The form set up

• Two repeating sections, Foo's and Bar's
• One additional integer field i to control which row to copy

Put the elements on the form:

The copy rule

Create a rule on the integer field i

1. We will use the normal action, then tweak it. 
   Give this rule the name "Copy"
   Start by defining a set field value rule.
   
   
2. Set /my:myFields/my:Foos/my:Foo/my:F1 to /my:myFields/my:Bars/my:Bar/my:B1
   
   
   There are a few issues so far with the default Set Field Value action related to a repeating section.
• For the Field (target), it will set ALL the matching nodes.
• For the Value, it will get the First matching node.
  
3. Let's fix the second value - we can do this in InfoPath designer.
   
   
   The expression is:
   ../my:Bars/my:Bar[number(../../my:i)]/my:B1
   
   This expression lets us copy a different row.
   
   
   
   So we can now copy value from any row - depending on what the number i is.
   
4. To fix the Field Target is a bit more difficult.  InfoPath designer doesn't give us a way to modify the XPath of the field.
   
   
5. Save the form.  We're about to do unsupported stuff. 
6. Publish the form to Source Files. 
   
   
   I publish to C:\Temp\CopyForm\
   
7. Close InfoPath designer.  Open the file C:\Temp\CopyForm\manifest.xsf file using NotePad or your favourite XML editor.
   
8. The "Copy" rule is hiding in this XML file, it looks like this:
   

<xsf:rule caption="Copy">
    <xsf:assignmentAction targetField="../my:Foos/my:Foo/my:F1" expression="../my:Bars/my:Bar[number(../../my:i)]/my:B1"></xsf:assignmentAction>
</xsf:rule>

9. Change it to:
   
<xsf:rule caption="Copy">
<xsf:assignmentAction targetField="../my:Foos/my:Foo[number(../../my:i)]/my:F1" expression="../my:Bars/my:Bar[number(../../my:i)]/my:B1"></xsf:assignmentAction>
</xsf:rule>
10. Save, and close Notepad.  Re-open manifest.xsf file using InfoPath Designer
    
11. Let's check our rule.
    
    
12. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?  We're nearly there.

The loop

1. This rule is set on the number i, and runs once whenever the number i changes.
   
2. Lets set it up to increment.
   
   
3. Add a condition to stop incrementing when we've run out of rows
   
   
   
   
4. And to start the whole thing, remember we have a button.
   
   
   
   To start the process, set i to 1.  XML index starts from 1 to n.  Does not start at 0.
   

Result - InfoPath Filler

Starting...

Press "Copy"

Result - Form Server:

Starting Browser Form

Copy.

Note - InfoPath "Infinite Loop" limitation:

InfoPath is hard coded to only execute 16 rules before throwing the "Infinite Loop" error.



An error occurred in the form's rules or code. The number of rule actions or the number of calls to the OnAfterChange event for a single update in the data exceeded the maximum limit.

The rules or code may be causing an infinite loop. To prevent this, ensure that the rule action or event handler does not update the data which causes the same rule action or event handler to execute.

There is no solution for hard coded 16 rules.  So your i can not go over 16.

Download

• http://johnliu.net/storage/CopyForm.xsn

SharePoint 2010 My Site

SharePoint 2010 ships with this pretty mysite.  Packed with numerous features.

The problem with My Site, even back in the days of SharePoint 2007, is that your users get lost.  It doesn’t look anything like your nice branded site.  It doesn’t share the same global navigation.  In fact, users are so lost that they think they are in a place that they shouldn’t be in.

Result?  They close the browser.  Sometimes, if they are nasty, they tell their colleagues that the Intranet sucks - they can never find anything. 

If only we can render our mysite in a SharePoint 2010 showModalDialog, then it would look like this:

My Site in a modal dialog

Some of the immediate benefits:

• My Site remains totally un-branded, but now it is just demoted to an utility page.  That is, you keep the functionality without having to invest in how to make My Site look nice.
• Users are familiar with the SharePoint modal dialog, and can easily close My Site via the top right close buttons.
• Users don’t feel like they’ve left the site, because they can clearly see the previous page right beneath them.

Using modal dialog for user information

Even if you aren't using My Site, you can still use this for links on the page that would lead you to a user's information page.  Here's an example:

You click the user name, you are sent to the User Information page - completely losing your previous page.

Figure: EEk!  Where the heck am I?

We add this bit of jQuery

$(function(){
    $("a[href*='userdisp']").click(function(e){
        SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog({
             url: $(this).attr("href"),
             autoSize: true
        });     
        e.preventDefault();
    }).attr("onclick","");
});

This hooks into any <a> anchors on the page, whose href contains the word "userdisp".  And then override the onclick attribute to empty.  It also attaches a new click event handler, sending the click to a show modal dialog.  Lastly, it prevents default - so the default action from the click is swallowed.

Result - User Information in a pop up:

Figure: Now isn't this far more useful?!

Changing My Site

We have these two links that sends our users into Alice's Wonderland.

They both use a SharePoint JavaScript function STSNavigate2

We can override the JavaScript this way:

I did a simple prototype by overriding a SharePoint javascript function:

$(function(){
    // store a reference to the STSNavigate2 function
    window.oldSTSNavigate2 = window.STSNavigate2;
    window.STSNavigate2 = function (evt, Url){
        if (Url.indexOf("mysite") != -1) {
            // if the url contains mysite - open it in showModalDialog
            SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog({
                url: Url,
                title: "My Site",
                autoSize: true
            });
            return;
        }
        // otherwise call the old version of STSNavigate2
        window.oldSTSNavigate2(evt, Url);
    };
});

Result - My Site in a pop up:

Notes - some odd CSS issues:

When a page is rendered in the modal dialog, SharePoint will automatically insert &IsDlg=1 to the argument.

My Site doesn't appear to have been exhaustively tested with IsDlg - and there are odd CSS issues that does appear.  Depending on the features that you plan to activate on your My Site, you may still need to invest in a small bit of CSS work to make sure nothing strange appears when My Site is shown in a Pop Up.

Still, I argue that the small CSS fixes are a lot less work than completely rebranding your My Site.

In general though, majority of the functionality are available without further modification and this is a good way to quickly test if this could work for you and your organisation.  Do let me know how this works for you!

 _spPageContextInfo 
{
    webServerRelativeUrl : "/ProjectWeb",
    webLanguage : 1033,
    currentLanguage : 1033,
    webUIVersion : 4,
    pageListId : "{c1d7b89f-f07b-4e2e-b89c-76c315831d59}",
    pageItemId : 5,
    userId : 68,
    alertsEnabled : true,
    siteServerRelativeUrl : "/",
    allowSilverlightPrompt : "True"
} 

So if you are on /ProjectWeb/Pages/default.aspx

_spPageContextInfo.pageListId;   // list guid for Pages
_spPageContextInfo.pageItemId;   // ID for listitem

Special Note

siteServerRelativeUrl will tell you if your site collection is sitting at the root level, or mapped further down.  Fairly useful information for all sorts of mischief.

No idea why alertsEnabled is a useful information.

An Example

Say if you want to show the versions page:

var options = {
    tite: "Version History",
    url: _spPageContextInfo.webServerRelativeUrl + "/_layouts/Versions.aspx?list="+ _spPageContextInfo.pageListId +"&ID="+ _spPageContextInfo.pageItemId,
    width: 800,
    height: 500,
};
SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog(options);

This will get you the Version History page in a modal popup, without running any additional client context async query.

Figure: Version History showing in a modal popup.

In the year 2011 we saw tremendous growth in SharePoint, and new techniques with jQuery becoming very popular.

Silverlight is now moving towards a backseat, to my dismay - I argue that it remains a very useful arsenal in providing the tools to extend SharePoint's capabilities, but with the advances in HTML5 and the myriad of devices that our users are now plugging to SharePoint, a different future is fast approaching, and it doesn't look that great for Silverlight.

In the new year 2012, I think there will be stronger focus in using HTML5 and JavaScript going forward, with may be a good sprinkle of Metro, pending Windows 8's release.

I will be presenting an updated version of my talk "Building your own Custom REST services and consuming them with jQuery AJAX". Time permitting, I want to add a tiny section on KnockoutJS. Aside from future SharePoint Saturday events, I'll be posting the entire REST services talk in a series of blog posts in the upcoming months.

Also, consider the sad cancellation of January's Sydney SharePoint User Group, I hope to be able to present a talk on KnockoutJS in a Developer session as early as February, fingers crossed. A previous version of my talk on REST services is still here.

If you thought you've seen everything there is to know about SharePoint, hold on to your seatbelts, because you are about to be blown away! See you soon around Australia, our first stop, in the Australian SharePoint Conference, March 20-21.

LoadDocumentAndPlayEventLog failed with unhandled exception System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.     at Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Server.Converter.DetectUnsupportedNamespaces.VerifyNamespace

This is a very uncommon bug.  Essentially, you are using custom code in InfoPath, and you are using code that doesn't have a namespace.  Say a helper function that you've included in your code.

When InfoPath Forms Services attempt to validate your form, it finds that your form template contains reference to code that doesn't have a namespace!

The fix is simple, create a namespace for the helper class, or move the helper class under the namespace of the form's namespace.

Finally, I sat down and created a Project Item template for SharePoint.  With examples on how to create both a GET and a POST method in REST service.

Download:

• http://johnliu.net/storage/Rest.zip

Install:

• You may need to unblock this file if you download it from IE
• Copy the file to \Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Templates\ItemTemplates\Rest.zip
• Close / Restart VS.NET

Use:

1. Create a blank SharePoint Farm solution.  Services can't be deployed as Sandbox.
   
   Figure: Create a SharePoint Farm solution. 
   
2. Add new Project Item, the template does NOT appear under the SharePoint group currently.  So you'll need to search for it.  Will be fixed... "Soon".  Give it a nice name.
   
   Figure: Search for the template and use it to create a REST service
   
3. These files are created:
   
   Figure: My RestService1
   
   
4. The IRestService1.cs interface gives you the definition of your REST service methods.  I've provided a GET and a POST operation.
   
   Figure: GET, and POST
   
5. You should also add a CKS WCF Service
   
   
6. The solution should look like this:
   
   Figure: OK, we have a REST service and a WCF SOAP service.
   
   Important.  CKSDEV's WCF Template hooks up token replacement for the *.svc file.  You need to add this, even if you don't use it, otherwise you'll need to modify your VS.NET project file manually.  You can remove this service after you've added it once. 
   
   I recommend you compare the difference between the CKSDEV WCF SOAP service and the REST Service.
   
7. Deploy! 
   
   Figure: I LOVE Deploy from VS.NET 2010
   
8. Open a browser, go to:
   http://server/_vti_bin/SharePointProject1/RestService1.svc/GetItem/1
   
   You should get:
   
   
   
9. The returned content type is unrecognized by Internet Explorer, so it's prompting you to save it.
   Save this, and open it in notepad.
   
   Figure: Haha!  JSON'ed HelloWorld Blob object returned from the server!
   
   
10. In IE Developer Toolbar, you can watch the network traffic
    This particular request took 31ms and sent 463 bytes!
    
    Figure: Extremely fast and efficient way to talk to SharePoint.

If you see this error:

Error

The type 'SharePointProject1.RestService1, $SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$', provided as the Service attribute value in the ServiceHost directive could not be found.

This is because VS.NET does not perform Token Replacement for the *.svc file by default.  There are a few ways to fix this.

1. The simplest way is to add a CKSDEV WCF Service Project Item.  You can remove it afterwards.
   
2. Alternatively, you can edit your project file, you need to find this, and add svc;
   
   
   Reload your project
   
   

Minor issues need fix... one day:

Minor Problems:

1. Project Item doesn't appear under SharePoint Group
   To properly create SharePoint Project Items, I need to define a proper .spdata file - this requires an additional project to declare a new SharePoint Project Item type. 
   This will also allow me to specify an ICON to use in the solution, instead of this silly red looking icon.
   
2. Not properly set up TokenReplacementFileExtension
   The project will also allow me to hook into the project item wizard and link up TokenReplacementFileExtension for svc.
   
3. Need custom code...
   Custom code requires signed assemblies. Annoying.
   
4. Or, preferably, I clean up the template a bit more and submit it to CKSDEV, which has most of these facilities already built in. 

This is a fun one.

1. Use the undocumented msxsl:utc function, which checks / converts a date into a normalized representation.
   
   
   
   
2. So, what will happen if I test it with with a garbage date, say, the 29th of February of 2001, which isn't a leap year?
   
   
   
3. So just check if the result of the utc function returns empty string or not.
   

Expression

msxsl:utc(concat(my:year, "-02-29")) != ""

Still, there are a few gems in this version over Silverlight 4, in particular, you can now run trusted mode in browser, and trusted mode now has access to platform invoke.

That's right, repeat after me: Silverlight, in browser, unmanaged code.

And I just happened to have the perfect problem I've been wanting to solve forever.

Problem

One thing that has always peeved me when using the Rich HTML control in SharePoint is when it comes to imbedding images.  You can't easily add a picture to your Rich HTML, you need to open a different browser window, upload the picture, then find a link to that picture and insert it back in the HTML.

CTRL-V

Wouldn't it be nice if you could just paste a picture directly to SharePoint, like you could in Word, or Windows Live Writer.  The end user doesn't need to figure out where the picture will go.  SharePoint will do that.  Such a thing isn't possible with mere HTML since it doesn't support access to binary clipboard, but with Silverlight 5 we can now provide a solution.

Steps

1. Configure in browser trusted mode
2. Setting up Silverlight with native p/invoke calls to access the clipboard
3. Using GDI to convert clipboard bitmap to a temporary PNG image file
4. Upload PNG to SharePoint, using SharePoint client object model
5. Insert HTML image reference in Silverlight Rich Text editor
6. Update SharePoint page content from Silverlight Rich Text editor

1. Configure In Browser Trusted Mode

The easy step.  Head over to Silverlight project properties in VS.NET

Figure: Silverlight 5 specialty, elevated trust running in-browser.

2. Setting up Silverlight with native p/invoke and talk to the clipboard natively.

internal class Native
{
    [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "CloseClipboard", SetLastError = true)]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    public static extern bool CloseClipboard();

    [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "GetClipboardData", SetLastError = true)]
    public static extern IntPtr GetClipboardData(ClipboardFormat uFormat);

    [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "IsClipboardFormatAvailable", SetLastError = true)]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    public static extern bool IsClipboardFormatAvailable(ClipboardFormat format);

    [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "OpenClipboard", SetLastError = true)]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    public static extern bool OpenClipboard([In] IntPtr hWndNewOwner);

}

In my paste function:

private void Paste()
{
    if (!Application.Current.HasElevatedPermissions)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("No Elevated Permissions - can't do p/invoke :'-(");
        return;
    }
    IntPtr p = IntPtr.Zero;

    bool opened = Native.OpenClipboard(p);

    if (!opened) 
    {
        return; //unhappy
    }

    try {

        if (Native.IsClipboardFormatAvailable(ClipboardFormat.CF_BITMAP))
        {
            IntPtr p4 = Native.GetClipboardData(ClipboardFormat.CF_BITMAP);

            // GASP.  We have a pointer to our bitmap!
        }
    }
    finally 
    {
        Native.CloseClipboard();
    }

}

3. Using GDI to convert clipboard bitmap to a temporary PNG image file

It's awesome we have a pointer, but what do we do with it?  This next part eluded me for months, I had to stop work, and go on the Internet to ask for help.  3 months later, at the end of 2011 a reply came through.  Use GDI+ to convert the pointer to a file!  Genius!  Bravo!

Note that in the GDI+ GdipSaveImageToFile call, I use the PNG Encoder - so the bitmap is saved in PNG format in my temporary file.

Oh, right, more native p/invoke, different DLL this time.

internal class Native
{

   ... <snip earlier clipboard p/invoke>
    [DllImport("gdiplus.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
    public static extern int GdipCreateBitmapFromHBITMAP(IntPtr hbitmap, IntPtr hpalette, out IntPtr bitmap);
    [DllImport("gdiplus.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
    public static extern int GdipSaveImageToFile(IntPtr image, string filename, ref Guid classId, IntPtr encoderParams);
    [DllImport("gdiplus.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling = true)]
    public static extern long GdiplusStartup(out IntPtr token, ref GdiplusStartupInput gdiplusStartupInput, out IntPtr gdiplusStartupOutput);
    [DllImport("gdiplus.dll")]
    public static extern void GdiplusShutdown(IntPtr token);
}

IntPtr gdipToken = IntPtr.Zero; ;
string fileName = string.Empty;

try
{

    IntPtr gdiplusStartupOutput;
    GdiplusStartupInput input = new GdiplusStartupInput(1);
    long num0 = Native.GdiplusStartup(out gdipToken, ref input, out gdiplusStartupOutput);

    IntPtr zero = IntPtr.Zero;
    IntPtr palette = IntPtr.Zero;

    int num = Native.GdipCreateBitmapFromHBITMAP(p4, palette, out zero);
    if (num != 0)
    {
        return;
    }

    // JPG Encoder {557CF401-1A04-11D3-9A73-0000F81EF32E}
    // PNG Encoder {557CF406-1A04-11D3-9A73-0000F81EF32E}
    Guid classId = Guid.Parse("{557CF406-1A04-11D3-9A73-0000F81EF32E}");

    fileName = System.IO.Path.GetTempFileName();

    int img = Native.GdipSaveImageToFile(zero, fileName, ref classId, palette);
    if (img != 0)
    {
        return;
    }
}
finally
{
    Native.GdiplusShutdown(gdipToken);
}

4. Upload PNG to SharePoint, using SharePoint client object model

using(FileStream fs = File.OpenRead(fileName))
{
    SP.ClientContext ctx = SP.ClientContext.Current;

    SP.Web web = ctx.Web;
    SP.List library = web.Lists.GetByTitle("Images");

    byte[] content = new byte[fs.Length];
    var newFile = new SP.FileCreationInformation();
    int dummy = fs.Read(content, 0, (int)fs.Length);
    newFile.Content = content;
    newFile.Url = string.Format("paste_{0}.png", DateTime.Now.Ticks);
    var uploadFile = library.RootFolder.Files.Add(newFile);
    ctx.Load(uploadFile);
    ctx.ExecuteQueryAsync(
        delegate {
            this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() =>
            {

// update our rich text editor in step 5!
            });
        },
        delegate {  // our code don't fail!       
        });

}

5. Insert HTML image reference in Silverlight HTML Text editor

I'm using the wonderful free VectorLight.NET Liquid HTML Editor control.  Need free registration.  Supports converting between Rich XAML and HTML formats.  Here I'm inserting a <Xaml><Image /></Xaml>

ctx.ExecuteQueryAsync(
    delegate {
        this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() =>
        {
            this.listBox1.Items.Add(uploadFile.ServerRelativeUrl);

            InlineUIContainer container = new InlineUIContainer();
            Uri server = new Uri(ctx.Url);
            string path = string.Format("{0}://{1}{2}", server.Scheme, server.Host, uploadFile.ServerRelativeUrl);
            this.richTextBox1.Insert(string.Format("<Xaml><Image Source=\"{0}\" /></Xaml>", path));
           
        });
    },
    delegate {
   
    });

5.1 Pictures - just to prove it works

Figure: Pasting picture into HTML Editor within Silverlight.

Figure: My SharePoint image library, filled with pasted images :-)

Figure: Dumping Editor's HTML to MessageBox - you can see the <img> HTML is inserted properly.

6. Update SharePoint page content from Silverlight Rich Text editor

This part is the most ugly bit of the code.  Heavily nested since I keep using anonymous delegates, and it's pretty late so I'm not going to clean it up tonight.

The Save button click.

private void buttonSave_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    var ctx = SP.ClientContext.Current;
    var library = ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle("Site Pages");
    var items = library.GetItems(SP.CamlQuery.CreateAllItemsQuery());

    var filepath = this.autoCompleteBox1.Text;  // I store a list of pages in the dropdown...
    ctx.Load(items);

    ctx.ExecuteQueryAsync(
        delegate
        {
            // switch back to UI thread
            this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() =>
            {
                SP.ListItem page = null;
                foreach (var item in items)
                {
                    // super ugly code - should filter the files in the CamlQuery above - but too tired to write Caml
                    if (item["FileLeafRef"].ToString() == filepath)
                    {
                        page = item;
                    }
                }
                page["WikiField"] = this.richTextBox1.HTML;
                page.Update();  // update SPListItem, then ExecuteQuery to push the update back through ClientService.svc
                ctx.ExecuteQueryAsync(
                    delegate
                    {
                        // switch back to UI thread

                        this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() =>
                        {
                            // refresh browser
                            HtmlPage.Document.Submit();
                        });
                    },
                    delegate { });
            });
        },
        delegate
        {
        });
}

Figure: The Silverlight webpart pushing HTML back into a Wikipage

There are some notes on security, which I leave right at the end, but this is important.

Trusted mode / In Browser

1. When running under http://localhost/ SL5 skips checking this (easy for debug)
2. For normal operation, requires Silverlight XAP file to be signed with a code trust certificate.  You can generate one yourself, just make sure you add it to the right store.
   
   Figure: Yes... Trusted Root Certification Authorities.  Yep sounds about right!
   
3. And requires a registry key to be present for Silverlight
   
   FIgure: OMG #1, Registry, really!?
   
4. You will need to deploy this to your uses via a group policy, or a click once application if your user has permissions to write to their own registry. 

This bit I think is the part that makes the solution safe, but also very difficult to deploy.  But if you want the nice editing experience with paste functionality, here you go!

Downloads

• XAP file (Contact me for the XAP file - it needs a bit of cleaning up, and I need to test the certificate)
• SPClip cert

And here we go, first big post of the year.  Have a great 2012 everyone!

A simple wish, in my simple world

I have always told myself that when I write on this blog, I did it for fun, to brag about what I've been up to, to remember what I did, and if by sheer luck help other people, that's an awesome bonus.

Increasingly though, and I'll be very honest, I think I do this for the warm fuzzy feeling when people leave a nice comment.

I really like comments.  I like to know what people think of what I wrote.  I want to know if they think I didn't help them - may be they were searching for one thing and got a different answer.  I want to know if they think my writing style needs work.  May be I need a spellchecker.

I crave for that feedback.  I'm over the moon when I get it.

I'm bothered when I see lots of traffic, but no comments.  Am I doing something wrong, am I not helping people, do people think I just blubber about rubbish.  People are searching for answers to their problems, did they not find it here?

And that's just the beginning of my problems...

Enter the giant social networks

And their walled gardens.

The best thing about the social networks is that it encourages people to be chatty, and comment on things.  The worse thing about it is that it's all hidden behind walled gardens and I can't see them.

I love talking to my friends on Facebook and Twitter.  But sorry, conversations in those walled gardens doesn't return to the original content creator.  Actually, what's happening is that people are gossips behind my back!  Preposterous!

I really gave it some thought...

A good idea starts with me taking a small step

I realized what I can do, and this is more a behaviour change than something technical.  I'm going to be more social, and actually make an effort to always leave a comment on any blog that I visit and has helped me.

If I think the content can be improved, I will suggest it.  If I have more to add, I will blog and link back, if I just want to say thank you, I will do so, because I know it always gave me a warm feeling when others did it to me, and I should give that back to other people.

Love the blogging and long live the bloggers!

OK, here's the problem:

1. I'm calling a custom REST service that I've developed - the REST service checks a bunch of database records, as well as creating a new site and activate a number of features on that site. 
2. Basically, it takes a while to run.  May be around 15 seconds.

Figure: Once you click this link it gets busy on the server.

Figure: Once it's clicked, I disable the link

Put up a dialog to tell the user to wait

The first thing we should do is put up a dialog to tell the user hey something's happening.

Waldek Mastykarz has an awesome article on how to do most of this, so I won't type out his code.  http://blog.mastykarz.nl/sharepoint-2010-ui-tip-non-obtrusive-progress-messages/

 
Figure: Here's my blocking dialog.  No close box.  It spins for about 15 seconds and then disappears when the AJAX call receives a success response.

But waiting for 15 seconds really gets boring.

You realize that you must use better messages, and update it as you wait. 

Here's the javascript code.

    var msgs = [
        "Calculating web paths",
        "Negotiating with site collection",
        "Creating empty site template",
        "Activating Features",
        "Synchronizing template",
        "Setting up form libraries",
        "Copying pages",
        "Configuring webparts",
        "Chasing chickens"];   
   
    var p = function(){
        if (waitDialog) {
            var msg = msgs[Math.floor(Math.random()*msgs.length)];
            waitDialog.get_html().getElementsByTagName('TD')[1].innerHTML = msg;
            setTimeout(p, 1000);
        }
    };
    setTimeout(p,1000);

Create an array of status messages - these (aside from the chicken) are really what the REST service is doing.  I also create a function p, which choses a random message and updates the waitDialog.  Repeat every second.  When the AJAX call completes, it destroys the waitDialog, and set it to null.  This stops the setTimeout loop.

Some sort of magic happened

Suddenly, because things are updating on screen, the process doesn't seem long at all.  You click it, a few messages flash past, before you know it the site's created and ready to go.

So there you have it, the trick really is just a clever disguise. 

You show users random messages and distract them from the fact that they have to wait for 15 seconds.

1. In InfoPath (and in Windows in general), a newline is two characters \r\n (carriage return, followed by a newline character).
2. You can't easily use \r or \n within InfoPath rules, since the XML is escaped into \\r and \\n defeating your intention.
3. First, add a characters secondary data source: Add an external XML file for characters
   You should get this secondary data source with the special characters we need.
   
   
4. On the field that you want to remove newlines, add a changed rule:
   
   
   The translate rule is:
   translate(., @crlf, "")
   or expanded xpath:
   translate(., xdXDocument:GetDOM("characters")/lookups/characters/@crlf, "")
   
   use select field and change the datasource to characters.
   
5. To prevent this rule from running into infinite loop, set a condition:
   
   
   
   The expression is:
   contains(., xdXDocument:GetDOM("characters")/lookups/characters/@crlf)
   
6. Result:
    
   

Test it!

Test typing something with newline


Rule runs and removes any new line characters

It really can't hurt to play with the crazy XPath capabilities within InfoPath.  This is documented in many places, starting:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/infopath/archive/2006/04/05/569338.aspx

Which offered possibly the best explanation of how this technique with Eval() actually works.  I prefer to remembered this as PURE VOODOO.

1. Create our SharePoint list

2. Create a secondary data connection to the list

3. Drag the dataFields section into the form, to create a common binding parent

This step makes step 4 a lot easier, since the Eval loop is relative and works on the repeating section inside the dataFields section.

4. Add expression box within this Section

The Expression is:
xdMath:Eval(xdMath:Eval(d:SharePointListItem_RW, 'concat(d:Title, ":")'), "..")

5. Result:

We have a complicated looking InfoPath form.  We've always wanted to have lots of help (i) tooltips.  The picture below alone has 24 information tips.

The original plan is to use an Picture button, set the image to the image resource (so that they all share the same resource), and manually add tooltips to each button.

This approach works OK, but is very tedious.  Each one of our views are massive, and we have about 10 of them.  Some fields re-appear on different views and need to have the same tooltip.  This is also not very manageable - we can't modify the tooltip easily without republishing the InfoPath form.

An idea begin brewing by combining an external XML file along with the Rich HTML control, something that I've experimented recently.

http://johnliu.net/blog/2011/5/30/infopath-2010-embed-html-for-rich-and-web-forms.html
http://johnliu.net/blog/2011/10/12/infopath-an-example-of-using-an-xml-file-for-special-charact.html

Idea!

1. Produce an XML file that has all our tooltips.
2. Store this file in SharePoint
3. In InfoPath, connect to this XML file as an external datasource, always load it from server
4. Bind the XML fields to Rich HTML controls

1. My tooltip XML file. 

My XML file, with 2 entries in it for "office" and "state". 

Note the content of the two entries is essentially a HTML IMG tag.  With the source pointing to an image stored in SharePoint, and a tooltip.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html>
  <office>
   <img xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" src="/Style Library/Images/info.png" border="0" title="Select the Office that will administer this project" />
  </office>
  <state>
    <img xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" src="/Style Library/Images/info.png" border="0" title="Select the State that this project will report to" />
  </state>
</html>

2. Store this file in SharePoint

I store this in SharePoint, on /Style Library/html-tooltip.xml.

3. Add secondary data source in InfoPath

Add XML datasource.

Select "Access the data from specified location"

Always retrieve data

Result data connection

4. Bind to Rich HTML controls

Switch to the secondary data source in the Fields tool pane.
Drag my new entry for "State" with the right click contextual menu.
Select Rich Text Box

There's quite a bit of clean up to do:

• Remove the label
• Set the background shade to No Fill
• Set border to 1px solid white - you must keep 1px border, otherwise when you hover over the picture the Rich Text box will shift as InfoPath adds a focus to the box.
• Set the height and width to 25px (size of my images).
• Select Read-Only in the ribbon
  
• The result:
  

Extra Note

You must show the web form Ribbon, otherwise the Rich Text is rendered differently in an iFrame, and the IMG tooltip won't show up.  Sorry, this behaviour is so weird, I do have an ugly workaround but I won't publish it - really ugly.

See it in action:

And if you need to change the text, open up the XML file in SharePoint designer, change it, and save the XML file again.

Summary

• A technique to use one XML file in SharePoint to specify many HTML tooltip elements to be used within an InfoPath form
• This allows tooltips to be updated independently of templates, and multiple elements in the InfoPath form can share and reuse the same tooltip

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010customization/thread/d2982a7c-86e1-4868-864b-2fcea68274fd/

Jason Li 

Content Deployment between different environments (InfoPath, SharePoint Designer Workflow, Content Type) in SharePoint 2010
I have read many discussions on this (or similar topic) and still would like to post this again to see if I can get real answers:

1. I have InfoPath forms.
2. These forms are published as content types. 
3. I have reusable SharePoint Designer workflows.  
4. I have document libraries created to use these content types.
5. I have security groups.

How do I move these things from DEV to TEST, UAT all the way into PROD. 

As to #3:  GUID is driving me crazy.

Content Type deployment across different farms

The only way I have ever got all the environments to obey my command regarding content types is to use Solution Packages.

1. Create InfoPath form in DEV, when publishing, use Content Type, and Site Columns.
2. Once the Content Type and Site Columns are created, package them into a WSP.  From now on, always deploy content type and site columns using WSP.  This forces All the GUIDS to be identical across all farms, which makes everything work nice.  (see below for steps and pictures).
3. Reusable SharePoint designer workflows can be tied to these content type / site columns, so can document library.
4. Deploy package to TEST, you can create document libraries with feature as well, or configure them manually.  I deploy InfoPath forms to TEST by publishing from InfoPath to the TEST environment, depending on whether you are doing:
• Site content type: publish to the destination list - it should automatically pick up the content type since the GUID are the same.  Site columns will match too.
• Central admin forms - deploy via central admin, this places the form template back in /FormServerTemplates/ on the root site, hook this back using Content Type / advanced / form template in each list.

InfoPath forms always have data connections (since InfoPath can't do anything), you should convert all data connections to connection files hosted relatively on each DEV, TEST, etc. environment, this way you don't need to modify the form template, and depending which environment it's published to, it'll go and find the right sets of data.

Packaging InfoPath Content Type and Site Columns

Packaging site columns and content types are a lot easier now in SharePoint 2010 with VS.NET 2010. 

Grab CKS extension first.

1. Create an empty SharePoint project on the DEV server.  I've always used Farm Solutions but there's probably no harm trying Sandbox Solutions.
   
2. In the Server Explorer, navigate to your SharePoint DEV site.  Expand the nodes and find your Content Type under the root web.  Select Import Content Type to bring this definition into your SharePoint project.
   
   
   
3. This will import the content type under a feature with a default name Feature 1.  Rename the feature (VS.NET will fix all the related names).
   
   
   
4. Open the feature and fix the Title as well.  Notice that this feature is Web scoped.
   
   
   
5. Next, navigate in the Server Explorer to the site columns, and bring in the Site columns that was promoted from InfoPath.
   
   
   
6. This brings in two additional elements with pretty ugly GUID-names.  Need to tidy this up.
   
   
   
7. Open the Elements.xml file under the two site columns, and copy the <Field... /> definitions.
   Open the Elements.xml file under the InfoPath content type, and insert the site column definitions above the content type definition.
   
   (You'll see the content type has FieldRef to the exported columns).
   
   
   
8. Build the project into a package
   
   
   
9. Ta-da!
   
   

Highlights for the presentation were the number of people that put up their hands saying they will try this in their environment - that was very encouraging - it's all fairly simple when you look at the result in small chunks.  Thank you guys.

The links to the PowerPoint presentation and the demo solution are here:

• http://johnliu.net/storage/SharePoint%20REST%20and%20jQuery3.pptx
• http://johnliu.net/storage/SPGSvcWp.zip

Because I ran out of time (sorry), the bits that I missed were:

• The 3rd service factory in SharePoint 2010 is for the DataService, allowing you to connect any Entity Framework objects directly into a REST service end-point with almost no code.
• The 3 service factories are not available in SharePoint 2007, this makes writing services VERY COMPLEX and I don't recommend doing it in 2007.  But you are not out of luck, JavaScript can call the 2007 SOAP services, as long as the correct SOAP envelop is formed before the POST call.  Luckily there are awesome people that has done most of this work: http://spservices.codeplex.com/
• IMPORTANT: I did not explain what the jQuery.ajax's cache: false argument is.  This is very important.  When you call a REST service via a URL, if you do not very the URL/Query string, your browser will return you the same data that it has downloaded previously, and give you a cached copy.  This can be really bad since your service isn't actually called.  jQuery gets around this by appending a random number at the end of the query string, like this:
  
  
  ?_=12312123
  
  This ensures the query string is unique and browser's cache mechanism won't interfere.  HTTP Response code 200 is success.  Rather than 304 which is browser cache.