How To Specify People as a Search Scope / Content Source Using SharePoint 2013 REST API

I had reason to work with the SharePoint 2013 Search API via REST for the first time.  I wanted to search for people, not documents.  The key learning here is that you specify content sources via its GUID (or at least in this case). The following jQuery snippet shows how:

    loadExpertsAsync: function() {

        jQuery.support.cors = true;

        $.ajax({
            url: this.CreateFullApiUrl() +
                "?querytext='portals'&sourceid='b09a7990-05ea-4af9-81ef-edfab16c4e31'" +
                "&selectproperties='LinkedInProfileUrl,GoogleCirclesProfileUrl,BALargeProfilePictureUrls,BAGridPictures,WorkEmail,Skills,AboutMe,Interests,JobTitle,PastProjects,PictureURL,PreferredName,TwitterHandle,LinkedInProfileUrl,PreferredName,GoogleCirclesProfileUrl'" +
                "&rowlimit=99",
            method: "GET",
            headers: { "Accept": "application/json; odata=verbose" },
            cache: false,
            success: function (result) {

In my case, I’m running the API against SharePoint online. To get the GUID, I followed these steps:

  1. Access the SharePoint admin center
  2. Select “search” from the left hand navigation
  3. Select “Manage Result Sources”
  4. Select “Local People Results”
  5. Look at the URL.

My URL looked something like:

https://xyzzy-admin.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/searchadmin/EditResultSource.aspx?level=tenant&sourceid=b09a7990%2D05ea%2D4af9%2D81ef%2Dedfab16c4e31&view=1

The sourceid parameter is what worked for me.

(I understand that the sourceid may actually be a sort of permanent thing with SP, but I’ll always check anyway 🙂 ).

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Example SharePoint REST Calls

Here’s a set of sample REST calls that work for me and may help you out as well.  As of 02/2014, there are two examples 🙂

  1. Reference a Column With Spaces In Its Name
  2. Reference a Multi-Select Column
  3. Perform a People Search via REST

 

I’ll add to this as time passes.

Here are some useful inks I’ve found as well:

Reference a Column With Spaces In Its Name

I create a custom list with a column named “Blog Author” (space between Blog and Author).

The $select to reference that column is:

image

Simply replace the space with “_x0020_”.  We see the _x0020_ in many examples across the internets and REST is no different.

If you don’t do that, you’re liable to get an error message like this:

The expression “Blog Author” is not valid.

Easy enough.

Reference a Multi-Select Lookup Column

Set up:

  1. Create a custom list named Categories.
  2. Add some categories.  I added categories thusly:image
  3. Create another custom list called MockBlog and add Categories as a multi-select list column (or site column if that’s how you roll).

Add some items to your Mockblog list and you’re ready.

An Ajax style call using jQuery will look something like this:

serverUrl += "/_api/web/lists/GetByTitle('MockBlog')/items" +
             "?$select=Title,Categories/Title,Blog_x0020_Author/Title" + 
             "&$expand=Blog_x0020_Author,Categories";

We’re telling SharePoint “Give me the title for all the Categories (Categories/Title). Get the actual values for Title by $expanding the Categories list.”  (My RESTful paraphrasing is probably pretty loose, but this how I’m interpreting it).

If you’re doing this via JavaScript and using Fiddler to look at the output, you get something like this in return:

 

image

(The above is a JSON object)

Perform a People Search via REST

I blogged about this separately. The key is to specify a sourceid parameter whose value is the GUID of the Local People content source. (Content sources used to be called scopes and it’s my-oh-my so hard not to call everything a scope for me!).

Read more about it here: http://www.mstechblogs.com/paul/?p=10385

 

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Quick and Easy: Create a SharePoint Site Using REST

There are a lot of resources around that show how to do this, but I couldn’t find a comprehensive go-to link, so here we are.

You can create a SharePoint site using the REST API.  Here’s a fully baked example:

<!--
    SiteRequestForm.html: Collect information and create a site for the user.
-->

<center>
<table>
    <tr>
        <td>Site Name:</td>
        <td><input type="text" name="SiteName" id="SiteName" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td colspan="2">
            <input type="submit" id="CreateSiteButton" value="Create the Site" />
        </td>
    </tr>
</table>
</center>

<script src="../Plugins/jquery-1.11.0.min.js"></script>

<script>
var CreateSiteLogicContainer = {

    createSiteData: {
            "parameters": {
                __metadata: { "type": "SP.WebInfoCreationInformation" },
                Url: "Paultest1",
                Title: "Paultest1",
                Description: "rest-created web by Paul!",
                Language: 1033,
                WebTemplate: "sts",
                UseUniquePermissions: false
            }
    },

    createSite: function () {

        jQuery.support.cors = true;

        CreateSiteLogicContainer.createSiteData.parameters.Url = $("#SiteName").val();
        
        $.ajax({
            url: "https://bigapplesharepoint.sharepoint.com/NBAIADev/_api/web/webinfos/add",
            method: "POST",

            headers: {
                "Accept": "application/json; odata=verbose",
                "content-type": "application/json;odata=verbose",
                "X-RequestDigest": $("#__REQUESTDIGEST").val()
            },

            data: JSON.stringify(CreateSiteLogicContainer.createSiteData),

            success: function () { alert("success"); },
            error: function () { alert("error"); }

        });
    },

    wireUpForm: function () {
        $("#CreateSiteButton").click(function () {
            alert("About to try and create the site.");
            CreateSiteLogicContainer.createSite();
        });
    }


}

CreateSiteLogicContainer.wireUpForm();

</script>

When successful, you get a JSON packet in response like this:

image

My key thoughts and learnings from this include:

  • This approach uses jQuery.  In my case, my jQuery library is located in “../plugins.”  You’ll want to change that to point to your favorite JQ location.
  • You can copy and paste that whole snippet into a Content Editor Web Part on a page and it should work just fine.  You’ll want to change the end point of the API call and make sure you reference JQ correctly.
  • The URL is relative to your API’s endpoint.  In my case, it’s creating sub-sites underneath https://bigapplesharepoint.com
  • You don’t need to provide a content-length. Some blog posts and MSDN document implies that you do, but happened for me automatically, which I assume is being handled by the $.ajax call itself.
  • This line is required in order to avoid a “forbidden” response: "X-RequestDigest": $("#__REQUESTDIGEST").val().  There are other ways to do it, but this is pretty nice.  I have lost the link to blog that provided this shortcut.  H/T to you, mysterious blogger!

Good luck and hope this helps someone out.

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Overcome Annoying Problem with Relative Urls in SharePoint Quick Launch

I wanted to add a link to the quick launch navigation the other day and SharePoint told me:

image

Pure text version of that is:

Ensure that the URL is valid and begins with either a valid character (a number sign (#) or forward slash (/)) or a valid supported protocol (for example, ‘http://’, ‘https://’, ‘file://’, ‘ftp://’, ‘mailto:’, ‘news:’).

“Blech and pox!” I said.

A workaround to this is to use JavaScript to find a known link in the quick launch and override its behavior.

To test this, add a new link to your test site thusly:

image

I used jQuery.  To solve it, get some JavaScript and jQuery onto the page using your favorite technique and with a line of code like this:

 

$(document).ready( function () {

    $("a:contains('Test URL replacement')").click(function () { alert("changed click behavior!"); return false;});

});

And Bob’s your uncle.

The jQuery selector finds every <a> tag that has “Test URL replacement” in its name.  You may want to find-tune that depending on your link and such.

The .click(function() overrides whatever SharePoint would have done when the user clicked.  Make sure you “return false” or else it will do your stuff and then try to the href thing too, which is almost certainly not your goal.

This was done and test in a SharePoint online environment but should work well in 2010 and earlier too.

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Quick and Simple: SharePoint REST Call Only Returns 100 Records

I’ve been working on a public facing web site for my SharePoint practice here in New York and it uses a lot of JavaScript and REST calls to show content.

During mainline development, I create a small dataset with just 10 or so rows in a custom list and my REST calls all pulled from there.  Once I bumped up the list to have a few hundred rows of data to test for anticipated growth, I found that I was getting exactly 100 rows returned back on my REST calls.

This is a very simple thing to address.  In my case (and I believe in most cases), the default REST calls to SharePoint (and possibly as an industry standard?) return 100 rows.  To return more than the default, use the $top parameter on your call, as in:

GET /Insights%20Dev/_api/web/lists/GetByTitle(‘MockBlog’)/items?$select=ID,Title,Categories/Title,Blog_x0020_Author/Title,DatePublished,BlogSummary&$expand=Blog_x0020_Author,Categories&$filter=&$top=9999

I picked 9999 in this case since I know that growth-wise, there won’t be more than 200 or so rows added to this list in a year.  If it becomes ungainly, we can implement some paging down the road.

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Quick and Simple: Solve “Invalid URL Parameter” problem with UpdateListItems in lists.asmx

When working with UpdateListItems via lists.asmx, it’s easy to generate the error:

Invalid URL Parameter.

The URL provided contains an invalid Command or Value. Please check the URL again.

You can get this error when you forget to include ID in the the list of fields to update.  This, like a lot of these SP web services, is a bit counterintuitive since you need to include the ID in the ID attribute of the <Method> element.  And you’re not updated ID and probably never want to in the first place.

This SOAP envelope works:

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'>
  <soapenv:Body>                      
    <UpdateListItems xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/'>                     
      <listName>{C712E2EA-54E1-47AD-9D99-1848C7773E2F}</listName>                     
        <updates>                     
         <Batch OnError="Continue">
          <Method ID="1" Cmd="Update">
            <Field Name="CooperativeLock">locked!</Field>
            <Field Name="ID">1</Field>
          </Method>
        </Batch>                     
        </updates>                
      </UpdateListItems>             
  </soapenv:Body>         
</soapenv:Envelope>

If you strip out the ID field reference then you’ll get the annoying “Invalid URL parameter” message.

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Poor Man’s Caching in JavaScript

[TL;DR version: use cookies to store the results of async calls; render the results of past async calls immediately and then validate them after page-load.]

I’ve been working on SharePoint intranet site for a client that features, among other things, a stylized secondary navigation whose menu options are managed via a regular old custom list.  The idea is that the client gets to control “their” site’s menu without affecting or being affected by the global navigation put out by IT.

(there is something incredibly subversive about adding a CEWP that points to an HTML file that loads some CSS and JS to fundamentally alter almost everything about a site’s behavior… but that’s for another post)

The code for this pretty simple:

The sore spot here is that every time anyone hits one of the site’s pages, that user’s web browser is reaching out to get items from the list.  Once dev is complete and testing has proven things to be stable and complete, this call is unnecessary more than 99% of the time since the menu rarely changes.  It also has a weird UI affect which is common in this brave new world of hyper-ajaxy web sites – the page renders and only then does the menu render.  It’s jittery and distracting in my view.  And jittery. So, caching. 

I modified the logic thusly:

  • Look for a cookie in the browser that contains the menu as I last read it
    • If found, render it immediately.  Don’t wait for the page to finish loading.  (You need to make sure your HTML is strategically placed here, but it’s not hard to do).
  • Wait for the page to finish loading and make an async call to load up menu items from a list using REST or lists.asmx or whatever
  • Compare what I got against the cookie
    • If it matches, STOP
    • Otherwise, using jQuery, dynamically populate a bunch if <li>’s in a <ul>
  • Use CSS to do all the formatting
  • Profit!

Some of you are going to say, “hey! there’s no real caching going on here since you’re reading the menu anyway every single time.”  And you’re right – I’m not giving the server any kind of break.  But because the call is async and happens after the page’s initial HTML payload fully renders, it “feels” more responsive to the user.  The menu renders pretty much as the page draws.  If the menu happens to the change, the user is subjected to a jittery re-draw of the menu, but only that one time.

There are some ways to make this caching more effective and help out the server at the same time:

  • Put in a rule that the “cookie cache” is valid for a minimum of 24 hours or some other timeframe. As long as there is no expired cookie, use the cookie’s menu snapshot and never hit the server.

Well … that’s all that come to mind right now :). 

If anyone has any clever ideas here I’d love to know them.

And lastly – this technique can be used for other stuff.  This client’s page has a number of data-driven things on various pages, many of them changing relatively rarely (like once a week or once a month).  If you target specific areas of functionality, you can give a more responsive UI by pulling content from the local cookie store and rendering immediately.  It feels faster to the user even if you’re not saving the server any cycles.  You can save the server cycles by deciding on some conditions and triggers to invalidate this local cookie cache.  That’s all situational and artsy stuff and really the most fun :). 

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How to: Configure Unit Test and Test Coverage with QUnit.js and Blanket.js For an Office 365 SharePoint App

Intro

I’ve been exploring unit testing and test coverage for JavaScript as I work on a new SharePoint app for SharePoint online in the Office 365 suite.  The obvious research paths led me to Qunit.js and right after that, to Blanket.js.

QUnit let me set up unit tests and group them into modules.  A module is just a simple way to organize related tests. (I’m not sure I’m using it as intended, but it’s working for me so far with the small set of tests I have thus far defined).

Blanket.js integrates with Qunit and it will show me the actual lines of JavaScript that were – and more importantly – were not actually executed in the course of running the tests.  This is “coverage” – lines that executed are covered by the test while others are not.

Between setting up good test cases and viewing coverage, we can reduce the risk that our code has hidden defects.  Good times.

Qunit

Assuming you have your Visual Studio project set up, start by downloading the JavaScript package from http://qunitjs.com.  Add the JavaScript and corresponding CSS to your solution.  Mine looks like this:

image

Figure 1

As you can see, I was using 1.13.0 at the time I wrote this blog post. Don’t forget to download and add the CSS file.

That out of the way, next step is to create some kind of test harness and reference the Qunit bits.  I’m testing a bunch of functions in a script file called “QuizUtil.js” so I created an HTML page called “QuizUtil_test.html” as shown:

image Figure 2

Here’s the code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <title>QuizUtil test with Qunit</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../CSS/qunit-1.13.0.css" />
    <script type="text/javascript" src="QuizUtil.js" data-cover></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="qunit-1.13.0.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="blanket.min.js"></script>

    <script>
        module("getIDFromLookup");
        test("QuizUtil getIDFromLookupField", function () {
            var goodValue = "1;#Paul Galvin";

            equal(getIDFromLookupField(goodValue) + 1, 2), "ID of [" + goodValue + "] + 1 should be 2";
            equal(getIDFromLookupField(undefined), undefined, "Undefined input argument should return undefined result.");
            equal(getIDFromLookupField(""), undefined, "Empty input argument should return an undefined value.");
            equal(getIDFromLookupField("gobbledigood3-thq;dkvn ada;skfja sdjfbvubvqrubqer0873407t534piutheqw;vn"), undefined,"Should always return a result convertible to an Integer");
            equal(getIDFromLookupField("2;#some other person"), "2", "Checking [2;#some other person].");
            equal(getIDFromLookupField("9834524;#long value"), "9834524", "Large value test.");
            notEqual(getIDFromLookupField("5;#anyone", 6), 6, "Testing a notEqual (5 is not equal to 6 for this sample: [5;#anyone]");

        });

        module("htmlEscape");
        test("QuizUtil htmlEscape()", function () {
            equal(htmlEscape("<"), "&lt;", "Escaping a less than operator ('<')");
            equal(htmlEscape("<div class=\"someclass\">Some text</div>"), "&lt;div class=&quot;someclass&quot;&gt;Some text&lt;/div&gt;", "More complex test string.");
        });

        module("getDateAsCaml");
        test("QuizUtil getDateAsCaml()", function () {
            equal(getDateAsCaml(new Date("12/31/2013")), "2013-12-31T:00:00:00", "Testing hard coded date: [12/31/2013]");
            equal(getDateAsCaml(new Date("01/05/2014")), "2014-01-05T:00:00:00", "Testing hard coded date: [01/05/2014]");
            equal(getDateAsCaml(new Date("01/31/2014")), "2014-01-31T:00:00:00", "Testing hard coded date: [01/31/2014]");
            equal(getTodayAsCaml(), getDateAsCaml(new Date()), "getTodayAsCaml() should equal getDateAsCaml(new Date())");
            equal(getDateAsCaml("nonsense value"), undefined, "Try to get the date of a nonsense value.");
            equal(getDateAsCaml(undefined), undefined, "Try to get the date of the [undefined] date.");
        });

        module("getParameterByName");
        test("QuizUtil getParameterByName (from the query string)", function () {
            equal(getParameterByName(undefined), undefined, "Try to get undefined parameter should return undefined.");
            equal(getParameterByName("does not exist"), undefined, "Try to get parameter value when we know the parameter does not exist.");

        });

        module("Cookies");
        test("QuizUtil various cookie functions.", function () {
            equal(setCookie("test", "1", -1), getCookieValue("test"), "Get a cookie I set should work.");
            equal(setCookie("anycookie", "1", -1), true, "Setting a valid cooking should return 'true'.");
            equal(setCookie("crazy cookie name !@#$%\"%\\^&*(()?/><.,", "1", -1), true, "Setting a bad cookie name should return 'false'.");
            equal(setCookie(undefined, "1", -1), undefined, "Passing undefined as the cookie name.");
            equal(getCookieValue("does not exist"), "", "Cookie does not exist test.");
        });

    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <div id="qunit"></div>
    <div id="qunit-fixture"></div>

</body>
</html>

There are several things happening here:

  1. Referencing my code (QuizUtil.js)
  2. Referencing Qunity.js
  3. Defining some modules (getIDFromLookup, Cookies, and others)
  4. Placing a <div> whose ID is “qunit”.

Then, I just pull up this page and you get something like this:

image

Figure 3

If you look across the top, you have a few options, two of which are interesting:

  • Hide passed tests: Pretty obvious.  Can help your eye just see the problem areas and not a lot of clutter.
  • Module: (drop down): This will filter the tests down to just those groups of tests you want.

As for the tests themselves – a few comments:

  • It goes without saying that you need to write your code such that it’s testable in the first place.  Using the tool can help enforce that discipline. For instance, I had a function called “getTodayAsCaml()”.  This isn’t very testable since it takes no input argument and to test it for equality, we’d need to constantly update the test code to reflect the current date.  I refactored it by adding a data input parameter then passing the current date when I want today’s date in CAML format.
  • The Qunit framework documents its own tests and it seems pretty robust.  It can do simple things like testing for equality and also has support for ajax style calls (both “real” or mocked using your favorite mocker).
  • Going through the process also forces you to think through edge cases – what happens with “undefined” or null is passed into a function.  It makes it dead simple to test these scenarios out.  Good stuff.

Coverage with Blanket.js

Blanket.js complements Qunit by tracking the actual lines of code that execute during the course of running your tests.  It integrates right into Qunit so even though it’s a whole separate app, it plays nicely – it really looks like it’s one seamless app.

This is blanket.js in action:

image Figure 4

image

Figure 5

(You actually have to click on the “Enable coverage” checkbox at the top [see Figure 3] to enable this.)

The highlighted lines in Figure 5 have not been executed by any of my tests, so I need to devise a test that does cause them to execute if I want full coverage.

Get blanket.js working by following these steps:

  1. Download it from http://blanketjs.org/.
  2. Add it to your project
  3. Update your test harness page (QuizUtil_test.html in my case) as follows:
    1. Reference the code
    2. Decorate your <script> reference like this:
    <script type="text/javascript" src="QuizUtil.js" data-cover></script>

Blanket.js picks up the “data-cover” attribute and does its magic.  It hooks into Qunit, updates the UI to add the “Enable coverage” option and voila!

Summary (TL; DR)

Use Qunit to write your test cases.

  • Download it
  • Add it to your project
  • Write a test harness page
  • Create your tests
    • Refactor some of your code to be testable
    • Be creative!  Think of crazy, impossible scenarios and test them anyway.

Use blanket.js to ensure coverage

  • Make sure Qunit is working
  • Download blanket.js and add it to your project
  • Add it to your test harness page:
    • Add a reference to blanket.js
    • Add a “data-cover” attribute to your <script> tag
  • Run your Qunit tests.

I never did any of this before and had some rudimentary stuff working in a handful of hours. 

Happy testing!

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The Last Suit You’ll Ever Wear?

[Quick note – this is a pretty long post on a job opening for my group here in New York and you do need to live in the tri-state area if you’re interested.]

I joined Slalom Consulting over 18 months ago and that makes this my longest lasting job since 2007. I didn’t plan it that way. Prior to a string of job hopping that started with my leap into the SharePoint world, I was at one place for eleven years. I’ve finally found a new, enduring place to work for the long haul here at Slalom.

This place is growing and I need some help to control that. The kind of help I need is usually called a “SharePoint Solutions Architect” although I’ve found the architect word be over and/or incorrectly used in the SharePoint space for quite a while now. I’ve been struggling on how to blog about this. I don’t want to simply list out a bunch of bullet points in Dice/Monster style. My excellent recruiting peers have been doing that already :). So, I decided to take a “day in the life” approach. Read it over and consider:

1) If it appeals and

2) Whether you know in your bones that you can do it.

If yes, contact me (paul.galvin@slalom.com) and let’s talk.

These are what you can expect to do in typical week/month as a solutions architect on my team:

  • Run projects, often more than one at a time. Some projects are large and so you’d own that one project. “Running” a project means that you have oversight and responsibility for the overall quality of the delivery. In nearly every case you’ll have a PM and a really strong team of devs, BAs, UX people, etc., to support you. But you’ll be the main face the client sees, trusts, etc. There’s no hiding in the shadows in this role :). You’ll bill this time and the goal is to keep you busy enough to do this 80 percent of the time.
  • Help with paperwork – SOWs, RFPs, decks – all that good stuff. I think we have our SOW process down pretty tight and solid so it’s fairly formulaic. If you’re used to writing SOWs today, our process is not going to be a challenge for you. RFPs – these are a bit harder. They tend to be bespoke in nature to begin with and RFPs typically pull in multiple different authors. It’s both good and bad, but mainly good. This can get scrambly when we need to juggle the need for excellent customer service while also trying to win new work. You probably won’t own an RFP but you will be asked to contribute sections.
  • Sales calls, but not a closer. In the course of a month, you can expect to go on a couple of sales calls with our sales team. You’ll be the SME in the room, take notes and help shape the solution. However, you won’t be asked or expected to handle the sales cycle from start to finish. You don’t need to “sell,” you just need to be the calm voice of expert reason in the room. This builds trust and confidence and that’s why you’re there. Of course, if you like selling, then there’s room for you to grow here too.
  • Help with recruiting. We do have some kind of referral program, so if you know really strong folks in the community that you think should be part of Slalom, you can benefit that way. We have dedicated recruiters (who are excellent) to do the lion’s share of this kind of work. The real help is interviewing candidates – are they a good fit culturally? Do they know their stuff? Can they make *my* life easier? 🙂 This comes in spurts, a couple times a month, although in some months you would not do it at all.
  • Help define best practices, build up our IP and make us more competitive in the market. You’re an experienced guy/gal. You’ve been around the block – not just in SharePoint, but you have experience in other technologies and lived through good and bad (even terrible) projects all over. As a result, you know what works and what does not. We’ll want you to share that experience with us on a day to day basis in a tactical sense (i.e. run your projects really well) but also strategically. “Best practices” is a bit overused as a term and I hesitate to use it. The basic idea is that you’re coming in as an experienced person with deep and relevant experience and we want to integrate the best of your learnings into how we engage with customers on a day to day basis.
  • Have fun – we are a very integrated bunch. I want to avoid yet another platitude, but it’s really apt in this case – we work hard (sort of) and we play even harder :). There’s an Aaron Sorkin kind of banter here, the room is always full of clever people, we like our drink and we organize a fair number of fun events – movie night, baseball trips (even if they are horrible, practically evil teams).

If I could sum it all into one word, I’d use the word “leadership.” Lead projects, take a lead role in building out the practice (IP, building up the team), etc.

But wait! There’s more! Why else work at Slalom?

  • Remarkable unity of intent – everyone wants to grow this thing out. “This thing” is the New York office.  Everyone is on board with this.
  • Wind in your sails – sister offices, sister practices – Slalom is a “full service” consulting organization. I lead up the SharePoint practice (a “Practice Area Lead” in Slalom lingo). I have sister practices at 11 other Slalom offices. So even though I’m king as far as SharePoint is concerned here at Slalom New York, I have peer practices in Chicago, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta, Boston, etc. from which I can draw upon support. It’s really the best of both worlds – significant autonomy here in New York but access to tons of talent across the organization.
  • Wind in your sales (2) – We do more than SharePoint – much more. We do BI, CRM, UX, business consulting, Mobile, custom development and others. We are good at cross selling amongst ourselves and we’re good at painting – and more importantly, delivering upon – a “full service” picture for our clients. This is especially appealing to me. I’ve been at many smaller orgs working on SharePoint gigs and frustrated over and over again because we were pigeon holed as the “SharePoint people.” That doesn’t happen with Slalom and we get to do more interesting work as a result.
  • Local model – no travel.
  • Long term growth – Slalom has been going gangbusters. Lots of growth and stability. Growth also means that we need to hire leaders today to head up new teams as we add more clients and staff to support those clients.

I could go on, but I’ve probably already gone on too long.  I think I’ve captured the essence here. If you’re thinking about changing jobs and this looks good to you, let’s talk.

If you’re happy at your current job – let’s talk anyway :). I’ve been in a lot of places and was very “happy” at the time. Slalom is different and I’d welcome a chance to convince you of that.

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Quick and Easy: Set the Size of a Items in a List Box in a Windows Store App

In a Windows Store App I’m creating, I want to show the user various informational messages.  I picked a ListBox as the tool to show it so that they can scroll through them and all that good stuff. 

The messages are informational only, so there’s no need to provide all that extra whitespace around them since the user can never select them for anything.  The default behavior of the ListBox provides a substantial amount of padding and I wanted to get rid of it.  Well …. you can’t do that sort of thing on the ListBox directly.  HOWEVER, you can do it to the items you add:

        private void AddGameStateLogMessage(string theMessage)
        {
            TextBox t = new TextBox();
            t.Text = GameStateCounter++ + ": " + theMessage;
            t.TextWrapping = TextWrapping.Wrap;
            t.MinWidth = 400;
            Thickness thisPadding = new Thickness(5, 0, 5, 0);
            t.Padding = thisPadding;
            t.FontSize = 12;

            ListBoxItem li = new ListBoxItem();
            li.Content = t;
            li.MaxHeight = 25;
            thisPadding = new Thickness(5, 0, 5, 0);
            li.Padding = thisPadding;

            GameStateLog.Items.Insert(0,li);
        }

in the above, I’m creating a TextBox and setting its font, its padding, etc.

Next, I create a ListBoxItem and set its content to the formatted TextBox.

Finally, I insert the ListBoxItem into the ListBox.  (I want to show most recent messages at the top of the list, hence the Insert(0,li) instead of a simple Add() invocation.).

I will be tweaking this a bit before I’m really happy with the ListBox behavior but the pattern shown above has been very fruitful.  Hopefully someone else finds it helpful.

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