Sharepoint Master Calendar

As you probably know (or don’t care), Sharepoint 2007 does not allow for list data to be easily ported across site boundaries. I think this is silly, especially not being able to share list data from a parent site to a child site. I’ve been obsessed lately with finding the supposed holy grail of Sharepoint 2007: the Master Calendar. There are commercial solutions to to this (BambooSolutions supposedly has the best list roll-up and master calendar web parts), but I wanted to find a way to do this for free. Much to my surprise, there are some solutions that even a neophyte like me can digest. As a result, I have been able to create a master calendar (note: not a roll-up calendar) for our MOSS site structure. It was doable pretty much out of the box, with the exception of needing SharePoint Designer for customizing views and filtering the DataForm WebPart.

I’m not a Sharepoint Guru by any stretch of the imagination. I did a lot of research to find a solution for this, and happened upon a small amount of information I could actually understand. My particular take on the Master Calendar is simply a combination of different solutions:

1. Created a “Team Calendar” on the parent site.
2. Created a series of filtered views (based off of event types and other specific columns) for each of the different regions and teams. Note, you will need to remove the “_hidden” flag from the event content types to filter in the manner.
3. Remove all calendar lists from each of the sub-sites.
4. Link to the specific filtered master calendar view lists on each of the sub-sites.

Endusersharepoint.com has an interesting take on this strategy, using LyteBox to display a pop-up of the Master Calendar. Unfortunately, I don’t care for the LyteBox interface (too processor consuming on older systems), and would prefer to have something I could just look at by going to a main page (rather than clicking on a link). Mark Miller did host a pretty good online class on the LyteBox solution, that wasn’t particularly expensive. He explains event type content filtering extensively, and hooks you up with the LyteBox java script. If you are new to this, it might be worth the $70 (provided that they are still hosting the classes).

Rather than using LyteBox, I opted to use the DataForm WebPart, and just filter the views of the different pages. Ironically, in my search to find different ways to filter the list data, I ran across Susan’s Blog. This is similar to what I set up, and she has some very easy to follow instructions and screen shots.

An alternate to this would be to merge several different calendars together, and view the list in a DataForm. Corro’ll Driskell has a simple to follow page on this. The only downside is that the data from the multiple lists is just merged into a data source, rather than updating each other. So, it’s not really a “Calendar Roll-Up” solution, but would allow one to poll specific calendar data from multiple sources. Might be good enough to appease a manager somewhere.

The only thing I’m not really satisfied with is the default List View of the DataForm. Due to amount of data we port into our team calendar, it’s actually a good view for the main page of the parent site. However, I would prefer the standard “Calendar View” for the main pages of the team sub-sites. By default, this is not an option unless you link the SharePoint List Toolbar to the DataView WebPart. This doesn’t work, though, if you are pulling a list from a parent to a sub-site. You’ll get some “error rendering control” messages where the toolbar should appear. This effectively kills your site until you remove the toolbar.

Neil Richards apparently discovered the cause of this issue, and has isolated a simple solution. Unfortunately, I have no idea what he is talking about.

It’s simple enough to copy the parameter from the subsite dataview into the masterpage dataview.

<WebPartPages:DataFormParameter Name=”WebURL” ParameterKey=”WebURL” PropertyName=”ParameterValues” DefaultValue=”/”/>

Can any of you interweb eggheads out there make sense of this? Where does one find the elusive “masterpage dataview?” Search as I may, I cannot find it. Alternatively, could one convert a standard list view into a calendar view? I’m assuming you could apply the correct css stylesheets, but I’m not smart enough to figure this out on my own. I will reward 40 virgins to the first person that can come up with an acceptable solution (that I can comprehend).

More good times with Flight of the Conchords.

Do I offend?

Finally got around to organizing and uploading some pictures of Asia trips to Flickr today (really shouldn’t be doing this sort of thing at work), and I noticed something amusing in one of the pictures I took in Hong Kong.

Nothing special… I’m not much of a photographer. However, take a look in the upper left corner.

 Jeebus! What the hell is your problem?!? And what is going on with the woman behind her? Is she Igor’s long lost cousin, or did she just have an itch she couldn’t stop for?

Memories of that glare will keep me awake for at least an extra 30 seconds tonight…

I’m not even sure why…

Years ago, I made some crappy website to host a bunch of “borrowed” pictures of Tolkien themed artwork (long before the film trilogy had even begun filming). Like a crackhead, I forgot the address… but I found it the other day! I figured I would post it here, so I wouldn’t lose it again. That, and I can shame myself at the same time… now the world knows I’m a Lord of the Rings geek with ZERO html skills. Sweet… two birds with one stone.

Guess this means I’ll have to turn my geek badge back in at the front desk. Alas.

To The Woman Who Crapped In My Car – 42 (Missoula)

This is an exerpt from a recently deleted Craigslist post. I miss Missoula sometimes, specifically for this sense of humor.

Please report suspected exploitation of minors to the appropriate authorities

To The Woman Who Crapped In My Car – 42 (Missoula)

 

Reply to: pers-1031540635@craigslist.org ^[?]
Date: 2009-02-12, 4:21AM MST

We met on Craigslist so I am hoping that this post finds you. I know that it
could quite possibly be the most humiliating first date that you have ever
been on, but I am willing to look past that.

I thought we had chemistry sitting at Shaun Kelley’s sharing that basket of
Cajun Tots while drinking the Terminator Stout. I really felt like there was
a connection there. I found you to be intelligent and witty and looked
forward to further conversation with you.

At some point in life, everyone has gambled on a fart and lost. It just
happened to be on a first date in the passenger seat of my car. Please don’t
feel bad. The package I sent you with Pepto the next day and the note that
said “First dates are always a crap shoot. Call me” was meant to be funny,
not offensive.

I have gambled on a fart and lost on multiple occasions. The first time I
did it was very memorable. It happened when I was five and sitting on my
uncle’s lap. I am lactose intolerant, but love cheese. I probably win 95% of
the time, but I don’t think anyone wins 100% of the time. That’s why they
call it “gambling”. I’m the last person to judge you for crapping your
pants. In fact, I am impressed by your boldness. The timing on the other
hand, could have been a tad bit better…like when you’re not sitting on a
heated leather seat…
What I am trying to say is that if you want to go out again, I would be more
than happy to take you someplace where we can get a meal that is high in
fiber and less taxing on the digestive tract.
I await your call,
Bruce

P.S. – If you shat yourself on purpose to end the evening early…Touché…

·         Location: Missoula

·         it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 1031540635