SharePoint & jQuery - Introduction and Best Practic

1. SharePoint & jQuery – What I Wish I
Would Have Known When I Started…
Mark Rackley – Solutions Architect /
SharePoint Practice Lead / Developer
Email: mrackley@juniper-strategy.com
Blog: http://www.sharepointhillbilly.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mrackley

2. Agenda
• jQuery Overview
• jQuery & SharePoint – What’s the
Point?
• Deployment, Maintenance, Upgrades
• SPServices
• Development & Debugging
• Examples
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3. What is jQuery?
• JavaScript utility library
• Quickly write interactive and USABLE
applications
• You don’t have to deploy assemblies (perfect
for tightly controlled environments)

4. What Skills do I need?
• JavaScript (duh)
• CSS, XML
• A development background
– It IS code
– Uses development constructs
– If you can’t write code, your ability to do magic will be limited to
what you can copy/paste
• CAML, CAML, CAML… Sorry…
• Ability to think outside the box
– Use all the pieces together

5. SharePoint & jQuery? Why?
Resolves many common SharePoint complaints without
having to crack open Visual Studio

6. SharePoint & jQuery? Why?
“It looks like SharePoint”

7. SharePoint & jQuery? Why?
“That’s SharePoint?”

8. SharePoint & jQuery? Why?
“I’m so sorry… SharePoint can’t do that out of the box”

9. SharePoint & jQuery? Why?
“Sure, no problem”

10. SharePoint & jQuery? Why?
“That will take 3
weeks???”
becomes “2 days?
Awesome! I love
you… here, please
accept this bonus
for being such a
wonderful
developer”

11. jQuery makes your SharePoint
applications USABLE

12. Common Myths
• It’s not secure
Busted… It uses SharePoint’s security. All scripts run with
privileges of current user
• It doesn’t perform well
Plausible… It performs very well if you use it correctly in the right
situations
• I can’t elevate privileges if I need to
Confirmed…

13. Yeah but…
• I can’t interact with SharePoint Lists and
Libraries without screen scraping
You can call Web Services with JavaScript (SPServices is a
wonderful jQuery library that wraps SharePoints Web Service
calls) and the Client Object Model in 2010
• It has no real use in my environment because
of “x”
Quickly prototype and tweak web parts before writing in Visual
Studio. In fact, in some environments it is the only development
option.

14. So… jQuery MUST be…

15. Not So Fast…
• It does “expose” business logic to user if they dig around
• It executes on the client side and can perform slow if
manipulating larges amounts of data
• Be extra careful for external facing applications
• You can’t do EVERYTHING with jQuery like…
– Timer Jobs
– Workflows (although it can eliminate the need for some)
– Event Handlers
– Elevate Privliges
– Easily interact with all business systems
• jQuery CAN harm your farm!

16. Deployment Options

17. Deployment options
• Folders in SPD / Visual Studio Module
• File System
– Deployed with a WSP (don’t think of manually
copying)
– Not an option for Office 365 or hosted SharePoint
2010
• External Reference
– Microsoft Ajax Content Delivery Network (CDN)
http://www.asp.net/ajaxlibrary/cdn.ashx

18. Deployment options
• Document Library
– Easily modify scripts
– Keep track of changes with Metadata
– Recover from screw ups with Versioning
– Less control, more flexibility versus other options

19. Deployment options

20. Reference Options
• ScriptLink
• MasterPages, Delegate Controls, Web Parts, Controls, Custom
Pages
• Ensures Script is not loaded multiple times
• Renders in the correct place in the markup
• Need Visual Studio or SPD
• More upfront work
• Content Editor Web Part (CEWP)
• Quick & Easy
• Don’t have to deploy anything
• Adds CEWP overhead

21. Reference Options
• Custom Action
• Loads Script on every page
• Works in sandbox
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<CustomAction
ScriptSrc="~sitecollection/SiteAssets/jquery.min.js"
Location="ScriptLink"
Sequence="100"
>
</CustomAction>
</Elements>

22. Maintenance Best Practice
• Don’t add script directly in your Master Pages
– Difficult to maintain
– Must make modifications in SPD / Visual Studio
– Use Custom Action instead
• Don’t add scripts directly in your CEWP
– Using content link instead of editing the CEWP
source.
– No reuse

23. Moving Between Environments and
Upgrading to 2010
• It just works… (woo hoo)
– Uses list names and not GUIDs so no issues
moving from dev to prod
– For the most part works identical in 2007 and
2010 (I’m sure there’s the occasional issue but I’ve
never run into it).
– Might want to tweak in 2010 to take advantage of
2010 features (ribbon, modal pop-ups)

24. jQuery is another
tool for the
SharePoint
Developer’s toolkit
Understand the
limitations
Use it wisely

25. Development Basics
• jQuery methods are executed using jQuery() or $()
• $(document).ready() is your “main()”
– Don’t HAVE to, but easy to quickly locate where script starts
• $(‘#elementID’) to interact with any element
– Divs, tables, rows, cells, inputs, selects.. Etc.. Etc.. Etc…
– <table id=‘myTable’></table>
– $(‘#myTable’).append(‘<tr><td>add a row</td></tr>’);
• $(‘#elementID’).val() gets values of inputs
– <input type=‘text’ id=‘myTextBox’ >
– $(‘#myTextBox’).val();
• $(‘#elementID’).val([value]) sets the values of inputs
– $(‘#myTextBox’).val(‘Hello World’);

26. Development Basics
• $(‘#elementID’).html() gets the raw html within an element
(great for divs, spans, tables, table cells, etc.)
– <div id=‘myDiv’>Hello World</div>
– $(‘#myDiv’).html() = ‘Hello World’
• $(‘#elementID’).html(“<html text>”) to set raw html
– $(‘#myDiv’).html(‘Hello World! Welcome to SPSSTL!’)
• $(‘#elementID’).hide(), $(‘#elementID’).show(), and
$(‘#elementID’).toggle()
– $(‘#myDiv’).hide()
– $(‘#myDiv’).show()
– $(‘#myDiv’).toggle()

27. SharePoint Form Fields
//Text / Date Fields
$(“input[title=’Field Display Name’]”).val();
//LookUp / Choice Fields (be aware of >20 items in Lookup)
$(“select[title=’Field Display Name’]”).val();
//Is my check box checked?
if( $("input[title=’Field Display Name’]").is(':checked'))
{
alert("it's checked");
}
More information:
http://bit.ly/jQueryAndSharePointFields

28. SPServices
• jQuery library to execute SharePoint’s Web
Services
– Get List Items
– Add/Update List Items
– Create lists, content types, site columns, etc.
– Create document library folders
- Create cascading drop down lists
- Get user groups and permissions
- Potentially call ANY SharePoint Web Service

29. SPServices
• Works identical in SharePoint 2007 and
SharePoint 2010
• Runs with permissions of current user
• Communicate across sites
• Works with Anonymous access!

30. SPServices - FYI
• Use internal field names
• Returned values have “ows_” in front of field
names
$(this).attr("ows_Title");
• Lookup & People fields
– Value returned as “ID;#Value” (1;#Field Value)
• Check for new item ID on item add to make sure
item added correctly
var newID =
$(xData.responseXML).find("[nodeName=z:row]").attr("ows_ID");

31. SPServices GetListItems

32. SPServices UpdateListItems

33. Development Tips
• Develop for performance
– Limit rows returned using CAML
– Avoid screen scraping (Use SPServices)
– Don’t call web services until the data is needed.
• Use those ID’s to your advantage
– <td id=‘ListName-4’>
• Attributes are awesome
– <input type="text" title="list title 4" id="4">
– $('#4').attr("title");
– $(‘input*title=“list title 4”+’).val();

34. Don’t abuse the DOM!
It’s expensive to search the Document Object Model (DOM)
<select id=“MySelect”></select>
for (i=0;i<=500;i++)
{
$("#MySelect").append("<option>One Item " + i +
"</option>");
}
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
var options = “”;
for (i=0;i<=500;i++)
{
options += "<option>All Items " + i + "</option>";
}
$("#MySelect").append(options);

35. Debugging… ugh.. It ain’t pretty
• Alerts.. Alerts.. Alerts.. Alerts…
• Developer Tools
– Set breakpoints
– Evaluate expressions and variables inline (like REAL
debugging!)
– Firebug for Firefox
• Considered to be best of the free tools out there
– IE Developer Tools
• Comes installed on IE 8+
• console.log (don’t forget to remove before deploying)

36. Debugging… Common Errors
• Usually it means your library didn’t get loaded
– Object Expected
– Object doesn’t support method
• Make sure you don’t load scripts more than once
– Null Object reference
• Check your braces
• Make sure you end lines with “;”
• Check for missing quotes
When all else fails, delete your script and rebuild it slowly in
chunks, testing as you go.

37. DEMOS

38. So, what’s the deal?

39. ”Fast Food” Development
• You don’t have to be a SharePoint Guru
• It’s Cheap
• It’s Quick
• It’s Easy
• It gets the job done

40. ”Fast Food” Development
• Don’t abuse it, You’ll pay for it later
• Limited choices
• There are healthier options
• Adds page bloat
• Can slow your performance

41. Getting Started…
• A Dummies Guide to SharePoint and jQuery
– http://bit.ly/jQueryForDummies
• SPServices
– http://spservices.codeplex.com
• Super Awesome 3rd party libraries that
integrate well
– Modal dialogs - http://www.ericmmartin.com/projects/simplemodal/
– Calendar - http://arshaw.com/fullcalendar/
– Charts - http://g.raphaeljs.com/

42. More jQuery Resources
• jQuery Pocket Reference
– http://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920016182
• CSS Pocket Refernce
– http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596515058/

43. Questions?
Don’t drink the
haterade…
Mark Rackley
mrackley@juniper-strategy.com
www.twitter.com/mrackley
www.sharepointhillbilly.com
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