Extelligent Design's
SharePoint List Events Package

The Extelligent Design List Events package is a product designed to help you configure automatic actions that will occur when users enter data into your lists. The package will constantly grow as we add more features into it, and all the code that we use is published in our various blogs where it gets commented upon by members of the SharePoint community - which drives us to make sure our code is of high quality.

What this product does

The following is the list of features currently supported by the product. If you find this product useful, we suggest you join our mailing list where we will update on any added feature.

Automatic List Item Permissions 

This feature allows you to assign permissions to list items that get created or are modified in SharePoint. For example, in a list of tasks you may want to set automatic permissiosn so that only the person who created the task and only the person on the "assigned to" column have permissions to view the task.

Automatic List Item Titles 

 This feature allows you to assign a title to newly created list items in a list or library. When enabled, the feature will set a title based on a format that you choose. For example, say you have a list of leave requests. In such a list, the user doesnt know what the title of a request should be, as the defining columns are the start and end date of the request, and the person requesting it. With the Automatic List Item Titles feature, you can configure the list to automatically assign titles based on those fields (for example "Leave request from {Item.Created By}")  and then, if you dont want the users to override your changes, you can use the feature to hide the title field from the editing forms.

Installation Instructions 

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 To  install the product, download the trial version from the link above.

Extract the ZIP file - inside you will find two sharepoint solution packages - add them both to the farm solutions using either powershell or command line and deploy them. For instructions on how to do so, see "Deploy solution packages (sharepoint 2010)".

Finally, open the site collection you want to use the features in, and open the site collection features page from the site settings. Here, you will find two features - one for each type of event. You can choose to activate either one.

Licensing & Pricing

The product is licensed per farm, and you only have to pay for the farms that you actually use for production. You can download the product as a trial version, which does not expire and use it on all your development servers or testing environments. However, be aware that the trial version will randomly change the titles of list items in the lists where the product is used to include a warning on the product's trial status. When you purchase and activate the product this will stop happening.

The price for this package is $1000 USD, with discounts available to education and non profit organisations only.

Latest Release

 The current release is version 1.0.0.1

Fixed

1. Custom permissions levels will now be shown as selectable options

Known Issues In This Release 

The following are the known bugs that have been raised about this release:

1. Configuration screens should show breadcrubms to the list settings page.

Feature Requests 

The following feature requests have been raised by our clients, and our team is working on them:

1. Automatic list item permissions should allow specifying different permissions to different people from the fixed

Warning! 

Please note that this product is designed to change information on your SharePoint evnironment. Extelligent Design does not warranty your system, or the data in it, and will hold no liability to any damage to information or otherwise on installed systems.

This product is compatible with:

• SharePoint 2010 Foundation
• SharePoint 2010 Server

 Sandbox Solution: No

If you want this product for SharePoint 2007, please contact us.

Office 365 Export

About 

Here at Extelligent Design, we are using Office365  ourselves for our intranet. We find it usefull to have a local copy of the contents of our site for safe keeping. For that purpose, we have developed the Office 365 export application.

The application is simple - specify your site and select either:

1. A specific list to export
2. All lists in the site
3. All lists from all sites in the site collection.

Additionally, you can save your export configuration to a setting file, and optionally include an automatically updated datestamp that will filter exports using that file, so that you don't export the same files again and again.

Then select a folder to safe the files to, and click the Export button. The contents of the list or lists are saved in two ways - the metadata is saved into an XML file, and any files (either documents from a document library or attachments to list items) are saved in their own folders, with the XML file pointing to the files, connecting the metadata to the file. 

In our latest version you can now browse the exported data, and in the near future, restore specific items.

You can then double click on an item and see its full metadata, and if it is a file, or a list item with attachments, see the links to the files:

Release notes Version 9.3

New:

1. Filter by document date
2. Run as scheduled task (command line)
3. Saving\loading the export settings.
4. Browse offline data
5. Restore screen added, not yet functional
6. Load non office 365 sites using Claims authentication.

Fixed:

1. Folders created for each export now in different time format
2. Saving\loading export settings to XML fix for some file errors
3. Some columns (lookups) did not export as expected
4. Security timeout messages when loading the lists and then leaving the form open for a long time before clicking the export button.

FAQ

Q: What is the licensing for this product like?

A: We license the use of this product on a per-domain basis. For any Office365 domain that you have, you will have to purchase another license. However, this covers you for use on any site collection in that domain. As most companies have a single domain, we don't expect many clients needing more than one license. However, if you do need more than one, talk to us and get a discount for subsequent licenses.

Q: What does the trial version do?

A: The trial version is almost fully operational. It allows you to export information from any Office365 domain, but with the following limitations:

1. Only 20 items from any list or library will be exported
2. The option to export an entire site collection is disable

Q: How do I get the full version?

A: At the moment, the only way to get the full version is to purchase it from us. You will need to contact us and provide us with the domain (or domains), and pay our invoice. Once the invoice is paid, you will recieve the full version download link.

Q: Can I run the export as a scheduled task

A: Yes. You need to save a configuration file first, and then in the scheduled task give the full path to the file as a parameter. However, make sure the task is run as administrator, as the application needs to be able to write files onto your machine.

Q: What about restoring the information to the site?

A: We don't call this application a backup application, as it is not meant to backup and restore - only to export the information for safekeeping on a local disk. Future versions may include an "importer" that will serve as a restore and will support the current export format. We do however have an application that imports the information into a local SharePoint 2010 server. This one is not yet ready for Beta, so please contact us if you need it.

Q: What about web parts, security, site configuration?

A: This is not a backup and restore application, as it only focuses on the files and list items. For a full featured backup solution we recommend AvePoint's docave.

Q:  What about versions?

A: The current version of the product does not export versions of files and list items, due to some restrictions in the Office365 API. We look forward to updating our application as Microsoft updates the API in the future.

Q:  Can the application be used on SharePoint 2010 sites?

Q: Can we have the application download only changes since last download?

A: Yes. By specifying a filter date in the settings, you can filter the download. Selecting to automatically update the date will cause an export to write to the settings file the date the export has finished - thus filtering the next export.

Office 365 Exporter

Extelligent design is proud to offer our clients a solution to export files and lists from Office365 to a local file storage. Please visit our product page. 

SharePoint List Events Package

Ever wanted to automatically set permissions on list items as they are created or on documents as they are uploaded? Did you ever get frustrated having to write titles to list items that do not really need them? Our expanding package is for you!

Current Highlighted Product

Specify the promotional code KWIZ-DOCTRACK-2012 when contacting us to get 20% off the list price of the "Document Event Tracker Feature". Offer valid until April 2012.

While SharePoint provides audit log information, this log is available only to site collection administrators and not to end users. It is these end users who actually create the documents, and are therefore the most invested in understanding the events pertaining to their documents.
These document owners need to understand “What is happening with the document that I’ve published?” When publishing a procedure for example, it is often critical to know who actually viewed it.
The KWizCom Document Event Tracker feature simply makes this information accessible to these end-users, enabling a new level of collaboration and adding value to the SharePoint experience.

With KWizCom’s Document Event Tracker Feature, document owners are easily able to track and see what other users have done with their documents, for instance: has it been read? Edited? Checked out?

Buy books from by Extelligent Design's director

If you want to make a bulk purchase in Australia or New Zealand, please contact us for special prices on the books.

SharePoint 2010 How To Book by Ishai Sagi
SharePoint 2007 How To Book by Ishai Sagi