As discussed last time, PWA 2007 offers a little-known, yet surprisingly simple way to hack the interface through the web browser's address bar… using a parameter called SimpleUI. This feature, combined with some of the powerful features of Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 technology (upon which PWA 2007 is built), as well as a little bit of not-so-fancy footwork, can be used to easily gain some much-needed screen real-estate.
In this installment, we'll see how easy it is to add a simple web part to nearly any page in PWA which will allow us to toggle off the page header and left (Quicklaunch) navigation, thus giving use more real estate for viewing project, resource, and task information. In order to implement what's described here, you will need to have sufficient privileges to modify PWA pages. If you're not lucky enough to have this level of PWA kung fu, pay a visit to your local friendly Project Server administrator, or kindly share this information with them.
1. Visit a page within PWA, such as the Project Center:
2. You should see the Site Actions menu near the upper right corner of the page (if not, you don't have sufficient permission to modify PWA pages); click Site Actions > Edit Page:
3. This will switch the page into editing mode; click the Add a Web Part bar, near the top of the main content section of the page:
4. In the Add Web Parts dialog box, scroll down the list to the Miscellaneous section, select the Content Editor Web Part, then click the Add button:
5. The Content Editor Web Part will be added to the top of the main content section of the page (in this example, directly above the Project Center data grid):
6. Switch the newly-added Content Editor Web Part into editing mode either by clicking the Open the Tool Pane link within the web part, or by selecting Modify Shared Web Part from the web part's edit menu:
7. A tool pane will open on the right side of the screen for modifying various aspects of the new Content Editor Web part; click the Source Editor button:
8. In the Text Entry dialog box which has been launched, type or paste the following HTML code, then click the Save button:
<a href="?SimpleUI=32">Show</a> / <a href="?SimpleUI=15">Hide</a> the Fluff
9. Show / Hide the Fluff should now be displayed in the Content Editor Web Part:
10. In the tool pane, scroll down and expand the Appearance section, then change the Title to Show / Hide the Fluff:
11. A bit further down in the Appearance section of the web part tool pane, change the Chrome Type to None, then click the OK button at the bottom of the tool pane:
12. The web part tool pane will close, and the changes will be applied to the newly-added web part:
13. Click the Exit Edit Mode link, located directly below the Site Actions menu, to switch the page out of editing mode; you should see the Show / Hide the Fluff web part displayed near the top of the main content of the page (in this example, it's shown directly below the Project Center heading):
14. Clicking on the Hide link will collapse the page header and Quicklaunch (left) navigation, thus freeing up more screen real estate for the main content on the page (in this example, the Project Center data grid):
15. Clicking the Show link in the web part will return the page to its original state:
This was a relatively simple example with boring page controls (Show / Hide the Fluff text); if we wanted to get a bit more sexy, we could create some simple buttons using any graphics editor, then insert them in place of Show / Hide:
Smashing!
On working with SharePoint pages…
I realize that to many of you folks out there, many of these SharePoint concepts may be new; if you would like me to expand on any of the basic SharePoint functionality (editing pages, working with web parts, etc.), please leave a comment.
Good luck, and happy hacking!