Installing SharePoint 2010 on Windows 8

Just for kicks I got Windows 8 Preview installed today and thought I'd see if I could get SharePoint 2010 installed as well. Fortunately, the setup instructions are pretty much identical to the ones used for Windows 7. The important thing to remember is that you need to make sure IIS uses .NET 2.0 instead of 4.0.

• Install SQL Server 2008. I used R2, but you can use any version listed in the requirements.
• Ensure all of the required IIS features are installed through Programs and Features. The easiest way to do this is to use the script that Microsoft provides. You can do this by copying the following into a Command Prompt.

Add every installed web part to a single SharePoint page

Here is a code snippet that won't be used for normal day usage, but something is very helpful for testing web part UI and branding. This could also be used for performance benchmarking and exploring or demonstrating different web parts in a development environment. By default, the code will alphabetize the web parts by title and then adds them to the top web part zone.You can easily update the code to filter out specific web parts, update web part properties, populate specific web part zones.

InstructionsThe first thing you’ll want to do is increase the maximum web parts per zone. The default is set to 50, but you can increase it by editing your web.config.

Create a favorites icon (favicon) for your SharePoint 2010 site

With SharePoint 2010, Microsoft has provided a new control called SPShortcutIcon. Sadly, if you are trying to use this within a feature deployment and would like to use relative paths using $SPUrl variables, you will run into some issues. This is because the SPShortcut.IconUrl is of type URI and the $SPUrl variable cannot be cast properly. Fortunately, there is a work around. It’s a bit ugly, but instead of using the control, you can use Literal controls to render the proper html link control.
SPShortcut usage– This is hardcoded, so won’t work with feature deployments.
<SharePoint:SPShortcutIcon runat="server" IconUrl="/Style Library/Waffles/favicon.ico"/>
SPShortcut usage with $SPUrl – This will result in the following error: Unable to cast object of type 'System.String' to type 'System.Uri'.
<SharePoint:SPShortcutIcon runat="server" IconUrl="<% $SPUrl:~sitecollection/Style Library/Acme/favicon.ico %>" />
Solution

<asp:Literal runat="server" Text="&lt;link rel='shortcut icon' href='" /><asp:Literal runat="server" Text="<% $SPUrl:~sitecollection/Style Library/Acme/favicon.ico %>" /><asp:Literal runat="server" Text="' type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon' /&gt;" />
Google.com’s favorite icon

SharePoint 2010, Favorites Icons (FavIcons) and SPUrl (SPUrlExpressionBuilder)Credit goes to Joel for this tip. Unfortunately, I could only get to his post via Google cache.http://joelblogs.co.uk/2010/11/09/sharepoint-2010-favorites-icons-favicons-and-spurl-spurlexpressionbuilder/

Get SharePoint audit details across the farm for specific users

This code snippet gets all audit details for specific users across an entire SharePoint 2007/2010 farm and saves them to a CSV file. I have also added a method to include a file extension column. This comes in handy as you will likely want to filter out web extensions like aspx, html, css, etc., picture formats, and folders. In order to get any data, auditing will have to have been enabled at the Site Collection level through site settings or programmatically at the item level. Keep in mind that this will take some time if your AuditData tables are very large, so in this case you will want to make further refinements by filtering by site collection, list, or list item. Site collections can be filtered out by tweaking the loop statements below, while you can filter out list or list items by updating the RestrictToList or RestrictToListItem methods of the SPAuditQuery object.
Helpful Links
Configure audit settings for a site collectionshttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/configure-audit-settings-for-a-site-collection-HA010099726.aspx
Custom Auditing in SharePoint
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc794261.aspx

InstructionsCreate a c# Console Application in Visual Studio, add a reference to Microsoft.SharePoint, and then add the following code to Program.cs. This will work with SharePoint 2007 and 2010 as long as you reference the correct assembly. Don’t forget to make sure your Visual Studio project’s Platform Target is Any CPU or x64.

Determine auditing configuration details for all of your SharePoint site collections

I recently had a customer whose SharePoint audit tables had getting very large. They wanted to know which site collections had auditing enabled so they could meet with their end users to determine if auditing was really necessary. Here is a code snippet for finding out which SharePoint sites have auditing enabled. The code will loop through all site collections in the farm and then create a CSV file with auditing configuration details.
InstructionsCreate a c# Console Application in Visual Studio, add a reference to Microsoft.SharePoint, and then add the following code to Program.cs. This will work with SharePoint 2007 and 2010 as long as you reference the correct assembly. Don’t forget to make sure your Visual Studio project’s Platform Target is Any CPU or x64.

Create Rounded Corners And Gradient Images On The Fly!

I am often tasked with taking a mockup and branding a site. This usually involves a custom master page with tweaks to the CSS for the layout and color scheme. It also involves the creation of images used to compliment the UI, the holy grail for some being gradient images and rounded corners. For the amateur graphic designer like myself, this often becomes a tedious task that involves repetitive tweaks to an image. I once had a client tell me that I had the wrong shade of “pumpkin”. (Depending on your disposition, this could result in an act of either running full speed into a brick wall or rocking yourself to sleep every night.)
Enter the poorly named Web Designer Tool! After some experimentation with the System.Drawing and System.Drawing.Drawing2D .NET 2.0 classes, I figured out a way to generate these images on the fly. Now I can rapidly create rounded corners and gradients and don't have to sweat it if a client needs a color or hue adjusted. The rounded corners include many options, including width, height, gradient and solid colors, radius corner size, and border. I also provide a preview feature that integrates the images into a sample html page and launches it in your default browser. I have successfully tested this in IE 6.0 ~ 8.0, Chrome 10.0, and Firefox 4.0.
Note: Although this will fly in the face of CSS purists, I have decided to use a simple table based layout for the preview html. I do make an effort to use DIV based layouts for web design, but in this case I have yet to find approach that works flawlessly across browsers types and versions or that integrates nicely with SharePoint. If you are that CSS guru, I welcome you to take these images and come up with a better approach. If you are successful, I would love to try out your code. You are also welcome to use my Shapes.cs class below and build your own tool. Life will be much easier once CSS 3 has reached enough market penetration and we can simply use the border-radius property.

Custom Control with Connecting Lines using WPF / Silverlight

Recently I was developing a migration tool that incorporates two TreeView controls and allows a user to draw lines between controls. After a bit of a struggle, I finally came up with a solution that works pretty well. The control inherits from the Grid control and uses drag and drop event handlers to draw connecting lines between controls of the same type. Because it is a Grid control, it also gives you the ability to add multiple controls and style it as you wish. In this example, I simply embedded a border control with some rounded corners and line gradients. Within the Border control, I simply added a TextBlock with the necessary text. A random color algorithm (courtesy of Philosophil Blog) determines what color is used.

Custom Properties
ConnectedControl – When two controls are connected, they are able to reference each other through this property.
ConnectedLine – This contains a reference to the line that is added.
AllowMultipleConnections – This determines if the control to connect to multiple items.
ConnectionType – This is an enum that determines whether a control can connect to other controls based on their connection type. The values Both, Source, and Target. Both is the default and says that the control can connect to any other control. Source controls can only connect to Target controls and vice versa.
LineThickness – This determines how thick the connecting line is.

Steps
In order to use this control, you simply need to create a class called ConnectingControl.cs and copy and paste the code below your WPF project. (Of course, you will need to update your namespace.) In order to add the control to your page, simply add a reference to your local assembly and then add the control. At the very least, you will also need to nest another control like a TextBlock or Image. I have included the source code for my MainWindow.xaml below.

Screenshot

MainWindow.xaml

<Window x:Class="ConnectingLines.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ConnectingLines"
        Title="Connecting Lines" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Window.Resources>
        <Style x:Key="ConnectingGridBorderSource" TargetType="Border">
            <Setter Property="Background" Value="{DynamicResource BoxBrushSource}" />
            <Setter Property="CornerRadius" Value="0,35,0,35" />
            <Setter Property="Margin" Value="0" />
        </Style>
        <Style x:Key="ConnectingGridBorderTarget" TargetType="Border">
            <Setter Property="Background" Value="{DynamicResource BoxBrushTarget}" />
            <Setter Property="CornerRadius" Value="0,35,0,35" />
            <Setter Property="Margin" Value="0" />
        </Style>        
        <Style x:Key="ConnectingGridSource" TargetType="local:ConnectingControl">
            <Setter Property="Margin" Value="10" />
            <Setter Property="AllowMultipleConnections" Value="False" />
            <Setter Property="ConnectionType" Value="Source" />
            <Setter Property="LineThickness" Value="3" />
        </Style>
        <Style x:Key="ConnectingGridTarget" TargetType="local:ConnectingControl">
            <Setter Property="Margin" Value="10" />
            <Setter Property="AllowMultipleConnections" Value="False" />
            <Setter Property="ConnectionType" Value="Target" />
            <Setter Property="LineThickness" Value="3" />
        </Style>        
        <Style x:Key="ConnectingGridTextBlock" TargetType="TextBlock">
            <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="AliceBlue" />
            <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="24" />
            <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="Bold" />
            <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" Value="Center" />
            <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" Value="Center" />
        </Style>
        <LinearGradientBrush x:Key="BoxBrushSource" StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="0,1">
            <LinearGradientBrush.GradientStops>
                <GradientStop Color="AliceBlue" Offset="0.0" />
                <GradientStop Color="Green" Offset="0.4" />
            </LinearGradientBrush.GradientStops>
        </LinearGradientBrush>
        <LinearGradientBrush x:Key="BoxBrushTarget" StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="0,1">
            <LinearGradientBrush.GradientStops>
                <GradientStop Color="AliceBlue" Offset="0" />
                <GradientStop Color="DarkBlue" Offset=".4" />
            </LinearGradientBrush.GradientStops>
        </LinearGradientBrush>        
    </Window.Resources>
    <Grid>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition />
            <ColumnDefinition />
            <ColumnDefinition />
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition />
            <RowDefinition />
            <RowDefinition />
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <local:ConnectingControl  Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridSource}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0">
            <Border Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridBorderSource}">
                <TextBlock Text="Banana" Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridTextBlock}" />
            </Border>
        </local:ConnectingControl>
        <local:ConnectingControl  Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridSource}" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0">
            <Border Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridBorderSource}">
                <TextBlock Text="Spinach" Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridTextBlock}" />
            </Border>
        </local:ConnectingControl>
        <local:ConnectingControl  Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridSource}" Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="0">
            <Border Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridBorderSource}">
                <TextBlock Text="Feta" Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridTextBlock}" />
            </Border>
        </local:ConnectingControl>
        <local:ConnectingControl  Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridTarget}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="2">
            <Border Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridBorderTarget}">
                <TextBlock Text="Cheese" Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridTextBlock}" />
            </Border>
        </local:ConnectingControl>
        <local:ConnectingControl  Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridTarget}" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="2">
            <Border Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridBorderTarget}">
                <TextBlock Text="Fruit" Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridTextBlock}" />
            </Border>
        </local:ConnectingControl>
        <local:ConnectingControl  Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridTarget}" Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="2">
            <Border Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridBorderTarget}">
                <TextBlock Text="Vegetable" Style="{StaticResource ConnectingGridTextBlock}" />
            </Border>
        </local:ConnectingControl>
    </Grid>
</Window>

ConnectingControl.cs

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Shapes;

namespace ConnectingLines
{
    public class ConnectingControl : Grid
    {
        #region PROPERTIES
        public enum Connection { Both, Source, Target };
        private ConnectingControl ConnectedControl { get; set; }
        private Line ConnectedLine { get; set; }

        new private bool AllowDrop { get; set; }

        #region DEPENDENCY PROPERTIES
        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

        private void NotifyPropertyChanged(String info)
        {
            if (PropertyChanged != null)
            {
                PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(info));
            }
        }

        public static readonly DependencyProperty AllowMultipleConnectionsProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("AllowMultipleConnections", typeof(bool), typeof(ConnectingControl));
        public static readonly DependencyProperty ConnectionTypeProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("ConnectionType", typeof(Connection), typeof(ConnectingControl));
        public static readonly DependencyProperty LineThicknessProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("LineThickness", typeof(double), typeof(ConnectingControl));

        public bool AllowMultipleConnections
        {
            get 
            { 
                return (bool)GetValue(AllowMultipleConnectionsProperty); }
            set
            {
                SetValue(AllowMultipleConnectionsProperty, value);
                NotifyPropertyChanged("AllowMultipleConnections");
            }
        }

        public Connection ConnectionType
        {
            get { return (Connection)GetValue(ConnectionTypeProperty); }
            set
            {
                SetValue(ConnectionTypeProperty, value);
                NotifyPropertyChanged("ConnectionType");
            }
        }

        public double LineThickness
        {
            get 
            {
                double thickness = (double)GetValue(LineThicknessProperty);
                if (thickness == 0)
                {
                    thickness = 3;
                }
                return thickness; 
            }
            set
            {
                SetValue(LineThicknessProperty, value);
                NotifyPropertyChanged("LineThickness");
            }
        }
        #endregion
        #endregion

        #region CONSTRUCTOR AND INITIALIZER
        public ConnectingControl()
        {
            this.DragEnter += new DragEventHandler(CustomButton_DragEnter);
            this.Drop += new DragEventHandler(CustomButton_Drop);
            this.PreviewMouseLeftButtonDown += new MouseButtonEventHandler(CustomButton_PreviewMouseLeftButtonDown);
        }
        
        protected override void OnInitialized(System.EventArgs e)
        {
            base.AllowDrop = true;
            base.OnInitialized(e);            
            PreviewMouseLeftButtonDown += new MouseButtonEventHandler(CustomButton_PreviewMouseLeftButtonDown);
            Drop += new System.Windows.DragEventHandler(CustomButton_Drop);
            DragEnter += new System.Windows.DragEventHandler(CustomButton_DragEnter);
        }
        #endregion

        #region EVENT HANDLERS AND METHODS
        protected void CustomButton_PreviewMouseLeftButtonDown(object sender, System.Windows.Input.MouseButtonEventArgs e)
        {
            ConnectingControl item = (ConnectingControl)sender;
            DataObject dragData = new DataObject("source", (ConnectingControl)sender);
            DragDrop.DoDragDrop((ConnectingControl)sender, dragData, DragDropEffects.Move);
        }

        protected void CustomButton_DragEnter(object sender, System.Windows.DragEventArgs e)
        {
            if (!e.Data.GetDataPresent("source") || sender == e.Source)
            {
                e.Effects = DragDropEffects.None;
            }
        }

        protected void CustomButton_Drop(object sender, System.Windows.DragEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.Data.GetDataPresent("source"))
            {
                ConnectingControl source = e.Data.GetData("source") as ConnectingControl;
                ConnectedControl = source;
                ConnectControls();
            }
        }
        
        private void ConnectControls()
        {
            bool connect = false;
            if (this.ConnectionType == Connection.Both)
            {
                connect = true;
            }
            else
            {
                if (this.ConnectionType == ConnectedControl.ConnectionType)
                {
                    connect = false;
                }
                else
                {
                    connect = true;
                }
            }
            if (connect)
            {
                Panel parent = GetRoot(this);
                Line line = new Line() { StrokeThickness = LineThickness, Stroke = GetRandomBrush() };
                GeneralTransform sourceTransform = ConnectedControl.TransformToVisual(parent);
                Point sourcePoint = sourceTransform.Transform(new Point(0, 0));
                GeneralTransform targetTransform = this.TransformToVisual(parent);
                Point targetPoint = targetTransform.Transform(new Point(0, 0));
                if (sourcePoint.X < targetPoint.X)
                {
                    line.X1 = sourcePoint.X + ConnectedControl.ActualWidth;
                    line.Y1 = sourcePoint.Y + ConnectedControl.ActualHeight / 2;
                    line.X2 = targetPoint.X;
                    line.Y2 = targetPoint.Y + this.ActualHeight / 2;
                }
                else
                {
                    line.X1 = targetPoint.X + this.ActualWidth;
                    line.Y1 = targetPoint.Y + this.ActualHeight / 2;
                    line.X2 = sourcePoint.X;
                    line.Y2 = sourcePoint.Y + ConnectedControl.ActualHeight / 2;
                }
                if (parent.GetType() == typeof(Grid))
                {
                    line.SetValue(Grid.ColumnSpanProperty, ((Grid)parent).ColumnDefinitions.Count);
                    line.SetValue(Grid.RowSpanProperty, ((Grid)parent).RowDefinitions.Count);
                }
                if (!AllowMultipleConnections)
                {
                    if (ConnectedLine != null)
                    {
                        parent.Children.Remove(ConnectedLine);
                    }
                    if (ConnectedControl != null)
                    {
                        if (ConnectedControl.ConnectedLine != null)
                        {
                            GetRoot(this).Children.Remove(ConnectedControl.ConnectedLine);
                        }
                    }
                }
                ConnectedLine = line;
                ConnectedControl.ConnectedLine = line;
                parent.Children.Add(line);
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region MISC METHODS
        private Panel GetRoot(FrameworkElement child)
        {
            var parent = child.Parent as FrameworkElement;
            if (parent == null)
            {
                if (child is Window)
                {
                    if (((Window)child).Content.GetType().BaseType == typeof(Panel))
                    {
                        return ((Window)child).Content as Panel;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        throw new Exception("The root content element is an unexpected type. It should be a Panel instead of a " +
                            ((Window)child).Content.GetType().BaseType.ToString() + ".");
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    throw new Exception("The root element is an unexpected type. It should be a Window instead of a" +
                        child.GetType().ToString() + ".");
                }
            }
            return GetRoot(parent);
        }

        //COLOR GENERATOR CODE Courtesy of: http://philosophil.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!7E55D8EFA2AEE5D6!201.entry
        private Brush GetRandomBrush()
        {
            Random randomColor = new Random();
            SolidColorBrush brush = new SolidColorBrush();
            double r, g, b;
            double lightness = randomColor.NextDouble() * 0.5 + 0.4; // not too dark nor too light
            double hue = randomColor.NextDouble() * 360.0; // full hue spectrum
            double saturation = randomColor.NextDouble() * 0.8 + 0.2; // not too grayish
            HSLtoRGB(hue, saturation, lightness, out r, out g, out b);
            brush.Color = System.Windows.Media.Color.FromRgb((byte)(r * 255.0), (byte)(g * 255.0), (byte)(b * 255.0));
            return brush;
        }

        public static void HSLtoRGB(double hue, double saturation, double luminance, out double red, out double green, out double blue)
        {
            double q;
            double p;
            if (luminance < 0.5)
            {
                q = luminance * (1.0 + saturation);
            }
            else
            {
                q = luminance + saturation - (luminance * saturation);
            }
            p = 2 * luminance - q;
            double hk = hue / 360.0;
            double tr = hk + 1.0 / 3.0;
            double tg = hk;
            double tb = hk - 1.0 / 3.0;
            tr = Normalize(tr);
            tg = Normalize(tg);
            tb = Normalize(tb);
            red = ComputeColor(q, p, tr);
            green = ComputeColor(q, p, tg);
            blue = ComputeColor(q, p, tb);
        }

        private static double ComputeColor(double q, double p, double tc)
        {
            if (tc < 1.0 / 6.0)
            {
                return p + ((q - p) * 6.0 * tc);
            }
            if (tc < 0.5)
            {
                return q;
            }
            if (tc < 2.0 / 3.0)
            {
                return p + ((q - p) * 6.0 * (2.0 / 3.0 - tc));
            }
            return p;
        }

        private static double Normalize(double tr)
        {
            if (tr < 0)
            {
                return tr + 1.0;
            }
            if (tr > 1.0)
            {
                return tr - 1.0;
            }
            return tr;
        }
        #endregion
    }
}