The Whats New Web Part for SharePoint - Installed, Configured, and Reporting for Duty
Published 07/15 courtesy of Bamboo Solutions Community
Picking up where I left off in my last post, and with thanks to Bamboo's Systems Administrator for an assist with the installation (which is a breeze, as the file is packaged with an installer / setup wizard, but I lack the necessary permissions to install solutions on our server), I'm happy to report that I'm now able to press on with a report on the configuration of the What's New Web Part.
Once the installation of the Web Part was complete, I selected Edit Page from the Site Actions drop down menu in my test area, and selected the Add a Web Part button in my Web Part zone of choice. From the popup menu of available Web Parts, I located What's New which appeared under the heading of SmartTools. I then selected it by placing a check in the associated checkbox like so:
Clicking Add (not shown) will immediately add the What's New Web Part to the page/site being edited, and the Web Part will be auto-populated with site-specific information. Specifically, the 10 items most recently added and or updated will be displayed within the Web Part. In addition to the (configurable) default of 10 items shown, the columns surfaced by default in the Web Part include Time, List, and Site. Here's what the What's New Web Part looked like on first render within my test site:
Note: Additional columns which may be selected to render within the Web Part (via the Columns to show area of the Web Part's edit pane) include: Modified, Date, and Modified By.
Contrary to the suspicion I mentioned in my last post (and as shown in the view of the Settings area of the Web Part's edit pane at left), you'll notice the ability to manually define the Maximum age of items (in days). The default is set to 14 days, but you can increase or decrease the age of the posts to be shown at will ... which is to say that this Web Part will, in fact, perform the exact function that was requested by the reader who emailed me a question asking if there might be an existing tool to accomplish this feat. And since it's a free Web Part from CodePlex, what's not to love?
As you can see in the image at left, in addition to Number of items to show and Maximum age of items (in days), configurable Settings options for the Web Part include: Scope of the query (Recursive, Site, or SiteCollection); Cache interval (in seconds), the default of which is 30; List of content types (default is Folder); Content types are (Excluded or Included); Description text; Show header row (off by default); Group items on date (on by default); Allow group collapse (on by default); and Maximum number of lists to query (1,000 by default).
In addition to the download page for the What's New Web Part at CodePlex, there are also detailed (and illustrated) instructions available on the site for both installation and configuration of the Web Part.
Tell 'em SharePoint Blank sent you!
Recent SharePoint Questions
- sharepoint Q&A function
- Customize "Send To" menu in Sharepoint 2007
- Site is opening only on Server but not on other clients. How to fix this?
- Handy & Free of Charge SharePoint Tools
- One Document - two sites
- What is the difference between a document library and a form library?
- What is Collaborative Application Markup Language?
- • What is the difference between SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services?
- Why should you use SharePoint?
- Displaying columns
more sharepoint questions
More Articles By
Develop Mobile Applications for SharePoint with Mobile Entree - CMSWire
Develop Mobile Applications for SharePoint with Mobile Entree
CMSWire, CA
By Barb Mosher | Jun 5, 2009 Seeing as how SharePoint (news, site) is so widely used within the enterprise today, it's…
Bamboos Year in Review: Marc OBrien Introduces the Bamboo Online Applications Division
Editor's note: Last year we introduced the Bamboo Year in Review feature, kicking off with a note
While writing the final sentences of my post on how to create a SharePoint blog last week, I realized that I needed to circle back and spend some time… Mobile Entrée is installed as a SharePoint solution and is deployed as a series of features.
Top News Stories Make your plans now to attend the Best Practices Conference this August 24-26 in Washington, D.C. to ensure that you don't miss out on sessions presented by some…Working with the Admin Links on your SharePoint Blog
More Articles Under "News from Around the Web"
Guest Blog by H3 Solutions Jason Hall - Mobile Entrée, Taking a Look Under the Hood
SharePoint on Your SmartPhone, Android Moves to Laptops, Best Practices Conference Speakers List
Google Wave - A Developer's Eye View (The Register)
Last week, Google announced Wave, a…Announcing the Best Practices Conference Speakers List!
Most Viewed Content
