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  • FlexListViewer webpart update: better support for optional and percentage fields

    FlexListViewer webpart update: better support for optional and percentage fields

    A small update this time on the FlexListViewer-webpart.


    Lee Cramman found out that it couldn’t display the tasklist that comes with a meeting workspace. This evening I checked it out and noticed that the webpart doesn’t handle optional fields so well (ahem :)). Anywayz, since these fields are optional, their value can be null which requires explicit checks in the code. I added those check, not only for the field that caused the problem, but also for all other fields that are supported by FlexListViewer.


    The field that caused the problem was the “% Complete”-field. This field also had “Display as percentage” enabled. I realized that I never built in any support for that switch, so I added that as well, since a value like “25%” was currently displayed as “0.25” which makes no sense to most users.


    Also check out these other articles about FlexListViewer:



    Download FlexListViewer 1.6  >>here<<!


    (Robert te Kaat)

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12 comments

  1. On occasions (once or twice a week) I get the following error were ever I have implementede the viewer web part. Can you offer any assistance?

    Error occurred: The type initializer for “System.Xml.Xsl.Compiler” threw an exception.
    Details: System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for “System.Xml.Xsl.Compiler” threw an exception. —> System.Threading.ThreadAbortException: Thread was being aborted. at System.Xml.Xsl.Compiler..cctor() — End of inner exception stack trace — at System.Xml.Xsl.Compiler..ctor() at System.Xml.Xsl.XslTransform.Compile(XPathNavigator stylesheet, XmlResolver resolver, Evidence evidence) at System.Xml.Xsl.XslTransform.Load(XPathNavigator stylesheet, XmlResolver resolver, Evidence evidence) at System.Xml.Xsl.XslTransform.Load(IXPathNavigable stylesheet, XmlResolver resolver, Evidence evidence) at InfoSupport.SharePoint.XMLUtil.TransformXml(XmlDocument docXml, XmlDocument docXsl, XsltArgumentList args, Evidence evidence) at InfoSupport.SharePoint.WebParts.FlexListViewer.RenderWebPart(HtmlTextWriter output)
    at System.Xml.Xsl.Compiler..ctor() at System.Xml.Xsl.XslTransform.Compile(XPathNavigator stylesheet, XmlResolver resolver, Evidence evidence) at System.Xml.Xsl.XslTransform.Load(XPathNavigator stylesheet, XmlResolver resolver, Evidence evidence) at System.Xml.Xsl.XslTransform.Load(IXPathNavigable stylesheet, XmlResolver resolver, Evidence evidence) at InfoSupport.SharePoint.XMLUtil.TransformXml(XmlDocument docXml, XmlDocument docXsl, XsltArgumentList args, Evidence evidence) at InfoSupport.SharePoint.WebParts.FlexListViewer.RenderWebPart(HtmlTextWriter output)

    Mark

  2. Hello Mark.
    The ThreadAbortException probably occurs because the handling of the request takes too long. I’m not sure, but maybe you can change it on the application pool. However, a better option may be to upgrade hardware or scale-out the sharepoint environment (farm).
    The application pool also has some recycle settings. By default an application pool recycles every so many hours. You may want to set it to a specific time when your site gets the least visitors. This recycling may also cause this exception.

    Robert

  3. Thanks for the quick response,

    I should have mentioned when I do an IISReset the problem goes away.

    Current Reycle worker processes was running at 1:10 every night, which as you mention may explain the error, it does seem to occur on first viewing a site in the morning.

    Mark

  4. Sounds like your server is not capable to startup the web-application (SharePoint) within the timeout for a single request. The application stil start, but the request is aborted. You could create a tool which fires a webrequest to the server to make the application start. This way users are not bothered with the initial delay.
    Another option is to disable the recycling every night and schedule iisreset once a week.

    robertka

  5. We are trying to use FlexListViewer on a medium farm (2WFE, 1 Index, 1 Query). I have installed the dlls and modified web.config on both WFEs since they are NLB-ed. However, some of the users get an error:

    Error occurred: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
    Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at Core.SPListUtil.GetSPListItemValueParts(SPView view, ListViewField listViewField, SPField field, Int32 itemId, Object fieldValue) at Core.SPListUtil.GenerateListViewObjectModel(SPView view) at FlexListViewerMOSS.FlexListViewer.RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter output)
    at Core.SPListUtil.GetSPListItemValueParts(SPView view, ListViewField listViewField, SPField field, Int32 itemId, Object fieldValue) at Core.SPListUtil.GenerateListViewObjectModel(SPView view) at FlexListViewerMOSS.FlexListViewer.RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter output)

    These users are part of another domain D1 from where the servers are found (D2). Actually, the D1 is the parent of D2. Users of D1 can use the web part ok.
    What should we check ?

    Tassos

  6. We didn’t manage to get a grip on the security-related issues that people are experiencing. These issues just don’t occur on our development VMs! 🙂

    However, in the past it turned out that security-errors or login-boxes that appeared were caused by the fact that the xslt-file that is used to render the list-contents to HTML was not accessible by the end-user of the site. Since SharePoint impersonates this end-user, you must make sure the xslt-file is accessible by everyone (read-access ). The file is located somewhere below this path: C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensionswpresourcesFlexListViewer…

    robertka

  7. It looks like you have a really useful webpart, but the key question for me is can the data be edited when viewed from sites below (yes, I do realise the word ‘view’ is in the name).

    I give in with Microsoft – always the same, you can do 98% of what you want but the last 2% that renders the damned thing of any use at all is all but impossible. All I want to do on a collaboration group of sites is to share data views down through the hierarchy, allowing those people working on distinct parts of a project to see an editable view of fields relevant to them in a list residing on the top level site. I can’t be the only person in the world with this requirement can I – or have I really lost the plot?

    Apologies if I appear a little tetchy, but I shouldn’t have to dive into dot.net to do something as elementary as this, and if I go anywhere near Frontpage my web developers laugh at me, added to the fact that I’ve just spent almost a day trying to work out how to edit a insert and hyperlink in a dataview AAAArgh! – Productivity tool huh?

    JulianB

  8. Does this web part work with MOSS 2007 or is there a different way of accomplishing the same thing that is now native to MOSS 2007? I am specifically interested in displaying an image based upon a field in a list. The other item I am exploring is being able to display a “thumbnail” of the document in the document library.

    Seth Moupre

  9. Hi!

    Is this an open source project? I found this webpart quite usefull, but it’s annoying that it doesn’t have the sort & filter capabilities that the builtin webparts have, and the title isn’t a link to the list it gets the data from, like the builtin webpart (ie. id you add a listdoclib to a site and add click edit page and add webpart, that listdoclib then has it’s own webpart. Ideally I would like the FlexListViewer to look the same and have the same features that those webparts have), so I wondered if it is possible to get the source and try to make those changes?

    Best regards
    Olav

    Olav

  10. You can download the source from our codeplex folder: http://www.codeplex.com/isdemos

    robertka

  11. Hi Robert,

    We have a xslt web part which loads the xslt from a resources document library and xslt reads the data from a list in the same web. From past few days we are getting this error
    Message: The operation has timed out
    Source: System
    Stack Trace: at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse() at System.Xml.XmlDownloadManager.GetNonFileStream(Uri uri, ICredentials credentials) at System.Xml.XmlDownloadManager.GetStream(Uri uri, ICredentials credentials) at System.Xml.XmlUrlResolver.GetEntity(Uri absoluteUri, String role, Type ofObjectToReturn) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrlDelegate(Object xmlResolver) at System.Threading.CompressedStack.runTryCode(Object userData) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData) at System.Threading.CompressedStack.Run(CompressedStack compressedStack, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrl() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read() at System.Xml.XPath.XPathDocument.LoadFromReader(XmlReader reader, XmlSpace space) at System.Xml.XPath.XPathDocument..ctor(XmlReader reader, XmlSpace space) at System.Xml.Xsl.XsltOld.Compiler.LoadDocument(XmlTextReaderImpl reader) at System.Xml.Xsl.XslTransform.Load(String url, XmlResolver resolver) at CIT.SharePoint.UI.WebParts.XsltTransform.RenderWebPart(HtmlTextWriter output)
    After I reconfigure the web part the site works fine. The same web part works fine in another site and never gave this error. The number of users using the portal is more compared to a community site.
    Can I know what might be the problem.

    Shilpa

  12. Shilpa,

    The error ‘The operation has timed out’ indicates that either your system is busy or the request is not coming through.

    Are you sure everything is configured correctly?
    You could download the sources of the flexlistviewer and try to debug the problem if you still get this error.

    We would like to know the cause if you can find any.

    Regards,
    Bart

    bartg

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