SharePoint 2013 – Code Rant

Importing Excel 2013 Data into SharePoint 2013

Importing Excel Data into SharePoint 2013

Open your Excel file

Exporting Excel 2013 Data to SharePoint 2013

Click the Insert tab (1), select your data (2), click table (3) and click Ok (3)

Click anywhere inside the table (if the previous step as performed correctly a Design tab appears)

Click “Design” tab (1)

Click “Export” (2)

Click “Export table to SharePoint List” (3)

Enter Address URL Path of the site you wish to Import the Excel Data to (4)

This turns SharePoint as a source of data for the table to be exported (5) (The benefit of the Link is demonstrated after the export is completed)

Enter the preferred List name (6)

Enter Description (7)

Click Next

Click Finished

This means the data has been published to SharePoint List.

That’s it the Excel data is exported to SharePoinT

Benefit of “Create a read-only connection to the new SharePoint List”

Click “new item”

Fill out the Form and click Save

Right click on the table and click “Refresh” on the context menu

The latest data is visible in the Excel sheet.

SharePoint Workflow Designer 2013 not displaying workflows

Today I encountered a strange anomaly in SharePoint Designer 2013.

I pushed a fresh Windows 8.1 image and installed Visual studio 2013 Premium Update 2 (couldnt go for update 4 due to informix driver). I installed sharePoint Designer 2013 and wanted to use it to resume on a workflow. When I loaded it, to my dismay SharePoint Designer displayed an empty workflow ready to start designing … I thought I lost my work. I started looking for a solution and I encountered this post http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/154/t/264867.aspx

To cut story short they ask the user to install this SharePoint Designer update http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41467

I did so and it worked. So why things worked before the refresh of the image? My conclusion is because before i had Visual studio 2013 Premium Update 4, So I think something required by SharePoint Designer 2013 is missing in Update 2 but available in Update 4

SharePoint Link to a document in Library

Setting the Library for Links

Open the library

Click the Library Tab (1) then click Library Settings (2)

click Advanced Settings

Tick Yes

click Add from existing site content types

Link to a document Content Type Selection

Select Document content types from (1) and Link to a document from (2)

Click Add

Populate the Library

Click New (1) followed by Link to a document (2)

Providing Name, document Link and Verify Link Validity

Enter a document Name and a Link (please click “Click here to test” checks if your URL is valid)

Done!

Note that if you do this to Documents Library of a site/subsite and after you create a child subsite, this will not effect the default Documents Library of that child subsite

SharePoint enable List (Form Web Parts)

By default SharePoint’s Form Web Parts are disabled.

List Form web Parts disabled — List Form Web Parts Disabled

How to resolve this issue?

Go to your SharePoint admin center

Click settings.

Scroll down to locate the section of Custom Script

Select Allow users to run custom script on self-service created sites

Click OK.
Note: It takes up to 24 hours for the change to take effect.

Turn scripting capabilities on and off

Sharepoint 2013 List Validation

There are times which one desires to perform validations on entries in a list. For demo pourpose a Leave Request List is created. This list contains a Start Date column and an End Date column. It is sensible to add validations that the Start Date must come before the End Date. Apart from this Start Date must be in the future.

Click “List”

Click “List Settings”

This page shows plenty of options one can modify for the list, but the focus here is mainly validations. Sharepoint offers two validation types out of the box. Column Validation and List Validation.

Column Validation (Columns)

These validations let one specify validations with regards to thet column in isolation. for example “=[Count] <= 50”.

This can be done by clicking the column that needs to be validated in the List Settings page

List Validation (Validation Settings)

There can only be one List Validation this allows specification of cross column validation. e.g. =[Start Date] < [End Date] and a single User Comment: that is displayed to the user if the dates do not pass the validation.

Validations in general w.r.t. SharePoint are mostly like Excel mor information on this at the Office Online

Pesrsonally I think this is a huge limitation since it leaves much to be desired to inform the user what is wrong with the entries when the form does not pass the validation. Apart from this one might need different validations depending on levels of access. For example the normal user cannot enter a past date in Start Date however and administrator might be allowed to do so within the company policy.