What is Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services?

How is it related to Microsoft

Office SharePoint Server 2007?

Windows SharePoint Services is the solution that enables you to create Web sites for information
sharing and document collaboration. Windows SharePoint Services -- a key piece of the
information worker infrastructure delivered in Microsoft Windows Server 2003ice system and
other desktop applications, and it serves as a platform for application development.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds on top of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to provide
additional capabilities including collaboration, portal, search, enterprise content management,
business process and forms, and business intelligence.

[Edit]
What is Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server?

SharePoint Portal Server is a portal server that connects people, teams, and knowledge across
business processes. SharePoint Portal Server integrates information from various systems into
one secure solution through single sign-on and enterprise application integration capabilities. It
provides flexible deployment and management tools, and facilitates end-to-end collaboration
through data aggregation, organization, and searching. SharePoint Portal Server also enables
users to quickly find relevant information through customization and personalization of portal
content and layout as well as through audience targeting.

[edit]
What is Microsoft Windows Services?

Microsoft Windows Services is the engine that allows administrators to create Web sites for
information sharing and document collaboration. Windows SharePoint Services provides
additional functionality to the Microsoft Office System and other desktop applications, as well as
serving as a plat form for application development. SharePoint sites provide communities for
team collaboration, enabling users to work together on documents, tasks, and projects. The
environment for easy and flexible deployment, administration, and application development.

[edit]
What is the relationship between Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and
Microsoft Windows Services?

Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies (including SharePoint Portal Server and
Windows SharePoint Services) deliver highly scalable collaboration solutions with flexible
deployment and management tools. Windows SharePoint Services provides sites for team
collaboration, while Share Point Portal Server connects these sites, people, and business
processes—facilitating knowledge sharing and smart organizations. SharePoint Portal Server
also extends the capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services by providing organizational and
management tools for SharePoint sites, and by enabling teams to publish information to the entire
organization.

[edit]
Who is Office SharePoint Server 2007 designed for?

SharePoint is fundamentally designed for information workers, but it is designed in such a way
that it assists a wide spectrum of users and support staff. Key stakeholders are:
  business users,
 business administrators,
 IT administrators,
 IT developers.

The true beauty of SharePoint is the way that conduct of tasks can be devolved to the lowest
possible level:

 many tasks can be achieved by business users without IT support;

 if a business user cannot perform a function, then in many cases a business
administrator can assist;
 in the unlikely even that a business administrator cannot perform the task, then there is a
large world-wide community that has developed thousands of 'add-ins' and web-parts
that can be easily installed by an IT administrator;
 in the even more unlikely event that a ready-made 'add-in' is not available, then
SharePoint provides a highly structured environment for developers.

SharePoint also provides a framework which is designed to simplify IT development and ongoing
administration, in the first instance developers should endeavour to:

 develop as a web-part in order to preserve all other site functionality without losing the
ability for business users to maintain the site;
 if the desired functionality cannot be developed as a web-part, then SharePoint provides
a range of other (reversible) development options;
 the option for business users to reset components to the 'site definition' is invaluable and
great caution should be exercised when making changes that alter components at this
level;
 generally, (perhaps only as a last resort) is it rarely necessary to customise SharePoint in
such a way that the full set of default functionality is altered.
[edit]
What are the main benefits of Office SharePoint Server 2007?

Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides a single integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet,
and Internet applications across the enterprise.

 Business users gain greater control over the storage, security, distribution, and
management of their electronic content, with tools that are easy to use and tightly
integrated into familiar, everyday applications.
 Organizations can accelerate shared business processes with customers and partners
across organizational boundaries using InfoPath Forms Services–driven solutions.
 Information workers can find information and people efficiently and easily through the
facilitated information-sharing functionality and simplified content publishing. In addition,
access to back-end data is achieved easily through a browser, and views into this data
can be personalized.
 Administrators have powerful tools at their fingertips that ease deployment, management,
and system administration, so they can spend more time on strategic tasks.
 Developers have a rich platform to build a new class of applications, called Office
Business Applications, that combine powerful developer functionality with the flexibility
and ease of deployment of Office SharePoint Server 2007. Through the use of out-of-the-
box application services, developers can build richer applications with less code.
[edit]
How does SharePoint empower business users?
SharePoint is a set of powerful technologies that provide a large range of functions to users and
administrators without the need to engage IT or developers. Once the basic SharePoint service is
deployed, users can self-serve with a minimum of IT support.

 By default, all users can personalise their user experience, this includes such things as
adding, removing or updating web-parts on any web-part page. These user changes can
then be saved as a personal view. This is particularly useful because it allows users to
create pages which contain the information that is relevant to them and it allows users to
hide information (eg information that does not relate to their department or role).
 By default, all users can also create custom personal views in SharePoint. This is
particularly helpful for large lists of information and gives users the ability to filter large
lists of information to only show the information that is relevant to them, perhaps their
department or division.

SharePoint also empowers users at the administration level. It is normal for users to be given the
ability to alter "site settings", this is done by nominating one or more users to have "Full Control"
of the user experience for any site. A user with "Full Control" can add additional web-parts,
customise web-parts by adding metadata, and change the default view for all users. In effect, a
user with "Full Control" over a site can create a rich user experience for the group of users that
are using the particular site without any IT support or development skills.

It is also common for selected expert users to be appointed as "Site Collection Administrators" in
order to facilitate the management of multiple sites which are called a site collection. The "Site
Collection Administration" function also allows selected users to view all deleted items across an
entire site, as well as turn on or off global features.

All of the functions listed above can normally be managed by business users and do not require
IT support. No coding is required. All of these functions are managed by SharePoint through the
SharePoint user interface. Thus, because there is no coding, there is no requirement for change
control, testing or development protocols. A change log is still suggested.

For this reason, SharePoint is ideal for work-teams or project-teams that need to collaborate on a
defined task. SharePoint gives the business user/ or team the ability to create a "site" that is
highly customised for their particular needs without any need for IT support or development tools.

Indeed, all of the functionality listed above can generally be supported without the need for
significant levels of governance. Some central governance is normally suggested, in order to do
such things as maintain some control over different site collections, to maintain user groups, to
share common infrastructure and to ensure that sites are managed through their lifecycle.

However,.. if (and many would say only if) the standard set of functions is insufficient, and
additional functionality is required, then SharePoint provides a very strong set of tools and an
excellent framework for developers. The beauty of SharePoint is that it is only at this point that IT
support is really required.

And even then, many companies will find that the only IT support they require is to install "add-
ons" from the SharePoint user community to their SharePoint server. Deployment of additional
web-parts or "add-ons" generally requires specialist server administrator skills to deploy.

Business users can achieve a lot in SharePoint without writing a line of code or using
development tools like Microsoft SharePoint Designer or similar development tools.

[edit]
What is the difference between Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for
Internet sites and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007 have identical feature functionality. While the feature functionality is similar, the usage rights
are different.

If you are creating an Internet, or Extranet, facing website, it is recommended that you use
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites which does not require the purchase
client access licenses. Websites hosted using an “Internet sites” edition can only be used for
Internet facing websites and all content, information, and applications must be accessible to non-
employees. Websites hosted using an “Internet sites” edition cannot be accessed by employees
creating, sharing, or collaborating on content which is solely for internal use only, such as an
Intranet Portal scenario. See the previous section on licensing for more information on the usage
scenarios.

[edit]
What suites of the 2007 Microsoft Office system work with Office SharePoint
Server 2007?

Office Outlook 2007 provides bidirectional offline synchronization with SharePoint document
libraries, discussion groups, contacts, calendars, and tasks.

Microsoft Office Groove 2007, included as part of Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, will enable
bidirectional offline synchronization with SharePoint document libraries.

Features such as the document panel and the ability to publish to Excel Services will only be
enabled when using Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007or Office Enterprise 2007.

Excel Services will only work with documents saved in the new Office Excel 2007 file format
(XLSX).

[edit]
How do I invite users to join a Windows SharePoint Services Site? Is the site
secure?

SharePoint-based Web sites can be password-protected to restrict access to registered users,

who are invited to join via e-mail. In addition, the site administrator can restrict certain members'
roles by assigning different permission levels to view post and edit.

[edit]
Can I post any kind of document?

You can post documents in many formats, including .pdf, .htm and .doc. In addition, if you are
using Microsoft Office XP, you can save documents directly to your Windows SharePoint
Services site.

[edit]
Can I download information directly from a SharePoint site to a personal
digital assistant (PDA)?
No you cannot. However, you can exchange contact information lists with Microsoft Outlook.

[edit]
How long does it take to set up the initial team Web site?

It only takes a few minutes to create a complete Web site. Preformatted forms let you and your
team members contribute to the site by filling out lists. Standard forms include announcements,
events, contacts, tasks, surveys, discussions and links.

[edit]
Can I create custom templates?

Yes you can. You can have templates for business plans, doctor's office, lawyer's office etc.

[edit]
How can I make my site public? By default, all sites are created private.

If you want your site to be a public Web site, enable anonymous access for the entire site. Then
you can give out your URL to anybody in your business card, e-mail or any other marketing
material. The URL for your Web site will be: http:// yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com

Hence, please take special care to name your site. These Web sites are ideal for information and
knowledge intensive sites and/or sites where you need to have shared Web workspace.
Remember: Under each parent Web site, you can create up to 10 sub-sites each with unique
permissions, settings and security rights.

[edit]
How do the sub sites work?

You can create a sub site for various categories. For example:

 Departments - finance, marketing, IT

 Products - electrical, mechanical, hydraulics
 Projects - Trey Research, Department of Transportation, FDA
 Team - Retention team, BPR team
 Clients - new clients, old clients
 Suppliers - Supplier 1, Supplier 2, Supplier 3
 Customers - Customer A, Customer B, Customer C
 Real estate - property A, property B

The URLs for each will be, for example:

 http://yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com/finance
 http://yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com/marketing

You can keep track of permissions for each team separately so that access is restricted while
maintaining global access to the parent site.

[edit]
How do I make my site non-restricted?
If you want your site to have anonymous access enabled (i.e., you want to treat it like any site on
the Internet that does not ask you to provide a user name and password to see the content of the
site), follow these simple steps:

1. Login as an administrator
2. Click on site settings
3. Click on Go to Site Administration
4. Click on Manage anonymous access
5. Choose one of the three conditions on what Anonymous users can access:

 Entire Web site
 Lists and libraries
 Nothing

Default condition is nothing; your site has restricted access. The default conditions allow you to
create a secure site for your Web site.

[edit]
Can I get domain name for my Web site?

Unfortunately, no. At this point, we don't offer domain names for SharePoint sites. But very soon
we will be making this available for all our SharePoint site customers. Please keep checking this
page for further update on this. Meanwhile, we suggest you go ahead and set up your site and
create content for it.

[edit]
What are picture libraries?

Picture libraries allow you to access a photo album and view it as a slide show or thumbnails or a
film strip. You can have separate folder for each event, category, etc

[edit]
What are the advantages of a hosted SharePoint vs. one that is on an in-house
server?
 No hardware investment, i.e. lower costs
 No software to download - ready to start from the word go
 No IT resources - Anyone who has used a Web program like Hotmail can use it
 Faster deployment
[edit]
Can I ask users outside of my organization to participate in my Windows
SharePoint Services site?

Yes. You can manage this process using the Administration Site Settings. Simply add users via
their e-mail alias and assign permissions such as Reader or Contributor.

[edit]
Are there any IT requirements or downloads required to set up my SharePoint
site?
No. You do not need to download any code or plan for any IT support. Simply complete the on-
line signup process and provide us your current and correct email address. Once you have
successfully signed up and your site has been provisioned, we will send a confirmation to the
email address you provided.

[edit]
I am located outside of the United States. Are there any restrictions or
requirements for accessing the Windows SharePoint Services?

No. There are no system or bandwidth limitations for international trial users. Additionally
language packs have been installed which allow users to set up sub-webs in languages other
than English. These include: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian,
Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish and Swedish.

[edit]
Are there any browser recommendations?

Yes. Microsoft recommends using the following browsers for viewing and editing Windows
SharePoint Services sites: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 with Service Pack 2, Microsoft Internet
Explorer 5.5 with Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer 6, Netscape Navigator 6.2 or later.

[edit]
What security levels are assigned to users?

Security levels are assigned by the administrator who is adding the user. There are four levels by
default and additional levels can be composed as necessary.

 Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.

 Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.
 Web Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web
site.
 Administrator - Has full control of the Web site.
[edit]
How secure are Windows SharePoint Services sites hosted by Microsoft?

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Technical security measures provide firewall protection,
intrusion detection, and web-publishing rules. The Microsoft operation center team tests and
deploys software updates in order to maintain the highest level of security and software reliability.
Software hot-fixes and service packs are tested and deployed based on their priority and level of
risk. Security related hot-fixes are rapidly deployed into the environment to address current
threats. A comprehensive software validation activity ensures software stability through
regression testing prior to deployment.

[edit]
What is the difference between an Internet and an intranet site?

An internet site is a normal site that anyone on the internet can access (e.g., www.msn.com,
www.microsoft.com, etc.). You can set up a site for your company that can be accessed by
anyone without any user name and password. The internet is used for public presence and a
primary marketing tool managed typically by web programmers and a system administrator.

An intranet (or internal network), though hosted on a Web site, can only be accessed by people
who are members of a specific network. They need to have a login and password that was
assigned to them when they were added to the site by the site administrator. Theintranet is
commonly used as an internal tool for giving employees access to company information. Content
is driven by business relevance, business rules and has increasingly become a common tool in
larger organizations. An intranet is becoming more and more the preferred method for employees
to interact with each other and the central departments in an organization, whether or not the
organization has a Web presence.

[edit]
What is a workspace?

A site or workspace is when you want a new place for collaborating on Web pages, lists and
document libraries. For example, you might create a site to manage a new team or project,
collaborate on a document or prepare for a meeting.

[edit]
What are the various kinds of roles the users can have?

A user can be assigned one of the following roles

 Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.

 Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.
 Web Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web
site.
 Administrator - Has full control of the Web site.
[edit]
Can more than one person use the same login?

If the users sharing that login will have the same permissions and there is no fear of them sharing
a password, then yes. Otherwise, this is discouraged.

[edit]
How customizable is the user-to-user access?

User permissions apply to an entire Web, not to documents themselves. However, you can have
additional sub webs that can optionally have their own permissions. Each user can be given any
of four default roles. Additional roles can be defined by the administrator.

[edit]
Can each user have access to their own calendar?

Yes there are two ways to do this,

 by creating a calendar for each user, or

 by creating a calendar with a view for each user
[edit]
How many files can I upload?

There is no restriction in place except that any storage consumed beyond that provided by the
base offering may have an additional monthly charge associated with them.

[edit]
What types of files can I upload / post to the site?

The only files restricted are those ending with the following extensions: .asa, .asp, .ida, .idc, .idq.
Microsoft reserves the right to add additional file types to this listing at any time. Also, no content
that violates the terms of service may be uploaded or posted to the site.

[edit]
Can SharePoint be linked to an external data source?

SharePoint data can be opened with Access and Excel as an external data source. Thus,
SharePoint can be referenced as an external data source. SharePoint itself cannot reference an
external data source.

But 3rd pary software can do this for you: http://www.layer2.de/en/products/pages/sharepoint-business-

data-list-connector.aspx

[edit]
Can SharePoint be linked to a SQL database?

SharePoint 2007 Portal Server (MOSS2K7) allows connections to SQL based datasources via
the Business Data Catalog (BDC). The BDC also allows connecting to data via Web Services. Or
you can link lists directly qith sql queries in the list settings using the BDLC found
here: http://bit.ly/p30tJ .

[edit]
Can I customize my Windows SharePoint Services site?

YES! Windows SharePoint Services makes updating sites and their content from the browser
easier then ever.

SharePoint includes tools that let you create custom lists, calendars, page views, etc. You can
apply a theme; add List, Survey and Document Library Web Parts to a page; create personal
views; change logos; connect Web Parts and more.

To fully customize your site, you can use Microsoft FrontPage 2003. Specifically, you can use
FrontPage themes and shared borders, and also use FrontPage to create photo galleries and top
ten lists, utilize standard usage reports, and integrate automatic Web content.

[edit]
Will Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 run on a 64-bit version of
Microsoft Windows?
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Office SharePoint Server 2007, Office Forms Server 2007,
and Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Search will support 64-bit versions of Windows Server
2003.

[edit]
How Office SharePoint Server 2007 can help you?

Office SharePoint Server 2007 can help us:

Manage content and streamline processes. Comprehensively manage and control unstructured
content like Microsoft Office documents, Web pages, Portable Document Format file (PDF) files,
and e-mail messages. Streamline business processes that are a drain on organizational
productivity.

Improve business insight. Monitor your business, enable better-informed decisions, and respond
proactively to business events.

Find and share information more simply. Find information and expertise wherever they are
located. Share knowledge and simplify working with others within and across organizational
boundaries.

Empower IT to make a strategic impact. Increase responsiveness of IT to business needs and

reduce the number of platforms that have to be maintained by supporting all the intranet,
extranet, and Web applications across the enterprise with one integrated platform.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 capabilities can help improve organizational effectiveness by
connecting people, processes, and information.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides these capabilities in an integrated server offering, so
your organization doesn't have to integrate fragmented technology solutions itself.

[edit]
What are the features that the portal components of Office SharePoint Server
2007 include?

The portal components of Office SharePoint Server 2007 include features that are especially
useful for designing, deploying, and managing enterprise intranet portals, corporate Internet Web
sites, and divisional portal sites. The portal components make it easier to connect to people within
the organization who have the right skills, knowledge, and project experience.

[edit]
What are the advanced features of MOSS 2007?
 User Interface (UI) and navigation enhancements
 Document management enhancements
 The new Workflow engine
 Office 2007 Integration
 New Web Parts
 New Site-type templates
 Enhancements to List technology
 Web Content Management
 Business Data Catalog
  Search enhancements
 Report Center
 Records Management
 Business Intelligence and Excel Server
 Forms Server and InfoPath
 The “Features” feature
 Alternate authentication providers and Forms-based authentication
[edit]
What are the features of the new Content management in Office SharePoint
2007?

The new and enhanced content management features in Office SharePoint Server 2007 fall
within three areas:

 Document management
 Records management
 Web content management

Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds on the core document management functionality provided
by Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, including check in and check out, versioning, metadata,
and role-based granular access controls. Organizations can use this functionality to deliver
enhanced authoring, business document processing, Web content management and publishing,
records management, policy management, and support for multilingual publishing.

[edit]
Does a SharePoint Web site include search functionality?

Yes. SharePoint Team Services provides a powerful text-based search feature that helps you find
documents and information fast.

[edit]
Write the features of the search component of Office SharePoint Server 2007?

The search component of Office SharePoint Server 2007 has been significantly enhanced by this
release of SharePoint Products and Technologies. New features provide:

 A consistent and familiar search experience.

 Increased relevance of search results.
 New functions to search for people and expertise.
 Ability to index and search data in line-of-business applications and
 Improved manageability and extensibility.
[edit]
What are the benefits of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?
 Provide a simple, familiar, and consistent user experience.
 Boost employee productivity by simplifying everyday business activities.
 Help meet regulatory requirements through comprehensive control over content.
 Effectively manage and repurpose content to gain increased business value.
 Simplify organization-wide access to both structured and unstructured information across
disparate systems.
 Connect people with information and expertise.
  Accelerate shared business processes across organizational boundaries.
 Share business data without divulging sensitive information.
 Enable people to make better-informed decisions by presenting business-critical
information in one central location.
 Provide a single, integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet, and Internet
applications across the enterprise.
[edit]
Will SharePoint Portal Server and Team Services ever merge?

The products will come together because they are both developed by the Office team.

[edit]
What does partial trust mean the Web Part developer?

If an assembly is installed into the BIN directory, the code must be ensured that provides error
handling in the event that required permissions are not available. Otherwise, unhandled security
exceptions may cause the Web Part to fail and may affect page rendering on the page where the
Web Part appears.

[edit]
How can I raise the trust level for assemblies installed in the BIN directory?

Windows SharePoint Services can use any of the following three options from ASP.NET and the
CLR to provide assemblies installed in the BIN directory with sufficient permissions. The following
table outlines the implications and requirements for each option.

Option Pros Cons

Increase the trust level for the entire virtual server. For more information, see "Setting the trust
level for a virtual server" Easy to implement.

In a development environment, increasing the trust level allows you to test an assembly with
increased permissions while allowing you to recompile assemblies directly into the BIN directory
without resetting IIS. This option is least secure.

This option affects all assemblies used by the virtual server. There is no guarantee the
destination server has the required trust level. Therefore, Web Parts may not work once installed
on the destination server.

Create a custom policy file for your assemblies. For more information, see "How do I create a
custom policy file?" Recommended approach.

This option is most secure.

An assembly can operate with a unique policy that meets the minimum permission requirements
for the assembly.

By creating a custom security policy, you can ensure the destination server can run your Web
Parts.

Requires the most configuration of all three options. Install your assemblies in the GAC
Easy to implement. This grants Full trust to your assembly without affecting the trust level of
assemblies installed in the BIN directory.

This option is less secure.

Assemblies installed in the GAC are available to all virtual servers and applications on a server
running Windows SharePoint Services. This could represent a potential security risk as it
potentially grants a higher level of permission to your assembly across a larger scope than
necessary

In a development environment, you must reset IIS every time you recompile assemblies.

Licensing issues may arise due to the global availability of your assembly.

[edit]
Does SharePoint work with NFS?

Yes and no. It can crawl documents on an NFS volume, but the sharepoint database or logs
cannot be stored there.

[edit]
How is SharePoint Portal Server different from the Site Server?

Site Server has search capabilities but these are more advanced using SharePoint. SPS uses
digital dashboard technology which provides a nice interface for creating web parts and showing
them on dashboards (pages). SS doesn't have anything as advanced as that. The biggest
difference would be SPS document management features which also integrate with web folders
and MS Office.

[edit]
What would you like to see in the next version of SharePoint?

A few suggestions:

1. SPS and STS on same machine

2. Tree view of Categories and Folders
3. General Discussion Web Part
4. Personalization of Dashboards
5. Role Customization
6. Email to say WHY a document has been rejected for Approval
7. More ways to customize the interface
8. Backup and restore an individual Workspaces
9. Filter for Visio
10. Better way to track activity on SPS
11. Ability to Save as from Adobe to space on My Network Places
[edit]
Why Sharepoint is not a viable solution for enterprise wide deployments?

Planning an enterprise deployment using SharePoint features is a very difficult task unless you
can establish a Service Oriented Architecture, using AD for managing security with well defined
roles based information access(EISA). Sounds reasonable, although it seems difficult to deploy
with the tools limitations in document storage.

Document management does not scale beyond a single server, but scales great within a single
server. For example, a quad Xeon machine with 4GB of RAM works great for a document
management server that has about 900,000 - 1,000,000 document, but if you need to store
50,000,000 document and want to have them all in one single workspace then it does not scale at
all. If you need a scenario like this, you need to plan your deployment right and it should scale for
you, it just does not right out of the box. If you are using your server as a portal and search server
most for the most part it scales great. You can have many different servers crawl content sources
and have separate servers searching and serving the content.

If you have < 750,000 documents per server and fewer than 4 content sources and fewer than
50,000 users, SPS should scale just fine for your needs with the proper planning.

[edit]
What are the actual advantages of SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) over
SharePoint Team Services (STS)?

SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has MUCH better document management. It has check-in,
check-out, versioning, approval, publishing, subscriptions, categories, etc. STS does not have
these features, or they are very scaled back. SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has a better
search engine, and can crawl multiple content sources. STS cannot. STS is easier to manage
and much better for a team environment where there is not much Document Management going
on. SPS is better for an organization, or where Document Management is crucial.

[edit]
How Does SharePoint work?

The browser sends a DAV packet to IIS asking to perform a document check in. PKMDASL.DLL,
an ISAPI DLL, parses the packet and sees that it has the proprietary INVOKE command.
Because of the existence of this command, the packet is passed off to msdmserv.exe, who in turn
processes the packet and uses EXOLEDB to access the WSS, perform the operation and send
the results back to the user in the form of XML.

[edit]
How do I open an older version of a document?

Normally, all previous versions are located in the shadow, so if you right click a published
document from within the web folders, go to properties and then the third tab, versions you can
view older versions.

If you want to do this in code:

strURL = "url of the last published version" Set oVersion = New PKMCDO.KnowledgeVersion Set prmRs =
oVersion.VersionHistory(strURL) Set oVersion = Nothing

prmRS will contain a recordset, which contains the url to the old versions in the shadow.

[edit]
Why do the workspace virtual directories show the error “stop sign” symbol in
the IIS snap-in?

If World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC) starts before Microsoft Exchange Information
Store (MSExchangeIS), “stop sign” symbols appear under the Default Web Site folder of the
Internet Information Services console in Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

There is a dependency between the local paths of the SharePoint Portal Server virtual directories
and the MSExchangeIS. You must start MSExchangeIS first, followed by W3SVC.

Complete the following steps to prevent the stop signs from appearing each time you restart:

1. Change the Startup type for W3SVC to Manual.

2. Restart the server. The MSExchangeIS service starts automatically.
3. Start W3SVC.
[edit]
What newsgroups are available?

There are two,

 microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver and
 microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver.development.
[edit]
What is SharePoint from a Technical Perspective?

Technically SharePoint illustrates neatly what Microsoft's .net strategy is all about: integrating
Windows with the Web. Microsoft has previously made accessing stuff on a PC easier,
(Windows) then on a network (NT) and now on the web (.NET). SharePoint is an application
written to let a user access a web accessible directory tree called the Web Storage System.

SharePoint was written with a set of technologies that allow the programmer to pass data,
functions, parameters over HTTP, the web's medium. These are XML, XSL and SOAP, to name a
few I understand the basics of!

To the user it looks easy, like Hotmail, but every time they click a button or a link, a lot has to
happen behind the scenes to do what they want to do quickly and powerfully. Not as easy as you
might think, but SharePoint does it for you. Accessing this Web storage system and the server
itself is also done using technologies like ADO, CDO, PKMCDO, LDAP, DDSC, ADSC. More on
these later. SharePoint is a great example of how the Internet Platform can be extended and
integrated into an existing well adopted technology, Windows.

[edit]
What is SharePoint from an Administration Perspective?

Administering SharePoint mainly consists of setting it up, which is much easier than you expect,
adding the content, which can be just dragging and dropping in whole directory structures and
files, and then organizing the files better by giving them categories or other metadata. This is
done either through the Web interface or through the SharePoint Client: a program what means
you can access SharePoint as a Web folder and then right-click files to select options like "edit
profile". Or add files by dragging them in individually or in bulk.
Setting the security is also important, using NT accounts, either NT4 or Active Directory (or both
in mixed mode) you can give users access to files/folders the same way as you do in standard
Windows. Users can be grouped and the groups given access privileges to help manage this
better. Also SharePoint has 3 Roles that a User or Group can be given on a particular item.
Readers can see the item (i.e. document/file or folder) but not change it, Authors can see and edit
items and coordinators can set security privileges for the part of the system they have control
over. Thus, you could set 12 different coordinators for 12 different folder trees, and they could
manage who can do what within that area only.

[edit]
What is SharePoint from a Users Perspective?

From a Users perspective SharePoint is a way of making documents and folders on the Windows
platform accessible over the web. The user visits the SharePoint Portal web page, and from there
they can add documents, change documents & delete documents. Through this Portal, these
documents are now available for discussion, collaboration, versioning and being managed
through a workflow. Hence the name "Share-Point". Details about the document can be saved
too, such as: who wrote it, when, for whom, its size, and version, category or target audience.
These can then be used to find the document through SharePoint's Search facility. Even
documents not "in" SharePoint can be included in the search engine's index so they become part
of the portal. All in all, it's a great way to get stuff up on the web for users with average technical
skills, and for administrators to manage the content.

[edit]
What are the various Sharepoint 2003 and Exchange integration points?
[edit]
Link to Outlook

This is a button on contacts or events lists that lets Outlook 2003 add a pst file named Sharepoint
Folders and it links to the data on the site. It’s read-only, but you could make the home page for
that PST be the Sharepoint site for easier viewing. The link to outlook feature seems more to be
where some can public a calendar, but not want too much collaboration. For example, a holiday
schedule, company meeting schedule, etc, can be made available for people to be able to view
from Outlook without having to go to a web browser. Another nice thing about OL2K3 is that you
can compare these calendars with others side by side.

[edit]
Searching Public Folders

With SPS you can index Exchange’s public folders with the search engine so that all that precious
public folder content is searchable. You’ll want to look at content sources and indexing in
Sharepoint administration.

[edit]
Displaying Public Folders in a web part

Since exchange web-enables public folders, you can create a web part that displays that content.
IE, http://exchangeserver/Public/IT/Helpdesk will display the IT/Helpdesk public folder via OWA. So
you add the Page Viewer web part to a page and point it at that URL. The key here is to add ?
cmd=contents to the end of the url if you don’t want the navigator pane on the left.

[edit]
Smart web parts

Some of the web parts that come with SPS allow you to add a web part to a page that actually
takes the users outlook info (calendar, inbox, contacts, tasks) and put them into the page.

The SmartPart Web Part project template for Visual Studio allows developers to create quickly a
project which contains the base infrastructure to:

* write a web user control (ASCX) * wrap the user control in a SmartPart instance * generate a SharePoint
Solution file (WSP) for easy deployment * generate a setup package for a wizard driven installation
[edit]
Can SharePoint compare two document versions?

"In Word 2003, you can compare documents side by side. Open two documents. Then, from the
Window menu of one of them, select the Compare Side By Side command. If you have only two
documents open, the command will automatically choose to compare them. If you have three or
more documents open, you'll have to select which document to compare with the current file.

A floating toolbar with two buttons will open. If the button on the left is selected, Word will scroll
both documents at the same time. Press the button on the right side of the toolbar to return to
where the cursor was located when you started comparing."

[edit]
What are the integration differences between SPS 2003 and the various Office
versions?

SPS webpage can detect you have installed the Office 2003 and run local dll to implement some
SPS function, e.g. multi-file upload only works when you have office 2003 installed.

Integration with Office XP is gone.

You will get guys telling you that you can integrate with SPSv2 if you install a backwards
compatible document library - but that’s really just putting a bit of SPS 2001 on the server.

Believe me, check-in, check-out, which are themselves very basic, are not available from inside
Office XP, or even from the context menu in Windows Explorer.

Sharepoint interview questions

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is Microsofts enterprise information portal. It can be configured to run Intranet, Extranet and
Internet sites..............
Read answer

What is Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server?

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is a collaborative enterprise portal that is built upon WSS 3.0.
MOSS 2007 allows people, teams and expertise to connect and collaborate. Unlike WSS, SharePoint Server
is not.............
Read answer

How is SharePoint Portal Server different from the Site Server?

It becomes difficult to keep a track of the large amount of documents with the growth of companies.
SharePoint lets these be stored centrally. So instead of having them shared via emails.............
Read answer

How is security managed in SharePoint?

Authentication
SharePoint can run under various IIS modes to authenticate its users. The modes include: Anonymous,
Basic, Integrated Windows or Certificates Authentication (over SSL)..............
Read answer

What is Windows SharePoint Services?

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is the platform on which all SharePoint Products and Technologies are
built. It is suitable for small teams, projects and organizations...............
Read answer

What is a SharePoint site definition?

SharePoint sites consist of numerous Web pages, just like an ASP.NET 2.0 application..............
Read answer

What is CAML?

CAML stands for Collaborative Application Mark-up Language.

CAML is used to define tables in the Windows SharePoint Services database during site
provisioning..............
Read answer

MOSS interview questions - Microsoft office sharepoint server 2007

Sharepoint interview questions - posted on September 30, 2009 at 15:50 AM by Vidya Sagar

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint: A collection of products and software elements which includes InternetExplorer based
collaboration functions, modules of process management, search modules and a platform for document
management. Share Point can be used for web hosting web sites which access the shared workspaces,
information stores and documents, and host defined applications such as blogs.

What is Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server?

MS SharePoint Portal Server is an integrated suite from server side, to help improve organizational
effectiveness with the help of providing

- comprehensive content management

- enterprise search
- accelerating shared business processes
- facilitating information sharing across boundaries
- Provides platform which includes server administration, application extensibility and interoperability for IT
professionals.

How is SharePoint Portal Server different from the Site Server?

SharePoint Portal Server:

- Web site creation for information sharing and document collaboration is treated as services by SharePoint
Portal Server.
- SharePoint server services are key information worker infrastructure that provides additional functionality to
the MS Office system applications. Site Server:
- Manages websites with multiple technologies
- Content management, product management, order processing , advertisement serving are some of the
functionalities

How is security managed in SharePoint?

Share point uses digital dashboard technology that provides an interface for the purpose of creating web
parts and making them appear them on dash boards. The security is applicable throughout the organization.

What is Windows SharePoint Services?

Creation of websites for information sharing and document collaboration will be enabled by Windows
SharePoint Services. It provides additional functionality for MS Office system and other desktop
applications. It also supports like a platform for the development of applications.

What is a SharePoint site definition?

A SharePoint site definition is a combination of files which reside on the Web server and defines a unique
SharePoint site. Every template on the web site tab of New dialog box is utilized a site definition. For
example, one site definition defines the Team site, Bank site and another site definition defines the Meeting
workspaces like Basic Meeting Workspace, Decision Meeting Workspace, and Social Meeting Workspace
etc.

What is CAML?

CAML is an acronym for Categorical Abstract Machine Language. CAML is statically typed, strictly
evaluated, and uses memory management automatically. LISP is the first CAML implementation. CAML
Light was implemented in C. CAML Special Light is added a powerful module system to the core language,
in addition to complete rewriting, Objective CAML is the current implementation of CAML, which adds an
object layer.

Also read

How to display information from data source in SharePoint site?

Here, we will learn to apply nice formatting to data that is displayed on our page. We will learn to do this by
making use of Cascading Style Sheets. We will also learn how to format our data automatically, depending
on the data values (a technique known as conditional formatting). Then we will learn to filter and sort our
data, use formulae to perform calculations, and how to split our data up into multiple pages.
Sending Parameters to Stored Procedures

// 1. create a command object identifying

// the stored procedure
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(
"CustOrderHist", conn);

// 2. set the command object so it knows

// to execute a stored procedure
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

// 3. add parameter to command, which

// will be passed to the stored procedure
cmd.Parameters.Add(
new SqlParameter("@CustomerID", custId));

Design Patterns

Creational Patterns

Abstract Factory Creates an instance of several families of classes

Builder Separates object construction from its representation

Factory Method Creates an instance of several derived classes

Prototype A fully initialized instance to be copied or cloned

Singleton A class of which only a single instance can exist

Structural Patterns

Adapter Match interfaces of different classes

Bridge Separates an object’s interface from its implementation

Composite A tree structure of simple and composite objects

Decorator Add responsibilities to objects dynamically

Facade A single class that represents an entire subsystem

Flyweight A fine-grained instance used for efficient sharing

Proxy An object representing another object

Behavioral Patterns

Chain of Resp. A way of passing a request between a chain of objects

 Command Encapsulate a command request as an object

Interpreter A way to include language elements in a program

Iterator Sequentially access the elements of a collection

Mediator Defines simplified communication between classes

Memento Capture and restore an object's internal state

Observer A way of notifying change to a number of classes

State Alter an object's behavior when its state changes

Strategy Encapsulates an algorithm inside a class

Template Method Defer the exact steps of an algorithm to a subclass

Visitor Defines a new operation to a class without change

Stage Description
Page request The page request occurs before the page life cycle begins. When the page is requested by a u
determines whether the page needs to be parsed and compiled (therefore beginning the life o
whether a cached version of the page can be sent in response without running the page.
Start In the start stage, page properties such as Request and Response are set. At this stage, the pa
whether the request is a postback or a new request and sets the IsPostBack property. The pag
the UICulture property.
Initialization During page initialization, controls on the page are available and each control's UniqueID pr
master page and themes are also applied to the page if applicable. If the current request is a
postback data has not yet been loaded and control property values have not been restored to
view state.
Load During load, if the current request is a postback, control properties are loaded with informat
view state and control state.
Postback event If the request is a postback, control event handlers are called. After that, the Validate metho
handling controls is called, which sets the IsValid property of individual validator controls and of the
Rendering Before rendering, view state is saved for the page and all controls. During the rendering stag
the Render method for each control, providing a text writer that writes its output to the Outp
the page's Response property.
Unload The Unload event is raised after the page has been fully rendered, sent to the client, and is re
discarded. At this point, page properties such as Response and Request are unloaded and cle

Page Event Typical Use

PreInit Raised after the start stage is complete and before the initialization stage begins.

Use this event for the following:

• Check the IsPostBack property to determine whether this is the first time the pag
processed. The IsCallback and IsCrossPagePostBack properties have also been se
• Create or re-create dynamic controls.
• Set a master page dynamically.
• Set the Theme property dynamically.
• Read or set profile property values.

Note

If the request is a postback, the values of the controls have not yet been restored f
you set a control property at this stage, its value might be overwritten in the next
Init Raised after all controls have been initialized and any skin settings have been applied. T
individual controls occurs before the Init event of the page.

Use this event to read or initialize control properties.

InitComplete Raised at the end of the page's initialization stage. Only one operation takes place betwe
the Initand InitComplete events: tracking of view state changes is turned on. View state
controls to persist any values that are programmatically added to the ViewState collecti
state tracking is turned on, any values added to view state are lost across postbacks. Con
on view state tracking immediately after they raise their Init event.

Use this event to make changes to view state that you want to make sure are persisted af
postback.
PreLoad Raised after the page loads view state for itself and all controls, and after it processes po
included with the Request instance.
Load The Page object calls the OnLoad method on the Page object, and then recursively does
child control until the page and all controls are loaded. The Load event of individual co
the Load event of the page.

Use the OnLoad event method to set properties in controls and to establish database con
Control events Use these events to handle specific control events, such as a Button control's Click even
aTextBox control's TextChanged event.

Note
In a postback request, if the page contains validator controls, check the IsValid property
individual validation controls before performing any processing.
LoadComplete Raised at the end of the event-handling stage.

Use this event for tasks that require that all other controls on the page be loaded.
PreRender Raised after the Page object has created all controls that are required in order to render t
child controls of composite controls. (To do this, the Page object calls EnsureChildCont
control and for the page.)

The Page object raises the PreRender event on the Page object, and then recursively doe
each child control. The PreRender event of individual controls occurs after the PreRend
page.

Use the event to make final changes to the contents of the page or its controls before the
begins.
PreRenderComplete Raised after each data bound control whose DataSourceID property is set calls its DataB
more information, see Data Binding Events for Data-Bound Controls later in this topic.
SaveStateComplete Raised after view state and control state have been saved for the page and for all contro
the page or controls at this point affect rendering, but the changes will not be retrieved o
postback.
Render This is not an event; instead, at this stage of processing, the Page object calls this metho
All ASP.NET Web server controls have a Render method that writes out the control's m
the browser.

If you create a custom control, you typically override this method to output the control's
However, if your custom control incorporates only standard ASP.NET Web server cont
markup, you do not need to override the Render method. For more information, seeDev
ASP.NET Server Controls.

A user control (an .ascx file) automatically incorporates rendering, so you do not need t
the control in code.
Unload Raised for each control and then for the page.

In controls, use this event to do final cleanup for specific controls, such as closing contr
database connections.

For the page itself, use this event to do final cleanup work, such as closing open files an
connections, or finishing up logging or other request-specific tasks.

Note

Stage Events/Method
Initialization of the page Page_Init
Loading of the View State LoadViewState
processing of the Post back data LoadPostData
Loading of Page Page_Load
Notification of PostBack RaisePostDataChangedEvent
Handling of PostBack Event RaisePostBackEvent
Pre Rendering of Page Page_PreRender
Saving of view state SaveViewState
Rendering of Page Page_Render
Unloading of the Page Page_UnLoad
delegate
A delegate is a type-safe object that can point to another method (or
possibly multiple methods) in the application, which can be invoked at
later time.