Next time I write an article with strange words like jQuery or JavaScript in the title and you sneak a glance at <code> farther down, don’t run. I won’t ask you to do major surgery. I’ll only show you a simple, home remedy that will keep you out of the SharePoint doctor’s office.

Think of SharePoint as your digestive system. Pleasant, huh? Information comes in, gets digested, and (if you’re lucky) you dispose of the useless bits so you don’t feel all bloated.

If you want your digestive system to work more efficiently, you eat a bran muffin and drink coffee in the morning, exercise, and avoid red meat. Maybe after aunt Sara’s holiday pot roast you take a fiber supplement.  But you don’t do surgery for minor discomfort! Especially if you’re not a surgeon–that’s just crazy. So, how can you make SharePoint more efficient, safely? And at what point do you need a professional?

Level 1 – View Layer

With SharePoint, you see ASP pages rendered in a browser. The server converts .NET code into HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that the browser understands. We can make changes to the way we see SharePoint without touching the underlying code.  “Client-side” code, as it’s called, does not need to be processed by the server, just the browser.

This is like one of those fiber supplements you dissolve in water and it makes a slurry you can’t really believe you’re going to drink but you drink it anyway wondering if anyone has ever died because they didn’t use enough water and choked to death. Sure, it’s different from the normal day-to-day stuff but it’s nothing drastic. We can stop at any time and it’s perfectly safe. No SharePoint doctor required (but you might still get freaked out the first time).

Our supplemental tools include the Content Editor Web Part (CEWP), Content Query Web Part (CQWP, available in MOSS), and the Data View Web Part (DVWP, available in SPD).

By mixing well with some XSL, JavaScript (and JavaScript extenders like jQuery), CSS, and HTML, we can look and feel better about our SharePoint. Just be careful with that SPD (SharePoint Designer). That’s like your second cousin in the first year of medical school that “knows everything.”

Talk with your SharePoint doctor about the code you use to avoid interactions and complications down the road.  Wow, that really sounds like one of those disclaimers in a drug commercial.

Level 2 – Control Layer

Here, we have the ability to break stuff. Long term damage is possible. This is the prescription drug arena and we at least want to do this under a SharePoint doctor’s supervision. If you’re touching the server’s file system or using SPD or Visual Studio to affect change on your SharePoint, talk to your SharePoint doctor first.

Level 3 – Model Layer

Mortal hands should not touch the database SharePoint runs on, MS-SQL.  This is major surgery–transplants and bio grafts kind of major. Even your SharePoint doctor should stay away from taking a rib spreader to the database. They should, however, understand how to conduct a proper database check-up. There’s only one surgeon, Microsoft–and you can’t afford them.

Conclusion

So when I write an article about the newest fad diet (jQuery) or supplement (CQWP) for SharePoint and you see <code> in the article, don’t run. I wouldn’t ask you to do major surgery. But like any supplement, it may not be right for all folks so do your homework, test it out in a safe environment, and ask as many questions as you want.