MOSS - Programatically ordering Navigation

From the title of this post most people would say - When would you ever need to do this?

Well I recently worked on a MOSS internet site which had a setup which split the Authoring and the Live site into two completely separate Farms. This provided quite a few challenges including coding a custom Import Export functionality.

The Import and Export functionality worked really well Except one overlooked issue - Navigation Ordering.

What if the Author reordered the navigation nodes in the Authoring Site how will they get reordered on the Live site? Well if the Site was a WSS site and it used the TopNavigationBar and the QuickLaunch Sharepoint Navigation objects then it would be pretty straight forward.... But Moss comes with its own Navigation/SiteMap Providers which are -
GlobalNavSiteMapProvider, CurrentNavSiteMapProvider and the CombinedNavSiteMapProvider.

The CombinedNavSiteMapProvider is (as the name suggests) a combination of the Global and CurrentNavSiteMapProviders. The GlobalNavSiteMapProvider is linked to the TopNavigationBar and any reordering of the GlobalNavSiteMapProvider will result in the order being reflected in the TopNavigationBar object (Web.Navigation.TopNavigationBar). The CurrentNavSiteMapProvider is linked to the QuickLaunch and any reordering here will result in the order being reflected in the QuickLaunch object(Web.Navigation.QuickLaunch).

Now here is where the whole process(for programmatically syncing navigation) gets a little tougher. If your Web hasn't been reordered then simply running the code below will fail because the nodes won't of been reflected in the Web.Navigation object yet.. So the SPNavigationNodeCollection.Count will be zero!

SPSite Site = new SPSite("http://mysite/");

SPWeb Web = Site.RootWeb;

SPNavigationNodeCollection SPNavNodes = Web.Navigation.QuickLaunch;



foreach (SPNavigationNode ThisSPNavNode in SPNavNodes)

{

    ThisSPNavNode.MoveToFirst(SPNavNodes);

} 

So how does the SPNavigationNodeCollection (QuickLaunch or TopNavigationBar) get populated? The answer is to go to the Site Navigation Setings page and change the order then click ok. And as if by magic the same code above will produce nodes which can be reordered (and this reordering will reflect in the Site Navigation Setings page).

So our Problem was that because the Items on the Live server hadn't been reordered(No Authoring is done on this server) then the SPNavigationNodeCollection (that we needed for us to reorder the navigation) wasn't populated.

The way we wanted the navigation sync to work was by producing an XML file (From the Authoring server like the one below) and we wanted to use it to reorder the Live servers Navigation nodes.

<Navigation>

<Web Name="" ServerRelativeURL="/">

<NavItem Title="SubSite 1" Url="/SubSite1" />

<NavItem Title="SubSite 2" Url="/SubSite2" />

<NavItem Title="SubSite 3" Url="/SubSite3" />

</Web>

<Web Name="SubSite1" ServerRelativeURL="/SubSite1">

<NavItem Title="Child 1 of SubSite 1" Url="/SubSite1/Child1ofSubSite1" />

<NavItem Title="Child 2 of SubSite 1" Url="/SubSite1/Child2ofSubSite1" />

<NavItem Title="Child 3 of SubSite 1" Url="/SubSite1/Child3ofSubSite1" />

</Web>

<Web Name="SubSite2" ServerRelativeURL="/SubSite2">

<NavItem Title="Child 1 of SubSite 2" Url="/SubSite2/Child1ofSubSite2" />

<NavItem Title="Child 2 of SubSite 2" Url="/SubSite2/Child2ofSubSite2" />

<NavItem Title="Child 3 of SubSite 2" Url="/SubSite2/Child3ofSubSite2" />

</Web>

<Web Name="SubSite3" ServerRelativeURL="/SubSite3">

<NavItem Title="Child 1 of SubSite 3" Url="/SubSite3/Child1ofSubSite3" />

<NavItem Title="Child 2 of SubSite 3" Url="/SubSite3/Child2ofSubSite3" />

<NavItem Title="Child 3 of SubSite 3" Url="/SubSite3/Child3ofSubSite3" />

</Web>

<Navigation> 

So we took the XML content and looped through each web node and from the bottom we added each NavItem to (in this case) the QuickLaunch SPNavigationNodeCollection if it didn't already exist. We then moved that node to the top of the ordering and also Timestamped it so we could delete none timestamped nodes later on (Old nodes which no longer exist). It also seemed (for reasons beyond me) that you need to add this node with a NodeTypes of Page (even when the NodesType is really a web!). If you don't add the node as NodeTypes.Page the synching with the relevant "NavSiteMapProvider" fails.

The code below is how we went about it

XmlDocument xmlDoc = LoadXML("OurNavigation.xml");

XmlNode XmlNodes = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("//Navigation");



if (XmlNodes != null)

{

    foreach (XmlNode ThisXmlNode in XmlNodes)

    {

        SPWeb NavWeb = Site.OpenWeb(ThisXmlNode.Attributes["ServerRelativeURL"].Value.ToString());

        if (NavWeb != null)

        {

            PublishingWeb pubWeb = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(NavWeb);

            if (pubWeb != null)

            {

                NavWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;



                SPNavigationNodeCollection SPNavNodes = NavWeb.Navigation.QuickLaunch;



                //Imported navigation Nodes

                XmlNodeList WebsNavNodes = ThisXmlNode.ChildNodes;



                for (int i = (WebsNavNodes.Count - 1); i != -1; i--)

                {

                    bool found = false;

                    foreach (SPNavigationNode ThisSPNavNode in SPNavNodes)

                    {



                        string ThisPageRelativeUrl = ThisSPNavNode.Url;

                        string ThisPageRelativeTitle = ThisSPNavNode.Title;

                        if (WebsNavNodes[i].Attributes["Url"].Value == ThisPageRelativeUrl && WebsNavNodes[i].Attributes["Title"].Value == ThisPageRelativeTitle)

                        {                          

                            ThisSPNavNode.Properties["TimeStamp"] = TimeStamp;

                            ThisSPNavNode.Properties["NodeType"] = "Page";

                            ThisSPNavNode.Update();

                            ThisSPNavNode.MoveToFirst(SPNavNodes);

                            found = true;

                            break;

                        }

                    }

                    if (!found)

                    {

                        SPNavigationNode SPNode = SPNavigationSiteMapNode.CreateSPNavigationNode(WebsNavNodes[i].Attributes["Title"].Value, WebsNavNodes[i].Attributes["Url"].Value, NodeTypes.Page, NavWeb.Navigation.QuickLaunch);

                        SPNode.Properties["TimeStamp"] = TimeStamp;

                        SPNode.Update();

                    }

                }

            }

            else

            {

                //Log.Write("Navigation Sync - The publishing web is null. The Navigation Web's URL is - " + NavWeb.Url + ". Please investigate.");

            }

            NavWeb.Dispose();

        }

        else

        {

            //Log.Write("Navigation Sync - Navigation Web could not be opened! The URL - " + ThisXmlNode.Attributes["ServerRelativeURL"].Value.ToString() + " May be incorrect or the Web might have had problems when it was imported. Please investigate.");

        }

    }





    //****Delete Non timestamped Navigation Items****

    foreach (SPWeb ThisWeb in Site.AllWebs)

    {

        SPNavigationNodeCollection NavNodes = ThisWeb.Navigation.QuickLaunch;

        for (int i = (NavNodes.Count - 1); i != -1; i--)

        {

            SPNavigationNode ThisNode = NavNodes[i];

            if (ThisNode != null)

            {

                string ThisNodeTimeStamp = "";

                if (ThisNode.Properties["TimeStamp"] != null)

                {

                    ThisNodeTimeStamp = ThisNode.Properties["TimeStamp"].ToString();

                }

                else

                {

                    ThisNodeTimeStamp = "NoTimestamp";

                }



                if (ThisNodeTimeStamp != TimeStamp)

                {

                    //Delete The Nav Node as it isn't in the Navigation XML file

                    ThisNode.Delete();

                }

            }

        }



        ThisWeb.Update();

        ThisWeb.Dispose();

    }

}

else

{

    Log.Write("Navigation Sync - Problem with the XML Navigation Doc");

}

If you are interested in exporting your Navigation to an XML file similar to the one above then you can use the code below. Because we needed to use the "NavSiteMapProviders" to get the Navigation (We couldn't use the QuickLaunch or the TopNavigationBar as we couldn't be sure they were populated) then we had to use some sort of page so we were working within the SPContext. The way I got around this was to code a server control (code below) and then insert this in to a page which I then savedc to the _layouts directory (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS).

protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        SPSite Site = SPContext.Current.Site;
        StringBuilder NavDoc = new StringBuilder();
        NavDoc.Append("<Navigation>");
        PortalSiteMapProvider _provider;

        SiteMapProvider siteMapProvider = SiteMap.Providers["CurrentNavSiteMapProvider"];

        _provider = siteMapProvider as PortalSiteMapProvider;
        _provider.IncludePages = PortalSiteMapProvider.IncludeOption.Always;
        _provider.IncludeSubSites = PortalSiteMapProvider.IncludeOption.Always;
        _provider.IncludeHeadings = false;

        SPWebCollection Webs = Site.AllWebs;

        foreach (SPWeb Web in Webs)
        {
            NavDoc.Append("<Web Name=\"" + Web.Name + "\" ServerRelativeURL=\"" + Web.ServerRelativeUrl + "\">");
            SiteMapNode siteNode = _provider.FindSiteMapNode(Web.ServerRelativeUrl);
            SiteMapNodeCollection nodes = _provider.GetChildNodes(siteNode);

            foreach (SiteMapNode node in nodes)
            {
                NavDoc.Append("<NavItem Title=\"" + node.Title + "\" Url=\"" + node.Key + "\" />");
            }
            NavDoc.Append("</Web>");
            Web.Dispose();

        }

        NavDoc.Append("</Navigation>");

        XmlDocument ThisXMLdoc = new XmlDocument();

        ThisXMLdoc.InnerXml = NavDoc.ToString();

        //Below I save the file with the Helper class
        ImportExport.XmlHelper.SaveToFile(ThisXMLdoc, ImportExportFilePath + ImportExportFileName + ".xml");
        netcreds = XmlHelper.GetFtpCredentials(RootWeb);
        MoveFileToFtp();
    }
    catch(Exception ex)
    {
        //Log.Write("Error Exporting the Navigation Nodes. Exception - " + ex.Message.ToString());
    }
}

To call the page I used the code below from a job in the TimerJobSchedule list(See previous post - http://my-sharepointer.blogspot.com/2008/12/sharepoint-timerjobscheduler-easier-way.html)

string NavUrl = SiteUrl + "/_layouts/mrwaNavigationExport.aspx";
HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(NavUrl);
request.ImpersonationLevel = System.Security.Principal.TokenImpersonationLevel.Delegation;
request.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
request.PreAuthenticate = true;
HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();

Hope it helps
Damian

Wiki Pages Added to Quick Launch Navigation

When creating a Wiki Site and having a look around I realised that new Wiki pages don't get added to the Quick Launch Navigation Menu. This seems a bit odd to me as the two default pages do get added. Hmmm

So I decided I'd quickly throw together a Sharepoint EventReceiver to do the trick. I override the ItemAdded (Needs to be done on the ItemAdded method as item isn't considered to be created yet so can't be added as a valid link from the ItemAdding method) method of the SPItemEventReceiver.

All you need to do is Add this EventReceiver to the Wiki Pages Document Library. This means everytime a Wiki Page gets Added to the Wiki Pages Document Library it will add the URL of that Wiki Page to the Quick Launch Menu (Under Wiki Pages).

Code Below

namespace MRWA.Wiki.FeatureReceivers
{
    class AddPageToNavigationEventReceiver : SPItemEventReceiver
    {

        public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)
        {
            SPListItem Item = properties.ListItem;

            SPWeb Web = properties.ListItem.Web;
         
         

            foreach (SPNavigationNode WikiPagesNode in Web.Navigation.QuickLaunch)
            {
                if (WikiPagesNode.Title == "Wiki Pages")
                {
                    string ItemUrl = Web.ServerRelativeUrl + "/Wiki Pages/" + Item["FileLeafRef"].ToString();
                    string ItemName = Item["FileLeafRef"].ToString().Replace(".aspx", "");

                    bool CreateNavNode = true;
                    foreach (SPNavigationNode ChildNode in WikiPagesNode.Children)
                    {
                        if (ChildNode.Title == ItemName && ChildNode.Url == ItemUrl)
                        {
                            CreateNavNode = false;
                            break;
                        }

                    }

                    if (CreateNavNode)
                    {
                        SPNavigationNode NavNode = new SPNavigationNode(ItemName, ItemUrl);
                        WikiPagesNode.Children.AddAsLast(NavNode);

                    }

                    break;
                }
            }
         

            base.ItemAdding(properties);
        }
    }
}

Sharepoint TimerJobScheduler - The easier way of scheduling SPTimerJobs

Ever since I've been working with Sharepoint I have coded Sharepoint Timer Jobs to run those tasks you want scheduled every day (or even every hour). Sharepoint is certainly a platform that lends itself to scheduling of batch process, with all the publishing of data there are going to be times when you want to schedule code to run at regular intervals.

So what are our options.... Well currently your only real option is to code a Sharepoint Timer Job solution which inherits SPJobDefinition and then code a SPFeatureReceiver which installs a Timer Job and points it at your newly created SPJobDefinition code.

This is all well and good but the real fun and games start when you want to change when the Job runs or how often it runs... What if you change you mind several times? (Well it has been known to happen). This is where SPTimerJobs really fail to live up to expectation.

So I decided to code a easily installable solution where Jobs can be Scheduled from a Sharepoint List which sits in the RootWeb of the Sharepoint Site. Now we can change the Days and Hours the Job, runs not to mention we can also start the job automatically. We can aslo Disable the job easily too.

Download the Sharepoint TimerJobScheduler - http://www.codeplex.com/SPTimerScheduler

Just download the zip file and follow the release notes to install the Feature into the site. Then you are ready to add your own code as Job Instances to the list.

This solution is a SPTimerJob which looks at the TimerJobSchedule List in the RootWeb and runs any TimerJobInstances when the Current Day and Hour is equal to the DaysToRun and HoursToRun fields.

The underlying SPTimerJob runs every 2 minutes which means when you go into the Instance and check the RunAtNextOpportunity checkbox, your TimerJobInstance will run almost immediately.



Once you've set the Days and Hours to run you need to set the Assembly, Class, Method and ConstructorParameters. The Assembly needs to be strong named and placed in the GAC. The Assmebly name will need to be fully Qualified (e.g SharePointerTimerJobScheduler, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=8e20aa8796940e26).
The Class name will need to be the full path including the namespace (e.g SharePointer.Utilities.TestTimerSchedule).
The Method name doesn't need to include the brackets (e.g Execute).
If ConstructorParameter1 is null then the TimerJobScheduler assumes that this is a Class with a default constructor. (If ConstructorParameter2 is null then it assumes it is a Class with a constructor that has a single parameter.. And so on).



Code Example

using Microsoft.SharePoint;
namespace SharePointer.Utilities
{
    public class TestTimerSchedule
    {
        SPSite Site;
        SPWeb Web;
        string ListName;
        string ListItemPrefix;
        public TestTimerSchedule(string strURL, string webURL, string strListName)
        {
            Site = new SPSite(strURL);
            Web = Site.OpenWeb(webURL);
            ListName = strListName;
            ListItemPrefix = "New Item";
        }
        public void Execute()
        {
            if (!ListAlreadyExist(Web.Lists))
            {
                CreateTestList();
            }
            Web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
            SPListItem Item = Web.Lists[ListName].Items.Add();
            Item["Title"] = ListItemPrefix + " added at - " + DateTime.Now.ToString();
            Item.Update();
        }
        private void CreateTestList()
        {
            Web.Lists.Add(ListName, "A list to test the execution of the TimerJobScheduler", SPListTemplateType.GenericList);
        }
        private bool ListAlreadyExist(SPListCollection sPListCollection)
        {
            foreach (SPList list in sPListCollection)
            {
                if (list.Title == ListName)
                {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
    }
}

Hope it helps
Cheers