A jQuery Primer for SharePoint

Marc D Anderson

Who Is Marc?• Co-Founder and President of Sympraxis Consulting LLC,

located in the Boston suburb of Newton, MA, USA. Sympraxis focuses on enabling collaboration throughout the enterprise using the SharePoint application platform.

• More than 30 years of experience in technology professional services and software development. Over a wide-ranging career in consulting as well as line manager positions, Marc has proven himself as a problem solver and leader who can solve difficult technology problems for organizations across a wide variety of industries and organization sizes.

• Three-time awardee of the Microsoft MVP award for SharePoint Server (2011, 2012, 2013).

What is jQuery?

is

Getting Started• Add references to the jQuery library• References can be in:

– Master page– Page layout– Individual aspx pages

• jQuery and other .js files can be stored in:– Document Library– _layouts folder– Retrieved from a CDN

• Use “protocol-less” src and href

Script from CDNs

Referencing jQuery, jQueryUI, and SPServices from CDNs – Revisitedhttp://sympmarc.com/2013/02/07/referencing-jquery-jqueryui-and-spservices-from-cdns-revisited/

Note the protocol-less references

HTML Elements

Powered by <a href="http://office365.com">Office365</a>.

Opening tag Closing tag

Attribute Value

<input id="my-cbox" class="foo bar" type="checkbox" checked />

Element Self-closing tag

Id Attribute PropertyValueClass(es)

What is the Document Object Model (DOM)?

• The DOM starts as the page’s markup (HTML) as delivered to the browser by the server: View Source

• Styled by the CSS which gives the page its look and feel• The DOM is acted upon by any script in the page• View Source is *not* the live DOM

What Can We Do With the DOM?

• Add or remove CSS classes• Create new or remove existing HTML elements• Change HTML element attributes• Bind to events• And so much more…

The DOM is HTML, which is XML, which is data!

The Basic Idea of jQuery

$(".article").hide();

Select something

Do something!

Remember this from CSS?

jQuery’s Document Ready$(document).ready(function() { // do something});

• Processing is suspended until the page’s DOM is fully loaded

• Ensures that all of the elements you need in the DOM are available

Shorthand:$(function() { // do something});

jQuery(function($) { // do something});

jQuery Documentation:Your Friend

• The jQuery documentation is used to be arranged to help you

• What you need to know is was arranged sequentially from top to bottom

jQuery Selectors

• Selectors are the most important jQuery concept

• Selecting the right DOM object(s) is half the battle

• Selectors return a jQuery object containing a collection of DOM objects: 1 to n matching elements

Selectors for SharePoint

$("div[id$='QuickLaunchNavigationManager']

li:first span.menu-item-text")

Selectors for SharePoint

$("td.ms-list-addnew a:eq(1)")

Useful jQuery Selector Tricks$("[id='foo']"); // Equal to$("[id!='foo']"); // Not equal to$("[id^='foo']"); // Starts with$("[id$='foo']"); // Ends with$("[id*='foo']"); // Contains$("[id~='foo']"); // Contains word$("[id|='foo']"); // Contains prefix$("[id]"); // Has attribute$("[id][class][style]"); // Has all

• .NET Applications like SharePoint generate some long and ugly markup and IDs

id="ctl00$ctl41$g_26ee1140_76aa_4ec0_88c4_11e7e96480f4$ctl00$ctl02$ctl00$ctl01$ctl00$ContentTypeChoice"

• These selector tricks really help

jQuery Attributes

• Once you’ve selected the right DOM element, you can use jQuery to get or set its attributes

• As of jQuery 1.6:– the .prop() method provides a way to explicitly get/set

property values (checked, selected, or disabled)

– .attr() gets/sets attribute values (class, style, etc.)

Example with SharePoint Attributes: Get

$("select[title='Region']").val(); $

("select[title='Region']

option:selected").text();

Example with SharePoint Attributes: Set

$("select[title='Region']").val(5);

$("select[title='Region']

option:selected").text("boo");

Traversing

• Traversing lets you move around the DOM based on your initial selection

• This is how you get at elements which are difficult to select directly

• Ancestry matters in XML / HTML

Traversing Down:Find an Element’s Specific Children

$("div[id$='QuickLaunchNavigationManager']

li:first")

.parent().find("li:eq(3) li:first .menu-item-

text");

Traversal Example from SPServices

var possibleValues = $("select[ID$='SelectCandidate'][Title^='" + opt.multiSelectColumn + " ']");var selectedValues = possibleValues.closest("span").find("select[ID$='SelectResult'][Title^='" + opt.multiSelectColumn + " ']");

SelectCandidate SelectResult

<select name="ctl00$m$g_e845e690_00da_428f_afbd_fbe804787763$ctl00$ctl04$ctl07$ctl00$ctl00$ctl04$ctl00$ctl00$SelectResult" title="City selected values" id="ctl00_m_g_e845e690_00da_428f_afbd_fbe804787763_ctl00_ctl04_ctl07_ctl00_ctl00_ctl04_ctl00_ctl00_SelectResult" style="width: 162px;" onkeydown="GipHandleHScroll(event)" ondblclick="GipRemoveSelectedItems(ctl00_m_g_e845e690_00da_428f_afbd_fbe804787763_ctl00_ctl04_ctl07_ctl00_ctl00_ctl04_ctl00_ctl00_MultiLookupPicker_m); return false" onchange="GipSelectResultItems(ctl00_m_g_e845e690_00da_428f_afbd_fbe804787763_ctl00_ctl04_ctl07_ctl00_ctl00_ctl04_ctl00_ctl00_MultiLookupPicker_m);" size="20" multiple="">

<select name="ctl00$m$g_e845e690_00da_428f_afbd_fbe804787763$ctl00$ctl04$ctl07$ctl00$ctl00$ctl04$ctl00$ctl00$SelectCandidate" title="City possible values" id="ctl00_m_g_e845e690_00da_428f_afbd_fbe804787763_ctl00_ctl04_ctl07_ctl00_ctl00_ctl04_ctl00_ctl00_SelectCandidate" style="width: 162px;" onkeydown="GipHandleHScroll(event)" ondblclick="GipAddSelectedItems(ctl00_m_g_e845e690_00da_428f_afbd_fbe804787763_ctl00_ctl04_ctl07_ctl00_ctl00_ctl04_ctl00_ctl00_MultiLookupPicker_m); return false" onchange="GipSelectCandidateItems(ctl00_m_g_e845e690_00da_428f_afbd_fbe804787763_ctl00_ctl04_ctl07_ctl00_ctl00_ctl04_ctl00_ctl00_MultiLookupPicker_m);" size="350" multiple="">

Manipulation

• Once you’ve gotten the right element(s), you can:– Manipulate their attributes– Set properties– Change their contents (e.g.,

innerHTML)

Events

• jQuery’s events enable you to work with all of the standard JavaScript events, plus create your own

• Used to create behaviors that take effect when the user interacts with the page in the browser, and to further manipulate those behaviors

jQuery Events

$(".article").click(function(){ // do something});$(".article").mouseover(function(){ // do something});

jQuery Events$("h3.ms-WPTitle").click(function() { alert("Go directly to the list.");});

$("h3.ms-WPTitle").hover(function() { $(this).css("background-color", "fuchsia"); $(this).data("title", $(this).html()); $(this).html("Click to visit");},function() { $(this).css("background-color", "white"); $(this).html($(this).data("title"));});

Effects

• jQuery gives you a set of effects you can use to change the elements in the page

• Effects can be:– Visual: Change how the user sees existing

elements with animations– Manipulative: Change where and how

elements are shown by moving them around in the DOM

jQuery Effects Examples$(".article").hide();

$(".article").slideUp();

$(".article").fadeOut("slow");

$(".article").animate({"font-size": "24px","background-color": "red"

}, 5000);

Putting It Together:Toggling Web Part Visibility

var wpTitles = $("h3.ms-WPTitle");// Remove the links on the Web Part TitleswpTitles.find("nobr").unwrap("<a></a>");// Show the pointer on mouseoverwpTitles.css("cursor", "pointer");// Add click behavior that toggles the visibilitywpTitles.click(function() { $(this).closest("table").closest("tr").next().slideToggle();});

Putting It Together:Arranging Checkboxes

// Collect all of the choices$(thisFormField).find("tr").each(function() { columnOptions.push($(this).html());});out = "<TR>";

// Add all of the options to the out stringfor(i=0; i < columnOptions.length; i++) { out += columnOptions[i]; // If we've already got perRow columnOptions in the row, // close off the row if((i+1) % opt.perRow === 0) { out += "</TR><TR>"; }}out += "</TR>";

// Remove the existing rows...$(thisFormField).find("tr").remove();// ...and append the out string$(thisFormField).find("table").append(out);

jQueryUI Takes Effects Further

$(".article").tabs();

$("input").autocomplete();

$("#infoBox").dialog();

$("table.sortable").sortable();

…and many more

jQuery Plugins Abound!

• If you want to do something sophisticated, look for an existing plugin

• Due diligence – some of the plugins aren’t written very well

• Beware of “plugin sprawl”

More Useful Tools• JSLint

– http://jslint.com/– Checks your script against accepted standards– “Warning: JSLint will hurt your feelings.”

• JSHint– http://jshint.com/– Like JSLint, but a little more forgiving– More jQuery aware

• JavaScript Compressorator– http://compressorrater.thruhere.net/– Minifies script files using multiple methods

QUESTIONS?

Contact InformationeMail marc.anderson@sympraxisconsulting.com

Blog http://sympmarc.com

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Books http://sympmarc.com/books

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