Several very useful open source add-ons and tools for SharePoint recently released
When CodePlex, which is Microsoft's open source project hosting web site, launched almost 2 years ago, the SharePoint product group was one of its earliest promoters and adopters, and the Community Kit for SharePoint for which I was the founding contributor was one of the first 20 CodePlex projects. Since then, the number of SharePoint oriented projects on CodePlex has grown to over 200! And the SharePoint team as well as several other Microsoft groups have contributed time, guidance, and source code to a handful of these projects.
Recently, several add-ons and tools have been released on CodePlex to which I'd like to call special attention.
- The source code for the External Collaboration Toolkit for SharePoint, which was developed by the Microsoft Solution Accelerator Team, has been released as open source as part of the Community Kit for SharePoint. The CKS: Internet/Extranet Edition (CKS:IEE) team, which released the Forms-Based Authentication (FBA) solution about 5 months ago, will adopt the code and incorporate it into future releases of the CKS:IEE. If you're interested in contributing to this effort, please ping the team via e-mail by clicking here.
- Jan Tielens, a SharePoint MVP already famously gracious for providing his SmartPart for SharePoint as open source, has created the SmartTools for SharePoint project and released the What's New (within this site collection) web part and the Autocomplete Text Field for SharePoint.
- Two recent additions to the SharePoint Toolbox project:
- Profile Import Tool: A tool for importing users and updating their profile properties in MOSS 2007 when using forms based authentication. Developed by Steve Peschka, a SharePoint Ranger.
- CQWP QueryOverride: A subclass extension of the MOSS 2007 Content Query Web Part that allows the CAML query to support parameter replacement from the page’s query string. Developed by Jad Honein and Sean Squires of Microsoft's Information Services group. [Special mention: Waldek Mastykarz has posted an informative blog entry about performance characteristics and benchmarks of the Content Query Web Part vs. Custom Aggregation Web Part (such as Jan's What's New web part mentioned above).]
- Three recent additions to the SharePoint Features project:
- Toolbar Manager: This Feature allows you to selectively show and hide menu items on the standard list/library toolbar. The feature adds a new web part to the gallery that you can place on any list/library view page. Once placed on the page, you can use the properties of the web part to show or hide menu items. This is the perfect solution for hiding a single menu item such as “Export to Spreadsheet” to prevent users from taking that action. Developed by Scot Hillier, a SharePoint MVP.
- Unique Column Policy: This Feature creates a new Information Policy that allows you to specify a column in a list or library that should have unique values. It is accessible from the Information Policy link on the list/library settings page. When you turn on the policy, you can then select the column where the unique constraint should be applied. Also developed by Scot Hillier.
- Reset Theme: This feature changes the theme and logo for every site in a collection. A link appears on the Site Settings page to access the feature. very useful for making wholesale changes to the branding of a site collection. Developed by Romelard Fabrice, a SQL Server MVP.
If you'd like to recommend any other open source add-ons or tools for SharePoint, please leave a comment.
<Lawrence />
