It was just a few weeks ago that I was writing about the anniversary edition of our (free) World Clock & Weather Web Part, so I figured that yesterday's point release merited a mention in this space -- particularly given that there are new features in the point release.
In addition to wanting to post about the new features, while considering writing about this updated version of the Web Part, I was reminded of something I'd wondered about before. What I'd wondered was how do Web Parts behave if you've already got one on your site when a new version is deployed? For example, if you've already got the previous release of the World Clock & Weather Web Part deployed and configured on your site, and your IT department replaces the Web Part file with the new patch release, does your copy of the Web Part get updated automatically and retain all of your existing configurations?
My assumption had kind of been that the answer would be no, with my thinking being that there might be some limitation with SharePoint regarding updated versions of third-party Web Parts. Since the patch release version appeared to have not yet been installed as an available Web Part on our portal (so I couldn't definitively determine the answer for myself), I sought out Vijay from our engineering team to get the skinny. I warned Vijay in advance that what I was about to ask him was probably a stupid question because, believe it or not, I was a software engineer in a previous life, so I know from stupid questions.
So I posed my question to Vijay, who delighted me by responding that the existing Web Part does indeed get overwritten, and all of the user's existing settings and configurations will remain intact. I don't know about you, but that news practically had me cheering for SharePoint in general, and for our engineering team in particular.
Anyway, since a Bamboo engineer's work is never done, and our team of developers is constantly working to improve existing products as well as innovating new ones, the new features available in the version 2.0.6 patch release of World Clock & Weather Web Part include:
- Option to display either the analog or digital clock using JavaScript. As noted in my earlier blog, prior to this patch release, displaying the clocks required the use of Silverlight.
- Error handling for the city search. I hadn't encountered any errors with any of the three cities I set up in my version of the Web Part, but it seems that our QA team found a bug here, and it's now been fixed.
- Application notes link in the setup now points to Bamboo online documentation.
Additional information is available via the abovementioned online documentation in the form of the product Release notes.
Get the latest release of the World Clock & Weather Part here.
Posted
Jan 06 2009, 05:41 PM
by
John Anderson
John Anderson joined Bamboo Solutions as Manager of Content & Syndication in May 2008 after a 12-year career at AOL. New to SharePoint at the time of his hiring, John was tasked with creating a new blog for the just-launched Bamboo Nation community in which he would document his daily SharePoint learning process. Thus was born the end user-centric SharePoint Blank, for which John authored 200 posts within a year, and which he continues to write today. Today, John writes SharePoint Blank in addition to his responsibilities as Managing Editor at Bamboo and, while he learned much about SharePoint in his first two years, he gleefully celebrates the release of SharePoint 2010 and the reset button that the new platform represents for SharePoint Blank.