Using JSLink and Display Templates with the List

View Web Part for ITPros

#SPSJEPaul HuntSolutions ArchitectTrinity@Cimares www.myfatblog.co.uk

Who Am I?

• SharePoint Architect for Trinity Expert Systems• Co-organiser of SUGUK

London Region• Member of the SharePoint

community since 2007• In my spare time I’m a

woodturner, making Pots, Pens and artistic pieces!

• Paul Hunt• Twitter: @Cimares• www.myfatblog.co.uk• www.trinityservice.co

.uk

What is this session all about?• The List View Web Part

Who’s this session for?• Primarily First/Second tier developers

• ITPros who customised 2010 list views in SPD• ITPros that used to write their own XSLT in SP2010• Developers that want to know what's available before opening VS2012

• On Premises or Office 365 Deployments

• Might not be ideal for someone who isn’t comfortable with JavaScript, HTML and CSS.– Though if you used to play in SPD 2010 you’re halfway there!– If you want to know what's achievable without deployed solutions

IT Pro?Developer?Power User?End/Business User?Other?

What did we used to do?

What did we used to do?• We used SPD and the Design View• We did conditional formatting• Played with colours• Injected Hyperlinks

What did we used to do?• But• No design view anymore!

What did we used to do?• We used XSLT Overrides (Still exist, but deprecated!)

What did we used to do?• We used XSLT Overrides (Still exist, but deprecated!)• Which took boring list data views

What did we used to do?• We used XSLT Overrides (Still exist, but deprecated!)• And transformed them into engaging visual representations

What did we used to do?• We used custom code solutions (We still can!)

• Custom CAML Rendering Templates• Custom List Views• Custom Web Parts

• All bring additional headaches

So why the focus on Client Side Rendering?

• It’s client side, moving the impact of customisations off of the web server and onto the often powerful and under utilised client machine

SETI@Home

Folding@Home

So why the focus on Client Side Rendering?

• It’s client side, moving the impact of customisations off of the web server and onto the often powerful and under utilised client machine

• Some client machines may struggle with heavy Javascript loads!

So why the focus on Client Side Rendering?

Specifically why JavaScript, HTML and CSS?• It’s easier to develop..• Much simpler than XSLT• Certainly easier to troubleshoot than XSLT• Likely to have the skills in house• Cross-platform (ish!)• Some frameworks such as jQuery help with this

Exactly what is a JavaScript Display Template?

Exactly what is a JavaScript Display Template?

• A small piece of JavaScript code that is called by the browser AFTER the page has been delivered.• They are prolific in SharePoint 2013• Some examples

• Search Results• Field Rendering• Search Refiners• List Forms• List views• eDiscovery

Display Template Content Types•There are 5 Content Types that represent display templates.

• JavaScript Display Template• Control Display Template• Group Display Template• Item Display Template• Filter Display Template

These 4 relate to Search.

Not all display templates are created equally

LVWP Templates != Search Display Templates

• LVWP Display Templates are JavaScript only.• They do not start life as HTML like Display Templates for search do.• They do not require embedded properties.• CONTEXT (ctx) is king!

21

We’re just looking at:-• List View Display Templates• These provide the ability to override the rendering of an entire

view

• Field Rendering Display Templates• These provide the ability to override the rendering of a single

field in a list view

Page Lifecycle – The Foundations

Page lifecycle – The Foundations• SharePoint outputs JSLink in the Header of the page• This registers our Display Template

Page lifecycle – The Foundations• SharePoint LVWP outputs the list data into the page• JSON Object Format

Page lifecycle – The Foundations• And finally after setting things up• Calls the RenderListView() function for the web part.

• Which in turn:– Calls the GetTemplates()

Page lifecycle – The Result• Which compares the Context object to the list of registered

overrides

• And if everything is in place, our override wins the battle!

###CALLOUT

Internal Name Pain!Click to insert photo.

###CALLOUT – Internal Name Pain

The_x0020_number_x0020_of_x0020_

• Internal names get encoded once, then URL encoded when displayed in the browser adding to the confusion!

• The internal name of: The_x0020_number_x0020_of_x0020_• Is actually displayed in the browser as :- The%5Fx0020%5Fnumber%5Fx0020%5Fof%5Fx0020%5F

• Special characters such as & add to the fun!

###CALLOUT – Internal Name Pain

###CALLOUT – Internal Name Pain• Multiple long field names lose meaning

• The_x0020_number_x0020_of_x0020_

• The_x0020_number_x0020_of_x0020_0

###CALLOUT – Internal Name Pain• Creating your fields carefully will save you this pain!

Create Rename

###CALLOUT – Internal Name Pain• SharePoint 2013 introduces some new pain with the quick

edit list functionality.

###CALLOUT – Internal Name Pain• I’m not a Dev, why do I care?

###CALLOUT – Internal Name Pain• I’m not a Dev, why do I care?• Your Developers (if you have them) will love you!

Anatomy of a List View Display Template

Anatomy of a List View Display Template• Start with an empty .JS (Or copy example templates)• Define a Function to register the Display Template• Define the Function called by the Display Template for

each item.• Call the register function (This is processed when the DT is

loaded)

Anatomy of a List View Display Template• Define a Function to register the Display Template

For a list of template types see - http://bit.ly/169AbS9

Anatomy of a List View Display Template• Define the Function called by the Display Template

• Note the use of ctx.CurrentItem.Title– Any field in the view can be obtained this way– You must use the internal name

• Obtained from the edit column screen– Beware the double encoding issue!

• Or using the browser debugger

Anatomy of a List View Display Template• Call the function we defined when the page loads.

Anatomy of a Field Rendering Display Template• All that really changes is the override set-up

• This time there are no headers/footers• We only specify the Base View ID/Field Name

Anatomy of a Field Rendering Display Template• The render function is similar to the list view item function

How do we use them with List Views?• First we need to upload/create them in the MasterPage

gallery

How do we use them with List Views?• Set some metadata

How do we use them with List Views?• Add a link into the JSLink on the web part

• Note the ~token in use– ~sitecollection– ~site – ~layouts – ~sitecollectionlayouts– ~sitelayouts

• You can have multiple JSLinks– Join them with |

DEMO - Adding JSLink to a web part.

How do we troubleshoot?• IE Developers Toolbar (Other debuggers exist!)

How do we troubleshoot?• Fiddler – HTTP Proxy

How do we troubleshoot?• Fiddler – HTTP Proxy

DEMO - Troubleshooting in IE with the Developer Toolbar

http://bit.ly/12kMPvr

There has to be a catch?• Minimal Download Strategy• Multiple list views on a page• Changing SharePoint functionality

There has to be a catch?• Minimal Download Strategy

• Our display templates work on page load• But fail during a refresh.• This is because our JavaScript doesn’t get called a second time

• Two workarounds!• Turn off the Minimal Download Feature in each Web

• Include the relevant JavaScript in your Display Template code

There has to be a catch?• Multiple list views on a page• Because of the way Display Templates are registered, it’s not

possible to have two on the page if the list templates are the same.

(E.g. Custom TemplateType = 100)• There is a workaround though published on my blog

• http://bit.ly/JSLinkIssues

There has to be a catch?• Changing/Breaking SharePoint functionality• For example, overriding the Tasks view breaks SharePoint

rendering.• This is fixed in the earlier Field demo with a couple of lines of

JavaScript.

Display Template Demos

Questions?

#SPCSR• www.facebook.com/hashspcsr• https://github.com/spcsr

58Call to Action!• Take a look at these sites for more detailed info

• Wes Preston – JS Link a primer - http://bit.ly/102fcNa• Martin Hatch – JSLink 7 part series - http://bit.ly/Hh5zFk• My blog• Solving the multiple list view issue - http://bit.ly/JSLinkIssues • Editing local JS files using fiddler - http://bit.ly/EditUsingFiddler

Don’t forget SharePint!

• SHARE·PINT: [SHAIR-PAHYNT]Noun1. An assembly or meeting in relation to Microsoft SharePoint, accompanied with an alcoholic beverage.

Thank You!

Raffle Prizes at 16:00

1st #SharePint in the Hotel Bar sponsored by Cloudshare 16:30