Community developer blogs

Nick Grattan

Recent Posts

• Microsoft SharePoint Designer Download Now Free!

  Posted: 24 Apr 2009 at 09:26 by Nick Grattan

  See here:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42&displaylang=en

• Code for Creating New Documents based on a content type and template

  Posted: 08 Dec 2008 at 22:23

  This method “CreateDocument” will create a new document in a SharePoint document library using a content type. It will copy the document template associated with the content type into the new document: // Creates document in given list (root folder). // Returns true if the file was c

• Logging in as a different user

  Posted: 03 Dec 2008 at 13:11

  When using default.master in SharePoint users have the “Sign in as Different User” menu option on the “Welcome” menu to login as a different user. This is useful when testing security etc. This menu is often removed when customizing sites – clients we find often do

• Changing Order / Hiding Columns in New / Edit Forms

  Posted: 02 Dec 2008 at 15:57

  The default order of columns in New/Edit forms for lists and document libraries is typically the order they are added. In many cases you may want to change this order, or to remove columns from these forms. Changing the column order is easy but the method depends on whether you have selected &ld

• Increasing size of Rich Text Editing Control

  Posted: 01 Dec 2008 at 15:50

  When using the rich text column type in SharePoint lists the edit control has a fixed width of 384 pixels. This is often too small for easy editing. The width of the control used to edit rich text is set through the ms-rtelong style. You can change the width using the style in the core.css or [...]

• Trimming WebPart Output with SPSecurityTrimmedControl

  Posted: 13 Nov 2008 at 13:05

  The SPSecurityTrimmedControl can be used in your SharePoint pages and web parts to conditionally display content based on permissions assigned to a user. Here’s an example of using the control in a web part. The control is declared in Microsoft.SharePoint (in microsoft.sharepoint.dll). Fir

• When an SPListItem won’t Update or Change

  Posted: 12 Nov 2008 at 20:27

  Here’s a problem that recently bit me. This code executes a query that returns a single SPListItem and then attempts to change the approved status through the SPListItemCollection: SPListItemCollection lic = list.GetItems(query); lic[0].ModerationInformation.Status = SPModerationStatusType

• SharePoint Designer: Clearing the Web Part Cache

  Posted: 03 Nov 2008 at 10:17

  When developing web parts (say in Visual Studio 2008) and using these web parts in SharePoint Designer 2007 you may find that your property definitions are not refreshed in SharePoint Designer. For example, if you add a new property in VS 2008 and recompile, the new property may not not displayed in

• Hiding the Search Box When Printing

  Posted: 01 Oct 2008 at 21:07 by Nick Grattan

  Ever noticed that the search box is shown on a SharePoint page when printed while other parts of the page are hidden? The Search box can be hidden, along with other parts of a form you don’t want printed by using styles. This can be done using Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer: Open the mas

• BDC Catalog Designer from Microsoft!

  Posted: 29 Sep 2008 at 08:28

  Microsoft have released a tool for developing BDC XML catalogs (applications) and it’s part of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server August SDK. Find out more here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/08/22/announcing-the-microsoft-business-data-catalog-definition-editor-for-mi

• Stubborn Publishing Pages

  Posted: 15 Sep 2008 at 16:27 by Nick Grattan

  This knowledge article describes the limitation with folders in the “Page” publishing document library – they are ignored by the publishing features and all publishing pages are placed in the root. That’s OK, I can live with that. In a recent project, I wanted to create a new

• Content Database - Changing Default Location

  Posted: 09 Sep 2008 at 13:03 by Nick Grattan

  When new databases are created, SharePoint uses the default SQL Server location. This is typically the “C:\Program Files\MS SQL\Data” folder. Many organisations use RAID or SAN storage which may have different locations, e.g. “D:\Database”. Within SharePoint you don’t h

• Chaning Page Used to Display Items in a List

  Posted: 29 May 2008 at 09:42 by Nick Grattan

  When displaying a view on a list (such as displayed with “AllItems.aspx”) the “Title” hyperlink for an item will redirect you, by default, to the “DispForm.aspx” page with the ID passed as a query parameter. There are times when you may need to change the pag

• Bulk Editing of SharePoint List Items

  Posted: 13 May 2008 at 13:13 by Nick Grattan

  Imagine you have a list with a “Confirm” yes/No field and you want a user to be able to view items and click a Check box on those items which are completed and click a Save button: This saves the user opening each item in turn, changing the “Confirm” field and saving the item

• Changing the Task list for SharePoint Designer Workflows

  Posted: 29 Apr 2008 at 12:32 by nickgrattan

  By default, SharePoint designer will automatically select an existing Task list or create a new one if a suitable Task list does not exist. To change the Task list being used: Create a new Task list using Site Actions + Create. Find the Id (Guid) for this new list following the technique described i

• Finding the Id (Guid) for a SharePoint List

  Posted: 29 Apr 2008 at 12:10 by nickgrattan

  There are times when you need to find the Id (a Guid) of a list – for example, when setting the Task list to be used with SharePoint Designer Workflows (see my blog post here). Here’s a simple way of doing this: Navigate to the SharePoint list using the browser. Select the Settings + Lis

• Filtering views by Time and Date

  Posted: 24 Apr 2008 at 14:59 by nickgrattan

  An earlier blog entry describes how to filter List and Document views by date. However, the [Today] function, by default, returns only the date and not the time. Therefore, this solution does not solve mad-tie’s problem of wanting to filter on items created in the last hour. CAML que

• Microsoft SharePoint Designer Workflows - Things is doesn’t do

  Posted: 14 Apr 2008 at 16:08 by nickgrattan

  Creating workflows with the Microsoft SharePoint Designer is quick and simple. However, there are number of distinct limitations which you need to be aware of, such as: Workflows have no looping or flow control statements. Workflows execute serially from the top to the bottom. Implementing flows suc

• WSS 3.0 Web Services - How To Update Date/Time Values

  Posted: 22 Feb 2008 at 11:20 by nickgrattan

  When adding or updating list items using the WSS Web Service ‘UpdateListItems’ method you need to pass data / time values as strings. The format should be passed in the form ‘yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ”. This specifies a ISO date/time format with time zone information. The “Z

• Date Format Incorrect in Email Task Alerts

  Posted: 24 Jan 2008 at 13:50 by nickgrattan

  Users can create alerts and receive emails when an item, for example, is added to a list. This is often used to send alerts when new tasks have been added for a user. You may find that the date format for the email message is incorrect and does not follow the regional settings for your site. [...]