This section describes a schema for folders that contain Web Parts or, in other words, for digital dashboards. Folders that you define using this schema belong to the content class "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:Dashboard". The following table lists the properties defined in this content class, and the sections following the table describe each property in detail.
The second column in the table indicates whether the property is user- or view-specific. Properties that are not user-specific contain metadata for the dashboard folder. You can implement a digital dashboard so that it stores specific property values for each user, allowing different users to set different values for certain properties.
|
Name |
User Specific |
Description |
|
AutoUpdate |
Yes |
Determines whether Web Parts are updated with the non user-specific values of a master Web Part. |
|
DashboardImageLarge |
No |
Branding image that represents the Web Part folder. |
|
DasbhoardImageSmall |
No |
Small version of DashboardImageLarge. |
|
DashboardOrder |
Yes |
Placement of this dashboard in the navigation user interface. |
|
DashboardStorage |
Yes |
Can store shared state information for a group of related dashboards. |
|
Description |
Yes |
Description of the Web Part folder. |
|
DisplayTitle |
Yes |
Indicates whether the dashboard view displays the title of the dashboard. |
|
LastModified |
Yes |
Date and time the folder was last modified (in Greenwich Mean Time). |
|
MergeSubDashboards |
Yes |
Determines whether sub-dashboards are merged into the dashboard view, allowing users to navigate between them. |
|
RefreshInterval |
Yes |
Specifies how frequently the dashboard is refreshed. |
|
Name |
User Specific |
Description |
|
Stylesheet |
Yes |
Embedded style sheet that defines the dashboard view. |
|
StylesheetLink |
Yes |
URL pointing to a style sheet to use to define the dashboard view. |
|
Title |
Yes |
Title for the Web Part folder. |
The following sections contain detailed information about each property in the Dashboard schema.
Under each property description is a table of values. These are the settings that Exchange requires for a property definition. While some of the items in the tables apply to the SQL Server store, such as Data Type, Default, and Read Only, the others do not. Additionally, the data type systems of Exchange and SQL Server are different: what is called a Boolean data type in Exchange is called a bit data type in SQL Server.
You use the AutoUpdate property to break the link between Web Parts and master Web Parts. The possible values for this property are as follows:
|
Value |
Meaning |
|
0 |
Never follow links to master Web Parts. |
|
1 |
Always follow links to master Web Parts. |
Note Future releases will support additional values for this property.
If you set this property to 0, or Never, a dashboard factory does not follow links to master Web Parts, and does not update the non-user-specific properties of the current Web Parts with values from the masters. Note that this property does not clear the value in the MasterPartLink property; it disables that functionality only in the dashboard factory. You can reestablish links to the master Web Parts by setting this property back to 1, or Always. If this property does not contain a value, the dashboard factory uses 1 as a default.
|
Name |
Value |
|
Data Type |
Long |
|
Default |
1 |
|
IsContentIndexed |
False |
|
IsIndexed |
False |
|
IsMultiValued |
False |
|
IsReadOnly |
False |
|
IsRequired |
False |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
N/A |
The DashboardImageLarge property contains a URL pointing to an image that represents the folder graphically. The image can be any image file type that the dashboard view can display. If you specify this property, the dashboard view will include this image.
You can specify both a large image and small image by setting both the DashboardImageLarge and DashboardImageSmall properties. The small version is used in instances in which the dashboard appears in a list. The large version commonly appears in the title area of a current dashboard view.
|
Name |
Value |
|
Data Type |
String (URL) |
|
Default |
None |
|
IsContentIndexed |
False |
|
IsIndexed |
False |
|
IsMultiValued |
False |
|
IsReadOnly |
False |
|
IsRequired |
False |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
N/A |
The DashboardImageSmall property contains a URL pointing to an image that represents the folder graphically. The image can be any image file type that the dashboard view can display. If you specify this property, the dashboard view will include this image.
You can specify both a large image and small image by setting both the DashboardImageLarge and DashboardImageSmall properties. The small version is used in instances in which the dashboard appears in a list. The large version commonly appears in the title area of a current dashboard view.
|
Name |
Value |
|
Data Type |
String (URL) |
|
Default |
None |
|
IsContentIndexed |
False |
|
IsIndexed |
False |
|
IsMultiValued |
False |
|
IsReadOnly |
False |
|
IsRequired |
False |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
N/A |
The DashboardOrder property allows you to control the order in which dashboards appear in any navigation interface visible to the user. For example, you can create a user interface that allows allow users to quickly switch between peer dashboards and navigate to child and parent dashboards.
This property is similar to the PartOrder property in the Web Part schema. You can use it to determine the order of dashboards under a given parent. If multiple dashboards have the same value for this property, they will appear in an unpredictable order (which the sorting rules of the data store may determine), so you should avoid assigning identical DashboardOrder values to peer dashboards.
|
Name |
Value |
|
Data Type |
Long |
|
Default |
0 |
|
IsContentIndexed |
False |
|
IsIndexed |
False |
|
IsMultiValued |
False |
|
IsReadOnly |
False |
|
IsRequired |
False |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
N/A |
The DashboardStorage property stores user-specific customization information for the entire dashboard. You can use this property to store and retrieve dashboard-level settings or information that is common to many Web Parts. This property is similar to a Tag property in Microsoft Visual Basic and is solely used by Web Parts—the dashboard factory itself does not reference this property. This property is a string property so Web Parts will typically invent an XML format to fit many pieces of information into one string.
|
Property Definition |
Value |
|
Data Type |
String |
|
Default |
None |
|
IsContentIndexed |
FALSE |
|
IsIndexed |
FALSE |
|
IsMultiValued |
FALSE |
|
IsReadOnly |
FALSE |
|
IsRequired |
FALSE |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
Plain text |
The Description property contains a description of the Web Part. The value of this property should explain what the Web Part does. This property is often displayed in search results or in a Web Part library view. Dashboards may display this in the layout adjustment form. This property is not required.
|
Property Definition |
Value |
|
Data Type |
String |
|
Default |
None |
|
IsContentIndexed |
TRUE |
|
IsIndexed |
FALSE |
|
IsMultiValued |
FALSE |
|
IsReadOnly |
FALSE |
|
IsRequired |
FALSE |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
Plain text |
The DisplayTitle property specifies whether the dashboard view displays the title of the dashboard. Some solutions may use dashboards as the main frame of an encompassing frameset and will already show a title in the top frame of the frameset. In such cases, you may choose to suppress the title of the dashboard.
|
Name |
Value |
|
Data Type |
Boolean |
|
Default |
TRUE |
|
IsContentIndexed |
False |
|
IsIndexed |
False |
|
IsMultiValued |
False |
|
IsReadOnly |
False |
|
IsRequired |
False |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
N/A |
The LastModified property contains the date and time this item was last modified in Greenwich mean time (GMT).
|
Property Definition |
Value |
|
Data Type |
DateTime |
|
Default |
creation date/time |
|
IsContentIndexed |
FALSE |
|
IsIndexed |
FALSE |
|
IsMultiValued |
FALSE |
|
IsReadOnly |
FALSE |
|
IsRequired |
FALSE |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
N/A |
The MergeSubDashboards property specifies whether the dashboard view should merge sub-dashboards (Web Part subfolders in Exchange) into the same dashboard, providing a way for users to navigate the tree. If you set this property to TRUE, the dashboard view includes all sub-dashboards at the next level down, and the dashboard factory uses the setting in the MergeSubDashboards property for those folders to determine whether to include subsequent levels beyond the current one. If you set this property to FALSE, the dashboard view does not include subfolders or provide navigation support.
|
Name |
Value |
|
Data Type |
Boolean |
|
Default |
TRUE |
|
IsContentIndexed |
False |
|
IsIndexed |
False |
|
IsMultiValued |
False |
|
IsReadOnly |
False |
|
IsRequired |
False |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
N/A |
When specified, the RefreshInterval property indicates whether and how often the dashboard factory refreshes the content of a dashboard folder. Set the value of this property to the number of milliseconds between refreshes. You can also allow users to specify this value.
For this property to be effective, you must specify a value that is greater than zero. The dashboard factory will not refresh the contents of the Web Part if you set the value to NULL or less than zero.
|
Property Definition |
Value |
|
Data Type |
Long |
|
Default |
None (no value) |
|
IsContentIndexed |
FALSE |
|
IsIndexed |
FALSE |
|
IsMultiValued |
FALSE |
|
IsReadOnly |
FALSE |
|
IsRequired |
FALSE |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
N/A |
The Stylesheet property contains an embedded style block. The dashboard factory writes this style information in the <head> section of an HTML view. Dashboard views hosted in a Web browser typically include the style block or a link to a style sheet. In these situations, the browser applies the styles.
|
Name |
Value |
|
Data Type |
String (style sheet) |
|
Default |
None |
|
IsContentIndexed |
False |
|
IsIndexed |
False |
|
IsMultiValued |
False |
|
IsReadOnly |
False |
|
IsRequired |
False |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
Plain text |
The StylesheetLink property contains a URL link pointing to a style sheet that the dashboard factory uses to format the dashboard view. The dashboard factory generates a <link> tag using the value of this property as the URL to a linked style sheet.
|
Name |
Value |
|
Data Type |
String (URL) |
|
Default |
None |
|
IsContentIndexed |
False |
|
IsIndexed |
False |
|
IsMultiValued |
False |
|
IsReadOnly |
False |
|
IsRequired |
False |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
Plain text |
The Title property contains the title of the dashboard. It is a required property. This property should contain a text string because the dashboard will display this property as a title above the dashboard content. The standard Exchange/DAV property definition is used for this property when using a Web store. Its full name is urn:schemas:mailheader:subject. For non-Exchange stores, the property can simply be called "Title".
|
Property Definition |
Value |
|
Data Type |
String |
|
Default |
None |
|
IsContentIndexed |
TRUE |
|
IsIndexed |
TRUE |
|
IsMultiValued |
FALSE |
|
IsReadOnly |
FALSE |
|
IsRequired |
TRUE |
|
IsVisible |
TRUE |
|
Version |
1 |
|
TextFormat |
Plain text |