, select the library or list from which you want to remove a file.

• In the window to the right of the Mail navigation pane, select the file you want to remove. To select multiple files, hold down CTRL while you click file names.

• Right-click the selected file and then click Remove Offline Copy.

Delete a Resource from Outlook 2007

When you no longer need a resource, you can remove it from Outlook 2007. This keeps Outlook 2007 organized and helps you focus on current projects.

• In the SharePoint Lists folder or in the respective sections for Calendars, Task Lists, and Contact Lists select the resource you want to remove.

• Right-click the folder and then click Delete [Resource Name].

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Dot Net team at OffshoreSoftwareDevelopmentIndia.com has developed many extenions for Excel Services with the SharePoint Server. How to integrate Excel Services with SharePoint, has mentioned in this article.

Excel Services provides a server-side paradigm for Excel in which spreadsheets published to SharePoint can calculate and render on the server, letting users pull results down to their browsers. In this new scenario, analysts can publish their worksheets to SharePoint, and allow Excel Services to kick in, meaning that anybody who browses to the site containing the spreadsheet can access the full functionality of the sheet whether or not they have Excel installed. In this scenario, the formulae that analysts enter become the code that everyone will run. You don’t need a developer to reemployment the formulae or create a new application.

Creating and Configuring SharePoint for Excel Services:-

First of all create the Blank Site. At the top right of the screen you can see the Site Action menu dropdown list. Select “Create” from the dropdown and you will be taken to a screen containing several categories of options for creating various types of item (See below Figure).

Select “Document Library” from this screen to create a new Document Library. On the Document Library screen, give the new document library a name and a Document Template. Choose any name you like (the examples use “Analytics,” and select “Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet” as the document template).

And Click on Create.

Running Excel Services:

Before Excel Services will work with this repository; you must make sure that the services are up and running correctly. To do this, return to the Central Administration screen, and select the Operations tab. From here, select the “Services on Server” screen. You’ll see a list of services at the bottom of the screen. Make sure that “Excel Calculation Services” is started. If it isn’t, use the link beside it to start up the service.

Additionally, you’ll have to configure a trusted file location for your Excel workbooks. You do this by returning to Central Administration, and selecting the “Create or configure this farm’s shared services” link. You’ll see the “SharedServices1 (Default)” entry on this screen. Drop this down, by clicking the arrow to the right of it, and select the “Open Shared Services Admin Site” option. This opens the administration screen for these shared services. On the right side of this screen you’ll see the “Trusted File Locations” link which you can use to set up where you can store the Excel files securely. Select “Add Trusted File Location” and you’ll see the screen below.

Use the URL address of the document library that you set up earlier (for example: http://win2k3sp:17964/sites/DevX1/Analytics) and make sure to specify the Location Type as “Windows SharePoint Services.” Click “OK” and the SharePoint will create the trusted file location as shown in Figure.

Creating and Publishing a Spreadsheet:-

Now you need a spreadsheet to use for shared calculations. For this example, you’ll build a very simple example spreadsheet that serves to demonstrate how the calculation services work. The spreadsheet performs a simple analytics calculation, called a “P/E Ration,” which simply divides the price of a stock by its earnings. It’s a useful analytic that tells you how many years you’ll need to own a stock before it pays for itself in earnings. So, for example, if your stock costs $100 and earns $10 a year, it will take 10 years to pay for itself in earnings. This ratio (or analytic) is usually seen as a great indicator of the value of a stock. In a real-world scenario, the user will provide a stock ticker, and the application would retrieve the values for price and earnings from a database. The spreadsheet could then divide price by earnings using a formula. For simplicity, this example doesn’t use a database?you’ll simply provide the spreadsheet with the price and earnings values. The P/E will be a simple Excel formula that divides the named ranges for the Price and Earnings values.

I’ve added a chart to show the relative values of Price and Earnings, and you can see the spreadsheet in Figure.

When you’ve completed the spreadsheet, publish it to SharePoint using the Excel Services option on the “Publish” menu see Figure.

When you select this, the “Save As” dialog will appear. You can use this dialog to specify the save location this should be the location that you configured as a Trusted Location earlier. However, before you do this, you should select the “Excel Services Options” button at the bottom of the dialog. You use these options to specify the items within the sheet that you want to have available to browsers. This is important, as you may have some proprietary stuff that you do not want to publish. You can simply uncheck that from this dialog and it will not be published to SharePoint, and thus kept private.

You’re now ready to publish. For the file name, specify the path to the SharePoint site that you set up earlier. The dialog will refresh and show you the document library. You can then save the document into the library. (See below Figure).

SharePoint publishes your workbook into the document library. If you browse to this document from IE, you’ll see an Excel-like generated interface. Remember, your clients do not need to have Excel installed to use the application that you’ve just built in Excel that’s part of the magic of using SharePoint and Excel services.

You may open the worksheet from the Document Library (See Figure).

In this article you saw the procedures to configure and use Excel Services with SharePoint 2007. This is a terrific and incredibly useful service that allows you to publish your Excel documents to a server library and let users run them, taking advantage of the Excel’s calculation power and formulae. This is important on a number of fronts. First, it prevents version drift of documents a common problem for companies that use a lot of spreadsheets. Having a centralized repository means that all users can share the same version. Additionally, because the calculations can now run on the server, many users don’t even need to have Excel installed! They just need to be able to browse to the SharePoint repository and render the sheet within their browsers. The user who specifies the calculations also becomes the developer of the functionality available to the end users. So, instead of having a developer translate Excel spreadsheets and formulae into a language suitable for Web applications and building a custom UI, your formula experts can simply publish their spreadsheets to Excel and have end users consume them directly.

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This article will show you how to use Content Query webpart for MOSS 2007.

How to use Content Query Web part in MOSS site:

1. How to Add a Content Query Web Part.

Click on Site Actions >> Edit Page

2. Now for add a Content Query Web Part to our page

Click on Add a Web Part

3. Now from the popup window like below from all web part list select checkbox content Query Web Part
And click on Add button.

4. Now click on edit on the right top and then from the popup menu click on modify Shared Web Part Like below.

5. Now Content Query Tool Part is Open.

6. Now you can select from the tool part according to the result you wan’t.

Now Click on + sign on front of Query sub menu is open from that you can select option and according to that result will be generated.
Now from the submenu you can filter out from that

From the source:

If you want to display items from the entire site check radio button in front of that.

If you want to display items from your selected site and sub site then check radio button in front of that click on browse button and select the site as you want items from that to display.

You can also select item from the list

7. You can also filter out your items from the list type as you choose from the dropdown control. Option like document library, custom list, post, task, workflow History, picture library, pages library are there and can choose any option from that.

8. You can also filter out your answer according to content type you choose.

9. You can also filter out your answer from the additional filters menu.
Whichever query you passed according to that the items will be displayed on web part.

10. Click on Presentation menu drop down list is open from that you can sort your answer like descending and ascending and also you can filter your answer group wise.

You can display your items on web part in no. of column as you choose.

You can also limit no. of items to display in web part

11. You can apply group style and item style in no. of ways as you want.

12. You can also change appearance of web part.
Like change title of the web part ,change height and width of a web part.

13. From the Layout menu you can apply direction like right to left, left to right, none for displaying items in web part.

14. You can also place your web part in any zone like Top, bottom left zone, bottom right zone.

Advance menu:

From advanced menu you can select checkbox for item you want to display

Option are Allow minimize, allow close, allow hide, allow zone changes, allow connections.

If allow minimize checkbox is selected then you can minimize your web part

If allow close items is selected then you can close your web part.

After making all the changes Click on ok button or Apply button you web part is display on page like below. When you click on any item you can redirect directly on that page.

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SharePoint team and Project server team at offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com has great experience of creating web application based on MOSS 2007 and Project server 2007. That includes customization and development of webpart, site definitions, theme development, extension development, module creation. The team has developed CRM application, Job portal, Project management, to CMS applications based on MOSS 2007 and project server 2007.

Team would like to share same experience. This can help who wanted to begin with the sharePoint development and Project Server development.

There are list of articles start with SP and from number 1 to … Always start with the article SP1 and read next article to start working on MOSS easily and quickly.

Creating a Solution:

A solution package is a cabinet (.cab) file with a .wsp file name extension and a manifest file. It can contain the following components:

• Site definitions

• Feature definitions and their corresponding element definitions and files

• Web Part files (*.webpart, *.dwp)

• Template files and root files, which can include the following:
  1. _layouts files
  2. Resources(*.resx)
  3. Resource files(for example, *.doc or *.xls)

• Assemblies, which can include the following:
  1. Safe control entries
  2. Resources

• Code access security policies

Solution files have a hierarchical structure a manifest file is at the root while feature, resource, or site definition directories are contained in subdirectories. In turn, feature definitions define where associated files are located inside of the solution.

The solution creator can define the remaining structure; however, it is recommended that files for a particular feature or site definition be placed in that feature or site definition’s subdirectory.

Note:

The directory structure inside of the .wsp file determines the final directory structure on the front-end Web server file system.

To create a solution package, perform the following steps:

• Create a solution manifest.xml file.

The solution manifest (always called manifest.xml) is stored at the root of a solution file. This file defines the list of features, site definitions, resource files, Web Part files, and assemblies to process. It does not define the file structure if files are included in a solution but not listed in the manifest XML file, they are not processed in any way.

Following is the structure of a manifest.xml file.

XML

In addition, you can add a DwpFiles element to specify .webpart or .dwp files, or a ResourceFiles element to specify resource files, site definitions, application resources, and code access security policies.

• Optional. Annotate your feature.xml files with tags.

In the <ElementManifests> tag in your feature.xml file, add <ElementFile Location=”…”/> for all of the extra files in your feature, such as .aspx pages (for example, allitems.aspx) or master pages, and so on.

Note:

This step is required only if your solution contains features.

• Create your solution package (the .wsp file).

Because the solution file is essentially a .cab file, use the makecab.exe tool to create the solution package. The makecab.exe tool takes a pointer to a .ddf file, which describes the structure of the .cab file. The format of a .ddf file is basically in the same style as the .inf file you declare a standard header and then enumerate, one file per line, the set of files by where they live on disk, separated by where they should live in the .cab file.

Xml

.OPTION EXPLICIT; Generate errors
.Set CabinetNameTemplate=MySolutionFile.wsp
.set DiskDirectoryTemplate=CDROM ; All cabinets go in a single directory
.Set CompressionType=MSZIP;** All files are compressed in cabinet files
.Set UniqueFiles=”ON”
.Set Cabinet=on
.Set DiskDirectory1=Package
build\manifest.xml manifest.xml
build\ MySolutionFile \feature.xml MySolutionFile \feature.xml

Installation Instructions:

Prerequisites:

- Installation package: LHH.PageLayoutsAndLists.wsp

- Flash Player installed on the client to access the site.

From cmd go to: “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin”

• Adding Solution:

Run this command:
Stsadm.exe -o addsolution -filename C:\Temp\LHH.PageLayoutsAndLists.wsp

• Deploying Solution:

Run this command
Stsadm.exe -o deploysolution -name LHH.PageLayoutsAndLists.wsp ?local -allowgacdeployment

• Activating Features:

From LHH Portal Site go to Site Actions >> Site Settings >> Modify All Site Settings

Site Collection Features
Activate:
LHH Content Types
LHH Master Page and Page Layouts

• Referencing content types:

Go to “Site Actions” >> View All Site Content >> Pages
Click on “Document Library Settings”
Click on Advance Settings >> Allow Manage Content Types (True) >> Ok

Then Go to

Site actions -> Site setting -> modify all settings

Site collection administration -> site collection feature

Then you will see the site collection feature list, active our feature from the list. We will have all the features available.

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SharePoint team and Project server team at offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com has great experience of creating web application based on MOSS 2007 and Project server 2007. That includes customization and development of webpart, site definitions, theme development, extension development, module creation. The team has developed CRM application, Job portal, Project management, to CMS applications based on MOSS 2007 and project server 2007.

Team would like to share same experience. This can help who wanted to begin with the sharePoint development and Project Server development.

There are list of articles start with SP and from number 1 to …. Always start with the article SP1 and read next article to start working on MOSS easily and quickly.

Publishing Page Layout using a Feature:

This is the post on creating site columns, publishing content types and page layouts using features:

This post describes how to create a publishing page layout and deploy it using a custom feature. Now that we have a custom publishing site columns as well as custom publishing content types defined using a feature, the next step is to create the page layout.

Publishing page layouts map to the custom fields of a publishing content type. The files are placed in the Master page gallery (Site Actions > Site Settings > Modify All Settings > Galleries section > Master pages and page layouts).

Creating the page layout:

The page layout can be created by using Visual Studio 2005. It’s really an .ASPX page and some basic Intellisense works for the SharePointWebControls and PublishingWebControls.

If you need information on how to create your custom page layout there is a very good article on MSDN:

Customizing and Branding Web Content Management-Enabled SharePoint Sites (Part 1 of 3): Understanding Web Content Management and the Default Features.

Important to remember here is that you are dependant from the Master Page that will be used together with your page layout. In this article I’m using the default Blue Bland one; so all the default Content placeholders are available.

Snippet of the page layout (download all the files from the link at the bottom of the post):

Tip: to quickly create and test a page layout for my custom content types I sometimes use SharePoint Designer 2007 (SDP). Create the page layout by choosing “New > Page Layout” in the Master pages gallery. Be sure to choose your custom page layout:

Then open the page using SharePoint Designer. Add your HTML and design elements and drag your custom properties to the page. HTML page design is really not my thing so this is an easy way to add some tables and layout to the page. Once you have the page ready in SPD, save the file, check in and test it by creating a new page.

You can now use the HTML and controls from this page when creating your custom page layout using Visual Studio.

Note that SPD saves the page directly into the SharePoint database and not on the hard drive. So this is just a fast way to start up the creation of your page layout but it does not allow you to deploy the page easily to other servers.

Creating the provisioning xml schema:

To provision the page layout and any used CSS, images or other files we create a XML file that will be picked up by the feature and install the files in the corresponding libraries in your publishing site.

In my example I have one custom page layout with just one image. I could as well have several images and CSS files installed using the same feature. I guess you get the idea with this image sample.

(Note: the value for PublishingAssociatedContentType above contains a break for HTML display reasons. You should put the value in one line).

I must say not much is available in the MSDN documentation about the schema for provisioning publishing pages. Like in other cases I looked at the PublishingLayouts feature delivered with the MOSS 2007 installation. This is a hidden feature that provisions the standard page layouts, master pages, etc for a MOSS Publishing site. You can find the feature here: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\PublishingLayouts.

Some clarifications to the schema elements:

<Module> element:

<Module Name=”[your module name]” Url=”virtual path destination of the module elements ” Path=”path from within this feature”>

PublishingAssociatedContentType property:

This property specifies to which the page layout you are installing is mapped to. The syntax is
;#ContentTypeName;#ContentTypeID;#

GhostableInLibrary:

Every element has the property Type=”GhostableInLibrary”. This property is important because it will install the file in the Master Page gallery, but the actual file content are still stored on the hard drive and not directly in the SharePoint database (as is the case if you create your page layout using SDP).

Wrapping it up: creating the feature:

I’m using one single feature to create my custom publishing fields, custom publishing content type and custom page layout(s).

The feature now has the following structure:

Three XML files are referenced by the feature schema in the order in which they should be installed.

• myfields.xml: this file defines all my custom site columns.

• ProductContentTypes.xml: this file defines my two custom publishing content types and uses the custom field defined in myfields.xml.

• PageProvisionedFiles.xml: this file contains the provisioning for page layout and associated image.

I think the order in which these files are referenced in the feature schema are important because the site columns must be created before the content types, and the content types must be created before the page layout can reference it.

So, I have no proof that this really executes in the order defined in the feature schema but I do assume it is the case. Maybe someone has found some documentation on this?

That’s it, the feature is complete.

All that needs to be done is copy the feature directory to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\MyContentTypeFeature” and run the install command.

stsadm -o installfeature -filename MyContentTypeFeature\feature.xml

This command can be used to install and test the feature. For a production environment I would recommend creating a SharePoint solution that installs the feature and all its files.

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SharePoint team and Project server team at offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com has great experience of creating web application based on MOSS 2007 and Project server 2007. That includes customization and development of webpart, site definitions, theme development, extension development, module creation. The team has developed CRM application, Job portal, Project management, to CMS applications based on MOSS 2007 and project server 2007.

Team would like to share same experience. This can help who wanted to begin with the sharePoint development and Project Server development.

There are list of articles start with SP and from number 1 to …. Always start with the article SP1 and read next article to start working on MOSS easily and quickly.

How to Create Site Columns:

Before going into detail on the creation of content types via features it is important to understand how Content type IDs work.

You should read the following MSDN page that explains about ContenTypes IDs and their inheritance based model: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa543822.aspx

Since this post shows how to create Publishing Content Types we need to find from which existing content type we want to base our own. I did some research on the features that are installed and activated when you use the Publishing site. In there we can see that the base content type from which we want to inherit is the “Page”. This Content Type has an ID of:

0×010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F2007948130EC3DB0
64584E219954237AF39

So in order to create our own ID we can add two hexadecimal values, or, we can add “00″ followed by a GUID. I prefer this approach as it is unique and identifies custom content types more easily.

So my content type ID can be:

0×010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F20079481
30EC3DB064584E219954237AF3900ADB88465BE2C439798977662094183BC

The bold text is the Page content type ID to which I append “00″ and a new GUID.

Content Type Schema:

Second important piece of information is the Content Type schema. I could not find any information specific to publishing content types on MSDN or the MOSS SDK. So again the solution is to use the available information together with some nosing in the publishing features installed by MOSS in the 12 hive. ContentType schema on MSDN: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa544268.aspx

In the following sample I’m creating two content types: a product content type and a hardware product content type. You will see that the hardware product content type inherits from the product content type by appending 00 + a new GUID to the ID.

Now we need to add this to the feature and install it together with what was done in part I of this series.

The complete feature can be downloaded here.

Refer:

http://www.katriendg.com/aboutdotnet/2007_4_2_publishing-content-types.aspx

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SharePoint team and Project server team at offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com has great experience of creating web application based on MOSS 2007 and Project server 2007. That includes customization and development of webpart, site definitions, theme development, extension development, module creation. The team has developed CRM application, Job portal, Project management, to CMS applications based on MOSS 2007 and project server 2007.

Team would like to share same experience. This can help who wanted to begin with the sharePoint development and Project Server development.

There are list of articles start with SP and from number 1 to …. Always start with the article SP1 and read next article to start working on MOSS easily and quickly.

Creating Site Columns:

In this 3 part series I will explain the steps you need to follow in order to create site columns, content types and page layouts for use with a MOSS publishing site.

There is already quite some information to be found on the internet on how to create site columns and custom lists using a feature, however most part apply to team sites (WSS3 sites), not MOSS publishing sites.

Field definition schema:

Site columns are created by placing <Field> elements inside an <Elements> tag. It is important to review the <Field> element definition before going any further. The complete schema definition is detailed in the WSS3 SDK which can be consulted online on the MSDN site (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms437580.aspx). On the mentioned URL you can find all the types of fields available out of the box, the required attributes, possible values and so forth.

This is very good documentation for WSS3 fields but information on extra field types for publishing site columns is not available. At least I was unable to find it in the MOSS SDK or online. My solution was to look at the feature definitions used by MOSS publishing feature available out of the box.

Most of the attributes of the <Field> element are optional. This is a sample field definition using the most common attributes:

<Field

ID=”{4C67267C-B950-4cd4-8038-DEACA9EC2F74}”
Name=”IntroductionText”
StaticName=” IntroductionText ” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3″
Group=”My publishing fields group”
DisplayName=”Introduction text field”
Type=”Text”
Required=”FALSE”
Sealed=”TRUE”
MaxLength=”250″>

</Field>

When using other types of fields there are extra attributes that are useful.

A note about the sealed attribute: setting this to “TRUE” will ensure the field cannot be removed via the “Change column” page. However when you are creating a choice field (a dropdown, a checkbox list), and you want your users to be able to edit the list of values you need to set sealed to FALSE.

Some attributes are only used in combination with some types of fields, like for example the StorageTZ attribute, which is useful together with Type=”DateTime”.

When it comes to publishing field types there are some new types that you can use. As far as I could find they are not yet documented. By looking at the “PublishingResources” hidden feature I could find the following:

There are also some extra fields that are related to the page publishing content types such as “Publishing schedule start date”. I don’t think you’d like to use these as the page content types normally already inherit these types of columns.

As a sample for this and the following posts in this series I’m creating a product page content type. My product contains 8 fields going from name and description, date, image, price.

This is the XML schema (myfields.xml):

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″ ?>
<!– _lcid=”1033″ _version=”12.0.4017″ _dal=”1″ –>
<!– _LocalBinding –>
<!–
–>
<Elements xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/”>
<Field ID=”{F44BFBB0-4725-4167-B976-F85F84131AA3}” Name=”ProductCategory” StaticName=”ProductCategory” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3″ Group=”$Resources:column_group_products;” DisplayName=”$Resources:column_productcategory_displayname;” Type=”Choice” Format=”Dropdown” Required=”FALSE” Sealed=”FALSE”>
<CHOICES>
<CHOICE>$Resources:column_productcategory_choice1;</CHOICE>
<CHOICE>$Resources:column_productcategory_choice2;</CHOICE>
<CHOICE>$Resources:column_productcategory_choice3;</CHOICE>
</CHOICES>
</Field>
<Field ID=”{EB19D87C-5DEE-4a73-85E0-506293D422D9}” Name=”ProductName” StaticName=”ProductName” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3″ Group=”$Resources:column_group_products;” DisplayName=”$Resources:column_productname_displayname;” Type=”Text” Required=”TRUE” Sealed=”TRUE” MaxLength=”255″></Field>
<Field ID=”{D73843E5-0D9F-4400-BC75-1A4C2BD27900}” Name=”ProductIntro” StaticName=”ProductIntro” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3″ Group=”$Resources:column_group_products;” DisplayName=”$Resources:column_intro_displayname;” Type=”Text” Description=”$Resources:column_intro_description;” Required=”TRUE” Sealed=”TRUE” MaxLength=”500″ NumLines=”2″></Field>
<Field ID=”{894635F9-1DF8-46f1-BC47-46EFF09FEF3D}” Name=”ProductDescription” StaticName=”ProductDescription” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3″ Group=”$Resources:column_group_products;” DisplayName=”$Resources:column_productdesc_displayname;” Type=”HTML” Required=”FALSE” Sealed=”TRUE” RichText=”TRUE” RichTextMode=”FullHtml”></Field>
<Field ID=”{D89C9409-2A97-4a7a-81F5-7D45E7CD8D6B}” Name=”LaunchDate” StaticName=”LaunchDate” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3″ Group=”$Resources:column_group_products;” DisplayName=”$Resources:column_date_displayname;” Type=”DateTime” Format=”DateTime” Required=”TRUE” Sealed=”TRUE” StorageTZ=”UTC”></Field>
<Field ID=”{6036ECDE-521A-4dbe-94B4-40E0E4EF7029}” Name=”ProductImage” StaticName=”ProductImage” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3″ Group=”$Resources:column_group_products;” DisplayName=”$Resources:column_image_displayname;” Type=”Image” Required=”FALSE” Sealed=”TRUE” RichText=”TRUE” RichTextMode=”FullHtml”></Field>
<Field ID=”{6A08E31A-0620-45df-BAC1-54A4D0FBFDCE}” Name=”ProductManual” StaticName=”ProductManual” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3″ Group=”$Resources:column_group_products;” DisplayName=”$Resources:column_manual_displayname;” Type=”Link” Required=”FALSE” Sealed=”TRUE” RichText=”TRUE” RichTextMode=”FullHtml”></Field>
<Field ID=”{F31DF817-D220-4449-BD6F-2F1B7C0823ED}” Name=”ProductPrice” StaticName=”ProductPrice” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3″ Group=”$Resources:column_group_products;” DisplayName=”$Resources:column_productprice_displayname;” Type=”Currency” Required=”TRUE” Sealed=”TRUE” Decimals=”2″></Field>
</Elements>

To install the field definitions via a feature I’m creating a feature.xml file that refers to the myfields.xml. In the feature file I also add a dependency to the PublishingSite feature.

A note about resources files:

As you may notice in the display name and description attributes I?m referring to a resource instead of typing in the text. I recommend using resource files whenever translatable (non system name) text is used.

Living in Belgium, a country where we have three official languages I’m used to creating multi-lingual applications. Even when a first requirement does not specify a multi-lingual approach I still prefer to foresee resource files.

When creating features you can use local resource files by placing them in a sub-folder in the feature directory.

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SharePoint team and Project server team at offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com has great experience of creating web application based on MOSS 2007 and Project server 2007. That includes customization and development of webpart, site definitions, theme development, extension development, module creation. The team has developed CRM application, Job portal, Project management, to CMS applications based on MOSS 2007 and project server 2007.

Team would like to share same experience. This can help who wanted to begin with the sharePoint development and Project Server development.

There are list of articles start with SP and from number 1 to …. Always start with the article SP1 and read next article to start working on MOSS easily and quickly.

How to create a Page Layout in Sharepoint?

Page layouts are templates that define content structure for a page and are always associated with a content type. A content type contains a document template, data columns, workflows, and other information that completely define a document. The publishing feature of MOSS uses a single root content type for publishing called Page. All of the page layouts inherit from this base. Here’s how to create a new page layout in MOSS.

STEP 1:- Define Site Columns

The individual content elements that appear in a page layout are derived from site columns. When you create a page layout, you can use any of the site columns already defined or define your own.

STEP 2:- Define a Content Type

Page layouts have a direct relationship to a content type defined within the site. The content type is a collection of site columns, a page template, workflows, and other information that determine the appearance and behavior of a page layout. In order to create a page layout, you must create a new content type that derives from the existing Page content type. Inheriting the Page content type allows the new page layout to function correctly within the MOSS content management Feature.

STEP 3:- Create the Page Layout

Page layouts are stored in Master Page and Page Layout Gallery. From this gallery, you can create a new page layout and associate it with a content type. This process makes the site columns that are defined for the content type available to the page layout as field controls that you can place on the page with the SharePoint Designer.

STEP 4:- Edit the Page Layout in SharePoint Designer

Once you have created the new page layout, you must open it in the SharePoint Designer so that you can add the desired field controls. The site columns you defined as part of the content type become available in the SharePoint Designer as field controls that you can place on the page layout.

STEP 5:- Publish the New Page Layout

Once the page layout is created, you must publish and approve it so that it becomes available for content authors. This process is essentially the same as publishing any item in MOSS. First the document is checked in, then it is published, and finally it is approved.

STEP 6:- Create a New Page

Once the page layout is published and approved, content authors may use it to create new pages. This is done in the normal way by selecting the Create Page item from the Site Actions menu. After the page is created, the field controls may be edited to develop the actual page content.

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