SharePoint 2013 REST Service

SP 2010 is the first version of SharePoint which supports REST API/Service (REpresentational State Transfer). SP 2010 has REST located at http://[web site URL/_vti_bin/ListData.svc.

SharePoint 2013 has few changes related to REST access URL. SP 2013 has REST located at http://[web site URL]/_api/.

SharePoint 2013 REST endpoints map to SharePoint Client object model types and members. As we know that, SharePoint Client Object Model allows access to various objects in the hierarchy down from the Site Collection i.e. Site (Site Collection), Web (Web Site), List, ListItem etc.

Similarly, the SP 2013 REST allows access to object Site and the objects below it in the hierarchy.

SP 2010 REST API was allowing access to only lists and their items in a web site. SP 2010 REST never given access to Site or Web objects whereas SP 2013 REST can access these objects as well.

Let us see how REST works and how the REST endpoints are formed.


Access Site Collection Object and its properties

http://[Web Url]/_api/site

Use above URL format to access the site collection object in Atom feed format. Do you re-collect “Site” object in Client Object Model representing site collection? Here we used the same object after “_api/”.

Web URL can be any web site in the site collection. Site object can be accessed from any web site in the site collection.

Look at the below XML response for the site collection object.

 
There are two XML namespaces “m:” and “d:” representing metadata and data namespaces respectively.  Complex types and collections are represented as Atom feeds in REST and belong to default namespace. The properties with primitive types belong to “<m:properties>” node.

The “term” attribute on the “<category>” node has value set to fully qualified name of the type of Client Object Model.

The <link> node represents the collections and complex type properties of the object. The “href” attribute provides the /site relative URL to access the atom feed for collection/complex type.

e.g. To access Root Web of the site collection, use

http://[web URL]/_api/site/RootWeb

Similarly one can access the primitive properties by appending the name property in URL after “/site/”. The response is not in Atom feed format. It is just a XML fragment. e.g. To know if the site collection allows use of SharePoint Designer, use

http://[web URL]/_api/site/AllowDesigner

The properties presented in REST response do not contain all properties of “Site” type. e.g “Site” has property “Usage”. There is no <link> node for it in the response, but we can access the property using below URL.

http://[web URL] /_api/site/usage

Access Web site and its properties

http://[Web Url]/_api/web

The above REST endpoint lets us access the basic Web object of Client Object Model.

 

To read web “Title”, use

http://[web URL]/_api/web/title

To read lists collection in a web site, use

http://[web URL]/_api_web/lists

The response from above REST endpoint contains nodes for each list/library in the web site. You can access the specific list, using the <id> node value inside the specific list’s entry.

To read the specific list details, use

http://[Web Url]/_api/web/Lists(guid'[Guid of the list]')

To access the items of a list, use

http://[Web Url]/_api/web/Lists(guid'[guid of the list]')/Items

To access an item with specific ID, use

http://[Web Url]/_api/web/Lists(guid'[guid of the list]')/Items([id of the item])

Related List /Items View in SharePoint 2010

SharePoint 2010 has an enhancment to show related list views. There is pre-requisite to make it work. You should have lists with relation established using lookup columns.

Let's try it.

1. Create a custom list named "Country". We will use "Title" column. If you want to add any new columns, you can do so.

2. Create one more list named "City". Create the columns as shown below. The "Country" must be a lookup column to "Country" list.

3. Add some city information to the list.

4. Right-click on any city and click "Open in New tab/Window". This way it will launch the display form in browser window. This will make "Site Actions" menu available. The "Site Actions" menu is not available in dialog. Click "Site Actions" -> Edit Page.

Click inside the existing web part zone. The ribbon starts presenting "Page Tools" tab. It has a button "Related List". Click it. It shows the all related list. In our case, it is city.

5. Click on the related List "City". It added a related items view as shown below. It will only show cities for the selected country. i.e. the country for which display form is shown.

6. Do not forget to click "Stop Editing" in the "Page" tab of ribbon. This actually saves the page with changes.

7. User can add items to the related list using related items web part. Click the "Add new item" link and it starts showing add new item form page for the "City" list. You can add item here. If the Country display form (View Properties) is being preseneted for "India", still you can add item for "Japan" from this screen. Be careful.

8. You can change the view of related list items. You can add/ remove column from the view using "Edit the current view" link or selected the appropriate view from the drop-down.

9. Edit the current view, after saving view changes takes back to the display form which will show nothing. So close the browser tab/window and reopen. You can see the changes.

Using SPD 2010:

1. Create a new view "DetailedView" for Country list. The view must be same as All Items view.
2. Check-out the page in SharePoint Designer 2010. To accomplish this, open the list using All Files option in SPD 2010.
3. Right-click the page and click on "Edit in Advanced mode".
4. In "Design" view, click inside the available web part zone. Put the cursor at a location where you want to add the related list items web part.
5. Click "Insert" tab in ribbon and it has a button called "Related Item View". This button presents all related lists as shown below.

6. Click the "City:Country" and it adds the related items view on the page as below. Save the page and check -in

7. The view page on browser refresh starts showing a new column as shown below to select an item and the related items are shown for the selected item. Selected item has dark black arrow icon.

 

I will suggest to use browser based method as it will avoid the un-ghosting of the page. But if you would like to customize the XSL of related items web part, better to use SharePoint Designer.

My First Look at SharePoint 2013 Site

[The content is specific to SharePoint 2013 Preview. The RTM may come up with some changes.]

SharePoint 2013 - I was waiting for you. Yes, today I started working on SharePoint 2013 (Preview) site.

I put the URL in browser and this is what I see on home page.

I have highlighted few parts in the picture. These are new in the UI and are not self-explanatory.

Let us have a look at each one.

Edit Links

What links are they talking about? Do they mean page links? Can we re-organize or update page links? Why duplicates are placed at top and below left navigation? Too many questions... came to my mind. Let's give it a try.

Click "Edit Links" in the top. The UI changes in-place as below.

I clicked the "+" sign and it presented me with screen below. It asks for the "Text to be displayed as link" and the target URL.

Can't I specify the target to open the link in new window? There is no way. This a Global navigation, use it only for links scoped to the content in the site collection.

Click "OK". It added a link in Global navigation. But the link is not saved... we have to click on "Save".

Here is how it looks after saving.

Can I edit the link? Yes, I can. Click on "Edit Links" and then click on the link itself. It presents the below screen changes. Click on "Link" icon which is similar to infinity symbol.

It allows to update the link. (Note: This applies to only saved links. If you have added a link but not saved and before saving you want to edit. It does not allow to do it.)

So the duplicate below left navigation...it updates the links in left navigation and it should contain links scoped to the site level content.

Focus On Content

There is an icon on right side at the top icons collection. On hovering the icon, it displays a tooltip saying "Focus on content".

I clicked it...the left navigation bar disappeared. I again clicked it, the left navigation re-appeared. This is really good. Rather than the navigation items occupying the real-esate of screen, it will become available for content. User will have a better experience while working with the content. When required, user can invoke the navigation on demand. Really, cool...!

Stay tuned...!more stuff coming up about SP 2013.

(The screen-shots are from Office 365 Preview site. There is not much difference in the UI of actual SharePoint 2013 site. So the notes apply to SharePoint 2013 Preview site.)

List the "vti_" properties using PowerShell

Every file/document in SharePoint possess some meta-info. It is stored in hashtable presented by SPFile.Properties property. Most of the properties start with "vti_". We cannot write the "vti_" properties as they are read-only.

But we can use this property-bag store custom meta-property for the file. We can manage the custom properties using below method:

• SPFile.AddProperty
• SPFile.SetProperty
• SPFile.GetProperty

SPFile.CustomizedPageStatus property determines the customization status of wiki page or page layout using below properties.

• vti_setuppath
• vti_hasdefaultcontent

Different SharePoint objects has the hashtable based property to store these kind of properties. e.g SPWeb.AllProperties. SPWeb.AllProperties["__PagesListId"] stores the GUID value of "Pages" library created on activating publishing feature.

Changing the UIVersion of migrated sites automatically updates the master page to appropriate UIVersion. This is possible because of the SPWeb.AllProperties. It stores the master page details related to each UIVersion.

PowerShell script to list the "vti_" properties of a file.

$web=Get-SPWeb <webSite URL >
$list=$web.Lists["Site Pages"]
foreach($item in $list.Items)
{
    $item.File.Name
    Write-Host "**********"
    foreach($key in $item.File.Properties.Keys)
    {
        Write-Host $key "=" $item.File.Properties[$key]
    }
    Write-Host "------------------*****---------------------------"
}

PowerShell script to list "vti_" properties of web site.

$web=Get-SPWeb <webSite URL >
foreach($key in $web.AllProperties.Keys)
{
     Write-Host $key "=" $web.AllProperties[$key]
}

Have a look!

Missing IIS_WPG group on SharePoint 2010 server

If you have came across this TechNet link, you will find that the SP 2010 setup user account should be present in IIS_WPG group. We faced some issue for which we were investigating the account permissions and their group memberships.

On our servers we found that there is no IIS_WPG group. Initially I thought this can be the cause of issue. But I also noted that there is IIS_IUSRS group. I never paid attention to this group or never came across any such group in the context of Web development.

I googled for IIS_WPG and IIS_IUSRS keywords. I found a good link explaining the difference of these group. IIS_WPG is replaced by IIS_IUSRS group in IIS 7. Our servers are Window 2008 based and so our systems have the IIS 7.

IIS_WPG group is specific to earlier versions of IIS.

So if you find similar discrepancy in SharePoint systems, do not panic. Check for availability of IIS_IUSRS group.

Insert Picture From SharePoint is disabled in CEWP

Recently I came across a scenario in which the user was using content editor web part (CEWP) and using the Rich Text Editor ribbon of SharePoint 2010 to format the content. The user noted that "Insert Picture From SharePoint" option is disabled on a page.

I started investigating and came across MSDN Forum where it is mentioned that activating a publishing feature will resolve the issue. The site must be in publishing context. In our case, the site has the publishing feature activated.

We tried creating various kind of pages (Wiki Page, Web Part Page and Publishing Page). The option was enabled for every kind of page on the same site.

The option was disabled for only one page i.e. default.aspx. The page resides at the site root. I created a web part page in "Site Pages" and verified the option is enabled for the page. I opened the site in SharePoint Designer 2010. I moved the page to the site root. Again, I browsed for the page in edit mode and verified the option, it was disabled.

The page at site root does not belong to any library and has no associated content type for it. The page has few content management features disabled such as "Versioning", "Edit Properties". This is because the page was not child of any library (an orphan page or the parent is site).

Publishing feature has a strong bond with content management features. As the page do not have content management features available, it was not able to take advantage of the publishing context also. That's the reason, it was showing "Insert Picture From SharePoint" in disabled state.

This is not only this option, it also disables capabilities to cut, copy, paste in the Rich Text Editor.

Content Editor Web Part duplicating content

Today I received a request mentioning that Content Editor Web Part is duplicating the content. The user was adding clock object prepared in Adobe Flash. This clock was being duplicated whenever the user is editing the web part.

I checked the content editor web part. It has got too many "<embed>" tag. The tags were being duplicated. The clock was being rendered using some JavaScript method. We inspected the method. The method was using "document.write" to add the "<embed>" tag.

Content editor web part renders its HTML/JavaScript content on its canvas. So document.write was adding "<embed>" tag on every "Save" for the web part. So every edit action for the web part was adding "<embed>" tag causing duplicate clocks (content).

We resolved the issue by creating separate content file for Content Editor Web Part. The content file is linked to the Content Editor Web part. As the "document.write" is moved to separate file, for every request the file is read and parsed for render. "document.write" do not append content in the file. So it has no duplication of content.

Always use separate content file whenever we have a content which includes "document.write" in JavaScript.

More Reference(s):

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5020573/sharepoint-2010-content-editor-web-part-duplicating-entries