Tip: Customising Content Query Web Part XSL

There has been a plethora of articles on customising the XSL of a content query web part, some even from Microsoft ;)

I wont run over the step by step process but just add to this wealth of information a little tip on making the XSL a little easier to manage and support.

As we have learnt the XSL used to render the output is split into 3 files;
ContentQueryMain.xsl
ItemStyle.xsl
Header.xsl

All three of these files will exist in the '\Style Library\XSL Style Sheets\' library of a site created using the Publishing template.

Instead of modifying these files it is possible to create your own custom XSL style sheets for each and tell your CQWP to use these by specifying the properties as follows;

HeaderXslLink = "/Style Library/XSL Style Sheets/customHeader.xsl"
ItemXslLink = "/Style Library/XSL Style Sheets/customItem.xsl"
MainXslLink ="/Style Library/XSL Style Sheets/customMain.xsl"

Event: OZ-IA/2007

This coming weekend (22nd/23rd Septemer) is the Oz-IA/2007 conference in Sydney, specfically geared towards Information Architecture and UX. The conference promises two days of sessions, comprising of technical workshops, case studies and interactive workshops on all things IA.

Being in the information management arena i take a very keen interest in this subject so will be attending in the hope of learning lots of great stuff about IA/UX and how i can apply these techniques, methods etc when defining and delivering SharePoint solutions.

Heres an idea of the topics/presentations being covered;

• Ethical issues and information architecture - Donna Maurer
• Designing sites people love - balancing emotion with business reality - Elizabeth Pek & Andy Coffey
• Semantic analysis in IA - Matthew Hodgson
• Exploring multidimensional tagging frameworks - Scott Parsons
• Open your mind - map it! - James Breeze
• Information Architecture of Wikis - James Matheson
• - Hurol Inan Landing Page Optimisation
• “There’s no I in team” – a case study in collaborative information architecture - Patrick Kennedy
• ROI in Information Design: where IA figures in ID - David Sless
• Rise to Play a Greater Part – Delivering Specs in the Bigger Picture - Faruk Avdi
• Analysing Quantitative Data - Steve Baty
• Is length still an issue? - Iain Barker
• Love in an elevator - selling the value of IA to business - Stephen Collins
• User Research in virtual worlds - Gary Bunker & Gabriele Hermansson
• Get out your pinking shears, it’s time to cut a few patterns - Sharon Varley
• Fast, cheap & somewhat in control - 10 lessons from the design of SlideShare - Rashmi Sinha

Further information on presentations here: http://www.oz-ia.org/2007/program/sessions

Visit the website for further details and to register : http://www.oz-ia.org/2007/

See you there!

technorati tags:Information, Architecture, User, Experience, OZ-IA, 2007, SharePoint, UX, IA

Sydney SharePoint User Group September

We have a very exciting presentation at this months Sydney SharePoint User Group; MVP Kathy Hughes will be revisting the presentation she gave at this years TechEd on branding and customising MOSS sites.

TechEd in Rearview: Branding and Customizing Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) Sites

With the release of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, building and deploying a robust content-centric site has become quick and efficient.

And, with each site deployment comes the need to alter the site look and feel. In this session we review components of the user interface and their interworking relationships that ultimately create the rendered page. For the majority of the session, you will learn how to brand a site and customise the user interface through use of master pages, CSS, and page layouts. In addition, we touch on interface customisation of site navigation and branding site administrator screens. By the end of this session, you will see a site that is completely branded and easily stands apart from the out-of-the-box look and feel of SharePoint.

Date: Tuesday, 18 September 2007   
Start time : 17.30   
End time: 20.00   
Venue: Unique World, Level 14, 24 Campbell St Sydney

Further details and registration information are available at http://sps.uniqueworld.net/sydney

technorati tags:MOSS, branding, customising, SharePoint, Sydney, User, Group, TechEd, 2007

Stefan Goßner : Content Migration API - 4 Part series

Bookmarking this 4 part series on Content Deployment and Migration which goes into great detail on using the Content Deployment API to acheive importing and exporting of Site Collections, Lists, Document Libraries List Items etc.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

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