This question cropped up a couple of times in the comments to the Adobe PDF Indexing blog post

How do you open a PDF in a web page on SharePoint?

Here is the method I use. There may be prettier and better ways to do it. If you know of one, please add a comment.

The short version:

1. Take one Content Editor web part
2. Enter <embed> tags containing the PDF fie as the source

The longer version:

1. Upload the PDF you want to display to a SharePoint library. From within the library, right click the PDF file name and select ‘Copy Shortcut’ (this takes a copy of the full URL to the file)
   
2. Add a ‘Content Editor’ web part to a SharePoint web page.
   • If you’re using SharePoint 2007, it’s in the Miscellaneous group in the web part gallery
   • If you’re using SharePoint 2010, it’s in the Media and Content group in the web part ribbon
3. Edit the web part to insert your code
   • SharePoint 2007 – Modify the web part and click the Source button in the task pane (not the Rich Text Editor button)
   • SharePoint 2010 – In the ‘Format Text’ ribbon, click the HTML Editor button
     
4. Insert the code
   • Click CTRL + V to paste the shortcut to the PDF file
   • Then add the following code, using your shortcut in place of FILENAME.PDF

      <object><embed src="FILENAME.PDF" height="600" width="600"
      type="application/pdf"></embed></object>
     

     Here’s an example:

     

   • Click OK/Save to save the code and then OK to save the web part
5. You should now see your PDF file displayed in the web part. If required, adjust the height and width values until the PDF is displayed how you want it (preferably one full page in view). In SharePoint 2010, the code may have been modified a little – don’t panic.
6. Save and publish your page (or Stop Editing, depending on what site template and version of SharePoint you are using)

Hey presto: One PDF document viewed inside a SharePoint web page. Cue free advertising for the last PDF that arrived onto my computer

Notes:

You must use the Content Editor web part for this task. If you try adding <embed> tags to a standard page control (for embedded content within the page), SharePoint will remove the tags when the page is saved and your hard work will disappear. If you’re running SharePoint with extra strong mints security, you may also find the <embed> tags are stripped out when attempting to save your work.

People will still need a PDF reader installed on their client in order to view the PDF embedded in the web page, just the same as when visiting any other web site with embedded PDFs.

When you create a site collection using the Collaboration Portal template in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, you get an extra web part not available in any of the other templates. It’s called ‘I need to…’ and displays a list of options, starting with ‘Set up MySite’. It starts life on the home page of the top-level site in the site collection.

It’s a useful web part because you can give access to a lot of links without taking up much screen estate. The web part is automatically included on the home page of any site collection created using the Collaboration Portal template and is also listed in the web part gallery. But if you add it to any other site in your site collection, it will start with an error message. It’s a few easy steps to replace that error message with a new list of items to choose from.

I’ve reconfigured the ‘I need to…’ web part a fair few times for customers and figured it was time to write a ‘how to’ blog post. You can use the ‘I need to…’ web part with any list on any site within the site collection. Here’s how to get it working.

Minimum Requirements

• SharePoint Server 2007 – Standard or Enterprise Edition
• A site collection created using the Collaboration Portal template
• Site Admin permission (to edit pages, add web parts and what not)

This web part only works in SharePoint Server, that is Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Either version (Standard or Enterprise) will do, but little ol’ Windows SharePoint Services will not do. You can try exporting from a SharePoint Server and importing it to Windows SharePoint Services (like I tried) and you will get an error message when you try to configure it. Probably hackable with a bit of effort but definitely not supported and questionable on the licensing front. Also, the web part is only included within the web part gallery within site collections created using the Collaboration Portal template

Step 1: Add the ‘I need to…’ web part to your site

This bit is easy. On the site where you want to add the new ‘I need to…’ list, go to the home page and click Site Actions – Edit Page. Click Add a web part and choose ‘I need to…’ from within the Web Part gallery (it’s usually listed in the Default Group).

When you first add the web part to a new site, it will display with an error message similar to the one above. This is because the web part in the gallery is configured to point to a specific list from a specific site that doesn’t match the site you just added the web part to. We’ll be fixing that.

Step 2: Create a list to contain the items to appear under ‘I need to…’

We need to create a list to contain the items you want to appear under ‘I need to…’ This will become the list name in the web part properties (replacing /sitedirectory/sites)

• Create a new list based on the Links list template
• Add a new column called ‘Display’, make it a Choice of Yes or No, with Yes as the default. This column and value will be used as the Filter Field and Filter Value in the web part properties (required to make the web part work)
• Add a new item to the list, this will be used to test the web part is configured correctly (I tend to use a dummy link and name)

Step 3: Configure the ‘I need to…’ web part to use your new list

Go back to the page where you added the ‘I need to…’ web part and modify the web part. In the tool pane, modify the web part properties:

• Under List Name, click the Change button and select your new list
• Under Filter Field, select the Display common
• Under Filter Value, select Yes.
• Click Apply to apply the changes made to the web part and see if the ‘I need to…’ web part is now displaying a dropdown menu with ‘Choose task’ displayed instead of the original error message

Chances are, the error message is still showing. I don’t know why but I usually have to perform these steps twice to make the changes stick. So repeat the steps – select the list, set the Filter Field and Filter Value, then click Apply again. It usually works fine the second time:

Final step, before you click OK and close the toolpane for the web part. If you are planning to use long titles for the items to be listed under ‘I need to…’, the default width of the web part will not be long enough to display them. To increase the width, enter a value in the Width: text box. Choosing 200 pixels creates a width about 25% longer than the default width.

And hey presto, you now have a new ‘I need to’ web part configured to display items from your own list.

What you put in the list is entirely up to you. It can be a list of favourites (you don’t need to leave it named as ‘I need to…’ edit the web part properties and change the title to something else, such as ‘Top sites to visit’). More often, it’s a list of processes such as book a vacation, request a something or other… Anything can go in the list as long as it is a link that works (easy way to check – open the link in your browser and see what happens)

Final note:

If all you wanted to do was add items to the existing ‘I need to…’ web part (i.e. below ‘Set up MySite in the first image in this post), you can take the easy route and not set up an entirely new ‘I need to…’ list. Instead, all you need to do is:

• Navigate to the Site Directory
• Click on Site Actions – View All Site Content,
• In the All Site Content page, click on ‘Sites’. In the Sites list, add your items and make sure you check the box ‘Tasks and Tools’ (that’s the Filter Field and Value) for each one

[Update: Sept 2010] – For a more detailed explanation about the authentication issue, visit ‘RSS Viewer web part and authenticated feeds‘ (MSDN blog)

Same issue applies to SharePoint 2010 but access to settings has changed slightly – Central Admin – Security (in sidebar on the left)

—– original post —–

SharePoint Server 2007 includes an RSS Viewer web part for viewing RSS feeds. Every list or library within SharePoint has an associated RSS feed that you can subscribe to. The RSS feed is located under the Action button in the list toolbar – see screenshot below:

The RSS feed will be displayed in the browser, like the screenshot below:

The RSS feed is not designed to be read direct inside the browser like this. Instead, you should add the RSS Viewer web part (it is one of the default web parts available ‘out of the box’ with SharePoint) to a page and then modify the web part to include the URL to the RSS feed. The easiest way to do this is to copy the URL from the browser window (you can see it in the screenshot above) and then paste it into the URL box for the web part (as shown in the screenshot below):

In this example, the RSS Viewer web part has been configured with the RSS feed for the Calendar list within the team site. As soon as somebody creates or updates an entry in the calendar, the RSS Viewer web part will be updated and display the title of the new entry.

RSS feed is a geeky phrase for what is simply a news feed. If you want to keep track of what’s going on in a given list or library, then subscribing to a news feed means you will automatically receive the updates when they are published, rather than having to go and keep checking on the list to see if there are any changes. (I always rename the RSS Viewer web part with a friendlier update – in this example, I would use ‘Calendar updates’) You can see the RSS Viewer on display in the screenshot below. A list item – Management meeting – has been expanded to show more details:

If you are having problems with getting the RSS Viewer web part to display on your page, specifically you are receiving the message ‘The RSS webpart does not support authenticated feeds’, you need to change your authentication provider settings from NTLM to Kerberos. To do this, go to SharePoint Central Administration and click on the Application Management tab. Within the list of options, click on Authentication Providers. Click on Default (should be the only one listed if you are an ‘out of the box’ set-up). Under IIS Authentication Settings, the checkbox for Integrated Windows authentication should be selected. Change the radio button selection from NTLM to Negotiate (Kerberos). Click Save. If you go and refresh the page containing the RSS Viewer web part, the feed should now be displayed, i.e. it worked on my machine If it doesn’t work, chances are you need to change the account being used for your application pool settings.

RSS feeds share similarities with another SharePoint feature – Aerts. For an explanation of the similarities and differences, please check out a previous blog post: SharePoint and RSS versus Alerts

Technorati tags: SharePoint, SharePoint 2007, MOSS 2007