I’ll let the participants tell you about it. This area is for comments from the people who attended the event.

We will definitely be running this one again in the near future.

Tristan asked in another post: “When a calendar event is being created, I want the end date/time to automatically populate to 1.5 hours after the start date/time.  Seems simple, but haven’t found a formula for this yet.“

Sounds like a pretty reasonable suggestion and the Calendar lists NewForm.asx already sets the Start time to the current time – shouldn’t be too hard, right?…

Using the Default Value setting

You can use formula like (1/24th of a day or 1 hour to the rest of us  is 0.04167!)

=[Created]+0.04167

But we can’t use the Created/Modified field in the formula for a new record because it doesn’t exist yet.

OK, so what if  we try and use this in the Default Value column as

=Today+0.04167

This will always be ‘Today at 1AM’ rather than ‘Today in exactly 1 hour’ as Today uses 12:00 AM as the time offset. Unfortunately there is no [Now] function in SharePoint.

Its a moot point though as we can’t edit the default value of the Start and End times in a Calendar list anyway.

FAIL! On to Attempt #2…

Editing NewForm.aspx

When adding a new record to the Calendar SharePoint uses NewForm.aspx so what about modifying that?

We could use SharePoint Designer to customize NewForm.aspx but its quite complex, lots of people don’t like using it and its fraught with potential problems. Sure it gives us much more power but for our purposes its overkill so we are going to get a little hacky. As it turns out its not the cheerleader who’s going to save the World -  its jQuery!

• Click “New” in your Calendar to open up NewForm.asxp

• Add &ToolPaneView=2 onto the end of the URL to use a neat workaround to open up the list form in edit mode.

• Add a Content Editor Web Part to the page

• Click Open the toolpane or Edit > Modify Share Web Part

• Click Source Editor and paste in the following JavaScript :-

(Tip – if you want to put instructions on your form this is an ideal way to do it – select Rich Text Editor)

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    <script type="text/javascript"   src="<A href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js">http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js</A>"> 
    </script> 
    <script type="text/javascript"> 
 
    // Set the hours to add - can be over 24 
    var hoursToAdd = 1; 
    // Mins must be 0 or div by 5, e.g. 0, 5, 10, 15 ... 
    var minutesToAdd = 30; 
 
    // JavaScript assumes dates in US format (MM/DD/YYYY) 
    // Set to true to use dates in format DD/MM/YYYY 
    var bUseDDMMYYYYformat = false; 
 
    $(function() { 
 
    // Find the start and end time/minutes dropdowns by first finding the 
    // labels then using the for attribute to find the id's 
    // NOTE - You will have to change this if your form uses non-standard 
    // labels and/or non-english language packs 
    var cboStartHours = $("#" + $("label:contains('Start Time Hours')").attr("for")); 
    var cboEndHours = $("#" + $("label:contains('End Time Hours')").attr("for")); 
    var cboEndMinutes = $("#" + $("label:contains('End Time Minutes')").attr("for")); 
 
    // Set Hour 
    var endHour = cboStartHours.attr("selectedIndex") + hoursToAdd; 
    cboEndHours.attr("selectedIndex",endHour % 24); 
 
    // If we have gone over the end of a day then change date 
    if ((endHour / 24)>=1) 
    { 
    var txtEndDate = $("input[title='End Time']"); 
    var dtEndDate = dtParseDate(txtEndDate.val()); 
    if (!isNaN(dtEndDate)) 
    { 
    dtEndDate.setDate( dtEndDate.getDate() + (endHour / 24)); 
    txtEndDate.val(formatDate(dtEndDate)); 
    } 
    } 
 
    // Setting minutes is easy! 
    cboEndMinutes.val(minutesToAdd); 
 
    }); 
 
    // Some utility functions for parsing and formatting - could use a library 
    // such as www.datejs.com instead of this 
    function dtParseDate(sDate) 
    { 
    if (bUseDDMMYYYYformat) 
    { 
    var A = sDate.split(/[\\\/]/); 
    A = [A[1],A[0],A[2]]; 
    return new Date(A.join('/')); 
    } 
    else
    return new Date(sDate); 
    } 
 
    function formatDate(dtDate) 
    { 
    if (bUseDDMMYYYYformat) 
    return dtDate.getDate() + "/" + dtDate.getMonth()+1 + "/" + dtDate.getFullYear(); 
    else
    return dtDate.getMonth()+1 + "/" + dtDate.getDate() + "/" + dtDate.getFullYear(); 
    } 
 
    </script>

A few notes

• You set the number of hours and minutes to add at the top of the script
• You can add more than 24 hours and if you go over a day boundary it will set the end date appropriately.
• This will only work with US MM/DD/YYYY style dates or DD/MM/YYYY (be sure to set bUseDDMMYYYYformat) appropriately – if your site regional settings uses something different then you are going to have to look at a JavaScript date function library such as Matt’s or Datejs.
• If you are doing a lot of this type of thing you may want to check out these two CodePlex projects spjQueryField and SPFF
• If you are going to re-use this script in different areas you should consider placing it in a document library and referencing it using the CEWP “Content Link” as Joels post shows
• This has only been tested on WSS3 & MOSS 2007

Ryan Wheeler worked as an as a developer for an IT consultancy in London, England, for a number of years before leaving his "real job" to set up Pentalogic Technology in 2005. Ryan had experimented with early versions of SharePoint in his consultancy work, and saw the potential for creating add-ons and web parts to enhance SharePoint

In this 2 minute demo, we show a tweak to the SharePoint calendar interface that allows users to switch between week and month views without reloading the page. Everything shown in the demo is contained within Content Editor Web Parts (CEWP) and can be done with Site Manager permissions.

Download the screencast: Killer Calendars Demo
File Size: 2.7 megs

Participants in the live online workshop will receive all of the web parts needed to run the solutions on their own site, their own SharePoint sandbox to test out the solutions and will have access to a Q&A forum on Stump the Panel with Christophe as moderator.

We look forward to seeing you there: Killer Calendars in SharePoint

A challenge with SharePoint for site managers, site administrators, or site owners is understanding their own role, it’s responsibilities, and what expectations come with being a ‘site owner, manager, or administrator’.

Before I go into what you can do from a Governance perspective, and related challenges I would like to use a quote from Mark Miller (from this article on user adoption and the success of this site ) that I think perfectly summarizes the ‘job’ of a site manager.

“Your job as a site manager isn’t to provide all the content for your site. Your job is to take care of and nurture those that will.” – Mark Miller

This is coming from a strong user adoption and cultivating contribution perspective but it’s a very important point. A site owner, administrator or manager (you pick the name) has a lot of extra responsibility that takes a lot of time and energy. They are often also the primary person who coordinates, supports, and evangelizes the site’s use. For the sake of consistency let’s use the “site manager” title for the rest of this article.

So what might a site manager do? They might…

• Handle access requests to the site. Providing the appropriate permission to the requesting user.
• Know how to better roll up, or organize content for the site so that important content, or often requested/accessed content is easier to find or retrieve.
• Provide users with containers or organized areas for their content contribution.
• Communicate the methods on how content can be added or how collaboration can be improved within the site.
• Encourage, solicit, or collate site membership feedback for review or communication to other areas of the business.
• Review site usage statistics
• To determine who the power users of the site are, and how they can help them, or what ideas they might have for improvement.
• To discover the most requested areas of the site or peak times when it is used to adjust navigation or scheduling of new information releases.
• To keep track of growth, relevance, and where people are coming from or going.
• Represent the voice for the site to level 2 and higher support groups for SharePoint (such as HelpDesk, Tactical Support Team, Tactical Operations Team, Tactical Development Team, or perhaps even the Business and Technical Strategy teams).
• Manage form templates for your site’s form libraries.
• Manage existing surveys and create new ones for the site membership.
• Manage existing document templates or help in the update process for these templates.
• Run exercises and activities to improve user adoption. Here are some simple examples:
• Highest contributor to a blog, discussion board, library, or list gets a prize.
• Nominations for the biggest contributor to the site’s community (Survey in SharePoint can help facilitate. Also rewards contributing to the site community.)
• Showcase a site member/employee once per month etc – “Meet the team” or “Meet Richard Harbridge” approach with stories, and information on recent successes, what they do, or personal stories/information to make it more personal.
• Scavenger hunt  – Hide a reply somewhere in the many discussion threads, hide a document in a library, or something similar. First person to find it gets a prize.
• Etc
• Provide leadership and direction for the site.
• Serve as a major advertiser for the site.
• And more!

What support should a site manager get to support them in their role?

• End User Training (Absolutely depends on your overall strategy, expectations, roles and responsibilities.)
• How to contribute, and use the ‘core’ collaboration, and communication features of SharePoint.
• Examples of end user training topics:
• Navigation (Global Navigation, Quick Launch, Breadcrumbs, IE Bookmarks, Links, Using Help, Requesting Access, How to Email a Link to a Page, Document, or Site, etc)
• Document Management (Uploading documents, moving documents, explorer view, folder management, etc)
• Document Collaboration (Updating documents (check in/check out), last modified date, version history, etc)
• Alerts (How to create them in libraries, lists, folders, documents and items and how to manage existing ones, etc).
• Search (Site scope, library/list scope, specialized searches, advanced search, maybe also search alerts, etc)
• Connecting to Outlook (Calendars, Task Lists, Document Libraries, Contacts, etc)
• Site Administrator Training (Again, may be multiple subsets, and change based on overall support and training strategy.)
• How to manage navigation for their site (Global and Quick Launch).
• How to manage libraries for their site (Available types, create, update, delete, etc)
• How to manage lists for their site (Available types, create, update, delete, etc)
• How to manage views for lists/libraries (Available types, create, update, delete, personal/public, etc)
• How to manage pages for their site (Available types, create, update, delete, check in/check out and publish process for a page (Publishing Features if possible), etc)
• How to manage webparts on pages for their site (Moving webparts around, updating existing ones, perhaps focus on some most used ones, etc)
• How to review usage details, site statistics, and reports.
• How to use the recycling bin.
• How to manage permissions (How inheritance works and how to use it effectively, what is securable and how it can be secured, how to use groups, distribution lists, and other methods to make permission management much easier, etc)
• Basic workflows (out of the box content approval, or how to create and apply the other out of the box ones such as approval, feedback, three state, collect signatures, etc)
• And more…
• Knowledge of what other third party solutions may be available and how to use them.
• Understanding of the support process for their site.
• Availability of training material and further reading to improve their capability (Microsoft resources, company training materials, EndUserSharePoint.com (bit of a plug ), and other wonderful online resources.)
• Immediate support for issues. (Don’t give the 911 call from a site manager a busy signal.)
• And more!

Holy smokes! That’s a lot of stuff, and we have barely started. It’s no wonder SharePoint can be really overwhelming for people. Not only are they often responsible for their normal work but now they might be taking on a whole bunch of other responsibilities. So how do you make it easier for them? You can make it easier through effective planning and governance as well as communication.

Planning for Site Manager’s, Expectations, Roles and Responsibilities

There is a lot I could go on about here but instead I am going to try and cover some high level important points to try and provide direction.

Who will manage your sites?

It’s not as simple as saying ‘Site Managers’ will manage your sites, or the SharePoint support team(s) will manage our sites (forgot to mention site managers are part of the SharePoint support groups.. but that’s a longer story). You need to think about the different types of sites you have, their objectives, purposes, and audiences then you can get an idea of what out of the above lists (and more) the Site Manager or Site Managers will be responsible for.

You might even need an entire Site Management team. Considering the incredible number of possible responsibilities, tasks, and areas of focus a Site Manager may need to work with. This can often greatly help and also increases ‘ownership’ and a feeling of commitment to a site from many people. (Team mentality and ‘team ownership’ can be a really good thing).

Plan for Scope/Size, Growth, Longevity, Availability and more…

One thing that is very important to think about when selecting site managers, training site managers, or thinking about the expectations and governance around them is the scope/size, growth, and longevity of their site. This is often based on the ‘classification’ of the site they own or manage.

Example: If the site is very large, with many contributors and has a large number of access requests on a constant basis then you will certainly want to consider a team of site managers rather than just one person, as well as backup site managers (especially if it’s a critical area, or requires high availability), etc. I have even seen organizations that have SLA like agreements that the Site Managers sign off on. At the same time simply providing some ‘rules of engagement’, supporting resources or expectations of use can help provide clarity around the topics mentioned in this article.

Plan for Common Requests…

There are patterns to site usage and what people do with certain ‘classifications’ of sites (defined by the Governance teams). Think about these common actions and focus on them first. Make sure you give the list of actions and expected responses to your site managers and how they can perform these tasks. It’s always better to have consistency when possible for how users engage site resources.

If you consider the number of challenges a typical user faces, the easier, more consistent, and natural you can make the process/procedure the better it will be. Remember you don’t have to plan for everything here. Realistically that would be impossible, so put your time and energy into outlining the most popular actions, and most requested ones first.

Challenges…

There are numerous challenges you experience around assignment of site managers. Sometimes it can be very hard to find the ‘right kind’ of ‘super user’ or a person that can fufill many of the expectations I outlined earlier. Keep in mind a ‘site owner’ or someone who approves and is the representative for the site may not be the same person as the Site Manager (if desired). Someone with technical skill who is a bit more ‘savvy’ may be a better person to give many of the Site Management responsibilities too, while contact, co-ordination, and other activities might be run by a different site owner (or even site ‘secretary’).

Sometimes a site’s scope may be very limited or small so it can seem difficult assigning a site manager. It is still very important to do this though as it ensures someone owns management of the area. Often a site manager can manage multiple sites if they are smaller/simpler as well.

Due to site sprawl it’s good to have points in the expectations stating that the site manager is in charge for any subsites unless otherwise stated. This helps clarify responsibility and again promotes a sense of ownership, control, and clarity for end users.

When planning anything around people it’s important to recognize that you need a succession strategy around the role. There should be a pre-defined (if possible) process for abdicating responsibility of the site management tasks, and should never be a site without a site manager.

The Site Manager doesn’t have to be the biggest contributor, or the most active person on the site. Often they might be, but this is certainly not a necessity. That being said if they are the owner or representative of the site it IS important to lead by example where possible.

What do you think?

So I think I have rambled on long enough now about Site Managers and many of the things they might do. Now I have two questions for anyone who reads this article:

What do you do as a Site Manager?

What did I miss in this article?

Hope this helps,
Richard Harbridge

Guest Author: Richard Harbridge

http://twitter.com/rharbridge

http://www.linkedin.com/rharbridge

Richard Harbridge is a really big geek in the GTA (Toronto, Ontario, Canada area) who is passionate about technology, communication, social media, psychology, personal growth/development and business (as well as about a million other things). Richard has worked extensively with SharePoint (multiple versions) working as a Lead Developer, Consultant, Administrator, Business Analyst, Project Manager, Quality Assurance Lead, Trainer and pretty much every other role imaginable.  

Richard has a bunch of SharePoint Certifications and Achievements (MCTS Config WSS and MOSS, MCTS Development WSS and MOSS, BVPS), a bunch of business awards, and some other unrelated ones.

I was working on a mileage reimbursement project that required a user to associate travel mileage with a specific date. To make things easy for the user, I wanted to use a Calendar list so they could easily choose a travel date. That would also give me built-in date validation and makes things easier all around.

But, there were some things I didn’t need: Recurrence, Workspace, End Time, or times in general. I wanted the functionality of an All Day Event so that specific times were not necessary. And I only wanted one date associated with the mileage entry.

So, I hid the End Time and set up a workflow to copy the Start Time into the End Time on create. Since it defaults to [Today], its “requiredness” is satisfied by default.

I also wanted Recurrence and Workspace hidden, as well as the time portion of Start Time. And I needed the All Day Event to be checked automatically, and then hidden so it couldn’t be unchecked.

jQuery to the rescue again.

1. Enter edit mode on NewForm.aspx, by adding ?PageView=Shared&ToolPaneView=2 to your URL
2. Add the Content Editor Web Part and move it to the bottom of the page
3. Click on Source and enter the following text

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<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> 
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
  $('td.ms-dttimeinput').hide(); //hides the times on Start Time
  $('span[title=All Day Event] > input').attr("checked","checked"); // checks All Day Event
  //hide all of the check-boxes I don’t need
  $('tr:has(span[title=Recurrence])').not('tr:has(tr)').hide(); 
  $('tr:has(span[title=All Day Event])').not('tr:has(tr)').hide();
  $('tr:has(span[title=Workspace])').not('tr:has(tr)').hide();
});
</script>

You’ll need to do something similar to your EditForm.aspx:

1. Enter edit mode the same way was above, leaving the ID=x and changing the ‘?’ before PageView to an ‘&’ (i.e. ../EditForm.aspx?ID=1&PageView=Shared&ToolPaneView=2)
2. Add the Content Editor Web Part and move it to the bottom of the page
3. Add the same jQuery code from above, but delete the first two lines in the function (since it’s already an All Day Event, there’s no need to set it, and the times will already be hidden)

DispForm.aspx will be slightly different because the HTML is different:

1. Enter edit mode the same way you did for EditForm.aspx
2. Add the Content Editor Web part and move it to the bottom of the page
3. Add the following code to the Source

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<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> 
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
  //hide all of the check-boxes I don’t need
  $('tr:has(td[id=SPFieldAllDayEvent])').not('tr:has(tr)').hide(); 
  $('tr:has(td[id=SPFieldRecurrence])').not('tr:has(tr)').hide();
  $('tr:has(td[id=SPFieldCrossProjectLink])').not('tr:has(tr)').hide();
});
</script>

This solution does leave 12:00 AM on the Start Time (on DispForm only) so I’d love to see a solution for removing that as well.

Thanks, Paul and Paul !

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If you like what you see, please consider registering for the workshop.

If the solution looks useful, please join us for the online workshop this Friday at 1:00pm EST.

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Testimonials from previous participants of Create a Master Calendar in SharePoint

“Our Superintendent wanted a calendar that would enable employees to post certain events on their subsite calendars which would appear on the home page calendar. We implemented [Mark's] solution, and are very happy with our new master calendar.” [Ted]

“My first workshop and it was well worth it. I was hesitant to participate due to my lack of Developer or coding skill but everything was clear, easy to understand and follow.” [Linda]

“I have attended many other sharepoint workshops/webinars and by far this was the best. I think what sealed the deal for me was the hands on interaction and being able to walk step by step thru the process on my own site.” [Dave]

Guest Author: Niamh Kenny, London United Kingdom

Niamh is a SharePoint Administrator at Camden & Islington Foundation Trust, London. She has five years of experience working with Microsoft Sharepoint, this includes implementation, training, and customisation.

Case Study – Dynamic Charts in SharePoint: No Code Required!

I have a team site with a Tasks list where all the tasks assigned to the IT Projects Team are kept. They needed a way to report on their tasks etc in a more visual style than the out-of-the-box views!

First I connected the task list to Visio as per diagram below which was great as it gave a really good look to the tasks list and outstanding items.

I use your site a lot to get insights/ideas for quick and easy (generally) solutions to problems or ideas I have had. I also use my test environment to test out and show to end users/managers for approval prior to posting live. I have been following the JQuery sessions for a while. I thought it would be great to have a Pie Chart visually representing the task list, initially for outstanding items with the provision that it could be extended for all types of views, depending on what information the team is either likely to need or want.

So I created the view in the task list, using a calculated column that gave a single line of text that counted either the number of days overdue, how many days were left or whether the task was completed or not and entered that information.  I also made this column count how many of each there were.

I had already found the post http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?p=1537 then created a new page and added the task list as a web part then added the content editor web part including the code for the pie chart. I had previously downloaded the JQuery file from the links and have added that to my top-level site collection that all subsequent sites have access to and can reference.

The final result for this page is here (I haven’t hidden the web-part yet as I think it’s quite good for people to be able to see the actual data too but that may change depending on user requirements).  

I am currently trying to get the multiple charts to work on another page, but am still creating views etc on the task list for that to work.

I have created a Preview Pane for a Calendar using another JQuery from your site and that has gone down as a treat with users as well.  (And took all of 5 minutes too)

A SharePoint Master Calendar is created with multiple content types for filtering specific types of events. When that type of event is needed within another site, LyteBox is used to display those events as a stand-alone calendar. This solution can be used to push information to locations outside the original site and site collection, if needed.

Check out the screencasts and I hope to see you next Tuesday.

Testimonials from previous participants of the EndUserSharePoint.com live online workshops

“This is an excellent workshop. Mark answered every question and moderated with humor and patience through the usual communication hiccups with an audience that is international (Argentina, Ireland, all over the US).” — Betsy [SharePoint Dashboards, Online]

“This workshop was absolutely worth the time and money. I learned alot and will be able to easily transfer it to my daily work. I can’t wait to impress my coworkers.” — Tammy [SharePoint Dashboards, Online]

“Don’t waste anymore time reading this to check out if it was worth it – stop reading and book your session!” Mick Brown [SharePoint Dashboards, Online]

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Creating a Lookup Table

To add approval functionality like this (which is beyond the scope of this article), you’ll want to create a new table that has the names of your date types along with other fields you will need for a workflow, like this:

Create: Absence Type

A list will allow you to associate other information with your date type, for example, to use in a Workflow

Once you’ve created the list of date types, you can then add a Lookup column to your calendar so your users can choose from your list and your workflow can handle any back-end processing that needs to occur for your specific business needs.

Lookup column

Absence Type is getting its information from the new list by the same name

"Houston, we have a problem…"
When it comes to color-coded calendars, we run into a problem with this method. Now that our date type is a Lookup column, SharePoint won’t let us include it in our color calculations.

Error

Lookup columns are not supported in formulas

We have a couple of options:

• We can let SharePoint Designer do the calculation for us, which will keep the color choices hidden from the end user, OR
• We can give the end user control over the color as well as the types of absences

For the purpose of this article, we are going to explore the second option, which will still involve using SharePoint Designer.

Assigning Colors

Let’s start by adding two fields to our Absence Type list: Color and BGColor. Both should be a single line of text with a max length (optionally) of 7. We’re going to be storing our hexadecimal values here.

Absence Type – with two new fields

We will need to make some changes to our calendar columns as well. Color and BGColor will no longer be calculate fields. We can’t change them to the column type we want so we have to delete the existing ones and re-create them the way we want them.

Customize – Color, BGColor, Absence Title, and OldDateType will be filled in by a Workflow

Notice we’ve added two extra fields: Absence Title and OldDateType. Go ahead and add these, each as a Single line of text. We’ll need these when we get to our workflow.

Hiding System-calculated Fields

It would be confusing to the user for us show these fields on our edit and display forms, so let’s hide them.

• From the calendar, click on Settings -> List Settings

Settings -> List Settings

• Under General Settings, click on Advanced settings

General Settings -> Advanced settings

• On Content Types, click Yes under Allow management of content types?

Allow management of content types? – Yes

• Click OK
• You will now see a Content Types section on the List Settings page
• Click on Event

Content Types section – Click on Event

• For each field you want to hide, click on its Name

When managing Content Types, columns can be Required, Optional, or Hidden

In our example, we don’t need Location, Color, BGColor, Display, Absence Type, or OldDateType to be visible

• On Column Settings, under This column is:, choose Hidden (Will not appear in forms)

This column is: Hidden (Will not appear in forms)

• Click OK
• Repeat for the rest of the columns

Hidden columns

• Go back to Settings

Click on the Settings breadcrumb

For simplicity, you can now turn the management of content types off and your hidden columns will remain hidden.

• Under General Settings, click on Advanced settings
• On Content Types, click No under Allow management of content types?
• Click OK

Absences – New Item

Color and Display columns are hidden, as well as the unused column, Location

Checking Our Progress

Once we’ve entered some dates, we can go to our calendar to see the progress we’ve made so far.

Absences Calendar – No colors, no Absence Type in display

Now we need to get the display information we need from our Absence Type list. We’ll create a workflow using SharePoint Designer to do this.

Looking Up Fields with Workflow

In SharePoint Designer, open your site by clicking File -> Open Site… from the menu. Once your site is open, you can create a workflow and attach it to your calendar.

The goal here is to have our workflow update our color columns and our Absence Title so that we can use them in our calculated Display column. Since these columns are not "calculated" by SharePoint, they are not automatically updated whenever the Event is updated.

That means our workflow will need to check to see if the Absence Type has changed. If it has, the workflow will need to recalculate our colors for us.

• Right click on your site, then click New -> SharePoint Content…

New -> SharePoint Content…

• Give your workflow a name and choose your calendar to attach it. Uncheck manual start and check the other two options: to start (a) when a new item is created and (b) whenever an item is changed.

Define your new workflow

• Click Next
• Give your step a name, then click Conditions -> Compare Attached Listfield

Conditions -> Compare Attached List  field

• Click on field

Setting the conditions on which the Actions will run

• From the dropdown, choose OldDateType

• Click equals and change it to not equals
• Click on value and then the fx button

Click the "function" (fx) button

• Leave Source as Current Item, choose Absence Type for Field and click OK

Compare OldDateType to the current Absence Type

When the item is first created, OldDateType will not be set, so this condition will work both for Create and Change

• Click Actions, then Set Field in Current Item

Actions -> Set Field in Current Item

• Click on field and choose Color

Set the Color column

• Click on value, then click fx

Click the "function" (fx) button

• Set Source to Absence Type (or whatever you called your DateType list)
• Set Field under Lookup Details to Color
• Set the Field under Find the List Item to Absence Type (or whatever you change the Title field to in your DateType list)

Define Workflow Lookup

• Click the fx button

Click the "function" (fx) button

• Leave Source on Current Item and choose Absence Type for Field

Lookup value

The way to read this screen from an SQL understanding is to see the top part (Lookup Details) as the SELECT statement, and the bottom part (Find the List Item) as the WHERE clause.

So we would read this:

Understanding the Workflow Lookup dialog box

…as the SQL statement:

SELECT Color FROM Absence Type
WHERE Absence Type.Absence Type = Payroll Calendar.Absence Type

In other words, look at the Absence Type on my current Event. Now, go look that Absence Type (basically our Title column) in my Absence Type table and tell me what is in the Color column.

• Click OK

When you do, you will see a warning that a unique value is not guaranteed.

Non-unique Warning

This is because, in theory, you could have two Absence Types with the same name in your Absence Type list. In practice, though, you won’t because it just wouldn’t make sense to your end user to have two items in the dropdown list that were exactly the same. Which would they choose?

So, it’s safe to go ahead an click Yes

• Repeat for BGColor and Absence Title

Setting fields

If it seems strange that we are doing the same thing for Absence Title, remember that we cannot use a Lookup column in a calculation formula. By setting the Absence Title equal to the Absence Type, we’re effectively copying the Lookup value to a Single line of text column. We can then use the latter for our formula.

• Repeat this step one more time for the OldDateType

Recording the current Absence Type so the workflow will know if it changes

This is where we are recording the current Absence Type. If this Event is changed in the future, the workflow condition we set in Steps 3-9 will check this field to see if the Absence Type has been changed, so that the colors and Absence Title need to be updated.

• Click Finish

Now your calendar should have all the pieces in place to keep your color-coded calendar functioning properly.

Note: Since the colors and date type text are being updated by a workflow, the changes to your calendar will not be instantaneous. But wait a couple of seconds and refresh your browser and you should see your changes.

Guest Author: Jim Bob Howard
Jim Bob Howard is a web designer / web master in the healthcare industry. He has been working with SharePoint only since March 2009 and enjoys sharing what he has learned. You can email him at [email protected].