Add content to SPList Item view form

Hi,

I am sure this is a shared whim to many SharePoint implementation -
You have a list of cusotmers or what not, and you want to add more information on the view item form, like so:


So basically when you view an item on that list - you will see additional information like:
* Results on that customer from google on an iframe
* Stock information for that customer
* Information from external system - showing in a frame that gets the customer ID in query string

And much much more.

Right so first thing you have to do is to learn that the list forms (edit, new and display) are actually normal web part pages, with one web part by default.

You can very easily add more web parts to that form, all you have to do is to add this to the query string of the form and you will go into edit mode of that page:
&ToolPaneView=2



Another way is to paste this into your address bar:
javascript:MSOLayout_ChangeLayoutMode(false)

I know you can use SharePoint Designer - but this is much easier and does not involve nothing more than your browser...

Now that you got into edit form of the current item - you can add any web part you want.

Inside your web part code - you can make use of the SPContext.Current.Item to get the current item that is being loaded to the form and use it to render what ever you like.

But wait!

Actually, I just finished creating a new product called "Current Item Property" that does that and more:

By adding it to a list item form or to a WCM publishing page (or to a web part page in a document library for that matter) you will be able to do almost anything you wish.

How does it work?
2 simple properties of the web part:
First - allows you to specify what fields from the current item you want to use
Second - allows you to choose how to format that information in C# syntax (using {0},{1} etc).

After you set up the information you want - this web part can either send it by connection to another web part to use (like RSS viewer as the RSS feed url) or is can simply write it to the page (when you want to create HTML from the information, or writing an iframe with changing URL).

So - lets go over what can be done with this (few examples from my customer)

We are starting with a simple list:

1 - Showing RSS information for partner

- Create a field in the list called "Stock", and set the stock ID for each partner
- Add the "Current Item Property" web part to the page


- Set it to use "Stock" field
- Set the format to a RSS URL: http://finance.yahoo.com/rss/headline?s={0}


- Add an RSS Viewer to the page


- Connect the two web parts using the RSS viewer "Get RSS URL" connection


Done!

2 - Showing Stock infromation for customer

- Create a field in the list called "Stock", and set the stock ID for each partner
- Add the "Current Item Property" web part to the page
- Set it to use "Stock" field
- Set the format to the iframe: <iframe style="WIDTH: 400px; HEIGHT: 150px" src="http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/t?s={0}" frameborder="0"></iframe>

- Check the property "Show Content"


Done!

3 - Showing google search results for issue

- Add the "Current Item Property" web part to the page
- Set it to use "Title" field
- Set the format to the iframe: <iframe style="WIDTH: 400px; HEIGHT: 150px" src="http://www.google.com/search?q={0}" frameborder="0"><iframe>
- Check the property "Show Content"
Done!

This way it took me 5 minutes to add more content to the list items!
The product will be released soon and it will come with few format templates for: RSS, IFrames etc - this is what we are working on now: how to package it and how to use it.

If you want more information on this - email us at sales@kwizcom.com or visit http://www.kwizcom.com

Thanks, Shai.

Adding the quick launch to team site pages

Hi All

Ever tried to add a new page in a WSS Team Site?

Well, after you create a new page, using the "Create web part page" wizard:

you probably noticed the following issues:

1. You have to create a document library to store them (unless you save them in "Shared Documents" library, but we wouldn't want to mix documents and site pages, would we?)

2. They look different from the team site's home page - where did the quick launch go??

OK, so the solution is quite simple, and there are 2 cases here:

1. If you have MOSS 2007 - All you have to do is to activate the "Office SharePoint Server Publishing" feature for your team site. Once you activate this feature, the team site will have some publising site features: a new "pages" library will be created, and all new created pages will be automatically stored in this library. In addition all pages will display the same "envelope" - including the missing quick launch on the left side of each page.

The only problem with this solution is that now every change you make requires publishing, and this is certainly NOT a natural part of team-site working flow.

2. If you only have WSS installed - in this case you don't have the "Office SharePoint Server Publishing" feature installed. however, you can change the team site page templates, and have them display the quick launch. This is quite easy to implement, so here it goes:

• Browse the "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\1033\STS\DOCTEMP\SMARTPGS" folder on the SharePoint server.
  This folder contains all templates that you see in the "New Web Part Page" wizard:
  
  
  


• Every page inherits the same team site's master page, and all of them override this master page's placeholder tags. This is why the quick launch is not displayed in new pages created in a team site (don't ask me why it was done like this, I don't have a clue..).
  
  


• Simply delete the "PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" content tag in the required templates and save the file/s:
  
  

That's it!

Now, create a new web part page, based on the template you have just changed, and notice that the quick launch appears exactly as it is in the home page.

One last thing to remember:

Since the changes are done in the file system, these changes apply to all team sites on your SharePoint server.

Nimrod Geva
KWizCom - Knowledge Worker Components