Every organization has unique search requirements. FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint has the capability to customize the search experience so that it fits how your business and your people work. Specifically, with FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, you can:
• Deliver results that are contextually relevant.
• Search in the language of your business.
• Tune relevancy to improve accuracy.
• Customize the search platform to meet your specific indexing and search requirements.
• Configure the user interface to customize the search experience for information workers.
Enterprise search solutions from Microsoft enable you to:
Provide users with results that are meaningful and dynamically tailored to their jobs, roles, and functions within the organization. This means that your sales teams will be quickly able to find product information, collateral, and answers to RFP questions, while your engineering teams will see specifications and requirements documents at the top of their results sets. Site administrators can tailor search quickly and easily to deliver contextually relevant results the first time.
Give users the ability to use terms and languages that are unique to your business. Most organizations frequently use a set of internal names, acronyms, or code words. These words can be confusing to different groups, outsiders, or new members of your organization. Users will be able to use their own terminology to sort, refine, and query your content. Furthermore, advanced language support provides your employees the ability to find content written in its native language.
Ensure that searches provide accurate ranking for relevant results. The major reason that a user continues to use a search engine is if it returns relevant information near the top of the search results. Microsoft search gets better with social ranking capabilities by promoting popular documents. Site administrators will quickly and easily be able to create and deploy new custom ranking algorithms that are tuned meet multiple business demands simultaneously.
Provide a great out-of-the-box experience to get search up and running quickly. Additionally, provide a platform that grows with your business needs so that you can:
o Quickly access and crawl new content repositories.
o Add your users and business partners to the lists of extracted entities.
o Perform custom content processing such as sentiment analysis or machine translation.
o Tailor the user interface with custom SharePoint Web Parts or extend the ones that are available out of the box.
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint provides an enterprise search platform for fulfilling these aims. As a brief overview, FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint includes a connector framework that enables the crawler to index files and metadata from various types of content repositories. It also provides an indexing engine that stores the crawled data in an efficient manner in index files, and it provides query servers, query object models, and user interfaces for performing searches on the indexed data.
You will learn more about each of these components later in this guide, but for now be aware that these components all work together to fulfill the aims and meet the requirements of enterprise search solutions.
This section provides a summary of the new and enhanced capabilities that FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint provides compared to the other search products from Microsoft. You can use this section to gain an overview of the value of implementing enterprise search solutions based on FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
Visual Search Capabilities
The visual search capabilities provide an engaging, useful, and efficient way for information workers to interact with search results.
Document Thumbnails
Word documents and PowerPoint presentations can be previewed directly in search results. A thumbnail image is displayed along with the search results to provide rapid recognition of information. This feature is part of the Search Core Results Web Part for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, and the feature can be configured in that Web Part.
Scrolling PowerPoint previews
The PowerPoint document preview enables an information worker to browse the actual slides in the presentation.
Visual Best Bets
SharePoint Server 2010 Search keywords can have definitions, synonyms, and Best Bets associated with them. FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint adds the ability for you to define Visual Best Bets for keywords.
These visual search elements are unique to FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
Conversational Search Capabilities
The conversational search capabilities provide ways for information workers to interact with and refine their search results, so that they can quickly find the information they require.
Sort Results on Managed Properties
With FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, users can sort results on any managed properties, such as sorting by Author, Document Size, or Title. Relevance ranking profiles can also be surfaced as sorting criteria, allowing end users to pick a different relevance ranking as desired.
This sorting is considerably more powerful than sorting in SharePoint Server 2010 search. By default, SharePoint Server 2010 sorts results on each document's relevance rank. Information workers can re-sort the results by date modified, but these are the only two sort options in SharePoint Server 2010.
Deep Results Refinement
Refinement with FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint is considerably more powerful than refinement in SharePoint Server 2010.
SharePoint Server 2010 automatically generates 'shallow' refinement for search results that enable a user to apply additional filters to their search results based on the values returned by the query. 'Shallow' refinement is based on the managed properties returned from the first 50 results by the original query.
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint enables you to specify whether a managed property can be used in a 'shallow' or 'deep' refinement. 'Deep' refinement is based on statistical aggregation of managed property values within the entire result set; ‘shallow’ refinement is just based on, by default, the first 50 results returned by the query. Using 'deep' refinement, you can find exactly what you are looking for, such as a person who has written a document about a subject, even if this document would otherwise appear down the result list. 'Deep' refinement can also display counts, and lets the user see the number of results in each refinement category.
You can also use the statistical data returned for numeric refinements in other types of analysis.
Similar Results
With FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, results returned by a query include links to 'Similar Results'. When a user clicks on the link, the search is re-defined and re-run to include documents that are similar to the result in question.
Result Collapsing
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint documents that have the same checksum stored in the index will be collapsed as one document in the search result. This means that documents stored in multiple locations in a source system would only be displayed once during search with usage of the collapse search parameter. Collapsed results include links to 'Duplicates'. When a user clicks on the link, the search result displays all versions of this document.
Similar results and result collapsing are unique to FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint and are not provided in SharePoint Server 2010 search.
Contextual Search Capabilities
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint allows you to associate Best Bets, Visual Best Bets, document promotions, document demotions, site promotions, and site demotions with defined user contexts in order to personalize the experience for information workers. You can use the FAST Search User Context link in the Site Collection Settings pages to define user contexts for these associations.
Relevancy Tuning by Document or Site Promotions
SharePoint Server 2010 enables you to identify varying levels of authoritative pages that help you tune relevancy ranking by site. FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint adds the ability for you to specify individual documents within a site for promotion, and furthermore enables you to associate each promotion with user contexts.
Synonyms
SharePoint Server 2010 keywords can have one-way synonyms associated with them. With one-way synonyms when a query includes a synonymous term for a keyword, items that contain the keyword are returned. However, if a query includes the keyword, then items that contain the synonymous terms are not returned (unless they also contain the keyword).
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint extends synonyms by enabling you to implement both two-way and one-way synonyms. With two-way synonyms, when a query includes a synonymous term for a keyword, items that contain the keyword are returned (just as for one-way synonyms). Furthermore, if a search expression includes the keyword, then items that contain the synonymous terms are returned, regardless of whether they also contain the keyword.
Managed Properties and Metadata creation
SharePoint Server 2010 enables you to create metadata property mappings (known as managed properties). FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint adds the ability for you to:
Enable stemming support and word forms for managed property values, when they are used by an information worker in a query.
Choose between static and dynamic summaries for display in search results. A dynamic summary will only display a hit-highlighted summary of the specific managed property in the result.
Define whether information workers can sort results on the managed property in question.
Define whether information workers can use the managed property in query operators or filters.
Define whether search results page can use the managed property as a query refiner or deep query refiner in results pages.
Define the priority associated with the managed property. The priority is one of the inputs into the ranking algorithm, and defines how documents with the search term in this property should be ranked against other documents that may have the search term in other properties.
Define how managed properties can be grouped into one or more full-text search-enabled indexes.
Property Extraction
Property extraction identifies key information such as people, companies, and locations in documents. The properties can then be used to enhance the search experience, for instance by providing search result refinement based on the properties. You can improve the precision of the property extraction by editing the include lists and exclude lists for each property extractor. Excluded items are removed immediately, while included items take effect the next time the content is indexed. You can also create custom property extractors based on your organization's specific content using Windows PowerShell and SharePoint administration. Dictionary or Taxonomy based extractors, also called verbatim extractors, will allow you to extract managed properties based on a fixed list of known terms. Developers will also be able to create more dynamic extractors based on the FAST matcher framework and will be able to extend the document pipeline with specialized classifiers, entity extractors, or other processing can be used to support specialized scenarios.
Rank Profiles
The index schema in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint includes rank profiles, which control how relevancy ranking is calculated for each item in search results.
A rank profile defines how relevancy calculations are performed when you search a full-text index. A rank profile consists of several components which are weighted when calculating an item's relevance. You can adjust the weights of a profile’s components to improve search result relevance. Rank profile components include the following:
Freshness. This component manages how the age of an item affects rank.
Proximity. This component manages how the distance between query terms affects rank.
Authority. This component manages how links between Web documents affect rank.
Query authority. This component manages how user selections in previous query results affect rank.
Context. This component manages how different managed properties within the associated full-text indexes contribute to the rank.
Managed properties directly impacting the rank. You can specify that the value of a numeric managed property is added to the rank, or you can specify that certain values of a managed property impact the rank. In the latter case you can, for example, define that documents of a given type (as defined by a specific managed property) will get a relevancy boost in the results.
You can tailor different rank profiles to different use cases, or you can enable advanced information workers to select different rank profiles for different queries.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
What's New In SharePoint Server 2010
Changes from Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010
This article describes the features that have been deprecated or removed from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. Deprecated features are shipped in SharePoint Server 2010 for compatibility with previous product versions. These features will be removed in subsequent versions.
In this article:
Deprecated features: Features removed from SharePoint Server 2010
Deprecated features: The following features are shipped with SharePoint Server 2010 but will be removed from subsequent versions.
Stsadm command-line tool
Description: The Stsadm command-line tool has been deprecated.
Reason for change: The Stsadm command-line tool will be superseded by Windows PowerShell 2.0.
Migration path: The Stsadm command-line tool is included to support compatibility with previous product versions. You should use Windows PowerShell 2.0 when performing command-line administrative tasks.
Site Directory feature
Description: The Site Directory provides a list of links to all sites within a site collection.
Reason for change: This functionality will be replaced by the social features of the User Profile service.
Migration path: Use the Tags and Notes feature to search on any tag that has been entered into the system and see the sites associated with it, as well as other tags and notes that are associated with that site. For a more structured approach to lists of links, every site collection comes with the ability to create lists of links, and workflows so that editorial control can be defined. A script or timer job can create and update a custom links list, or you can staple a feature to the Create Site Collection page in Central Administration.
Scorecard export to Reporting Services
Description: SharePoint Server 2010 no longer supports exporting a scorecard to SQL Server Reporting Services.
Reason for change: This functionality had a low adoption rate.
Business Data Catalog
Description: In Office SharePoint Server 2007, external data was integrated into solutions by using the Business Data Catalog, which was a shared service in the context of the Shared Service Provider framework.
Reason for change: In SharePoint Server 2010, external data is integrated into solutions using the new Business Data Connectivity service, which no longer runs in the context of the Shared Service Provider framework and instead fits into the new shared services framework of SharePoint Server 2010.
Migration path: The Business Data Connectivity service object model is not backward compatible with the object model used in the Business Data Catalog. To support the upward compatibility of Office SharePoint Server 2007 Business Data Catalog solutions with SharePoint Server 2010, an additional service, the Application Registry Service, is available in SharePoint Server 2010 that supports the object model used in the Business Data Catalog. We recommend that new solution development not be done on the Application Registry Service, which is provided only to guarantee upward compatibility of 2007 Microsoft Office system solutions.
Features removed from SharePoint Server 2010
The following features and functionality are no longer available in SharePoint Server 2010.
32-bit operating systems
Description: SharePoint Server 2010 requires a 64-bit operating system. Running SharePoint Server 2010 on 32-bit operating systems is no longer supported.
Reason for change: SharePoint Server 2010 has numerous features that benefit from the performance provided by 64-bit operating systems.
Migration path: Install SharePoint Server 2010 on 64-bit operating systems.
Side-by-side installation
Description: The ability to perform side-by-side installation of Office SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Server 2010 on the same server is being removed. This change is related to the removal of support for Gradual upgrade.
Reason for change: Compatibility and performance issues prevent side-by-side installation.
Migration path: Perform upgrade-in-place installation on the same hardware, or perform database attach to a new farm. Use new hardware if both Office SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Server 2010 versions of a farm must exist at the same time.
For more information, see Perform a database attach upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010.
Gradual upgradeDescription: Support for the gradual upgrade feature is being removed as part of the removal of Side-by-side installation.
Reason for change: Compatibility and performance issues prevent side-by-side installation.
Migration path: Use the read-only database capability of Office SharePoint Server 2007 with the database attach upgrade capability of SharePoint Server 2010 to minimize downtime.
For more information, see Using AAM URL redirection as part of the upgrade process (SharePoint Server 2010) (white paper).
For long upgrade periods where you must maintain both Office SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Server 2010 versions of a farm, you can use the alternate access mapping (AAM) URL redirection capability provided in SharePoint Server 2010. Upgrades that use AAM URL redirection are performed by using database attach upgrade command-line operations instead of timer job-based events that are scheduled from the user interface (UI).
For more information, see Using AAM URL redirection as part of the upgrade process (SharePoint Server 2010) (white paper).
Office Web ComponentsDescription: SharePoint Server 2010 no longer supports Office Web Components (OWC). The PivotChart, PivotTable, and Trend Chart report types are no longer available as options in the SharePoint Dashboard Designer.
Reason for change: This is a 2007 Microsoft Office system feature that is now replaced by the features available in Excel Services in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 in SharePoint Server 2010.
Migration path: In SharePoint Server 2010, use Excel Services instead of Office Web Components.
Web discussionsDescription: Web discussions enable users to add comments about documents and pages without modifying their actual content. SharePoint Server 2010 does not support Web discussions.
Reason for change: This feature was deprecated in Office SharePoint Server 2007 because of its low adoption rate. The feature has now been removed from the product.
Migration path: The Note Board feature in SharePoint Server 2010 now provides this functionality.
SQL Server 2000 data sourcesDescription: SQL Server 2000 data sources are no longer supported in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: SQL Server 2000 does not fully support many of the newer data features available in SharePoint Server 2010.
Migration path: Use data sources that are on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or Microsoft SQL Server 2008.
ODBC data sourcesDescription: ODBC data sources are no longer supported in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: Newer and more versatile database connection options have replaced the functionality of ODBC.
Migration path: ODBC is no longer listed as an option for connecting to a data source. Use another data connection type.
Version 3 themesDescription: A theme is a set of colors, fonts, and decorative elements that enable you to quickly change the appearance of a site. The functionality provided in the version 3 themes is not available in the newly designed version 4 themes.
Reason for change: Version 4 themes are redesigned to simplify the process of generating themes. The new architecture is not compatible with the architecture of version 3 themes.
Migration path: Version 3 themes are still supported if the UI mode is kept at version 3. Version 3 themes are not supported in version 4 UI mode.
Storage Management pageDescription: The Storage Management (storman.aspx) page is now removed from the Central Administration Web site.
Reason for change: This feature can cause dramatic performance issues in a SharePoint farm. Site administrators who use this feature were often unaware of the performance slowdown that it was imposing on users.
Migration path: Site administrators can no longer use this feature.
Web bot software agentsDescription: A Web bot software agent is a dynamic object on a Web page that is evaluated when the page is saved or, in some cases, when the page is opened in a Web browser. Search crawlers and indexers are examples of Web bots. Developers can no longer use Web bot entry points and users cannot add Web bots to SharePoint Server 2010 sites.
Reason for change: This functionality is replaced by Web Parts.
Migration path: Use Web Parts instead of Web bots.
E-mail enabled groups and Microsoft SharePoint Directory Management service (DMS)Description: The Microsoft SharePoint Directory Management service (DMS) connects SharePoint sites to an organization's user directory to provide enhanced e-mail features. If a SharePoint farm is using DMS, users cannot enable SharePoint groups to use e-mail.
Reason for change: The type of authentication used in DMS is being replaced with claims authentication.
Migration path: This feature is not available in SharePoint Server 2010. Use claims authentication instead.
For more information, see Plan authentication methods (SharePoint Server 2010).
Permissions for sub-websDescription: When you assign a permission level to a parent site, that permission level is inherited by all sub-webs of the parent site by default. In Office SharePoint Server 2007, if you wanted a sub-web to have different permissions from its parent, you could edit the inherited permission level definition at the sub-web scope. The result was that you would have two permission levels with the same name but different permissions, depending on their scope. For example, suppose you assigned the Design permission level to a parent site, but you want to change the permissions on a sub-web so that users will not be able to apply style sheets to pages in that sub-web. In Office SharePoint Server 2007, you could edit the Design permission level on the sub-web itself, remove the Apply Style Sheets permission, and save the permission level as Design. It would not be possible, just by looking at permission levels, to determine that the sub-web actually had a different set of permissions than its parent site.
Migration path: In SharePoint Server 2010, if you want to give different permissions to a sub-web, you must assign a separate permission level to the sub-web. Site collections that are upgraded from Office SharePoint Server 2007 and have these unique permission level structures will continue to work. However, the user interface in SharePoint Server 2010 does not have a way to edit an inherited permission level at the sub-web scope, so you cannot change them or create new permission level definitions of this type. If you have a specific business need for continuing to use the Office SharePoint Server 2007 process, use the SharePoint Server 2010 object model.
Shared Services Provider (SSP)Description: Shared Services Providers (SSPs) do not exist in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: Service applications replace this functionality.
Migration path: Use service applications for many of the features that were supported and configured in SSPs.
Internationalized domain namesDescription: Although Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 supported internationalized domain names (IDNs), SharePoint Server 2010 does not.
Reason for change: Support of internationalized domain names (IDNs) has been deprecated.
Migration path: If you currently use IDNs with Office SharePoint Server 2007 and you plan to upgrade or migrate to SharePoint Server 2010, you must stop using IDNs, delete all IDN settings, and then set up an environment that does not use IDN before doing so.
Site directory templateDescription: This site template is not available as an option in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: The functionality provided in this template is now replaced by Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions.
Migration path: Use the social tagging features in SharePoint Server 2010 to get much of the functionality provided by the site directory template. For more information, see Social tagging overview (SharePoint Server 2010) and Privacy and security implications of social tagging (SharePoint Server 2010).
News portal templateDescription: This site template is not available as an option in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: The functionality provided in this template is now replaced by Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions.
Migration path: This template can still be accessed and used programmatically by developers. It is also still available as options in the UI if the SharePoint Server 2010 farm is upgraded from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Use the publishing sites template to replace this template.
Collaboration portal templateDescription: This site template is not available as an option in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: The functionality provided in this template is now replaced by Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions.
Migration path: This template can still be accessed and used programmatically by developers. It is also still available in the UI if the SharePoint Server 2010 farm is upgraded from Office SharePoint Server 2007. Use the publishing sites template to replace this template.
This article describes the features that have been deprecated or removed from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. Deprecated features are shipped in SharePoint Server 2010 for compatibility with previous product versions. These features will be removed in subsequent versions.
In this article:
Deprecated features: Features removed from SharePoint Server 2010
Deprecated features: The following features are shipped with SharePoint Server 2010 but will be removed from subsequent versions.
Stsadm command-line tool
Description: The Stsadm command-line tool has been deprecated.
Reason for change: The Stsadm command-line tool will be superseded by Windows PowerShell 2.0.
Migration path: The Stsadm command-line tool is included to support compatibility with previous product versions. You should use Windows PowerShell 2.0 when performing command-line administrative tasks.
Site Directory feature
Description: The Site Directory provides a list of links to all sites within a site collection.
Reason for change: This functionality will be replaced by the social features of the User Profile service.
Migration path: Use the Tags and Notes feature to search on any tag that has been entered into the system and see the sites associated with it, as well as other tags and notes that are associated with that site. For a more structured approach to lists of links, every site collection comes with the ability to create lists of links, and workflows so that editorial control can be defined. A script or timer job can create and update a custom links list, or you can staple a feature to the Create Site Collection page in Central Administration.
Scorecard export to Reporting Services
Description: SharePoint Server 2010 no longer supports exporting a scorecard to SQL Server Reporting Services.
Reason for change: This functionality had a low adoption rate.
Business Data Catalog
Description: In Office SharePoint Server 2007, external data was integrated into solutions by using the Business Data Catalog, which was a shared service in the context of the Shared Service Provider framework.
Reason for change: In SharePoint Server 2010, external data is integrated into solutions using the new Business Data Connectivity service, which no longer runs in the context of the Shared Service Provider framework and instead fits into the new shared services framework of SharePoint Server 2010.
Migration path: The Business Data Connectivity service object model is not backward compatible with the object model used in the Business Data Catalog. To support the upward compatibility of Office SharePoint Server 2007 Business Data Catalog solutions with SharePoint Server 2010, an additional service, the Application Registry Service, is available in SharePoint Server 2010 that supports the object model used in the Business Data Catalog. We recommend that new solution development not be done on the Application Registry Service, which is provided only to guarantee upward compatibility of 2007 Microsoft Office system solutions.
Features removed from SharePoint Server 2010
The following features and functionality are no longer available in SharePoint Server 2010.
32-bit operating systems
Description: SharePoint Server 2010 requires a 64-bit operating system. Running SharePoint Server 2010 on 32-bit operating systems is no longer supported.
Reason for change: SharePoint Server 2010 has numerous features that benefit from the performance provided by 64-bit operating systems.
Migration path: Install SharePoint Server 2010 on 64-bit operating systems.
Side-by-side installation
Description: The ability to perform side-by-side installation of Office SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Server 2010 on the same server is being removed. This change is related to the removal of support for Gradual upgrade.
Reason for change: Compatibility and performance issues prevent side-by-side installation.
Migration path: Perform upgrade-in-place installation on the same hardware, or perform database attach to a new farm. Use new hardware if both Office SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Server 2010 versions of a farm must exist at the same time.
For more information, see Perform a database attach upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010.
Gradual upgradeDescription: Support for the gradual upgrade feature is being removed as part of the removal of Side-by-side installation.
Reason for change: Compatibility and performance issues prevent side-by-side installation.
Migration path: Use the read-only database capability of Office SharePoint Server 2007 with the database attach upgrade capability of SharePoint Server 2010 to minimize downtime.
For more information, see Using AAM URL redirection as part of the upgrade process (SharePoint Server 2010) (white paper).
For long upgrade periods where you must maintain both Office SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Server 2010 versions of a farm, you can use the alternate access mapping (AAM) URL redirection capability provided in SharePoint Server 2010. Upgrades that use AAM URL redirection are performed by using database attach upgrade command-line operations instead of timer job-based events that are scheduled from the user interface (UI).
For more information, see Using AAM URL redirection as part of the upgrade process (SharePoint Server 2010) (white paper).
Office Web ComponentsDescription: SharePoint Server 2010 no longer supports Office Web Components (OWC). The PivotChart, PivotTable, and Trend Chart report types are no longer available as options in the SharePoint Dashboard Designer.
Reason for change: This is a 2007 Microsoft Office system feature that is now replaced by the features available in Excel Services in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 in SharePoint Server 2010.
Migration path: In SharePoint Server 2010, use Excel Services instead of Office Web Components.
Web discussionsDescription: Web discussions enable users to add comments about documents and pages without modifying their actual content. SharePoint Server 2010 does not support Web discussions.
Reason for change: This feature was deprecated in Office SharePoint Server 2007 because of its low adoption rate. The feature has now been removed from the product.
Migration path: The Note Board feature in SharePoint Server 2010 now provides this functionality.
SQL Server 2000 data sourcesDescription: SQL Server 2000 data sources are no longer supported in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: SQL Server 2000 does not fully support many of the newer data features available in SharePoint Server 2010.
Migration path: Use data sources that are on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or Microsoft SQL Server 2008.
ODBC data sourcesDescription: ODBC data sources are no longer supported in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: Newer and more versatile database connection options have replaced the functionality of ODBC.
Migration path: ODBC is no longer listed as an option for connecting to a data source. Use another data connection type.
Version 3 themesDescription: A theme is a set of colors, fonts, and decorative elements that enable you to quickly change the appearance of a site. The functionality provided in the version 3 themes is not available in the newly designed version 4 themes.
Reason for change: Version 4 themes are redesigned to simplify the process of generating themes. The new architecture is not compatible with the architecture of version 3 themes.
Migration path: Version 3 themes are still supported if the UI mode is kept at version 3. Version 3 themes are not supported in version 4 UI mode.
Storage Management pageDescription: The Storage Management (storman.aspx) page is now removed from the Central Administration Web site.
Reason for change: This feature can cause dramatic performance issues in a SharePoint farm. Site administrators who use this feature were often unaware of the performance slowdown that it was imposing on users.
Migration path: Site administrators can no longer use this feature.
Web bot software agentsDescription: A Web bot software agent is a dynamic object on a Web page that is evaluated when the page is saved or, in some cases, when the page is opened in a Web browser. Search crawlers and indexers are examples of Web bots. Developers can no longer use Web bot entry points and users cannot add Web bots to SharePoint Server 2010 sites.
Reason for change: This functionality is replaced by Web Parts.
Migration path: Use Web Parts instead of Web bots.
E-mail enabled groups and Microsoft SharePoint Directory Management service (DMS)Description: The Microsoft SharePoint Directory Management service (DMS) connects SharePoint sites to an organization's user directory to provide enhanced e-mail features. If a SharePoint farm is using DMS, users cannot enable SharePoint groups to use e-mail.
Reason for change: The type of authentication used in DMS is being replaced with claims authentication.
Migration path: This feature is not available in SharePoint Server 2010. Use claims authentication instead.
For more information, see Plan authentication methods (SharePoint Server 2010).
Permissions for sub-websDescription: When you assign a permission level to a parent site, that permission level is inherited by all sub-webs of the parent site by default. In Office SharePoint Server 2007, if you wanted a sub-web to have different permissions from its parent, you could edit the inherited permission level definition at the sub-web scope. The result was that you would have two permission levels with the same name but different permissions, depending on their scope. For example, suppose you assigned the Design permission level to a parent site, but you want to change the permissions on a sub-web so that users will not be able to apply style sheets to pages in that sub-web. In Office SharePoint Server 2007, you could edit the Design permission level on the sub-web itself, remove the Apply Style Sheets permission, and save the permission level as Design. It would not be possible, just by looking at permission levels, to determine that the sub-web actually had a different set of permissions than its parent site.
Migration path: In SharePoint Server 2010, if you want to give different permissions to a sub-web, you must assign a separate permission level to the sub-web. Site collections that are upgraded from Office SharePoint Server 2007 and have these unique permission level structures will continue to work. However, the user interface in SharePoint Server 2010 does not have a way to edit an inherited permission level at the sub-web scope, so you cannot change them or create new permission level definitions of this type. If you have a specific business need for continuing to use the Office SharePoint Server 2007 process, use the SharePoint Server 2010 object model.
Shared Services Provider (SSP)Description: Shared Services Providers (SSPs) do not exist in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: Service applications replace this functionality.
Migration path: Use service applications for many of the features that were supported and configured in SSPs.
Internationalized domain namesDescription: Although Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 supported internationalized domain names (IDNs), SharePoint Server 2010 does not.
Reason for change: Support of internationalized domain names (IDNs) has been deprecated.
Migration path: If you currently use IDNs with Office SharePoint Server 2007 and you plan to upgrade or migrate to SharePoint Server 2010, you must stop using IDNs, delete all IDN settings, and then set up an environment that does not use IDN before doing so.
Site directory templateDescription: This site template is not available as an option in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: The functionality provided in this template is now replaced by Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions.
Migration path: Use the social tagging features in SharePoint Server 2010 to get much of the functionality provided by the site directory template. For more information, see Social tagging overview (SharePoint Server 2010) and Privacy and security implications of social tagging (SharePoint Server 2010).
News portal templateDescription: This site template is not available as an option in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: The functionality provided in this template is now replaced by Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions.
Migration path: This template can still be accessed and used programmatically by developers. It is also still available as options in the UI if the SharePoint Server 2010 farm is upgraded from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Use the publishing sites template to replace this template.
Collaboration portal templateDescription: This site template is not available as an option in SharePoint Server 2010.
Reason for change: The functionality provided in this template is now replaced by Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions.
Migration path: This template can still be accessed and used programmatically by developers. It is also still available in the UI if the SharePoint Server 2010 farm is upgraded from Office SharePoint Server 2007. Use the publishing sites template to replace this template.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
SharePoint AS SaaS
At the recent SharePoint Conference 2008, Gates announced that the hosted services would be opened up to organizations of all sizes, coming to a node near you, so it was said, in the second quarter of this year.
Now considering how well Microsoft has be able to sell the “Be all you can be with SharePoint” dream, this announcement has surely inspired everything from cheers of joy to cynical snickers to shivers of fear.
The online collaboration and content management space is heating up damn fast. And being the nosy CMS'ers that we are, we rung up Tom Rizzo, Redmond's Director of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, to see if he could add a few nuggets of detail to the story.
CMSWire: Why is Microsoft making the move to on-demand solutions for SharePoint at a time when sales for the product are so high?
Tom Rizzo: We are developing hosted services to address partner and customer needs. The biggest reason for the interest is the ability to reach new customers and grow revenue more efficiently. We’ve already seen products like Live Meeting and Exchange Hosted Services fulfill that need and reach additional potential customers. Microsoft Online Services — comprised of hosted versions of SharePoint Server, Exchange Server and Office Communications Server — is a natural extension of this strategy.
Microsoft will continue to innovate and develop products and solutions that adapt to technology trends and meet customer need. Microsoft Online Services is a prime example of Microsoft’s software plus services strategy in action. Microsoft will continue to provide its customers with options in how they manage and access software — whether it’s online, on-premises or both.
Now considering how well Microsoft has be able to sell the “Be all you can be with SharePoint” dream, this announcement has surely inspired everything from cheers of joy to cynical snickers to shivers of fear.
The online collaboration and content management space is heating up damn fast. And being the nosy CMS'ers that we are, we rung up Tom Rizzo, Redmond's Director of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, to see if he could add a few nuggets of detail to the story.
CMSWire: Why is Microsoft making the move to on-demand solutions for SharePoint at a time when sales for the product are so high?
Tom Rizzo: We are developing hosted services to address partner and customer needs. The biggest reason for the interest is the ability to reach new customers and grow revenue more efficiently. We’ve already seen products like Live Meeting and Exchange Hosted Services fulfill that need and reach additional potential customers. Microsoft Online Services — comprised of hosted versions of SharePoint Server, Exchange Server and Office Communications Server — is a natural extension of this strategy.
Microsoft will continue to innovate and develop products and solutions that adapt to technology trends and meet customer need. Microsoft Online Services is a prime example of Microsoft’s software plus services strategy in action. Microsoft will continue to provide its customers with options in how they manage and access software — whether it’s online, on-premises or both.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Not everything fits in SharePoint
What Should You Suggest:
Believe me....not everything fits in SharePoint....So If your organization is happy with using Share Point without heavily customizing the appearance or customizing behavior beyond what the designers and front end provides, you're probably never going to run into any problems. However, if your organization doesn't want Share Point to look like Share Point, you are about to step into a world of aggravation and headaches. To say that SharePoint development leaves much to be desired would be to play a very mean trick on those of you who haven't had to attempt it yet. If you're an enterprise Java developer, SharePoint should feel like home with it's myriad of configuration files, steps, miles of XML and use of GUIDs to tie all the pieces together. While things are getting better as Microsoft and others work on a better development toolset, it's going to be a while before custom development in SharePoint won't evoke profane muttering from even the most pious developers.
If you have to delve into the guts of the UI, you'll find Microsoft's reputation for emitting ugly HTML and bastardizing CSS holds true. SharePoint spews forth nested table driven layouts sprinkled with hundreds of CSS classes the likes of which I never imagined. Needless to say, the road to trying to amend this is itself not clearly feasible, although I have been tasked with finding a way. While I do have leads, I've got nothing concrete, nothing from Microsoft on how to and very little time to do what I need to. While your run-of-the-mill skinning and layout exercises can be done using themes and master pages without much difficulty, those who find themselves in situations like mine will find it hard to say nice things about Microsoft's SharePoint team.
Thanks,
Suneet
Believe me....not everything fits in SharePoint....So If your organization is happy with using Share Point without heavily customizing the appearance or customizing behavior beyond what the designers and front end provides, you're probably never going to run into any problems. However, if your organization doesn't want Share Point to look like Share Point, you are about to step into a world of aggravation and headaches. To say that SharePoint development leaves much to be desired would be to play a very mean trick on those of you who haven't had to attempt it yet. If you're an enterprise Java developer, SharePoint should feel like home with it's myriad of configuration files, steps, miles of XML and use of GUIDs to tie all the pieces together. While things are getting better as Microsoft and others work on a better development toolset, it's going to be a while before custom development in SharePoint won't evoke profane muttering from even the most pious developers.
If you have to delve into the guts of the UI, you'll find Microsoft's reputation for emitting ugly HTML and bastardizing CSS holds true. SharePoint spews forth nested table driven layouts sprinkled with hundreds of CSS classes the likes of which I never imagined. Needless to say, the road to trying to amend this is itself not clearly feasible, although I have been tasked with finding a way. While I do have leads, I've got nothing concrete, nothing from Microsoft on how to and very little time to do what I need to. While your run-of-the-mill skinning and layout exercises can be done using themes and master pages without much difficulty, those who find themselves in situations like mine will find it hard to say nice things about Microsoft's SharePoint team.
Thanks,
Suneet
Sunday, December 21, 2008
What is COTS, MOTS, GOTS and NOTS
HI,
Recently working on a project where client requirement was not being satisfied with the SharePoint 2007 OOB features and the good thing is that.....we were not allowed to suggest the customization or what....
So the good thing which came out in picture.....is....
* A COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) product is one that is used "as-is." COTS products are designed to be easily installed and to interoperate with existing system components. Almost all software bought by the average computer user fits into the COTS category: operating systems, office product suites, word processing, and e-mail programs are among the myriad examples. One of the major advantages of COTS software, which is mass-produced, is its relatively low cost.
* A MOTS (either modified or modifiable off-the-shelf, or military off-the-shelf, depending on the context) product is typically a COTS product whose source code can be modified. The product may be customized by the purchaser, by the vendor, or by another party to meet the requirements of the customer. In the military context, MOTS refers to an off-the-shelf product that is developed or customized by a commercial vendor to respond to specific military requirements. Because a MOTS product is adapted for a specific purpose, it can be purchased and used immediately. However, since MOTS software specifications are written by external sources, government agencies are sometimes leery of these products, because they fear that future changes to the product will not be in their control.
* A GOTS (government off-the-shelf) product is typically developed by the technical staff of the government agency for which it is created. It is sometimes developed by an external entity, but with funding and specification from the agency. Because agencies can directly control all aspects of GOTS products, these are generally preferred for government purposes.
* A NOTS (NATO off-the-shelf or niche off-the-shelf, depending on the context) product is developed by NC3A (for NATO Consultation, Command, and Control) to meet specific requirements for NATO. In the more general context, niche off-the-shelf refers to vendor-developed software that is for a specialized and narrow market segment, in comparison to the broad market for COTS products.
Recently working on a project where client requirement was not being satisfied with the SharePoint 2007 OOB features and the good thing is that.....we were not allowed to suggest the customization or what....
So the good thing which came out in picture.....is....
* A COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) product is one that is used "as-is." COTS products are designed to be easily installed and to interoperate with existing system components. Almost all software bought by the average computer user fits into the COTS category: operating systems, office product suites, word processing, and e-mail programs are among the myriad examples. One of the major advantages of COTS software, which is mass-produced, is its relatively low cost.
* A MOTS (either modified or modifiable off-the-shelf, or military off-the-shelf, depending on the context) product is typically a COTS product whose source code can be modified. The product may be customized by the purchaser, by the vendor, or by another party to meet the requirements of the customer. In the military context, MOTS refers to an off-the-shelf product that is developed or customized by a commercial vendor to respond to specific military requirements. Because a MOTS product is adapted for a specific purpose, it can be purchased and used immediately. However, since MOTS software specifications are written by external sources, government agencies are sometimes leery of these products, because they fear that future changes to the product will not be in their control.
* A GOTS (government off-the-shelf) product is typically developed by the technical staff of the government agency for which it is created. It is sometimes developed by an external entity, but with funding and specification from the agency. Because agencies can directly control all aspects of GOTS products, these are generally preferred for government purposes.
* A NOTS (NATO off-the-shelf or niche off-the-shelf, depending on the context) product is developed by NC3A (for NATO Consultation, Command, and Control) to meet specific requirements for NATO. In the more general context, niche off-the-shelf refers to vendor-developed software that is for a specialized and narrow market segment, in comparison to the broad market for COTS products.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Microsoft Poised to Offer SharePoint 2007 SP2
Microsoft plans to ship Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 in early 2009 and will focus on improving the end-user experience, rather than being aimed at improving the internal operations of the complex software product, which was an area of focus for SharePoint SP1.
According to
TechNet blog announcement of the coming SP2, the SharePoint team has disclosed that SP2 will include “Performance and manageability improvements to variations in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) including STSADM commands for repairing links between source and target pages”. Also, the Redmond-based software giant will build in some improvements to read-only content databases and rebuild timer jobs in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
According to Microsoft, the release date of SharePoint SP2 will fall between February and April of 2009.
If Microsoft is looking to enhance the end-user experience with SharePoint, the company needs to try much harder. As a SharePoint administrator, I’m commonly faced with questions about how to execute seemingly common tasks in any CMS system. For example, editing text in a text Web Part (called a Content Editor Web Part) takes about five clicks to actually get to editing text.
In some SharePoint management screens, OK and Cancel buttons exist at the top of the page and the bottom of the page, where on other management screens, the OK/Cancel duo is only found at the bottom. And as a final example, migrating content between sites (even among sites that belong to the same parent site) requires command line backup and restore operations from a SharePoint administrator, rather than a simple drag-and-drop type of operation as would be expected.
These types of user interface issues are prevalent throughout the SharePoint product and deserve attention from Microsoft in order to improve the end-user experience.
Continuing an earlier theme, the SharePoint team has been quite cryptic, as noted by CMS Watch’s Janus Boye, with the roadmap for SharePoint development and upcoming features. The Office Sustained Engineering blog notes this lack of transparency and leads the communication about the upcoming MOSS 2007 SP2 in an effort to alleviate this issue.
According to
TechNet blog announcement of the coming SP2, the SharePoint team has disclosed that SP2 will include “Performance and manageability improvements to variations in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) including STSADM commands for repairing links between source and target pages”. Also, the Redmond-based software giant will build in some improvements to read-only content databases and rebuild timer jobs in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
According to Microsoft, the release date of SharePoint SP2 will fall between February and April of 2009.
If Microsoft is looking to enhance the end-user experience with SharePoint, the company needs to try much harder. As a SharePoint administrator, I’m commonly faced with questions about how to execute seemingly common tasks in any CMS system. For example, editing text in a text Web Part (called a Content Editor Web Part) takes about five clicks to actually get to editing text.
In some SharePoint management screens, OK and Cancel buttons exist at the top of the page and the bottom of the page, where on other management screens, the OK/Cancel duo is only found at the bottom. And as a final example, migrating content between sites (even among sites that belong to the same parent site) requires command line backup and restore operations from a SharePoint administrator, rather than a simple drag-and-drop type of operation as would be expected.
These types of user interface issues are prevalent throughout the SharePoint product and deserve attention from Microsoft in order to improve the end-user experience.
Continuing an earlier theme, the SharePoint team has been quite cryptic, as noted by CMS Watch’s Janus Boye, with the roadmap for SharePoint development and upcoming features. The Office Sustained Engineering blog notes this lack of transparency and leads the communication about the upcoming MOSS 2007 SP2 in an effort to alleviate this issue.
SharePoint (MOSS) SP1 is Out the Door
Microsoft has released the first SharePoint WSS 3.0 / MOSS 2007 Service Pack.
In case you’ve been sleeping the last couple of weeks, Microsoft has been sending out secret messages about the eminent release of the first SharePoint Service Pack for both WSS3.0 and SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. It was rumored to come out this week and here it is - free for the taking!
To bring you up to speed, the service pack contains the following items:
A whole wack of hotfixes related either to support issues or just requested from the developer community
some new and not so new STSAdm commands including mergecontentdbs,renamesite and a number of People Picker commands
Compatibility with the AJAX 1.0 Control kit for ASP.Net and the AJAX 1.0 Extensions for ASP.Net to create Webparts for asynchronous post back
The ability to build custom webparts with AJAX
Support for Windows Server 2008
How to Get SharePoint SP1
Have a quick read of the official SharePoint team blog where Joel Oleson gives us the basics. Or forget that and head straight to the source and download the Service Pack and the Office SharePoint Server 2007 whitepaper — it needs a whitepaper (wow!) …but wait, it’s only 4 pages.
But hang on. One thing we want to emphasize is that the update should not be blindly applied without previous testing. To quote Microsoft:
It is essential that you understand the appropriate guidance and test out the patch in a separate test environment. For this purpose we have put together a special SP1 page on TechNet to guide you through the process.
WSS 3.0 SP1
Want to read it online? Have a gander at the Support KB, or just look at the list of fixes.
MOSS 2007 SP1
Don’t forget that you must install the WSS 3.0 Service Pack before you can get knee deep into the MOSS update. You’ll find the MOSS info here and here.
SharePoint Designer 2007
Yep, that’s right, there’s a service pack for the Designer too. Left that little piece of info out of the preview didn’t they?
In case you’ve been sleeping the last couple of weeks, Microsoft has been sending out secret messages about the eminent release of the first SharePoint Service Pack for both WSS3.0 and SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. It was rumored to come out this week and here it is - free for the taking!
To bring you up to speed, the service pack contains the following items:
A whole wack of hotfixes related either to support issues or just requested from the developer community
some new and not so new STSAdm commands including mergecontentdbs,renamesite and a number of People Picker commands
Compatibility with the AJAX 1.0 Control kit for ASP.Net and the AJAX 1.0 Extensions for ASP.Net to create Webparts for asynchronous post back
The ability to build custom webparts with AJAX
Support for Windows Server 2008
How to Get SharePoint SP1
Have a quick read of the official SharePoint team blog where Joel Oleson gives us the basics. Or forget that and head straight to the source and download the Service Pack and the Office SharePoint Server 2007 whitepaper — it needs a whitepaper (wow!) …but wait, it’s only 4 pages.
But hang on. One thing we want to emphasize is that the update should not be blindly applied without previous testing. To quote Microsoft:
It is essential that you understand the appropriate guidance and test out the patch in a separate test environment. For this purpose we have put together a special SP1 page on TechNet to guide you through the process.
WSS 3.0 SP1
Want to read it online? Have a gander at the Support KB, or just look at the list of fixes.
MOSS 2007 SP1
Don’t forget that you must install the WSS 3.0 Service Pack before you can get knee deep into the MOSS update. You’ll find the MOSS info here and here.
SharePoint Designer 2007
Yep, that’s right, there’s a service pack for the Designer too. Left that little piece of info out of the preview didn’t they?
The Problem with SharePoint
In the report, Forrester identifies several areas of concern including: lack of application lifecycle management tools, backup and restoration tools and enterprise data integration. In addition, the report states that SharePoint is a closed environment based solely on the Microsoft server stack not allowing for other databases or non-Microsoft products to be added. Add to that the lack of highly skilled SharePoint developers and there may be cause for concern.
Not everyone agrees, particularly those third-party consultants and vendors who work to integrate or develop SharePoint solutions. In an interview with ChannelWeb, Ken Winell, CEO of Expertcollab, a SharePoint-focused solution provider said, “[SharePoint] has one of the most open frameworks for third party tools and applications that Microsoft has ever delivered. Just take a look at some of the tools from K2.NET, CorasWorks, Knowledgelake, Tsunami. These ISVs are making serious enhancements to the SharePoint platform while maintaining their own identity.”
In Defense of Microsoft
Forrester doesn’t spend the entire report beating Microsoft over the head for SharePoint however. They acknowledge that even Microsoft couldn’t have predicted how fast and far the MOSS madness would go. And they are working on filling some of the gaps their product has, like the application lifecycle management issue.
Microsoft is indeed a big supporter of partnering to help better their SharePoint platform. We see this in a major way with the social media capabilities. There are also a few providers of SharePoint Administration functionality that even SharePoint doesn’t have out of the box.
Three Solutions to Follow
In their report, Forrester suggests their Your Three Strategy Options For SharePoint. We got a line on these strategies from a post on PC World:
Strategy 1: Use SharePoint as an “application for collaboration and sharing information and not as a development platform at all.” This is probably where a number of organizations sit today.
Strategy 2: Use SharePoint as “an application and an intranet platform for which the company fills in product gaps.” A bit more challenging an approach that requires the organization to purchase additional third party products or develop custom solutions.
Strategy 3: Use SharePoint as “both an application and an enterprise portal at the core of a company’s application-development strategy.” The most challenging approach and one that requires the IT division to truly get on board with.
MOSS is certainly getting its share of licks these days. Every analyst is evaluating it and coming back with issues and concerns. Most are saying similar things, like SharePoint today is similar to Lotus Notes of yesterday. It’s not just the analysts that have negative things to say about the platform. Just create a Google Alert for SharePoint blogs and hear what the developers and IT guys and gals are grumbling about.
But for every person who puts it down, there is one touting its merits. SharePoint is still relatively new and we have so much to learn about it that, yes, we should be careful when developing on it and with how we implement it. The thing is, you could say that about just about every other CMS product out there. You just don’t hear the grumbling as loud.
Not everyone agrees, particularly those third-party consultants and vendors who work to integrate or develop SharePoint solutions. In an interview with ChannelWeb, Ken Winell, CEO of Expertcollab, a SharePoint-focused solution provider said, “[SharePoint] has one of the most open frameworks for third party tools and applications that Microsoft has ever delivered. Just take a look at some of the tools from K2.NET, CorasWorks, Knowledgelake, Tsunami. These ISVs are making serious enhancements to the SharePoint platform while maintaining their own identity.”
In Defense of Microsoft
Forrester doesn’t spend the entire report beating Microsoft over the head for SharePoint however. They acknowledge that even Microsoft couldn’t have predicted how fast and far the MOSS madness would go. And they are working on filling some of the gaps their product has, like the application lifecycle management issue.
Microsoft is indeed a big supporter of partnering to help better their SharePoint platform. We see this in a major way with the social media capabilities. There are also a few providers of SharePoint Administration functionality that even SharePoint doesn’t have out of the box.
Three Solutions to Follow
In their report, Forrester suggests their Your Three Strategy Options For SharePoint. We got a line on these strategies from a post on PC World:
Strategy 1: Use SharePoint as an “application for collaboration and sharing information and not as a development platform at all.” This is probably where a number of organizations sit today.
Strategy 2: Use SharePoint as “an application and an intranet platform for which the company fills in product gaps.” A bit more challenging an approach that requires the organization to purchase additional third party products or develop custom solutions.
Strategy 3: Use SharePoint as “both an application and an enterprise portal at the core of a company’s application-development strategy.” The most challenging approach and one that requires the IT division to truly get on board with.
MOSS is certainly getting its share of licks these days. Every analyst is evaluating it and coming back with issues and concerns. Most are saying similar things, like SharePoint today is similar to Lotus Notes of yesterday. It’s not just the analysts that have negative things to say about the platform. Just create a Google Alert for SharePoint blogs and hear what the developers and IT guys and gals are grumbling about.
But for every person who puts it down, there is one touting its merits. SharePoint is still relatively new and we have so much to learn about it that, yes, we should be careful when developing on it and with how we implement it. The thing is, you could say that about just about every other CMS product out there. You just don’t hear the grumbling as loud.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
What are the MOSS Web Content Management (WCM) Features? ?
Before MOSS, Microsoft’s strategy for publishing content on the Web has been based on Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 (CMS). CMS provides a structured way for content authors to add content to a company’s public Web site using professionally formatted layout pages. CMS also provides a formalized scheme where a privileged user must approve any page modification before it can be seen by the Web site’s visitors. In the past, many Microsoft customers have had to choose between CMS and SharePoint Portal Server 2003. While Microsoft released a connector named SPARK that provides a certain degree of integration between CMS and SharePoint Portal Server 2003, these two products are built on very different architectures. This has resulted in frustration because you cannot build a site that fully benefits from both the CMS Web content management features and the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 portal features. Microsoft has decided to discontinue evolving CMS as a stand-alone product and to migrate CMS Web content management features and the CMS customer base over to MOSS. This new strategy allows you to mix Microsoft's best-of-breed WCM features with its portal features in any site within a MOSS farm. If you have worked with CMS in the past, it’s important to note that the CMS concepts of channels and postings are not used in the MOSS WCM infrastructure. Instead, this new WCM infrastructure has been designed using basic WSS 3.0 building blocks such as child sites, page templates, content types, document libraries, and security groups. This newer approach lends itself to building custom solutions that extend the basic MOSS WCM infrastructure using standard WSS components such as custom event handlers and workflows.
Since the WCM features of MOSS are built on top of WSS 3.0, you begin the process of branding a MOSS portal site by customizing master pages to get the basic look and feel you're after. However, MOSS WCM features go further than this by extending WSS with the introduction of a publishing scheme based on page layouts. A page layout provides a structured approach for collecting content from content authors and displaying it on a page within a portal site. Examples of some of the page layouts provided by MOSS out of the box include welcome pages, articles, and news items. Most companies adopting the MOSS WCM features will create their own customized page layouts as well. By default, MOSS WCM features use the basic document approval features of a WSS document library to control when the updated content is shown to the site’s visitors. However, the MOSS WCM infrastructure was designed to make it straightforward to associate custom workflows with the content associated with a page layout in scenarios where you need something more sophisticated than the functionality that comes out of the box. MOSS WCM features provide a framework for document converters. A document converter is a component designed to read content from an external format such as a Word document and convert it into a format that can be displayed within an MOSS content page. Several document converters will ship with MOSS as well as a framework for building and integrating custom document converters. MOSS also supports a WCM feature known as site variations for companies that need to duplicate a site’s content for translation into multiple spoken languages or for targeting different types of rendering devices. For example, imagine you have configured MOSS variation support for German and French in addition to Spanish. MOSS maintains a parallel structure across these three different sites with respect to pages and child sites. When a content author adds a new page to the master variation site maintained in Spanish, MOSS automatically adds the same page into the structure of the other sites as well. MOSS provides several caching options. While MOSS doesn’t allow you to use ASP.NET output caching directives the same way you do in a standard ASP.NET page, it provides a more sophisticated framework to reach the same end. You can enable MOSS output caching at the site collection scope. When using these caching features, you configure caching profiles to control caching page items and complete pages in memory. Developers should take note that MOSS supplies dedicated caches for navigation nodes and content returned from potentially expensive retrieval operations such as standard Windows SharePoint Services queries run using an SPQuery object and cross-site queries run using a SharePoint Portal Server SPSiteDataQuery object.
Since the WCM features of MOSS are built on top of WSS 3.0, you begin the process of branding a MOSS portal site by customizing master pages to get the basic look and feel you're after. However, MOSS WCM features go further than this by extending WSS with the introduction of a publishing scheme based on page layouts. A page layout provides a structured approach for collecting content from content authors and displaying it on a page within a portal site. Examples of some of the page layouts provided by MOSS out of the box include welcome pages, articles, and news items. Most companies adopting the MOSS WCM features will create their own customized page layouts as well. By default, MOSS WCM features use the basic document approval features of a WSS document library to control when the updated content is shown to the site’s visitors. However, the MOSS WCM infrastructure was designed to make it straightforward to associate custom workflows with the content associated with a page layout in scenarios where you need something more sophisticated than the functionality that comes out of the box. MOSS WCM features provide a framework for document converters. A document converter is a component designed to read content from an external format such as a Word document and convert it into a format that can be displayed within an MOSS content page. Several document converters will ship with MOSS as well as a framework for building and integrating custom document converters. MOSS also supports a WCM feature known as site variations for companies that need to duplicate a site’s content for translation into multiple spoken languages or for targeting different types of rendering devices. For example, imagine you have configured MOSS variation support for German and French in addition to Spanish. MOSS maintains a parallel structure across these three different sites with respect to pages and child sites. When a content author adds a new page to the master variation site maintained in Spanish, MOSS automatically adds the same page into the structure of the other sites as well. MOSS provides several caching options. While MOSS doesn’t allow you to use ASP.NET output caching directives the same way you do in a standard ASP.NET page, it provides a more sophisticated framework to reach the same end. You can enable MOSS output caching at the site collection scope. When using these caching features, you configure caching profiles to control caching page items and complete pages in memory. Developers should take note that MOSS supplies dedicated caches for navigation nodes and content returned from potentially expensive retrieval operations such as standard Windows SharePoint Services queries run using an SPQuery object and cross-site queries run using a SharePoint Portal Server SPSiteDataQuery object.
What is a Shared Service Provider (SSP) ?
Shared Service Providers (SSPs) are a new innovation created for MOSS that represents a critical piece of the fundamental system architecture. An SSP represents a set of services that can be configured a single time and shared across many different MOSS portal sites and WSS sites. Your understanding of SSPs is critical to being able to take advantage of MOSS features and services. After you have finished installing MOSS in a farm, you must explicitly create and configure one or more SSPs in order to take advantage of MOSS features such as user profiles, audiences, personal sites, Excel Services, the Business Data Catalog and search. After you have created initially created an SSP through the WSS Central Administration pages, you can then configure the individual MOSS services you need from the main SSP administration page. This new SSP architecture was designed to replace the Shared Services infrastructure of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to provide greater flexibility in deployment and configuration. For example, it’s possible to create two different SSPs within the same farm and configure them differently, as shown in Figure 2-3. Each Web application in an Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm along with its Office SharePoint Server 2007 portal sites and Windows oSharePoint Services sites is assciated with exactly one SSP. One Web application can be associated with one SSP while a different Web application can be associated with a second SSP. The search results from within one portal site might be very different from the search results within another portal site if they are associated with different SSPs that have been configured to have different content sources.
This new SSP architecture was designed to replace the Shared Services infrastructure of SPS 2003 in order to provide greater flexibility with respect to deployment and configuration. For example, it's possible to create two different SSPs within the same farm and configure them differently. Each Web application in a MOSS farm along with its MOSS portal sites and WSS sites is associated with exactly one SSP. One Web application can be associated with one SSP while a different Web application can be associated with a second SSP. The search results for within one portal sites might be very different from the search results within another portal site if they are associated with different SSPs that have been configured to have different content sources.
This new SSP architecture was designed to replace the Shared Services infrastructure of SPS 2003 in order to provide greater flexibility with respect to deployment and configuration. For example, it's possible to create two different SSPs within the same farm and configure them differently. Each Web application in a MOSS farm along with its MOSS portal sites and WSS sites is associated with exactly one SSP. One Web application can be associated with one SSP while a different Web application can be associated with a second SSP. The search results for within one portal sites might be very different from the search results within another portal site if they are associated with different SSPs that have been configured to have different content sources.
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