With SharePoint You Really do have to Think Out of the Box
Guest Author: Johnathan Lightfoot
TechForce blog
I had someone call me who had attended one of my recent Introduction to SharePoint classes with an issue.
She wanted to know if it would be possible to have a library column that had the four digit year in it not to be displayed with commas. For example instead of showing 2,010 she wanted it to display 2010. She had apparently called her web development department prior to calling me who told her that it could not be done without extensive reprogramming of the number column.
As I am not a programmer I took a different tack when she called. Based on what she told me I guessed that she was using a Number field for the column. So I asked her "Are you planning to calculate based on this column?" her response was no. So, I thought why use the number formatted column why not simply change the column to a Single line of text instead. We made the adjustment to the column and voila problem solved!
When it comes with using the SharePoint platform we have to make sure that we are asking complete questions and really getting an understanding of the user’s experience. Sure there are a lot of ways to do things on the platform but I tend to like keeping it simple.
Guest Author: Johnathan Lightfoot
TechForce blog
Johnathan Lightfoot is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and author who specializes on the SharePoint 2007 and 2010 platforms. He co-authored Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Plain and Simple and is currently co-authoring a second SharePoint book for O’Reilly Publishing/Microsoft Press.
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As a SharePoint Trainer/Analyst, I totally agree in terms of resolving end-user issues. SharePoint is so robust that it sometimes take a clear understanding of the purpose/goal of the user and nearly anything can be done and much without customization. SharePoint was designed to empower the end-user!
Not being a programmer either, I use that type of methodology all of the time. I think of it as “Survival SharePoint.” I always figure that I’m not the first person to run into a particular issue and that someone else has solved it and posted that solution on the web. As a result, I’ve gotten pretty good at locating those solutions and adapting them to my situations.
I’m a programmer and even I use the same approach. I keep saying to my students: you only have to write code in sharepoint when you think you have tried every other option (and after consulting me ;-) )
The correct term for this ‘fix’ is kludge.
It is a response for what Sharepoint does not have in-the-box.
I’m not sure if I follow George. Can you elaborate?
I run into these types of questions and SharePoint “why didn’t Microsoft think about this?!” issues all of the time as an Intranet Manager. I am not a programmer, nor do I have one at my disposal, so I am “stuck” w/ limited resources…my own creativity. I actually feel that out of the box solutions are great because they wind up doing far more than solving the immediate problem. An out of the box solution will most likley also empower your power users well into the future.
Think about it. A power user has a problem, and a programmer develops something to solve it. The end. You may have difficulty upgrading the solution, you may find bugs that cause other problems, and you may feel forever dependent on the programmer (which is a bigger problem if the programmer is a consultant and not a “lifer” employee).
If, however, you are a power user and your intranet manager or another power user (or a helpful programmer like Gene, for that matter!) solves your problem w/ an “out of the box” solution, you walk away empowered with the ability to do it yourself next time and/or dream up your own related solutions. Have those solutions documented in a central location, and all power users will benefit from it. Just think of all the times the calculated column has rocked your world!!
There are certain things that are so frustrating in SharePoint that you almost have to find a way to get 3rd party help, but whenever possible, I think out of the box solutions are the way to go. :)
I use out of the box solutions for everything I do. When I was made an owner of my first department site I was completely on my own, didn’t know anything, had no techie background at all. I knew I had people that needed to communicate and I could see the potential in Sharepoint. I just tried it, thought creatively about solving problems with the tools at my disposal. I didn’t have other tools to compare Sharepoint to so I thought it was fabulous. I have used this very solution on a number of my lists to return numbers – you can’t take things literally in Sharepoint. Use the tools descriptions as a general guide. Now I support super-users in my division and most of the time they come to me with problems where they have overthought the solution. The simple solutions are so often overlooked. Nice article to remind us all of that!
Sometimes the answer for such an easy question is to simple, if you have a deeper knowledge of how to program against SharePoint.
Using a Calculated column works just as well,
=text([ColumnName],”#”)
Would format a column up for you to display the year with no comma’s and it will be considered a Numeric Value. This does lead to situations where you have loads of excess columns though, but in a perfect world there would be an option to not display commas on numeric values!
Thanks Adam and Johnathan for 2 great ideas and contributions.