• SharePoint jQuery Deployment Feature
• SharePoint + jQuery = Stay Here Feature
• SharePoint Slideshow Web Part

After figuring out how to package jCarousel and jQuery using SharePoint delegate controls, I was ready for business with the implementation of the web part.

The web part itself was nothing fancy. I used a Repeater control to generate the list item (LI) elements with the content I needed in the carousel. I wrapped the Repeater in an unordered list (UL) which was wrapped in a DIV tag that had the runat attribute set to server. So basically, I just followed the mark up instructions provided in the jCarousel documentation.

The wrapping DIV tag was used in my webpart code to initialize jCarousel. The code snippet below shows how I implemented it:


protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
{
  if (!Page.ClientScript.IsStartupScriptRegistered(this.GetType(), this.ClientID))
  {
    Page.ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(this.GetType(), this.ClientID, @"
      <script type=""text/javascript"">
        jQuery(document).ready(function() {
          jQuery('#" + carouselDiv.ClientID + @"').jcarousel({
            // Configuration goes here
            vertical: true,
            scroll: 2,
            visible: 4
          });
        });
      </script>
    ");
  }
}


• Ruby on Rails – The official web site has tons of goodies such as downloads, documentation, guides. This is a great place to get started.
• Railscasts – The best source I found with free Ruby on Rails screen-casts.

SP2 for WSS 3.0: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=79BADA82-C13F-44C1-BDC1-D0447337051B&displaylang=en

SP2 for MOSS 2007: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B7816D90-5FC6-4347-89B0-A80DEB27A082&displaylang=en

I love finding a good and useful blog post and this morning I did just that. The post from Joel Oleson regading SharePoint test driven development is great. It has a quick exerpt from his twitter conversation with other SharePoint pros regarding this topic, a summary of what he learned, and list of useful resources with descriptions. If you follow or practice test driven development (TDD) and are involved with SharePoint development, then this post will be a good resource for you too.

So… if the debate is not new, what’s all the fuss about?

Regardless of the stance that you take about allowing SPD to be used in a production SharePoint deployment or not, the real cause of concern is how SPD can impact production environment when used by untrained/uninformed users with appropriate rights. This reminds me of the quote – with great power comes great responsibility… or something like that. I don’t see the need for huge concern. That is assuming people with those rights have already been trained and informed. For the most part, people with contributor or higher permission role assignments can already do plenty of damage to a production environment with only the web browser at hand. Hence, the need and argument for appropriate training, content approval (and publishing) planning and enforcement, and governance plans (especially in Extranet/Internet facing deployments).

Okay… so what should we do?

There shouldn’t be too much to do (assuming training, content approval, governance, etc. has already been addressed). Professionally, I will be making sure to emphasize the role of SPD in SharePoint projects. I will also make sure to encourage the inclusion or addition of SPD training for existing and new SharePoint users (especially “power” users), administrators, and developers.

Here is a sample C# method that I used to make this happen:


private void SetPeopleEditorVisibility(ref PeopleEditor pe, bool visible)
{
  if (pe.Style.Keys.Count > 0 && pe.Style["display"] != null)
  {
    pe.Style.Remove("display");
  }
  if (visible)
  {
    pe.Style.Add("display", "block");
  }
  else
  {
    pe.Style.Add("display", "none");
  }
}

Improving SharePoint Search Relevancy through Scopes
6:30pm – 8:00pm – QuickStart, Irvine, CA

Organizations struggle with delivering information within the scope and context of business users needs.  Understanding scope and contextual search needs can be a daunting task.  However, results can be dramatically improved through careful planning, architecture, design, and development techniques.

 

In this session, you will learn the techniques and best practices required to deliver a SharePoint solution that supports scoping of information.  We will cover appropriate architecture, design, and configuration techniques then dive into development.  Development topics will include an introduction to search syntax options and the key query classes offered in MOSS, and search object model with a demonstration of executing queries with scope information.