Wednesday, August 14, 2013

SharePoint 2010: Aggregating Announcements

As part of our SharePoint Setup we decided we wanted the ability to aggregate / bubble up / consolidate announcements from multiple sites to our Main Page.  The following is how we accomplished this task while installing simple way for users to control what is displayed.

To start we added custom site columns to top level site that added controls of what was displayed on main page, when and for how long.
  1. Launch browser to top level site (in our case http://intranet/)
  2. Site Actions > Site Settings
  3. Galleries > Site content types
  4. List Content Types > Announcement
  5. Columns > Add from new site column
    1. Name and Type
      1. Name: Display on Home Page (Y/N)
      2. Type: Yes/No
    2. Group
      1. Group: Custom Columns or create a new one
    3. Additional Column Settings
      1. Description: Option to have announcement display on Main Page
      2. Default Value: No
        • This requires users to select Yes for announcement to be displayed on Home Page otherwise it only displays on their site
    4. Update List and Site Content Types
      1. Update All content types inheriting: Yes
        • This is how we populate this to all child sites
    5. Click Okay
  6. Columns > Add from new site column
    1. Name and Type
      1. Name: Display Start Date
      2. Type: Date and Time
    2. Group
      1. Group: Custom Columns or create a new one
    3. Additional Column Settings
      • Description: Date to Start Display on Main Page
      • Required: No
      • Enforce Unique: No
      • Format: Date Only
      • Default value: (None)
    4. Update All content types inheriting: Yes
      • This is how we populate this to all child sites
    5. Click Okay
  7. Columns > Add from new site column
    1. Name and Type
      1. Name: Display End Date
      2. Type: Date and Time
    2. Group
      1. Group: Custom Columns or create a new one
    3. Additional Column Settings
      • Description: Date to End Display on Main Page
      • Required: No
      • Enforce Unique: No
      • Format: Date Only
      • Default value: (None)
    4. Update All content types inheriting: Yes
      • This is how we populate this to all child sites
    5. Click Okay
Now we will setup the home page to display items from other sites.  To accomplish this we will use a Web Part: Content Query.  
  1. Move back to top level site
  2. Sites Actions > Edit Page
  3. Click Add Web Part in desired location (for use we chose the left space)
  4. Categories > Content Rollup > Web Parts > Content Query > Add
  5. Click open the tool pane or Drop Down > Edit Web Part
  6. Expand Query and set the following:
    1. Source: Show items from all sites in this
    2. List Type: Announcements
    3. Content Type: 
      1. Group: List Content Types
      2. Item: Announcements
    4. Audience Targeting: Apply as needed
    5. Click Apply
  7. Set filters (if desired)
    1. Query > Additional Filters:
      1. Display on Home Page (Y/N)
        • is equal to
        • [Yes]
      2. Display Start Date
        • is less then or equal to
        • [Today]
      3. Display End Date
        • is greater then or equal to
        • [Today]
    2. Click Apply
  8. Expand Appearance
    1. Set Title to desired name (we used Current Announcements)
    2. Click Apply > Click OK
That is it.  Now when a user creates an announcement they will have the option to set for homepage display.
For How-To write up with steps and images visit post on SpiceWorks: http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/46775-sharepoint-2010-aggregating-annoucements

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