I have been working around with the Silverlight Pivot Viewer for long time now and I have noticed that whenever I use a JIT collection I dont see Description in the facet panel but when I use a static collection, Description is available. First I thought maybe description facet is not allowed in JIT collections but then I remembered that the Collection class constructor does ask for Description in its parameter, this made my curious and I started dive into the code of PivotServerTools Project and I found that there’s no place in the code where this Description is used apart from when creating the default item images. After a lot of searching I was able to find a solution using which Description can be made visible. To do so, follow the below steps:
1. Go to the PivotServerTools project.
2. Open the Internal folder.
3. There you’ll see a “CxmlSerializer” class, this class is used when the method Collection.ToCXML() is invoked, which is done by the Pivot Viewer. Open this class and navigate to the method “MakeItemContent”. In this method add the following line:
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(item.Description)){
yield return new XStreamingElement(Xmlns + "Description", item.Description);
}
This way Description will start showing up in the Facet panel of every collection provided you specified a value for it in the Item’s collection class constructor.
Akshaya's World 
Dear Akshaya,
I am Madhusudhan, I am new to the Pivot,but this work is assigned for me, can you please help me from were I have to start to develop.
I am using visual studio 2008, sql server2008, MVC2.0.
Can you give me a sample code plz.
my gmail id: madhusudhan.kammar@gmail.com
Thanks
Regards
Madhusudhan
Hi Madhusudhan
You can start by first browsing thru the resources provided at the PivotViewer Home Page and you can also look for problems and solutions that people had while working with the PivotViewer in the Silverlight Forums. And if you are stuck somewhere and you dont find a solution, you can always your questions to me!
Hi Akshaya,
How to create collection from Sqlserver database.
I would be interested to look at step by step article.
Can you point to resources for creating collection from Sql DB instead of creating collection in Excel and then using Pivot viewer.
I will be thankful to you.
You want to create your collection only once from sql server and store it? or do you want that your collection is generated everytime dynamically from your sql data?
I want my collection to be generated everytime dynamically from sql data.
I am not getting from were & how to start.
Can you guide me please.
Hi Madhusudhan
Sorry for late reply, didnt notice your comment before. There are tons of sample available online including the ones from Microsoft. Basically what you have to use is the Pivot Viewer’s JIT Server tools and to see how they work, download the sample from here.
One thing I would recommend is that you should now start working with Pivot Viewer v2 which is released as a part of SL 5 RC. See this blog post for details and samples on how to get started. Let me know, if you still face any issues.
Dude, you are the man for finding this. holler.
I’m trying to use Pivot, but ran into a problem. I want to have 7 different html-templates based on a single facet value. If the facet value is A the A template is applied. I’ve gotten it to work with one template using PAuthor. Is there a way to do it with more than one using JIT?
Dear Lester, sadly I haven’t worked much with PAuthor and Pivot Viewer much, so I wont be able to help you in this regard as of now! I am still working on other aspects of it, when I find the solution I’ll share it with you.
Hi Akshaya,
I added a link to the picture in the info pane via the AddItem method. The link is shown properly in the cxml and the link appears in the info pane too. But nothing happens when i click on the link in info pane. I have a workaround, I added a custom action button that does the job for me but still I want the info pane link to work.
Please help.
Sumit, when you want to add a link as a facet value you cant just add it by just creating a facet like:
var facet = new Facet("facet name", "url")and expect it to work as a url. In order for the facet to behave like a url, you will have to use the FacetHyperlink class, you can use it like:
var facetHyperlink = new FacetHyperlink("display name of the url", "url");var facet = new Facet("facet name", facetHyperlink);
Now, when you’ll click on the link, you will be redirected to the “url” you have mentioned in the FacetHyperlink constructor. If this doesnt work out for you let me know.
It didn’t work for me.
Thats strange! But come to think about it…this is the problem of the old version…the new version works just fine! Is there a specific requirement that you are still using the old PV version?
Nothing in particular.
Just trying to get the answers for some old issues in my spare time.
Havent tried the new version yet.
Try the new version, its difficult in some areas to use but is a lot faster…you dont need the CXML anymore (but yes it is still possible to use it)!
And I hope it can create the JIT Pivot collections as well with more efficiency and get some more control and flexibility in PivotViewer.
Yup, you sure can!
Hi Akshay,
Instead of images I want to show some coloured tiles with some text taken from the CXML data in them.
I am using JIT Pivot and want to generate the tiles dynamically.
Is there any way I can do that??
Regards,
Sumit
In the new version? No clues…but then again, there’s no need to use CXML anymore, instead use the PV.ItemsSource property to bind items, its extremely fast!
Hi Akshaya,
I came across a site: http://www.physiotherapyexercises.com/Physio.aspx
Please refer to it. I am impressed by the links and export options that appeared on top of each picture as it was deep zoomed. I am trying to implement the export option in my JIT collection. Do you have any ideas or references that you can share with me??
Thanks
Sumit Zitshi
Sumit,
I have 2 things for you:
1. The website that you provide the link of has been created by using the prototypes provided in Xpert360’s blog located at http://xpert360.wordpress.com/
2. For Export option, I’ll be doing a blog post really soon containing the information about the how you can export a collection in Excel, you can refer to it.
Thanks for the reference,
I was able to achieve my requirements from the links provided.
Regards,
Sumit Zitshi
hi,
I tried to download Microsoft Live Lab Pivot tool but I can find it from a website that is not a microsfot page. I tried to install it but it asks me for pivotcode which i don’t have. How can i get the pivot code for the installatoin?
I have an issue that image/items don’t display in the pivot viewer control but all filters and facet are there on the screen.
Thanks,
Kam
First thing, the live lab tool doesnt ask for any code, so the thing that you havé is probably something else…it could be a virus so I suggest you to get rid of it!
I can try to upload my file somewhere (I havé to check the size) and then give you the link. Meanwhile, for your problem tell me which OS are you using? Are thé images présent on thé URL of thé image you are passing in thé AddItem() method? Can u access it from your browser?
Kam,
I found out that when you install the Excel tools for collection generation, the Live Lab Pivot tools comes along. So why dont you install and let me know if that works out for you.
hi there, I’m looking for a tool for JIT collections generation using HTML-template. The PivotJITServer doesnt supports html-template option. Though PAuthor supports this option, but ends up creating tons of files. I don’t want to create files on the server, but keep all the files in memory like in PivotJITServer.
Could you please let me know how to do JIT collections using html-template without writing files to HD. Please let me know if you come accross a samples with similar functionality.
hmm. i’m trying to dig the pauthor source code to find how it works, but it may take some time to get hold of it. 🙂
Thanks
SK
Hi SK
I tried to find a solution to your problem, but it seems to be very difficult to keep files in memory without modifying PAuthor’s code. I am still digging in it, Will let u know if I find something! If u find a solution, do share it 🙂
Hi Akshaya,
Thanks for the fast reply. I analysed my code and came through the place I made some mistake, my JIT PivotViewer collection is working fine now for the images stored on the disk. Now I am trying to implement it for the SharePoint Picture Library. Moreover thanks for the tips and links that you gave me, they are really helpful. The tool for SahrePoint that you mentioned looks good, but is way too complex for a beginner like me, still I’ll continue looking into it to get a better insight of its working and implementation.
Hi, I am Sumit and new to Pivot. I am trying to display the images stored in a Picture Library in Pivot Viewer. But I am not able to do so an get a blank screen. Kindly guide (if possible in steps) , how to do so, either through a webpart or on a webpart page.
Dear Sumit
Can you please see, if you are able to get the cxml properly from your picture library. What you have to do is to just paste your collection’s url in a browser and check if the xml is displayed on the page (if you use chrome, you’ll have to click on view source to see the cxml). If you dont see it, that means there’s a problem in your cxml generation code, so you’ll have to check that. But if you do see the cxml, then there can be multiple reasons for the problem, to diagnose download the “Microsoft Live Lab Pivot” tool (I think the latest version is 1.0.6000.1), then you paste your collection url inside this tool. This tool will show you if there’s a problem in your cxml and if there’s no problem it will simply display your collection in the pivot viewer. So, check which step is problematic for you and let me know, accordingly I will be able to further guide you.
Hey, BTW have you tried using the tool mentioned here http://pivotviewersp.codeplex.com? This tool is created specifically for sharepoint, try this out!