Creating a bookshelf with the Content Query Webpart in SharePoint

A lot of information these days comes in form of an eBook or similar format like a simple PDF. In SharePoint the easiest way to present this information to the user is as a list. For the more ambitious there is the metadata navigation, which brings a lot of beauty for handling list content. I will use a more sophisticated approach via the Content Query Webpart (CQWP) to present the information like books on the bookshelf.

Preparation

Before we can start, we’ll need to step back for a moment and think about the data structure we’ll need in order to support the view we are creating here. There are a few questions you must ask yourself:

• Where and in which document library will you store you eBooks?
• Will you mix different content types in that document library or will you create a new library for every document type?

In my case, I have more documents other than just eBooks. I’ve decided to keep all documents in a single document library and to identify the documents by their content type. Therefore, one of the first steps will be to create the library, the columns and the content type.

This post is

Readers galore - Microsoft published 130 eBooks for free download

Microsoft provides developers and IT professionals with new reading material and released 130 free eBooks on various topics. Beside of the PDF format some of the books are offered as MOBI and EPUB formats as well.

Microsoft manager Eric Ligman is regularly publishing free E-books and other information material on his MSDN blog. Eric and his employer are now stacking up the pile and provide a staggering 130 additional E-books for free download.

Configuring the Content Query Webpart to use seperate xslt template files

The Content Query Web Part is without doubt one of the most powerful webparts that come along with SharePoint. And because there are so many bits you can tweak, it’s probably one of the most complex as well.

As you might know I’ve used the CQWP in the past to create a calendar view for Milestones and Events. For these changes I’ve added the new templates directly into the existing ItemStyle.xsl file. Even thou this is a valid way to do it, I was a bit unhappy with the solution, because you always need to manipulate a SharePoint original file. If you make a mistake, you might brick all of your other CQWP used in the SiteCollection. So there has to be a better way to do this.

This post is

The Retro Powershell - Looking good in 8-Bit | Part 2

Last year I wrote a post how to style your PowerShell to look more like the good 'ol Commodore 64. Unfortunately the font of the PowerShell didn't look quite right. In this post I'll show you how to patch this as well so you get the true feeling.

Update on InfoPath and SharePoint Forms

As Microsoft has announced on their blog, Infopath will be discontinued after the version 2013. This means the next version of SharePoint will not support the Infopath Forms Services. However they are already investigating in an alternative. This will be necessary for several reasons.

The Retro Powershell - Looking good in 8-Bit | Part 1

I wrote a little script that, when placed in your PowerShell Profile, will print a message similar to the old boot message you got from your breadbox.

Like a lot of people out there I started my IT career with a Commodore 64. It is still today a class of its own and amazing to see what people are capable to do with this incredible machine. Not only was the Commodore64 the best selling home computer of all times, it still has a huge fan base today. So why not get back the good old feeling back into your PowerShell?

Create a project management milestone view with the Content Query Web Part

In my last blog post I showed how you can create a nice looking calendar icon for a Content Query Web Part linked to an events list. Now I want to use the same icon to show information from a task list. You can use this for instance as a view for milestones in a project management site. If you haven’t read that article, I suggest you do that first. I will rely in this blog post heavily on information you can read in that article.

Adding a calendar icon to a Content Query Web Part

I was working on a project the other day, when I stumbled upon this webpage with a nice little calendar done completely in CSS. So I was wondering if it would be possible to create an events list from this:

to this:

Eigene CSS Inhalte in einer SharePoint 2010 Seite einfügen

Diese Informationen funktionieren nur mit dem SharePoint 2010 Server und aktiviertem Publishing Feature. Mit SharePoint 2010 Foundation ist ein anderes Vorgehen notwendig, welches hier nicht beschrieben wird.

Die eigene CSS Datei erstellen

Die einfachste Methode eigene CSS Inhalte in einer SharePoint Seite einzufügen, ist die Masterdatei anzupassen. Als erstes sollte man sich immer eine Kopie der Masterdatei erstellen, bevor man Veränderungen daran vornimmt. Am besten kann man dies mit dem SharePoint Designer erledigen, da man damit auch gleich die Änderungen vornehmen kann. Kann man den SharePoint Designer nicht verwenden, so ist es möglich die Masterdatei aus der "Gestaltungsvorlagen und Seitenlayouts" Galerie in den Websiteeinstellungen herunterladen.

In der SiteCollection navigiert man in die Formatbibliothek und erstellt den Unterordner "Custom". Der Unterordner kann auch eine andere Bezeichnung erhalten, allerdings finde ich es in Ordnung wenn man gleich erkennen kann welche Inhalte im Ordner gespeichert werden. Die Formatbibliothek hat im Englischen die Bezeichnung "Style Library" und ist mit folgender URL erreichbar:

http://<SiteCollectionRoot>/Style%20Library/

Mit einem Editor der Wahl erstellt man seine CSS Datei und speichert schließlich diese in dem soeben erstellten Ordner. In diesem Beispiel nennen wir die Datei "customstyles.css". Auch hier gilt, die Datei kann beliebig benannt werden, es müssen aber die Pfade beim Einfügen in die Masterdatei angepasst werden.

Die CSS Datei in der Masterdatei einfügen

Nach einer neuen SharePoint 2010 Installation wird die v4.master Datei als Master verwendet. Wenn man die Datei noch nicht heruntergeladen hat bzw. noch nicht im SharePoint Designer geöffnet, dann tut man es jetzt. Als nächstes suchen wir folgenden Eintrag in der Datei:

<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server">

Jetzt fügen wir eine neue Zeile vor dem asp:ContentPlaceHolder Tag ein.

<SharePoint:CssRegistration name="<% $SPurl:~SiteCollection/Style Library/Custom/customstyles.css %>" After="corev4.css" runat="server"/>

Dieser Abschnitt registriert unsere CSS Datei und lädt diese nach der SharePoint eigenen "corev4.css" Datei. Somit wird sichergestellt, dass Änderungen die wir in unsere CSS Datei vornehmen die Defaulteinstellungen von SharePoint überschreibt.