Neat Trick to Ensure You’re Serving Up “Fresh” Script and CSS in SharePoint

This is a cool trick devised by one of my colleagues at my current client. (Confidentiality reigns supreme in client situations. Suffice it to say that this wasn’t my bright idea, but I give credit to the real thinker.) We were having trouble with caching of .js and .css files which we were deploying to the…

Rapid Solution Iteration with the Data View Web Part (DVWP) and jQuery

The other day I got a question about what I mean when I say that working with the Data View Web Part (DVWP) and jQuery can allow you to rapidly prototype solutions. In my experience, both the DVWP and jQuery allow you to rapidly iterate on a potential solution for a business use outside the normal…

Why Is jQuery Spelled the Way It Is? Direct Answer from John Resig

You’ve gotta love Twitter. Yesterday, Greg Schaefer asked in the forums for my Enhancing the User Experience with jQuery course at USPJ Academy why jQuery is spelled the way it is. I had no idea, so off to the InterWebs.  I didn’t see an obvious answer after a little Binging, so I figured I’d tweet…

“Should I Get Certified” Mentioned in the SPTechReport Newsletter from BZ Media

USPJ Academy‘s own resident curmudgeon’s recent post on Should I Get Certified – or How I Passed My First SharePoint Exam Within 24 Hours of Learning How to Spell SharePoint was mentioned today in the SPTechReport Newsletter from BZ Media. BZ Media are the same folks who bring you SPTechCon, alternating between Boston and San…

Where Does the “There are no items to show in this view” Text Come from in a DVWP?

I got a question via email today, the answer to which seemed generally useful: While you’re not as cool as Old Spice guy (sorry, nobody is that cool) you are the uber CQWP guy. Enough ego stroking this morning? Anyways, quick question. Any idea how to display a custom message in the CQWP when you…

Dynamic Loading of jQuery Libraries

I’ve been going back and forth with my pals @jbhoward (Jim Bob Howard),  @iOnline247(Matt Bramer), and @webdes03(Michael Greene) today about how best to dynamically load jQuery libraries.  We were all interested in the possibility of determining on the fly whether to load the jQuery library itself conditionally from an external CDN (like the Google Ajax…