Tips & Tricks: SharePoint 2013 Modal Dialogs

Copyright from: blog.collabware.com

In October I posted some tips and tricks with regards to SharePoint 2010 modal dialogs. Now I’m back with some updates for SharePoint 2013.

The Dialog API has not changed much from SP2010 to SP2013. Opening, closing, callbacks, etc are the same as before and you can reference my previous post for all that stuff.

Loading Wait Screen and showWaitScreenWithNoClose

The signature for SP.UI.ModalDialog.showWaitScreenWithNoClose has not changed, but MS has updated the rendering for the UI. It no longer looks different than the default loader, so no more private API calls for us!

The default loading message has now changed to this:

You can bring this up by calling:

1	SP.UI.ModalDialog.showWaitScreenWithNoClose(SP.Res.dialogLoading15);

Calling the method with both title and message:

1	SP.UI.ModalDialog.showWaitScreenWithNoClose('Loading Title', 'Loading Message Here...');

Looks like:

Resizing Modal Dialogs

DISCLAIMER: Some of the code below uses private functions/methods of the SP2013 API. I can’t guarantee that this will work throughout the life of SP2013 updates.

The internal variables and methods were updated in the 2013 version of SP.UI.ModalDialog. Logic remains the same and here’s the updated code:

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// wrapper which ensures SP.UI.Dialog.js is loaded before re-size fires. // (if you need to trigger a re-size in your init scripts as the JS library is loaded asyncronously) function resizeModalDialog() {   SP.SOD.executeOrDelayUntilScriptLoaded(_resizeModalDialog, 'sp.ui.dialog.js'); }   function _resizeModalDialog () {   // get the top-most dialog   var dlg = SP.UI.ModalDialog.get_childDialog();     if (dlg != null) {     // dlg.$Q_0 - is dialog maximized     // dlg.get_$b_0() - is dialog a modal     if (!dlg.$Q_0 && dlg.get_$b_0()) {       // resize the dialog       dlg.autoSize();         var xPos, yPos, //x & y co-ordinates to move modal to...       win = SP.UI.Dialog.get_$1(), // the very bottom browser window object       xScroll = SP.UI.Dialog.$1x(win), // browser x-scroll pos       yScroll = SP.UI.Dialog.$20(win); // browser y-scroll pos         //SP.UI.Dialog.$1P(win) - get browser viewport width       //SP.UI.Dialog.$1O(win) - get browser viewport height       //dlg.$3_0 - modal's DOM element         // calculate x-pos based on viewport and dialog width       xPos = ((SP.UI.Dialog.$1P(win) - dlg.$3_0.offsetWidth) / 2) + xScroll;         // if x-pos is out of view (content too wide), re-position to left edge + 10px       if (xPos < xScroll + 10) {         xPos = xScroll + 10;       }         // calculate y-pos based on viewport and dialog height       yPos = ((SP.UI.Dialog.$1O(win) - dlg.$3_0.offsetHeight) / 2) + yScroll;         // if x-pos is out of view (content too high), re-position to top edge + 10px       if (yPos < yScroll + 10) {         yPos = yScroll + 10;       }         // store dialog's new x-y co-ordinates       dlg.$K_0 = xPos;       dlg.$W_0 = yPos;         // move dialog to x-y pos       dlg.$p_0(dlg.$K_0, dlg.$W_0);         // set dialog title bar text width       dlg.$1b_0();         // size down the dialog width/height if it's larger than browser viewport       dlg.$27_0();     }   } }

2010 Experience and Version Detection

When you create a Site Collection in SharePoint 2013, you have the option of using the old 2010 experience. The SP.UI.Dialog.js file that is loaded on the page is different when in 2013 vs 2010 experience mode. Be aware that if you want to use a single artifact for your scripts, you’ll need to have different code branches. You can check in JavaScript by referencing SP.OfficeVersion.majorVersion. It will return a string of either “15” when in 2013 mode or“14” in 2010 mode.

As an example:

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function _resizeModalDialog () {   if (SP.OfficeVersion.majorVersion == "14") {     // SP2010 code here...   } else {     // SP2013 code here...   } }

Improving REST API performance with JSON Light

Copyright from: www.vrdmn.com

2817429​ Minimal and no metadata are now enabled as supported JSON formats. 

This really caught my attention as it was something I was waiting for. When we make a call with the REST API, there is a lot of additional data which we get back in the response. This additional data consists of the metadata and the Hyper Media Controls along with the required JSON data.  To know more about this, please see this excellent post describing REST Maturity Models: http://martinfowler.com/articles/richardsonMaturityModel.html

This makes the payload size of the REST response too big. If you are developing a REST heavy application, then each extra byte of data that travels over the wire to your client adds up and ends up hampering performance.

I did some digging around and found out that my SharePoint Online Tenant was already supporting these JSON formats! All I had to do was to modify the Accept header of my REST call.

Note: As mentioned before, for these formats to work on an On-Premises SharePoint 2013, you will need to install SP1.

I ran some tests using the Chrome Developer Tools and Postman REST Client to see the effect on the payload size.

All tests were done to simply fetch the current web details with the following api call:

https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test/_api/web

1) Accept : "application/json;odata=verbose"

According to Microsoft Guidance published before, to get the JSON data back from the REST call, we need to specify the Accept header as"application/json;odata=verbose" But I think that guidance might be a little outdated now. Here is the result of the REST Call made with the above header:

Payload
Size: 2.0 KB
Content Size: 5.1 KB

    (Click on Image to Enlarge)

And here is the JSON we get back. You can see that there is a lot of metadata along with the Hypermedia Controls. 

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{ "d": { "__metadata": { "id": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test/_api/Web", "uri": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test/_api/Web", "type": "SP.Web" }, "FirstUniqueAncestorSecurableObject": { "__deferred": { "uri": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test/_api/Web/FirstUniqueAncestorSecurableObject" } }, "RoleAssignments": { "__deferred": { "uri": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test/_api/Web/RoleAssignments" } }, "AllProperties": { "__deferred": { "uri": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test/_api/Web/AllProperties" } }, "AppTiles": { "__deferred": { "uri": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test/_api/Web/AppTiles" } }, //*******Lots of Hypermedia Controls removed for formatting************ "AllowRssFeeds": true, "AlternateCssUrl": "", "AppInstanceId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000", "Configuration": 0, "Created": "2014-05-27T21:02:57", "CustomMasterUrl": "/sites/test/_catalogs/masterpage/seattle.master", "Description": "", "DocumentLibraryCalloutOfficeWebAppPreviewersDisabled": false, "EnableMinimalDownload": false, "Id": "fd6009e8-2965-4e50-9564-06a10d13add1", "Language": 1033, "LastItemModifiedDate": "2014-06-04T09:28:01Z", "MasterUrl": "/sites/test/_catalogs/masterpage/seattle.master", "QuickLaunchEnabled": true, "RecycleBinEnabled": true, "ServerRelativeUrl": "/sites/test", "SiteLogoUrl": null, "SyndicationEnabled": true, "Title": "Test Bench", "TreeViewEnabled": false, "UIVersion": 15, "UIVersionConfigurationEnabled": false, "Url": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test", "WebTemplate": "STS" } }

view rawrestodataverbose.js hosted with ❤ by GitHub

2) Accept : "application/json;odata=minimalmetadata" (OR Accept : "application/json")

Now when optimizing for performance, we do not need all the metadata and all the Hyper Media Controls as we are only concerned with the JSON data. We can then use this header to optimize them. It will return the required JSON with very minimal metadata attached to it. This is also the default option if you only specify "application/json" in your Accept header without specifying the odata parameter.

Payload
Size: 1.5 KB
Content Size: 1.0 KB

   (Click on Image to Enlarge)

And this is the JSON returned. You can see that the Hyper Media Controls are no longer returned and only some of the metadata is returned.

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{ "odata.metadata": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test/_api/$metadata#SP.ApiData.Webs/@Element", "odata.type": "SP.Web", "odata.id": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test/_api/Web", "odata.editLink": "Web", "AllowRssFeeds": true, "AlternateCssUrl": "", "AppInstanceId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000", "Configuration": 0, "Created": "2014-05-27T21:02:57", "CustomMasterUrl": "/sites/test/_catalogs/masterpage/seattle.master", "Description": "", "DocumentLibraryCalloutOfficeWebAppPreviewersDisabled": false, "EnableMinimalDownload": false, "Id": "fd6009e8-2965-4e50-9564-06a10d13add1", "Language": 1033, "LastItemModifiedDate": "2014-06-04T09:28:01Z", "MasterUrl": "/sites/test/_catalogs/masterpage/seattle.master", "QuickLaunchEnabled": true, "RecycleBinEnabled": true, "ServerRelativeUrl": "/sites/test", "SiteLogoUrl": null, "SyndicationEnabled": true, "Title": "Test Bench", "TreeViewEnabled": false, "UIVersion": 15, "UIVersionConfigurationEnabled": false, "Url": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test", "WebTemplate": "STS" }

view rawrestodataminimal.js hosted with ❤ by GitHub

3) Accept : "application/json;odata=nometadata"

This is the option for the extreme "optimizers" who want no metadata or Hypermedia Controls attached to the response and are only concerned with the JSON

Payload
Size: 1.4 KB
Content Size: 800 Bytes

   (Click on Image to Enlarge)

And this is the JSON returned:

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{ "AllowRssFeeds": true, "AlternateCssUrl": "", "AppInstanceId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000", "Configuration": 0, "Created": "2014-05-27T21:02:57", "CustomMasterUrl": "/sites/test/_catalogs/masterpage/seattle.master", "Description": "", "DocumentLibraryCalloutOfficeWebAppPreviewersDisabled": false, "EnableMinimalDownload": false, "Id": "fd6009e8-2965-4e50-9564-06a10d13add1", "Language": 1033, "LastItemModifiedDate": "2014-06-04T09:28:01Z", "MasterUrl": "/sites/test/_catalogs/masterpage/seattle.master", "QuickLaunchEnabled": true, "RecycleBinEnabled": true, "ServerRelativeUrl": "/sites/test", "SiteLogoUrl": null, "SyndicationEnabled": true, "Title": "Test Bench", "TreeViewEnabled": false, "UIVersion": 15, "UIVersionConfigurationEnabled": false, "Url": "https://siteurl.sharepoint.com/sites/test", "WebTemplate": "STS" }

view rawrestodatanometadata.js hosted with ❤ by GitHub

So as you can see, if you want to reduce the payload size from the REST response, you can use the different JSON formats depending on the degree of optimization you want.

Hope you found this information useful! 

Parsing XML with jQuery using XPath or CSS path or CSS Selectors

Copyright from: http://www.kumarchetan.com

This is just a continuation to my previous post. I missed a very simple thing in the post. jQuery allows you to use CSS path, commonly known as CSS selectors, which is somewhat similar to XPath. For uninformed, XPath is a simpler way to query nodes in an XML document. You can even use filters with these selectors. Visit this doc page on jQuery doc website for more. Using the same code base I made following changes to access items node from my XML feed file.

//The xpath way
$(xml).find( "channel>item" ).each(
    function(){
        var item = $(this),
        title =  item.find('title').text(),
        link =  item.find('link').text(),
        itemid =  item.attr('id');//get an attribute
        console.log(title);
        console.log(link);
        console.log('The attribute value "' + itemid + '".');
    }
);

I have update the code on github page. How can you

Parsing XML with jQuery Part 1

Copyright from: www.kumarchetan.com

I recently worked on a small Android App using PhoneGap & jQuery. The app did a very small task fetch the XML feed from my blog and display it. Simple. This meant parsing XML using jQuery. Most of the examples on web used this particular example in one form or another. Not all XML document are like record sets. For example a blog feed will have following structure

 
 http://www.kumarchetan.com/blog
    
        
        http://www.kumarchetan.com/blog/2012/01/14/my-first-android-app-or-how-to-develop-an-android-app-using-phonegap-and-jquery/
    
    
        
        http://www.kumarchetan.com/blog/2011/12/11/how-not-to-do-a-ci-controller-tips-to-develop-codeigniter-controllers/
    

The interesting part in this XML is that tags or nodes with similar names exist through out the document at different depth. This XML has attributes attached to its nodes. This is how a typical XML may look like. How do you actually parse this using jQuery? jQuery has find(). From the documentation

Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the .find() method allows us to search through the descendants of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements.

We can convert this XML into a jQuery object and then use find() to actually parse it. Here is a code snippet

var xml = '  

SharePoint Online: Sideloading of apps is not enabled on this site.

Copyright from: www.superedge.net

If you are deploying a solution to SharePoint Online, at some point you will likely come across the following error: Error occurred in deployment step 'Install app for SharePoint': Sideloading of apps is not enabled on this site.

So...In short, you will not be able to deploy any solution from Visual Studio to SharePoint Online/Office 365 without enabling Sideloading first. I will show you how to fix this and then explain later, so you don’t waste any time looking for the answer. After all, I believe you came here to find the fix first

2-Steps Solution:
1) Download and install SharePoint Online Management Shell 
2) Execute the script below. (Note that the Sideloading Feature ID is harcoded in SharePoint, as are many other OOTB features)

#CODE STARTS HERE
$programFiles = [environment]::getfolderpath("programfiles")
add-type -Path $programFiles'\SharePoint Online Management Shell\Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll'
Write-Host 'Ready to enable Sideloading'
$siteurl = Read-Host 'Site Url'
$username = Read-Host "User Name"
$password = Read-Host -AsSecureString 'Password'
 
$outfilepath = $siteurl -replace ':', '_' -replace '/', '_'
 
try
{
    [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext]$cc = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($siteurl)
    [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials]$spocreds = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($username, $password)
    $cc.Credentials = $spocreds
    $site = $cc.Site;

    $sideLoadingGuid = new-object System.Guid "AE3A1339-61F5-4f8f-81A7-ABD2DA956A7D"
    $site.Features.Add($sideLoadingGuid, $true, [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FeatureDefinitionScope]::None);
     
    $cc.ExecuteQuery();
     
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green 'SideLoading feature enabled on site' $siteurl
    #Activate the Developer Site feature
}
catch
{ 
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red 'Error encountered when trying to enable SideLoading feature' $siteurl, ':' $Error[0].ToString();
}

#CODE ENDS HERE

In your SPO Management Shell enter the url of the site you want to deploy the solution, the administrator username and the password. The powershell will take care of the rest.

Now off you go. You’re ready to deploy solutions from your Visual Studio straight into Office 365. You can also get a more elaborate code in the MSDN Code Solution Repository.