Modify Search Center Settings with JavaScript Client Object Model

Although there is currently no API in the JavaScript CSOM which lets you change the search center url directly, SharePoint stores the search settings in the Property Bag of the root SPWeb object in a site collection. You can set these property bag values and your search settings should get modified.

"SRCH_ENH_FTR_URL" – Search Center URL

"SRCH_SITE_DROPDOWN_MODE" – Search Scope Drop down option

"SRCH_TRAGET_RESULTS_PAGE” – Target Search Results page

Using JavaScript Client Object Model, you can set the values like this:

For the Search Scope Drop Down Options, here is a full set of values you can set:

Do Not Show Scopes Dropdown, and default to contextual scope: "HideScopeDD_DefaultContextual"
Do Not Show Scopes Dropdown, and default to target results page: "HideScopeDD"
Show scopes Dropdown: "ShowDD"
Show, and default to ‘s’ URL parameter: "ShowDD_DefaultURL"
Show and default to contextual scope: "ShowDD_DefaultContextual"
Show, do not include contextual scopes: "ShowDD_NoContextual"
Show, do not include contextual scopes, and default to ‘s’ URL parameter: "ShowDD_NoContextual_DefaultURL"

SharePoint 2013: Modify Navigation Settings with JavaScript CSOM

One of the new additions in the JavaScript Client Object Model in SharePoint 2013 is the Publishing Navigation API. Some of the other additions are the UserProfile API and the Taxonomy API which I have already posted about.

In this post, let us look at how to use the Navigation API to change the navigation settings in a SharePoint 2013 site.

The main reason I want to do these posts is that currently there is still no API Reference available on MSDN for them. So this might be helpful to people looking to achieve the same functionality.

Here are the things which you can change from this Navigation API: 

1) You can change the Navigation settings of Publishing Sites as well as Non-Publishing sites.

2) You can set the Navigation Provider of the Current Navigation (Quick Launch) as well as the Global Navigation (Top Navigation Bar)

3) You can set the Navigation Provider out of any of these three:

     a. Inherit from Parent Site

     b. Managed Navigation (Taxonomy) The navigation items will be represented using a Managed Metadata term set.
     c. Structural Navigation: Display the navigation items below the current site.

4) Since all this code is pure JavaScript, you can add it in a variety of places like Apps, WebParts, Pages, Page Layouts, Web Templates etc.

So without much further ado, here is the code to manipulate the Navigation Settings:

First, lets make sure that we have loaded all the required SharePoint JavaScript files on the page. I like to use the jQuery.getScript() for this. The scripts we will need are sp.runtime.js,  sp.js and sp.publishing.js.
Here is a simple way by which I load all the necessary files:



Now, the actual code:

1) Set the (Current/Global) Navigation to either "Inherit from Parent" or "Structural Navigation":

2) Set the (Current/Global) Navigation dependent upon a Term Set in the Term Store:

Hope you find this helpful!

SharePoint 2013: Provision AppPart/ClientWebPart through Elements.xml

In my last post, we saw how we can add an app part to page by directly adding the app part code in our .aspx pages. Here is a link to my last post for those interested: http://vrdmn.blogspot.in/2013/02/sharepoint-2013provision.html

Now lets take a look at how we can provision the app part declaratively through Elements.xml file. First, you will have to make sure that the App is installed on the site on which you are trying to deploy the app part. Otherwise your app part will not be provisioned correctly.

Here is the code to put in your Elements.xml file:



Keep in mind the following few properties:

ProductId: Its the ProductId of your App. A unique identifier which differentiates your app. Please see my last post on how you can get the ProductId of your App.

FeatureId: The same as ProductId. On first glance, it looks like it should be the GUID of the feature present in your app. But thats not the case as far as I know.

ProductWebId: A new Random GUID

WebPartName: The file name of the WebPart found in your Client WebPart XML file. See previous post for  more details.

Custom Properties: You can even provision custom properties and set their default values from here. In the example, I have the myEnumProp as a custom property in my App Part. Here is a link on how to add custom web part properties to your app part: 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-in/library/fp179921.aspx

SharePoint 2013: Provision AppPart/ClientWebPart to Page

Along with Apps, SharePoint 2013 has introduced App Parts (ClientWebParts) which give you the functionality of placing the app inside and iframe on a page. This way, you can view your app as a part of the page just like you would a normal webpart.

(The terms App Part and Client Web Part are interchangeable. I will be using both the terms in this post to emphasize the similarity)

Adding an App Part to the page from the SharePoint User Interface is pretty easy. You just put the page in edit mode and add the AppPart from the Insert Menu. Pretty similar to how you would add a regular WebPart.

Now what if you have to provision your AppPart in a Page or a PageLayout so that when a new page is created with a feature, your AppPart is automatically placed on that page?.

If you want to know how to add an app part to a page declaratively through the Elements.xml file, please have a look at my post here:
http://vrdmn.blogspot.in/2013/03/sharepoint-2013-declaratively-add-app.html


Lets look at how it can be done:

First and foremost, you will need to create an AppPart (Client WebPart) for your app. Here is a great tutorial on it:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp179921.aspx

Your Client WebPart xml file should be similar to this:


Here, I have created a Client Web Part with 2 Properties of type int and enum respectively.

Second, you have to make sure that your app is already installed on the Web on which you will be provisioning your page. The AppPart will only work if the app is installed on the same web.

Next, you will need the ProductId of your app. Here is how to find it:

1) Open your app in Visual Studio -> Right Click on the AppManifest.xml -> View Code

2) Here you will find the ProductId of your app in the following location:

3) Save your ProductId in a convenient location.

4) Now open your Page or Page Layout and add the following code to it:


In FeatureId, enter the ProductId which we got from the app earlier.

In ProductWebId, create a new random GUID and add it. 

You can even set default values for the App Part Properties.

5) That's It, Now deploy your page and see that the App Part is Provisioned on the Page.

SharePoint 2013: Working with User Profiles & JavaScript CSOM

SharePoint 2013 has added a variety of functionality to the Client API. One of them is the ability to fetch User Profile data. Now you can directly query the user profiles and get the required data from the client site. This can be really useful if you are building apps.

Before we get started with the code, lets make couple of things sure. First,  you will need a reference to the following JavaScript files in your page:


(jQuery is not required but I have added it because we will need it for the $.ajax function when doing REST queries)

Second thing, you will need the domain\username of the user you want to get the user profile data for. This can be easy to get if you are in an On-Prem environment. But if you are working with SharePoint Online, this can be quite tricky. Your username might not always be in the domain\username format. It is stored in the LoginName property if you are querying the Site User Information List:

https://yoursite.sharepoint.com/sites/pubsite/_api/Web/GetUserById(17)

and it is stored in the AccountName property if your querying the User Profile Service:

https://yoursite.sharepoint.com/sites/pubsite/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager/GetMyProperties

In SharePoint Online, it will most probably be in the following format:

i:0#.f|membership|vardhaman@yoursite.onmicrosoft.com

Quick Note: If you are using the REST API, you will need to encode the username before you use it in your call. The encodeURIComponent( ) function can be helpful here.

Enough talking. Lets jump into some code right away:

1) Get Multiple User Profile Properties:

2) Get Single User Profile Property:

3) Get User Profile Properties of the Current User:

4) Get Properties of Multiple Users in Single Request:

For this last example, Let's observe the XML which is sent to the server:



With this, we can confirm that only one call was made to the server to retrieve the properties of multiple users. This way, you can even retrieve multiple properties of multiple users in one call.

SharePoint 2013: Elevate User Access with App Only Policy

In SharePoint 2013 Apps, the authorization is handled by a 2 part mechanism. Along with the current user's permissions, the app permissions are also taken into account. User permissions and app permissions are two separate entities which dictate whether an app is allowed to perform a certain action.

When you build an app, you can specify that what all permissions are going to be required for the app to run successfully. You have to specify this in the App Manifest under the Permissions tab.

(Click Image to Zoom)

When a user installs an app, he can only grant permissions to the app up to the level which he has. So if a user has "Read" permissions on a list, he cannot grant the app "Full Control" on the same list.

There are basically 3 types of app authorizations or authorization policies in SharePoint 2013.

1) User Only Policy: In this policy, only the user permissions are taken into account. App permissions are ignored. It is checked whether the user has the permissions to perform the action and if yes, then he/she is allowed to perform the action.

2) App + User Policy: The user as well as the app permissions are taken into account. This is an AND operation. If both the user and the app have the permission to perform the action,only then the action is allowed.

3) App Only Policy: Only the permissions granted to the app are taken into account. User permissions are ignored. So even if the current user accessing the app does not have appropriate permission, the action is allowed provided the app has the permission to do so.

The App Only policy works by using a separate OAuth token which runs under the user "SHAREPOINT/App" much like SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPriviledges() runs under the "SHAREPOINT\System" user (app pool account) in the Server Object Model.

Since OAuth is required to generate the app token, the App-Only policy can only be used in the Auto-hosted and Provider-Hosted apps. SharePoint-Hosted apps cannot use the app only policy.

To enable the App Only policy in your app, you have to add the "AllowAppOnlyPolicy" attribute to your "AppPermissions" element in the App Manifest:

Note: Although you can add this attribute to the App Manifest of the SharePoint-Hosted apps, it will be ignored as the App Only policy is not supported in SharePoint hosted apps.

Enough chit chat, lets see how we can actually utilize the App Only policy to elevate user permissions. I have written the following code in the code behind of the Default.aspx of an Auto-Hosted App:


As you can see, the ClientContext which is opened with the appOnlyAccessToken will run with the identity of the SHAREPOINT\App account. This is a very good practice to remember even when using RunWithElevatedPreviledges in the Server Object Model. You can switch on/switch off database calls with app only token. This means that if you need to make only one operation with the elevated token, then you can do that and get back to using the current user's token in one action.

SharePoint 2013: Authenticating .NET Client Object Model in Office 365

The process of authenticating the .NET Client Object Model in SharePoint Online has been greatly simplified in the 2013 version. Earlier (2010), you had to go through a lot of steps for doing the exact same thing. You  had to open a web browser instance, force the user to enter the credentials in the browser and then grab that  cookie from Internet Explorer and pass it to the .NET CSOM. If you are interested, the code of the old authentication method can be found here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cjohnson/archive/2011/05/03/authentication-with-sharepoint-online-and-the-client-side-object-model.aspx

Fortunately in the 2013 version, the process is a lot simplified by the introduction of the SharePointOnlineCredentials class. This class is part of the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll itself so you don't have to include an extra assembly in your application. All you have to do is pass an instance of the SharePointOnlineCredentials class to the ClientContext.Credentials property. The SharePointOnlineCredentials takes in two parameters which are your Login Email for your Office 365 SharePoint site and your password in the SecureString format.

You can grab all the required SharePoint 2013 client assemblies from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35585

For this particular demo, you will need to reference the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll and the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll assemblies in your project.

 The code is as follows: