Output Raw XML from New Content By Search Web Part

Following this blog post in an attempt to reuse some custom XML developed for SharePoint 2010, I ran into a problem with this technique for outputting raw XML from search in SharePoint 2013.  It seems other have had the same issue.

This is what I came up with to help.  It's not pretty or perfect, but it'll do for now and gives a "decent" picture of what's going on in the XML.

<xsl:stylesheet version='1.0' xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'>
    <xsl:template match='/'>
        <xsl:apply-templates />
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="ResultTable">
        <h1>ResultTable</h1>
        <xsl:call-template name="out">
            <xsl:with-param name="in" select="ResultTable" />
        </xsl:call-template>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="Rows" />
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="Rows">
        <h1>Rows</h1>
        <xsl:call-template name="out">
            <xsl:with-param name="in" select="Rows" />
        </xsl:call-template>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="Row" />
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match='Row'>
        <h1>Row</h1>
        <xsl:call-template name="out">
            <xsl:with-param name="in" select="Row" />
        </xsl:call-template>
    </xsl:template>
   
    <xsl:template name="out">
        <xsl:param name="in" />

        <table style="border: 1px solid #000;">
            <xsl:for-each select="*">
                <tr>
                    <td style="border: 1px solid #000;">
                        <xsl:value-of select="name()" />
                    </td>
                    <td style="border: 1px solid #000;">
                        <xsl:value-of select="." />
                    </td>
                </tr>
            </xsl:for-each>
        </table>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

A Poor Man's Date Filter Web Part

Recently, I was asked to create a date filter to give users an easy mechanism to filter down some data in a list.

Normally, I'd create myself a view on the list then edit the page and add a date filter web part.  At that point, all you have to do is wire up the date filter and the list view web parts and you're done (see this article for more information).

That's all fine and dandy if you've got the SharePoint Enterprise license.  All of the filter web parts are in the Enterprise feature.  What if you don't have Enterprise?  Am I out of luck?

Absolutely not.  Instead of the Date Filter Web Part, why not slap on a Form Web Part?  This little guy lets you define your own HTML to filter with.  Need a text box?  Great.  Need a check box, dropdown list, ...?  Great.  Need a calendar?  Uhm...wait, there's no easy HTML control for a date picker.

Ah, but you're in SharePoint.  SharePoint has date pickers all over the place.  An easy way to toss one on a page is to add a Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.DateTimeControl server control to it.  If we can figure out what that control adds to the page, we're golden.

Modify the Form Web Part and add the below HTML to the Source Editor.  The text is red is what renders the date picker functionality onto the page.

<div onkeydown="javascript:if (event.keyCode == 13) _SFSUBMIT_">
  <SCRIPT language='javascript' src='/_layouts/datepicker.js'></SCRIPT>
  <SCRIPT language='javascript'>var g_strDateTimeControlIDs = new Array();</SCRIPT>
  <SCRIPT language='javascript'>g_strDateTimeControlIDs[""] = "ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_Date";</SCRIPT>
  <input name="ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ctl00$Date" type="text" maxlength="45" id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_Date" class="ms-input" AutoPostBack="0" />
  <A href="#" onclick='clickDatePicker("ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_Date", "\u002f_layouts\u002fiframe.aspx?&cal=1&lcid=1033&langid=1033&ww=0111110&fdow=0&fwoy=0&hj=0&swn=False&minjday=109207&maxjday=2666269&date=", ""); return false;' >
    <IMG id=ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_DateDatePickerImage src="/_layouts/images/calendar.gif" border="0" alt="Select a date from the calendar."></IMG>
  </A>
  <IFRAME id=ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_DateDatePickerFrame SRC="/_layouts/images/blank.gif" FRAMEBORDER=0 SCROLLING=no style="DISPLAY:none;POSITION:absolute; width:200px; Z-INDEX:101;" title="Select a date from the calendar."></IFRAME>
  <input type="button" value="Go" onclick="javascript:_SFSUBMIT_"/>
  <input type="button" value="Reset" onclick="javascript:_SFRESET_"/>
</div>

Awesome!  Now we've got a date picker in our Form Web Part.  All that's left is to wire it up to our list view web part the same way we always did.

Remove Default SharePoint Web Part CSS - Part 2

A post is long over due.  I wanted to revisit this topic for two reasons.  It was my first post ever, and according to best practices, this is not (necessarily) what you should do to remove SharePoint CSS classes from your custom developed web part.

If you follow best practices, you should not be inheriting from Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart.  According to SDK, "this class exists primarily for the purpose of backward compatibility, and secondarily, to provide a small set of features that are not available in the ASP.NET web part class."

The UseDefaultStyles Property, unfortunately, is available only in the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart class and not in the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart class (the class you should really be using 99% of the time).

So...how do I fix my cumbersome SharePoint default CSS for my System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart inherited class?!  This is what I came up with.

public class NoCssWebPart : System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart

{
      protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
      {

            base.OnInit(e);

            // No default styles
            if (this.Zone != null && this.Zone.WebPartChrome != null)
            {
                  SPChromeSettings chromeSettings = ((SPChrome)this.Zone.WebPartChrome).GetSPChromeSettings(this);
                  chromeSettings.UseDefaultStyles = false;
            }
      }
}

Search Core Results Web Part Doesn't Display Managed Property

Everything is set up right.  I've followed articles like this, or maybe this.  I've full crawled a million times, but I still can't get my managed property to display in the search core results web part.

First, double check search is crawling your content properly.  Go to Search administration -> Metadata properties and click the name of your metadata property.  There's a section here labeled 'Content using this property'.  'Number of items found using this property' obviously should not be zero.  If it is, take a look your managed property configurations.  Also, confirm you've actually set the value somewhere in your site and, if in a publishing environment, make sure everything is published and approved.

Second, go to the search box in the site and search for MetadataField:AValueYouKnowExists.  The results should be as expected.  Items with your MetadataField = AValueYouKnowExists should appear in the results.

Lastly, double check the Search Core Results XSLT.  Make sure you've got the proper <Column Name="MetadataField"/> tag.  Also, make sure you're using the right metadata property name in the <xsl:value-of> tag.  This tag is case sensitive.  If you don't get the case right, it's not going to work.  The easiest way to check the case is to edit the Search Core Results web part and put <xmp><xsl:copy-of select="*"/></xmp> into the section labeled <xsl:template match="Result">.  This is going to display all the XML nodes and the values contained in the results.  Refresh your MetadataField:AValueYouKnowExists search and look for your metadata property.

Remove Default SharePoint Web Part CSS

**UPDATE: See this revision.

It’s always been a struggle for me to style a web part in SharePoint because of the default Microsoft classes that get added (i.e. .ms-WPBody a:link, .ms-WPBody a:visited, blah, blah, blah).  These stylings are annoying and difficult to override because they’re directly on the web part and sometimes replace general site CSS.

Well…just turn them off.

For the DataViewWebPart...

<SharePoint:DataFormWebPart runat=”server” NoDefaultStyle=”true” …>

</SharePoint:DataFormWebPart>

(This also works for the CoreResultsWebPart as it’s essentially just a DVWP).

If you're creating your own web part...

public class NoCssWebPart : WebPart

{

      public NoCssWebPart()

     {

          this.UseDefaultStyles = false;

     }

}

References:

DataViewWebPart.NoDefaultStyle Property 

WebPart.UseDefaultStyles Property