Upgrading Bamboo Lookups from Release 1.0 or 1.1

Upgrading Bamboo Lookups from Release 1.0 or 1.1

Release 2.0 of the Bamboo Lookup Selector allows you to easily import your data from the original Selector and Linked Selector columns when you create a new Lookup Selector.

To copy existing values to a new Lookup Selector column:

Step Action
1. Open the SharePoint list that contains one or more Bamboo Selectors/Linked Selectors.
2. Create a new Lookup Selector column.
3. Set the Source Site, Source List and Display Column values of the new column so that they match those of the old Selector/Linked Selector.
4.

From the Copy old data from list drop-down selector, choose the old Selector/Linked Selector.

NOTE: If the old column is not listed in the drop-down, go back and check that the Lookup Selector’s settings match those of the old column. The Copy old data from list option will only display columns with settings that match.

When you are finished configuring the column, click OK. The existing values from the old Selector/Linked Selector are copied and added to the new column.

NOTE: the data is copied to the new column, and not merely referenced. That means that once you’ve confirmed that the old data has migrated to the new column, you can delete the old column if desired, without losing the values in the new column.

Release Notes for Lookup Selector

Release Notes for Lookup Selector

NOTE: Release Notes will open in a new browser tab

WSSv3/MOSS SharePoint 2010 SharePoint 2013 SharePoint 2016
Release Notes Release Notes Release Notes Release Notes
Microsoft ended mainstream support for SharePoint 2007 in October 2012. See Microsoft’s Lifecycle Support Policy.
At that time, Bamboo stopped enhancements to our SharePoint 2007 product line, but continues to provide support and bug fixes to customers with active support contracts until October 2017. Previously purchased licenses will continue to function after October 2017, but support for these products will end, and no additional bug fixes will be provided beyond that time. Bamboo plans to cease selling new licenses and annual support contacts for its SharePoint 2007 products in October 2016 to ensure customers will be eligible to receive support for at least one year after purchase.
Microsoft plans to end mainstream support for SharePoint 2010 in October 2015. See Microsoft’s Lifecycle Support Policy. At that time, we will stop any enhancements for our SharePoint 2010 product line but will continue to provide support and bug fixes for our SharePoint 2010 products to customers with active support contracts until October 2020. Previously purchased licenses will continue to function after October 2020, but support for these products will end, and no additional bug fixes will be provided beyond that time. Bamboo plans to cease selling new licenses and annual support contacts for its SharePoint 2010 products in October 2019 to ensure customers will be eligible to receive support for at least one year after purchase.

Visit our website where you can get the latest info about each of our products for SharePoint 2013.

A separate installation package and license key is required for SharePoint 2013 deployment. For additional details, review the following knowledge base articles:

Bamboo Solutions has also begun releasing products for SharePoint 2016. For additional details, check the product release notes in the link above, or contact us.

For details on migration, see the Knowledge Base Article “Migrate Bamboo Products from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016”

Understanding Bamboo Releases:

  • Bamboo offers Trial, Basic and Premium support.
    • Free Trial support expires after 30 days.
    • For more information about Basic and Premium support, please see the Support Plans page.
    • There may be a fee to upgrade from a major version to another.

See Also:

Overview of Lookup Selector

Overview of Lookup Selector

Bamboo Lookup Selectors are essentially more powerful versions of the standard lookup columns included in SharePoint. They both work by giving users a drop-down list of choices that are pulled from a separate SharePoint list, allowing you to leverage existing data and restrict user-input to a certain set of pre-existing values.

The Bamboo Lookup Selector works in almost exactly the same way, but provides additional features and functionality missing from the out-of-the-box lookup column. You set up the column by providing a source list, and source column. Then, the Lookup Selector feeds those values into a drop down menu for the user.

Additionally, the Bamboo Lookup Selector allows you to take lookups a step further, by optionally using the user-entered value in one field (a “parent” column) to determine the choices presented in a subsequent one (a “child” column). To set up a dependent relationship via a Bamboo Lookup Selector column, you need to establish several things.

  • The Source List, which contains all of the information that the Lookup Selector will need to reference
  • The Display Column, located on the Source List, which contains all of the possible values for the Lookup Selector
  • The Filter Column, also located on the Source List, which is used to filter out irrelevant data from the full Display Column
  • The Trigger Column, a pre-existing column located on the current List. When a user selects a value from this column, the choices available from the Lookup Selector column will change accordingly.

Here’s how the Lookup Selector column uses this information.

  1. The user selects a value from the Trigger column.
  2. SharePoint then takes the selected value, and compares it to the values located in the Filter Column (on the Source List).
  3. SharePoint instantly builds a list of possible choices by listing the Display Column values for rows with Filter Columns that match the value of the Trigger Column. These results are displayed in the Lookup Selector drop-down menu.

In short, the Bamboo Lookup Selector creates “dependent fields”. What you see in a dependent field relies on what was entered in a previous field.

See Also:

Notes about upgrading Bamboo Lookup Selector

Notes about upgrading Bamboo Lookup Selector

Release 2.0 of the Bamboo Lookup Selector allows you to easily import your data from the original Selector and Linked Selector columns when you create a new Lookup Selector.

To copy existing values to a new Lookup Selector column:

  1. Open the SharePoint list that contains one or more Bamboo Selectors/Linked Selectors.
  2. Create a new Lookup Selector column.
  3. Set the Source Site, Source List and Display Column values of the new column so that they match those of the old Selector/Linked Selector.
  4. From the Copy old data from drop-down list, select the old Selector/Linked Selector. If the old column is not listed in the drop-down, go back and check that the Lookup Selector’s settings match those of the old column. The Copy old data from list will only display columns with settings that match.
  5. When you’re finished configuring the column, click OK. The existing values from the old Selector/Linked Selector are copied and added to the new column.

NOTE: Note that the data is copied to the new column, and not merely referenced. That means that once you’ve confirmed that the old data has migrated to the new column, you can delete the old column if desired, without losing the values in the new column.

Migrating Lookup Selector from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013

Migrating Lookup Selector from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013

Be sure you have at least the Minimum SharePoint 2010 Product Release (shown in the table below) installed before migrating. If not, upgrade your Bamboo product release before migrating. For more information, see Upgrading your Bamboo Web Part. Also, the target SharePoint 2013 farm requires at least the Minimum SharePoint 2013 product release shown.

Icon-WarningIMPORTANT: When migrating from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013, the Database Attach Upgrade Method is the only method supported.

Minimum SharePoint 2010 Product Release 20.3.61 Minimum SharePoint 2013 Product Release 20.3.88.2013
Database Attach Upgrade Method
Issues The Lookup Selector Column migrates without any errors or additional steps required.
Resolution N/A

Migrating Lookup Selector from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010

Migrating Lookup Selector from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010

Be sure you have at least the Minimum SharePoint 2007 Product Release (shown in the table below) installed before migrating. If not, upgrade your Bamboo product release before migrating. For more information, see Upgrading your Bamboo Web Part. Also, the target SharePoint 2010 farm requires at least the Minimum SharePoint 2010 product release shown.

Icon-Warning IMPORTANT: When migrating from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010, you MUST select the option to change existing SharePoint sites to use the new user experience. Your Bamboo products will not perform as expected with the old look and feel.

Minimum SharePoint 2007 Product Release 1.3.24 Minimum SharePoint 2010 Product Release 20.3.15
In-Place Upgrade
Issues The Lookup Selector Column Web Part migrates without any errors or additional steps required.
Resolution N/A
Database Attach Upgrade Method
Issues The successful migration of the Lookup Selector Column when using Database Attach Upgrade depends on the original configuration of the custom column:

  1. If the custom column was configured using a relative path, then then migration will be successful without additional steps.
  2. If the custom column was configured using an absolute path, the custom column settings will display the following message in SharePoint 2010:
The Web application at [Site URL] could not be found. Verify
that you have typed the URL correctly. If the URL should be
serving existing content, the system administrator may need
to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.
Resolution There is currently no resolution if the Lookup Selector Column was created with an absolute path. It will need to be recreated. If the URL is updated to the correct SharePoint 2010 URL in the Lookup Selector Column settings, the settings will display the following error message:

To show the source list you should choose the correct based
URL. The user must delete this column and create a new Lookup
Selector.

Localize Bamboo Applications or Custom Columns

Localize Bamboo Applications or Custom Columns

Overview of the localization process for Bamboo Products

Bamboo applications and custom columns are slightly different than web parts when it comes to localizing/translating. The user interface isn’t confined to a web part, but can exist as site definitions or other custom pages. For example, the configuration of a Bamboo custom column is within the SharePoint list settings area.
The text strings that require translation are located in different files than the strings that appear in a web part.

Changing the language or text for an application or custom column is a multi-step process:

Top

About the Language Files

Text displayed in a Bamboo application may be included in one or both of the following locations:

  • Provisioning Resources. These resources are located in the 12, 14, or 15 “Hive”, in the Resources folder. The number of the Hive depends on the version of SharePoint you are using (e.g., SP2007 has a 12 Hive, SP2010 has a 14 Hive, and SP2013 has a 15 Hive). 14Hiveresources.jpg

    The Bamboo.*.resx files include text used in site features, site definitions, list definitions, and other provisioning resource elements. Any changes you make in these files will apply to new product instances only.

  • Application/Runtime Resources. These are also located in the 12, 14, or 15 Hive, but in the CONFIGResources folder.The Bamboo.*.resx file in the CONFIG folder is different than the one included in the Resource folder.14HiveCONFIGResources.jpg This one includes text used in application pages, custom site menu actions, navigation elements, and other runtime resources. Any changes you make will apply to new and existing product instances only.

In each location, there may be multiple versions of Bamboo.*.resx files with identical content. The different files are provided for English (en-US), German (de-DE), French (fr-FR), and Spanish (es-ES). The content of all files is in English until you translate it to your language. If your site is configured to use a language that does not have a corresponding Bamboo product .resx file, copy an existing file and rename it to include the culture name for that language pack. For example, create a file for Italian by saving the default file as Bamboo.[Product].it-IT.resx. Make your changes to this new file. If your site is configured to use a specific language but you do not have a culture-specific file, the product will use the default Bamboo.[Product].resx file instead.

Icon-WarningIMPORTANT: If you customize one of the default resource files provided with the product, your changes will be overwritten when you upgrade.

To avoid losing customizations, copy the customized file to a different location (not the same folder) before upgrading. After the upgrade is finished, compare the new file with your customized file to incorporate any new entries. Then copy the merged file to the Resources folder. Culture-specific files created for languages that are not provided with the product will not be overwritten during an upgrade, but you still need to incorporate new resource entries.

Top

Editing text in resource files

Icon-WarningIMPORTANT: Before making any changes, back up your original file to a different folder.

To change text in a resource file, open it in a text editor and locate the text you want to change. Editable text is usually found between the <value></value> tags, as shown in the screen shot below. Do not modify the data tag. If you want to remove text completely, delete only the text; do not delete the <data> or <value> entries from the file, or the server will display an error message. In the example below, the editable text is highlighted in gray.

Common_resxEdit.jpg

When you are finished with your changes, save the file and copy it to the appropriate Resources *folder on *all Web front-end servers in your SharePoint farm. Follow the instructions below to make your changes take effect.

Top

Applying Language File Updates

To apply changes to Provisioning Resource Files:

If you modified the provisioning resources file, apply your changes by restarting Web services with the following command on all Web front-end servers.

iisreset

NOTE: changes to provisioning resources affect new instances of the Bamboo product only; existing instances of the product are not updated.

To apply changes to Application/Runtime Resource Files:

If you modified the application/runtime resources file, apply your changes by executing the following stsadm command on all Web front-end servers. This command copies the updated resource file to the App_GlobalResources folder of each Web application. Changes apply to existing product instances and any new instances you create.

stsadm -o CopyAppBinContent

NOTE: Changes apply to EXISTING product instances AND any new instances you create.

You saw an error message during installation.

You saw an error message during installation.

  • Review Recommendations for a successful intstall for tips to resolve installation errors.

  • For installation timeout errors, verify that the SharePoint Timer service is started on each Web Front End (WFE) server where the product will be deployed (See Location of Install Files for more details). If the problem continues, restart the SharePoint Timer service on each WFE server. For more information, read the Bamboo Knowledge Base article ERRMSG: Timeout Error (TBD – need the link).

  • Errors regarding denied access can occur during the Site Feature activation process if the person running the install is not a Site Collection Administration. If this occurs, a Site Collection Administrator can activate the features manually by referring to Activating a Bamboo Site Collection Feature

How to Use Multi-Select

How to Use Multi-Select

Lookup Selector Column also give you the ability to allow multiple selections to be made within a single Lookup Selector. This allows you to flexibly automate multi-step data entry processes by simply setting up a series of dependent Lookup Selectors.

Let’s look at an example that takes advantage of this functionality. The topic How to Establish Dependent Lookup Criteria demonstrated the ability to regulate the entry of City information based on previously entered State information, by restricting the available choices in the “City” field to those associated with the selected “State”. That example is based on the following column structure:

hw41ab006.jpg

Now, let’s take this a step further, by adding a third field and allowing users to make multiple selections in each field. The third field will be “Zip Code”, and should only display Zip Codes for any of the selected cities. If a city is removed from the list, all zip codes related to that city should be removed. If a state is removed from the list, all cities in that state should be removed, as well as all zip codes related to any cities.

Here’s our new column structure.

hw41ab007.jpg

Remember, we’re also adding the ability for users to make multiple selections from any of these lists (provided multiple choices are available at the time). To do that, we need to select the Allow multiple values option when setting up each column.

hw41ab008.jpg

Other than that, the column setup process is exactly the same as it was in the topic How to Establish Dependent Lookup Criteria; the only difference is that we’re adding an additional column – Zip Code – that is linked to the results of “City”. Once the columns are set up, the New Item screen will look something like what is pictured below. Notice the additional controls for making multiple selections; instead of selecting from a drop down, users add and remove their choice(s) to or from a list.

hw41ab009.jpg

With this column structure, adding a selection to one list immediately changes the available choices in the next one. When we add “Australia” and “Canada” to the country list, the city list becomes populated with all of the cities associated with these two countries. Then, when we select a group of cities, all zip codes associated with those cities become available from the Zip Code list.

When a selection is removed, all fields associated with it are removed from subsequent lists. In this example, removing a country (the most basic unit in our column structure) from the list would remove all cities associated with the country, and in turn, all zip codes associated with it as well.

As this example demonstrates, with multi-select and nested Lookup Selector Column, you can regulate even complex data entry, making it as simple as possible for end users and greatly reducing the use of inaccurate or inconsistent metadata.

How to setup the dependent selector to automatically choose the only selection

How to setup the dependent selector to automatically choose the only selection

Scenario

lookup list.jpgYou have a single list called States and Cities that you use for the source list of two Bamboo Lookup Selector columns on your main list. One Bamboo Selector looks up to a State column and the other looks up to a City column. The City lookup is dependent so only the cities in the selected state are shown.

The Issue

There are some states that have only one city in the list. When users select this state, they want the city to be selected automatically in order to save time for users. How to do that?

How To

The list with the Bamboo Lookup Selector columns is called Opportunities. The configuration of the State column in the Opportunities list is shown below.

State column configuration.jpg

The configuration of the City column is shown below. The important thing to note is that the City column is configured as required column.

City column config1.jpg

not required.jpgThe configuration of a lookup as a required column (i.e., one that must have a value), is the key part of this scenario. When the City column is NOT required, the new item form looks like this; the City selection defaults to (None), even though CA has been selected as the State.

required.jpgIf the City column requires a value, once the State is selected, the first available value will be displayed.

Icon-WarningIMPORTANT: If the Lookup list has more than 20 items, the lookup column will NOT have a default. This is the same behavior as SharePoint Lookup columns. When they are required, the value defaults to the first available lookup value. However, if the lookup list has more than 20 items, no default value is displayed. A value must be selected.