Template Variables

Applies to: Office 2007 | Outlook 2010 | SharePoint Server 2010

In this article
Types of Template Variables
List Template Variable
Template Variable Elements

Instances of template variables (represented by a templateVariable element) specify the data of an activity feed item in an activity template.

For an example of activity feed XML, see Activity Feed XML Example.

Types of Template Variables

The following table shows the types of supported template variables, each represented by the corresponding XML enumeration value.

Type of template variable

Description

entityVariable

A person, group, or thing.

linkVariable

A link.

listVariable

A group of objects.

pictureVariable

A picture.

publisherVariable

The publisher of the activity feed item.

textVariable

A block of text.

Each type of template variable has required elements to specify the data about that variable. Template variables are specified as follows:

<templateVariable type="variable type">

List Template Variable

You can specify template variables that are contained within a list (delimited by the listVariable and listItems elements) as follows:

<simpleTemplateVariable type="variable type of text, link, or picture">

A template variable of the listVariable type is a container for objects. It can contain comma-delimited items (of the linkVariable or textVariable type) or pictures (of the pictureVariable type). Lists can contain up to five link items, five text items, or five pictures.

The Microsoft Outlook Social Connector (OSC) localizes link or text list items according to the Windows system locale.

To correctly parse and display pictures in an activity feed item, you must include pictures in a list. All pictures are resized to be 52 pixels high. The width of the picture is not resized.

Template Variable Elements

This section covers the required and optional elements supported for each type of template variable.

entityVariable

Element

Description

name

The name of the variable. Required.

id

The unique ID of the user. Required.

nameHint

The name to be displayed in the feed item. Optional.

profileUrl

The URL of the person’s profile that will be used as the hyperlink for the person’s name in the feed item, if the person’s name is present. Optional.

emailAddress

The email address that is used to update this person’s contact information in Outlook. Optional.

linkVariable

Element

Description

name

The name of the variable. Required.

value

The URL for this link. Required.

text

The link text to display instead of the URL itself. Optional.

listVariable

Element

Description

name

The name of the variable. Required.

listItems

A container for items in the list. Required.

pictureVariable

Element

Description

name

The name of the variable. Required.

value

The URL for the picture. Required.

altText

The alternate text to display for accessibility and when the user moves the mouse pointer over the picture. Optional.

href

The hyperlink to use when the user clicks the picture, if the desired target is not the picture URL specified by the value element. Optional.

publisherVariable

Element

Description

name

The name of the variable. Required.

id

The unique ID of the user. Required.

nameHint

The name to be displayed in the feed item. Optional.

profileUrl

The URL of the person’s profile that will be used as the hyperlink for the person’s name in the feed item, if the person’s name is present. Optional.

emailAddress

The email address that is used to update this person’s contact information in Outlook. Optional.

textVariable

Element

Description

name

The name of the variable. Required.

value

The text to display. Optional.

See Also

Concepts

Overview of XML for an Activity Feed Item

activityDetails Element

activityTemplateContainer Element

Guidelines for Properly Displaying Cached Activities

XML for Activities

Outlook Social Connector Provider XML Schema

Other Resources

Developing a Provider with the OSC XML Schema