SharePoint Author/Created By

bigjohn1982

Hi, I've been trying to integrate a SharePoint list with Datatables which is working fine. Data is retrieved and displayed as expected, but whenever I try to use the Created By/Author column in SharePoint I get a "Requested unknown parameter" error.

I know in SharePoint the display name is "Created By" and the internal name is "Author". But neither seem to work.

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks...

John

allan

We;d need to see the code you are using and the JSON data or a link to the page.

Allan

bigjohn1982

Apologies, I just realised that the REST service only returns the AuthorID. I should be able to figure it out from here.

Sorry for wasting your time!

bigjohn1982

Hi again Allan,

I've managed to get the AuthorId from the SharePoint REST query, and I've managed to get the the User's Name using SPServices.

I would like to replace the mData: AuthorId with the value I get from getUserInfo. Any ideas how I might be able to do that.

Thanks in advance.

Here is my code

<script src="../Style%20Library/jquery.SPServices-2014.02.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function() {
        
        var thisUserAccount = $().SPServices.SPGetCurrentUser({
            fieldName: "ID",
            debug: false
        });
        
        getUserInfo(thisUserAccount);
        
        function getUserInfo(userId)
        {

          $().SPServices({
             operation: "GetListItems",
             listName: "User Information List",
             CAMLQuery: "<Query><Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='ID' /><Value Type='Counter'>" + userId + "</Value></Eq></Where></Query>",
             CAMLRowLimit: 1,
             completefunc: function (xData, Status) {
                 var userName;
                 var row = $(xData.responseXML).SPFilterNode("z:row").get(0);
                 userName = $(row).attr("ows_Name");
                 alert(userName);
             }
          });
        }
                //alert(thisUserAccount);
                    var call = $.ajax({
                    url: _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('MyList')/items?$select=Title,AuthorId, Description&$filter=Author/Id eq '" + thisUserAccount + "'",
                    //url: _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('MyList')/items",
                    type: "GET",
                    dataType: "json",
                    headers: {
                    Accept: "application/json;odata=verbose"
                    }
                });
                    call.done(function (data,textStatus, jqXHR){
                    $('#tblMyRequests').dataTable({
                        "bPaginate":   false,
                        "bDestroy": true,
                        "bProcessing": true,
                        "aaData": data.d.results,
                        "aoColumns": [
                            { "mData": "Title" },                                               
                            { "mData": "AuthorId" },                                                
                            { "mData": "Description" }                          
                            ]
                        });
                    
                    
                    });
                    call.fail(function (jqXHR,textStatus,errorThrown){
                    alert("Error retrieving Tasks: " + jqXHR.responseText);
                    }); 
        
        

                    

        
    });

allan

You could use columns.data as a function rather than a string. However, if getUserInfo makes an ajax call that isn't going to work, even even if it did it would kill performance.

Allan

EFH52

To do it wholly with REST and not fall back to SPServices you need to have 'Author/Name' in your $select= clause and 'Author' in your $expand= clause.

https://www.yourserver.com/path/to/your/site/_api/web/list/getByTitle(%27YourList%27)/items?$select=Author/Name&$expand=Author

Here is another method to get the current users ID without and AJAX call SPServices or not:

function getUserId() {
  return _spPageContextInfo.userId;
}

EFH52

Your line 30:
url: _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('MyList')/items?$select=Title,AuthorId, Description&$filter=Author/Id eq '" + thisUserAccount + "'",
to:
url: _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('MyList')/items?$select=Title,AuthorId,Author/Name,Description&$expand=Author&$filter=Author/Id eq '" + thisUserAccount + "'",

Your line 46:
{ "mData": "AuthorId" },
with:
{ "mData": "author.id" },

This should get you close. I have used it in much of my code base and for retrieving file names and making links.
If you $select for 'File/ServerRelativeUrl,File/Name', then $expand for 'File'; you can build links to your documetns like this:

columns: [
    {data: function(source, type, val) {
                    return "<a target='_blank' href='"+_spPageContextInfo.siteAbsoluteUrl+source.File.ServerRelativeUrl+"'>"+source.File.Name+"</a>"
    }},