SharePoint 2010 List developing a custom AddForm and EditForm

I have a SharePoint list that has MANY columns in it. The default AddForm and EditForm rendering is very cumbersome for the users. Most of these fields hold simple Number (integer) values. The default rendering for those two forms (using the ListFieldIterator I suppose) render the columns one by one vertically down the page. My thought was to design an input form with three basic "zones" (left/middle/right) and use a Custom Field for all of these "Number" fields. The Custom Field would contain two custom variable properties "Zone" and "Order". (Zone could contain middle/right and order would be the "order" in that zone the field would appear, the "left" zone would be for the fields that are not these "Number" fields, things like Date, Customer, etc. etc.) I would design the page with an HTML table and 6 Columns (1 for the "label" and one for the "TextBox" for each of the three "zones"). Then I could put a control (something similar to the "ListFieldIterator"). The control in the first zone would render the "static" fields, the zones in the other two zones would render the appropriate Custom Fields (based on the Custom Variable Property "Zone" and "Order").

Does this make sense? For the life of me, I can't figure out how to do this. I had thought about "giving up" and just using my ASP .Net skillset and creating FormViews and GridViews bound to the proper (ListView) DataSources. That has even proved challenging.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I could accomplish this? (InfoPath isn't an option and I want to stay with the "Custom Field" idea so the fields aren't laid out statically and can be moved around or even new ones added by the "administrator" of the Application (SharePoint List).

Any guidance is MUCH appreciated. I have been working on this all week and just seem "stuck".

Thanks, Shayne

------ A Better explanation of my "application" and what I want to do-----

I have a SharePoint List that has about 60 fields in it. If I pushed this application out using the default Add/Edit SharePoint List Forms (and Rendering Templates), the users would hate it. The default forms use a rendering template that basically lays out all the list fields, one per (HTML) Row. Within that Row there are two (HTML) columns. The first one contains the "Label" for the field, and the second (HTML) column is the actual editor for the "FormField" (Text Box or whatever). Because of the number of fields in the list, the user would have to scroll several pages just to get to the bottom.

This list has about 10 "static fields" that I want to lay out on the left side of the page and then about 50 that are simply "task" fields. These store an integer and track "how many of these tasks did I do today". (This is开发者_JAVA百科 a "port" of an MS Access application.) Depending on the "Add" page the user selects (I have a "parent" content type that contains every field and then a "child" content type for each "group" of users that will be using this form that contains just the fields/tasks that group tracks) the proper fields are rendered on the page. The problem is they are all rendered vertically and there is too much scrolling. These users (and admins) will NOT have access to SharePoint Designer or InfoPath. So, the "layout" for these fields must be iterator/repeater style (the users shouldn't have to get Development involved just to add a new "task" field to their application!).

The solution I had come up with is to use a Custom Field Type with two Custom Property Variables for each of these "task" fields. The Custom Property Variables (Zone and Order) would allow the administrators of the "application" to control where they want these fields to appear on the Add and Edit forms. The Zone Property can contain one of two values: "1st Task Column" (middle of the form) or "2nd Task Column" (right part of the form). (The "left" column of the forms would be used for those 10 or so "static" fields that all groups/depts/content types share.)The Order would just contain the order to sort the fields in, within their "zone". Obviously, the "zone" would indicate where on the form the field would appear (middle or right). I thought I might be able to use three Divs and render the appropriate List Columns in the appropriate DIVS. Or, following the default rendering template, instad of DIVs I could possibly use 6 (HTML) Columns instead of 2.

I quickly figured out how to make a new Field Type with Custom Properties (I used the Property Schema element in the XML definition, even though Microsoft says NOT to use that in SharePoint 2010, it was just so easy and I couldn't figure out how to add them otherwise. Now I know how to add them the "right" way, I just don't know if it is worth changing them.)

For the last few days, I have tried to figure out how to actually render these "zones". Remember, I want the users of this application to be able to add new fields dynamically, so I can't put any static field references in these forms. I have read about the Rendering Templates and the ListFieldIterator (and the new Content Iterator), but I can't seem to pull it all together and create an actual solution. The part that is throwing me off is how to query and render three different "sets" of fields at once (since the rendering is going to happen from "top to bottom").

Any help is very much appreciated!

Shayne

If InfoPath it out and you want to stay within the SharePoint infrastructure for forms, then the term you need to search for is DataFormWebPart. You may have heard of DataViewWebPart before, well this is the form equivalent. Just like the DVWP, this does lots and lots of XSLT to make its magic happen.

The trick is can you implement your grid/zone idea within the context of the DFWP's XSL. That I can't tell you but hopefully this is a starting point.

Defiantly Info Path is the solution here are some tutorials:

• Video: http://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/laurhar/infopath-2010-customize-a-sharepoint-list-form
• http://p2p.wrox.com/content/articles/customizing-sharepoint-2010-list-forms-infopath-2010
• http://blog.libinuko.com/2010/03/21/sharepoint-2010-howto-start-customize-list-form-neweditview-using-infopath-designer-2010/

if you don't want to use InfoPath I would recomment JavaScript/jQuery you have just to modify (Edit) the page then inject some jQuery code to do what you want. Here are some articles about similar topics:

• http://akanoongo.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-hide-fields-in-sharepoint-list.html
• http://spground0.blogspot.com/2011/03/sharepoint-2010-custom-list-form-issues.html
• http://ghamson.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/using-jquery-to-attach-regular-expression-validation-to-a-sharepoint-list-form-field-sp2010-ps2010-projectserver-in/

The only way you can achieve this type of custom form designing within the SharePoint framework is to apply it through post-rendering techniques using client-side code. And solutions like this tend to add considerably to page-load.

Simply changing the render template is not enough if you want it to be a dynamic and codeless experience for end users to author.

I can think of only one solution which comes close to fitting all criteria. It's "free", can be password protected, and also allows tab groups, rules and many other settings.

Dynamic Forms For SharePoint - http://spjsblog.com/dffs