Did you know that, in your content pages, you can specify a certain MasterPage, depending on the browser that’s hitting your page (at least IE and FireFox).

All you need to do is to add a section for each specific browser to your content page’s Page Directive, after creating a separate MasterPage for each browser:

ie:MasterPageFile="~/MyIE.master" 
mozilla:MasterPageFile="~/MyFireFox.master"

When using DropdownLists and Listboxes, or any control which uses ‘selecteditem.text’ to get the selected item, the major reason for not getting the correct item is as follows. If you are binding the control at Page_load, you MUST surround the binding code with a page.ispostback/if/then statement inside the Page Load event. Read the rest of this entry »

In SharePoint 2007, creating Business Data Connectivity/Line of Business applications was a chore, to say the least. There was only a small amount of built in support, so developers needed to buy 3rd party applications to help with the task. And in some cases, the price was fairly high.

However, in SharePoint 2010, things have gotten a bit better, with built in support for this type of scenario, and more of what the developer needs is built in to the development tools. In the following two tutorials, you will see the basic steps which will allow you to create your own list from an External Content Type.

Open your site in SharePoint Designer 2010

• In the Navigation Pane, click on ‘External Content Types’
• In the ‘External Content Types’ tab in the Ribbon, in the ‘New’ section, click on ‘External Content Type’, to create a new ECT
• Click on the link, just to the right of the ‘Name’ designator, in the External Content Type Information section. An editable Textbox appears. Type in any name you want. (Once you tab out or leave that Textbox, it copies your text to the ‘Display Name’ area also.)
• Also, you need to choose what type of Office Item type you want it to be (Generic List/Contact/Appointment/Task, etc
• And in this section, the default is to have Offline Sync for the external list Enabled – which is very nice (IMHO).
• Click on the link at the bottom of the same section which says “Click here to discover external data sources and define operations“
• The next page allows you to set up a new connection for your ECT. Click on the ‘Add Connection’ button.
• Choose between .Net Type, WCF Service or SQL Server (for this tutorial, we’ll use SQL Server) and then click on the ‘OK’ button
• Put in the name of your DB Server and Name, along with an optional ‘Name’ (this comes in handy if you need to scrap the current one and create another in its place. (Sometimes, without the ‘Name’ designation, the changes will not work)
• Next, you choose the manner in which the connection can be made to the database. Your choices are as follows:
  • User’s Identity (the current user logged in)
  • Impersonated Windows Identity (using a Secure Store Application which is set up with Windows username and password)
  • Impersonated Custom Identity (also using a Secure Store Application which is set up with SQL authentication)

Part II can be seen here: http://allthingsdotnet.net/?p=52

Here is a continuation of steps needed, based on Part I of ‘Create a list from an External Content Type – Part I.
Part I can be seen here:
http://allthingsdotnet.net/?p=50

Once the steps in Part 1 are finished, a tree view of tables, views and stored procedures from the chosen database appears in the interface.

• Right click on the table or view from which the ECT is to be based.
  • Based on your needs, choose from the items in the dropdown:
  • Create All Operations (Read/List/Create/Update/Delete/New Association), however, this is only if you want the end user to have a great deal of control on items in the database
  • New Read Item Operation
  • New Read List Operation
  • New Create Operation
  • New Update Operation
  • New Delete Operation
  • New Association
• The base operations required are Read Item and Read List
• When choosing Read Item or Read List (both required), a wizard appears.
  • When choosing
  • Create a Name and Display Name for the Operation (or leave defaults). The ‘Display Name’ is what will be used in the URL of the page that’s will be shown with the results for that operation.
  • Click the ‘Next’ button
  • Configure any input parameters you need and click the ‘Next’ button
  • Configure any Return Parameters you need. ?
    • Click on any field/column to make choices in the Properties box for that field (Required/Read-Only, etc)
    • The checkbox next to the field name controls whether or not this field is visible in the final list.
  • One thing to note here – if you’re using an Office type, like Contact – for each field name you’re displaying, it needs the ‘Office Property’ mapped to it (Last/First name, etc)
  • Click the ‘Finish’ button
  • Right click on the table or view again, to add any other operations necessary.
• Save ECT (save button at top of existing screen)
• Click on ‘Create Lists & Forms’ icon in the ‘Lists & Forms’ section of the ‘External Content Types’ ribbon tab.
  • Designate a List Name and Description (if needed)
  • If Updating, check the ‘Create InfoPath Form’ checkbox if there will be any need for editing/updating

Dynamic Data, in ASP.Net is the greatest thing since sliced bread, in my humble opinion. Using it, you can easily create really good SQL Server table Admin applications, to do all your CRUD work. And, for those of you who don’t know, CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update and Delete. Read the rest of this entry »

In SharePoint 2010, you can use Document Libraries to create ‘sets’ or groups of documents. Often, there? there is a need to combine multiple documents based on a particular purpose. These, then obviously are called ‘Document Sets‘. Read the rest of this entry »

A Secure Store application is a way to impersonate a specific group or user, so that your application can refer to the Application and use it for authentication. Here are the basics on how to create one. Read the rest of this entry »

Term Sets are a cool new feature of SP2010. It’s a bit like creating a global choice list. They can them be used anywhere in your site, as a choice list, however, they are not available in a DropDownList or ListBox – only a textbox. But, at the same time you create a Term Set, you can also create ‘shortcuts’ or abbreviations, so you don’t need to type in the full name of the term. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s say you decide you have built a list or library and it has content, but you need to reorganize and move it to another sub site. It’s really easy in SharePoint 2010. It’s not so much a ‘Move’ as it is a ‘Save and then Create’ type of action.  Read the rest of this entry »