Web Part Connection Issues

I was having some trouble configuring Web Part connections between multiple web parts on a single page. The following article was able to assist, as there are a number of custom (third party) Web Parts on the page that being used in the connections to collect and pass parameters or filter values to Web Parts.

The issue occurred if the page was saved using SharePoint Designer. When the page is saved using SharePoint Designer after configuring a Web Part Connection, all Web Parts with previously configured connections disappear off the page. when in design mode, the Web Parts are still on the page, but are not visible when viewing the shared view of the page.

See Web Part Connection Issues for details.

SharePoint News & Development Resources
DevSharePoint.com provides the latest SharePoint news and resources. Stay up to date with SharePoint 2010, MOSS 2007, WSS, SharePoint Designer (2007/2010), InfoPath.

InfoPath & SharePoint Development Tutorials, Resources & How To’s
InfoPathSharePoint.net provides the latest InfoPath development tutorials, InfoPath Form Services administration tips, tricks and how to’s. InfoPath SharePoint Integration: Integrate InfoPath Forms with SharePoint lists, libraries & workflow.

SharePoint & InfoPath News & Resources
SharePoint Administration, Development, Design & Customization Resources from around the internet. SharePoint & InfoPath News. InfoPath SharePoint Integration. InfoPath Form Template Design. InfoPath Form layouts, design tips & techniques.

Customize TOC Web Part CSS

How to Replace default CSS styles used by a TOCWP with new CSS Classes
How to modify the default XSL Style Sheets used by Table of Contents web Parts to replace the default CSS classes with new ones.  Modify styles for all TOCWPs accross a SharePoint site collection.

How to differentiate styles between the Horizontal & Vertical Presentation Layouts of a TOCWP
Various presentation layouts available for a Table of Contents web Part use identical class names as other presentation layouts.  To differentiate classes that are used by multiple presentation layouts, you can write new CSS classes, then replace the default by modifying the XSL Style Sheet used to format TOC Web Parts.

Where to find the default XSL Style Sheets for a TOCWP in SharePoint (MOSS)
Where are the default XSL Style Sheets located for a Table of Contents Web Part (TOCWP)?  The default XSL style Sheets used are located in the style library of the site collection (http://sitecollectionurl/Style Library/XSL Style Sheets/LevelStyle.xsl).

How to modify and apply changes to the Default XSL Style Sheet for TOC Web Parts
How to make changes to the global (default) XSL Style Sheets for application to all Table of Contents Web Parts accross a Site Collection, and how to implement CSS styles that correspond to the changes to allow TOC Web Parts to be rendered with the modified styles. 

Download sample image set and style sheets for TOCWPs
Customise the Table of Contents Web Part styles with background images and and alternate theme.  Download a sample image set and corresponding style sheets to apply customised styles to one or many Table of Contents Web Parts.

How to Customise All Table Of Contents Web Parts in a Site Collection
How to modify default style classes, and/or the default XSL style sheet used by Table Of Contents Web Parts accross an entire Site Collection.  Override or replace default styles used by a TOCWP, then apply the styles to a globally available style sheet for use by any Table of Contents Web Part in a Site Collection.

See Customize TOC Web Part CSS for details.

Customize TOC Web Part CSS

How to override default CSS styles/classes for one or more TOC Web Part in SharePoint
How to override CSS classes used by one or many Table of Contents web Parts (TOCWP) without affecting the default classes or XSL stylesheets.  Using CSS, the styles of one or more TOC Web Parts can be customised by overriding the default classes and styles.  By placing styles direcly into a page, or attaching a stylesheet with the updated classes to the page containing a TOCWP, the default classes can be overridden when the updated classes have the same name.  This can be utilised to allow customisation of the TOCWP without haveing to modify core functionality or style sheets (core.css).

How to customise CSS styles of a single Table of Contents Web Part on a specific page
How to customise a single or specific set of Table of Contents Web Parts, but not others that may exist in a SharePoint site collection.  By Attaching an additional style sheet to a page containing a TOCWP, or by including styles directly in the page allows the TOCWP to be cusomised without having to modify core styles.

How to apply additional Styles to a SharePoint Site, Page or existing CSS Style Sheet
How to incorporate a new stylesheet into a SharePoint site or page.  There are a number of methods available for incorporating styles into a page on SharePoint, including associating the stylesheet as the style sheet to be used by the SharePoint Site, attaching an additional style sheet to a page using SharePoint Designer, or by including the CSS classes in a style tag in the head section of a specific page.

What CSS Classes Does a TOCWP Use by Default
How do I know which CSS classes to make changes to in order to customise a specific presentation layout for a Table of Contents Web Part?  The following provides a table containing the main classes and elements used to render a TOCWP.  The classes can be overridden or replaced with new ones to allow Table Of Contents Web Part styles to be customised.

How to differentiate the styles between the Horrizontal & Vertical presentation Layouts
Many of the Horizontal and Vertical presentation layouts available for a Table of Contents web Part are shared with other presentation layouts, making it hard to customise a specific one.  For example, the “Vertical with boxed title” and “Horizontal with boxed title” layouts both use the same class for the outer div container and title text.  Overriding CSS styles for one of these presentation layouts will affect TOCWPs on the page with wither of the two layouts.  To differentiate styles between the Vertical / Horizontal layouts (or any others), the XSL style sheet used to define elements and CSS classes for TOC Web Parts needs to be modified to include differentiated classes for the various presentation layouts.

How to include a custom background image for Table Of Contents Web Part Titles using CSS
How to override or replace the default classes used by a Table of Contents Web Part to incorporate background images and an alternate layout.  How to incorporate background images and CSS into a page or style sheet so that they are available to all TOCWP that require the new styles.

Free example image set and styles for Table of Contents Web Part
Download a free example image set for use as background and bullet images for a Table of Contents web Part.  Style Sheets are included to allow default classes to be overridden or replaced with new styles.

Incorporate company Branding into TOCWP Styles
Customise the CSS styles and classes used by a Table of Contents Web Part to include Company Branding.  Apply company branding and theme (fonts, colours, images) into a TOCWP in SharePoint.

See Customize TOC Web Part CSS for details.

SharePoint InfoPath Forms

InfoPath forms can be a powerful tool for collecting organising, processing and submitting data of various types. Data Connections allow an infoPath Form to pull data from multiple data sources, including sharePoint. SharePoint InfoPath Forms can provide a rich interface and additional functionality when manipulating data in SharePoint lists and libraries than when using OOB browser forms.

When using InfoPath to open and complete forms, complex priocessing can be performed without impacting on performance of the SharePoint server as the procing is done by the client. Using SharePoint InfoPath Forms as an Interface to control workflow can provide greater functionality and control over the workflow process. Using an infoPath form to submit data to SharePoint lists can allows data from multiple lists to be updated once processed.

SharePoint InfoPath Forms

SharePoint XSL String Replacement Function
Using a custom XSL template with a Data View web part, a Lookup column in SharePoint which allows multiple selections can be used to replace ; with a new line and bullet.  The following article describes how to use a custom XSL template in a Data View Web Part to create the equivalent to an XSL string replace function which then splits and formats the string of multiple selections, delimited with a semicolon (;).

SharePoint XSL String Replacement Function

A tutorial for creating Data Views for a list in SharePoint that are formatted based on each item\’s meta data. This can be used to create views that visually represent task priority or due dates by setting font or table row background colors. SharePoint Designer conditional formatting is used to format items and backgrounds colors based on the length of time until due or the priority.

SharePoint Data View Conditional Formatting using SharePoint Designer
A tutorial for creating Data Views for a list in SharePoint that are formatted based on each item ’s meta data. This can be used to create views that visually represent task priority or due dates by setting font or table row background colors. SharePoint Designer conditional formatting is used to format items and backgrounds colors based on the length of time until due or the priority.

When the due date is overdue, the task is displayed in red, or can have a red background for the row. When the due date is 1 day from the current date, the item is orange, and so on.

The same concept can be applied using the value selected in the Priority field of each task in the task list to format the background or text of each item.

When the conditional formatting is combined with sort criteria using the same Priority or Due Date field, the result is a view of the task list which easy to read and understand, and can also improve the overall aesthetics if the color scheme is selected appropriately.