Common Functionality of Lists and Libraries

Earlier we said that a library is just a special list, so what functionality do libraries and lists share? Both lists and libraries can add metadata through columns, and using those columns create specialized views to only see the relevant items. Lists and libraries also share the ability to store items in folders. This book has argued the greatness of metadata, but sometimes folders are the answer. The recycle bin functionality captures any items in a list or library that are deleted and keeps them for a default period of 30 days. There is also the Actions menu, which offers functionality such as Alert Me, Export to Excel, and many more pieces of additional functionality. The following sections provide more detail on each one of these common pieces of functionality.

Columns Equal Metadata

Metadata is data about data, such as who authored an item, when was it created, or to what region does the item apply. Collecting all of this additional data about an item allows users to discern information about the item without opening it. This meta-data can have three different names in SharePoint; it is referred to as a column when viewing a list or library, a field when viewing an individual item, and a document property when attached to a document. The following fields are populated automatically by SharePoint and are included with the default list or library.

• Content Type

• Created

• Created By

• Edit (link to Edit item)

• ID Modified

• Modified By

• Type (icon linked to document)

• Title (this column is not automatically populated for a document library, but it is available)

• Version

  A default list also includes

• Title (linked to item with Edit menu)

• Title (linked to item)

  A default document library also includes

• Check In Comment

• Checked Out to

• Copy Source

• File Size

• Name (linked to document with Edit menu)

• Name (linked to document)

• Name (for use in forms)

Each template adds additional columns specific to that particular type of content. Additional columns may be added through the browser in two different ways. The first is by turning on additional settings. For example, if Content Approval is turned on, then two additional columns, Approval Status and Approver Comments, are added. The second method is through the Create Column functionality, which allows you to create additional columns on the list or library to include additional information that is relevant to the organization or item. The following are the types of information that can be created as a column.

• Single line of text. This column allows the user to only input a limited amount of plain text; the maximum number of characters is set at the time of creation. A default value can be set. The maximum number of characters allowed is 255.

• Multiple lines of text. This column type permits a certain number of lines of text. The type of text permitted is plain, rich, or enhanced rich text, and is configured when the column is created. In addition, this column has an append-only feature that allows users to only add additional comments rather than edit previous comments. To use the append-only functionality, versioning must be turned on. A default value can be set.

• Choice (menu to choose from). The Choice column gives the user a certain number of options to select from. If you need to ensure the accuracy and conformity of the metadata, this column is the most controlled. A default value can be set.

• Number. This column type only allows the user to enter in numbers. When being set up, the creator can determine a minimum and maximum number as well as the number of decimal places. This column can be used for percentages. A default value can be set.

• Currency. This column is for entering monetary values. As with the Number column, a minimum and maximum value can be set as well as the number of decimal places. This column also allows the selection of the currency format. A default value can be set.

• Date and Time. The format for this column can be selected from between date only or date and time. A default value or calculated value can be provided.

• Lookup. This column allows you to provide values based on information stored in a column on another list or library on the same site. For instance, if you have a customer contact list and a document library, then you might look up against the customer contact list to tag the documents in the document library.

• Yes/No. A single check box is shown. A default value can be set.

• Person or Group. The person or group column allows users to select users or groups. The selection can be scoped to all users or a particular SharePoint group. When set up, the creator can also determine what field to display after the selection is made. This allows the users to select John Smith, but what appears in the field could be [email protected].

• Hyperlink or Picture. This column can either be displayed as a hyperlink or a picture. This column can be used to create thumbnails in lists and libraries. When users fill in this column, they must already know the URL to the hyper-link or picture because there is no browse functionality.

• Calculated. Create calculations using the other fields in the list. To see the available functions and sample formulas visit http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/CH100650061033.aspx.

• Business Data. This column is included as part of the Business Data Catalog (BDC) functionality and thus is only available with MOSS Enterprise. This column is covered in more detail in Chapter 11, “Leveraging the Business Data Catalog (BDC).”

Exercise: Adding an Additional Column to a List

1. Navigate to the list or library. 2. Click Settings > Create Column. 3. Fill in the title. Keep in mind the title cannot already be in the list or reserved for site columns. 4. Select the appropriate column type. 5. Provide a description. The description will appear beneath where the user will enter data in the field. An example is shown in Figure 3.5. Figure 3.5. Column with description field. [View full size image] 6. Determine whether the field should be required for all items. 7. Click OK.

Folders

Even after reading all the reasons why you should move to a metadata structure instead of folders, folders are still important for two reasons: users already know how to use them, and security. Your users use folders in e-mail, on their desktops, on file shares—they even probably use them in their offices for paper files. They understand folders, so when you decide to move to a metadata structure, you have to train users to understand a new method of locating items as well as ask them to fill in additional information about the item. For this reason, sometimes moving to SharePoint for collaboration is a big enough change for that time, and allowing them to keep the folder structure they are used to using will make the transition easier. The folder available by default doesn’t allow the user to attach any metadata; however, later in the chapter, you’ll learn how to create a content type. One of the available content types is a folder, and through customizing the content type, you can add additional columns to collect information about what is stored in the folder.

The other reason for folders is security. If you have 10 documents in a library that you want to allow only managers to see, you can use item level security to edit the security of each item. However, if you do that, when you need to change the security, you must change it on 10 items. If you place all 10 items in a folder, you can change the security once, and all items within that folder will inherit the change. It’s all about working smarter not harder.

Exercise: Enabling Folders on a List

1. On the desired list, click Settings > List Settings. 2. Under the header General Settings, select Advanced Settings. 3. For the Folder Option, select Yes. 4. Click OK. Now the New Menu drop-down has the option for a New Folder available.

Views

As you begin to add items to a list or a library, at some point, you’ll need to organize the information to allow users to find what they’re looking for. Folders are one method; however, with views, you have a lot more power and flexibility with the data. Views allow you to group, sort, filter, place calculations, determine what columns to display, limit the number of items returned, and determine the format of the view. For example, if you had a list of help desk tickets with columns collecting when the ticket was submitted and the status of the problem, you could simply use folders to organize the tickets for each month, but this limits how the users can search for the ticket they are looking for. If you were using views, on the other hand, you could have a view with all open tickets, or all open tickets from the month of March, or closed tickets from March, April, and May. In addition many times with list items, you may be collecting a lot more information than you need at certain times, and a view can limit the number of columns being displayed. Additional information may also be collected through SharePoint, such as the ID field, which is not being displayed in the default view of the list. By creating a new view, you can expose this information. When creating a view, you can determine whether the view is public or personal. Users can create personal views with the Manage Personal Views permission included in the default Contribute permission level, and they can create public views included with the Manage Lists permission included with the default Full Control permission level. Keep in mind you cannot secure a view like you can secure an item. Views do not have the ability to be secured. All of the options available with a view are shown in Figure 3.6.

Exercise: Customizing the View of a List

1. Navigate to the list. 2. Click Settings > Create View. 3. Choose the view format. Notice you can start from an existing view. 4. Give the View a name. The name should be descriptive because it will appear on the View drop-down list with a check box beneath to make it the default view. 5. Select whether it is a Personal or Public view. 6. Choose the columns you want to display and the order in which you want them displayed from left to right. 7. Use the next three options to sort, filter, and group the items based on a particular column(s). 8. If you want to place a calculation on a column, do this in the Totals section. 9. Select a Style. 10. If you’re using folders, you can select to display all items without folders. This allows you to get the benefits of both folders and metadata. 11. Set an item limit. This can be an absolute limit, or you can allow the user to page through the items in a specified number of items at a time. 12. If you want to make this view available for mobile users, check the box. The next time you edit this view, a URL will be available for the mobile view. 13. Click OK. When planning the views of a list, it is important to note that the performance of the list is inversely related to the number of items in a view. In other words, as the list gets larger, the performance gets slower, to the point where the list no longer loads. There is not an exact number for this because the number of items varies based on your server setup, the makeup of the list, and so on. The best practice is to stay under 2000 items per view. (Notice it is view, not list.) You could have 10,000 items in the list as long as no view is more than 2,000. For more detailed information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=95450&clcid=0x409.

Recycle Bins

Ever realized, two seconds after you deleted something, that you deleted the wrong item? Or even worse, you delete something and because you’re sure you’ll never need it, you hit the delete button again in the Recycle Bin only to realize you might need that document after all! Well finally with SharePoint, both of those situations have a quick solution: the Recycle Bin and the Site Collection Recycle Bin, also known as the two stage recycle bin.

Each site has an individual Recycle Bin used to capture items and documents deleted by users. A user can access this Recycle Bin to view and restore deleted items (that is, only items that particular user has deleted). Items stay in this recycle bin 30 days by default. This setting can be changed per Web application in Central Administration.

Exercise: Retrieving an Item from the Recycle Bin

1. Navigate to the site with the deleted item. 2. Click the link to the Recycle Bin located on the Quick Launch bar. 3. Select the Restore check box, and click Restore Selection. The Site Collection Recycle Bin is accessible only by site collection administrators. This Recycle Bin captures any item or document deleted from any site by any user in the site collection. Items remain in this recycle bin for 30 days or until 50 percent of the live quota for a site collection is reached. An item only stays in either the end user Recycle Bin or the Site Collection Recycle Bin for a total of 30 days. This means if it is in the end user Recycle Bin for 15 days and then someone deletes it, it will only remain in the Site Collection Recycle Bin for 15 additional days. This setting can also be changed per Web application in Central Administration. The Site Collection Recycle Bin has two views, End User Recycle Bin items and Deleted from the end user Recycle Bin, as shown in Figure 3.7. This Recycle Bin also has a column for tracking who deleted the item. Figure 3.7. The Site Collection Recycle Bin. [View full size image]

Exercise: Accessing the Site Collection Recycle Bin

1. Navigate to the top-level site of the site collection. 2. Click Site Actions > Site Settings > Modify All Site Settings. 3. Under Site Collection Administration, click Recycle Bin.

Controlling the Content Through Versioning and Content Approval

SharePoint lists and libraries maintain not only major (published) versions but also minor (draft) versions, which allows you to see how an item has evolved or to revert back if a previous version is more desirable than the current version. It is also a way on a custom list to audit the changes to columns within the list. When enabling versions, you can set limits on the number of major versions kept, and the number of major versions that keep minor versions. Setting limits is recommended if the items are going to be large and if the situation permits because the versions are full copies of the document, and space could quickly fill up if users create a number of versions. For example, if each document is 10MB and you are keeping 20 versions, that is 200MB of space used. In addition, when minor versions are enabled, you also can select who you want to see minor versions: any user who can read items or only users who can edit items. When you turn on versioning, you should add the version column to at least one view to allow users to see what version they are about to view. If not, it can be confusing when you’re looking at version 1.3, but all of the readers are viewing version 1.0.

Content approval creates items as drafts (minor versions) until the changes or new item are approved. This prevents users from seeing information that is not approved. Users who are in the approvers group or owners on the list can approve items. When content approval is turned on when you create minor versions, you have a third option for who can see draft versions: only users who can approve items (and the author of the item). An Approval Status column will be added to the list and the default view of the list.

Exercise: Turning on Versioning and Content Approval

1. Navigate to the list. 2. Click Settings > List Settings. 3. Under General Settings, click Versioning. 4. To turn on Content Approval, select Yes. 5. In the section for Document Version History, select the Create major and minor (draft) versions option. If you want to limit the number retained, check the box, and enter the number of each version to keep. 6. Use the Draft Item Security option to determine who can view the drafts (minor versions).

The Actions Menu

The Actions menu is the only menu that is available to all users, even the users with the read permission level. This menu allows users to integrate the list or library with Outlook and Excel. It even allows a user to be notified when a change is made to that list or library (see Figure 3.8). The Actions menu is security trimmed, so if a user doesn’t have access to edit, the Edit in Datasheet link will not be visible. SharePoint is a great tool, but one of the issues is keeping up with changes and additions to the list, which all of the commands on the Actions menu allow the user to do. The following sections describe the commands available on the Actions menu of both a list and a library in more detail. Any list-specific commands are found in the “Unique List Features” section of this chapter.

Edit in Datasheet

Edit in Datasheet is a view of a list that allows the users to edit all of the items at once. As shown in Figure 3.9, the datasheet is similar to how the list appears in Access with each field available to be edited while it retains the qualities of the column and the security. For example, if a column is a choice column, the choices will be available. Users can also interact with the task pane that allows printing, charting, copying, cutting, reporting, and querying through either Access or Excel.

Export to Spreadsheet

This command allows a user to export all of the list data to an Excel spreadsheet, allowing the user to have full Excel functionality. This can be useful in situations where the user needs to create graphs, to run more complex calculations, or even to create pivot tables using the data.

Connect to Outlook

As you sit at the gate getting ready for your flight, you realize you would like to be able to view the content on your SharePoint site, update the content, and have it sync back up the next time you are online. Your answer has arrived: Connect to Outlook. Connect to Outlook allows you to take certain list and libraries offline with the ability to update and have that content synced the next time you are online. This feature requires Microsoft Outlook 2007. Only the following list and library templates support the Connect to Outlook functionality.

• Calendar. Keep your schedule maintained in one location. Many times with SharePoint calendars, the biggest complaint is that you need to go to SharePoint to view and update the calendar. By connecting to Outlook, you can drag items from the SharePoint calendar onto your personal calendar or vice versa. You can also use the calendar overlay functionality to see all of the events in one view.

• Tasks. Sifting through multiple tasks lists just is not very effective. By connecting the Task list to Outlook, you can maintain all tasks in one location. Tasks can be marked complete or edited directly within Outlook. Each task list shows up separately in Outlook. It is not a consolidated list of tasks.

• Discussion Board. Interact with the discussion board messages as if they were mail messages in Outlook. You can use the reply functionality to reply to a message. The messages can also be flagged for follow-up or categorized.

• Contacts. Access your contacts even when you are not on your PC. If you can access the SharePoint site, you can locate your synchronized contacts.

• Document Library. Documents can be taken offline for reading and editing. Documents that are edited will not automatically synchronize. They must be synchronized through the Office client or saved to the library again for changes to be seen.

View RSS Feed

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) allows the user to be a consumer of changes that are made to a list or library. The user can subscribe to the RSS feed through a feed reader, such as the one built into Outlook 2007. The best part of this in SharePoint is that it allows a user to keep track of all the lists they are interested in without visiting the list frequently or receiving an e-mail. The feed reader organizes the content of the feeds so they generally appear as folders, and the user can quickly see which feed has new content.

As an owner of a SharePoint list, you get to control how the feed is published. Through the RSS Settings located on the Settings page under the Communications header, a list owner can decide whether to allow feeds on the list, whether multiple lines of text should be truncated to 256 characters, what columns of the list to include, the maximum items to include, and the maximum days to include.

Alert Me

The alert functionality allows you to receive e-mail notifications when changes are made to a particular list. These e-mail notifications show a user what has changed about the item. Users can subscribe to alerts for themselves, and users with the Full Control permission level can subscribe other users to alerts, for example, a manager could subscribe all the members of a team. This ability is given through the Manage Alerts permission, which is given to the default Full Control permission level. If desired, this permission could be given to any permission level. When configuring the alert on the New Alert page in Figure 3.10, you can determine the change type: All changes, New items are added, Existing items are modified, or Items are deleted. In addition, you can specify additional criteria for sending an alert: Anything changes, Someone else changes a contact, Someone changes a contact created by me, Someone else changes a contact last modified by me, or when someone changes an item that appears in the following view. For the final option, you then select which view you would like to use. The last choice is when you want the alerts sent: immediately, daily, or weekly. Alerts that are sent daily allow you to choose the time to send the alerts, and alerts that are sent weekly allow you to select the day of the week and time.

Site owners can see all of the alerts on a site by visiting the Site Settings page and clicking on the User alerts link under the Site Administration heading. User alerts can be managed from this screen. The alerts can be viewed by selecting a particular user, which displays all of the alerts for that user and allows the site owner to edit the alerts. A user can see their alerts by selecting the Alert Me option on the Actions menu on any list on the site. In this screen, the View my existing alerts on this site link appears in the upper-left corner.

Add to My Links

The My Links list is maintained by the user on the user’s My Site. The links are to either be shared with others or to appear on the My Links drop-down list in the top-right corner as shown in Figure 3.11. Keep in mind that the position of My Links varies depending on the Master Page being used. Master pages are discussed in further detail in Chapter 6, “Creating a Custom UI for SharePoint.” The My Links drop-down list is available to the user on all Web applications within a Shared Services Provider (SSP) because My Sites and thus My Links are provided by the SSP. When adding a link to My Links, the user can determine whether to show it to Everyone, My Colleagues, My Workgroup, My Manager, or Only Me. A grouping functionality is also available that makes organizing the links easier. More details on setting this up and managing these groups and links are given in Chapter 7, “User Profiles, My Sites, and Audience Targeting.”