It's been a long time since I published a cute and useful code sample, so here we go!
The idea - add a "print list" button to the actions menu of a list, so that when a user click it he will be shown a print-friendly version of the list.
The print list menu item
The print view for an announcement list
Please remember that this is a code sample, and while it works, I can think of many ways to improve it. For example - the current code will always use the default view of the list for the printing, and I would like to improve it so that it shows a print view for the view the user was looking at.
Another example - the current code doesnt display the list title or any other details on the list, and that will be a useful (and easy) modification. I will leave it up to you to try and do it, and if you find yourself in trouble - comment and I will look into what you want to add.
Solution Architecture
The solution will be deployed as a wss feature, which allows us an easy way to add a menu item to the sharepoint menus. The feature will define that the item we want to add will be added to the
actions menu of
all lists, in a
site collection. You can ofcourse change it so that it behaves differently and connects only to lists of a certain type if you so wish, or maybe move the menu item to a different place. I recommend reviewing the
msdn article on the possible configurations.
The solution is based on 3 files:
- feature.xml
Defines the feature, its scope and its title that you will see in the "site features" (or site collection features or farm features - depending on the scope)
-
PrintList.xml
Defines what action we want to add to what menu and what will happen when the user clicks the menu item. This is where you configure the text of the item, and the link to the page that will print the list. which just happens to be the last file:
-
PrintList.aspx
Contains the code that shows the list in a print-friendly view. This file should be deployed to the layouts folder and must be called with the site's context (more about that shortly).
To the Code!
note - when I talk about the "12 hive" I am referring to the folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12
Create the page that prints a list:
-
Log on to the server, and open the template\layouts folder in the 12 hive.
- Create a new text file in the folder, and name it "PrintList.aspx"
- Open the empty file in your editor of choice (notepad is fine) and paste the following code into it:
<%@ Page Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.UI.Page" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls"
Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %>
<html>
<head>
<title>SharePoint List Print</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_layouts/1033/styles/core.css" />
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="/_layouts/1033/init.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="/_layouts/1033/core.js"
defer></script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="/_layouts/1033/ie55up.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="/_layouts/1033/search.js"
defer></script>
</head>
<body>
<%
string listId = "";
string referrer = "";
//get the list id (guid in a string format) from the query string
listId = Page.Request.QueryString["list"];
//get the http referrer (for the back button\action)
referrer = Page.Request.ServerVariables["http_referer"];
//make sure the list parameter was passed
if (listId == null)
{
//if a referrer url exists (since the page may have been opened from a direct link, this is not always the case) redirect the user back
if (referrer != null && referrer.Trim().Length != 0)
{
Page.Response.Write("<p>The list ID parameter ('list') is missing from the address.<br>Please go to the list you want to print and try again.</p>");
Page.Response.Write("<p><a href=\"" + referrer + "\" title=\"Go Back\">Click here to go back to the page you came from</p>");
}
else
{
Page.Response.Write("<p>The list ID parameter ('list') is missing from the address.<br>Please go to the list you want to print and try again.</p>");
}
}
else
{
try
{
//load the web object for the site that the page is now in context of
using (SPWeb web = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context))
{
//load the list that was passed in the 'list' querystring parameter to the page
SPList list = web.Lists[new Guid(listId)];
//load the query of the default view. note - need to modify code in the future to enable multiple view printing
SPQuery query = new SPQuery(list.DefaultView);
//write the list to the page
Page.Response.Write(list.RenderAsHtml(query));
//add the print script
%>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
window.print();
</script>
<%
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Page.Response.Write("<p>There was an error loading the list information:<br />");
Page.Response.Write(ex.ToString());
Page.Response.Write("</p>");
}
}
%>
</body>
</html>
Install the feature
- Open the \TEMPLATE\FEATURES folder under the 12 hive
- Create a folder called PrintListMenuAction
- In that folder, create 2 text files, one called feature.xml and the second printlist.xml
-
In your editor of choice (notepad is fine) open the feature.xml file and paste into it the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Feature Id="769826dd-9dd2-11db-96ca-005056c00008"
Title="Print List"
Description="This feature adds a print command in the Actions menu for Windows SharePoint Services lists."
Version="1.0.0.0"
Scope="Site"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<ElementManifests>
<ElementManifest Location="PrintList.xml" />
</ElementManifests>
</Feature>
-
In your editor of choice open the printlist.xml and paste the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<!-- Add the action to the List Toolbar Actions Menu Dropdown -->
<CustomAction Id="SPSTIPS.PrintListActionsToolbar"
RegistrationType="List"
GroupId="ActionsMenu"
Location="Microsoft.SharePoint.StandardMenu"
Sequence="1000"
Title="Print List">
<UrlAction Url="{SiteUrl}/_layouts/PrintList.aspx?list={ListId}"/>
</CustomAction>
</Elements>
Almost done - install the feature and test it!
To install the feature, open command line (start>run>cmd) and navigate to the bin folder in the 12 hive.
Once there, run the following command to install the feature:
stsadm -o installfeature -name PrintListMenuAction -force
After you ran that command successfuly, you can activate the feature in the site collection either using the user interface (site actions> site settings> site collection features):
or you can (more easily since you are already in the command line) just run the following command, entering the site path:
stsadm -o activatefeature -name PrintListMenuAction -url [your site url here] -force
That's it! if you now go to any list in that site, you should have the print menu action.
Please let me know if any of the steps doesnt work for you or if there is any problem with the pasted code (I am trying the SourceCodeToHTML addin for visual studio, and I am not sure what that will do to simple copy-paste actions on your side).
Update 19/1/2007 :
Some people have remarked that the printlist.aspx isnt working for them. I went over the code and couldnt find a problem with it (well, there are some improvments I can think of, but nothing to cause what they are describing). I suggest you try to troubleshoot it by:
- Make sure you copied all of the text in the code sample. Missing a line or even a character will cause what you are describing
- Try changing the trust level in the web.config file for the sharepoint application to "Full". This shouldnt be a requirement for this solution, but who knows...
- Try removing pieces of code to see what part causes the crash.
- Contact me. Write to my anti-spam email address with the subject "Problem with list printing" (any other subject and I will automatically delete the email). The address is (replace the '$' with '@'):
"dontwantspamhere$gmail.com"
(replace the '$' with '@')
Update 28/09/2007 :
I have noticed that the action only works from within a list view page, and not from a web part (a list view web part) that is displayed on a web part page, not from the list context. I have no idea how to solve it, so for now be aware that this will not work in web parts.
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