Remove hyperlinks from OOTB list view Web Part using JQuery

SharePoint 2013 list view Web Part display lookup columns as hyperlinks. Sometime these hyperlinks don’t point to something very useful and do a great job of confusing the users. Here’s a simple script to remove all hyperlinks except the Title from a list view.

function DisableLookupLinksInList() {
$("table.ms-listviewtable").find("td.ms-vb2").each(function () {
var link = $(this).find("a");
if (link.length > 0) {
link.replaceWith("<span>" + link.text() + "</span>");
}
});
}

And here the script to remove lookup links from a display form

function DisableLookupLinksInForm() {
$("table.ms-formtable").find("td.ms-formbody").each(function () {
var link = $(this).find("a");
if (link.length > 0 && link.parent().attr("id") != "SPFieldUserMulti") {
link.replaceWith("<span>" + link.text() + "</span>");
}
});

}

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Customizing SharePoint 2013 OOTB List view using JSLink

JSLink in SharePoint 2013 is a nice and only way to keep all the power of OOTB list view Web Part and add your own customizations. Here’s a simple example of highlighting an item row based on a column value.

(function () {
 var context = {};
 context.Templates = {};

 context.OnPostRender = [HighlightRowOverride];
 SPClientTemplates.TemplateManager.RegisterTemplateOverrides(context);

})();

function HighlightRowOverride(context) {

 for (var i = 0; i < context.ListData.Row.length; i++) {
 var listItem = context.ListData.Row[i];

 if (listItem["_Status"] == "Change requested") {
 var iid = GenerateIIDForListItem(context, listItem);
 var row = document.getElementById(iid);

 if (row.length != 0) {
 $(row).addClass("row-highlight");
 }
 }

 }

}

Below is an example of an another customized list view Web Part, the grey table has been added through JSLink.

Pritam Baldota has explained in his MSDN Magazine article different ways of deploying and adding JSLink scripts the list view Web Parts.

Change SharePoint list item permissions to Read only programmatically

It’s a simple task but keeps slipping my mind, so I though it’s better to save it in the public diary.

So I have a Projects and Tasks master detail lists. When a project is complete, it should become read only together with all its tasks. If it was for only the Project list, I could use the SharePoint designer workflow to change the item permissions.

My projects and tasks lists have ‘Contribute’ and a custom permissions level called ‘Contribute without delete’ assigned to multiple user groups. And I wanted to change all the Contribute access to Read  access upon completion of the project.

Here’s the function I wrote,

public void MakeItemReadonly(SPWeb web, SPListItem item, string permissionToReplace, bool exactMatchOnly)
        {
            List<SPPrincipal> principals = new List<SPPrincipal>();
            foreach (SPRoleAssignment roleAss in item.RoleAssignments)
            {
                foreach (SPRoleDefinition roleDef in roleAss.RoleDefinitionBindings)
                {
                    // condition based on the flag exactMatchOnly 
                    if ((exactMatchOnly?string.Compare(roleDef.Name,permissionToReplace,true)==0: roleDef.Name.Contains(permissionToReplace)))
                        principals.Add(roleAss.Member);
                }

            }

            SPRoleAssignment assignment;
            item.BreakRoleInheritance(true);
            SPRoleDefinition role = web.RoleDefinitions.GetByType(SPRoleType.Reader);
            foreach (SPPrincipal principal in principals)
            {
                // remove the role assignment 
                item.RoleAssignments.Remove(principal);

                // Now add the read role to the same principal 
                assignment = new SPRoleAssignment(principal);
                assignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add(role);
                item.RoleAssignments.Add(assignment);
            }
        }

And called the above function the following way,

MakeItemReadonly(web, listItem, "Contribute", false);

Problem with multiple HTML properties in user profile

Recently I was configuring user profiles in SharePoint 2013 and I had to add several custom user properties including html fields. All other properties worked find except html ones. Html properties showed up fine on edit profile page, I entered text and saved the profile, but when I opened my profile again for edit only the last property had value and others where empty. After some investigation I figured out that the EditProfile.aspx in 15 hive had JavaScript which can’t fill in multiple html properties, it’s a bug which has not been fixed until December 2013.

I had three properties on the page, biography, qualifications and expertise, as in the picture below

EditProfile.aspx contains the values of properties in hidden fields as;

<input name="ProfileEditorEditBiography_hiddenRTEField" id="ProfileEditorEditBiography_hiddenRTEField" type="hidden" value="Bio"/>

<input name="ProfileEditorEditQualifications_hiddenRTEField" id="ProfileEditorEditQualifications_hiddenRTEField" type="hidden" value="Qualification"/>

<input name="ProfileEditorEditExperties_hiddenRTEField" id="ProfileEditorEditExperties_hiddenRTEField" type="hidden" value="Skills and stuff"/>


The JavaScript code the edit profile page generates to fill the properties is

The problem in the above code is obvious, it has three functions which are supposed to set values in biography, qualification and expertise fields, but all three functions have the same name. When they get pushed into _spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames, the second push call overwrites the first one and the third push overwrites the second function in the stack, leaving only the last function in the stack to be called.

The solution was to modify this page, and add my own javascript code, which would set proper values to proper fields.

Here’s the code I added inside AdditionalPageHead to fix the problem.

<script type="text/javascript">

_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push('RePopulateEditableRegion');

function RePopulateEditableRegion(){

// SETTING BIOGRAPHY PROPERTY VALUE
var editableRegion = document.querySelector('[InputFieldId=ProfileEditorEditBiography_hiddenRTEField]');
if (editableRegion) {
var field = document.getElementById("ProfileEditorEditBiography_hiddenRTEField");
    if (field) {
editableRegion.innerHTML = field.value;
}
}

// SETTING QUALIFICATIONS PROPERTY VALUE
editableRegion = document.querySelector('[InputFieldId=ProfileEditorEditQualifications_hiddenRTEField');
    if (editableRegion) {
var field = document.getElementById("ProfileEditorEditQualifications_hiddenRTEField");
        if (field) {
editableRegion.innerHTML = field.value;
}
}

// SETTING QUALIFICATIONS PROPERTY VALUE
editableRegion = document.querySelector('[InputFieldId=ProfileEditorEditExperties_hiddenRTEField]');
if (editableRegion) {
var field = document.getElementById("ProfileEditorEditExperties_hiddenRTEField");
    if (field) {
editableRegion.innerHTML = field.value;
}
}
}

</script>
I will have to keep an eye when this bug is fixed in future updates, if the fix is only the server side, then I will have to remove my javascript and if the fix replaces EditProfile.aspx, then I won’t have to do anything.

Creating List Fields/Columns Programmatically in Sharepoint 2010

Here’s the starting point for creating custom fields in a SharePoint list programmatically, there’s of course much more to do in order to make them behave according to you requirements;

 

Single Line Text Field

        string fieldInternalName = list.Fields.Add(“fieldname”, SPFieldType.Text, false);

        list.Fields[fieldInternalName].Description = “field description”;

        list.Fields[fieldInternalName].Update();

 

Multiline Text Field

        string fieldInternalName = list.Fields.Add(“fieldname”, SPFieldType.Note, false);

 

Boolean Field

        string fieldInternalName = list.Fields.Add(“fieldname”, SPFieldType.Boolean, false);

 

Number Field

        string fieldInternalName = list.Fields.Add(“fieldname”, SPFieldType.Number, false);

        SPFieldNumber fieldTimeSpent = new SPFieldNumber(list.Fields, fieldTimeSpentName);

        fieldTimeSpent.DisplayFormat = SPNumberFormatTypes.NoDecimal;

        fieldTimeSpent.Update();

       

Choice Field

        string fieldStatusName = list.Fields.Add(“Status”, SPFieldType.Choice, false);

        SPFieldChoice fieldStatus = (SPFieldChoice)list.Fields.GetFieldByInternalName(fieldStatusName);

        string[] activityTypes = { “Active”, “Closed” };

        fieldStatus.Choices.AddRange(activityTypes);

        fieldStatus.DefaultValue = “Active”;

        fieldStatus.Update();

       

User Field

        string fieldUserName = list.Fields.Add(“User”, SPFieldType.User, false);

        SPFieldUser userField = new SPFieldUser(list.Fields, fieldUserName);

        userField.AllowMultipleValues = false;

        userField.Required = true;

        userField.SelectionMode = SPFieldUserSelectionMode.PeopleOnly;

        userField.LookupField = “Title”;

        userField.Update();

 

Date Time Field

        string fieldInternalName = list.Fields.Add(“fieldname”, SPFieldType.DateTime, false);

        SPFieldDateTime fieldDateTime = new SPFieldDateTime(list.Fields, fieldInternalName);

        fieldDateTime.DisplayFormat = SPDateTimeFieldFormatType.DateOnly;

        fieldDateTime.DefaultValue = “[today]”;

        fieldDateTime.Update();

 

Lookup Field

        SPList listMain = currentWeb.Lists.TryGetList(“MainList”);

        SPList listActivity = currentWeb.Lists.TryGetList(“Activities”);

 

        string fieldActivityName = listMain.Fields.AddLookup(“Activity”, listActivity.ID, false);

        SPFieldLookup activityField = new SPFieldLookup(listMain.Fields, fieldActivityName);

        activityField.AllowMultipleValues = false;

        activityField.LookupField = “Title”;

        activityField.Indexed = true;

        activityField.RelationshipDeleteBehavior = SPRelationshipDeleteBehavior.Restrict;

        activityField.Update();

 

Lookup Additional Field

        string fieldActivityIdName = listMain.Fields.AddDependentLookup(“Activity:ID”, activityField.Id);

        SPFieldLookup fieldLookup = (SPFieldLookup)listMain.Fields.GetFieldByInternalName(fieldActivityIdName);

        fieldLookup.LookupField = listActivity.Fields[“ID”].InternalName;

        fieldLookup.Update();

 

Modifying Default View

        var view = list.DefaultView;

        view.ViewFields.Delete(“Attachments”);

 

        view.ViewFields.Add(“ID”);

        view.ViewFields.Add(“field1”);

        view.ViewFields.Add(“field2”);

       

        view.ViewFields.MoveFieldTo(“ID”, 0);

        view.ViewFields.MoveFieldTo(“field1”, 2);

        view.ViewFields.MoveFieldTo(“field2”, 3);

        view.Update();

Different views for display, edit and new item in InfoPath list forms

Custom lists and InfoPath forms make a good combination, although InfoPath in this scenario lacks some functionality but still this combination is hard to avoid in many situations. You can check out my previous post about the differences between InfoPath in form library, InfoPath with custom lists and aspx forms for custom lists.

When working with InfoPath custom list forms it’s sometimes required to have different views for new, edit and display item modes of the form.

Display View

There are two ways you can choose display view otehr than the default view.

First is in “advanced form options” in InfoPath file menu, here you can choose your display view.

 

Advanced form options

 

 

Second options is outside InfoPath and it applies not only to display mode but also to edit and new modes.

Suppose you want a different view for display item mode.

1. Open the site in SP Designer

2. Open list detail page and open displayifs.aspx in ‘Forms’ list

3. Select the Infopath viewer webpart and look in the properties window, you will find the “DefaultView” property inside “Misc” section

Same can be done in newifs.aspx and editifs.aspx for new and edit item modes

 

New Item View

It’s easy just check empty ID field in InfoPath rule on form load and change view. Or use the above mentioned designer option.

 

Edit Item View

If you have set different display view and switching view for new item on form load based on empty ID field, then for edit item mode just leave it to the default view. And of course you can change in SP designer as mentioned above.

 

Comparison between Aspx forms, InfoPath list forms and InfoPath documents in SharePoint 2010

When it comes to data entry forms in SharePoint, there are three out of the box options available, Aspx forms (default option in lists), InfoPath List forms, and InfoPath documents. The first two are interchangeable with some effort, but switching from the first two to InfoPath documents and visa versa is not possible. Therefore, it’s important to choose the right approach in the beginning of a project.

Here’s the comparison of these three technologies.

 

ASPX forms	InfoPath List Forms	InfoPath Documents
Basics
Separate forms for display, edit and new items. Forms simply work on whatever data is in the list.	Single form works for all operations. Like aspx forms, this form works on whatever data is in the list.	Each list/data item is a document itself. Documents can be configured to promote fields to library columns
Form cannot be printed	Form cannot be printed	Form CAN BE printed
Data cannot be saved as draft	Data cannot be saved as draft	Document can be saved as draft
Coding Support
Client and server side code support	No client or server side code support	Only server side code support, it uses XMLHttp in order to avoid full page postbacks during data entry.
Form Design
CSS can be applied	No CSS support	No CSS support
Data
Data can be changed or imported into the list in bulk	Data can be changed or imported into the list in bulk	Only existing data in promoted fields can be modified. Records cannot be added or deleted in bulk.
Multiple data sources are not supported unless they are in the form of lookup columns or used in client or server side code	Multiple data sources can be used	Multiple data sources can be used
Managed Meta data can be mapped to fields	Can NOT use Managed Meta data	Can NOT use Managed Meta data
Can use external data through client or server side code	Can consume simple SOAP and REST based services and can have connections to databases and XML files	Can consume simple SOAP and REST based services and can have connections to databases and XML files
Form Functionality
No built in support for cascading drop downs, this functionality is achieved using JavaScript	Cascading drop downs can be created without code	Cascading drop downs can be created without code
No repeating or nested data support	No repeating or nested data support	Repeating and nested data support, but cannot be promoted to separate columns or lists
Multiple views of data cannot be created	Multiple view of data CAN BE created and switched based on rules	Multiple view of data CAN BE created and switched based on rules
Multiple web part can be added to the form, inline editing of records possible	Data can be shown from multiple data sources, but can’t be changed	Data can be shown from multiple data sources, but can’t be changed
Validation
JavaScript for all the rules and client side validation	Rule engine does it all	Rule engine does it all
Workflow
SPD based list and reusable workflows and VS based custom workflows can be created and attached	SPD based list and reusable workflows and VS based custom workflows can be created and attached	SPD based list and reusable workflows and VS based custom workflows can be created and attached. Only promoted fields can be used in SPD based workflows.
Key Benefits
Maximum control on the form	Very easy to develop and very little testing is required	Easy to develop and relatively less testing is required
JavaScript/JQuery and Server side code support	Can be developed with minimum time and effort	Server side code support
CSS Support	InfoPath Views, Rules and facial features are supported	All InfoPath features like Views, Rules, facial features and printing are supported
Data in the list can be edited, imported and exported in bulk	Data in the list can be edited, imported and exported in bulk	Repeating and nesting data support
Multiple web parts can be used on a form to view or modify items from different lists on a single form
Drawbacks
Increased development and testing time	No Coding support	No client side coding support, limited server side code ability
		Can run in Sandbox

 

Deciding the right technology

 InfoPath form library should be the first consideration for all kind of applications. They provide additional functionality compared to custom list InfoPath forms, such as;

• Repeating tables and complex schema 
• Printing views 
• Better deployment and change support
• Managed code support 
• Forms can be digitally signed 

 

There are few situations where list based InfoPath forms suite;

•  System needs to be built upon existing data and it’s not feasible for all that data to be entered through the forms
• Bulk data import and edit is required throughout the life of the system
• None of the above mentioned additional capabilities of InfoPath is required 

 

ASPX list forms should be used only when

•  JavaScript support is a must
• CSS support is required
• SharePoint Managed Meta Data must be used in forms