Serge van den Oever [Macaw]

PowerShell: get your external IP address

svdoever — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 22:16:33 GMT

Needed this in a script to automatically add a firewall rule to my Azure SQL server:

$externalIP = (New-Object net.webclient).downloadstring("http://checkip.dyndns.com") -replace "[^\d\.]"

JSON Debugger visualizer in Visual Studio 2012

svdoever — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 16:32:06 GMT

Recently working a lot with JSON data. Needed a debugger visualizer for JSON. Found one at: http://jsonviewer.codeplex.com/

Copy contents of the visualizer folder in the zip package to VisualStudioInstallPath\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers (on my machine this is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers) and working! See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sb2yca43(v=vs.110).aspx for other instalation options.

Visual Studio 2012 LightSwitch intellisense not working with Resharper 7

svdoever — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:01:49 GMT

I’m developing LightSwitch code in c# but didn’t get intellisense. After configuring Resharper to use the Visual Studio intellisense I finally got intellisense, and you need that in LightSwitch development!

SharePoint: UI for ordering list items

svdoever — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 01:38:20 GMT

SharePoint list items have in the the base Item template a field named Order. This field is not shown by default.

SharePoint 2007, 2010 and 2013 have a possibility to specify the order in a UI, using the _layouts page:

{SiteUrl}/_layouts/Reorder.aspx?List={ListId}

In SharePoint 2010 and 2013 it is possible to add a custom action to a list. It is possible to add a custom action to order list items as follows (SharePoint 2010 description):

Open SharePoint Designer 2010
Navigate to a list
Select Custom Actions > List Item Menu
Fill in the dialog box:
Open List Settings > Advanced Settings > Content Types, and set Allow management of content types to No
On List Settings select Column Ordering

This results in the following UI in the browser:

Selecting the custom Order Items action (under List Tools > Items) results in:

You can change your custom action in SharePoint designer. On the list screen in the bottom right corner you can find the custom action:

We now need to modify the view to include the order by adding the Order field to the view, and sorting on the Order field. Problem is that the Order field is hidden. It is possible to modify the schema of the Order field to set the Hidden attribute to FALSE. If we don’t want to write code to do it and still get the required result it is also possible to modify the view through SharePoint Designer:

Modify the code of the view:

This results in:

Note that if you change the view through the web UI these changes are partly lost. If this is a problem modify the Order field schema for the list.

Icons from CDN (content delivery network)

svdoever — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:25:47 GMT

Sometimes you need an icon in a site, but don’t want to (or can’t) add the icons themselves to the site. A good example is http://jsfiddle.net (a playground for web developers) where you can only edit html, Javascript and css, but can’t add any icons. In my case I need some icons for a custom SharePoint list action on Office365. I could add the icons to a SharePoint picture library, but I don’t want to do that. So after some search I stumbled upon this StackOverflow question. In one of the answers the site the site http://www.iconfinder.com was mentioned, together with a link to a post describing that linking to the icons from their CDN is allowed (if licence permits it):

https://getsatisfaction.com/iconfinder/topics/direct_linking_to_icons_from_iconfinder

I love their search UI where you can specify a search term, that you want a transparent background, the size of the icon, and that you want an unlicensed icon.

To get the CDN url, select the icon, and on the following screen right-click on the icon and select Copy Image Location.

This results in the following url: http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/fugue/icon/edit-list-order.png.

Google image search: exact size and file type missing

svdoever — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:04:41 GMT

When I need an icon I use Google search for images, type in the usage for the icon, for example order, and specify an exact size for the icon.

Until recently…

Google in their infinite wisdom decided to change the image search UI:

Select Search tools:

As you can see, no exact size can be specified… you can specify Icon, but no size for the icon.

After some searching I found this question nicely answered. An the answer is…. add the following to your search terms:

imagesize:widthxheight

So search for: order imagesize:16x16

This results in some messed up UI:

The next step is that I want to specify the type of image. In the new UI I get the following options:

That’s not what I mean…I want to say gif or png!

If we go to the Google advanced image search page (http://www.google.com/advanced_image_search), we see some other options:

After some fiddling we extend our search to: order imagesize:16x16 filetype:png

The Google search UI is modified again!

Happy image searching!

SharePoint 2013 is running on .Net 4 framework

svdoever — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 23:20:07 GMT

The new SharePoint is running on the .Net 4 framework, but still using ASP.NET web forms, and not ASP.NET MVC. As far as I can see its running on ASP.NET Web Forms 4.0, although Chris O’Brian (http://www.sharepointnutsandbolts.com/2012/07/sharepoint-2013-my-view-on-whats-new.html) says that ASP.NET Web Forms 4.5 is used.

What is the best method to see which version of ASP.NET web forms is running?

Getting SharePoint 2013 dev machine up and running in 5 minutes

svdoever — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 22:08:14 GMT

I’m a happy customer of http://www.cloudshare.com, and only days after the release of SharePoint 2013 preview I was able to spin up an instance of SharePoint Server 2013 with the following configuration:

SharePoint Server 2013 Preview

Description: OS: Windows Server 2012 RC x64
Spec: 80 GB HD / 8 GB RAM
Installed:
• SharePoint Server 2013 Preview
• SQL Server 2012 Standard
• Visual Studio 2012 RC Ultimate Edition
• SharePoint Designer 2013 Preview
• Adobe Reader

The machine works like a breeze, although I already had some SharePoint crashes. But hey, it’s a preview!

Kudo’s to CloudShare for getting a template machine up and running so fast.

PS: I’m in no way affiliated to CloudShare, just a happy customer.

SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles 1.4.0.3 - bugfix release, how to update

svdoever — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 11:14:00 GMT

Today I released version 1.4.0.3. of SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles. This is a bugfix release where the following issues are fixed:

Change Log - SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles v1.4.0.3
===========================================================

Product Version:

1.4.0.3
- Fixed issue: Documentation and Sample.ps1 machine configuration file had missing ';' after first line of configuration (SharePointDeployment = 'ClientObjectModel')
- Fixed issue: UseClaims flag of machine configuration was not passed correctly, so Claims Authenticated deployment with client object model (Office365 for example) was not working
- Fixed issue: Custom configurations not working due to missing parameter in Deploy.cmd and Redeploy.cmd
See: http://myspworld.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/deploy-content-files-to-sharepoint-using-sharepoint-designfactory-contentfiles/ (thanks Amadeu)
1.4.0.2
- Fixed issue: Code outside begin block when doing ClientObjectModel deployment
- Fixed issue: Not all files packaged (fixed by Danny)
- Fixed issue: Deployment path incorrect (one letter missing)

1.4.0.1
- Fixed issue: Mapped folder ABC would also deploy files in unmapped folder ABCD due to startswith() logic.

1.4.0.0
- Initial release to general public.

To upgrade the NuGet package to a new version execute the following steps:

To upgrade your NuGet package following the following steps:
Right-click on solution or project, and select Manage NuGet packages…
In the Manage NuGet Packages screen click left on Updates
Select the SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles package and press the Update button
Open from the menu Build the Configuration Manager
Make the project configurations match the solution configurations (always mixed up after uninstall/install or update)

This should get you up and running!

Facebook makes some of its core libraries open source (C++)

svdoever — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:55:02 GMT

For Facebook with 900.000.000 users one of the most important things is performance. Core libraries of Facebook are written in C++, and some of these libraries are now open-source on github: https://github.com/facebook/folly. See also the blog post http://herbsutter.com/2012/06/02/facebook-folly-oss-c-libraries/ and the discussions in this post where other C++ libraries open sourced by big companies are mentioned. There is already someone working on getting the libraries to work under Windows and Visual Studio at the fork: https://github.com/jbandela/folly/tree/vc11/.

SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles–building WCM sites

svdoever — Sat, 26 May 2012 21:09:45 GMT

One of the use cases where we use the SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles tooling is in building SharePoint Publishing (WCM) solutions for SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010 and Office365.

Publishing solutions are often solutions that have one instance, the publishing site (possibly with subsites), that in most cases need to go through DTAP.

If you dissect a publishing site, in most case you have the following findings:

The publishing site spans a site collection
The branding of the site is specified in the root site, because:
- Master pages live in the root site (/_catalogs/masterpage)
- Page layouts live in the root site (/_catalogs/masterpage)
- The style library lives in the root site ( /Style Library) and contains images, css, javascript, xslt transformations for your CQWP’s, …
- Preconfigured web parts live in the root site (/_catalogs/wp)
The root site and subsites contains a document library called Pages (or your language-specific version of it) containing publishing pages using the page layouts and master pages
The site collection contains content types, fields and lists

When using the SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles tooling it is very easy to create, test, package and deploy the artifacts that can be uploaded to the SharePoint content database. This can be done in a fast and simple way without the need to create and deploy WSP packages. If we look at the above list of artifacts we can use SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles for master pages, page layouts, the style library, web part configurations, and initial publishing pages (these are normally made through the SharePoint web UI).

Some artifacts like content types, fields and lists in the above list can NOT be handled by SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles, because they can’t be uploaded to the SharePoint content database. The good thing is that these artifacts are the artifacts that don’t change that much in the development of a SharePoint Publishing solution. There are however multiple ways to create these artifacts:

Use paper script: create them manually in each of the environments based on documentation
Automate the creation of the artifacts using (PowerShell) script
Develop a WSP package to create these artifacts

I’m not a big fan of the third option (see my blog post Thoughts on building deployable and updatable SharePoint solutions). It is a lot of work to create content types, fields and list definitions using all kind of XML files, and it is not allowed to modify these artifacts when in use. I know… SharePoint 2010 has some content type upgrade possibilities, but I think it is just too cumbersome.

The first option has the problem that content types and fields get ID’s, and that these ID’s must be used by the metadata on for example page layouts. No problem for SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles, because it supports deploy-time resolving of these ID’s using PowerShell. For example consider the following metadata definition for the page layout contactpage-wcm.aspx.properties.ps1:

Metadata page layout
 # This script must return a hashtable @{ name=value; ... } of field name-value pairs
# for the content file that this script applies to.
# On deployment to SharePoint, these values are written as fields in the corresponding list item (if any)
# Note that fields must exist; they can be updated but not created or deleted.
# This script is called right after the file is deployed to SharePoint.
 
# You can use the script parameters and arbitrary PowerShell code to interact with SharePoint.
# e.g. to calculate properties and values at deployment time.
 
param([string]$SourcePath, [string]$RelativeUrl, $Context)
@{
    "ContentTypeId" = $Context.GetContentTypeID('GeneralPage');
    "MasterPageDescription" = "Cloud Aviator Contact pagelayout (wcm - don't use)";
    "PublishingHidden" = "1";
    "PublishingAssociatedContentType" = $Context.GetAssociatedContentTypeInfo('GeneralPage')
}
 

The PowerShell functions GetContentTypeID and GetAssociatedContentTypeInfo can at deploy-time resolve the required information from the server we are deploying to.

I personally prefer the second option: automate creation through PowerShell, because there are PowerShell scripts available to export content types and fields.

An example project structure for a typical SharePoint WCM site looks like:

Note that this project uses DualLayout.

So if you build Publishing sites using SharePoint, checkout out the completely free SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles tooling and start flying!

SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles - Installation

svdoever — Sun, 20 May 2012 21:02:54 GMT

The SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles tooling can be used to develop, test, package and deploy SharePoint files and metadata that can be uploaded to the SharePoint content database. Use this tooling for developing and packaging your master pages, page layouts, style library files, web part configurations and any file you can think of that can be uploaded to the SharePoint content database. Works on SharePoint 2007 (on SharePoint server), SharePoint 2010 (on SharePoint server or remote) and Office365 (remote).

Installation is simple. In this post I will show the steps required to install the SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles on a Visual studio project.

Fire-up Visual Studio 2010 and create a new project (File > New > Project…)
Under Installed Templates select Visual C# > Web
Select the .Net Framework 3.5, then select the ASP.NET Web Application project
Note that the resulting project contains all kind of artifacts that are not relevant in the context of a SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles project:
If NuGet is not installed yet on your Visual Studio (Tools > Library Package Manager is missing), start the Visual Studio Extension Manager (Tools > Extension Manager…). In the Extension Manager window select the Online Gallery at the left and search for NuGet. Select the NuGet Package Manager and press the Download button to install NuGet. Preferably use NuGet 1.7 or up to use all features available in the SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles NuGet package.
Right-click on the just created Web Application project and in the context menu select Manage NuGet Packages….
In the Manage NuGet Packages window select Online at the left and search for SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles. Select the SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles package and press the Install button.
After installation where a lot of project manipulation magic happens the following message appears. An assembly is installed in the solution folder containing Visual studio Solution Explorer context menu actions that makes working with SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles even easier. This assembly is magically loaded by a Visual Studio extension called Managed Menu Extension (MME). Although this extension is not required and it is perfectly possible to work without the additional context menu actions, it is advised to install the Managed Menu Extensions (explained in the next step).
Install the Managed Menu Extensions (MME) through the Extension Manager (Tools > Extension Manager…). Select Online Gallery and search for MME.
Visual studio requires a restart for the Managed Menu Extensions to work and the context menu extension for SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles to work. Close Visual Studio, and reopen Visual Studio with our new solution in one of two ways (First starting Visual Studio and then loading the solution does not load the menu extensions):

By starting the solution through the start menu
By double-clicking the solution file in the explorer

We are done with installation! The project is cleaned up, all unwanted files are removed. You are presented with a readme file explaining some things about the SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles tooling.

In a next blog post I will give a tour through a SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles enabled Visual Studio project.

Thoughts on building deployable and updatable SharePoint solutions

svdoever — Sat, 19 May 2012 22:56:00 GMT

Thoughts on building deployable and updatable share point solutions

View more PowerPoint from svdoever

SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles NuGet package released

svdoever — Sat, 19 May 2012 02:18:00 GMT

Wouldn’t it be great to edit your SharePoint 2007/2010/Office365 content files like master pages, page layouts, web part files, style library files etc. etc. in Visual Studio, use intellisense, source control and the XSLT debugger, but without the overhead of creating complex xml files, manifest files and WSP packages? Wouldn’t it be great if you could package those file and deploy them through Dev, Test, Acceptation and Production without WSP packages? Now you can!

Create an ASP.NET Web Application Project, add the SharePoint.DesignFactory.ContentFiles NuGet package and start building!

See the included documentation for more information. More information will follow on this blog!

SharePoint 15: What is coming?

svdoever — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:25:01 GMT

Something everyone busy with SharePoint would like to know: what will be the new features of SharePoint? What has been changed in the existing functionality? A lot of information that will point us in the right direction is available now from the source…

See the Office 15 Technical Preview - Open Specification Update @ http://blogs.msdn.com/b/officeinteroperability/archive/2012/01/30/office-15-technical-preview-open-specification-update.aspx.

The material is sometimes hard to read, but there is a lot of information hidden in the documents.