Author: Jim Bob Howard

Many of you have pointed out that the later articles in this Extending the DVWP series have been more insightful. I understand that some of the earlier parts have been extremely basic. AND, some of them have not been specific to the DVWP. But, we will be referring to them going forward, and so they are necessary for our purposes.

 

By Wisdom a House (or Site) is Built

As homeschooling parents, my bride and I have extensively researched education methodologies over the last few years and have come to realize and adopt the wisdom and fruit of what is known as the Classical Model (aka The Trivium). The Trivium is a three-stage process of learning: the grammar stage, the dialectic stage, and the rhetoric stage.

Rhetoric is the wisdom phase of learning, where we begin to take some things for granted. Limitations and capabilities are known quantities and we enter into what Mark Miller referenced as unconscious competence. With wisdom, we articulate abstract concepts to provide concrete solutions to real world problems. But before we get there, we have to have understanding.

Through Understanding It is Established

The dialectic stage of learning is when the student begins understanding the interconnectedness of the various basic concepts of a field of study.

In SharePoint, we learn when to use which type of list or library for a given project. We argue and discuss "what if" strategies. We learn by doing, breaking, fixing. Understanding connotes a level of experience: we know how things work (and don’t work) because we’ve BTDT ("been there, done that"). It’s no longer conceptual head knowledge.

And Through Knowledge Its Rooms are Filled

Until about 50 years ago in the United States, Elementary School was known as Grammar School. For most people today, grammar narrowly (and mistakenly) connotes the study of the basics of language: nouns, verbs, pronouns, sentence types, and so on. But grammar in its truest sense applies to any field of learning. Grammar is the vocabulary, the definitions, the basics of the subject. It forms the building blocks or pegs on which we hang advanced knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

The grammar of SharePoint consists of knowing the components of the environment: sites and subsites; lists, document libraries, and surveys; content types and site columns; list items, columns and their types; webparts, jQuery, and workflows. Grammar increases our knowledge; we are able to converse in the vocabulary of SharePoint.

Some of you may have found some of the parts of this series to be too basic; too much in the SharePoint grammar stage. And we can argue and discuss their place in the series. But it’s those basic building blocks we use over and over that allow us to work in wisdom. So, rather than assume everyone has the same basic building blocks and glossing over some important aspects that in the end look more like "magic happens," I elected to build out those more basic aspects so I can refer to them in the advanced articles that are coming soon.

Even having done so, I’ve found that many people have expressed confusion over some of the "basic" functions I’ve covered. So, I think there will be room to expand on those sections in future articles.

No Stupid Questions

EndUserSharePoint.com has been a tremendous asset to my ability to perform my job in the SharePoint space and I am thankful for the hard work Mark and Natasha have done to build this community; as well as the tireless help provided by the countless authors who have reached out to help with articles and Stump the Panel consulting.

I have found that there are no stupid questions… except those which go unasked. I have tried to make a point of documenting every new thing I learn about SharePoint, especially if I had to piece together information from multiple sources (including my own trial and error). I figure if I had the question, someone else might be (or will be) asking the same thing. If I can document it and post it to EUSP, it’ll be there when I need it again. And it will be available for others who need it.

I encourage every reader of EUSP to submit your solutions for the rest of us to read. You have gained knowledge, understanding, and wisdom to do the job you do. Share it with the rest of us.

We need your help. I need your help.

Next time…

We’ll get back on track next article by "Creating List Items (for an Audit Trail) with SPServices" as we continue Extending the DVWP.

Author: Jim Bob Howard

Jim Bob Howard is a web designer / webmaster in the healthcare industry. He has been working with SharePoint since March 2009 and enjoys sharing what he has learned. He is a moderator and frequent contributor to Stump the Panel, and answers SharePoint questions on Twitter (@jbhoward) and via email ([email protected]).