Signature Sterling

Some very generous community contributors have provided the following code (including source) for Facebook and Twitter feed web parts:

• Twitter Web Part
• Facebook Web Part

I needed some slightly different behavior so I tweaked their source code with the following changes. I've provided the new solution file and my modified source code below for anyone that may need similar changes.

• I've combined both the Twitter and Facebook feeds into a single web part with 2 table columns. When adding the web part, choose the one titled 'Show Wall' to get both feeds.
• The Twitter feed is returning all tweets for all feeds that the user is subscribed to, not just their own tweets.
• The tweets are 'Linkified' - that is, all the hash tags, mentions and URL's within the tweet text should be appropriately hyper-linked.

Here's a preview of the web part:

For instructions on installing/configuring the Facebook and Twitter web parts and the Twitter account to publish the feed, see the 'Getting Started' wiki pages within the code.google.com links provided above.

Facebook/Twitter Web Part Source Code (The .wsp solution file is in the FacebookTwitterRSS_WP.zip\sharepoint-facebook-wall-read-only2\BrickRed.WebParts.Facebook.Wall\bin\Debug directory.)

This seemed like such a no-brainer, I was surprised at the lack of documentation for achieving this functionality. Perhaps because document sets are still relatively new? Eh, who knows. In any case, on with the blogging topic. To begin with, I created a custom content type (with parent document set) and I created a work flow in SharePoint Designer 2010 associated with this content type. These topics are outside the scope of this article, so if you need some guidance on them, ping me. The next step is creating a custom view within the WorkFlow history list. The SharePoint peepz have hidden it somewhat, but you can find it by appending "/Lists/WorkFlow History" onto your site URL. Navigate to the history list's settings and select 'Create View', then select 'Custom View in SharePoint Designer' - SharePoint Designer 2010 should now open.

1. Give your view a unique name and highlight the XSLTListViewWebPart.
   
2. Click the 'Parameters' button in the List View Tools > Options tab of the ribbon and add the following parameter values:
   
3. Click the 'Filter' button in the List View Tools > Options tab of the ribbon and add the following values (make sure to set the ListID filter to 'contains' rather than 'equals').
   
4. Click the 'Add/Remove Columns' button in the List View Tools > Options tab of the ribbon and select the columns/order you'd like to display, I prefer the following:
   
5. Save the View.
6. Edit the document set landing page template within SharePoint Designer 2010. Navigate to your custom content type, select 'Document Set settings' within the 'Settings' section, select 'Customize the Welcome Page' within the 'Welcome Page' section, and then select 'Edit Page' > 'Edit in SharePoint Designer' from the Page tab of the new window that opens.
7. Copy the XsltListViewWebPart from the custom view you just created, and paste it into the document set landing page template wherever you prefer. I like the WebPartZone_Bottom. Save the landing page template.
8. Navigate back to the document set settings 'Customize the Welcome page' section and check the 'Update the Welcome Page of Document Sets inheriting from this content type.' and click OK. (The document set landing page template will not update with your changes until you do so.)

And voila! Navigate to a document set, and you should see the all the workflow history items pertaining to that document set within its landing page. You can then tweak the display values like the web part's title, borders, etc. just by editing the document set template page within the browser.



Since document sets can have multiple work flows as well as multiple instances of a single work flow, it's important to note that this web part will display the history items for ALL work flow instances of any kind associated with this document set.

There are a couple of options when you find yourself in need of a search form that queries a SharePoint list and filters on multiple parameters. One option is to create custom search scopes based on the desired criteria - effective, but somewhat cumbersome and not very aesthetically appealing in my opinion. A second option is the content query web part, but it's not really functional as a dynamic search since users have to edit the page and modify the web part in order to alter the search parameters. The third option is the use of an HTML form web part, a list web part, and a web part connection but unfortunately web part connections only allow the transfer of one value so multiple parameters is not feasible. The method I've outlined below uses a Data View and its associated configuration options within SharePoint Designer to achieve the described behavior.

1. Start SharePoint Designer 2010 and open the relevant SharePoint site.
2. Create a page to house the search form and results, edit the page, and select 'Advanced Mode' from the top toolbar ribbon.
   NOTE: The search controls must be asp.net (not HTML) in order to be visible as control parameters. SharePoint Designer will only allow the addition of asp.net controls outside of the WebPartZone tag so the page must set to advance edit mode in order to allow editing outside the WebPartZone tag.
   
3. Place the cursor just outside the WebPartZone tag in the code view of the page and add an Asp.net textbox control. Note the id attribute value of the control (the default is an incremented version of 'TextBox1'). Repeat this step for each text/date parameter. NOTE: The Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar Extender can also be used for a friendlier date control, but I haven't tested the 2010 Toolkit so proceed at your own risk.
   
Place the cursor just outside the WebPartZone tag in the code view of the page and add an Asp.net dropdownlist control. Note the id attribute value of the control (the default is an incremented version of 'DropDownList1'). Repeat this step for each dropdownlist parameter.
4. Place the cursor in the WebPartZone you'd like the list result set to appear and add an empty Data View.
   
5. Select the appropriate data source from the Data Sources Picker.
6. Navigate to the Data Source Details pane and select 'Multiple Item View' from the 'Insert Selected Fields As' dropdown. You can also use this pane to select the list columns you would like displayed within the Data View.
   
7. Highlight the Data View and select 'Parameters' from the tool bar ribbon. Add a control parameter for each text box and dropdownlist search control.
   
8. Highlight the DataView and select 'Filter' from the tool bar ribbon. Add a filter criteria line item for each non-date text box and dropdownlist. NOTE: You can include appropriate OR filter line items to return all results when search controls are left empty/unselected.
   
9. Within the Filter Criteria dialog box, select the Add XSLT Filtering checkbox and click the 'Edit' button.
10. To filter on records who's field value 'Created' matches dates contained within parameter ranges 'BeginDate' and 'EndDate', paste the following formula within the XPath expression textbox.
    [(number(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(ddwrt:FormatDate(string(@Created),1033,1),1033,'yyyyMMdd'))>=number(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(ddwrt:FormatDate(string($StartDate),1033,1),1033,'yyyyMMdd'))) and (number(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(ddwrt:FormatDate(string(@Created),1033,1),1033,'yyyyMMdd')) <= number(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(ddwrt:FormatDate(string($EndDate),1033,1),1033,'yyyyMMdd')))]
    
11. Confirm the filter changes and save the page.

And...voila! If all went well, you should be set to filter your list on multiple parameter values. This procedure should also work within SharePoint Designer 2007 with a couple tweaks. First, you won't need to bother putting the page in advanced edit mode (SPD 2007 will let you add components outside the WebPartZones by default). Second, you'll use the data source library pane to interact with the Data View rather than the various wizards provided by SPD 2010. This article should provide a useful reference when implementing this solution within SPD 2007: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc300163%28v=office.12%29.aspx

SanSpug
The user group meetings are free to attend and chock full of highly technical and relevant SharePoint instruction. This week's meeting included my own, personal event receiver presentation and another on InfoPath 2010. There is a nominal annual fee to access certain user group resources (such as the presentation recordings).

We have TONS of upcoming events in the works - including the first ever San Diego SharePoint Saturday (early 2011), study-cram sessions for the 2010 certification exams, job fairs, etc. Myself and the other members of the user group executive team are working hard to make it a valuable resource for local SharePoint professionals and to facilitate the growth of the SharePoint presence here in San Diego. Please check it and out and provide any feedback/suggestions you have.