MatchPoint 4.0.11 Released

Date: 21. Mar 2016

On Friday new versions of MatchPoint and MatchPoint Snow have been released. This blog post offers an overview of the new features and fixes introduced with MatchPoint version 4.0.11 for SharePoint 2013. To find more information on the new release of MatchPoint Snow, please refer to the corresponding blog post.

Item Templates

Item Templates are an enhancement for the Composite Web Part. The aim is to move the rendering-logic of a result item to a separate configuration-element so it can be reused by different composite configurations. The basic idea is that an item template defines how a specific item should be rendered and the transformer defines the basic HTML-structure of the whole control/web part. Please note that item templates are not a must, you can continue to use the Composite Web Part as before.

There are different kinds of item templates, for example a simple "Pattern Item Template", where an HTML-PatternString can be defined which generates the HTML. Or a "User Control Item Template", where a user control can be specified as well as a set of expressions which are evaluated and set to the defined properties on the user control. Custom item templates may be implemented as well. We do this ourselves for example in MatchPoint Snow.

Multiple item templates can be specified per Composite Web Part. Every item template must have a MatchExpression, the first one whose expression evaluates to true is used. This is useful if specific types of result items (e.g. document, task, announcement, etc.) needs to have their own rendering logic.

When the query is executed, all required columns are extracted from the defined item templates and are retrieved from the data source. Sometimes additional required columns must be specified, for example if they are used internally by expressions which access the DataItem. This can be done in the AdditionalRequiredColumns-member.

In case certain values need to be reused within an item template a VariableDefinition can be added to the Variables-collection.

Next to the normal DataItem-ExpressionVariable which has always been available in the scope of a composite transformer, there now is a new ItemTemplate-variable:

  • Use ItemTemplate.GetHtml() to render the HTML
  • Use ItemTemplate.Variables.VariableName to access variables defined in the Variables-member
  • Use ItemTemplate.Exists to ensure an matching item template has been found

Item Templates can be defined inline or in an own configuration file. To reference an item template defined in an own configuration file, a ReferenceItemTemplate can be used. Variables and the MatchExpression can be overridden here.

WebAPI Endpoint Configuration

MatchPoint now supports an easy way to provide a web service on the SharePoint environment.

When configured, the web service is accessible as follows:

http://<myhost>/_vti_bin/Colygon.MatchPoint/WebApi.svc/<myprefix>/<param1>/<param2>

EndPoints can be configured to define e.g. a request validator, an action expression and response headers. This can for example be used to expose information to other systems in the intranet or to provide an API for other Systems to push information to the intranet.

Mega Menu Web Part

This version MatchPoint introduced a new navigation control called the Mega Menu Web Part, which allows to render a mega menu or a flyout. Navigation nodes can be provided statically in the configuration or using MatchPoint Data Providers.

Mega Menu Web Part
Figure 1: Mega Menu Web Part

Inline Buttons in Form Web Part

Inline- and Ribbon-buttons can now be configured in a unified manner as Commands. Those configured commands can than be positioned either as inline or as ribbon buttons by referencing specified buttons in a picker.

Besides that it is also possible to configure the position of native buttons provided by the Form Web Part or the associated Data Adapter.

Additional Changes

  • It is now possible to bulk load Tags by tag key and provider ID
  • It is now possible to configure indexed columns on lists in provisioning configurations
  • The Search Data Provider now supports search query logging
  • jQueryUI is updated to 1.11.4, including Highlight Effect
  • Progress indicators can be deactivated in CompositeField and CompositeWebPart
  • Added Newtonsoft.Json (version 8) as a prerequisite

For a complete list of all changes please refer to the release notes document.

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