UmAlQura Calendar in SharePoint

I was working on a calendar webpart that is used to display events stored in a MOSS list, each item in the list will have a start date and end date, when this webpart is added in an English site it shows Gregorian calendar and on an Arabic site is shows the Hijri calendar based on the regional settings for each site, but the problem was that the Hijri calendar is not accurate and the admin must go the regional settings page to add or subtract day or two to show the right dates.

On the other side there is the UmAlQura calendar which is based on an array that relate the start of each Hijri month to a Gregorian calendar day, It can be used for dates in range between 1318/01/01 and 1450/12/29 which is good to be used for articles dates and events and birthdates and so on.

So I changed the calendar format for my culture to be UmAlQura and it works perfect, but the problem is that the events are added in the list that is using Hijri calendar as a default for the Arabic site, and there is no UmAlQura calendar option in the regional settings to select, so I searched for how to make and add a custom calendar to SharePoint and found this link but still can’t find the answer

The other thing I found and it was very weird when I write e.Day.Date in the calendar cell (in the Arabic site) it gives me a full Hijri date (27/09/1430) but when adding e.Day.Date.Day it gives me the equivalent day number from the Gregorian calendar

Alternate Styling

Want to make alternate styling in a DataViewWebPart or ContentQueryWebPart? Here is the way:

<tr>
    <xsl:if test="position() mod 2 = 0">
        <xsl:attribute name="class">AlternatingClass</xsl:attribute>
    </xsl:if>
    <td ...>
    ...
</tr>

Where AlternatingClass: is the alternating class name that will be the value of the class attribute of the TR tag.

Separate XSL files for Content Query Webpart (CQWP) - Part 2

We have talked before on how to Separate XSL files for Content Query Webpart (CQWP), but we didn’t go in details for how to make your own Main.xsl file that can be used as the ContentQueryMain.xsl, the steps in the previous post will be used, we will create a new XSL file and name it for example “usefulLinksMain.xsl” and add its path to the “MainXslLink” property in the webpart file.

The next step is to have a look on the minimal main xsl file:

<xsl:stylesheet
version="1.0"
exclude-result-prefixes="x xsl cmswrt cbq"
xmlns:x="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:cmswrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v3/Publishing/runtime"
xmlns:cbq="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:ContentByQueryWebPart">

<xsl:include href="/Style Library/XSL Style Sheets/ContentQueryMain.xsl"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:variable name="Rows" select="/dsQueryResponse/Rows/Row" />
<xsl:variable name="RowCount" select="count($Rows)" />
<xsl:variable name="IsEmpty" select="$RowCount = 0" />
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$IsEmpty">
<xsl:call-template name="OuterTemplate.Empty" >
<xsl:with-param name="EditMode" select="$cbq_iseditmode" />
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:choose>

<xsl:when test="dsQueryResponse/Rows/Row/@Style='UsefulLinks'">

<xsl:for-each select="$Rows">
<xsl:variable name="CurPosition" select="position()" />
<xsl:call-template name="MyMain.CallItemTemplate">
<xsl:with-param name="CurPosition" select="$CurPosition" />
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:when>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="MyMain.CallItemTemplate">
<xsl:param name="CurPosition" />
<xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="itemstyle">
<xsl:with-param name="CurPos" select="$CurPosition" />
</xsl:apply-templates>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>



You can also update the three values to point to the same xsl file like that:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
exclude-result-prefixes="x d xsl msxsl cmswrt"
xmlns:x="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp"
xmlns:cmswrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v3/Publishing/runtime"
xmlns:ddwrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/runtime"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt">

<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:call-template name="MyTemplateName" />
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="MyTemplateName">
<xsl:variable name="Rows" select="/dsQueryResponse/Rows/Row"/>

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">

<xsl:for-each select="dsQueryResponse/Rows/Row">
<tr>
<td><a href="{@LinkUrl}" ><xsl:value-of select="@Title"/></a></td>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>

</table>

</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The two solutions are the same idea, but in the first one you can select the ItemStyle you want from the content query web part tool part.

MCTS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – Configuration

I have attended a five days course “50047A: Advanced IT Pro Course for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0” at Microsoft Innovation Center – Al-Yamama University , The instructor was Muhannad Omar. At the end of the course Muhannad gave me a book “Microsoft Office 2007 – Best practice” and it was very nice from him.

And today, Al-Hamd Lellah, I passed the exam “70:630 - Configuring Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007” and now I’m Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – Configuration.

أمي ... أبي

كتبت هذه الاسطر في الصف الأول الثانوي لأهديها لأمي وأبي:

أمــــي أبــــي ، قــط وليــث عــنـدنـا و حـبـذا الأبـويـن في الحيـوان
فـالـقـط معـروف بتربية الصغار والـلـه قـد خلقه لكون حـــــــــــنان
الناسُ قـد شهدوا النظافة للقطط، أحـرص عليها فإنها لإيــــــــــمـان
والأًســدُ تـرعى م الـمـخـاوف شبلهـا والـلـه قـد خلقه لكون أمــــان
إن كنت تعرف في الأسود شجاعة، فالشبل يعرف في الأسود حنان

From My Site to the Portal

Many people are asking “Why there is no link to go back from My Site to the portal?” and the answer is very simple, My Site may be shared between more than a portal, in this case which link you will display?

But still you can make a link to a preferred portal, go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Collection Administration > Portal Site Connection > then type the URL and the title for the portal you want the users go back to from My Site.

Absolute Paths in SharePoint

What if you want to add an image to your MasterPage that will be changed in each sub site, a logo for example, you can add an image tag like this:

<img src="../SiteImages/MyLogo.gif" alt="SubSiteLogo " />

This is fine when you are browsing a page in the Pages list (http://www.mysite.com/subsite/pages/mypage.aspx), but what if you are browsing an overview.aspx page for example for a Survey list (http://www.mysite.com/subsite/lists/surveyname/overview.aspx), you will need to change the tag to:

<img src="../../SiteImages/MyLogo.gif" alt="SubSiteLogo " />

So how to add the image tag to make it work for both pages?
The solution is to change your tag to this:

<img src="<% $SPUrl:~Site/SiteImages/MyLogo.gif %>" alt="SubSiteLogo" runat="server"/>

Where ~Site is your absolute current site URL

Okay, now what if this image is not changed per sub site, but it is changed per SiteCollection and the url is something like this: (http://www.mysite.com/anothersitecollection/subsite/pages/mypage.aspx), in my default SiteCollection I can make the tag like this:

<img src="/SiteImages/MyLogo.gif" alt="SubSiteLogo " />

But in another site collection this will not work with me, so I can make it like this:

<img src="<% $SPUrl:~ SiteCollection/SiteImages/MyLogo.gif %>" alt="SubSiteLogo" runat="server"/>

The same thing here with the stylesheet, you can do the same:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<% $SPUrl:~Site/StyleSheets/MyStyle.css %>" runat="server"/>

Things to ask the client about before working on My Site

In a MOSS project the RSD may say: “out of the box My Site”, but you have to make sure that the system analyst has asked the client the below questions:

1. Do you really need My Site, or can the requirements be developed?
Sometimes the user just wants to display the user information, but he heared that there is something called MY SITE and he wants it.

2. What is the expected number of users that will create My Site?
The expected number of MY SITEs is very important, as it is a factor of space and performance, as each My Site is a site collection and the default quota is 100 MB for each site. I was working on a project for a big organization that has 15000 users, but for obviously not all of those users will create My Site.

3. Will all the users be able to create "My Site"?
Some organizations like the 15k users case, for obviously not all of them will be able to create My Site as some of them are contractors that are doing a task and will leave after two or three months and may be more, but they will not be allowed to create My Site.

4. Do we need the 100MB for each site?
100MB is a very large space, and may be very small for others, but the expected or the planed size is very important to make your hardware architecture regarding the performance and the storage space and the storage place (this is another question but you will need to answer it yourself, as you may need to create a group of My Sites that belong to a group of users in a place and another group in another place).

5. Do you have only one AD domain or more?
More domains means that a username may be duplicated, so you must configure the settings to take the domain name in site URL, not just the username.

6. What is the authentication type of the OWA, In Case you will use Outlook webparts?
You will need to know this, as the forms authentication will display the login window inside each webpart iframe with a scroll if the webpart size is smaller, you may decide to pass the credentials using JavaScript and submit the form (you have to configure the trusted sites in the browser and make the OWA and the intranet site on the same domain but using a different sub-domains) , also what is the used version of the Exchange Server

7. Is the email address the same as the username?
Some organizations are using username like domain\usr24hr and the email for this user is ramy.fawzy@domain.com for security reasons. In this case take care while working on customizing Outlook webparts automatically to set the exchange server address and the email inbox name.

8. Will you allow the user to select his "My Site" language or not?
In multiple language websites it may be a needed to allow the user to select his My Site interface language. The client may imagine that it can be English/Arabic the same as his portal for example.

9. Do you need to customize in the layout or not?
Some customers ask for My Site, but they don ‘t know that it will not inherit the portal MasterPage, and they will be shocked after the site deployment, so make it clear from the beginning for him and for yourself.

Listing Folders, SubFolders and Items in one page

It was requested from me to make a page in MOSS that will display Departments in an organization, and there is a set of sub departments and in each sub department there may be another group of sub departments and then a list of file library that may also be divided into groups.

I want to save all these files in only one document library but divide them into folders and subfolders as required, and make the minimum number of pages and code to display these folders and items and without any .net coding.So my solution is to make a page in SharePoint designer and add a DataSource and a DataView then make the following steps:

1. In the SPDataSource add Scope="RecursiveAll" this will make the datasource get all the items (folders and documents) not just the folders in the first level.

2. Add parameter to the DataView, ex. Name: FolderPath, Source: QueryString, QueryStringVariable: FolderPath, DefaultValue: En/DownloadCenter/Documents (which is the path to your document library)

3. Make a filter in the DataView to have Path, Equals, [FolderPath]

4. Make a variable to be used as the page link or the document link as:

<xsl:variable name="url">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="@ContentType = 'Folder'">documents.aspx?FolderPath=<xsl:value-of select="substring(@FileRef, 2)">
</xsl:value-of>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="@FileRef"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>

5. The above code will check if the item is a folder so we will need the link to redirect to the same page (documents.aspx in our case), and if the item is a document so we need to redirect to the document URL.

6. substring(@FileRef, 2) is used to remove the first / character in the URL Path (not the Path), to know what is the difference between both, Path: En/DownloadCenter/Documents, URL Path: /En/DownloadCenter/Documents/Subfolder1

Separate XSL files for Content Query Webpart (CQWP)

Using the same ItemStyle.xsl for all the content query webparts in the site is a very bad thing to do, especially with the big sites.
But you can make an XSL file for each content query webpart and here is how to do:

1. Edit the page you want to add the webpart in.
2. Add a content query webpart.
3. Export the webpart.
4. Open the exported file.
5. Search for “ItemXslLink”
6. Update the line to:
   
   <property name="ItemXslLink" type="string">/Styles/XSL/MyCQWebpart.xsl</property>
   
   
7. Update the property "ItemStyle" to the templete name ("UsefulLinks" in this example)
8. Upload the XSL file (remember to update "CommonViewFields" as needed)
9. The XSL file can be something like this to display a useful links (Title, Link):
   
   <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" exclude-result-prefixes="x d xsl msxsl cmswrt" xmlns:x="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp" xmlns:cmswrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v3/Publishing/runtime" xmlns:ddwrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/runtime" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt">
   <xsl:template name="UsefulLinks" match="Row[@Style='UsefulLinks']" mode="itemstyle">
   <xsl:param name="CurPos" />
   <xsl:variable name="TitleLenght" select="string-length(@Title)" />
   <xsl:variable name="RowLimit" select="40" />
   <xsl:variable name="LinkURL" select="substring-before(@Link,',')" />
   <xsl:variable name="LinkText" select="substring-after(@Link,',')" />
   <li>
   <a href="{$LinkURL}" target="_blank" title="{$LinkText}" class="newsTitle">
   <xsl:value-of select="$CurPos" /> - <xsl:value-of select="@Title" />
   </a>
   </li>
   </xsl:template>
   </xsl:stylesheet>
   
   
10. Import the webpart and configure it to read from the right place, filtration and sorting order and so on.
11. Go to the “ContentQueryMain.xsl” file and search for “OuterTemplate.CallItemTemplate”
12. In <xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="itemstyle"> add <xsl:with-param name="CurPos" select="$CurPosition" /> and any other parameters you want to send to the itemstyle.
13. You can also make your own ContentQueryMain XSL by updating the “MainXslLink” property in the webpart file, and the same for the header by updating the “HeaderXslLink” property.
    
    

Delete WorkItem from TFS database

To delete workitem added by mistake, you have to delete every thing related to it, so you can go to the TFS database and run the following

Declare @DeleteThisID int set @DeleteThisID = 10000

DELETE FROM [WorkItemLongTexts] WHERE ID = @DeleteThisID
DELETE FROM [WorkItemsAre] WHERE ID = @DeleteThisID
DELETE FROM [WorkItemsWere] WHERE ID = @DeleteThisID
DELETE FROM [WorkItemsLatest] WHERE ID = @DeleteThisID

Error 'Code-blocks are not allowed in this file'

http://www.hammendorp.net/post/Error-Code-blocks-are-not-allowed-in-this-file.aspx

Features included in Office SharePoint Server 2007

"Features are modular groups that provide a collection of functionality. Features are available depending on the license type of the Office SharePoint Server 2007 installation, and are activated at various levels of the logical structure of Office SharePoint Server 2007: farm level, Web application, site collection, and site level."

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc678862.aspx

This article contains information about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 features and the level at which you can activate them.

SPListItem: Update(), SystemUpdate() and UpdateOverwriteVersion()

If you are working with MOSS APIs to create list items and updating them, you have the option to update the item by using Update(), SystemUpdate(), SystemUpdate(false) or UpdateOverwriteVersion() methods, but what is the difference between them?

Update()

• will make a new version of the item
  
• Update the modified time and modified by fields
  
• If the item is published it will be pending again
  

UpdateOverwriteVersion()

• No new version.
• Updates the item without creating a new version of the item
  
• Update the modified time and modified by fields
  

SystemUpdate()

• Nothing will be changed in the item except the fields you want to change
  
• No new version (You can pass false to the method just to enable generating a new version)
• The events will be fired and the modifications will be logged, but no alerts will be sent, and you can disble the event firing before using the SystemUpdate then enable it again

SystemUpdate() is very useful if you want to modify something like the rating value after the item is published without reapproving it every time.

كان يا ما كان

رسالة كتبتها لأودع فريق العمل اللذي عملت معه بشركة لينك ديف بمصر للعمل بفرع الشركة بالسعودية

كان يا ما كان

هل سمعتم عن إمارات الأبدان؟ ليست ببغداد ولا إيران! في كل حين وآن وأوان يُحكى عن إمارة في كان يا ما كان.. العقل لها حاكما ومُستشاره القلبُ بالانسان، الشعبُ عاش خلالها لبرهة من الزمان فترة رخاءٍ وامانٍ. وفي يوم من الأيام أصدر العقل حكماً قاسياً ليس فيه رأفة ولا إحسان، لم يُستشار المُستشار في الحكم حيث أنه أول من يدان، لم يرتكب القلب جُرما بل يُخشى منه على باقي الجسمان، العقل يخشى ان تثور عليه يدٌ او اذنٌ من الاذنان، أو قد تنقلب عليه قدميه أو يعارضه اللسان، كل هذا لأنه أخذ القرار وعلى البقية السمع والطاعة للسلطان. وفي ساعة المحاكمه (الآن) وقف العقلُ مُحاكماً لكنه يعلم ان مكانه مع البقية خلف القضبان، وبعد مرافعة القلب المُستشار والبلاغة في البيان، والتي ادت لهطول امطار غزيرة بمنطقة العينان وإثارة العواصف بمنطقة الرئتان. في الحال اُصدر الفرمان وقد تناقلته وسائل الاعلام.. بتوقيع اتفاق دبلوماسي مع باقي الامارات من الزملاء والاحباب والخلان، أن يترك بكل امارة ذكرى كسفير خير عبر الايام، و يَحِقُ للمتهمين زيارة السفراء كلما كان ذلك بالإمكان، لتجديد هعد وفاء وإخاء و سلام، وفي النهاية ختم الحكم بقوله: في هذا الزمان هذا ما كان يمكن ان يكون بالإمكان، فسلام.

CSS best practice

Inline style is not a good practice if you want to work with styles, as it is difficult to update if you want to make a modification across the site.

So, some WEB-UI developers start making a new framework to use while making their styles without using the inline style, they develop a class for each style, ex: .Width150px { width:150px;} and another one .Red {color:red;} and use it like this class=”Red Width150px”!
For me, using inline style is better as it will be much more faster while developing than using the above way.

The better practice for using CSS is by defining a meaning full name that describes the thing that will take the style, ex: .PageTitle {color:red; width:150px;} and give the DIV class=”PageTitle”, so I can update all the pages titles just by updating the CSS file, not going to each page title and update the class name.

DIVs vs TABLES

Lots of WEB-UI developers are thinking of replacing all the tables with DIVs which in my opinion is not right, they are using DIVs even if they want to render a table saying that it is better in performance.

But the right thing is: use div when you need it and use tables when you need it.
Using DIVs with CSS can make a lot of things that can’t be done by TABLEs, for example it you want to display data in rows and each row or some rows will not be aligned with the others and using TABLEs will make complicated TDs with a lot of COLSPANs, but displaying a form data can be done with TABLEs perfectly.

But it is preferred to use DIVs if you want to work with the page layouts, as you will be able to change the layout just by using the CSS.

setAttribute('maxlength', 5);

Setting maxlength with Javascript using the setAttribute() function will not work with IE like this: setAttribute('maxlength', 5);

You have to make it setAttribute('maxLength', 5);

Team Foundation Sidekicks

Team Foundation Sidekicks is a suite of tools for Microsoft Team Foundation Server administrators and advanced users providing Graphic User Interface for administrative and advanced version control tasks in multi-user TFS environments.
Version 2.2 of Team Foundation Sidekicks includes Permission Sidekick, Code Review Sidekick, Shelveset Sidekick, Labels Sidekick, History Sidekick, Workspace Sidekick and Status Sidekick in uniform GUI stand-alone application, and Visual Studio Integraton Package providing VS integration for all sidekicks as well as additional features such as Search Items dialog, dynamic History and Build Type editing support.
Single installation package contains versions of application compatible both with Team Foundation Server 2005 and Team Foundation Server 2008.

Move site collections to a new database (split a content database) (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)

This is a very usefull article talking about how to move a site collections to a new database

You can also have a look on Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit