SharePoint 2013 the my tasks social feature

benjaminprins Office 365

A lot of new social features have been added to SharePoint 2013. My tasks is one of the new social features. My tasks is located on the my site of every user and shows the aggregated tasks.  The aggregation happens through a new shared service application called “Work Management”.  The SSA uses an hidden list in the users my site to cache all the task data and is able to aggregate from SharePoint sites, Exchange and Project sites. The my tasks does not only show the tasks but provides the user with a fully editable task and the ability to create new tasks.   In this blog I will show a few of the new features included in the my tasks.

Try out the new Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise Preview for yourself!

Tasks preview panel

A fancy new preview panel is added. Click on the dots beside the task to open the preview panel. The panel shows the location and URL of the tasks but more importantly the due date of the task. In this example the task is 2 days past the due date and is shown in red.

Task filter

Tasks can be filtered to show only the tasks form a specific location.

1. Click on the dots to show the additional options.
2. Select one or more locations to filter the tasks.

Search in my tasks

A search box has been added to the tasks list. The search query will be executed directly on the task list without a page reload or page redirect!

Tasks importance

The importance of a task is show by the red exclamation mark. Simply click on the exclamation mark to change the importance.

The timeline

The timeline shows the tasks within the range of the timeline.

Remove task from timeline

Removing tasks from the timeline is very simple.

1. Click on the dots to open the task preview panel.
2. Click on Remove from timeline.

Add task to timeline

Adding a task to the timeline works the same as removing a tasks from the timeline.

1. Click on the dots to open the task preview panel.
2. Click on Add to timeline.

SharePoint 2013 new search features

benjaminprins Office 365

A lot of new features have been added to the Search site of SharePoint 2013. In this blog I will show a few of these new features.

Try out the new Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise Preview for yourself!

Author refinement 

The refinement panel shows refinement options relative to the search results. For example it shows the authors. With SharePoint 2013 it possible to click on Show More and enter the name of the author you are looking for.

Modified date refinement 

Another example of a refinement options is the modified date. With SharePoint 2013 it possible to select a period on the timeline. A very easy and powerful way to refine the search results.

Document search results

When hovering over a document in the search result the fancy new preview panel is loaded. Not only can you open the document itself, with the view library button you can open the library where the document is stored! In the preview panel it is possible to fully scroll through the document, a very fast way to ensure you found the correct document.

Per user search preferences

User can configure search preferences to make the search experience more personal.

1. Users can activate or deactivate search suggestions in the search box and suggestions and favorites based on personal query history.
2. Users can clear there Clear personal query history, resetting Personal Query Suggestions and Results You Have Clicked.
3. Users can select if a document will open in the client application or in the browser.
4. Users can select a preferred search language.
5. Users can view and edit there existing search alerts.

SharePoint 2013 new document library features

benjaminprins Office 365

A lot of new features have been added to the document library of SharePoint 2013. In this blog I will show a few of these new features.

Try out the new Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise Preview for yourself!

Create new documents

The drop-down menu has been replaced by a good looking popup panel.

Preview of selected document

A fancy new preview panel is added. Click on the dots beside a document and view a fully scrollable preview of the document.

Follow a document

Not only whole sites can be followed. Click in the preview panel on follow to follow individual documents.

Search in document library

A search box has been added to the document library. Without a page reload or page redirect the search will be executed directly on the document library!

Uploading document

The process of uploading documents is changed and works a lot faster. Just drag the document(s) onto the document library!

Saving views
Small order and filter changes to active views can be saved very quickly. Just change the view and click on the save this view link.

1. Change the sort order of a view.


2. Click on the save this view link.
3. Click on Save to save the changes to the current view (all documents) or change the name of the view to create a new view.

Switching views

Changing views changed a little bit in a good way. The first three views will be displayed above the documents and by clicking on the name the view will be loaded. Clicking on the dots will collapse a menu which shows all the remaining views, nice and simple.

SharePoint 2013 has Nintex Workflow 2013 App

benjaminprins Office 365

Nintex Workflow is a powerful tool which lets you visual design workflow within SharePoint. Up until now Nintex Workflow needed to be installed on the SharePoint servers itself, it was not possible to use it with SharePoint Online. In the new SharePoint Online version (part of Office 365) Nintex Workflow is available in the SharePoint App Store!

In this post I will walk through an installation and give a demo using Nintex Workflow Platform Preview on a SharePoint Online site.The Nintex Workflow Platform Preview has less features  in comparison to the on premise version, but I expect that this will change over time.

Install the Nintex Workflow Platform Preview

1. Open the app store.
2. Search for Nintex Workflow Platform Preview.

3. Click on the app and add it.

4. Return to the site.

5. Click on Trust It.

Use Nintex Workflow Plathform Preview

In this demo we are going to build a Nintex Workflow to

1. Open a document library and create a new Single Line of text column named First Letters.
2. Click on Nintes Workflow in the ribbon.

2. Click on Design a workflow.

3. Click on Variable and add a text variable named FirstLettersOfName.

4. Add the Extract Substring from Start of String action to the flow.

5. Set the action as shown below

6. Add the Set Field in Current Item Action and set the action as shown below.

7. Set the workflow settings as shown below and publish the workflow.


8. Upload a document to the library and check out the result.

Result

Display related items within a page layout

benjaminprins Office 365

An intranet resolves around its content and the findability of the content. Providing the user with useful information is vital for a good intranet. An example of providing useful information is to show related new articles besides a news article.

Solution

The solution consist of three parts the content type, page layout and a content query web part (CQWP).

Content type configuration

1. Create a new content type with Article page as parent.
2. Create a term set named news categories.
3. Add a few terms.
4. Add a new column named News Category linked to the news categories term set.

Page layout and CQWP configuration

1. Open the site in SharePoint Designer
2. Create the news page layout
3. Link the news content type to the page layout.
4. Add a web part zone
5. Add a CQWP to a web part zone.
6. Configure the CQWP to show the news items.
7. Configure the Additional filters.


6. Show items when: News catergory is equal to [PageFieldValue: News Category].

[PageFieldValue: News Category]

7. Or Title is not equal to [PageFiedlValue: Title].

[PageFiedlValue: Title]

7. Add the News Catergory column to the page layout.
8. Save the page layout and enjoy the result.

Result

Display department members with people search

benjaminprins Office 365

Do you need a dynamic overview with all the members of a department? With the People Search Core Web Part this is easily accomplished, even without changing any XSLT!

Solution

1. Add a People Search Core Results Web Part to a page.
2. Edit the Web Part.
3. Select under Results Query Options, by Cross-Web Part query ID; Query 2
4. Enter the query in Fixed Keyword, for example department:IWS or Department:ICT.

5. Navigate to the Enterprise Search Centers default results page.
6. If needed create temporarily a Enterprise Search Center.
7. Edit the Results page (http://[root]/sites/search/pages/results.aspx) and set the People Matches Web Part in edit mode.
8. Open the Display properties of the People Matches Web Part.


9. Deselect Use Location Visualization.
10. Open the XSLT Editor.
11. Copy and save the XSLT in a local XSLT file.
12. Navigate to the People Search Core Results Web Part.
13. Open the Display properties of the People Matches Web Part.
14.  Deselect Use Location Visualization.
15. Copy and save the XSLT from the local XSLT file.
16. Safe the changes and enjoy the result.

Result