iMadalina on .Life

Nu sunt bona. Telul meu cand ma trezesc dimineata nu este sa te sterg la popou toata ziua.

When you need to build a custom list in SharePoint, there are a few things you need to know, apart from the procedure of putting some files of code together.

The first important thing is that the Title property of a list item can never be removed - it can be hidden, made optional, but not deleted.
The second thing is that the Title field is the only field that has the context menu - this menu cannot be attached to any other field.
And the third thing is that you can use the Title field to your advantage - change its display name and some other properties that you need, and create a field that benefits of the context menu and that also fits into your list. The thing to remember is that the NAME of the field will remain “Title”, only the Displayed Name has been made custom.

To benefit of the custom menu, there are 3 things you should make sure to add in your schema.xml file:
1. the Title field declaration ( with its original ID and the Display Name customized - or not ):

<Field ID=”{fa564e0f-0c70-4ab9-b863-0177e6ddd247}” Name=”Title” DisplayName=”My Field” Sealed=”TRUE” Type=”Text” />

2. the LinkTitle and LinkTitleNoMenu elements (which are the declarations of the contextual menu and link item respectively) with the Display Name changed accordingly:

<Field Name=”LinkTitle” ID=”{82642ec8-ef9b-478f-acf9-31f7d45fbc31}” DisplayName=”My Field” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3″/>
<Field Name=”LinkTitleNoMenu” ID=”{bc91a437-52e7-49e1-8c4e-4698904b2b6d}” DisplayName=”My Field” SourceID=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3” />

3. and last but no least, the thing that does the trick - add the LinkTitle element to the Views in the schema.xml file, leaving the Title field out:

<ViewFields>
<FieldRef Name=”LinkTitle” />
… other fields, NOT Title

</ViewFields>

You will now benefit of the contex menu on your custom Title field.

Productive coding!

Moving to a new city or living in a city by choice is one of the most important decisions that we can make. And when this decision is a must, we need not only take into consideration the practical aspects of the matter - like the job that we have there or how expensive life is. One thing that no one almost ever considers is the rhythm of the city and the fact that this rhythm will take charge of our life once we relocate to the city.

Even though you haven’t studied Probabilities during 3 years at university like I did :|, you already know that the Rule of Majority always applies. In our case this rule will not be ignored: the majority of choices that the majority of inhabitants of the city make now, you will also make. There’s no escape.

If the majority of inhabitants of the city are stuck in traffic for 2 hours in the morning and another 2 in the evening, so will you. This is, of course, obvious. Some less obvious but not less painful aspects are:
- if the majority work from 9 to 7, so will you
- if the majority don’t do anything but sleep when they get home in the evening, so will you
- if the majority’s only way to enjoy themselves is to shop, so will you
- if the majority eat fast food at the office, so will you
- if the majority never go for a walk in the park, neither will you
- if the majority are influenced by what they see in TV and that only, so will you be

Some of these “rules” will take longer to take over your life, but they will also do that slower, and so you will not be able to tell that they did when it happens.
The world’s and a country’s biggest cities all obey the rule. Take a minute and think about it - think of a city (other than your own) and try to identify its rhythm. As this city has a rhythm and a life pattern, so does your own.

Yes, of course you can try to live “outside the box” in a city. And you can even succeed. Not in all aspects though – because the offer obeys the Majority Rule also and fits the requirements of the majority. But you can struggle and succeed. The question is – how long can you struggle? In the end you will give up waking up at 6 to avoid traffic, or driving across town to find that Bio store you like, or paying a lot of money on books and DVDs for entertainment and you will give in… to the city.

But why should we struggle? We can avoid all the pain and no gain just by making the right choice from the start.

Look closely at the lives of the inhabitants of a new city – are they what you would like? In every little detail?
Because when it comes to living in a city, believing in your abilities to be the ONE that can escape the rhythm is an overrated thing.

Problem: a SharePoint skin with a dark background color. All the ActiveX controls (multiple file upload, Datasheet view) inherit the background color.

Solution: to keep the background you want, but not affect the ActiveX controls, include this fix:

body
{
background-color: white;
}
form#aspnetForm
{
background-color:#YOUR_DARK_COLOR#;
height:100%;
}

I found this extremely useful tip here.

To laugh at oneself is a good thing, that only intelligent people can do. As SharePoint developers, we are proud to also be able to laugh at our behavior, geekines and well… lives Here is one of the 40 jokes that Paul Swider gathered on his blog:

Q: How many SharePoint consultants does it take screw in a light bulb?
A: 100. 1 to do, 99 to say they could do it better.

Respectul este un sentiment reciproc. Nu o linie verticala cu sageata numai in capatul de sus.

If you wonder how SharePoint 2010 is like, Microsoft has given you the opportunity to have (some of) your questions answered. A sneak peak is available, through a presentation of the features that SharePoint 2010 together with Visual Studio 2010 and LINQ offer for SharePoint development.
  
The information is structured in 3 categories - Overview, IT Professional and Developer - so that you can choose what you want/need to know.