Professional SharePoint® 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007

Professional SharePoint® 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007

by Andrew Connell
Released June 2008
Publisher(s): Wrox
ISBN: 9780470224755

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Book description

This book is for SharePoint developers working with Publishing sites—sites that leverage MOSS 2007 WCM capabilities. It does not cover administrative topics in any great detail, only where absolutely necessary. For the most part, no two chapters are dependent upon each other, so each chapter can be used as a reference independently of the others. Readers need not have any development experience with SharePoint, but they should have some experience with and a working knowledge of ASP.NET 2.0 development practices and topics. Of course, it is beneficial if the reader does have at least a working knowledge of what SharePoint is all about.

This book covers MOSS 2007 WCM Publishing sites. You will find some chapters that seem to cover general WSS 3.0 topics, but everything is treated in the context of a Publishing site. While the chapters are arranged in a logical order, it is not necessary to read the book from cover to cover in a linear fashion. The following is a brief description of each chapter:

  • Chapter 1, "Embarking on Web Content Management Projects"—This chapter explains what this book is all about, who the target audience is, and who will benefit most from the book. It also details what the reader needs in terms of a local development environment in order to implement the solutions. In addition, each of the subsequent chapters is explained very briefly to provide an overview and clarify how each chapter fits in.

  • Chapter 2, "Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Development Primer"—This chapter covers the fundamentals of WSS, including definitions of terms such as farm, Web application, site collection, site, list, and document library, and the general architecture of WSS. Some basic object model techniques are demonstrated in this chapter.

  • Chapter 3, "Overview of Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Web Content Management"—This chapter briefly explains each of the various components that make up MOSS. In addition, while the book is development-focused, the "ABCs" of content-centric Internet sites is covered.

  • Chapter 4, "SharePoint Features and the Solution Framework"—Both new to WSS 3.0, the SharePoint Feature and solution frameworks are covered in great detail in this chapter, as well as a process for automatically creating WSS solution packages on every project build.

  • Chapter 5, "Minimal Publishing Site Definition"—Many users create new WCM sites by using the Publishing Portal template. Unfortunately, this adds quite a bit of unnecessary content to the site. This chapter picks apart the Publishing Portal template and Publishing Features and demonstrates how to create a minimal Publishing Portal template.

  • Chapter 6, "Site Columns, Content Types, and Lists"—Three core components to every WSS 3.0 site—site columns, content types, and lists—are covered in this chapter.

  • Chapter 7, "Master Pages and Page Layouts"—This chapter covers everything you need to know about creating, editing, and leveraging master pages and page layouts within Publishing sites.

  • Chapter 8, "Navigation"—While WSS 3.0's navigation is founded on the ASP.NET 2.0 navigation provider framework, there are a few SharePoint-specific topics, which are covered in this chapter.

  • Chapter 9, "Accessibility"—If it's not already, accessibility is becoming an increasingly important topic with regard to Web sites. This chapter explains the different levels of accessibility and discusses some techniques and tools developers can leverage to create sites for users with disabilities.

  • Chapter 10, "Field Types and Field Controls"—Although it's a WSS 3.0 concept, field types and field controls are covered in this chapter in the context of a Publishing site. This includes creating custom field types with custom values types and controls, as well as custom field controls that leverage existing field types.

  • Chapter 11, "Web Parts"—This chapter covers creating custom Web Parts and some advanced topics related to custom Web Part development, such as Editor Parts, customizing the Verbs menu, and leveraging asynchronous programming techniques. This chapter also covers the three Publishing-specific Web Parts and some advanced customization and styling options of the Content Query Web Part.

  • Chapter 12, "Leveraging Workflow"—The Windows Workflow Foundation, part of the .NET Framework 3.0, is fully leveraged by WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. This chapter explains how to create custom workflows using Visual Studio and leveraging InfoPath Web-rendered forms.

  • Chapter 13, "Search"—Every content-centric site needs a robust search offering. This chapter explains the different components of MOSS search, as well as many customization opportunities such as modifying the search results.

  • Chapter 14, "Authoring Experience Extensibility"—While the authoring experience in Publishing sites is quite robust, at times developers need to extend this offering for specific content owner requirements. This chapter covers this, including customizing the Page Editing Toolbar and the Rich Text Editor HTML field control.

  • Chapter 15, "Authentication and Authorization"—This chapter covers everything you need to know about the ASP.NET 2.0 authentication provider model SharePoint fully leverages.

  • Chapter 16, "Implementing Sites with Multiple Languages and Devices"—This chapter covers the topic of maintaining sites that need to offer their content in multiple languages, as well as developing custom Web Parts that are multilingual aware.

  • Chapter 17, "Content Deployment"—A common request for larger content-centric Web sites is to have an internal authoring environment for content and then push the changed content out to a destination site, either in an organization's DMZ or at a co-location facility. This chapter describes the content deployment capability in MOSS designed to handle such business requirements.

  • Chapter 18, "Offline Authoring with Document Converters"—While MOSS 2007 Publishing sites offer a very robust Web-based content authoring experience, SharePoint provides a way to author content offline using tools such as Microsoft Word or InfoPath. This chapter explains what you need to know about configuring the document converter infrastructure and creating custom document converters.

  • Chapter 19, "Performance Tips, Tricks, and Traps"—Internet-facing content-centric sites built on the SharePoint platform need to be designed and developed with performance in mind. This chapter provides numerous guidelines and tips that developers can leverage to create the most performant sites.

  • Chapter 20, "Incorporating ASP.NET 2.0 Applications"—SharePoint (both WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007) is not an end-to-end solution but an application platform. While it provides a significant amount of functionality out of the box, developers can leverage this platform in building custom applications. This chapter discusses some techniques that can be used for such tasks.

    • One approach book takes is not to dwell on the more common minutia of creating projects in Visual Studio, or the huge topics of core Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 development or SharePoint administration. These topics warrant their own books, and throughout this book you will find recommended resources for these topics. This book does cover some subjects that have their roots in WSS, but they are presented within the context of a Publishing site.

    Finally, this book approaches every topic of implementation from the perspective of SharePoint customization and SharePoint development. While one implementation may seem to be better than the other, it takes no position on either, as the goal is to simply educate readers about the advantages and disadvantages of each. These concepts are defined in Chapter 2, "Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Development Primer."

    This book is also available as part of the 4-book SharePoint 2007 Wrox Box (ISBN: 0470431946) with these 4 books:

  • Professional SharePoint 2007 Development (ISBN: 0470117567)

  • Real World SharePoint 2007 (ISBN: 0470168358)

  • Professional Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Design (ISBN: 047028580X)

  • Professional SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development (ISBN: 0470224754)

    •

    Table of contents

    1. Copyright
    2. Dedication
    3. About the Author
    4. About the Technical Editors
    5. Credits
    6. Acknowledgments
    7. Foreword
    8. Introduction
    9. Embarking on Web Content Management Projects
      1. The Web Content Management Experience
      2. Designing and Planning a Successful WCM Solution
      3. Summary
    10. Windows SharePoint Server 3.0 Development Primer
      1. SharePoint Architecture
      2. SharePoint Site Topology
      3. SharePoint Administration
      4. WSS 3.0 and ASP.NET 2.0 Development
      5. Types of Pages
      6. Uncustomized Versus Customized Files
      7. Customization versus Development
      8. Introducing the Microsoft.SharePoint Namespace
      9. Debugging in WSS 3.0
      10. Summary
    11. Overview of Web Content Management in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
      1. Web Content Management on the Microsoft Platform
      2. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
      3. The ABCs of Web Content Management
      4. Publishing Sites
      5. Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing Namespace
      6. Summary
    12. SharePoint Features and the Solution Framework
      1. Overview of SharePoint Features
      2. Overview of WSS Solution Packages
      3. Summary
    13. Minimal Publishing Site Definition
      1. Elements of a Publishing Site
      2. Examining the Publishing Portal Site Definition
      3. The Challenge with the Publishing Portal Site Definition
      4. Creating a Publishing Site Definition
      5. Summary
    14. Site Columns, Content Types, and Lists
      1. Site Columns
      2. Content Types
      3. Role of Site Columns and Content Types in Publishing Sites
      4. Lists
      5. Summary
    15. Master Pages and Page Layouts
      1. Page Rendering Process Overview
      2. Master Pages in Publishing Sites
      3. Page Layouts
      4. Building Master Pages and Page Layouts As Templates
      5. Delegate Controls
      6. Summary
    16. Navigation
      1. ASP.NET 2.0 Navigation Provider Model
      2. Customizing Site Navigation
      3. Performance and Usability Considerations
      4. Summary
    17. Accessibility
      1. What Is an Accessible Web Site?
      2. Measuring Accessibility
      3. Advantages to Creating Accessible Web Sites
      4. Creating Accessible SharePoint Sites
      5. Accessibility Kit for SharePoint
      6. Summary
    18. Field Types and Field Controls
      1. Overview of All the Moving Parts
      2. Creating Custom Field Types and Controls
      3. Creating Custom Field Controls without Custom Field Types
      4. Implementing Custom Field Controls in Page Layouts
      5. Summary
    19. Web Parts
      1. Adding Web Parts to Web Part Zones
      2. Creating Custom Web Parts
      3. MOSS 2007 Publishing Web Parts
      4. Summary
    20. Leveraging Workflow
      1. Understanding Windows Workflow Foundation
      2. Creating Custom Workflows
      3. Overview of SharePoint's Workflow Proposition
      4. Workflow in SharePoint Publishing Sites
      5. Creating Custom Workflows for SharePoint Publishing Sites
      6. Summary
    21. Search
      1. Planning for Search
      2. Search Center Design and Configuration
      3. Search Administration and Configuration
      4. Thesaurus File Configuration
      5. Advertising OpenSearch Capability
      6. Telling Applications Where to Search
      7. Custom Enhancements for Search
      8. BDC Integration with Search
      9. Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express
      10. Summary
    22. Authoring Experience Extensibility
      1. Customizing SharePoint Navigation with Custom Actions
      2. Offline Authoring with Document Converters
      3. Edit Model Panel
      4. Customizing the HTML Editor Field Control
      5. Telerik RadEditor Lite for MOSS
      6. Customizing the Page Editing Toolbar
      7. Summary
    23. Authentication and Authorization
      1. SharePoint Security Components
      2. SharePoint Security via the API
      3. Alternate Access Mappings
      4. Authentication Provider Model
      5. Anonymous Access
      6. Summary
    24. Implementing Sites with Multiple Languages and Devices
      1. Developing Multilingual Web Sites
      2. Targeting Devices with Variations
      3. Summary
    25. Content Deployment
      1. Content Deployment Fundamentals
      2. Configuring Content Deployment
      3. Content Deployment Walkthrough
      4. Using the Content Deployment API
      5. Using the Content Migration API
      6. Summary
    26. Offline Authoring with Document Converters
      1. Document Converter User Experience
      2. Overview of the Document Converter Architecture
      3. Document Converter Configuration
      4. Out-of-the-Box Document Converters
      5. Creating Custom Document Converters
      6. Working with Document Converters via the Object Model
      7. Summary
    27. Performance Tips, Tricks, and Traps
      1. SharePoint Caching Options
      2. Limiting the Page Payload
      3. Performance Programming Techniques
      4. Querying/Aggregating Data via the API
      5. Summary
    28. Incorporating ASP.NET 2.0 Applications
      1. Each Component Adds More Value
      2. Advantages to Using SharePoint As an Application Development Platform
      3. Incorporating Applications into SharePoint Sites
      4. Data Storage Options
      5. Application Configuration Options
      6. Utilizing SharePoint Components in Custom Applications
      7. Summary
    29. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Professional SharePoint® 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007
    • Author(s): Andrew Connell
    • Release date: June 2008
    • Publisher(s): Wrox
    • ISBN: 9780470224755