In SharePoint 2013, you have many Options to format Announcements or Items in any other ListView WebPart.

Lets talk about some of the cool options with examples that I posted on LearningSharePoint.com

1. Using JS Link - Using JS Link property of a ListView Webpart, you can Control the rendering and Formatting of entire the Announcements WebPart.

See the example at Styling Announcements with JavaScript (using JS Link) in SharePoint 2013

 
2. Using JSON and CallOuts – You can also display Announcements using JavaScript with JSON response for Announcements and display the body of the announcement in a Custom CallOut.

See the example at Display Item Details in a CallOut on Hover Over of Item Title in SharePoint 2013

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JS Link property is a great new addition in SharePoint 2013 with which user’s can Control Rendering of Fields,Items and even WebParts using a JavaScript File (referenced in JS Link property field of a WebPart).

 To Support the new “JS Link Property” Microsoft has added a new Content type JavaScript Display Template.


Before we look at some examples here some Important things that you need to know about JS Link Property.

1. JS link is a new SPField Type property that not only lets you Control the Rendering of a Field or Control in a List, but also Rendering of a List Item,Content type,Form,View and a List view web part Instance.
2. Rendering of Fields can be Controlled in NewForm.aspx, DisplayForm.aspx and EditForm.aspx forms.
3. JS Link Override will not work if you are using the Custom List Form (i.e. it is edited in SharePoint Designer).

4. JavaScript Display Template Content Type provides some special Site Columns like Target Control Type, Standalone,Target Scope and Target List Template ID that helps users to specify JS file metadata.

Lets look at some examples-
Add Task Status Indicators in SharePoint 2013 using JS Link

Color Code List Items with JavaScript in SharePoint 2013 using JS Link

Customize List Form Fields in Display Form (DispForm.aspx) using JS Link in SharePoint 2013

Styling Announcements with JavaScript (using JS Link) in SharePoint 2013

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In SharePoint 2013, Microsoft has Introduced a new Framework to Create CallOuts that is somewhat similar to the Dialog Framework Introduced in SharePoint 2010.

The new CalloutManager class in “Callout.Js” (path – C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS) is responsible for Creating and editing Instances of a CallOuts in SharePoint 2013.


You can find the Complete Tutorial at SharePoint 2013 CallOut Popup Tutorial 

Creating a Custom CallOuts - You would use CalloutManager.createNew() or CalloutManager.createNewIfNecessary() methods to Create a new CallOut on any Target element.

Example 1 - Create Custom Callouts in SharePoint 2013

Example 2 - Creating Custom CallOuts Where CallOuts gets displayed on Hover Over of an Item.


Create CallOut Actions - CallOut Actions are Links (such as “Open”, “Edit”, “Share”) that gets displayed in the bottom area of a Callout.CalloutActionOptions() is one of the methods in Callout.Js that lets you Create and edit CallOut Actions for Items.

Example 2 - Create CalloutActions in a Callout – SharePoint 2013

Disable\Remove Callouts - You need to set SPField.CalloutMenu  and\or SPField.CalloutMenuAllowed for a Field to disable CallOuts on it. Read more at Disable CallOuts for Lists and Libraries in SharePoint 2013

 You can also Hide CallOuts by switching Views that you use in your list.See the Quick workaround to Hide CallOuts in a SharePoint 2013 Task List

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SharePoint 2013 Interview Questions and Answers -

The Interview questions are from the four Part series at SharePoint 2013 Interview questions
 
Search -

Q1. What are the New Changes in Search?
Ans: In SharePoint 2013 the best of two Search Engines "SharePoint Search" and “FAST Search Server for SharePoint” was combined
to make one Search Engine that would provide greater redundancy and for better scalability. For more Info on Search architecture see Search 2013 Architecture

Q2. What is Continuous Crawl?
Ans: A new Crawl Option "Continuous crawls" has been Introduced in search's Crawl Schedule Category to help keep the search index and search results as fresh as possible.Continuous crawls run every 15 minutes by default.

Q3. What are Display Templates?
Ans: To eliminate the fact that the designers and power users needed to modify the XSLT each time they needed a particular look and feel in SharePoint, a new concept of Design Templates has been introduced. Each Display Template consist of two files an HTML file (.html) and JavaScript File (.js). For more Info on Display templates see Display Templates

Q4. What is the new Analytics Processing Component in SharePoint 2013?
Ans: The Analytics Processing Component in SharePoint Server 2013 analyzes both the Content and the way users interact with it.The results from the analysis are added to the items in the search index to be used by Search Webparts,Recommendation Reports,Most Popular Items reports and other WebParts.

Q5: What analysis are done by Analytics Processing Component in SharePoint 2013?
Ans: The Analytics Processing Component runs two main types of analyses: Search analytics and Usage analytics. Search analytics analyzes content in the search index, and usage analytics analyzes the user actions.

Q6. What is the purpose of new Content Search Web Part(CSWP)?
Ans: In SharePoint 2013 Microsoft has introduced a new webpart called “Content Search Web Part (CSWP)”.This WebPart queries
against search Index to display results. The webpart displays search results in a way that you can easily format it and customize it.

Administration -

Q7. What is Shredded Storage?
Ans: Its a new Feature Introduced in SharePoint 2013 where Documents and Changes to the Documents are stored as “Shredded BLOBS” in the new DocStreams Data Table.Unlike SharePoint 2010, it helps to lower down the amount of storage required for saving files by saving only the Changes and not the entire Versions of the Files in database.

Q8: Why would you Disable Shredded Storage?
Ans: Shredded storage is a per document feature.So if two Copies of the exactly same document is stored in two different libraries, these two documents will still have their own set of shreds which will take up twice the space of each individual document.

Q9. Whats new in SPSite Powershell Cmdlet?
Ans: SPSite has few new parameters in SharePoint 2013 to make Site Collection Operations easier.
New-SPSite cmdlet allows to Create a Host-name Site Collections adding a using the HostHeaderWebApplication parameter that identifies the Web Application where the site collection is being Created.
Copy-SPSite (new) Use the Copy-SPSite cmdlet to make a copy of a site collection from one Source content database to a specified destination content database.The copy of the site collection has a new URL and a new SiteID.This will be very useful when renaming a SiteCollection.

Development -

Q10: Whats are the new Delegate Controls in SharePoint 2013?
Ans: In SharePoint 2013, three New Delegate Controls have been Introduced for the purpose of displaying the new Top Suite bar (with links SkyDrive, NewsFeed,Sync,follow). These Controls are -

• SuiteBarBrandingDelegate delegate Control
• SuiteLinksDelegate delegate Control
• PromotedActions Delegate Control

Q11: What are the Changes in CSOM and REST based APIs?
Ans:  Microsoft has improved both Client Side Object Model (CSOM) and Representational State Transfer (REST) based APIs by adding a much needed support for the Search, User Profiles, Taxonomies, and Publishing Object Model.Client.svc service is extended with REST capabilities and accepts HTTP GET, PUT, POST requests.


Q12: What’s the new App model?
Ans: SharePoint 2013 Introduces a Cloud App Model that enables you to Create apps.Apps for SharePoint are self-contained pieces of functionality that extend the capabilities of a SharePoint website. An app may include SharePoint components such as lists, workflows, and site pages, but it can also surface a remote web application and remote data in SharePoint.

Q13: What is the new SPSecurityEventReceiver?
Ans:  SharePoint 2013 Introduces a Cloud App Model that enables you to Create apps.Apps for SharePoint are self-contained pieces of functionality that extend the capabilities of a SharePoint website. An app may include SharePoint components such as lists, workflows, and site pages, but it can also surface a remote web application and remote data in SharePoint.

See more Interview questions from LearningSharePoint.com at SharePoint 2013 Interview questions and answers

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