SharePoint online and on premise: Event receiver (receiver job) for Managed metadata service

Hi Friends,

Recently I came across a requirement where I need the deleted event receiver on managed metadata service. I initially thought there may be definitely some direct solution exist for this kind of requirement but unfortunately no synchronous event receiver available which trigger immediately after term got deleted from termset.

After some research I came across a method ‘GetChanges’ which is available at TermStore and TermSet both.

This solution worked well and I have created a PowerShell script which checks TermStore for any deleted terms after specific interval which is configured in task schedular.

What a wanted to achieve is to set the term ‘Uncategorized’ to the list item whose original term got deleted.

Method documentation at TermSet.GetChanges Method

Solution for SharePoint 2013:

$dt = Get-Date;
$dt = $dt.AddDays(-1);
$url = $webAppURL;
$tax = Get-SPTaxonomySession -Site $url;
$termStore = $tax.TermStores[0];
$deletedTerms = $termStore.GetChanges($dt, [Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.ChangedItemType]::Term,[Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.ChangedOperationType]::Delete);

In above example I was looking for deleted term in previous number of days (past 1 day in above example).

There are four overloads available for GetChanges method, the one I used have following parameters –

startTime of type DateTime (A UTC time indicating the earliest change to be included in the result collection)

itemType of type ChangedItemType (Indicates the type of ChangedItem objects to return) Following are the possible values of Enum.

Changed Item Enum values

operationType of type ChangedOperationType (Indicates the types of operations to return)

Following are the possible values of Enum.

Operation Type Enum values

Method GetChanges returns us collection of ChangedItem objects that represent changes to this TermStore since a specified time, restricted by item type and operation type.

End to end approach –

1. Find which term got deleted using GetChanges method we will use the term IDs we get in next step.
2. Fire a SPQuery to get the items associated items from taxonomy hidden list.
3. The items found in step 2 can be used to find actual list item using relation between taxonomy hidden list and actual list.
4. We can update ‘Uncategorized’ term in the respective list item.

Office 365/ SharePoint online :

This method will work same way for Sharepoint online as well –

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
            AuthenticationManager authenticationManager = new AuthenticationManager();
            ClientContext clientContext = authenticationManager.GetAzureADCredentialsContext("My tenant URL", "email", "pwd");

            TaxonomySession taxonomySession = TaxonomySession.GetTaxonomySession(clientContext);
            TermStore termStore = taxonomySession.GetDefaultSiteCollectionTermStore();
            ChangeInformation changeInfoObj = new ChangeInformation(clientContext);
            changeInfoObj.ItemType = ChangedItemType.Term;
            changeInfoObj.StartTime = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-20);
            changeInfoObj.OperationType = ChangedOperationType.Add;
            ChangedItemCollection changedTerms = termStore.GetChanges(changeInfoObj);
            clientContext.Load(changedTerms);
            clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

            if(changedTerms != null)
            {
                foreach(ChangedItem oneChangedTerm in changedTerms)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(oneChangedTerm.Id);
                }
            }

            Console.ReadLine();
     }

You can run above code in a task scheduled EXE, PowerShell script or a Azure Job also work. Also you can decide the frequency according to your requirement, in my case I was running this daily once.

Hope this will help. Happy coding.

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SharePoint online: Creating managed metadata column using site script and site design

Hi Friends,

Recently I came across a requirement to create managed metadata column through site script which should be available after creating the site.

I tried different approaches and tried to find many alternatives but no fruitful information found after tried multiple column schema xml I got it working.

Will start with showing the term store.

Figure 1: Office 365 – Term store

I have created a sample group ‘Test Group’ and underneath it a term set named as ‘Business Area’ with some sample terms.

Managed metadata column in SharePoint online works same as on premise one. There are actually two columns in the list one column is with of type ‘TaxonomyFieldType’ and other column is created with the with format fieldnameTaxHTField0 of type Note.

The Taxonomy column holds Term name and a lookup with the TaxonomyHiddenList. TaxonomyHiddenList can be found at /Lists/TaxonomyHiddenList/AllItems.aspx this list will hold the details of the terms that are used in any managed metadata column.

Hence for creating managed metadata column through site design we need to create two columns, one of type Note which we need to use while creating actual managed metadata column.

We need multiple GUIDs while creating the metadata column,you need to replace values from your tenant,  as follows –

1. SspId Taxonomy term store guid
2. GroupId Taxonomy term set group guid
3. TermSetId Taxonomy term set guid
4. TextField Note column guid

Following is the site design JSON file. This include both the columns.( Save content in .json file)

schema_json

I have created the site design using ‘SharePoint online management shell’

Figure 2: Office 365 – Setting site script and design through PowerShell

Let’s try now creating new site using the newly created site design.

Figure 3: Office 365 –Create new site with new site design

Looking like we got success with creating new columns.

Figure 4: Office 365 – Success status shown

Let’s add ‘Business Area’ column in document library to test if the column is working or not.

Figure 5: Office 365 – Add column to document library

Let’s try uploading new document in library and check if the column is showing the values form term set.

Figure 6: Office 365 – Terms are displayed for option in column

The column provisioned through the site design is working as expected.

Let’s check the TaxonomyHiddenList now.

Figure 7: Office 365 – Taxonomy Hidden List

And if we check by editing item properties you can see same GUIDs we added in JSON file.

Figure 8: Office 365 – Term store, term set and term ID visible TaxonomyHiddenList

Considering 30 verbs limitation (as on date) per site design, this may not be a good solution to spend two verbs for a single managed metadata column.

The purpose of this article is to save some time if anyone have same kind of requirement.

Sharing is caring.

Step by step installation of SharePoint Server 2019 preview for single server farm topology

Hi Friends,

As we know that SharePoint Server 2019 and Project Server 2019 preview available, I was excited with this news and thought to have it installed on and check what’s now.
Following article will have instructions to install SharePoint Server 2019 preview on Azure VM.
Let’s start by creating the virtual machine on Windows Azure platform.
I have created a VM with image template ‘SQL Server 2017 Standard on Windows Server 2016’.

I have chosen ‘Standard B4Ms’ sizes configuration.

And created the VM, it have taken some time to get it created. Following are the configuration shown on the created VM on Azure.

Now as we have Virtual machine ready with SQL server 2017, we can start with SharePoint Server 2019 installation.
1. Let’s first download the setup from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=57169
2. I have chosen ‘en-us\16.0.10711.37301_OfficeServer_none_ship_x64_en-us_dvd\officeserver_en-us.img’ installation language for downloading installation, its 3.8GB size.

3. Click Save to copy the disc image file to your computer.
4. Right click on the ‘officeserver_en-us.img’ file and select Mount option.

5. Navigate to the mounted drive.
6. Run splash.hta to launch the SharePoint Server 2019 Start page.
7. Click Install software prerequisites to launch the Microsoft SharePoint 2019 Products Preparation Tool.

8. Follow the instructions in the tool to complete the installation of the software prerequisites.

9. Select ‘Finish’ to restart the server and complete the installation of prerequisites.
10. After restart if the image file not mounted automatically then repeat step 4,5 and 6 to run the splash.hta file.
11. On the SharePoint Server 2019 Start page, click ‘Install SharePoint Server’ to launch Microsoft SharePoint Server 2019 Public Preview Setup.

12. When prompted, provide a product key. You can use the trial product key from article install instructions section. The trial period is 180 days. You can convert to a licensed installation at any time during the trial or after the trial has expired by entering the appropriate product key in Central Administration.

13. Sit back and relax to complete the installation.

14. After completing the setup SharePoint Product configuration wizard will be started.

15. Select ‘Yes’ at the following screen.

16. As we are creating new farm, select as below screen shot.

17. Select Next on below screen.

18. In next screen we need to provide DB server details and Database access account details.

19. After giving user details using which we have created the VM,I was getting following error “The specified user is a local account. Local accounts should only be used in stand alone mode.

20. I thought we need to create a SQL user and pass that to continue the setup.
21. Hence I connected to SQL server management studio.

22. I have created a new SQL user.

23. And granted all the roles to that account.

24. Now selected the newly created user also not helping me and giving same error as given in step no 19.
25. After that I have tried creating the new local user account and added that to Local administrator group and using those user in SQL. This also not helped me and I got stuck for some time.
26. After searching for the error we came across SP 2016 post when the solution was described to use the New-SPConfigurationDatabase cmdlet.

 

New-SPConfigurationDatabase -DatabaseName SharePoint_ConfigDB -DatabaseServer [ServerName] -AdministrationContentDatabaseName SharePoint_ContentDB -Passphrase (ConvertTo-SecureString [password] -AsPlaintext -Force) -FarmCredentials (Get-Credential) -localserverrole SingleServerFarm

27. Please read about at cmdlet New-SPConfigurationDatabase , I used ‘SingleServerFarm’ option for localserverrole parameter as I am installing on single server.
28. This command will take some time and create configuration database.
29. After successful completion run the SharePoint product configuration wizard again.

30. This time it got succeed and we are able to proceed.

31. Click Next to continue with configuration. And wizard will continue as following.

32. Now the final configuration task started and installation continued.

33. Installation success message shown as following.

34. Now we can able to access SharePoint central administration.

We can now free to create web application and site collection. Modern site templates are available at ‘Template selection’ step.

Hope this article will help to save some valuable time while setting up SharePoint 2019 preview.
Thanks for Reading.

SharePoint online / SharePoint 2013: Sharing variable values between search control and display templates

Recently I came across to a scenario where I need to set the variable in control template and the value of the variable should be accessible in item template and vice versa.
I was showing some data in item templates and using third party pagination for displaying the search result, needed the value of pagination size which is available in control template.
I tried with normal JavaScript variable but due to the scoping in display template it was not available for me inside the item template.
Solution 1:
We can use Windows.variable which is nothing but global variable creation on the scope of the window object and hence will be accessible throughout the scope of windows object.
Control Template:

<!--#_ window.PageSize = "30"; _#-->

Item Template:

<!--#_ alert(window.PageSize); _#-->

Solution 2:
Another better alternative is to use the built-in ctx object which is already shared between the control and item display template.
Control Template:

<!--#_ ctx.PageSize = "30"; _#-->

Item Template:

<!--#_ alert(ctx.PageSize); _#-->

Happy learning.

SharePoint 2013: Creating and calling custom JavaScript function in search display template

Hi Friends,

Recently I came across a requirement where I need to create a custom JavaScript function which will change the date formatting on the provided string date parameter.

I tried creating normal JavaScript function in display template and tried calling it from other part of template but the function was undefined and not found inside the display template, I got little bit confused as I have created the JavaScript function in same display template but still not able to find it in same display template while calling. We can have couple of ways to resolve the issue.

Solution 1:

After some googling I found the cause of the issue and the solution as well, as follows.

The possible reason is scoping of the display template not allowing to consider external JavaScript function as a part of the scope to call inside display template.

The solution is to create new function on window scope and the call it in the desired place inside display template.

window.MyTestFunction = function(myParam)
{
// your own logic to work on the param 'myParam'
}

Calling the function:

<a style="cursor:pointer" onclick='window.MyTestFunction(3)'>Call My custom JS function</a>

Solution 2:

1. Create a JavaScript file (MySampleJS.js) in the Display Templates/Search folder.
2. Add the custom JS function in to the MySampleJS.js file.
3. Add the following code into thetag below to include the JS file in display template

<script>
$includeScript(this.url, "~sitecollection/_catalogs/masterpage/Display Templates/Search/ MySampleJS.js");
</script>

Happy learning.

SharePoint 2013: Converting GMT/UTC time to local time in XSLT for rendering RSS feed

Hi Friends,

Recently I came across the requirement where the date coming from RSS feed which is in GMT format needed to be converted to local time and display in required format.

As RSSAggregatorWebPart webparts executes on server side and renders the output html in browser, we cannot utilize the rss date to convert to local date.

I tried multiple solution with default XSLT for calling JavaScript function, like CDATA, xsl:comment and try adding script tag but none worked for me.

Finally after struggling I found a way to achieve desired result using onerror handler with img tag.

Solution as fallows –

XSLT changes

Add following section in XSLT, which actually uses the img tag to call the JavaScript function using on error event.

JavaScript changes

Following function we needed to add a separate JS file which will be referred in the master page or add in master page itself and make sure it that JS method gets loaded before the method call in XSLT.

function ConverDateToLocal(pDate, sender) {
    try {
        var today = new Date(pDate);
        var dd = today.getDate();
        var mm = today.getMonth() + 1; //January is 0!
        var yyyy = today.getFullYear();
        var hh = today.getHours();
        var mmm = today.getMinutes();
        /*if(dd<10) {
            dd='0'+dd
        } 

        if(mm<10) {
            mm='0'+mm
        } */
        var restStr = dd + '.' + mm + '.' + yyyy + " " + hh + ":" + mmm;
        if (sender != null) {
        var senderid = sender.id;
        if (senderid) {
        var senderidsplit = senderid.split('_');
        if (senderidsplit.length > 0) {
                    var datedivid = "datediv_" + senderidsplit[1];
                    if (datedivid) {
                        var datediv = document.getElementById(datedivid);
                        if (datediv != null) {
                            datediv.innerHTML += " :: " + "New ::" + restStr;
			                // After testing folling code should be execuated
			                //datediv.innerHTML = restStr;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    catch(err) {}
}

After applying the XSLT we can see the output like following where first date is GST date and next date is converted local date.

Happy coding.

SharePoint: How to check if page is in edit mode or not in JavaScript

As SharePoint evolved and other client technologies started to become popular and independent we are achieving most of the solution with client side technologies like JavaScript, jQuery and other similar.

I came across one requirement while working on a JavaScript based component, where I need a conditional code to run only when my page is in edit mode. I found multiple solutions which I summaries below.

Option 1:

var inDesignMode = document.forms[MSOWebPartPageFormName].MSOLayout_InDesignMode.value;
if (inDesignMode == "1")
{
// page is in edit mode
}
else
{
// page is in browse mode
}

For Wiki pages

var wikiInEditMode = document.forms[MSOWebPartPageFormName]._wikiPageMode.value;
if (wikiInEditMode == "Edit")
{
// wiki page is in edit mode
}
else
{
// wiki page is not in edit mode
}

Option 2: Using SP.Ribbon.PageState.Handlers.isInEditMode()

ExecuteOrDelayUntilScriptLoaded(function(){
var InEditMode = SP.Ribbon.PageState.Handlers.isInEditMode();
if(InEditMode){
// page is in edit mode
}
}, 'SP.Ribbon.js');

Option 3: While checking the value in SharePoint search display template we need to use Srch.U.isPageInEditMode Method

var isRollupPageInDisplayMode = Srch.ContentBySearch.isRollupPage(ctx.ClientControl) && !Srch.U.isPageInEditMode();

Happy Learning!