SharePoint
SharePoint is a portal-based collaboration and document management platform from Microsoft. It can be used to host web sites, termed SharePoint Portals, which can be used to access shared workspaces and documents, as well as specialized applications such as wikis and blogs, from within a browser. SharePoint functionality is exposed as web parts, which are components that implement a certain functionality, such as a task list, or discussion pane. These web parts are then composed into web pages, which are then hosted in the SharePoint portal. SharePoint sites are actually ASP.NET applications, which are served using IIS and use a SQL Server database as data storage backend.
The SharePoint family is composed of three different applications. Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is a free add-on to Windows Server. WSS offers the basic portal infrastructure and collaborative editing of documents, as well as document organization and version control capabilities. It also includes end user functionality such as workflows, to-do lists, alerts and discussion boards,[1] which are exposed as web parts to be embedded into SharePoint pages. WSS was previously known as SharePoint Team Services.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) is a paid component of Microsoft Office suite. MOSS integrates with WSS and adds more functionality to it, including better document management, indexed search functionality, navigation features, RSS support, wikis and blogs, as well as features from Microsoft Content Management Server. It also includes features for business data analysis as well as integration with Microsoft Office applications, such as project management capabilities or exposing Microsoft Office InfoPath forms via a browser.[2] It can also host specific libraries, such as PowerPoint Template Libraries provided the server components of the specific application are installed. MOSS was previously known as SharePoint Server and SharePoint Portal Server.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer (MOSD) is a WYSIWYG HTML editor, which is primarily aimed at designing SharePoint sites. It shares its rendering engine with Microsoft Expression Web, its general web designing sibling, and Microsoft's Visual Studio 2008 IDE.
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Windows SharePoint Services
Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) or Windows SharePoint is the basic SharePoint offering, offering collaboration and document management functionality by means of web portals, by providing a centralized repository for shared documents, as well as browser-based management and administration of them. It allows creation of Document libraries, which are collections of files that can be shared for collaborative editing. SharePoint provides access control and revision control for documents in a library. It also includes a collection of web parts, which are web widgets that can be embedded into web pages to provide a certain functionality. SharePoint includes web parts such as workspaces and dashboards, navigation tools, lists, alerts (including e-mail alerts), shared calendar, contact lists and discussion boards. It can be configured to return separate content for Intranet, Extranet and Internet locations. It uses a similar permissions model to Microsoft Windows, via groups of users. Active Directory groups can be added to SharePoint groups to easily tie in permissions. Alternatively, other authentication providers can be added through HTML Forms authentication.
A SharePoint page is built by combining the web parts into a web page, to be accessed using a browser. Any web editor supporting ASP.NET can be used for this purpose, even though Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer is the preferred editor. The extent of customization of the page depends on its design.
WSS pages are ASP.NET applications, as such SharePoint web parts use the ASP.NET web parts infrastructure, and using the ASP.NET APIs, web parts can be written to extend the functionality of WSS. In terms of programmability, WSS exposes an API and object model to programmatically create and manage portals, workspaces and users. In contrast, the MOSS API is more geared towards automation of tasks and integration with other applications.[3] Both WSS and MOSS can use the web parts API to enhance the end user functionality. In addition, WSS document libraries can be exposed over ADO.NET connections to programmatically access the files and revisions in them.
At the web server level, WSS configures IIS to forward all requests, regardless of file and content types, to the ASP.NET session hosting the WSS web application, which either makes a certain revision of a certain file available from the database or takes other actions. Unlike regular ASP.NET applications, the .aspx
which contains the WSS (and MOSS) application code, resides in SQL Server databases instead of the filesystem. As such, the regular ASP.NET runtime cannot process the file. Instead, WSS plugs a custom Virtual Path Provider component[4] into the ASP.NET pipeline, which fetches the .aspx
files from the database for processing. With this feature, introduced with WSS 3.0, both the WSS application as well as the data it generates and manages, could be stored in a database.
Version history
The first version, called SharePoint Team Services (usually abbreviated to STS), was released at the same time as Office XP and was available as part of Microsoft FrontPage. STS could run on Windows 2000 Server or Windows XP.
Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 was marketed as an upgrade to SharePoint Team Services, but was in fact a completely redesigned application[citation needed]. SharePoint Team Services stored documents in ordinary file storage, keeping document metadata in a database. Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 on the other hand, stores both the document and the metadata in a database, and supports basic document versioning for items in Document Libraries. Service Pack 2 for WSS added support for SQL Server 2005 and the use of the .NET Framework 2.0.
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 was released on November 16, 2006 as part of the Microsoft Office 2007 suite and Windows Server 2008. In fact, Windows Server 2008 supports a separate server role for SharePoint services. WSS 3.0 is built using .NET Framework 3.0 and uses Windows Workflow Foundation to add workflow capabilities to the basic suite. By the beginning of 2007 WSS 3.0 was made available to the public. Windows 2000 Server is not supported by WSS 3.0, however.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) runs on top of WSS, and builds on it by adding both core features as well as end user web parts to it. Its main strength is enabling an organization’s information to be organized and aggregated in one central, web-based application and provide a taxonomy for corporate data. MOSS integrates closely with applications in the Microsoft Office suite and adds various features such as hierarchical organization of content areas, enhanced navigation, Single Sign On, personalization features, indexed search, the Business Data Catalog, and in-browser rendering and, in certain cases, editing of Microsoft Office documents. It can also be used to create specialized document-specific libraries, such as Microsoft PowerPoint slide libraries, which can be used to share not only specific slides from a presentation but their design as well.[5] The latest version, MOSS 2007, improves over its predecessor, SPS 2003, in integrating with Microsoft Office applications, enterprise content management (with the integration of Microsoft Content Management Server into MOSS), Enterprise Search, web content management, more specialized document management, records management, Web 2.0 collaboration functionality like blogs and wikis, delivery of information stored in SharePoint via RSS, and the ability to take content and lists offline with Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Access. A MOSS application can abstract multiple WSS sites under the covers.
MOSS 2007 also comes with two other specific installations:
- SharePoint Server for Search, which exposes only the indexed search Enterprise search capabilities.
- Microsoft Office Forms Server, which is a stand-alone installation of the Infopath Forms Services feature.
Architecture
The architecture is composed of Web Server front ends running the WSS application with MOSS plugging-in functionality where required, generally a search service which crawls the data store creating an index, a number of other services, and the database back-end, a standard enterprise architecture.
As such it can be built out by load balancing more web servers on the front end and building larger clusters of SQL Server on the back-end. Though recommended to be installed on physical machines, virtualization has been used with MOSS and the previous marks to create this architecture, though not officially supported at the time of writing.
SharePoint allows administrators to create Web Applications each on its own port. A separate web application on a separate port can contain site collections, each having its own database in SQL Server. Site collections can have sites which can contain subsites. A web server can contain hundreds of site collections.
One of the weaknesses of the tool is its own ease of use. Administrators may be tempted to start one port 80 and build a single site collection with sub-sites underneath, exposed to the company as a home page and sub-pages. Though this makes logical sense for a large organization or one with bespoke portals using custom Web Parts or Forms Server, it can cause problems. All the sites in a site collection will be stored in the same database, which can become too large to effectively back-up. Moreover, bespoke development using the same Web Application and Application pool can bring a company-wide internet down.
MOSS 2007 also allows content types and document libraries to have information management policies, which allows the triggering of workflow or deletion of information after a certain fixed event or time period, helping to reduce many of the size-growth problems of earlier versions.
Features
Office 2007 integration
MOSS integrates closely with Microsoft Office applications. It can render Microsoft Office documents in web pages. In addition, with the proper server side infrastructure, it can allow the documents to be edited from within the browser as well. For other documents types in a document library, Microsoft Office applications can directly edit the document in the document library. This feature is available for Microsoft Excel and Microsoft InfoPath. Using Excel Services, MOSS can allow Excel 2007 workbooks to be loaded, edited, and displayed in a SharePoint page. All calculations happen on the MOSS server. MOSS can also host and render Microsoft InfoPath forms using the Infopath Forms Services to have it viewed and filled out using a browser.
Microsoft Office Outlook can also be used for accessing and synchronizing SharePoint document libraries.[6] On connecting a document library with Outlook, the library will be listed in the navigation pane, and the files in it will be listed along with certain metadata such as author. Compatible Microsoft Office documents will be previewed in the preview pane and Microsoft Office Outlook search bars can be used to search the libraries as well. The search entered using the Outlook bar will be federated to the SharePoint server, and the results will be displayed in Outlook itself. By synchronizing a document library, Outlook can make the files available offline, which can be opened and edited using other Microsoft Office 2007 applications; the changes will be synchronized back to the SharePoint library by Outlook.
While it is not necessary to use Microsoft Office 2007 to take advantage of the integration with the Microsoft Office suite, it offers the most integration with MOSS 2007. A few examples of the improved integration with Office 2007 include:
- 2-way synchronization of Outlook Calendar and SharePoint Calendar.
- Overlaying a SharePoint Calendar on top of user's Outlook 2007 Calendar.
- SharePoint Task-Assignment Synchronization into user's Outlook Task List.
- Offline Synchronization of SharePoint Documents.
- Viewing SharePoint RSS feeds through Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 RSS Reader.
- Display of Meta-data values for a given document type in the Office Ribbon as a user is editing a document from a document library.
Enterprise search
MOSS 2007 can be used for enterprise search, to search across the document libraries and user groups.[7] MOSS 2007 fully indexes all the documents stored in its library, in addition, it also indexes data stored in external databases which are exposed via ADO.NET or Web Services with a well-defined WSDL schema. Any search from the portal interface or client applications can use the MOSS search capabilities to search over this index. SharePoint servers, Web sites, file shares, Exchange Public Folders, and databases can be set as data sources which it will then index. The indexing system is a tuned version of the one used in Windows Desktop Search. The indexing engine uses specified crawling rules to decide what is to be indexed. The index engine uses continuous propagation, which allows even a partial index to be queried against. It also exposes a UI for visual administration of the search capabilities. MOSS 2007 also includes suggestion capability, which suggests search terms in case of typographical errors.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Standard, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise also includes a people search functionality, which can search for people, based on their affiliation and expertise, provided the enterprise infrastructure makes the information available. It can search from SharePoint user groups, as well as Active Directory and other LDAP directories provided the information has been imported into MOSS.
Business Data Catalog
The Business Data Catalog (BDC),[8] introduced in MOSS 2007, enables presenting business data from back-end server applications such as SAP or Siebel 2007 or databases to be viewed by the web-based interface of Sharepoint without writing any code. It comprises a metadata repository and an object model. It provides a unified and simple way to invoke operations. It presents a consistent, object-oriented interface to the business logic imbedded in typical business applications. The Business Data Catalog provides homogeneous access to the underlying data sources by using a declarative metadata model which simplifies the client object model. The Business Data Catalog Definition Editor is now included in the MOSS SDK.[9] The task of maintaining the catalog is divided among four roles: business analyst who identifies the data to be presented, metadata author who creates the tags to identify the data to sharepoint, administrator, and developer.
MySite
MySite is an important feature in MOSS 2007 that enables a user to obtain access to a personalized view of the information that's relevant to them. MySite has a Public view and a Private view. Users are able to throttle the permissions on various pieces of information that are in a MySite such that only their colleagues, manager, or anyone in the organization can see the information. The Private view of a user's MySite enables them to see a number of interesting pieces of information:
- Workspaces - Users can see and access the workspaces to which they have access saving on wasted navigation time.
- MyLinks - A list of personal links that are important to user. As a user is browsing the SharePoint site, they can quickly add a link for a given page to the MyLinks list, by selecting Add Link from a menu in the upper right corner of the page.
- Personalization Sites - Special Sharepoint sites that personalize content based on a users role in the organization can be pinned to the appropriate user's MySite based on their organization role (HR, Facilities, Finance, etc). Microsoft has released several role-based personalization templates to help people get started with this feature.
- Colleague Tracker - Enables users to track the changes that they have permission to see in their colleague's MySites.
- Outlook email - Web Parts are available for a user's MySite that display their email and calendar information from Exchange.
- Distribution Groups - In the public version of your MySite you can see the distribution groups that you're a member of, and when looking at another user's MySite can see the distribution groups that you have in common with them.
- Standard WSS Site Features - Since a MySite is a WSS site at its core, user's MySites have all of the typical functionality that comes with Windows SharePoint Services (Document Libraries and Lists, Recycle Bin, Version Control, Workflow, etc)
If the system has the appropriate multi-language packs and templates installed, users can be given the option of creating their MySite in one of the languages available on the system instead of being forced to use the language that governs the more public areas of the SharePoint system. This might be useful in a scenario where a global enterprise is enabling their users in China and Spain to create their MySite in Chinese or Spanish.
Wiki
The MOSS 2007 wiki allows RSS export of content and provides a wysiwyg editor. As with MediaWiki, it produces hyperlinks with a double square bracket.
Accessibility
Although MOSS 2007 accessibility has improved since SharePoint Portal Server 2003,[10] it is still difficult to get a Sharepoint web site to adhere to the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 1.0 specification.[11] Sharepoint relies extensively on table-based layouts, especially in the Web Parts Framework, and XHTML is also problematic as Sharepoint's built-in controls produce markup that does not validate under XHTML doctypes.[12] Substantial custom development is therefore essential in order to comply with these standards.[13] This has proven to be a key stumbling block to the adoption of Sharepoint solutions in situations where strict adherence to accessibility standards is of particular importance, such as the public sector.[10]
See also
References
- ^ Windows SharePoint Services Overview. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Introduction to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Use Windows SharePoint Services as a Platform for Building Collaborative Apps, Part 2. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Discover Significant Developer Improvements In SharePoint Services. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Use Slide Libraries to share and reuse PowerPoint 2007 slide content. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ SharePoint & Outlook – The Perfect Link. Retrieved on 2007-10-02.
- ^ Search in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Business Data Catalog. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ a b SharePoint Accessibility - Is MOSS 2007 accessible?. Retrieved on 2007-05-11.
- ^ Focus on Accessibility. Sharepoint2007.com: the business portal for SharePoint 2007 information. Retrieved on 2007-05-16.
- ^ Zac Smith. Guide to making Sharepoint XHTML Compliant. Retrieved on 2007-05-11.
- ^ Another day, another accessible MOSS website. Retrieved on 2007-05-11.