As we continue our series on the complete line of Bamboo Custom Column products available in the Bamboo Store, we come now to the Bamboo Rating Column. The Rating Column allows SharePoint users to provide effective feedback for items in Lists, Libraries, and Site Pages through a content-rating solution.

Bamboo Rating Column provides three different flavors of rating:

 

Users can interact (i.e., rate) with each of these rating types from both the List View and the individual item’s Display Form. Within this article, we will walk you through the process of configuring and using each rating type.

To start us off, we first need to create a new Bamboo Rating column. To create a new column, select the action Create Column located under the Lists Ribbon:

 

You can also reach this option going to List Settings in the same Ribbon, and then Add a Column under the Columns section.

In the Create Column dialog, provide a name for the column and then select Bamboo Rating from the list of column types. Notice that the Additional Column Settings section updates to display a set of options related to the Bamboo Rating column:

 

– True/False:

For the True/False rating scale, select True/False under the Rating Scale Size setting:

The True/False rating scale (another common term for this scale is “voting”) is a simple Yes or No question that you are asking your users. With True/False rating, the user is presented one of three identifications:

Thumb-Up/Thumb-Down Images:

 

Green Checkmark/Red X Images:

 

Words:

 

All identifications have the same capabilities, just different styling.

Additionally, the list administrator can further define what the label should display (such as Like/Dislike, Yes/No, and True/False).

Allow Anonymous Ratings means that when a user rates, their current login is not saved, only the rating they submitted. This also allows users to rate more than one time.

Allow Individual Item Ratings to be Reset allows users defined in the people picker control to clear any item’s rating. When selected, the Rating Administrator field appears, allowing the list administrator to define who can clear ratings.

Upon clicking OK, two columns are created:

• [Original Rating Column Name] – This is where the user actually performs their rating and the configuration can be modified at any time.
• [Original Rating Column Name] Count – A special column used to display the number of ratings submitted. This column is hidden from the List Settings screen and is automatically deleted when the [Original Rating Column Name] is deleted.

When a user hovers their mouse over the appropriate voting symbol, the symbol highlights and a tooltip of the strings you entered in the configuration is displayed:

Assuming that Anonymous Ratings are not enabled, when a user selects one of the options, several things occur:

1. The selection they made is locked in.

2. The average rating (a positive/negative percent value), displayed to the right of the rating symbol, is updated.

3. The statistical tooltip (displayed when you hover over the average rating) is updated to display current selection, average rating percent, and number of ratings submitted.

4. The secondary column [Original Bamboo Rating Column Name]: Count is incremented:

 

Users can change their ratings at any time, and only their rating is affected.

If Anonymous Rating is enabled, when the user rates, they will receive a message that says “Rating Submitted.” This removes the chance of the user rating multiple times in a row. However, if the user leaves the page and returns, they can rate again.

Finally, users who have been granted the right to reset ratings will see a red icon next to the rating scale:

 

Upon selecting the icon, they will receive a confirmation message to verify the action:

 

Upon clicking OK, all ratings will be cleared for that item.

As mentioned previously, the rating column is available not just in the List Views but also in the New, Display, and Edit forms as well. 

 

5-Star Rating:

The 5-Star rating is just that, a mechanism for users to rate content using a 5-star rating scale. The 5-star rating scale could be whole stars or half stars depending on the configuration. Let’s talk about configuration first:

The first step is to select the Star Skin.  This defines the color schema of the stars displayed. Upon selecting a skin, you can see the related color schema in the preview section below the Star Skin drop-down menu:

After selecting a Star Skin, define the following settings:

• Allow Half-Star Ratings – Determines if the user can select half stars or only whole stars when they rate.
• Stars will display – Defines when the list first loads, will the stars display the current user’s rating (if Allow Anonymous Rating is not enabled) or the average rating for all users.
• Average Rating Decimal Places – Determines the number of decimal places to show for Average Rating when users hover over the control to see details of the current ratings.

 

Allow Anonymous Ratings means that when a user rates, their current login is not saved, only the submitted rating. This also allows users to rate more than once.

Allow Individual Item Ratings to be Reset allows users defined in the people picker control to clear any item’s rating. When selected, the Rating Administrator field appears, allowing the list administrator to define who can clear ratings.

Upon clicking OK, two columns are created:

• [Original Rating Column Name] – This is where the user actually performs their rating and the configuration can be modified at any time.
• [Original Rating Column Name]: Count – A special column used to display the number of ratings submitted. This column is hidden from the List Settings screen and is automatically deleted when the [Original Rating Column Name] is deleted.

After successfully configuring the rating column, users will see something similar to this:

 

Assuming Anonymous Rating is not enabled, when the user rates, they will see something similar to what is shown below:

 

User interaction changes slightly when the option Allow Half-Stars Ratings is enabled:

 

Notice that when this option is selected, the option Average Rating Decimal Places is hidden, since we are requiring the user to select whole or half stars:

 

Upon saving the settings, users can now select half stars in the 5-star control.

The rating control will also display half stars when appropriate for the average rating, as shown below:

 

 

The next setting, Stars will display, allows the SharePoint List Administrator to define what the view will display when the Rating control initially loads.  There are two options from which to choose:

Current User Rating will display a different color for the stars (depending on the skin selected) to show that the user has already rated and what they have selected.  In this case, the stars are the color red if they have already rated:

 

Average Rating will display the current average rating value for that item in a different color from the user rating based on the skin selected:

 

As mentioned, the rating column is also available in not just the List Views but also the Properties forms.

 

10-Point rating scale:

10-Point rating scale is the simplest to configure with just three settings.

Average Rating Decimal Places determine the number of decimal places to show for Average Rating when users hover over the control to see details of the current ratings.

Also available are the options Allow Anonymous Ratings and Allow Individual Item Ratings to be Reset (as discussed above in the other two rating scale modes).

After we have successfully configured the rating column, the user will see the following interface before any ratings have been submitted:

To rate, the user would click the Rate link in the rating column.

The control would then update to display the following rating control.  The user can either type a whole number between 1 and 10, or use the arrows, then click the Save button:

The user will then see the column information update, displaying the current average rating and the rating they entered:

 

Mouseover the rating details to see the information within a tooltip:

 

Read our entire series dedicated to Bamboo Custom Columns:

• Extending SharePoint Lists Without InfoPath: Introducing a Series on Bamboo Custom Columns
• Part 1: Bamboo Rich Text Column
• Part 2: Bamboo Column Level Security
• Part 3: Bamboo Lookup Selector Column
• Part 4: Bamboo Visual Indicator
• Part 5: Bamboo KPI Column
• Part 6: Bamboo Rating Column
• Part 7: Bamboo Validator Column
• Part 8: Bamboo Custom Identifier

---