Microsoft SharePoint Online Developer’s Guide 8.

4 Release

Microsoft SharePoint Online Developer Guide

Published: December 2008

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Microsoft SharePoint Online Developer’s Guide 8.4 Release

Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice.
Unless otherwise noted, the companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places,
and events depicted in examples herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product,
domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred. Complying with all
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furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual
property.
© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Excel, InfoPath, JScript, MSN, SharePoint, SQL Server, Visual C#, Visual Studio, and Windows are trademarks
of the Microsoft group of companies.
All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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Contents

1 Getting Started ....................................................................................................................... 6

1.1 Welcome to the Microsoft SharePoint Online Developer’s Guide ............................................................. 6

1.2 About SharePoint Online ............................................................................................................................... 6

1.3 How SharePoint Online Works ..................................................................................................................... 6

1.4 Features of SharePoint Online ...................................................................................................................... 7

Comparison of SharePoint Online Standard and Dedicated Offerings...................................................................... 7

1.5 SharePoint Online Standard Features at a Glance...................................................................................... 8

1.6 Capabilities and Limitations of SharePoint Online ..................................................................................... 9

1.6.1 Customization Capabilities .......................................................................................................................... 9
1.6.2 Customization Limitations ........................................................................................................................... 9

1.7 Solution Scenario .......................................................................................................................................... 10

2 Creating SharePoint Online Sites ...................................................................................... 11

2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 11

2.2 Selecting a Default Site Template................................................................................................................ 11

2.2.1 Differences between SharePoint Online and Office SharePoint Server ..................................................... 11
2.2.2 Collaboration Site Templates ..................................................................................................................... 12
2.2.3 Meetings Workspaces ................................................................................................................................ 13
2.2.4 Application Templates ............................................................................................................................... 13

2.3 Creating a Site Collection from the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center (MOAC) ........ 16

2.4 Creating a Custom Site Template ............................................................................................................... 21

2.5 Installing a Site Template ............................................................................................................................ 24

2.6 Removing a Site Template ........................................................................................................................... 25

2.7 Creating a New Site Using a Site Template ................................................................................................ 25

2.8 Example: Creating a New Site when Initiating a New Project ................................................................. 26

2.9 Example: Creating Blogs for the Knowledge Base in the Portal .............................................................. 27

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3 Customizing SharePoint Online Applications .................................................................. 28

3.1 About Customizing SharePoint Online Applications ................................................................................ 28

3.2 Customizing Through the Browser ............................................................................................................. 28

3.2.1 Applying Themes ....................................................................................................................................... 28

3.3 Customizing Master Pages Using SharePoint Designer 2007 ................................................................... 29

3.3.1 Creating a Minimal Master Page ................................................................................................................ 29
3.3.2 Creating a Master Page from the Default Master ....................................................................................... 35

3.4 Customizing Page Layouts........................................................................................................................... 37

3.4.1 Opening a Page Layout for Editing ............................................................................................................ 37
3.4.2 Adding Custom Content to a Page Layout ................................................................................................. 38
3.4.3 Inserting a Content Field ............................................................................................................................ 39

3.5 Customizing Cascading Style Sheets ........................................................................................................... 39

3.5.1 Applying a Custom Style Sheet to a SharePoint Online Site ..................................................................... 40
3.5.2 Example: Changing the Background Color of the Page Using CSS Tools in SharePoint Designer 2007 . 43

3.6 Managing Site Navigation in SharePoint Online Site ................................................................................ 45

3.6.1 Navigation Editing and Sorting .................................................................................................................. 45

3.7 Example: Designing the Home Page ........................................................................................................... 48

3.7.1 Example: Changing the Banner Image ....................................................................................................... 50
3.7.2 Example: Customizing the Home Page Navigation Bar ............................................................................ 51
3.7.3 Example: Adding Custom CSS to the Master Page ................................................................................... 52

4 Using a Data Form Web Part in SharePoint Online Applications.................................. 53

4.1 About the Data Form Web Part .................................................................................................................. 53

4.1.1 Creating a Data Form Web Part Using SharePoint Designer ..................................................................... 53

4.2 Examples: Adding, Editing, Deleting, Sorting, and Filtering List Items Using the Data Form Web
Part 55

4.3 Sorting and Grouping Data in a Data View ............................................................................................... 60

4.4 Applying Conditional Formatting to a Data View ..................................................................................... 60

4.5 Connecting Form Web Part to another Web part ..................................................................................... 61

4.6 Example: Integrating Microsoft Live Search Web Service Using the Form Web Part.......................... 62

4.7 Example: Adding Page Numbers to a Data Form Web Part .................................................................... 74

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5 Using SharePoint Online Web Services ............................................................................. 77

5.1 List of Available SharePoint Online Web Services .................................................................................... 77

5.2 List of Unsupported SharePoint Online Web Services ............................................................................. 81

5.3 Example: Displaying All List Names from a SharePoint Online Site Collection .................................... 84

5.4 Example: Fetching List Collection Data from an SharePoint Online Site............................................... 89

5.5 Example: Fetching List Items from a SharePoint Online Site.................................................................. 93

6 Integrating Microsoft Silverlight with a SharePoint Online Page .................................. 97

6.1 Example: Using Silverlight to Fetch Data from a SharePoint Online Site Using Web Services ............ 97

7 Workflows Using SharePoint Designer ........................................................................... 108

7.1 About Workflows........................................................................................................................................ 108

7.2 Creating a No-Code Workflow Using SharePoint Designer ................................................................... 108

7.3 Collecting Data from the User and Processing It in the Workflow ........................................................ 113

7.4 Example: Send a SOW Document to the Project Manager for Review ................................................. 127

8 Index ................................................................................................................................... 131

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1 Getting Started
1.1 Welcome to the Microsoft SharePoint Online Developer’s
Guide
This guide describes the services that Microsoft® SharePoint® Online (standard offering)
provides developers to start working with SharePoint Online. This guide also contains
conceptual overviews and detailed information about the features that SharePoint Online
supports.
In this guide you will learn about:
Getting started with SharePoint Online
Understanding SharePoint Online offerings
Creating SharePoint Online sites
Installing site templates
Customizing SharePoint Online applications
Integrating live data into SharePoint Online
Using SharePoint Online Web Services
Creating custom no-code workflows in SharePoint Online
Extending SharePoint Online with Microsoft Silverlight

1.2 About SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online, built on top of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007,
provides a single, integrated location where users can efficiently collaborate
on tasks such as finding organizational resources, searching a site, managing
content and workflow, and leveraging business insight to make better-
informed decisions.
SharePoint Online enables the users to easily create and manage custom and
project-focused sites for collaboration including document sharing.
Microsoft handles setup, provisioning, ongoing maintenance, and upgrades.
This reduces the workload on your IT resources and helps them work on core
strategic initiatives that help you to move your business forward.

1.3 How SharePoint Online Works

SharePoint Online simplifies IT management by removing the need to deploy, configure,
monitor, update, or upgrade a collaboration solution on premises. From the Microsoft
Online Services Administration Center, IT administrators can create new sites and
provide access to specific users. SharePoint Online utilizes redundant and

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geographically dispersed data centers. Each data center houses a reliable and
redundant infrastructure to support the service. SharePoint Online offers you a
comprehensive set of functionalities spread across the portal, collaboration, search,
content management, and business process forms. With SharePoint Online, your
enterprise can be up and running quickly.

1.4 Features of SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online provides the following features:
Use of https for secure Internet access
Standard templates including wikis, blogs, and surveys
SharePoint Online site creation with online discussion areas, shared
documents and meeting workspaces, document libraries with version control,
and surveys
Off-the-shelf content management features for documents and Web content
Ability to create custom workflows from standard workflow activities and
actions with Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer
Site-wide search capability
E-mail alerts when documents and information have been changed or added
to a site
Sign In application provides single-sign-in capability
Built-in recycle bin
Simple per-user monthly fee
99.9% scheduled uptime with financially secured service level agreements
All upgrades and maintenance handled transparently
Web form and round-the-clock phone-based tier-2 support for IT
administrators

Comparison of SharePoint Online Standard and Dedicated

Offerings

Standard Offering Dedicated Offering

Multiple customers share a common Each customer has its own infrastructure
infrastructure
Customer priority: rapid deployment Customer priority: heavy customization
No lower seat limit For customers with more than 5000 seats
Cost efficiency optimized for Optimized for customers with 20,000+ users
customers with up to 20,000 users

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1.5 SharePoint Online Standard Features at a Glance

Online &
Server

Server Only

Portal Collaboration Content Search Business Business

Management Process Intelligence
Forms
RSS content All standard Business Security Forms Integrated
syndication templates document People search libraries business
Privacy and Wikis workflow Business data Out-of-the- intelligence
security Blogs support search box dashboards
Audience People and Document Enterprise workflows Key
targeting (by group lists information content Custom no- performance
group only) Calendars panel sources code indicators
Site and E-mail Document Cross site- workflows Filter Web
document integration action bar collection Custom code Parts
aggregation Task Retention and search workflows Integrated
Site Manager coordination auditing policies Administration Browser- flexible
Mobile Surveys Navigation and based forms spreadsheet
device Document controls management Centralized publishing
support collaboration Content Indexing forms Sharing,
Portal site Issue tracking authoring controls management managemen
templates Social Page layouts and control t, and
SharePoint Networking Site variations Design once control of
Sites and Web Part Content development spreadsheet
Documents Mail-enabled publishing and model s
Roll-up Web lists deployment Form Import Web-based
Parts Real-time Content Wizard business
Client presence and management Integrated intelligence
integration communicatio site templates deployment using
Integration n Policies, model for no- Microsoft
with auditing, and code forms Office
Microsoft compliance Compatibility Excel®
Office Records Checker services
SharePoint repository Data
Designer E-mail content connection
(except site as records libraries
backup and Legal holds Business
restore) Integration with Data
My Site Microsoft Catalog
personal site information Business
Site Directory rights data Web
User profiles management Parts

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and the (IRM) Business

profile store WYSIWIG Web data actions
Colleagues content editor Report
and Content staging Center
Memberships Slide libraries
Web Parts Document
management
site templates
High-fidelity
Web sites with
consistent
branding

1.6 Capabilities and Limitations of SharePoint Online

The standard version provides many of the features you expect from Office SharePoint
Server, such as document sharing, collaboration, and workflows. In addition, you can
use Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to design and modify your site’s appearance and
capabilities.

1.6.1 Customization Capabilities

The customization capabilities of SharePoint Online enables the developers and
designers to:
Use Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to create and deploy no-code
workflows, customize content types, taxonomy, and branding via master
pages and layouts. You can also create and deploy site templates.
Use the Data Form Web Part to create applications to mash up, filter, roll up,
and render SharePoint data or data consumed from a Web service such as
RSS feeds in new ways.
Use Microsoft Office InfoPath® to design forms for workflows, provided the
forms contain no custom code.
Use the Office SharePoint Server Web services to access and manipulate
SharePoint data remotely.

1.6.2 Customization Limitations

In the current release of the services, the following actions are not supported:
Use inline code, build coded workflows, or develop Office InfoPath forms with
coded business logic.
Deploy features, solutions, pluggable authentication providers, Web Parts, site
definitions, or other modifications that require deployment and configuration
on the server.
Modify built-in SharePoint files, web.config settings, security policy, and other
elements.

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Make configuration changes that affect the Web server or the Microsoft .NET
Framework.
Make changes or add capabilities that require a custom database or changes
to the database schema.

1.7 Solution Scenario

This solution scenario is used in the examples in this guide.
Software service programs are often carried out in multiple locations to leverage skills
and cost structures. The key concern is the visibility of the operations, status, and teams
across time zones collaborating more effectively, to the project and program governance
boards.
The CEO of Contoso would like to see the status of all the projects that Contoso is
handling, along with the exceptions and the audit reports. He can provide his vision to all
the teams and can drill into individual projects in case he needs more information.
The program manager in Contoso is handling multiple projects and has a team working
under him that is placed in various locations in the region. The program manager would
like to see project health indicators and detailed status reports for each project. He
would also like to ensure that there is learning and knowledge transfer among teams.
He also performs a set of activities such as initiating new projects, tracking project
status, and identifying issues. Because he is also the member of the administrator
group, he can perform certain administrator-related activities and has full control of his
project space.
The project status will be updated by the project managers, who are working on
individual projects and are also responsible for project artifacts, governance reports, and
minutes. In addition to resource management, the project manager will also manage
issues, risks, and schedules. He will be responsible for project artifacts that include
project-specific documents containing statements of work (SOW), software requirement
specifications (SRS), design documents (high-level, detailed), and governance artifacts
such as reports and minutes of meetings.
A knowledge base is a reservoir of information that contain links to blogs and a
document store. The document store contains such materials as standard documents,
best practices, and process documents.
The software quality assurance team and an architect will be responsible for the process
and the technical content in the document store at the program level.
For this solution scenario, Contoso developed a collaboration portal using SharePoint
Online and Microsoft Exchange Online.

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2 Creating SharePoint Online Sites

2.1 Introduction
A Site Collection is a set of web sites on a web server, all of which have the same owner
and share administration settings. Each site collection contains exactly one top-level
Web site, and can also contain one or more subsites. There can be multiple site
collections on each Web server.
A subsite is a complete Web site stored in a named subdirectory of the top-level Web
site. Each subsite can have administration, authoring, and browsing permissions that are
independent from the top-level Web site and other subsites. A subsite can also have
subsites of its own. Because every site below the top-level site is actually a subsite,
each subsite is generally called simply a site.
Application template addresses a business scenario and provides a base of functionality
that can be either used directly out of the box, or customized for company specific
needs.
Custom templates are a way of packaging up a set of changes to an existing site
definition and making those available for new sites and lists. Every custom template is
based on a site definition. Custom templates are stored in the database and are made
available through the central template gallery or through site collection template
galleries.

2.2 Selecting a Default Site Template

The site templates included in Microsoft SharePoint Online contain pages, lists, libraries,
and other elements or features that support a wide range of specific content publishing
and content management designed to meet the requirements of your organization.
The standard site templates available in SharePoint Online applications are grouped into
the following categories:
Collaboration
Meetings
Custom

2.2.1 Differences between SharePoint Online and Office SharePoint

Server
SharePoint Online doesn’t have a global site template library. Therefore you
cannot create site collections from a custom site template. Because new site
collections for SharePoint Online are created in the Microsoft Online Services
Administration Center, only the default options are available. However, you
can create subsites for SharePoint Online that use the custom templates.

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In this release of SharePoint Online, Server Admin templates are not

supported, nor are any other custom templates that require adding code on
the server side.

2.2.2 Collaboration Site Templates

The site templates in the collaboration group are designed to help the teams within an
organization to work together on projects, collaborate on documents, and share
information.

Team Site: Select this site template to create a site that teams can use to
create, organize, and share information. The template includes a document
library, an announcements list, a calendar, a contacts list, and a links list by
default.
Blank Site: Select this site template to create a site with a blank home page
that you want to customize. The template includes a site image Web Part and
tools to insert other Web Parts. This template is useful when you do not want
to use any of the existing templates, Web Parts, lists, or libraries as a starting
point.
Document Workspace: Select this site template to create a site that will help
you coordinate the development of one or more related documents with other
people. This site template provides tools to share and update files, and to
keep people informed about the status of the files. It includes a document
library, an announcements list, a tasks list, a members list, and a links list.
Wiki Site: Select this site template to create a site where the users can
quickly and easily add, edit, and link Web pages. This site template includes
wiki pages, a links list, and a wiki page library.
Blog: Select this site template to create a site where the users can post
information quickly and allow people to comment on it. Sometimes known as
weblogs, blogs are online journals where you can share your ideas quickly in
an informal, chronological format.

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This site template includes a posts list for storing blog posts, a blogs list for
links to other blogs, a categories list, a comments list, a links list for links to
related resources, a photo library, and tools to manage your posts and other
resources.

2.2.3 Meetings Workspaces

The site template in the meetings group is designed to help teams within an organization
to manage basic types of meetings. There is one template in the meetings group.

Basic Meeting Workspace: Select this site template to create a site that will
help you plan, organize, and track your meetings with the rest of your team.
The template includes an objectives list, an attendees list, an agenda, and a
document library.

2.2.4 Application Templates

Microsoft has developed forty application templates that can be downloaded at no extra
charge. Each application template addresses a business scenario and provides a base
of functionality that can be either used directly out of the box, or customized for company
specific needs. These custom templates (*.stp files) are site templates that are easy for
any site administrator to install in the template gallery without requiring server
administration access.

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Note: SharePoint Online is not installed with these custom

templates. You must upload and install each template
yourself. The Custom tab appears only when you have
uploaded at least one custom template to SharePoint Online.

Board of Directors: This application template provides a single location for

an external group of members to store and locate common documents such
as quarterly reviews, shareholder meeting notes, and annual strategy
documents. The template also tracks tasks, issues, and calendar items so that
the board members have a single location from which to view relevant
information.
Business Performance Reporting: This application template helps
organization managers to track customer satisfaction through a combination of
surveys and discussions.
Case Management for Government Agencies: This application template
helps case managers track the status and tasks required to complete their
work. When a case is created, standard tasks and documents are also
created that are modified based on the work that each case manager has
completed.
Classroom Management: This application template helps instructors and
students organize and store information that is related to a particular class.
The template ncludes document libraries to store assignments and lecture
notes as well as calendars and announcement capability to enable
communication from the instructor to students.
Clinical Trial Initiation and Management: This application template helps
teams manage the processes of tracking clinical trial protocols, objective
setting, subject selection, and budget activities.
The site provides useful Microsoft Office Word 2007 templates as well as the
capability to create, track, and assign tasks and issues related to a particular
clinical trial.
Competitive Analysis: This application template helps teams organize
information about competitors and their products.

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The site provides useful 2007 Microsoft Office system documents to help
perform Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis
and make use of other useful competitive analysis techniques. Links to
industry, company, and product news can also be included to provide a single
location for all competitive information.
Discussion Database: This application template provides a location where
team members can create and reply to discussion topics.
Disputed Invoice Management: This application template helps accounts
payable departments track open invoices, along with the potential savings
associated with paying the invoice early.
The site includes useful templates for analyzing the reasons for the invoices
being disputed, as well as tracking whom to contact for more information.
Employee Activities: This application template helps you to manage the
creation and attendance of events for employees.
Activity owners use the site to review proposals for new activities and create
event calendar items. Employees use the site to sign up for activities, as well
as track the activities attended in the past.
Employee Self-Service Benefits: This application template provides tools
for an organization to inform employees about available benefits, as well as
enable them to enroll for each benefit.
Employee Training Scheduling and Materials: This application template
helps instructors and employees manage courses and related materials.
Instructors use the site to add new courses and organize course materials.
Employees use the site to schedule attendance for a course, track courses
they have attended, and provide feedback.
Equity Research: This application template helps teams collaborate on
researching stocks and other equities.
It provides a central location for teams to store documents, post links, track
news, and hold discussions related to the equities that are tracked by the site.
Integrated Marketing Campaign Tracking: This application template helps
marketing managers track the implementation and success of outbound
marketing activities.
The template allows a manager to create marketing activities and track the
results of those activities, such as responses generated and sales completed.
Manufacturing Process Management: This application template helps
teams to model and track manufacturing processes as well as tasks and
issues that arise in the upkeep of these processes.
New Store Opening: This application template helps a team manage the
opening of new store locations or remodeling of an existing store location.

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The site provides a single location to manage tasks, issues, and documents
for all store opening processes, enabling end users to view relevant
information and providing project managers with insight across the entire
project.
Product and Marketing Requirements Planning: This application template
enables teams to manage the process of collecting and documenting
requirements for new products.
The site provides several 2007 Office system templates for providing useful
techniques for marketing, product, and steering committee actions as well as
a template for meeting notes and financial information.
Request for Proposal: This application template helps manage the process
of creating and releasing an initial request for proposal (RFP), collecting
submissions of proposals, and formally accepting the selected proposal from
among those submitted.
The site also helps simplify the process of notifying individuals about the
status of the RFP and submitted proposals.
Sports League: This application template helps an intracompany league
administrator manage a baseball league.
The site tracks team information, players, captains, and scheduled team
activities such as games, practices, and social events. The site also enables
discussions between league members through a league discussion board.
Team Work: This application template provides a place where project teams
can upload background documents, track scheduled calendar events, and
submit action items that result from team meetings.
The site also tracks the creation and purpose of “subteams” and enables
discussion on topics created by members of the team.
Timecard Management: This application template helps teams track hours
spent working on various projects.
The site enables team members to “punch in” on a particular project and
“punch out” when they cease work. The system automatically generates the
time worked by project, and can show managers who is working on a
particular project, total hours versus budgeted time, and the details of who
worked on each project that is entered into the site.

2.3 Creating a Site Collection from the Microsoft Online

Services Administration Center (MOAC)
A SharePoint Online site collection is a hierarchical set of sites that can be managed
together. Sites within a site collection have common features, such as shared
permissions; galleries for templates, content types, and Web Parts; and often a shared
common navigation interface. Site collections can include different types of subsites,
along with team sites, meeting workspaces, document workspaces, blogs, and wikis.

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Administrators of your SharePoint Online service can create organization-wide site

collections. The users can create new subsites within each site collection. To create your
site collections, go to the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center. (A site
collection can only be created via the Administration Center.) Then add users.
To create a site collection through the Administration Center
1. Go to the Administration Center (https://admin.microsoftonline.com).
2. Log on to the Administration Center with administrator credentials.
3. Click the Service Settings tab, and then click the SharePoint Online subtab.

4. In the Site Collections pane, click New.

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5. Under Site Information, enter the information requested. Type a title and the
description for the site collection. Select a template, and then type an e-mail
address to receive access requests and notifications for the site.

6. Under Site Storage Information, choose the amount of storage to allocate to

this collection. When you finish, click Create.
Note: The storage size must be entered as 0.25 or 0.75.
7. On the Confirmation page, click Finish.
To add users
1. Log on to the Administration Center with admin privileges.
The Information tab appears.

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2. In the Actions pane, click Add new user.

The New User Wizard appears.
3. On the General page of the New User Wizard, enter information in the required
fields, and then click Next.

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Note: Fields marked with red asterisks (*) are mandatory.

4. On the Security Settings page, under Do you want this user to have service
administrator permissions?, select Yes if you want to assign service
administrator permissions; otherwise select No (the default).
5. Under Do you want to enable this user’s account?, select Yes (the default).

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2.4 Creating a Custom Site Template

A custom site template is a feature that lets you create multiple sites with a consistent
look and built-in functionality. Application templates described above are also custom
templates. Here we show how to create one such custom template. This feature is
particularly useful when you need to create new client sites quickly and apply updates to
a group of sites. You can create custom SharePoint Online site templates to control the
following:
Style sheets and headers for site administration pages
.aspx program files that you want to include in a site (for example,
default.aspx)
Note: The .aspx pages cannot be used to execute custom server
side code. You can reference existing subjects or add code
that runs on the client.
Web Parts that you want to include on each Web Part page in a site

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Lists and document libraries that you want to create as part of the site
In addition to customizing a site template, you can customize the base .aspx files such
as default.aspx or Allitems.aspx , which are executed when SharePoint Online displays
a site.
The following key steps will help you create a custom site template:
Create a site using any default site template of SharePoint Online. For more
information, see section 2.6, Creating a New Site Using a Site Formatted: Font: Arial, Italic
TemplateCreating a New Site Using a Site Template.
As per your requirements, customize the template: add Web Parts, document
libraries, lists, style sheets, etc, that you want to have as part of the site.
Save the site as a custom site template.
To save the site as a custom site template
1. Open the SharePoint Online site that you have created, using administrator
privileges.
2. On the Site Actions menu, click Site Settings.

3. Under Look and Feel, click Save site as template.

Note: If you do not see Save site as template in the Look and
Feel section, then go to Site Collection feature in the Site
Collection Administration section, deactivate Office
SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure, and then go
to Site features in the Site Administration section, and
deactivate Office SharePoint Server Publishing.
4. In the File Name box, type MainTemplate as the name for the template file.
Note: You can enter a name of your choice.
5. In the Template name and Template description boxes, type
CustomTemplateMain for both the template name and description.
The name and description of this template appear on the Web site template
picker page when users create new Web sites.
6. Clear the Include Content check box, and click OK twice.

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Note: Include content in your template if you want the new Web
sites that were created from this template to include the
contents of all the lists and document libraries in this Web site.
Some customizations, such as custom workflows, are present
in the template only if you choose to include content. Including
content can also increase the size of your template.

7. On the Site Actions menu, click Site Settings.

8. Under Galleries, click Site templates.

9. Click Main Template, which you created in step 4.

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10. In the File Download dialog box, click Save to save a local copy (specify path).

Now this custom site template is ready to be uploaded to the SharePoint Online site.

2.5 Installing a Site Template

To install a site template
1. Log on to the SharePoint Online site as a member of the Owners group.
2. On the Site Actions menu, click Site Settings. (If the publishing feature is
activated, also click Modify All Site Settings.) Note that Publishing needs to be
activated under site collection administration/site collection features and then site
administration/site features in that order.
3. In the Galleries section, click Site templates.
Note: If you do not see Site templates in the Galleries section, you
might not be at a top-level site. In the Site Collection
Administration section, click Go to top-level site
administration.
4. Click Upload to save an application template to this SharePoint Online site.
Note: To upload more than one application template, click Upload
Multiple Files.
5. Click Browse.
The Choose File dialog box opens.
6. Browse to the folder where the template_name.stp file is stored (where
template_name is the name of the relevant template), select the file, and click
Open.
7. Click OK.
The uploaded template appears in the custom group templates list.

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2.6 Removing a Site Template

To remove a site template
1. Log on to the top-level SharePoint Online site as a member of the Owners group.
2. On the Site Actions menu, click Site Settings.
3. In the Galleries section, click Site templates.
4. In the list of site templates, click the application template that you want to
remove, and then click Edit.
5. Confirm that this is the application template to remove, and then click Delete
Item.
6. Click OK to confirm the deletion.
The application template is now unavailable to SharePoint Online sites, and it has been
removed from the SharePoint Online site template gallery.
Note: Because this is a soft deletion, you can click the Recycle Bin
link, select the template, and then either click Restore
Selection to get the template back into the Gallery or click
Delete selection to delete permanently.

2.7 Creating a New Site Using a Site Template

To create a new site, you can use either the default templates that are available in
SharePoint Online or the custom templates that are uploaded to the SharePoint Online
site.
To create a new site
1. Log on to your SharePoint Online site with admin credentials.
2. Click View all Site Content
3. Click Create.
4. Under Web Pages, click Sites and workspaces.
5. On the New SharePoint Site page, fill in the information about your new site.
6. In the Template Selection section, click the Custom tab to use a custom
template, or click the Collaboration or Meetings tab to use a default template.
7. Select a site template that you want to use to create the site.
8. Select a site template that you want to use to create the site.
9. Click Create.

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2.8 Example: Creating a New Site when Initiating a New

Project
When a program manager initiates a new project, the administrator needs to perform
the following steps to create a site for the initiated project.
To create a new site
1. Log on to your SharePoint Online site with admin credentials.
2. Click View all site settings.
3. Click Create.

4. Under Web Pages, click Sites and workspaces.

5. On the New SharePoint Site page, fill in the information about your new site.
6. In the Template Selection section, click the desired template
7. Click Create.

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2.9 Example: Creating Blogs for the Knowledge Base in the

Portal
Using the blogs, users can share any information about their technologies and their
projects. The administrator can create blog sites using the following steps:
To create a blog
1. Log on to the SharePoint Online site as a member of the Owners group.
2. On the Site Actions menu, click Site Settings.
3. In the Site Administration section, click Sites and workspaces.
4. Click Create.
5. On the New SharePoint Site page, fill in the information about your new site.
6. In the Template Selection section, under Select a template, click the
Collaboration tab.
7. Click the Blog template.
8. Click Create.

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3 Customizing SharePoint Online

Applications
3.1 About Customizing SharePoint Online Applications
You can customize Microsoft SharePoint Online sites by adding or removing pages,
changing the appearance of the pages, changing the site navigation, and making other
customizations to fit the user requirements.
You can customize the look and feel of the SharePoint Online applications using:
Site themes
Master pages
Page layouts

3.2 Customizing Through the Browser

You can perform basic customization from within the browser, using links from
the Home, Create, and Site Settings pages of the Web site. From the browser you can
perform basic customizations such as the following:
Add a list.
Change the layout of the home page.
Change the picture on the home page.
Add an out-of-the-box Web Part to a Web Part page.
Change a site's display name (not the URL).

3.2.1 Applying Themes

You can apply themes and borders to your SharePoint Online sites. A theme is a unified
set of design elements and color schemes that give your pages an attractive and
consistent appearance.
A theme changes the appearance of a page. In addition it enables you to do the
following:
Manage the appearance of your pages in one convenient place.
Choose a theme as the default appearance for your SharePoint Online site, to
have the theme applied to all the new and existing pages.
Change or remove the default theme, to have the changes automatically
applied to the entire site.
Apply themes to individual pages.

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3.3 Customizing Master Pages Using SharePoint Designer

2007
Master pages, a Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 feature, lets child pages inherit and reuse a
common design. This makes development and maintenance of the site much easier. For
new pages, you do not have to redo the work that you did in the master page. At the
time of rendering, the page brings in the code from the master so it is always up to date.
Master pages provide a consistent look and feel for all the pages in a SharePoint Online
site. By changing the styles or content of a master page, you can quickly customize the
appearance of an entire site.
A master page (any ASP.NET page with a .master extension) is a template with
placeholders for content. Much like a regular ASP.NET page that invokes user controls
to render content in Microsoft .NET Framework syntax, these placeholders are
implemented using the <ASP:ContentPlaceHolder> tag. Placeholders can be nested, so
that a top-level placeholder may have multiple levels of child placeholders, much as a
parent<div> tag can have many nested child <div> tags.
The master page by itself usually contains very little actual content, other than headers
and navigation. It is just a framework for one or more layout pages that comprise the
body of the page.
You can open the SharePoint Online site in Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007
and edit it there.
The following figure shows the master pages concept.

3.3.1 Creating a Minimal Master Page

A master page contains references to elements that you can share across multiple
pages in an SharePoint Online site. This includes navigation, search controls, logon
controls, and banner images.
A master page can also contain the cascading style sheet (CSS) and ECMAScript (as
well as Microsoft JScript® and JavaScript) references that define the overall look and feel

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of your site. Commonly, every site and therefore every page in your site collection uses
the same master page to present a consistent user experience across the entire site
collection.
Depending on your requirement, you can use a different master page for one or for all of
the sites in your site hierarchy, to distinguish the various areas of your portal.

3.3.1.1 Master Page Galleries

When you provision a site collection in SharePoint Online, the system creates a master
page gallery that contains all the master pages and page layouts for that site collection.
If the site collection uses either the collaboration or meeting workspace templates, the
master page gallery includes several master pages that are provided with SharePoint
Online, such as BlueBand.master.
You can use any of these master pages as they are, or you can customize them fully to
create unique branding for your site.

3.3.1.2 Why Begin with a Minimal Master Page

Creating and completing a master page to begin your SharePoint Online site
customization requires planning and time. This section shows you how to create a
minimal master page that includes only the minimal functionality that SharePoint Online
requires to provide a stable platform on which you can build your own master pages.

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Creating a minimal master page can help you avoid the time-consuming process of
backing code out of a preexisting .master page such as BlueBand.master, or removing
functionality and then rebuilding it when your requirements change.
You can, of course, create a master page from scratch. However, it is not
recommended, because an empty master page does not include all the content
placeholders that the SharePoint Online site page model needs to work correctly.
The sample code in the following procedure includes only the elements that the
SharePoint Online Site page model requires: the necessary content placeholders and
controls to work with the page layouts that are included in a default SharePoint Online
site. The default SharePoint Online site requires a master page that includes a title,
branding, logon functionality, search functionality, breadcrumb functionality, and basic
structural elements such as page areas, separators, borders, consoles, and description
placeholders.
The following procedure uses Office SharePoint Designer 2007 as the master page
design environment. You can, however, use a text editor.
To create a minimal master page
1. Open Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. On the File menu, point to New, and then click SharePoint Content.

3. In the New dialog box, click the Page tab, and then double-click Master Page to
create a new master page.

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4. Click Design to show the master page in design view.

You should see the header, the left margin areas, and the content placeholders
in the master page.
5. Click Code to show the master page in code view.
6. Copy the following code into the master page.
The following code contains:
The necessary namespaces that must be referenced in the master page.
All the necessary content placeholders of the page that you must provide in
the master page.
A content placeholder for the page title, and links to CSS and ECMAScript (or
Microsoft JScript or JavaScript) files that run on the server.

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<%-- Identifies this page as a .master page written in Microsoft Visual C#® and
registers tag prefixes, namespaces, assemblies, and controls. --%>
<%@ Master language="C#" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="SPSWC"
Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls"
Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePoint"
Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint,
Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="WebPartPages"
Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages"
Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="PublishingWebControls"
Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls"
Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="PublishingNavigation"
Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation"
Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="wssuc" TagName="Welcome"
src="~/_controltemplates/Welcome.ascx" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="wssuc" TagName="DesignModeConsole"
src="~/_controltemplates/DesignModeConsole.ascx" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="PublishingVariations" TagName="VariationsLabelMenu"
src="~/_controltemplates/VariationsLabelMenu.ascx" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="PublishingConsole" TagName="Console"
src="~/_controltemplates/PublishingConsole.ascx" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="PublishingSiteAction" TagName="SiteActionMenu"
src="~/_controltemplates/PublishingActionMenu.ascx" %>
<%-- Uses the Microsoft Office namespace and schema. --%>
<html>
<WebPartPages:SPWebPartManager runat="server"/>
<SharePoint:RobotsMetaTag runat="server"/>

<%-- The head section includes a content placeholder for the page title and links to
CSS and ECMAScript (JScript, JavaScript) files that run on the server. --%>
<head runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder runat="server" id="head">
<title>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderPageTitle" runat="server" />
</title>
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>

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<Sharepoint:CssLink runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server" />
</head>

<%-- When loading the body of the .master page, SharePoint Server 2007 also
loads the SpBodyOnLoadWrapper class. This class handles .js calls for the master
page. --%>
<body onload="javascript:_spBodyOnLoadWrapper();">
<%-- The SPWebPartManager manages all of the Web part controls, functionality,
and events that occur on a Web page. --%>
<form runat="server" onsubmit="return _spFormOnSubmitWrapper();">
<wssuc:Welcome id="explitLogout" runat="server"/>
<PublishingSiteAction:SiteActionMenu runat="server"/>
<PublishingWebControls:AuthoringContainer id="authoringcontrols"
runat="server">
<PublishingConsole:Console runat="server" />
</PublishingWebControls:AuthoringContainer>
<%-- The PlaceHolderMain content placeholder defines where to place the page
content for all the content from the page layout. The page layout can overwrite any
content placeholder from the master page. Example: The PlaceHolderLeftNavBar can
overwrite the left navigation bar. --%>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server" />
<asp:Panel visible="false" runat="server">
<%-- These ContentPlaceHolders ensure all default SharePoint Server pages
render with this master page. If the system master page is set to any default master
page, the only content placeholders required are those that are overridden by your
page layouts. --%>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleBreadcrumb" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderPageTitleInTitleArea" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderPageImage" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderBodyLeftBorder" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderNavSpacer" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderTitleLeftBorder" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderTitleAreaSeparator" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderMiniConsole" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderCalendarNavigator" runat ="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderLeftActions" runat ="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderPageDescription" runat ="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderBodyAreaClass" runat ="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleAreaClass" runat ="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderBodyRightMargin" runat="server" />
</asp:Panel>
</form>
</body>
</html>

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Note: You should not delete any of the ContentPlaceHolders

because they ensure that all default Office SharePoint Server
pages render with this master page. If the system master page
is set to any default master page, the only content
placeholders that are required are those that are overridden by
your page layouts. If a specific content placeholder is not
required, instead of deleting, set the visible value to False.
7. On the File menu, click Save As, provide a unique file name with the .master
extension, and then save the file to the master page gallery
(/_catalogs/masterpage) in your site collection.

3.3.2 Creating a Master Page from the Default Master

These are the three key steps to create a simple master page:
Open a SharePoint Online site in Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
Locate and create a copy of the default.master page.
Apply the new master page to content pages in the site.

3.3.2.1 Opening a SharePoint Online Site in Office SharePoint Designer 2007

The first step for creating a simple master page is to open the SharePoint Online site for
which the new master page has to be created.
To open a SharePoint Online site in Office SharePoint Designer 2007
1. Open Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. Click the File menu, and then click Open Site.
The Open Site dialog box appears.
3. Enter the URL. The URL will look like https://contoso1microsoftonlinecom-
7.sharepoint.microsoftonline.com/default.aspx and you can obtain this URL by
going to the appropriate SharePoint page and copying the URL from the address
bar in your browser.
4. and then click Open.

3.3.2.2 Locating and Create a Copy of the default.master Page

By default, a single master page named default.master is applied to all the pages in a
SharePoint Online site. Copying default.master and then modifying the copy is a good
option for creating a new master page. If this default master page already meets the
requirement and only a few changes are required, then the default master page can be
used as it is. The default master page is located in the Master Page Gallery.
To create a copy of the default.master master page
1. In Office SharePoint Designer 2007, locate the master page named
default.master in the Folder List panel.

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The default.master master page is located in the masterpage (Master Page

Gallery) folder, which is located under the _catalogs folder.

2. In the Folder List, right-click default.master, and then click Copy.

3. Right-click the masterpage (Master Page Gallery) folder, and then click Paste.
The new master page is named default_copy(1).master. You can now modify and
rename this page.
Note: When a master page is copied, all content pages that are
attached to the original master page (in this case,
default.master) remain attached to the original master page
and not to the copy. After you copy and customize
default.master, you can apply the new master page to all of
the content pages in the site.

3.3.2.3 Applying the New Master Page

When a new master page is set as the default master page, all of the pages that are
attached to the current master page are also attached to the new master page.
To apply the new master page to the site
1. Open the Folder List panel in Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. Under the _catalogs folder in the Folder List panel, go to the masterpage
(Master Page Gallery) folder.

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3. Right-click the page that will be used as the new master page, and then click Set
as Default Master Page to set the page as the new Site Master Page.
A message appears, noting that any pages that contain content regions that do
not appear in the new default master page will appear broken.
4. If the content regions in the new default master match the content regions in the
site's content pages, click Yes to continue.

3.4 Customizing Page Layouts

Page layouts are page templates that define how a page should look, what page fields
and content fields are available, and exactly which elements should be present on the
page (such as lists and libraries).
Publishing in SharePoint Online site automates the workflow process and makes it easy
to create new pages in the browser, based on a publishing page. After the page has
been created and edited, the content owner submits the page for review. When the
reviewer approves the article and publishes it, the page becomes visible to other users
on the site.
After you create a page layout, you can fully customize it by using Office SharePoint
Designer 2007.

3.4.1 Opening a Page Layout for Editing

All publishing pages in a site are stored in a site-level document library called Pages,
where you can identify which page layout was used to create each page.
To open the Pages document library
1. From your sign in tool, click on the My Company Portal and choose a SharePoint
site.
2. On the Site Actions menu, click View All Site Content, and then click the
Pages document library.
The publishing feature automatically creates the Pages document library, which
contains all of the pages in a site that are created from page layouts. You can
look in the Page Layout column to see the page layout that was used for a
specific page and then click the link to view that page in the browser.
Note: If the Pages document library is not available, on the Site
Actions menu, click Site Settings, and then click Site
Collection Features (in the top-level site). Then activate
Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure
Feature.
3. To open the page layout that you want to customize in Office SharePoint
Designer 2007, use one of the following methods:
Method 1:
a. Open your SharePoint Online site in Office SharePoint Designer 2007. The
URL will look like https://contoso1microsoftonlinecom-

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7.sharepoint.microsoftonline.com/default.aspx and you can obtain this URL by

going to the appropriate SharePoint page and copying the URL from the
address bar in your browser.

b. Double click the page in the Pages document library.

c. When prompted, click Edit Page Layout.

Method 2:
a. From your sign in tool, click on the My Company Portal and choose a
SharePoint site.

b. On the Site Actions menu, click Site Settings.

c. In Site Settings Page, Under Galleries, click Master pages.

d. Click the required page layout, and then click Edit in Office SharePoint
Designer 2007.

3.4.2 Adding Custom Content to a Page Layout

After you open a page layout for editing in Office SharePoint Designer 2007, you can
edit it as you would edit any other page that is attached to a master page. When you add
custom content to a page layout, the content appears on all the publishing pages that
are subsequently created using that page layout.
To add custom content to a page layout
1. With the page layout open in Office SharePoint Designer 2007, click the
placeholder in which you want to add content, click the arrow that appears, and
then click Create Custom Content to unlock the placeholder for editing.

2. Now you can edit this section of the page by using the features that you
commonly use to edit pages. For example, you can use any of the following:
Tables: Click Insert Table on the Table menu to create tables to align
content.
Graphics: Click and drag images from the Images folder to this section of the
page.
Text: Click and then type where you want the text to appear.
Web Part zone: Insert a Web Part zone to give visitors of the page the option
to add or remove Web Parts such as views of document libraries and lists.

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Web Parts: Insert views of document libraries, lists, and more into the page.
3. On the File menu, click Save to save the page.

3.4.3 Inserting a Content Field

You can display information about content (metadata) that you have inserted into a page
layout by using content fields. For example, in a news site, if the page layout includes a
field for the body of the article, you can also insert another field that displays the date
and time when the body of the article was last modified. This is done by adding a content
field to a page layout.
To add a content field to a page layout
1. With the page layout open in Office SharePoint Designer 2007, click the
placeholder in which you want to add content, click the arrow that appears, and
then click Create Custom Content to unlock the placeholder for editing.
Note: When you are creating a table that you want to add to an
existing page, it is sometimes easier to create the table on a
blank page and then copy the table and paste it into the
placeholder on the page where you want to publish it.
By doing this, you can get the format and structure for the
information arranged just the way you want it. Then follow the
rest of these steps to insert the page fields into the allocated
spaces in the table.
2. On the Task Panes menu, click Toolbox.
3. From the Content Fields section, drag the content field that you want to insert
into the editable region.
The control is inserted into the content on the page.
Note: If the toolbox is visible but the items in the Page
Fields section of the toolbox are not visible, you are probably
not editing a page layout. Page Fields and Content Fields
are available only for page layouts.

3.5 Customizing Cascading Style Sheets

Cascading style sheets (CSS) provides one of the best ways to update and customize
the user interface (UI) of a SharePoint Online site. You can create and deploy your own
CSS class by creating a CSS file, through which you can apply styles for images,
background, font, and colors. You can define your own set of classes that are different
from the default CSS that comes with SharePoint Online site. This also isolates your
CSS classes in a separate file, so changes made to the CSS files do not overwrite the
changes you made.
In SharePoint Online, to customize the site UI, you create a CSS file and change the link
of the CSS file in master pages.

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Because there is no access to physical files, you can upload the CSS file to a style
library folder in Office SharePoint Designer 2007, or you can use the browser interface
to apply a customized style sheet and then use it.

3.5.1 Applying a Custom Style Sheet to a SharePoint Online Site

3.5.1.1 Applying a Style Sheet to a Site and All of Its Subsites
If you are working in a SharePoint Online site environment, you can use the browser
interface to apply a customized style sheet to multiple sites in a single operation.
This process takes advantage of a functionality called inheritance. A site can be
configured to inherit the styles used by its parent site.
In the following illustration, the second-level site on the right contains a customized local
version of the default style sheet. Each of the six subsites in that site collection is
configured to inherit its styles from its parent site. Thus, all seven sites in the site
collection use the same customized version of the default style sheet. Arrows indicate
inheritances.

Site collection-wide
default style sheet

Site Customized local

style sheet

Subsite Subsite

Subsite Subsite Subsite Subsite

To apply a customized style sheet to all subsites:

1. In the browser, open the SharePoint Online site in which the customized style
sheet resides.
2. On the Site Actions menu, do one of the following:
Click Site Settings.
Point to Site Settings, and then click Modify All Site Settings.
3. On the Site Settings page, under Look and Feel, click Master page.
4. On the Site Master Page Settings page, in the Alternate CSS URL section,
click Specify a CSS file to be used by this publishing site and all sites that
inherit from it, and then type the full path for the customized style sheet,
including the file name, in the box.

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Note: Because the _styles folder is a hidden folder and cannot be

viewed in the browser, you cannot use the browse (…) button
to find and select a customized version of a style sheet file that
is stored in a _styles folder.
However, you can copy and paste the first part of the path,
including the site name, from the Address box at the top of
the browser. Be sure to stop after the site name, and do not
include any external folder or file names within the site. For
example, if the path in the Address box is
https://SiteName/Subsite_1/_Layouts/
ChangeSiteMasterPage.aspx, copy and paste only the https://
SiteName /Subsite_1/ portion, and then type the rest of the
path manually. (The rest of the path is usually
_styles/customized_style_sheet, where
customized_style_sheet is the name of the customized style
sheet that you want to apply.)
5. Select the Reset all subsites to inherit this alternate CSS URL check box, and
then click OK.
The customized style sheet, which was already applied to the current site, is now
also applied to all of its subsites.
In the following illustration, a second customized local version of the default style sheet
was added to the site collection on the right and applied to all of the subsites of the site
where it resides. Again, arrows indicate inheritance.

Site collection-wide
default style sheet

Site Customized local

style sheet

Customized
Subsite Subsite
local
style sheet

Subsite Subsite Subsite Subsite

3.5.1.2 Configuring a Subsite to Inherit Styles from Its Parent Site

If you are working in a SharePoint Online site environment, you can use the browser
interface to configure a single subsite to inherit the styles that are used by the site
immediately above it, the parent site.
To configure a single subsite to inherit the styles of its parent site:
1. In the SharePoint Online site, open the sub site to which you want to apply the
styles.

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2. On the Site Actions menu, do one of the following:

Click Site Settings.
Point to Site Settings, and then click Modify All Site Settings.
3. On the Site Settings page, under Look and Feel, click Master Page.
4. On the Site Master Page Settings page, in the Alternate CSS URL section,
click Inherit Alternate CSS URL from parent of this site.
5. Select or clear the Reset all subsites to inherit this alternate CSS URL check
box, and then click OK.

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3.5.2 Example: Changing the Background Color of the Page

Using CSS Tools in SharePoint Designer 2007

You can use the CSS tools in Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to identify the
styles used in the master page, and then you can modify those styles. For
example, if you want to change the background color of the page, you should
first identify the styles where the background color is defined, and then
change those styles to apply the required background color.
To change the background color
1. Open Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. On the File menu, click Open Site.
3. Specify your SharePoint Online site name.
4. Click in the default_copy(1).master file where you want to modify the
style.
Note: Some content areas that appear in Design view do
not have styles applied to them, and therefore no
corresponding style appears in the Apply Styles
task pane. For example, if you select a content
placeholder, no style appears in the Apply Styles
task pane. Content placeholders, however, do
appear inside HTML elements such as the <td>
tag.
5. On the Task Panes menu, click Apply Styles.
6. In the Apply Styles task pane, click Options, and then click Show
Styles Used On Selection.
Each style applied to the area where the cursor is located is outlined in blue,
and a preview of the style appears inside the outline.
In the following illustration, div.ms-titleareaframe is selected in Design view.
In the Apply Styles task pane, three styles that are applied to div.ms-
titleareaframe appear. The top style, Div.ms-titleareaframe, defines the
background color.
Note: Because styles are case-sensitive, the uppercase
Div.ms-titleareaframe is different from the
lowercase div.ms-titleareaframe.

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Div.ms-titleareaframe is selected in Design view.

The three styles applied to div.mstitleareaframe appear in the
Apply Styles task pane.
7. Right-click the style that you want to modify, and then click Select All
X Instance(s), where X is the number of instances in which the style
is applied on the page. For this example, right-click the top style,
Div.ms-titleareaframe.
8. After you select all instances of the style, right-click the style again,
and then click Modify Style.
9. In the Modify Style dialog box, make the changes that you want, and
then click OK.
To follow the example, in the Modify Style dialog box, under
Category, click Background. In the background-color list, click
Blue, and then click OK.
The new style is applied to the page. Continue modifying the styles
until the master page looks the way you want it to appear.

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3.6 Managing Site Navigation in SharePoint Online Site

Links for navigation (called navigation items) appear in both the top link bar and
on the left side of pages on the Quick Launch. You can customize the
SharePoint Online site navigation by adding, removing, or reordering links. You
can also hide links to subsites and pages. You can even add links to pages
outside the site.

3.6.1 Navigation Editing and Sorting

To customize navigation for a SharePoint Online site, go to the Site Navigation
Settings page and do one of the following:
1. On the Site Actions menu, point to Site Settings, and then click Modify
Navigation.
2. In the Look and Feel column, click Navigation.
Note: The Navigation command appears under Look and
Feel only if the publishing features are enabled for
your site and you have the Full Control or Design
permission level.
For non-publishing sites, the Quick Launch and Top
link bar commands appear under Look and Feel,
instead of Navigation.

3.6.1.1 Reordering Navigation Items

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You can use the Move Up and Move Down buttons in the Navigation Editing
and Sorting section to reorder navigation items and to nest items within
headings. The availability and function of the Move Up and Move Down buttons
depend on the following factors:
How you configured sorting
The type of item you selected
The position of the item you selected
The following table shows the behavior of the Move Up or Move Down buttons
when you select the Sort Manually option.

Position of
Navigation navigation
Item Action item Result

Non- Click Move Not at the The item moves up one

heading Up top of the position in the local list.
item local list

Non- Click Move Top of the If the item is nested, the item
heading Up local list moves above the heading it
item was nested in, and becomes
no longer nested.
If the item is not nested, it
becomes nested under the
heading directly above its
original position

Non- Click Move Not at the The item moves down one
heading Down bottom of the position in the local list.
item local list

Non- Click Move Bottom of the If the item is nested, the item
heading Down local list becomes no longer nested.
item If the item is not nested, the
item becomes nested under
the heading directly below its
original position.

Heading Click Move Not relevant The item moves up one

item Up position. Any items nested
within it move with it.

Heading Click Move Not relevant The item moves down one
item Down position. Any items nested
within it move with it.

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The following table shows the behavior of the Move Up and Move Down buttons
when you select the Sort Automatically option.

Navigation
Item Action Result

Non- Click Move If the item is nested, the item becomes nested
heading Up in the heading above the heading under which
item the item is currently nested.
If the item is not nested, it becomes nested in
the first heading above it.

Non- Click Move If there is a heading below it, the item

heading Down becomes nested in the heading below it.
item If there is no heading below the item, the item
becomes no longer nested.

3.6.1.2 Adding, editing, or deleting a heading or link

To add a new heading or link, or to edit an existing heading or link
1. In the Navigation Editing and Sorting section, do one of the following:
To edit a heading or link, click the heading or link, and then click Edit.
To add a new heading, click Add Heading.
To add a new link, click Add Link.
Note: If you select a heading, the link will be added under
that heading. If you select an item, the link will be
added to the same level as the selected item.
2. In the d ialog box that appears, configure the following:
Title box: Type the title of the navigation item as you want it to appear.
URL box: Type the URL for the heading or link. The URL is required
for links, but is optional for headings.
If you want to open the URL that you specify to confirm that it is the
correct URL, select the Open link in new window check box. When
you click OK, the URL opens in a new window.
Description box: Type a description for the heading or link.
3. Click OK.
To delete an existing heading or link
1. In the Navigation Editing and Sorting section, click the link or heading
to delete.
2. Click Delete.

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3.6.1.3 Managing navigation item visibility

You can hide navigation items individually in the Navigation Editing and
Sorting section.
If you want to hide an item that is currently visible, click the item, and
then click Hide.
If you want to show an item that is hidden, click the item, and then
click Show.

3.7 Example: Designing the Home Page

This scenario provides the detailed steps for customizing the home page.

To open the site

1. Go to Office SharePoint Designer 2007 and open your SharePoint Online
site.
2. On the File menu, click Open site.
The Open Site dialog box appears.

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3. Enter the URL of your site in the Site Name box, and then click Open.
4. Open the _catalogs folder.
5. Open the Masterpage folder, and then click the default.master file.
6. Copy default.master, and then immediately paste it in the Masterpage folder.
to create the new file default_copy(1).master,
7. Rename the file as Contoso.master.
8. Open the custom Contoso.master master page.

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Now, you are ready to customize your master page. The master page is similar to
an ASP.NET page, which has HTML tags, content placeholders, and SharePoint
controls.

3.7.1 Example: Changing the Banner Image

This scenario explains where and how to change the banner image in the master
page.
In the master page you can modify the top banner with table alignment. To do
this you need to change the contents inside the PlaceHolderGlobalNavigation
content placeholder. The <SharePoint:SitelogoImage> tag is responsible for the
banner image in the home page. Add the image to the Style Library in Office
SharePoint Designer 2007, and set the LogoImageUrl attribute in the
<SharePoint:SiteLogoImage> tag to the URL of the image.

Code snippet:
<SharePoint:SiteLogoImage id="onetidHeadbnnr0" LogoImageUrl="/Style

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Library/images/contosoimages/logo.jpg" runat="server" Visible="true"/>

3.7.2 Example: Customizing the Home Page Navigation Bar

This scenario explains how to add custom links; for example, how to add the Home
link in the quick launch (the left navigation bar).
To customize the home page navigation bar
1. On the Site Actions menu, click Site Settings, and then click Modify
Navigation.

2. Click Current Navigation, and then click Add Link.

The following dialog box appears.

3. Add the appropriate information to the Title, URL, and Description boxes,
and then click OK.
4. Click OK in the Current Navigation page.

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3.7.3 Example: Adding Custom CSS to the Master Page

This scenario explains how to add a custom CSS to a master page.

In the master page, you can change the CSS in two ways. You can change either the
inline style or the CSS file itself. If you have written a custom CSS, you must attach it to
the master page as shown in the following example:

Alternatively you can use SharePoint:CssLink and SharePoint:CssRegistration Web

controls.
The customized home page will appear like the following example:

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4 Using a Data Form Web Part in

SharePoint Online Applications
4.1 About the Data Form Web Part
A Data Form Web Part displays a live and customizable view of a data source. A Data
Form Web Part can display data from a wide variety of sources including database
queries, XML documents, Web Services, SharePoint, and server-side scripts.
You can create and modify a Data Form Web Part using Microsoft Office SharePoint
Designer 2007. With SharePoint Designer, you can create data sources as well to be
displayed within a Data Form Web Part. When creating a Data Form Web Part,
SharePoint Designer will retrieve the data from the data source as Extensible Markup
Language (XML) and display the data by using Extensible Style sheet Language
Transformations (XSLT).
Many of us use “Data View” and “Data Form” rather interchangeably. In Windows
SharePoint Services v2, we shipped a web part called the DataViewWebPart (DVWP).
This web part uses XSLT to transform data from Data Retrieval Services to HTML. In
Windows SharePoint Services v3, we shipped a web part called the DataFormWebPart
(DFWP). The DataFormWebPart still uses XSLT, but now uses ASP.Net 2.0 Data
Source Controls for data access. In addition to “view” functionality, the
DataFormWebPart also introduced “form” functionality to write back to various data
sources. We use Data View generically to refer to the feature set and all of SharePoint
Designer’s UI still uses the term Data View.

4.1.1 Creating a Data Form Web Part Using SharePoint Designer

To create a Data Form Web Part, you select a data source and then use a Data View to
present the data.
To create a Data Form Web Part
1. In Office SharePoint Designer 2007, click the File menu, and then click New.
2. In the New dialog box, double-click ASPX.
3. Click OK
A new page with a <form> tag opens.

4. Click in the form page.

5. On the Data View menu, click Insert Data View.

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An empty Data View is displayed on the page, and the Data Source Library task
pane opens

6. In the Data Source Library (It may be any document library or list) task pane,
locate and click the data source, and then click Show Data.

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Note: With Office SharePoint Designer 2007, you can connect to

different data sources like SharePoint Lists and libraries,
databases, XML files, XML Web Services etc .The Data
Source Library pane in the Office SharePoint Designer 2007,
shown above, lists all the different types of data sources
available in SharePoint Online.
By default, every Microsoft SharePoint list and library in a site
has a corresponding data source connection in the Data
Source Library.
7. In the Data Source Details task pane, click the fields that you want to insert in
the Data View.
8. Click Insert Selected Fields as, and then click one of the following:
Multiple Item View: Displays multiple records in columns with headings in the
Data View.
Single Item View: Displays a single record in the Data View.
Note: Single Item View displays a single record in the Data View.
Multiple Item View displays multiple records, with the fields in
columns, and with headings for each column.
The fields that you selected in the Data Source Details task pane now appear in a
table.
After you have created a Data View, you can:
Sort and group the data in the Data View. For details, see section 4.3. Sorting
and Grouping in a Data View.
Apply formatting to the Data View, when the data in the Data View meets
certain conditions. For more details, see section 4.4, Applying Conditional
Formatting to a Data View
Note: We can modify a Data Form Web Part using CAML or XSLT,
through Office SharePoint Designer 2007

4.2 Examples: Adding, Editing, Deleting, Sorting, and

Filtering List Items Using the Data Form Web Part
This scenario explains how to add, edit, and delete project list items. The list stores the
details about the project.
To add, edit, delete, sort, and filter list items using the Data Form Web Part
1. Create a custom list named Project list with the following columns, if already
not available:
Project Name (single line of text)

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Project Type (Single line of text)

Client (Single line of text)
Note: Make all three columns as mandatory columns.
2. Open your SharePoint Online site in Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
3. Open the page where you want to add the Data View Web Part.
4. Click Insert, point to SharePoint controls, and then click Data View.
5. On the Data Source Library tab, expand SharePoint Lists.
6. In SharePoint Lists, click Project List, and then click Show Data.

7. Using the CTRL key, select each of the columns you need to show in your Data
Form Web Part.
8. Click Insert Selected Fields as, and then click Multiple Item View.

9. Click the arrow at the top right corner of the Data Form Web Part.
The Common Data View Tasks pane appears.

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10. Click the Paging task.

The Data View Properties dialog box appears.

11. Click the Editing tab, and then select the following check boxes:
Show edit item links
Show delete item links
Show insert item link
12. Click OK.
13. Go to the page that you added, right-click the page, and then click Preview in
Browser.

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14. Enter the appropriate credentials.

15. Click insert to add the item.

16. Enter the values in all the fields, and then click save to save the item.

The following screen appears:

17. Do one of the following:

Click edit to edit the added item.
Click delete to delete an item.
Click insert to create a new item.
18. Go to Office SharePoint Designer 2007, and click the arrow at the top right
corner of the Data View Web Part.

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19. Click the Filter task.

20. In the Filter Criteria pane, click Click here to add a new clause.
21. In the Field Name column, select the required field to filter the data: for
example, Project type.

22. From the next columns, select the required comparision and the corresponding
value.
Note: To add more conditions, click And or Or from the And/OR
column, according to your requirements. This example shows
only one condition.
23. Click OK.
Only filtered items are displayed in the Data Form Web Part.
24. Click the arrow at the right top corner of the Data Form Web Part.

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25. Click the Sort and Group task.

26. Under Available fields, select the column name according to which you want to
sort; for example, select Client.
27. Select the order of sorting by selecting ascending or descending according to
your requirements.
Note: You can add as many fields as required.
28. Click OK.
The sorted items will appear in the Data View Web Part.

4.3 Sorting and Grouping Data in a Data View

You can add a toolbar to a Data View so that the users can filter, sort, or group data in
the Data View by using the toolbar in the browser.You can also turn on filtering and
sorting on column headers in a Data View, so that the users can filter or sort the data by
clicking the column headers, as in a list view.
To add the toolbar to a Data View
1. Open the page that contains the Data View.
2. Right-click the Data View, and then click Show Common Control Tasks.
Tip: You can also click the Data View and then click the arrow in
the upper right corner to show the Common Data View Tasks
list. Click the arrow again to hide the list.
3. Click Data View Properties.
The Data View Properties dialog box opens.
4. On the General tab, do one of the following:
To add the toolbar, select the Show toolbar with options for check box, and
then select the required check boxes below it.
To remove the toolbar, clear the Show toolbar with options for check box.
To enable sorting and grouping in column headers, select the Enable sorting
and filtering on column headers check box. (It is applicable only to the Data
View with basic table layout.)

4.4 Applying Conditional Formatting to a Data View

You can use conditional formatting to easily create a Data View that applies specific
styles to data values when the data meets the criteria that you specify. You can also set
conditions that change the visibility of a data value, so you can show or hide data.
To apply conditional formatting to a Data View
1. Right-click the Data View, and then click Conditional formatting.
The Conditional Formatting task pane opens.

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2. In the Data View list, click the items in the fields that contain the data you want to
format.
3. Click Create, and then click Apply Formatting.
The Condition Criteria dialog box opens to enable you to create a condition.
4. In the Condition Criteria dialog box, place your mouse pointer anywhere in the
first row, and click.
5. Under Field name, click the arrow, and then click the field that you want to use in
the condition.
6. Under Comparison, click the arrow, and then click the operator that you want to
use in the condition.
7. Under Value, click the arrow, and then click More Fields.
8. In the More Fields dialog box, click the field that you want to use to complete the
condition.
9. Click OK.
10. In the Condition Criteria dialog box, click OK.
11. In the Modify Style dialog box, select the options required to create the style for
your conditional formatting.
12. Click OK.

4.5 Connecting Form Web Part to another Web part

To use the Form Web Part, you connect it with another Web Part that is capable of
filtering through a Web Part connection, such as the List View . You can connect the
Form Web Part to one or more Web Parts on the Web Part page.
To connect the Form Web Part to another Web Part
1. If you are not already in edit mode, on the Site Actions menu, click Edit Page.
2. On the Web Part menu, point to Connections, point to Provide Form Value To,
and then click the name of the Web Part to which you want to link.

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3. In the above Dialog Box, select a column.

4. Click Next then click Finish.

4.6 Example: Integrating Microsoft Live Search Web Service

Using the Form Web Part
In this scenario you learn how to connect third-party Web services using the FormWeb
Part. The first task is to define the Live Search data source. The second task is to
integrate Live Search data source to a Form Web Part in a SharePoint Online page.
Initial Steps: Creating SharePoint Online application page.
1. Open Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. On the File menu, click Open Site.
3. Enter the site URL. The URL will look like https://contoso1microsoftonlinecom-
7.sharepoint.microsoftonline.com/default.aspx and you can obtain this URL by
going to the appropriate SharePoint page and copying the URL from the
address bar in your browser.
4. In Designer, Click on File, point to New, click on ASPX .

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5. To attach the page to master page, click on Format, point to Master Page then
click Attach Master Page.

6. On the page click on PlaceHolderMain, Click on the arrow at right and click on
Create Custom Content.

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To define the Live Search data source

1. On the Insert menu, point to SharePoint Controls, and then click Data view.

The Data Source Library task pane appears on the right.

2. Click to expand XML Web Services, and then click Connect to a web service.

The Data Source Properties dialog box appears.

3. On the General tab, enter the name for the service, its description, and the
details.
4. On the Source tab, in the Service description location box, enter the URL of
the specified Web Service; this example uses
http://soap.search.msn.com/webservices.asmx?wsdl.

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5. Click Connect Now.

6. Under Select Connection Info, in the Operation list, click Search.

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7. Under Parameters (* required), in the Name column, double-click * Request.

The Parameter Details dialog box appears.
8. In the Value column, add the parameter values that are shown here:

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9. For each required parameter (marked with *), double-click the parameter.
10. In the Parameter dialog box that appears for each required parameter, click
OK.
Note: For the Query parameter, you must select the check box for
the value of this parameter that can be sent via a Web Part
connection.

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11. Click OK in the Parameter Details dialog box.

12. Click the Login tab in Data Source Properties, and then select the radio button,
Don’t attempt to authenticate.
13. Click OK.
To connect Form Web Part with Live Search Data Source.
1. Click on the newly added Form Web part in Split view

2. In Data Source Library under XML Web Services, click on Live Search Data
Source and click Show Data.

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3. In the Data Source Details Pane, right click on Result and click on Insert as
Table

To Add Search Box to the page

1. In menu, click on Insert, Point to SharePoint Controls and click on Web Part.

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2. From the right pane, add the SharePoint Search Box Web Part to the page,
to enter the search query.

3. Right-click Search Box, and then click Web Part Property.

4. In the Search Box pane, click Scopes Dropdown.
5. In the Dropdown mode box, select Do not show scopes dropdown.

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6. In the middle of the Search Box pane, click Miscellaneous.

7. In the Target search results page URL box, use the browse (…) button to
enter the current page.

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To integrate the search box with the Form Web Part

1. In the Form Web Part, click on arrow at right,top corner.
2. In the Common Data View Tasks pane, click Parameters.

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The Data View Parameters dialog box appears.

3. In the Parameter Source list, click Query String
4. In the Query String Variable list, enter k.

5. Click OK.

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6. Save the current page.

7. In the Folder list, right click the page which we have created now.
8. In the menu that appears, click Preview in browser.

9. Enter the credentials.

10. Enter the word to search.

11. Click the search icon to get the search results.

4.7 Example: Adding Page Numbers to a Data Form Web

Part
This example shows how to modify the Data Form Web Part using XSLT.
XSLT can be used for modifying DVWP. This scenario illustrates how to bring paging in
DVWP. Normally you will get a next link that you need to click to go to the next page.
By doing this modification we can specifically click on individual page numbers to go to
a required page.
The solution makes use of the fact that the navigation links that are created by default
pass a parameter that indicates what row number to start rendering from. By looping
through the row data and checking the current position, you can simply output a page
number, as shown here: ((position() - 1) div $RowLimit) + 1). Every time you get to a
row number, that becomes the start of the next page: position() mod $RowLimit
This solution assumes you have created a Data View .Click the Data View Properties
,go to the Paging tab and enter the size in the text box against "Display items in sets of
this size " through Office Sharepoint Designer 2007.(Please refer the two images
below)

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To add page numbers to a Data View Web Part

1. In Office SharePoint Designer 2007, view the HTML (XSLT) source of your Data
View.
2. Find <xsl:template name="dvt_1.navigation"> and add <xsl:param
name="Rows"/> as the last parameter.

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3. Somewhere within the <table> tag, insert the following code:

<tr><td colspan="2" class="ms-vb">
<xsl:for-each select="$Rows">
<xsl:if test="(position() mod $RowLimit) = 1">
<a>
<xsl:attribute name="href">javascript: <xsl:value-of
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
select="ddwrt:GenFireServerEvent(concat('dvt_firstrow={',position(),'}'))"/>;</xsl:attr
ibute>
<xsl:value-of select="((position() - 1) div $RowLimit) + 1"/></a>
<xsl:text
xmlns:ddwrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/runtime"
ddwrt:nbsp-preserve="yes" disable-output-escaping="yes">&amp;nbsp;</xsl:text>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>
</td></tr>
4. Find <xsl:call-template name="dvt_1.navigation"> and add <xsl:with-param
name="Rows" select="$Rows"/> as the last parameter.

Note: This should be enough to get you started. You could add an
<xsl:if test> statement to prevent the current page number
from being created as a link.

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5 Using SharePoint Online Web Services

The Microsoft Office SharePoint Online Web Services are a subset of the Windows
SharePoint Services 3.0 Web Services APIs. These APIs provide methods that allow
you to access SharePoint Online data from Windows applications, customer
applications, and other instances of SharePoint. In SharePoint Online applications, you
must use the Data Form Web Part to connect to any Web service.

5.1 List of Available SharePoint Online Web Services

The following table lists each of the Web services that are available in SharePoint
Online, along with its path, a description, and a linkto further information in MSDN.
Web Service Path from <site> Description MSDN Link

Alerts /_vti_bin/alerts.asmx Provides methods Alerts Web

for working with service
alerts for list items in
a SharePoint Online
site
Copy Web /_vti_bin/Copy.asmx Provides methods Copy Web
Service for copying items service
between locations in
the SharePoint
environment

Add files to a
Distribution List
(DL), copy files from
one DL to another,
download files from
a DL
Document /_vti_bin/DWS.asmx Provides methods Document
Workspace for managing Workspace
Document Web service
Workspace sites
and the data they
contain
Note: The following method of Document Workspace service is not available in
SharePoint Online
FindDwsDoc
Imaging /_vti_bin/Imaging.asmx Provides methods Imaging
that enable you to Web service
create and manage

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Web Service Path from <site> Description MSDN Link

picture libraries

Lists /_vti_bin/Lists.asmx Provides methods Lists Web

for working with lists service
and list data
Note: The following method of Lists service is not available in SharePoint Online
AddDiscussionBoardItem
Meetings /_vti_bin/Meetings.asmx Provides methods Meetings
that enable you to Web service
create and manage
Meeting Workspace
sites
People /_vti_bin/People.asmx Provides methods People Web
for working with service
security groups
Permissions /_vti_bin/Permissions.asmx Provides methods Permissions
for working with the Web service
permissions for a
site or list
Site Data /_vti_bin/SiteData.asmx Provides methods Site Data
that return metadata Web service
or list data from sites
or lists in Windows
SharePoint Services
Sites /_vti_bin/sites.asmx Provides methods Sites Web
for returning service
information about
the site templates
for a site collection
Search /_vti_bin/spsearch.asmx Provides methods Search Web
for remotely service
performing searches
within a Windows
SharePoint Services
deployment
Users and /_vti_bin/UserGroup.asmx Provides methods Users and
Groups for working with Groups
users, site groups, Web service
and cross-site
groups

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Web Service Path from <site> Description MSDN Link

Versions /_vti_bin/versions.asmx Provides methods Versions

for working with file Web service
versions

Views /_vti_bin/Views.asmx Provides methods Views Web

for working with service
views of lists in
Windows
SharePoint Services
Web Part /_vti_bin/webpartpages.asm Provides methods Web Part
Pages x for working with Pages Web
Web Parts service
Note: The following methods of Web Part Pages service are not available on
SharePoint Online
AssociateWorkflowMarkup
ExecuteProxyUpdates
GetAssemblyMetaData
GetDataFromDataSourceControl
GetFormCapabilityFromDataSourceControl
RemoveWorkflowAssociation
ValidateWorkflowMarkupAndCreateSupportObjects
Webs /_vti_bin/Webs.asmx Provides methods Webs Web
for working with service
sites and subsites
Note: The following methods of Webs service are not available in SharePoint Online
CustomizeCss

Publishing /_vti_bin/PublishingService. Provides methods to Publishing

Service asmx work remotely with Service
the publishing Web service
service
Note:
1. The following methods of Publishing service are not available on SharePoint
Online
ExportObjects
GetObjectStatusCollection
GetObjectStatusCollectionWithExclusions
ImportObjects

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Web Service Path from <site> Description MSDN Link

2. The publishing service does not have link in the MSDN and hence no URL is
provided in the MSDN Link column

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5.2 List of Unsupported SharePoint Online Web Services

The following table provides the list of each excluded SharePoint Online Web Services,
with its path, description, and MSDN link.
Web Service Path from <site> Description MSDN Link

Area Web /_vti_bin/areaservice.asmx Provides an area Not

Service interface for remote applicable
clients
Authentication /_vti_bin/Authentication.asm Provides ability for Not
Web Service x Web Services to applicable
operate in
conjunction with
forms authentication
BDC Fields /_vti_bin/bdcfieldsresolver.a Business Data Not
Resolver Web smx Catalog Fields applicable
Service Resolver Web
Service for Clients
BDC Web /_vti_bin/businessdatacatal Business Data Not
Service og.asmx Catalog Metadata applicable
Web Service
CMS Content /_vti_bin/contentAreaToolbo This Web service is Not
Area Toolbox xService.asmx designed for the applicable
Info Web Office SharePoint
Service Designer client.
List Data /_vti_bin/DspSts.asmx Provides a method Not
Retrieval Web for performing applicable
Service queries against lists
in Windows
SharePoint Services
Excel Services /_vti_bin/ExcelService.asmx Provides methods to Not
Web Service call the Microsoft applicable
Office Excel
Services remotely or
work as a callback
for Web Parts
Forms Web /_vti_bin/Forms.asmx Provides methods Not
Service for returning forms applicable
used in the user
interface when
working with the
contents of a list

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Web Service Path from <site> Description MSDN Link

Forms /_vti_bin/FormsServiceProx Provides methods Not

Services Proxy y.asmx for Forms Services applicable
Web Service to proxy requests to
remote data sources
from Web-based
forms
Forms /_vti_bin/FormsServices.as Provides methods to Not
Services Web mx call Forms Services applicable
Service remotely or to work
as a callback for
Web-based forms
Official File /_vti_bin/officialfile.asmx Provides methods Not
Web Service for sending files to a applicable
records repository
Published /_vti_bin/publishedlinksservi Microsoft Office Not
Links Web ce.asmx clients and other applicable
Service applications can
obtain the list of
published links on
the server that are
targeted to the
current user
Search Web /_vti_bin/search.asmx Allows access to Not
Service Enterprise Search applicable
results from client
applications and
Web applications
outside of the
context of a
SharePoint Online
site
SharePoint /_vti_bin/sharepointemailws Provides methods Results in
Directory .asmx for remotely error
Management managing
Web Service distribution groups
Slide Library /_vti_bin/SlideLibrary.asmx Provides methods Not
Web Service for slide library Applicable
callbacks or remote
publishing of slides
Spell Check /_vti_bin/SpellCheck.asmx Provides methods No Results
Web Service for spell checking
callbacks

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Web Service Path from <site> Description MSDN Link

Search Crawl /_vti_bin/spscrawl.asmx Provides methods Not

Web Service for remote Office applicable
SharePoint Server
2007 farms to crawl
a local farm
User Profile /_vti_bin/userprofilechanges Provides methods to Not
Change Web ervice.asmx query the user applicable
Service profiles change log
remotely
User Profile /_vti_bin/userprofileservice. Provides a user Not
Web Service asmx profile interface for applicable
remote clients
Admin /_vti_adm/admin.asmx Provides methods Not
for managing a Applicable
deployment of
Windows
SharePoint
Services, such as
for creating or
deleting sites
Content /_vti_adm/ContentDeploym Provides methods Not
Deployment entRemoteImport.asmx for a remote farm to applicable
Remote Import use content
deployment to get
content into a local
farm
Search Web SearchAdmin.asmx Office SharePoint Not
Service Server 2007 Search Applicable
Administration Web
service
Search /SSP/Search/SearchAdmin. Office SharePoint Not
Application asmx Server 2007 Search applicable
Web Service Application
Administration Web
service
Excel Service /SSP/ExcelCalculationServ Office SharePoint Not
Soap er/ExcelService.asmx Server 2007 Excel applicable
Services Application
Web service

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5.3 Example: Displaying All List Names from a SharePoint

Online Site Collection
This example shows how managed code can be run on your computer to access data
using SharePoint Online Web Services.
In this example we will see how the Microsoft .NET Framework managed code can
access data from a SharePoint Online site. This example creates a custom .aspx page
that lists all the list names from the SharePoint Online site.
To display all list names from a SharePoint Online Application
1. Open Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008, click the File menu, and then click New
Web Site.

2. Add the namespace System.Net.

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3. In Solution Explorer, right-click the solution, and then click Add the Web
Reference.

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4. Click the Source tab, and then in the Service Description Location box,
enter https://<SPOnlineSiteName>/_vti_bin/lists.asmx? WSDL, where <
SPOnlineSiteName > is SharePoint Online sites URL. The URL will look like
https://contoso1microsoftonlinecom-
7.sharepoint.microsoftonline.com/default.aspx and you can obtain this URL by
going to the appropriate SharePoint page and copying the URL from the
address bar in your browser, and then click Go.

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5. Enter the Web reference name, and then click Add Reference.
You will see the added Web Service reference in Solution Explorer.

6. In the Page Load function add the following code, and enter the user name
and password for your SharePoint Online site.
SiteData.SiteData site = new SiteData.SiteData();
System.Net.NetworkCredential myCredential = new
System.Net.NetworkCredential();
myCredential.UserName = "<username>";
myCredential.Password = "<password>";

site.Credentials = myCredential;

SiteData._sList[] lists;
site.GetListCollection(out lists);
foreach (SiteData._sList list in lists)
{
listdisp.InnerHtml += list.Title.ToString() + "<br/>";
}
7. Open Default.aspx, click the Source tab, and then copy the following code
into the <DIV> tag.
<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Font-Bold="True" Font-Size="12pt"
Text="List Collection in SPOnline site" Width="233px"
BorderColor="#404040">
</asp:Label><br/>
<asp:Panel ID="Panel1" runat="server" Height="100%" Width="232px"
BorderColor="Gray" BorderWidth="2px">
<span id="listdisp" runat="server" style="position: static"/>
</asp:Panel>
The code should appear as shown in the following figure.

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On running the application, the .aspx page should display all the available SharePoint
lists of the site, as shown in the following figure.
Note: Results will vary depending on your site and the
parameters that you pass.

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5.4 Example: Fetching List Collection Data from an

SharePoint Online Site
This scenario explains how to fetch list collection data from a SharePoint Online site
using the List Web service, and how to render data using DVWP.
To fetch list collection data from a SharePoint Online site
1. Open Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. On the File menu, click Open Site.
3. Give the site URL of your site.
4. Open the page where you want to display the data.
5. Click the placeholder where you want to add the Data View Web Part.
6. On the Insert menu, point to SharePoint Controls, and then click Data View.

The Data View control appears on the page, as shown in the following figure.

7. To set the data source for this Data View, on the Data View menu, click
Manage Data Sources.

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8. In the Data Source Library task pane, click Connect to a web service.

The Data Source Properties dialog box appears.

9. In the Source tab, in the Service Description Location box, enter
https://<SPOnlineSiteName>/_vti_bin/lists.asmx? WSDL, where <
SPOnlineSiteName > is SharePoint Online sites URL. The URL will look like
https://contoso1microsoftonlinecom-
7.sharepoint.microsoftonline.com/default.aspx and you can obtain this URL by
going to the appropriate SharePoint page and copying the URL from the
address bar in your browser.

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10. In the Operation list, click GetListCollection.

11. Click OK.
The service now appears in the Data Source Library task pane.
12. Click the service, and then click Show Data.

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13. Using the CTRL key, select the columns that you want to display.

The results appear as shown in the following figure.

Note: Results will vary depending on your site and the
parameters that you pass.

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5.5 Example: Fetching List Items from a SharePoint Online

Site
This scenario explains how to fetch list items from a SharePoint Online site using the
List Web service, and how to render data using DVWP.
To fetch list items from a SharePoint Online site
1. Open Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. On the File menu, click Open Site.
3. Enter the site URL of your site.
4. Open the page where you want to display the data.
5. Click the Content Placeholder in page where you need to add the Data Form
Web Part.
6. On the Insert menu, point to SharePoint Controls, and then click Data View.

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The Data View control appears on the page, as shown in the following figure.

7. To set the data source for this Data View, on the Data View menu, click
Manage Data Sources.

8. In the Data Source Library task pane, click Connect to a web service.

The Data Source Properties dialog box appears.

9. Click the Source tab, and then in the Service Description Location box,
enter https://<SPOnlineSiteName>/_vti_bin/lists.asmx? WSDL, where <
SPOnlineSiteName > is SharePoint Online sites URL. The URL will look like
https://contoso1microsoftonlinecom-
7.sharepoint.microsoftonline.com/default.aspx and you can obtain this URL by
going to the appropriate SharePoint page and copying the URL from the
address bar in your browser.
10. Under Select Connection Info, in the Operation list, click GetListItems.
11. Under Parameters (* required), click listName.
12. Click Modify, and then enter the name of the list from which you want to fetch
the items.
13. Click OK.
The service now appears in the Data Source Library task pane.

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14. Click the service, and then click Show Data.

15. Using the CTRL key, click the columns that you want to display and then click
Insert Selected Fields as and then click Multiple Item View.

The results for this example appear as shown in the following figure.
Note: Results will vary depending on your site and the list
parameters that you pass.

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6 Integrating Microsoft Silverlight with a

SharePoint Online Page
This section provides an example of integrating the Silverlight application with a SharePoint
Online site.
By integrating Silverlight with a SharePoint Online site, you can create a rich user interface.
Though writing custom code is not allowed in SharePoint Online, you can write code in a
Silverlight application, import the files (.xap) to a SharePoint Online site, and display the data in
an .aspx page.

6.1 Example: Using Silverlight to Fetch Data from a

SharePoint Online Site Using Web Services
This scenario explains how to fetch list items from the SharePoint Online site using the
Lists Web service in SilverLight. The first task is to create a Silverlight application
using the Lists Web service in SharePoint Online. The second task is to integrate the
Silverlight application by importing the resulting .xap file to the SharePoint Online site
and rendering data in an .aspx page.
Create a custom list named ProjectList with the following fields.
Title(Single Line of Text)
Type(Single Line of Text)
Client(Single Line of Text)

To create a Silverlight application

In this step you fetch list items using the Lists Web service in SharePoint Online

1. Open Visual Studio 2008.

2. On the File menu, click New Project.
3. In the New Project dialog box, under Templates, click the Silverlight Application
project template, enter SilverlightApplication in the Name box and the location in
the Location box, and then click OK.

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4. In the Add Silverlight Application dialog box, leave the default options, and
click OK.

5. In Solution Explorer, open the Page.xml page under SilverlightApplication.

6. On the Page.xaml tab, add the following code between the <Grid> tags:

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<ListBox x:Name="_list" ItemsSource="{Binding Mode=OneWay}" >

<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Title}"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Type}"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Client}"/>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>

7. In Solution Explorer, right-click SilverLightApplication, and then click Add

Service Reference to add the service reference to the Lists Web service of the
SharePoint Online site.

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8. Click the Source tab, and then in the Service Description Location box, enter
https://<SPOnlineSiteName>/_vti_bin/lists.asmx? WSDL, where <
SPOnlineSiteName > is SharePoint Online sites URL. The URL will look like
https://contoso1microsoftonlinecom-
7.sharepoint.microsoftonline.com/default.aspx and you can obtain this URL by
going to the appropriate SharePoint page and copying the URL from the address
bar in your browser.
9. Click OK to add the service reference to the Lists Web service.

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10. Open page.xml.cs and add the following code snippets into the respective
places.
11. Copy this code snippet in the page class constructor:
public Page()
{
InitializeComponent();
ListsSoapClient proxy = new ListsSoapClient();
proxy.GetListItemsCompleted += new
System.EventHandler<GetListItemsCompletedEventArgs>(proxy_GetListIte
msCompleted);
XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse("<Document><Query /><ViewFields Formatted: French (Switzerland)
/><QueryOptions /></Document>");
XElement query = doc.Element("Query");
XElement viewFields = doc.Element("ViewFields");
XElement queryOptions = doc.Element("QueryOptions"); Formatted: French (Switzerland)
proxy.GetListItemsAsync("ProjectList", "", query, viewFields, "10",
queryOptions, "");
}
12. Copy this code snippet after the page class constructor (this will fetch the list
items and bind the data):

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void proxy_GetListItemsCompleted(object sender, GetListItemsCompletedEventArgs e)

{
XElement result = e.Result;
var Projects = from x in result.Elements().First().Elements()
select new ListResult {Title=x.Attribute("ows_Title").Value ,
Client = x.Attribute("ows_Client").Value, Type=x.Attribute("ows_Type").Value };
_list.DataContext = Projects;
}

13. Add this code snippet after the proxy_GetListItemsCompleted event handler:
public class ListResult
{
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Client { get; set; }
public string Type{ get; set; }
}
Note: Add the System.Xml.Linq and the
SilverlightApplication.ServiceReference1 namespaces in
the page.xml.cs.
14. The page.xml.cs now looks as shown in the following figure:

15. Save and build the solution.

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To integrate the Silverlight application with a SharePoint Online site

In this step you import the SilverlightXAP file to the SharePoint Online site and display
the results in an aspx page.
1. Open Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. On the File menu, click Open Site.
3. Enter the site URL of your SharePoint Online site.
4. On the File menu, point to Import, and then click File.
The Import dialog box appears.
5. In the Import dialog box, click Add File, select SilverlightApplication.xap, and
then click OK.

6. On the File menu, click New, and then click Page.

The New dialog box appears.

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7. Click Create from Master Page, and and click OK.

8. Leave the default options in the Select a Master Page dialog box, and then click
OK.

9. Click Create Custom Content in the resulting page.

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10. In the Silverlight Web application, open SilverlightApplicationTestPage.html.

11. Copy the following code snippet:
<object data="data:application/x-silverlight," type="application/x-
silverlight-2-b2" width="100%" height="100%">
<param name="source" value="SilverlightApplication.xap"/>
<param name="onerror" value="onSilverlightError" />
<param name="background" value="white" />
</object>

Note: Some unwanted code has been removed.

12. Go to Office SharePoint Designer 2007, and copy the above code snippet to the
content placeholder of the newly created .aspx page.
13. On the File menu, click Save, and enter the file name (for example,
SilverlightPage.aspx).

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14. Right-click the saved .aspx page (SilverlightPage.aspx), and then click Preview
in browser.
15. Enter the credentials when prompted.

16. Enter the credentials when prompted.

The results appear as shown in the following figure.
Note: Results vary depending on the data in your list.

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7 Workflows Using SharePoint Designer

7.1 About Workflows
Workflows are automations of a business process, in whole or in parts. During the
course of a workflow, documents, information, or tasks are passed from one participant
to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules.
With Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, you can design workflows that add no-
code application logic to your Microsoft SharePoint Online sites and applications. Using
the Workflow Designer, you create rules that associate conditions and actions with items
in SharePoint lists and libraries. Changes to items in lists or libraries trigger actions in
the workflow.

7.2 Creating a No-Code Workflow Using SharePoint Designer

The basic steps of creating a workflow in Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 are
first oo define the workflow, and then to create the rules by choosing conditions and
actions.
To create a no-code workflow using Office SharePoint Designer 2007
1. Open Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. On the File menu, click Open Site.
3. In the Open Site dialog box, browse and select the SharePoint Online site where
you want to create the workflow, and then click Open.
4. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Workflow.
The Workflow Designer opens.

5. In the Give a name to this workflow box, type a name for this workflow.

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Site visitors will see this name when they view the Workflow Status and
Workflows pages in the browser. By default, new workflows are automatically
named Workflow 1, Workflow 2, and so on.
6. Click an option in the What SharePoint list should this workflow be attached
to? list.

You must attach your workflow to a SharePoint list or a document library. The list
you choose here determines where the workflow participants start the workflow.
For example, if you want a workflow to start when an item is created or changed
in Shared Documents, choose that library. The attached list is where you check
the workflow status and history, or manually start a workflow.
7. Under Select workflow start options for items in Announcements, select one
or more of the check boxes.
Note: You must select at least one option if you want to run the
workflow.
If you do not select any option, you can design the workflow
and then click Finish, but the workflow cannot be initiated.
Later, you must open the workflow (using the Open Workflow
command on the File menu), select an initiation option, and
then click Finish. This is useful for saving a workflow that you
are in the process of designing.
8. Click Next.
9. In the Step Name box, type a name for the first step of your workflow.

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For the next several steps, in the Specify details for ‘Step 1’ section you will be
creating the rules for your workflow by choosing the actions that you want it to
perform and any conditions that must be satisfied for those actions to occur.
Note: Not every step must contain a condition; for example, you can
have steps that are simply lists of actions to be performed.
However, every step can have at most one conditional branch
that contains an action without an associated condition.
This is because a conditional branch that does not have a
condition acts as the "Else" branch in an "Else If" conditional
branch. If condition A is true, do action B; otherwise (“else”) do
action C. As such, it would not make sense to have more than
one "Else" branch because the last branch would never be
reached.
10. For each condition that you want to specify, click Conditions, and then click that
condition in the Conditions list.

11. Repeat this step until you have specified all the conditions that you want to
include.
Each conditions that you choose appears in the box to the right of the
Conditions button, as a joined If statement that includes hyperlinked
parameters.
Note: If you do choose more than one condition, the conditions are
joined, meaning that all the conditions must be satisfied before
the workflow performs the associated actions. Multiple
conditions create a progressive filter in which the order
matters, because the first condition is evaluated first.
To move a condition up or down in a list of conditions, click the
condition, click the down arrow that appears, and then click
either Move Condition Up or Move Condition Down in the
list.
Office SharePoint Designer 2007 provides a number of predefined conditions. In
addition, you can create advanced conditions and custom conditions.

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With custom conditions, you can compare a field in the current Conditions list
with a value. With advanced conditions, you can compare one value to another
value. This allows you to create a comparison between a field in any list and a
value from a wide range of sources.
12. For each condition, click each hyperlinked parameter, and then choose a value
for the required parameter.
For example, a condition might include links for choosing a field in the list, a
comparison, and a value.

13. For each action that you want to specify, click Actions, and then click that action
in the Actions list.

14. Repeat this step until you have specified all the actions that you want to include.

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Note: If the action you want does not appear in the list, click More
Actions, click the action that you want, and then click Add.
Note: If you do create more than one action for a condition, the
actions can run either sequentially (joined by then) or at the
same time (joined by and).
To switch between running in sequence and running in
parallel, click the arrow in the upper right corner of the rule,
and then click either Run All Actions in Sequence or Run All
Actions in Parallel.
15. For each action, click each hyperlinked parameter, and then choose a value for
the required parameter.
For example, an action might include a link for creating an e-mail message.

16. To add a conditional branch, click Add 'Else If' Conditional Branch, and then
repeat steps 10 through 13 to create another rule.
A rule is a set of related conditions and actions, as shown in the previous
illustration. When the condition is true, the workflow performs the associated
actions. However, if the condition is not true, you can specify additional
conditions by adding conditional branches.
For example, you can create three different conditions for when a document
status is changed to Approved, Rejected, or Pending. You can also create an
Else condition, which causes the workflow to perform the action only when none
of the previous conditions have been satisfied. To create an Else condition, the
last action in the rule must be an action with no conditions. The workflow
evaluates all the conditions; if none of them are satisfied, the workflow performs
the actions in the final branch that has no condition.
17. When this step of the workflow is complete, click Next.
18. For each step in the workflow, repeat steps 10 to 14 to create additional sets of
conditions and actions, or rules.

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Note: As you add rules, keep in mind that each rule can hold only
one set of Else If conditional branches, where the actions in
each branch are performed only when the associated
condition is satisfied. You must add additional rules when:
 You have multiple sets of Else If conditional branches to be
evaluated.
 You need to separate a branched statement from a non-
branched statement.
19. To check the workflow for errors before you exit the Workflow Designer, click
Check Workflow.
If there is a workflow error, the hyperlink changes color and asterisks appear
before and after the invalid parameter. In addition, under Workflow Steps, an
error symbol appears next to each step that contains an error.
20. Check any errors by making sure that the parameters entered are valid.
21. Click Finish.
The workflow is saved and attached to the list that you specified.

7.3 Collecting Data from the User and Processing It in the

Workflow
You can collect data from a workflow participant, and then use that data in your workflow
for making further decisions. In this process, the first task is to collect data from a user,
by creating a custom task form to collect data from a user, and then storing the ID of the
task item in a variable. The second task is to set a workflow variable, by using the task
ID variable to look up the user response and then storing that particular response in a
new variable. The final task is to use the variable to make decisions, by using the
Compare any data source condition.
To collect data from a user
In this procedure you create a custom task form to collect data from a user and store the
ID of the task item in a variable.
1. Open Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. On the File menu, click Open Site.
3. In the Open Site dialog box, browse and select the SharePoint Online site where
you want to create the workflow, and then click Open.
4. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Workflow.
5. On the first page of the Workflow Designer, in the Give a name to this
workflow box, name the workflow Document review.
6. In the What SharePoint list should this workflow be attached to? list, click
Documents for review to select the list or the library to which the workflow will
be attached.

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7. Under Select workflow start options for items in Shared Documents, do the
following:
Clear the Allow this workflow to be manually started from an item check
box.
Select the Automatically start this workflow whenever an item is created
check box.
Clear the Automatically start this workflow whenever an item is changed
check box.

8. Click Next.
9. Click Actions, and then click Collect Data from a User in the Actions list.
Note: If this action does not appear in the list, click More Actions to
see the full list.
10. In the Collect data from this user action, click the first hyperlinked parameter;
in this example it is data.
11. On the first page of the Custom Task Wizard, click Next.
12. On the second page of the Custom Task Wizard, for this example do the
following (see the following figure):
In the Name box, type Review document as the name for this task.
Note: The task name must be unique in the current site.
In the Description box, type Please review this document. Then choose
either Approved or Rejected, and click Complete Task. as the instructions
to the recipient of this task.

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This description appears at the top of the custom task form, so it should
include here any instructions that you want the workflow participant to see, not
just a general description.

13. Click Next.

14. Click Add to define a custom form field for this task.
15. On the first Add Field page, for this example do the following (see the following
figure):
In the Field name box, type Review status as the name for this field.
In the Description box, type Do you approve or reject this document? as
the question for which this form field is storing the answer.
In the Information type list, click Choice (menu to choose from) to format
the field appropriately for the type of information that you are collecting.

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16. Click Next.

The next page of the wizard varies depending on which information type you
selected on the previous page.
17. On the second Add Field page, for this example do the following (see the
following figure):
In the Choices (enter each choice on a separate line) box, type Approved,
press ENTER, and then type Rejected.
In the Display as list, click Drop-down menu.

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Clear the Allow blank values? check box, to permit the reviewer to choose
either Approved or

Rejected.
18. Click Finish twice to return to the Workflow Designer.
The following illustration shows how this task will be displayed to the workflow
participant in the browser when the participant edits the task. This is the custom
task form (Review document.aspx) that you just designed by using the Custom
Task Wizard.

In the Workflow Designer, you now set the second and third parameters of the
Collect data from this user action. (You began setting the first parameter in
step 10.)
The action now appears as Collect Review Document from this user (Output
to Variable: collect ) next to the Actions button.
19. In the action, click the second hyperlinked parameter, which is this user (see the
following figure).

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20. In the Select Users dialog box, type a name or e-mail address, or click an
existing user or group in the list; for this example type Approver.
21. Click Add, and then click OK.
22. In the action, click the third hyperlinked parameter, Variable: collect, and then
click Create a new variable from the list (see the following figure).
Note: Click Create a new variable instead of using the default name
(Variable: collect) when your workflow will have multiple
variables and you want to give this variable a more descriptive
name.

23. In the Edit Variable dialog box, in this example type ID of Review document
task to describe the value stored by the variable.

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For this variable, List Item ID is the only choice in the Type list.
24. Click OK.
At this point, your action should look like this.

To set a workflow variable

In this procedure, you use the task ID variable to look up the user response, and then
store that particular response in a new variable. At this point in the workflow, a workflow
participant submits a completed task. The review status submitted by that person is
stored in a field or column in the Tasks list, as shown here.

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How do you get at this information to use it in another step in the workflow?
You use the Set Workflow Variable action to look up the value of the Review status
field for the task that the user edited, and store the value of this field in a new variable. In
this example, the new variable is also named Review status.
By looking up and storing the review status in a new variable, you can now use this
variable as the basis for future comparisons. This is a best practice, because the
workflow now makes it clear where the data is coming from, and this data can be reused
more easily (multiple times, if necessary).
1. Click Actions, and then click Set Workflow Variable.

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Note: If this action does not appear in the list, click More Actions to
see the full list.

2. In the action, click workflow variable, and then click Create a new variable
from the list.

3. In the Edit Variable dialog box, for this example do the following:

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In the Name box, type Review status as the name that describes the value
stored by the variable.
In the Type list, click string as the type of data to be stored in the variable.
This variable will store the review status as Approved or Rejected, which are
text strings.

4. Click OK.
5. In the action, click value, and then click the Display data binding icon .
6. In the Define Workflow Lookup dialog box, choose the following options:
In the Lookup Details section:
Source list: Click Tasks (if more than one tasks list is available, choose the
list that contains the custom form field that you created in the previous
section).
Field list: Click Review status (choose the custom form field that you created
in the previous section).
In the Find the List Item section:
Field list: Click Tasks:ID.
Value box: Click the Display data binding icon .
7. In the second Define Workflow Lookup dialog box, choose the following
options:
Source list: Click Workflow Data.
Field list: Click Variable: ID of Review document task.

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8. Click OK to return to the first page of the Define Workflow Lookup dialog box.
The final workflow lookup should resemble the following figure.

This lookup says, “Go to the Review status field in the Tasks list. Then go to the
row in the Tasks list whose ID matches the ID stored in the variable for this
instance of the workflow.”

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If the workflow runs and creates a task whose ID is 3, this lookup retrieves the
value of the Review status column from the third row in the Tasks list. The next
time the workflow runs, this ID may be 4, so the lookup goes to the fourth row,
and so on.
9. Click OK again.
At this point, your rule should look like this:

To use a variable to make decisions

Now that you have the task ID variable (in this example, Variable: Review status) you
are ready to use it as the basis for making decisions in the workflow. To do this, you use
the Compare any data source condition, creating two conditional branches. For
example, you can add a step to your workflow that says “If Variable: Review status
equals Approved, run these actions; if Variable: Review status equals Rejected, run
different actions.”
Create the first conditional branch
If the value stored in Variable:Review status equals Approved, the workflow will perform
any actions associated with this condition.

1. In the Workflow Designer, under Workflow Steps, click Add workflow step.

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2. Click Conditions, and then click Compare any data source.

3. In the Compare any data source condition, click the first hyperlinked parameter,
and then click the Display data binding icon .
4. In the Define Workflow Lookup dialog box, choose the following options:
Source list: Click Workflow Data.
Field list: Click Variable: Review status.

5. Click OK.
6. In the condition, leave equals as the value for the second parameter.
7. Click the third hyperlinked parameter, type Approved, and then press ENTER.

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Create the second conditional branch

The second conditional branch handles the case where the value stored in Variable:
Review status equals Rejected.
8. Click Add 'Else If' Conditional Branch.
9. Click Conditions, and then click Compare any data source.
10. In the condition, click the first hyperlinked parameter, and then click the Display
data binding icon .
11. In the Define Workflow Lookup dialog box, choose the following options:
Source list: Click Workflow Data.
Field list: Click Variable: Review status.

12. Click OK.

13. In the condition, leave equals as the value for the second parameter.
14. In the condition, click the second hyperlinked parameter, type Rejected, and
then press ENTER.
Before you add any actions to the condition in each branch, this step of the
workflow should look like this:

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15. Click Actions, and then add the actions that you want each conditional branch
to perform.

7.4 Example: Send a SOW Document to the Project Manager

for Review
This scenario is applicable when a team member needs to get a project artifact
reviewed and approved by the project manager. The project artifacts, such as detail
designs and high-level designs, are stored in the Document Store library.
Prerequisite: In the SharePoint Online site, create a new document library. For this
example, name it Document Store.
To create a workflow for routing a document for review
1. Open Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. On the File menu, click Open Site.
3. In the Open Site dialog box, select the SharePoint Online site where you want
to create the workflow, and then click Open.
4. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Workflow.
5. On the first page of the Workflow Designer, In the Give a name to this
workflow box, type Document Review.
Site visitors will see this name when they view the Workflow Status and
Workflows pages in the browser.
6. In the What SharePoint list should this workflow be attached to? list, click

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Document Store.
7. Under Select workflow start options for items in Document Store, do the
following:
Clear the Allow this workflow to be manually started from an item check
box.
Select the Automatically start this workflow when a new item is created
check box.
Clear the Automatically start this workflow whenever an item is changed
check box.

8. Click Next.
9. Click Actions, and then click Assign a To-do Item in the Actions list.
Note: If this action is not available in the list, click More Actions to
see the full list.
10. In the action, click the first hyperlinked parameter, in this example it is a to-do
item.

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11. On the first page of the Custom Task Wizard, click Next.
12. On the second page of the Custom Task Wizard, for this example do the
following:
In the Name box, type Review Document as the name for this task.
Note: The task name must be unique in the current site.
In the Description box, type Please review this new document, using
comments and track changes only, and then click the Complete Task
button.
This description appears at the top of the custom task form, so it should include
the instructions that the workflow participant should use.

13. Click Finish.

The following illustration shows how this task will appear to the workflow
participant in the browser. This is the custom task form ( Review
Document.aspx) that you just designed using the Custom Task Wizard.

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14. In the action, click the Second hyperlinked parameter, in this example it is
these users.

15. In the Select Users dialog box, type a name or e-mail address, or click an
existing user or group in the list, and then click Add.
16. Repeat this step to include other participants to whom you want to assign this
task.
Note: In the Assign a To-do Item action, the workflow creates one
task for each person and group that you select. It does not
expand the group and assign a separate task to each person
in the group.
Instead of entering a specific user or group name, or e-mail
address, you can store this information in a separate list, and
then use workflow lookup to get this information. This way,
you can configure various users and groups as workflow
participants without modifying the workflow itself.
17. When all the appropriate participants appear in the Selected Users box, click
OK.

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8 Index
A E
actions ...........................................................................108
else if conditional branch ............................................ 126
add workflow .................................................................124
excluded SharePoint Online Web Services ............... 81
adding custom content ..................................................38
adding, editing, or deleting a heading or link..............43
applying a style sheet ....................................................40 F
applying master page ....................................................36 features ............................................................................. 7
applying theme ...............................................................28 form web part ................................................................. 61
available SharePoint Online Web Services ................77

I
C
inserting content field .................................................... 39
capabilities and limitations ..............................................9 installing site template................................................... 24
changing background color...........................................43 integrating third party web services ............................ 62
collaboration emplates ..................................................12 introduction ....................................................................... 6
conditional branch ........................................................124
conditions ......................................................................108
configuring a subsite ......................................................41
L
create master page ........................................................35 locate and create default.master ................................. 35
create site ........................................................................17
creating blog site ............................................................27
M
creating custom site template .......................................21
creating new site ...................................................... 25, 26 master page
custom templates ...........................................................13 apply ........................................................................... 36
customization customize ................................................................... 29
capabilities ....................................................................9 master page galleries .................................................... 30
customizing cascading style sheets ............................39 meetings templates ....................................................... 13
customizing master page ..............................................29
customizing page layouts ..............................................37 N
customizing SharePoint Online site .............................28
customizing web sites....................................................28 navigation editing and sorting ...................................... 43
no code workflow ......................................................... 108
D
O
data centers ......................................................................7
data view opening page layout ...................................................... 37
conditional formatting................................................60 opening SharePoint Online site ................................... 35
create ..........................................................................53 overview ............................................................................ 6
sorting and grouping .................................................60
default site template .......................................................11 P
design of home page .....................................................43
page layout
add custom content .................................................. 38
insert content field..................................................... 39

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open ............................................................................37 W
process user data in workflow ....................................113
workflows ...................................................................... 108
R
removing site template ..................................................25
reordering navigation items ..........................................43

S
set workflow variable ........................................... 119, 120
SharePoint Online Web Services ................................77
available......................................................................77
excluded .....................................................................81
site template
install ...........................................................................24
remove ........................................................................25
site templates
collaboration ...............................................................12
blank site ................................................................12
blog .........................................................................12
document workspace ...........................................12
team site ................................................................12
wiki site ..................................................................12
custom ........................................................................13
board of directors..................................................14
business performance reporting .........................14
case management for government agencies ...14
classroom management ......................................14
clinical trial initiation and management..............14
competitive analysis site ......................................14
discussion database.............................................15
disputed invoice management ............................15
employee activities site ........................................15
employee self-service benefits ...........................15
employee training scheduling and materials ....15
equity research .....................................................15
integrated marketing campaign tracking ...........15
manufacturing process management ................15
new store opening ................................................15
product and marketing requirements planning .16
request for proposal .............................................16
sports league.........................................................16
team work site .......................................................16
timecard management .........................................16
default site templates ................................................11
meetings .....................................................................13
basic meeting workspace ....................................13
solution scenario ............................................................10

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