inconvenient SharePoint
Inconvenient programmatically working with SharePoint users (SPWeb.EnsureUser)
According to the Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v3 SDK the SPWeb.EnsureUser(String) method is all you need while programmatically working with users. Using nothing more than the login name it checks for you whether the particular user exists in the current web and adds it if required. Within a single line of code it retrieves for you a proper reference to a user no matter the membership/role provider. While it’s really that simple while working in the scope of your SharePoint Web Application, things get slightly more challenging when used in combination with a custom code outside of the HttpContext.
Inconvenient Control Adapters
Control Adapters are a great way to modify the presentation layer of any control out there: no matter whether it’s sealed or internal. And while they are pretty easy to setup you can find yourself spending a couple of hours if somehow they seem not to be applied…
Inconvenient programmatically exporting Web Parts
Programmatically provisioning Web Part instances is an important piece of structured and repeatable deployment of SharePoint solutions. Preferably you would like to be able to deploy preconfigured Web Parts at particular places in your SharePoint solution. In order to do that you need two at least things: the target location where do you want to deploy the Web Part instance and the preconfigured Web Part itself. SharePoint Web UI allows you to export Web Parts. While it’s definitely doable to export a couple of them manually, wouldn’t it be better if we could automate the process?
Did you know: Changing existing Site Definitions is unsupported
During the last SharePoint Black Belts meeting we talked about deploying of all kinds of things in SharePoint. One of the topics was deploying and updating custom Site Definitions. Did you know that changing existing Site Definitions is unsupported?
Inconvenient SPWeb.GetListItem (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070001)
SPWeb ships with the GetListItem method which allows you to retrieve a list item using a URL. While in general you would use the SPContext.Current.ListItem property to get the current list item, there are situations when the GetListItem method becomes really useful, like for example getting the current list item with elevated privileges. There is however one confusing thing about the GetListItem method and if you’re not focused enough, you will spend hours trying to figure out what is wrong.