SharePoint Blank

How to Create a Custom SharePoint List Including a Column to Display a Picture

John Anderson — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:26:00 GMT

Over the past few weeks while I've been covering SharePoint Saturday in New York, attempting to cover SPTechCon in San Francisco (curse you, snowmaggeddon!), and lending an editorial hand to the product launches of BambooRM and Workflow Conductor, several questions from readers have appeared in my inbox. Longtime readers know that means it's time for another dip into the SharePoint Blank mailbag, so let's get right to today's question which has to do with creating a custom list including a column for a picture:

I am trying to create a custom list. In that list, I would like to have name, description, and picture (basically a bio). How do I go about uploading a picture to that custom list?

This question had the ring of being something that could be accomplished out-of-the-box, so it was with no small amount of relish that I ducked into a nearby phone booth, changed into my SharePoint Blank uniform and... wait, sorry, I got a little sidetracked there. What I meant to say was that I proceeded straight to our portal and commenced setting about seeing if I could accomplish the requested task.

I started by choosing the Create button under the Site Actions drop down, and then selected the Custom List hyperlink under the Custom Lists heading. Doing so brought up the form to create a new list, which I filled out with a Name of "Profile Test" and entered the question quoted above as a combination description and mission statement:

After clicking Create, my Profile Test list was created, empty of any content of course. My next step was to add some custom columns since, by default, the only column on a newly created custom list is the Title column. To add custom columns, I selected the Create Column button under the list's Settings drop down.

On the resulting Create Column form, I first selected the radio button for Multiple lines of text,gave it the name of "Bio" and clicked OK to create the new column. I then repeated the process, selecting the radio button for Hyperlink or Picture this time, and giving this second custom column the name "Picture". With both of my new custom columns in place, the only thing that was left (other than adding some test content) was to change the name of the default column from Title to Name, a name which seemed more fitting for the exercise at hand. To do this, I selected the List Settings button under the list's Settings drop down and, on the resulting Customize page, clicked the Title hyperlink under the Columns heading. On the resulting Change Column form (more on this soon), I simply changed the Name of the column from Title to Name, clicked the OK button to make it so, and figured I was off to the races.

At this point it was time to add some test content to my list so I clicked New Item under the list's New drop down. Doing so rendered the New Item form for the Profile Test list, and I filled it out with my own profile information for testing purposes, including my name, a one sentence bio with title and responsibilities, and the URL for a picture of myself to include:

One important note/disclaimer regarding the picture: the desired picture must have already been uploaded elsewhere, as there is no upload functionality within the list itself. You're merely providing an HTTP pointer to an already uploaded picture to display within the list. Your picture can exist in a SharePoint picture library but isn't required to do so; the only requirement is that it be available via HTTP.

At this point, I was all set to celebrate, but what did I see when the list rendered after I clicked OK? The Name and Bio column information appeared as expected but, instead of seeing my picture, I saw the hyperlink to the picture:

So it was back navigating the waters of Settings -> List Settings for me. On this trip to the Customize page, instead of clicking the Title hyperlink under the Columns heading, I clicked the Picture hyperlink, and instead of rushing through the creation process as if it were a race (note to self and a hint to others: it's not), I actually took the time to read the description under the Additional Column Settings heading. And would you look at that! The default option under the "Format URL as" heading is Hyperlink, but the other option in the drop down is Picture:

Once I'd made and OK'ed this simple change to my Picture column, satisfaction was mine!

The only additional note that's worthy of mentioning here is that, as you may have noticed in the Change Column image above, there is also an option via radio button selection in the Additional Column Settings area to require users to enter information. The default behavior in custom columns regarding such requirements is No, do not make it a requirement that users enter information, so be advised that you'll need to switch the radio button selection to Yes on your custom columns if you want to ensure that users complete the requested information.

Alert When a Folder is Created in SharePoint?

John Anderson — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:02:00 GMT

In response to an earlier post on creating and managing alerts, bonan brought up an interesting question in the comments:

Is it possible to create alerts for Folders only? I am trying to make sure users do not create extra folders in certain lists but still have the ability to create documents in that list.

Setting such an alert wasn't something that I'd ever tried to do (or even thought to try), and it would clearly be useful functionality, so I struck out to discover the answer today. A first look at the out-of-the-box options for alerts wasn't at all encouraging:

As you can see, alerts can be set up at the item level within a list or library, and you can be alerted as to changes pertaining to a given item/document, but the functionality is limited to content changes, and unfortunately isn't set up to be triggered on the creation of a folder within the list or library.

My next step was to see if the advanced features of Bamboo's Alert Plus Web Part provide the ability to trigger an alert based on the creation of a folder but, alas, while Alert Plus provides much more granularity than out-of-the-box alerts, it unfortunately doesn't allow for alerts to be sent upon folder creation either. Rats.

Next I did some Googling to see if anyone else out there might offer a product with this functionality, but I came up empty on that front too.

Finally, I asked Jeff Kozloff, the Patron Saint of SharePoint Blank, to verify my findings. Unfortunately for bonan, and for anyone else out there looking for this type of alerts functionality, Jeff confirmed that not only can it not be done out-of-the-box or with Alert Plus, but he was unaware of any existing product offering that would get the job done.

And so, much as I dislike having to be the bearer of bad news by answering a question with, "sorry, but it looks like it just can't be done based on existing code," taking the brighter view, I like to think that highlighting this feature gap provides an opportunity for an enterprising developer out there in the SharePoint ecosystem to take up the challenge and code a solution. As well, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that our Custom Solutions team can always be engaged to build this functionality into Alert Plus.

How to Show the Most Recent Comment on Items in a SharePoint Tasks List

John Anderson — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:36:00 GMT

When we left off last week, I'd reached a point in my test environment that matched the case that I was attempting to address: rather than having the most recent comment on an item in a tasks list render in the Comments column as desired, I was instead greeted with a View Entries... hyperlink. The time has now come for the exciting reveal of how to surface the actual comment.

Once I had reached the View Entries... stage, I took another run at Google in an attempt to find a solution to the problem, and what I discovered was not terribly encouraging in that while it looked like it would indeed be possible to surface the most recent comment exactly as desired, it sounded like it couldn't be done out of the box.

So how can it be done? Well, what I learned from a combination of the abovementioned Googling and a second consultation with Jeff Kozloff, there are actually two solutions available. Option one, as discussed in a thread on the SharePoint Developer Center, involves using SharePoint Designer to create a Data View Web Part. I still don't have SharePoint Designer up and running, so that option isn't really available for me to investigate (though I'm thinking that getting set up with SharePoint Designer should be on my list of SharePoint New Year's Resolutions), but the second option, and the one that doesn't involve any coding, is to go with a third-party Web Part. And guess what? As it happens, Bamboo's own Data-Viewer Web Part fits the bill perfectly.

Bamboo's Data-Viewer Web Part provides the ability to surface list data (as well as SQL Server, BDC /MashPoint, and/or List Rollup data), which is exactly what we need in order to show the most recent comments on tasks list items. Best of all is the fact that with the Data-Viewer Web Part in place on your site, surfacing that list data can be done in a jiffy. I know this for a fact because I watched Jeff Kozloff do it in under two minutes using my own test list as an example.

Having seen Jeff do it, I went back and recreated the steps myself for purposes of documentation. I first added the Bamboo Data-Viewer Web Part to a page in my test site, having selected it from the available Web Parts in my Web Part gallery. The Web Part is, of course, created empty of content, save for the following instructional message which appears in the content area: "No data source is configured for the Bamboo Data-Viewer Web Part. Please contact your Administrator to configure the appropriate data source in the Web Part tool pane."

Hint: Unless you're trying to do something extremely complicated, you're probably not going to need to bother your Admin, and you certainly shouldn't have to do so in order to surface list data such as comments on a tasks list. To wit: Once I surfaced the task pane by clicking the Modify Shared Web Part option under the Web Part's edit drop down, SharePoint List was already selected by default as the data source. Selecting a list in the Master List area was my next step, which simply meant choosing my Task list comment test item from the drop down (which automatically includes all existing lists on the site):

All that was left for me to do was to select the columns for inclusion in the Data Viewer Web Part, so I selected all columns (including, of course, Comments) on the left pane and clicked the right arrow button to copy them all to the right pane, thereby activating them for inclusion:

After clicking OK in the task pane, the Data-Viewer Web Part rendered and, as you can see in the right-most column below, the most recent comment ("comment two") is now surfaced for the tasks list item which I created in my previous blog:

And that's all there is to it. Take a bow, Data-Viewer Web Part!

As a postscript, I should mention that in the course of my chats with Jeff, I also learned that Bamboo will be releasing Data-Viewer Web Part version 3.0 within the next couple of weeks, so all you Data-Viewer fans are going to have a cool new feature coming your way soon.

Read the entire Working with Tasks Lists series:

How to Activate Versioning then Create and Display a Comments Column in a SharePoint Tasks List

John Anderson — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:25:00 GMT

We left off yesterday having demonstrated how to create and populate a SharePoint Tasks List, and now it's time to reveal the question that set this little mini-series of posts in motion:

I am creating a big Task List for all the different marketing projects I will be working on in 2010. I wanted to use comments and version so we can see a running list of the changes and updates to the projects. But on the view I would like to show the Latest Comment and I can only get it to say View Entries and you have to click to see the progress. Do you have a suggestion of something I can do so I can view the latest 'comment' in my task list?? Or any suggestions as to how I can accomplish this?

As I mentioned yesterday, in order to begin researching this question, and following the patented three-step SharePoint Blank Path to Discovery (1. Try and figure it out on my own through the use of brute force, 2. Google, and if all else fails, 3. Consult Jeff Kozloff, aka the Patron Saint of SharePoint Blank), I embarked upon the creation of a new tasks list for my brute force testing purposes. I'm embarrassed to admit that I wasn't even able to get as far as seeing the View Entries... result in the Comments column described above before I required the first of what would ultimately prove to be two brief consultations with Jeff.

After that first chat, I was armed with the information that I needed to finish setting up my test environment, which is to say that I knew then that I had to turn on versioning for the list, and then add a new column for Comments. To do so, I began by choosing the List Settings button under the Settings drop down:

Next, under the General Settings heading on the resulting Customize page for the tasks list, I clicked the Versioning settings hyperlink:

On the resulting Versioning Settings page, I turned Item Version History on by switching the radio button selection from (the default) No to Yes:

Having made that selection and clicking OK, I was returned to the Customize page for the list. Handily, among the (loads of) customize options available, one of them is Create column, which hyperlink appears as an option under the Columns heading. Clicking that hyperlink will surface the Create Column page, and for our purposes, the first two things we want are right near the top in the form of the Column name field, and the Multiple lines of text radio button selection:

Note: You can also create a new column from within the list itself by simply clicking the Create Column button under the Settings drop down. In the image above I've already filled in the "Comments" name and have made the Mutiple lines of text selection. While you're not limited to the multiple lines of text option for a comments column by any means, it does seem to be the one that makes the most sense in terms of providing flexibility for your users.

Once you've selected the Multiple lines of text option, the Additional Colum Settings area at the bottom of the form will change accordingly, and it is here that you'll make several decisions regarding the behavior of your Comments column, including whether to require that the column contain information (default is No), which type of text input to allow (default is Rich text), and whether to Append Changes to Existing Text (the default is No, but in order to accomplish our desired result, you'll need to change this radio button selection to Yes):

Having clicked OK to create the new column, your browser will refresh with the Customize page again, and you'll now see Comments listed under the Columns heading as an existing column for the list. When you edit an existing (or create a new) list item from here on, you'll see the Comments section on the item page:

Since we've already turned versioning on, comments will be associated with version numbers from this point forward. My next step was to add some comments to existing test items, and add a new item to my list with a couple of different instances of test comments, hoping that the next time I viewed the list I'd see the most recent comment on at least that new item. Alas, what I discovered was exactly the issue that I was hoping to solve - the dreaded View Entries... hyperlink appeared in the Comments column for each of my test items:

With apologies in advance for keeping you in suspense, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask that you tune in Tuesday for a couple of different approaches to solving this problem, and actually surfacing the most recent comments directly within the tasks list itself.

Read the entire Working with Tasks Lists series:

How to Create and Populate a SharePoint Tasks List

John Anderson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:15:00 GMT

Happy new(ish) year!

I received a question via email earlier this week regarding advanced task list functionality and, while setting up a test task list to work with in the course of researching the answer, it occurred to me that I've never blogged the creation and population of a tasks list. So, before I get to that advanced question (and ultimately its answer), I thought that it would be useful to take a step back and walk through the creation of a SharePoint tasks list.

Start by selecting the Create drop down from the Site Actions button in the site where you wish to create your task list. On the resulting Create page, click the Tasks hyperlink under the Tracking heading:

Clicking the Tasks link will render the form which you'll use to create the new list which, as you can see below, includes fields to enter the list's Name and Description, as well as questions regarding the ability to Display this list on the Quick Launch (default is Yes), and Send e-mail when ownership is assigned (default is No):

Note: The e-mail regarding assignment of ownership pertains not to the list itself, but to the tasks that will appear within it.

Once you click Create on the Create form, your browser will refresh to display your new list, along with the default columns Title, Assigned To, Status, Priority, Due Date, and % Complete. Naturally, your newly created list will be empty until you add tasks:

As you can see, the content area of a newly created list is helpfully populated with instructions explaining how you go about populating the list: There are no items to show in this view of the "[your list's Name]" list. To create a new item, click "New" above.

Clicking the New button as instructed will surface the New Item drop down button, which is what you want to click in order to add a new item to this list. Clicking that drop down button will surface the form you'll use to create a new item:

As you can see, in addition to the default text fields of Title, % Complete, Assigned To, Description, Start Date and Due Date, there are also two drop down fields. The first of these is Priority, with the default selection being (2) Normal, and remaining choices being (1) High and (3) Low. The second drop down field is for Status, with the default selection being Not Started. The remaining Status choices are: In Progress, Completed, Deferred, and Waiting on someone else.

Once you've filled out the New Item form for each new item you wish to add to your task list, your task list is complete. At least until you want to, say, add new columns or change the order in which columns appear, that is. Stay tuned because that's part of what I'll be getting into tomorrow when I share the question that I was asked which set all of this in motion.

Read the entire Working with Tasks Lists series:

The Advanced Web Part Gallery in SharePoint

John Anderson — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:45:00 GMT

When I last blogged, I swear that I had the best of intentions to write this post within a day or two of that last entry, SharePoint Web Part Gallery Ruminations. That last post was now almost two weeks ago ... sigh. I can assure you that I haven't been slacking, however, as the bulk of my time over those two weeks was spent working on Bamboo's annual Year in Review feature, crafting questions for each member of our management team, editing their responses, and preparing the entire package for publication. I've also blogged the release of this year's model of the World Clock and Weather Web Part (longtime readers will recall that I dedicated a three-part series to World Clock and Weather here in SharePoint Blank at this time last year), and edited and helped prepare for publication the Bamboo Labs release announcements for SharePoint Analyzer R1.5 and Bamboo Happy Birthday Reminder Web Part.

And so, with apologies for the wait to those of you who have been waiting for the remainder of my findings regarding the Web Part gallery, I'm going to stop making excuses now and jump right back in without further ado.

Clicking the Advanced Web Part gallery and options hyperlink (pictured above) at the bottom of the Add Web Parts Webpage Dialog will open the Add Web Parts tool pane on your page:

Seeing the Server Gallery button (highlighted in the image above) among the available Web Part collections got me thinking, which in turn led to some Googling, which ultimately led to the discovery of the existence of the Online Web Part Gallery. What's that, you ask? Well, the official Microsoft site has the goods:

The Online Web Part Gallery contains an additional set of Web Parts available from Microsoft. In this gallery, you can locate several MSNBC Web Parts that display news, stock, and weather information. Over time, you may find additional Web Parts available in the Online Web Part Gallery, either from Microsoft, or from other software manufacturers and vendors. You can also create your own Online Web Part Gallery. For more information on creating your own Online Gallery, see the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Software Development Kit.

Granted, this is more Admin-centric information than end user-centric, but I found the existence of such an Online Web Part Gallery from Microsoft to be both noteworthy and blogworthy . I also figured that there might be some end users out there to whom such Web Parts might be of interest, and so I offer the abovementioned link and the information herein for you to share with your Admin if these Web Parts sound like something you'd like to see on your portal.

After all, who doesn't like free Web Parts ... and what better time to stock up on them than around the holidays, right?

And with that, I'll leave you with a wish for the happiest of holidays. I'll be seeing you in the new year.

SharePoint Web Part Gallery Realizations and Ruminations

John Anderson — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:33:00 GMT

Yesterday I spent some time on my My Site for the first time in a little while and, thinking it might be time to get to know a new-to-me Web Part, I edited the page and clicked the Add a Web Part bar to bring up the Web Part gallery and consider my options. Maybe it's because I haven't spent much time there of late, but one thing that really jumped out at me on the resulting Web Part gallery form was just how cluttered my Lists and Libraries section has become with content that I've created for mostly test purposes. Seeing all of that clutter quickly led to a pair of realizations, and ultimately ended up leading me on a path to learn more about the Web Part gallery itself, which turned into an adventure all its own.

The first of my two realizations was that when looking specifically for Web Parts in the gallery, I can save myself some unnecessary scrolling (past all of my clutter) by collapsing the Lists and Libraries section. This is done by simply clicking the collapse button, which is the minus sign to the immediate left of the Lists and Libraries title in the (default) expanded view on the Web Part gallery form:

(Note: Collapsing this, and indeed any of the sections in the Web Parts gallery, will switch the minus sign into a plus sign, the clicking of which will once again expand that section to show all of its contents.)

The second realization was that I should probably delete the test content of mine that's no longer necessary, especially as it's taking up space on a production server. Which led me to think, boy, wouldn't it be convenient if I could delete those items directly from the Web Part gallery? And then I realized, no, on second thought, that might not be such a swell idea, given that the likelihood of accidentally deleting something of value would increase, which could prove problematic if the deletion were not discovered prior to the expiration of one's ability to Restore Selection.

Anyway, I was going to continue this post with my additional learning regarding the Web Part gallery, such as the mysterious Online Web Part Gallery, how Administrators add new Web Parts to the gallery, and a look at the Advanced Web Part gallery and options, but now that I'm feeling guilty about all that clutter of mine that's taking up valuable server space, I think I'm going to go ahead and get my My Site house in order now and save the rest of that Web Part gallery goodness 'til next time.

Update on Microblogging Functionality for SharePoint

John Anderson — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:30:00 GMT

A few months ago, I wrote a blog that sent up a test balloon to gauge interest in Bamboo's potentially developing Twitter/Yammer-like microblogging functionality for SharePoint. Since Bamboo was bound by a nondisclosure agreement regarding our participation in Microsoft's Technical Adoption Program (TAP) for SharePoint 2010, what I couldn't say at the time was that microblogging is among the new social features in SharePoint 2010. In brief, microblogging functionality comes to SharePoint out-of-the-box in the form of status updates which are not only entered and surfaced on a users' profile page, but are also surfaced in the feeds of colleagues who are following that user.

What I didn't know at the time, and which I first heard reference to during the Q&A following the SharePoint Conference session on an overview of social computing in SharePoint 2010, was that Yammer is working on its own Web Part for SharePoint. Coincidentally enough, I received an email from Yammer's Director of Communications during the Conference which confirmed that such was indeed the case, and generously offering to let me know when their Web Part is close to completion. I will, of course, share that information, and any additional scoop regarding features and functionality of the Yammer Web Part that I might receive as soon as it lands in my inbox.

So that's two pieces of exciting news for all of you who are fans of microblogging and SharePoint out there, so let's go for the hat trick, shall we?

As a result of my earlier blog on the topic, Bamboo has been approached by a representative of a Fortune 100 company, and it gives me great pleasure to report that our Custom Solutions team is actively engaged in requirements gathering and ongoing discussions towards building a custom solution for that customer. Assuming no bumps in the road, we hope to be able to offer a microblogging solution for SharePoint on the Bamboo online store sometime in the new year. Stay tuned!

Navigation Link Missing in Settings for a SharePoint Site Collection

John Anderson — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:59:00 GMT

I received a high priority email earlier today from a self-professed SharePoint Admin "noob" asking for help with a problem. The problem he was having involved the lack of a Navigation hyperlink under the Look and Feel area of Site Settings for a newly created copy of an existing site collection. The Navigation link remained in place on the original site collection, but was nowhere to be found on the copy which had been created via stsadm.

Admin-related tasks aren't exactly in my wheelhouse, and pretty much anything involving stsadm is admittedly going to be outside of the end user focus of SharePoint Blank, but I wanted to see if I could somehow use my mad Google skills to be of some assistance. And since there was at least one new-to-SharePoint Admin out there who was rather desperate to find a solution to this problem, I figured if I could turn up the answer and blog it that I might be able to raise its Q rating ever so slightly in the search engines, which could then be of use to other Admins encountering the problem down the line.

I found what I sought on page one of the results when I employed "navigation link missing SharePoint site collection" as my search phrase. The short version of the answer is that Publishing must be activated on the site collection for the Navigation link to appear on the Site Settings page, but full details of the solution are available at TechNet, courtesy of SharePoint MVP John D. Ross and Arpit Goyal. Thanks, gents!

SharePoint Blank in a SharePoint 2010 World

John Anderson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:51:00 GMT

Before I go any further, I should apologize for my longer than intended absence from SharePoint Blank. You see, the thing is that SharePoint 2010 ate my homework. No, actually, a better and more truthful explanation would be that I was eaten by the monster of SharePoint 2010. Which is not to say that SharePoint 2010 is (or will be) a monster. Unless we're talking "monster" in the sense of "monster hit," in which case, yes, I do genuinely believe that SharePoint 2010 is going to be a monster.

Let's back up, shall we? As you can probably tell, I've got SharePoint 2010 on the brain. Since Bamboo was a member of Microsoft's Technical Adoption Program (TAP) for SharePoint 2010, I've been living, breathing and, yes, blogging SharePoint 2010 for months now, but I've limited the 2010 content to just a single post here in SharePoint Blank. That was a conscious decision in recognition of the fact that most of you wouldn't have had the opportunity to get your hands on it yet. Well, not legally anyway, but we won't get into that. That lack of access will hopefully soon change, however, as the feature-complete SharePoint 2010 beta was made available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers earlier this week, and the open public beta is expected to follow in short order.

I'm really looking forward to blogging SharePoint 2010 in what I suppose we can call the "trademark SharePoint Blank style," but to be honest, I've been going back and forth on a couple of aspects of the logistics of doing so. First, there's the question of when should I start? I'm really anxious to get cracking because I'm genuinely excited about the giant leap forward that I think SharePoint 2010 represents, and especially so regarding the end user enhancements. But the main question I'm mulling over is when would it be most appropriate to begin that blogging? When the public beta is opened to everyone? When the product is officially released?

The other (and admittedly less compelling) question I'm asking myself is where to post the content, here in SharePoint Blank, or over in the SharePoint 2010 blog?

I've got my own leanings as to the answer to both questions, but if anyone has an opinion on either or both of the abovementioned quandaries, I'd love to hear from you as I continue to weigh the pros and cons.

In the meantime, when next we meet, I'll answer the question of what's up with the Twitter-like Web Part for SharePoint idea that I floated here a couple of months ago.

How to Move Multiple Files Between SharePoint Libraries

John Anderson — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:51:00 GMT

A colleague (who's even newer to SharePoint than I am) stopped by earlier this afternoon to ask if I might be able to help her with a Document Library question. She asked if there was a way to force specific metadata to display within a Document Library, and I initially said yes, if it's added to the template of the document it will automatically appear.

Further discussion revealed, however, that I hadn't understood her actual need, which was to surface the dimensions and file size of images in the library. At which point, I mentioned that since you get that metadata "for free" in a Picture Library, why not just use that? Turns out that there was an already existing Document Library, which included a folder with over three dozens images, and it was those images where she wanted to surface the metadata by default. Needless to say, those qualities are not among the metadata which appear by default in a Document Library.

It's possible to surface file size in a Document Library by editing the columns which are shown. This can be done on the page which results from selecting the Modify this View option:

But, presumably since document libraries aren't intended to store images, Picture Size (that is, dimensions) is not an available option on the menu. So what to do?

I suspect there is a way to force that Picture Size data to display within a Document Library, but the idea that occurred to me, especially given that she wanted a Picture Library to work with going forward anyway, was to simply create a new Picture Library, move the files over, and hope that it could all be done seamlessly and without losing any metadata in the process.

Since I had been looking into an issue regarding content types earlier in the day (an issue that I didn't get to the bottom of, but to which I will return), Explorer View was on my mind, which is actually what sparked the idea to just use that to move the files and solve the problem painlessly. So I had her create a new Picture Library, then click the Open with Windows Explorer drop down option under the Actions button on the Document Libray:

Once she'd done that, she was able to simply copy the files out of the Document Library and, navigating with Windows Explorer, paste them into the newly created Picture Library ... and sure enough, once complete, the desired Picture Size and File Size metadata both appeared by default once she'd switched to the Details view.

Don't you just love happy endings?

Accidentally Deleted Images in a SharePoint Picture Library?

John Anderson — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:23:00 GMT

I ended my last post, how to globally uncheck images in a SharePoint picture library, with the unsettling confirmation that once an image has been edited, it remains checked by default in the library. This default behavior introduces the possibility of checked items being accidentally deleted, since one person may edit an image and another person (or, heck, even the same person on a different day, since checked images remain checked until/unless they are actively unchecked) may select a second image in the library and delete it. In such a case, they will have unknowingly also deleted the first image since clicking Delete in a picture library deletes all selected items in the library.

I regret to report that I haven't turned up a solution to this problem. In fact, one of the first things I turned up was a message board post on eggheadcafe asking if there is a fix or workaround for the problem. That question was posted over two years ago ... and remains unanswered to this day. Unfortunately, further investigation (read: Googling) has also failed to turn up any solution or workaround, save for my previously suggested step of always globally deselecting the contents of a picture library before selecting specific image(s) for deletion.

As a reminder, if you discover that images have been accidentally deleted from your SharePoint picture library, they may not be lost. Check the contents of your site's Recycle Bin and, depending on how much time has passed since the deletion, you may very well be able to restore the selection. Of course, if multiple files were accidentally deleted, the level of effort involved in manually restoring those images is going to increase, and possibly exponentially in a large and heavily used picture library. Needless to sya, if there were a safeguard which could help prevent such accidental deletions, that would definitely be a Very Good Thing.

I sense another possible development opportunity for Bamboo here. Perhaps a Web Part that could generate a warning that multiple images are about to be deleted, and list all selected images? I'm just thinking out loud here, and I'm certainly not a developer, but I suspect that there are more than a few folks out there who would appreciate the existence of a safety net of this nature.

It's also entirely possible that this is something Microsoft will have addressed themselves in the SharePoint 2010 release, which would certainly be good news for early adopters who are heavy users of picture libraries.

Globally Uncheck Selected Images in a SharePoint Picture Library

John Anderson — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:57:00 GMT

On occasion, I'm sent SharePoint questions which don't require any research on my part because I actually already know the answer. Granted, this still doesn't happen often, but it has been known to happen. At first blush, I thought the following question was going to be one of those:

How can you uncheck your pictures without finding each one individually?

To edit a picture, check it, then Actions/Edit. However, if you finish editing, you apparently MUST uncheck the picture, or it stays in your Picture/Edit bucket.

I found out the hard way when I deleted an uploaded photo because it was the wrong one, and all of a sudden, my employee homepage was missing several pictures! Turned out they were still checked, and Actions/Delete moves all of them to the recycle bin.

Any global uncheck available for pictures?

There is indeed a global uncheck feature available for images in a Picture library, but there's a catch, and it's one I've encountered myself. The catch is that in order to access the "select all" functionality, the view on your Picture library must be set to Details. What's tricky about this, and what makes it something of an Easter egg, is that the default view for a Picture library is Thumbnails. Neither the default Thumbnails view or the Filmstrip view offer the "select all" functionality which will allow for a global checking or unchecking of the contents of your library ... but if you switch the view to show Details, like so...:

Presto, you now have a "select all" button at the top of the left-hand column (just beneath the New button):

And now we come to the thorny part of the question, the notion of checked/edited items in a Picture library remaining checked. This is indeed the case, but the potential danger of this behavior hadn't dawned on me prior to receiving the email quoted above. Granted, the ability to globally uncheck all images in a library is certainly helpful in this instance, but since it requires a view which many not be one's customary view, and since it also requires remembering to go through the step of deselecting all images, it seems that there ought to be a better safeguard available. And so, it seems that I've got some investigating to do after all...

Creating a SharePoint Tasks List for Use As a Web Part

John Anderson — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:13:00 GMT

By way of providing background, I'm in the process of managing a major editorial initiative for Bamboo Nation, and one aspect of that project is assigning articles to colleagues based on their area of expertise. Another aspect of the project is tracking the progress made on those assignments. As a writer, my natural environment is Word, so I initially drafted the assignments in Word and then created a wiki in our SharePoint portal to host the content as a living document. Many of you, particularly any project managers out there, have probably already recognized the missing component in my wiki-based approach: there's no built-in way to chart a given assignment's progress in a wiki (also: it's easy to ignore a wiki).

Having realized that a change was needed, I began poking around our portal, and realized that a simple and effective solution was staring me in the face right there on the home page of the site dedicated to the larger project of which my editorial component is just one piece. That solution was what appeared to me to be a Tasks Web Part. This "Tasks Web Part" appeared to have everything I needed, as it featured such columns as title, assignee, status, due date and percentage complete.

Once again, I expect many of you are already way ahead of me, and have realized that what I just described is a basic SharePoint list. What can I say? It looked like a Web Part and it quacked like a Web Part, so it seemed reasonable to conclude that it was a Web Part. And you know what? As it turned out, it kind of was...

I created my new list from the home page of the project site by clicking Site Actions -> Create -> Tasks hyperlink under the Tracking heading on the Create page, which rendered the following form:

As I was filling out the form, I realized that I got an added bonus for "free": the ability to choose to Send e-mail when ownership is assigned or when an item has been changed. In my role as de facto project manager, I most definitely chose to do so.

Once I had clicked Create on the form, my new list rendered immediately (empty of contents, of course). Once I had populated the list with all of the assignments, I wanted to place it front and center on the home page of the site, as I had seen the "Tasks Web Part" presented that I mentioned earlier. Accomplishing this was as easy as clicking Site Actions -> Edit Page and then locating my list (by name) under the Lists and Libraries section of the Web Part gallery, placing a check in its box, and clicking Add.

And with that, I had a shared tasks list in place as a Web Part on the home page of the project site. And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to hook up Bamboo's Alert Plus Web Part to the list so that I can arrange for regular email reminders to go out to the lucky assignees on that list.

What is SharePoint? Part 8: In Which We Address the Topic of Collaboration (Albeit Indirectly)

John Anderson — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:00:00 GMT

A friend asked me earlier this week, "just what is SharePoint?" and I almost laughed, thinking, "well, I've written several thousand words on the topic already, but I suspect I'm going to have to write at least a few thousand more before I'm able to answer that question in the length which I suspect you would prefer." Ultimately, after providing him with what was probably a little more of a history lesson than was desired (or necessary), I settled on something along the lines of SharePoint being an extensible content management and collaboration platform. I should note that the friend in question is fully IT-conversant, and so was not in need of further explanation as to what I had just said.

That conversation did get me thinking about what would be my focus for this week's installment of the "What is SharePoint?" series though. I considered tackling SharePoint Online but quickly realized that beyond saying that SharePoint is available as a Microsoft-hosted service (i.e., as a "cloud-based" offering), there wasn't really much else to say. I then considered addressing the nature of SharePoint security, only to discover that Arpan Shah had already nailed the topic in his blog. As I continued to cast about for the next logical part of the series, it occurred to me that I haven't really spent much time directly addressing SharePoint as a tool for improving collaboration and business processes. Which is somewhat ironic, particularly given that those are the very SharePoint qualities that have always loomed the largest in my mind as an end user.

While beginning to formulate my thoughts on the matter, I remembered that I'd intended to revisit the Google results for "What is SharePoint?" and investigate the video results specifically. Before I could do that, however, I came across SharePoint MVP Tobias Zimmergren's recent post, What is SharePoint - A simple explanation. In that post, Tobias sings the praises of a Common Craft video which, in just over three minutes seeks to explain the capabilities of SharePoint as a team collaboration tool, in plain English and with accompanying animations as appealing as they are effective. I join Tobias (and Microsoft) in recommending the following video as an estimable answer to the question of "what is SharePoint?":

SharePoint in Plain English

I expect I'll return to frame my own thoughts on SharePoint as a collaboration engine at some point, but I'd like to address the fact that I've stepped aside and let a video do the heavy lifting today. You see, there's a righteous train coming down the tracks, and it's called the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009. With the conference just 5 weeks away, and with a massive amount of conference-related deadlines staring me in the face, I'm afraid I'm going to have to dial back the frequency of SharePoint Blank appearances over the weeks in the run-up to the conference. I promise I'm not going to disappear entirely, and I'm certainly not going to be resting on my laurels, but I just wanted to provide a heads up that SharePoint Blank likely won't be appearing with its customary frequency again until after the big show.

Needless to say, I'll still be addressing your questions as often as possible, so please keep them coming ... as always, your SharePoint problem could very well be the topic of the next SharePoint Blank.