Enabling a Button on the Ribbon Based on Selection

Question

How can I change EnabledScript asynchronously? I need this, because EnabledScript depended in my case on some item fields, but I can read them only in async way:

var itemId = SP.ListOperation.Selection.getSelectedItems()[0].id;
var clientContext = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
var list = clientContext.get_web().get_lists().getById(listId);
this.listItem = list.getItemById(itemId);
clientContext.load(this.listItem, 'MyPropertyForDisabling');
clientContext.executeQueryAsync(Function.createDelegate(this, onQuerySucceeded),
                          Function.createDelegate(this, onQueryFailed));

and what I need to do than query's extract data?

function onQuerySucceeded() {
 //change EnabledScript status
}

Thanks!

Answer 1

I see you've read the article on the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog on this topic. I'm not sure I can give you a definitive answer, but here are my thoughts:

• Effectively it seems you're trying to find how to interact with the ribbon based on client-side code (e.g. Client OM). I also looked at this for quite a long time, and wrote down some thoughts in Customize the ribbon programmatically from web parts and field controls
• Perhaps you should approach this from another angle. The ribbon framework decides when to call 'EnabledScript' (i.e. based on what the user clicks), so if you can get your client-side code to run in the EnabledScript block, you might be able to achieve what you're trying to do.

Answer 2

When using async calls to check if a button has to be enabled in the ribbon you have to tell the ribbon when the async method is finished to check if the status of the button has to be updated. The RefreshCommandUI method helps you out with asynchronous calls. Besides this method a variable has to be set to keep track of the status(enable or disable) of the button.

I happened to write a post about it which you can find here: http://www.itidea.nl/index.php/using-async-call-to-enable-a-custom-ribbon-button/

Regards, Anita

Answer 3

Check out the SharePoint Blog on how to do this here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sharepointdev/archive/2011/02/17/using-refreshcommandui-with-the-server-ribbon.aspx

Just hook this up in a script to your EnabledScript attribute on your ribbon button and you should be good to go.

It works by issuing the async call first, then processing the results in a timer that gets shut off when it's done working. Not very elegant but gets the job done.