Presented for SharePoint TechFest on May 17, 2012. All rights reserved.

2. LIST FORMS, CUSTOM DEVELOPMENT, AND YOU:
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WOWING CO-WORKERS WITHOUT WORKING VERY HARD.
William Schindler
Director, Portals & Collaboration Practice – PacWest
Self-Proclaimed Lazy Developer

3. WHAT DO I MEAN BY “LAZY”?
3 Tenets of Laziness
1. Results = good
2. Work for work’s sake = bad
3. More results & less work = best
Most developers are by nature (and should be) inherently lazy –
computers and programming are inventions of the lazy man.
My modus operandi: maximize laziness value for developers and end-
users.

4. “SYLLABUS”
• This presentation is:
– 300-400 level
– Aimed primarily at developers and gearheads
– Pre-reqs: 200-level C#, 300-level ASP.Net, 200-level SharePoint development
• Session outline / agenda
– Explore out-of-the-box forms and tools (“what’s there now”)
– The “Do”s and “Don’t”s of customizing list forms
– “Cookbook” examples of real ways to customize
– Value proposition: why you’d take this home
• At the end you can:
– Explain how to extend the forms in useful ways
– Identify good (and bad) candidates for list form customization
– Pitch to your boss and/or stakeholders why you should use this to solve their problem

5. WHAT’S THERE NOW?
• Lists/libraries hold “things” – both concrete and abstract
• Basic forms are basic, but allow manipulation of this content:
Add / View / Edit
• Where they live – Forms “sub-folder” of lists & libraries
• How they behave:
– “Internal” web parts used in render
– Query string to select records / parameters (IsDlg)
• Think MVVM: Emphasis on utility as a combined view / view model
for list data

6. SHOW-AND-TELL:
EXISTING FORMS & TOOLS

7. HOW TO “CHANGE” THEM
• Don’t change them!
– … most of the time.
– Probably not a good idea to change/replace forms in existing lists and
libraries; add and mark default instead.
– Not as bad of an idea in your own custom list definitions, but consider
carefully
• Big gotcha: the existing web part is a bit of a golden cow.
– Removing the existing web part zone & web part makes SharePoint stop
recognizing it as a list form.
– Good news is you can hide it, and it’s not much of a performance hog.
– When you inevitably forget and do it anyway, you can still find the form
by navigating the file system w/ Designer and go delete/fix it.

8. LIVE DEVELOPMENT! A SIMPLE OVERRIDE
Hold onto your hats, and excuse the inevitable typos.

9. REAL(ISH) EXAMPLES
• Good at solving “presentation of complex data” problems:
– interactive/rich media libraries
– linked records across lists
– Heavy on presentation, light on edit
Suggested Uses
• Embedded players
• Adding “wow factor” or better user experiences
• Making common data (such as address blocks) more “natural”
• Wowing your coworkers, bosses, and stakeholders
• Contraindicators:
– Little human interaction required or “data archiving” only
– Complex interaction / copious data entry

10. SHOW-AND-TELL:
EXAMPLES (CODE & IN-USE)

11. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?
• Situation
– Many real-world problems in the enterprise are about how to visualize
and surface sets of data.
– Developers are inherently lazy and resources are limited.
• Value
– We can use SP list mechanisms – content types, site columns,
taxonomy, workflow, versioning, etc., to create powerful, dynamic data,
without lifting a finger.
– You can still build whatever kinds of crazy interfaces you want in the
technology you prefer, without giving up those advantages or writing
whole new webpages/sites/applications.
• It’s faster and it’s cheaper than the alternatives.

12. Q&A
William Schindler
Director, Portals & Collaboration Practice – PacWest
william.schindler@neudesic.com
Dino Dato-on
Director, Portals & Collaboration Practice – Dallas
dino.dato-on@neudesic.com