Salesforce Custom Labels

In Visualforce Pages / custom Components, we might need to display static content. Also, in many places we will be displaying custom messages on screen, could be alerts / notes / error messages. In all these cases we can directly write the content in corresponding place holders. But the disadvantage of it is, to update the text we need to open the corresponding Visualforce or controller pages and edit them. Also, it doesn't support in multilingual applications i.e. doesn't have translations and if a person from different location logs in, this text language will not be changed.

To overcome these problems, and also maintain all messages at one place, Salesforce has provided 'Custom Labels'.

You can define a custom label for any message and can directly access it through apex code in controller or Visualforce page. We can also translate this to the languages supported by Salesforce.

To access custom labels, Go To Setup —> Create —> Custom Labels. All existing custom labels are displayed. Click on New Custom Labels.

A form will be opened. Provide all the required information and save it.

 Now you can see the newly created custom label. Also, in the bottom of screen, Translations section is available. Here we can provide the label's translation of all other languages this salesforce application / organization supports

 Click on 'New' button available in Translations section. Another form is opened, provide the translation and also select the language.

Now the label is available for usage and also it supports multi languages. 
You can access it throughapex and also visualforce page.

To access through Visualforce page, use global variable '$Label'
              In above example, it would be '{!$Label.Test_Item}'

To access through apex in controller, use 'System.Label'
              In above example, it would be 'System.Label.Test_Item'

Based on logged in user's language , the label text is displayed in corresponding translation.

Link Data in PowerPoint to the Source (Database / Sharepoint)

It’s very common to have PowerPoint Presentations for High level Meetings.  We even have lots of data represented in these presentations in the form of Charts / Tables.  And, this would be a recurring process to update the presentations with updated data. This takes lots of manual efforts.

We can automate process of updating the presentations with latest data to a fair extent with available out of the box features. It requires minimal development efforts. 

On a high level, we first create Excel sheet with all the required data being fetched from different sources like Databases / Sharepoint using Data Connections. This would provide auto updating of data to Excels. Also, using the data we create different views, could be charts / Pivot tables or any other as per our representation need. After our excel sheet with different charts / tables is ready, we insert these into our Presentation by maintaining the links to the Excel we created. Linking would provide auto updating of data from excel to our Objects on PowerPoint, which is actually connected to main data source (database / Sharepoint list). 

With these efforts, we are done and now our Presentation is ready and also the data in it is up to date.  Isn’t it simple to implement and saves lots of our efforts, we spend in regular intervals to update the data on it?

Now let’s try to implement the same with a simple example to understand it better. 
Here our goal is to display Sharepoint data in our Monthly Dashboards which are actually PowerPoint Presentations.

Step 1: Prepare your data connections ready to bind to actual real time data (Sharepoint List here)

• Open Sharepoint List which has our required data.
• Create a view with required fields and also if there are any filters to be applied, you can do that here.
• Now open the view we just created and in the ribbon, under ‘List’ tab, we have a button to ‘Export to Excel’.
  
  
• Click on it. A web Query file (.iqy) is downloaded. Please save into your local machine. Let’s rename this file to ‘DashboardData.iqy’

Step 2: Create excel sheet with required representations (Charts / tables) using above created Connections

• Open excel file and in ribbon, under data tab, Click on ‘Connections button’
  
• A window with available connections to the workbook is opened. Click on ‘Add..’>

• Another child window opens with all available connection files in our local machine.
• Click on ‘Browse for More’ button, a file browser window opens, now select the ‘DashboardData.iqy’ file we downloaded in step 1.
• You can see the newly added connection listed in Workbook Connections window
  
  
• With this connection you can create pivot table or Pivot charts. For example, under ‘Insert’ tab in Excel, click on ‘PivotChart’ available in ‘Tables’ section. A window to select data source is opened. Now select the above created connection.
  
  
• Now a pivot table with data from Sharepoint list is available with all fields we added in the List view of Sharepoint
• Create chart with required fields and save the Excel file
• In similar way we can create multiple charts as per our need. We can also bind data to the sheet and using Conditional Formatting, we can represent cell values as per requirement.
• After all the required charts / tables created , save the file

Step 3: Insert the tables / charts we created in excel to the PowerPoint presentations with links

• Open existing PowerPoint presentation / new one and add all the required sections / content into it.
• In the sections where we need to add the dynamic content i.e. charts / tables, we bring it form excel file.
• As an example, copy the Pivot chart we created in excel and go to the powerpoint presentation we are working on
• In ribbon, under ‘Home’ tab, we have ‘Paste Special’ button in ‘Clipboard’ section. Click on it
• A window with option to paste as object and link feature is opened
  
  
• Select ‘Paste link’ and click on Ok.
• Now move the chart object to the required section and also adjust the size etc.
• Similarly repeat the same step for all required objects
• Save the Presentation File.

With these efforts, our presentation is ready with data linked to Actual data sources.

If you need the presentation with updated data, simply open the excel we created in step 2 and refresh all the data connections in it. All objects in the presentation will be automatically updated with latest data.

To refresh the connections, open excel file and under ‘data’ tab, we have ‘Refresh all’ button. Click on it. We can also automate this using some macros.

Now it’s your turn to automate the Presentations you update regularly!! 

Sharepoint, Hide List or library in Site Content Pages

CodeProject

While developing applications on Sharepoint, there might be a requirement to create some lists for Internal use and they have to be hidden from end users in Web front end i.e. in View All Site content screens etc.

To achieve this functionality, we need Sharepoint designer. Before implementing it, we need to hide the list from left navigation. To do this, go to 'List settings' and  'Title description and navigation' and select 'No' for 'Display this list on the Quick Launch?', then click Save.  

• Now open the site in Sharepoint Designer 
• In left navigation click on 'Lists and Libraries'
• All lists in the existing site are displayed along with Document libraries
• Now click on the Library / List which you want to hide
• A screen with the corresponding List settings is opened
• In Settings section , available to left , Under 'General Settings' category, an option 'Hide from Browser' is available. 
• Select it and save the page.

With above changes the list is hidden in All site content Page and other site pages.
By doing this, we are just not listing it along with other Lists, still you can access the list if you have its corresponding web link.

You also need to note that due to this change, it will also be hidden in Designer under 'Lists and Libraries' navigation block.
To access it in designer / to list it back, follow below steps.

• Open Site in Designer
• Click on 'All Files' in left navigation.
• Now click on 'Lists'
• Here you can see the hidden Lists too.
• If its library, it will be listed when we click on 'All files'
•  Now right click on the hidden list and go to 'Properties'
• Now the screen with List details and Settings is opened, same as earlier
• Here uncheck the option 'Hide from Browser' and save
• Now it would be available in All content and also in designer