Hi All,
Iam using PeopleEditor control
in one of Application while researching on it,
i came accorss very good
article, want to share it with you all.
Introduction
The PeopleEditor control is a great control to easily
select one or more users from the users known in the directory service of the
server.
The control consists of 3 controls:
- a text box where you can fill out part or complete user name
- a button to check the filled out name(s)
- a Browse button to search for a user name
When you click the Browse button a dialog opens where you
can search for specific user(s).
When you entered part of a name and click the Check Names
button the entrance is checked agains the users in the directory service. When
no exact match is found, the value is marked with a red line. Clicking on it
will display a list with all matches from which you can select one.
Syntax
You can use this PeopleEditor control when developing
application pages or control templates using the following syntax:
<spuc:PeopleEditor ID="PeopleEditor1" runat="server" width="350px"
AllowEmpty="true" MultiSelect="false" SelectionSet="User" />
But only after you have added a directive at the top of the application
page or control template:
<%@ Register TagPrefix="spuc" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls"
Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
If you are developing a web part you have to create the
PeopleEditor control completely in code:
private PeopleEditor peopleEditor;
private void EnsureChildControls()
{
peopleEditor = new PeopleEditor();
peopleEditor.AutoPostBack = true;
peopleEditor.ID = "PeopleEditor1";
peopleEditor.AllowEmpty = false;
peopleEditor.MultiSelect = false;
Panel1.Controls.Add(peopleEditor);
}
This control is part of the Microsoft.SharePoint.dll and
is located in the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls
namespace.
Properties
There are also a number of properties/attributes you can set to configure
the functionality of the PeopleEditor control:
- AutoPostBack: if you want the control to react immediately
when a user works with it, you have to set this property to true. Otherwise the
control will react on page postback.
- AllowEmpty: Setting this to false obliges the user to fill
out a user name. The default value is true. (Pay attention to this property: I
was not able to make it work, and I’m not the only one).
- AllowTypeIn: Setting this property to false prevent users
from filling out part of a name or complete name. In this case users can only
use the Check Names button and Browse button to populate the control.
- CommaSeparatedAccounts: you can initialize the PeopleEditor
control by entering a string of login names separated by a comma.
- EntitySeparator: the default is a ‘;’.
- ErrorMessage: you can change the default message by setting
this property to a custom error message.
- ID: id of the control.
- MultiSelect: Setting this property to true allows users to
select more than one user.
- NoMatchesText: you can change the default message that is
displayed when no matches are found by setting this property to a custom error
message.
- PlaceButtonsUnderEntityEditor: Setting this property to
true displays the Check Names button and Browse button under the text box. The
default is false.
- PrincipalSource: if you have more than one source from where users can be
selected, you can set this property to the desired source.
- SelectionSet: this property accepts a comma-delimited
string containing the different account types (defined in the AccountType
enumeration) like User, DL, SecGroup, SPGroup
objEditor.SelectionSet = "User,SecGroup,SPGroup";
- SharePointGroup: you can also limit the users that can be
selected in the PeopleEditor control by setting this property to the name of a
SharePoint group defined on the current web.
- ShowButtons: set this property to false if you don’t want
to have the Check Names and Browse button displayed.
- ValidatorEnabled: if set to true, the entries in the text
box are validated client-side.
- ValidateResolvedEntity: the default value is true to
validate the resolved entity. You can set this property to false to prevent
validation.
The list above is not complete. You can find the complete list on
MSDN.
Methods
There are also a number of methods you can use:
- GetAccountFromSid: Retrieves the login name of an account
associated with the security ID (Sid) that is passed into this method.
- UpdateEntities: you can use this method to
f.e. initialize the PeopleEditor control.
// populate the PeopleEditor with the current user
System.Collections.ArrayList entityArrayList = new System.Collections.ArrayList();
PickerEntity entity = new PickerEntity();
entity.Key = SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser.LoginName;
// this can be omitted if you're sure of what you are doing
entity = PeopleEditor1.ValidateEntity(entity);
entityArrayList.Add(entity);
PeopleEditor1.UpdateEntities(entityArrayList);
- ValidateEntity: calling this method passing in an object
instance of type PickerEntity ensures that the user exists in the directory
service.
entity = PeopleEditor1.ValidateEntity(entity);
Objects
When the CheckNames button is clicked a number of
properties are populated by the internals of the control. You can inspect these
properties:
- Accounts: this is an ArrayList of strings and contains the
login names of all selected users
- Entities: the contents of this property is unpredictable
and I advise you not to use it. Use the ResolvedEntities property instead.
- ResolvedEntities: this is an ArrayList of PickerEntity
objects (more details below)
The PickerEntity object contains following
properties:
- Description: contains the login name of the user
- DisplayText: contains the display name of the user
- IsResolved: a boolean indicating whether the user was found
in the directory service
- Key: contains the login name of the user
- EntityData: is an object with user data
The EntityData object consists of the following
properties:
- DisplayName
- Email
- Department
- Title
- PrincipleType
The PickerDialog is a property of the the PeopleEditor
control and represents the dialog that is displayed when the user clicks the
Browse button.
Retrieving User Profile
One of my readers recently asked if it was possible to retrieve the user
profile based on the selected user in the PeopleEditor control.
Working with user profiles is only possible if you have a Shared Services
Provider installed and the have the user profiles imported.
User Profile information can programmatically be accessed throught the
UserProfileManager class. This class is located in the
Microsoft.Office.Server.dll.
With the outcome of the PeopleEditor control you can show
user profile details of the selected user. The Key property of
the PickerEntity object contains the login name of the user.
This value can be used to retrieve the user profile from the User Profile
Manager.
// retrieve profile information
ServerContext ctx = ServerContext.GetContext("Litware SSP");
UserProfileManager mgr = new UserProfileManager(ctx);
try
{
PickerEntity selectedEntity = (PickerEntity)PeopleEditor1.ResolvedEntities[0];
UserProfile profile = mgr.GetUserProfile(selectedEntity.Key);
AddProfileRow("Title", profile["Title"].Value.ToString());
AddProfileRow("Department", profile["Department"].Value.ToString());
AddProfileRow("Email", profile["WorkEmail"].Value.ToString());
if (profile.PersonalSite != null)
AddProfileRow("Personal site", profile.PersonalSite.Url);
}
Remark: The AddProfileRow method is a private method that adds a row and
two cells to the UserProfileTable.
If you want to show all properties of the user profile, you can loop
through the defined properties and retrieve them from the user profile:
PickerEntity selectedEntity = (PickerEntity)PeopleEditor1.ResolvedEntities[0];
UserProfile profile = mgr.GetUserProfile(selectedEntity.Key);
//Get the properties
PropertyCollection props = mgr.Properties;
foreach (Property prop in props)
{
if (profile[prop.Name] != null && profile[prop.Name].Value != null)
AddProfileRow(prop.Name, profile[prop.Name].Value.ToString());
else
AddProfileRow(prop.Name, string.Empty);
}
But what if you want to use this control from
within a web part?
When trying to use this control from within a web part (the classic web
part for SharePoint 2007 or the Visual Web Part for SharePoint 2010), all of a
sudden the PeopleEditor textbox is not visible anymore:
Unless you place it within a <div> element with a background color
different from white:
<div style="background-color: Aqua">
<spuc:PeopleEditor ID="PeopleEditor1" runat="server" Width="350px" AllowEmpty="true" MultiSelect="false" SelectionSet="User" />
</div>
resulting in
But propably this is not what you want. If you really really want a similar
behavior as in a SharePoint application page with a border around the text box,
you have to override some styles:
<style type="text/css">
.ms-inputuserfield{ font-size:8pt; font-family:Verdana,sans-serif; border:1px solid #a5a5a5;}
div.ms-inputuserfield a{color:#000000;text-decoration: none;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;}
div.ms-inputuserfield{padding-left:1px;padding-top:2px;}
</style>
<spuc:PeopleEditor ID="PeopleEditor1" runat="server" Width="350px" AllowEmpty="true" MultiSelect="false" SelectionSet="User" />
And this results in the desired layout:
Refrence-:
http://karinebosch.wordpress.com/sharepoint-controls/peopleeditor-control/
After successfully completing steps 1-3, you'll earn a Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA): Windows Server 2012 certification.
