Conditional Formatting in SharePoint 2010 using SharePoint Designer 2010

Conditional Formatting in SharePoint 2010 using SharePoint Designer 2010

We can do conditional formatting on both rows and columns.

The conditional formatting are usually takes the html formatting on the page level. So you have to design in the html format using SharePoint designer 2010.

The following are the steps to do Formatting Row/column:

1. Open the site in SharePoint Designer.
2. Right click the file, and make backup copy.
3. Edit the file in advanced mode.
4. Click on the grid page and then click on Conditional Formatting, available on the ribbon.
5. Select Format row/column.
6. Put the condition as per the requirement.
7. Set the style, by clicking on the set style button

If you need to put image, do the following:

1. Create the image using any image editor like Photoshop.
2. And drop the image to the location 14 hive in SharePoint 2010 i.e., C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES
3. And update the settings as shown in the below screenshot.

Key Points of SharePoint Designer 2010

Key Points: 

1.  SharePoint Designer is “the preferred” tool to design powerful no-code solutions and applications in SharePoint 2010.

2.    Use SharePoint Designer to produce solutions that are easily maintainable and supportable.

3.    SharePoint Designer is not a tool for general use by all those who visit or have access to a SharePoint site. The browser should be used to complete tasks such as adding static content (text, images, or hyperlinks) to Web pages, uploading documents, or creating and modifying list items.

4.    SharePoint Designer 2010 can be used only with SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010 sites. These are server-based products and need to be installed prior to using SharePoint Designer 2010.

5.    SharePoint Designer 2010 cannot be used to customize non-SharePoint Web sites, nor can you use it to customize sites based on previous versions of SharePoint, such as Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Use Expression Web for non-SharePoint sites and SharePoint Designer 2007 with sites created in previous versions of SharePoint.

6.    SharePoint Designer can remember the last site you worked on and open it when you start the program. This is not the default configuration, but you can select this setting on the General tab of the Application Options dialog box. The Application Options dialog box can be opened by clicking Options in Backstage view.

7.  SharePoint Designer uses the security settings of your browser to decide whether to prompt for credentials.

8.    The SharePoint Designer shell consists of Backstage view and On Stage view. On Stage view consists of a number of elements, including the Quick Access Toolbar, ribbon, breadcrumb, Navigation pane, mini-gallery, workspace, task panes, and status bar. Web pages initially created in a SharePoint site point to files on a file system, known as uncustomized pages; however, when pages are customized by using SharePoint Designer, they are stored in the SQL Server databases, where they are known as customized pages.

9.    In SharePoint Designer 2010, uncustomized (site definition) pages can only be customized (unghosted) when a page is in advanced edit mode.

10. A SharePoint Web application consists of one or more site collections that contain one or more Web sites.

11. When a Web application is created, by default each site collection within that Web application can be modified using SharePoint Designer only by users who are members of the Site Owners and Designers site groups. However, these users cannot customize site definition pages, nor can they see the hidden URL structure of a SharePoint site.

 Source: Step by Step SharePoint Designer 2010 by Penelope Coventry 

URL Naming convention in SharePoint 2010

URL Naming convention:

Check the spelling of words you include in the URL name and be consistent in your naming conventions; for example, don’t call a picture library pictures in one site and images in another. For some SharePoint components, such as the URL for a site, you cannot change the URL later.

If your aim is to make the URL readable and the URL consists of several words, use an underscore (“_”) in place of a space or remove the space and capitalize the first character in each word. For example, replace the three words Wide World Importers, with either Wide_World_Importers or WideWorldImporters. The underscore is the better of these options because all popular search engines and spiders understand it as a word separator.

Although the space character is a legal URL character, there are several issues with having one or more spaces in the URL, such as the following:

Readability: A space in the URL name is URL-encoded as %20, so the resulting name is difficult for people to read. A site with a URL of s p f would result in an encoded version of s%20p%20f, six extra characters.

URL length limitation: A URL must contain no more than 260 characters. SharePoint refers to every site, list, library, list item, or document as a URL. SharePoint prefixes the document name by the document library’s URL, which is prefixed by the site’s URL, then by its parent’s site’s URL, and so on. In addition, when a user edits documents or list items, SharePoint appends the URL of the document library or list, so that when the user clicks Save or Close, the browser redirects them to the list or library in which the item was saved. If the URL for the list or library contains two spaces, it contains six extra characters. Then, as the URL is appended for editing, that adds another six extra characters, making 12 extra characters. Therefore, if you consistently use long names, you’ll eventually have problems, which is exaggerated if you use spaces.

Links in e-mails: If you incorporate a URL in an e-mail message, some e-mail programs truncate the URL at the first space when sending the clickable link to the recipient, resulting in a broken link. When users click the link, they are taken to an invalid location in the browser and won’t understand why they can’t find the document.


Source: Step by Step SharePoint Designer 2010 by Penelope Coventry

New features in SharePoint Designer 2010

New features in SharePoint Designer 2010

Source: Step By Step SharePoint Designer 2010 by Penelope Coventry

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1. User interface (UI): The SharePoint Designer user interface (UI) is redesigned and uses the Office Fluent UI, which was designed to make it easier for users to use and find features within a product. It incorporates the ribbon and Backstage view, which can be accessed from the File tab.

2. Easier management of SharePoint components: The new Navigation pane, which replaces the Folder List task pane in SharePoint Designer 2007, focuses on SharePoint artifacts and not where the artifacts are stored. You can now manipulate major SharePoint components—such as content types, site columns, and external lists—and modify site and list permissions natively within SharePoint Designer. Using SharePoint Designer to manipulate SharePoint components is now much faster and more efficient than using a Web browser to complete similar tasks.

3. New tools to help users create better composites (solutions): Two areas of tool improvement are-

i.       Workflows: The challenge in implementing a new workflow is that the person who creates the workflow is usually not the one who defines the requirements. SharePoint 2010 addresses this challenge by allowing people to create workflows in Visio 2010 and export them into SharePoint Designer 2010, where business logic and additional rules are added. Workflows developed in SharePoint Designer can be exported from one SharePoint site and imported into another, as well as into Visual Studio 2010. This enables development and testing of the SharePoint Designer custom workflow to take place in a trusted environment before deployment to the production system. In the previous version of SharePoint, this was available only with workflows created using Visual Studio.

ii.       Business Connectivity Services (BCS): Originally called the Business Data Catalog, BCS is now available in the base product, Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010. SharePoint Designer is the major tool for information workers and business analysts to define how to access external systems and create dashboards and composite applications based on data from the external systems.

4. Performance and stability improvements: Until the release of Service Pack 2, SharePoint Designer 2007 had major performance and stability issues. Some users also complained about the code SharePoint Designer 2007 generated. Microsoft has invested heavily in this area.

Required Service Accounts in SharePoint 2010 Installation & Configuration

Service Accounts

One of the most important aspects of planning for deployment is to identify the service accounts that will be needed. There are several accounts that must be specified, even for the most basic farm topologies. Other accounts will be required depending on the additional functionality deployed.

NOTE: It is a recommended best practice to install SharePoint 2010 using “least-privileged” accounts. This decreases the potential damage in the case where an account is compromised.

Table 1-3 lists the service accounts required for all SharePoint 2010 installations, and Table 1-4 lists other service accounts.

TABLE 1-3 Required Service Accounts

ACCOUNT	PURPOSE	REQUIREMENTS
SQL Server service account	Run SQL Server processes: ·         For the default instance, use MSSQLSERVER and SQLSERVERAGENT ·         For a named instance, use MSSQL$InstanceName and SQLAgent$InstanceName	Either a local system account or domain account. Ensure that this account has access to any external resources used to backup or restore. If using a local system account (Network Service or Local System), grant access to domain_name\SQL_hostname$.
Setup user Account	Run installation and SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard	·      Domain account ·      Member of the Administrators group on each server where setup is run ·      SQL Server login on database server ·      Member of securityadmin and dbcreator server roles ·      If using Windows PowerShell, you must be a member of the dbowner fixed role on the database
Server farm account/ database access account	·         Configure and manage server farm ·         Application pool identity for Central Administration Web site ·         Run SharePoint Foundation Timer Service	·      Domain account Additional permissions are also granted on Web front-end and application servers because they are added to the farm. This account is also added to the following SQL Server roles on the farm database server: ·      dbcreator fixed server role ·      securityadmin fixed server role ·      db_owner fixed database role on all SharePoint databases for the farm

TABLE 1-4 Other Service Accounts

ACCOUNT	PURPOSE	REQUIREMENTS
Search Service account	Run Search Service	This account will default to the farm administrator account, but you should specify a different account for security purposes.
Content Access account	Used to access content sources for crawling. Defaults to Search Service account.	Domain account with read access to content to be crawled.
Application pool Accounts	Used for running IIS Web applications that host SharePoint site collections.	Can be a local system account or domain account.

Reference: SharePoint 2010 Administrator Pocket Consultant (Book)

Be social in real life not in social sites...  "Judge Yourself"                                                 

While on face book you never face a book

"While on face book you never face a book"

What is in a name?  you may call a rose by any name because in face book you never face a book rather it has taken away the book from your face.
Face book is a phenomenon , a trend and a requirement in today's cyber world. What kind of requirement ?it is not that a requirement that you can not survive with out it or can not manage your day to day life . Most of the computer literates has made it a point to get in touch with their friends, family , acquaintances and fans through face book, still their are many who are scared or cautious to use this web page.  It has enveloped & coiled the whole world like a serpent. You can get in touch with your friends all around the globe in just one single page, chat with them , exchange pictures,chuckles, share songs, videos , messages , missions, events & ideas on just one single page.You can even promote your products and give your ads. There are a dozen similar sites , my space, Digg , stumble upon , Reddit, LinkedIn etc etc but   no comparison to face book and  now the messages are coming along on Twitter,our small sentences are tweeting side by side.
This whole social networking phenomenon has millions & billions of users on its site.It is the biggest social networking site where one can get in touch with the click of the mouse to all his online friends. You have to be watchful for  not sharing  a handful of your personal details that you should never say if you don't want criminals -- cyber or otherwise -you should be careful about  providing too much  private details- Even President Obama warned people to be careful about their pictures and this warning is especially for ladies because of the predators and  evil minded people. A precaution is must, watch your steps what are you doing especially in social media. I my self like to share my personal pictures or information with my close net circle, on Facebook a lot many things go public instead of doing all your privacy control. We make friends knowingly or unknowingly. The posting we do, the updates we provide, show all the details of  our day to day activities, in a way your whole circle knows what new is up or what are you up to do.Some times it is embarrassing  to know that all about you is known by all on your link.  You feel like advertising it to the public and that sitting quiet or idle  on face book is just nonsense, click on the likes of your friends postings if you are  not doing any postings right now, comment on their pictures & posts . Some of my FB friends though keeping quiet would inform me." Oh yeah, I know where you are and what is going on ?."
It is a good tool for FBI and other secret services to check your records through FB. Some of the records are revealed when the crime is done, the murder or the suicide is committed . Then they will look into their profile to investigate the details.
The records are checked and criminals are nabbed some times before the crime is committed .  While other  times some con artist is nabbed just for over smartness.
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg  with his college roommates and fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris HughesThe Web site's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before opening to high school students, and eventually to anyone aged 13 and over. However,on February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook Inc.. As of February 2012, Facebook has more than 845 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People From Work" or "Close Friends".
Mark kicked off his two partners and became CEO of Face book and Time magazine's Person of the year in 2011 when he was only 26 years old. Wearing his hoodie jacket which is  his trade mark (like the sweat shirt of Steve jobs in which he was seen in all his presentations), with  his sparkling face and shining eyes when he sends a message on my profile . I'm so enthralled to see him , while he is sending this to thousand and millions at the same time. His head quarter was at Palo Alto California. In early 2011, Facebook announced plans to move to its new headquarters, the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park, California .

 On Wall street the Facebook's value is almost 70 billion dollars. The investors and financiers are looking forward to buy its lucrative shares.Now, like Gates and Jobs before them, social media entrepreneurs are following the path of past high-growth enterprises by hitching their wagons to Wall Street’s star through an initial public offering (IPO) of stock.  But in doing so, companies like Facebook enter the world of very sharp pencils

Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. Especially with its availability on many mobile devices and smart phones. Travelling on a delta flight found a free WiFi available in the air for face book. The entire print media , You tube & other video net works are linked to face book . With a click of a mouse you can add it up to your profile , from there one is able to share it with the whole group.  Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. It can also unite people with common interests and/or beliefs through groups and other pages, and has been known to reunite lost family members and friends. One such reunion was between John Watson and the daughter he had been seeking for 20 years. They met after Watson found her Facebook profile Another father-daughter reunion was between Tony Macnauton and Frances Simpson, who had not seen each other for nearly 48 years.
Some argue that Facebook is beneficial to one's social life because they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives, while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies because people are not directly communicating with each other.It is so much common in families and the family rooms that three or four people sitting their , holding their laptops , tablets or phone screens and busy on FB or other networks while the TV is running on. A lot is now said & preached about disconnection to get on some family time & chat.
Some studies have named Facebook as a source of problems in relationships. Several news stories have suggested that using Facebook causes divorce and infidelity, but the claims have been questioned and refuted by other commentators. Yet we can say that it is addictive and you wish to get in touch and be on it from time to time. New relations are formed while divorces are occurred. Like every other networking it depends on a person's own discipline and self control. Last year a 13 months old  baby drowned while the mother was hooked up on Facebook.
About Pakistan almost every one with a computer has a Facebook account. I have about half of my family and friends sitting there, chatting and exchanging views.
Learned from a friend  about a person whose wife has died and the man was in total loss and grief. A close friend while consoling him asked," can I help you with any thing, do you need any thing ?"  "Yes  bring me my laptop, I would like to update my  status."
Their are so many people with fake identities . A girl with a profile picture and friend with a couple of other friends was with me for the last 3 years.The other day she informed me that if you do not mind I would like to tell you that actually I am a boy. I told her that it does not matter with me , you should consider properly in which gender you are satisfied and pleased.
Facebook keep on changing and updating from 2008 when I started using it. Now it has a "Time line' showing all the posts in the time frame you have posted on it. It will make collage of your posted pictures, a summary of your year in status , a lot many games , mafia wars , translations and a lot more...
Now it depends on us are we just wasting our times or making some good & useful  use out of it ? ...
Abida Rahmani
abida.rahmani7@gmail.com