Sharepoint - Part Two

Discuss the features of SharePoint 2010 ? Some of the features of SharePoint 2010 are discussed as follows: 1) Large lists 2) Document Collaboration 3) Enterprise Search FAST Search 4) Silver Light web part 5) New Enhance Web Part 6) Business Connectivity Services 7) Social Media Investments 8) Enhanced collaboration features 9) Usage reporting and logging 10) Visio Services 11) Better Network Differencing & SharePoint Offline in SharePoint Workspace 12) High Availability/ Disaster Recovery Innovation 13) SharePoint Designer Enhancements like portable workflows, and granular delegation 14) Sandbox Solutions 15) Service Applications

Discuss the differences between Library vs List ? The major differences between both are: Library is used to store the document whereas Lists are the container of similar items in the form of rows and columns. In Library you can create core document like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. But in List You cannot create document, instead of that you can attach document in a particular List.

Explain about a Field Control ? Field controls are ASP.NET 2.0 server controls. These controls will provide the basic field functionality of SharePoint. They also provide basic general functionality such as displaying or editing list data as it appears on SharePoint list pages.

How to create links to the mapped network drives ? The creating of links to mapped network drives in WSS v3 or MOSS 2007 can be done through the new content type for .lnk files.

Give the list of sites that are available in SharePoint ? The sites that are available in Sharepoint are given below: 1) Team Site 2) Blank Site 3) Document Workspace 4) Blog 5) Group Work Site 6) Visio Process Repository 7) Basic Meeting Workspace 8) Blank Meeting Workspace 9) Decision Meeting Workspace 10) Social Meeting Workspace 11) Multipage Meeting Workspace 12) Assets Web Database 13) Charitable Contributions Web Database 14) Contacts Web Database 15) Issues Web Database 16) Projects Web Database 17) Document Center 18) Records Center 19) Business Intelligence Center 20) My Site Host 21) Personalization Site 22) Enterprise Search Center 23) Basic Search Center 24) FAST Search Center 25) Enterprise Wiki 26) Publishing Portal 27) Publishing Site

Mention the types of authentications available for SharePoint 2010 ? The types of authentications that are available for SharePoint 2010 are of 3 types. They are: 1) Claims Authentication 2) Windows Authentication 3) Forms-based Authentication

What is meant by User Profile service ? The User Profile Service will allows you for configuring and managing User profile properties, Audiences, Profile synchronization settings, organization browsing and management settings, and My Site settings

What is meant by Performance Point Services ? The Performance Pint Services will allows the users to monitor and analyze a business by building dashboards, scorecards, and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Explain the difference between Classic mode authentication and Claims-based authentication ? Classic authentication will supports NT authentication types like Kerberos, NTLM, Basic, Digest, and anonymous. Claims based authentication uses claims identities against a trusted identity provider.

What is meant by Visio Services ? The Visio Services will allow the users to share and view Microsoft Visio Web drawings. The service also enables data-connected Microsoft Visio 2010 Web drawings to be refreshed and updated from various data sources.

What is meant by Excel Services ? Th Excel Services are used to allow sharing, securing, managing, and using Excel 2010 workbooks in a SharePoint Server Web site or document library. Excel Services consists of the Excel Calculation Services (ECS), Microsoft Excel Web Access (EWA), and Excel Web Services (EWS) components.

What is meant by Secure Store Service (SSS) ? Secure Store Service is nothing but a secure database for storing credentials that are associated with application IDs.

Mention some of the OOB features of SharePoint that aid with governance of an environment ? Some of the OOB features of SharePoint that aid with governance of an environment are discussed as folows: 1) Site templates – This feature is used for consistent branding, site structure, and layout which can enforce a set of customizations that are applied to a site definition. 2) Quotas – This will limits the amount of storage a site collection can use. 3) Locks - This feature will prevent users from either adding content to a site collection or using the site collection. 4) Web application permissions and policies – This feature is used for comprehensive security settings that apply to all users and groups for all site collections within a Web application. 5) Self-service site creation - This feature will enables the users to create their own site collections, thus must be incorporated into a governance scheme.

What are the monitoring features that are baked into SharePoint 2010 ? The data about the state of the system is captured by the Diagnostic logging. The health and usage data collection uses specific timer jobs to perform monitoring tasks, collecting information about: 1) Performance Counter Fata 2) Event Log Data 3) Timer Service Data 4) Metrics For Site Collections and Sites 5) Search Usage Data

Explain about cmdlet's ? The concept of cmdlet is introduced by the Windows PowerShell. These cmdlet's are simple build in commands, written in a .net language like C# or VB.

Where is the Powershell located in sharePoint ? The Powershell is located as in the below path: On the Start menu, click All Programs -> Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products -> Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

In comparision, which is faster - a WebPart or a User Control ? In comparision, a WebPart is faster than a User Control. A User Control in SharePoint is loaded by a webpart which adds an overhead. User Controls however, gives you an Interface to add controls and styles.

How to create Users and how to allocates permissions to the Users ? The Permission management is a three step procedure desribed briefly as follows. Step1: -Create Users. Step2: – Create Permissions. Step3: – Link the Users with the Permissions. In order to create a User and Allocate permissions, Click on Site Actions located on the top link bar and then click on Site Permissions. Now, under the Edit tab, click on Grant Permissions. Later, In the Users/group field, enter the user’s name, choose the permissions you wish the user to have under Give Permission, and then click on OK.

How to create or deploy Web parts in SharePoint 2010 ? Web part is a reusable functionality, which can be inserted on the web pages and can be configured by the end users. In order to create a web part, go to Visual Studio and create a new project > select SharePoint tab > select Visual Web Part > select on which local web site you want to deploy the web part > click on Validate and Click finish. Now, in order to deploy the project just go to > Solution Explorer > select your project > Right click on it > just select deploy.

What has changed with 12 hive in SharePoint ? In 12 hive structure, there are 3 New Folders which are added in. They are: 1) UserCode – This folder is used for the files to support sandboxed solutions . 2) WebClients – This folder is used for the client Object Model. 3) WebServices – This folder is used for the .svc files.

How can be the old custom solutions be re-deployed in SharePoint 2010. What changes are needed to the old Solution files ? You should rewrite and recompile any code that refers to files and resources in "12 hive". SharePoint 2010 object model contains many changes and enhancements, but our custom code will still compile and, will run as expected.

How to invite the users to join a Windows SharePoint Services Site ? You can invite the users to join a Windows SharePoint Services Site in a secure way by keeping the SharePoint-based Web sites as 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.

Is it possible to download information directly from a SharePoint site to a personal digital assistant (PDA) ? No, it is not possible to download information directly from a SharePoint site to a personal digital assistant (PDA). But you can exchange contact information lists with Microsoft Outlook.

How much time does it take to set up the initial team Web site ? It takes only 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.

Is it possible to get the domain name for a Web site ? No, you cannot get the domain name for your website. At present, there is no such offering of domain names for SharePoint sites.

Explain about picture libraries ? Picture libraries will 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

Discuss about the security levels which are assigned to users ? The administrator will assign the Security levels who is adding the user. There are four levels by default which are discussed as follows: 1) Reader - In this level, the user will have read-only access to the Web site. 2) Contributor - The user can add content to existing document libraries and lists. 3) Web Designer - The user can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web site. 4) Administrator - The user will have the full control of the Web site.

Is it possible to link the SharePoint to an external data source ? SharePoint itself cannot reference an external data source but, SharePoint data can be opened with Access and Excel as an external data source. Thus, SharePoint can be referenced as an external data source.

Does a SharePoint Web site include search functionality ? Yes, the SharePoint Web site includes the search functionality. SharePoint Team Services provides a powerful text-based search feature that helps you find documents and information fast.

Explain about Solutions in Sharepoint ? Solutions are nothing but the container packages for Features. Solution is a cabinet (.cab) file with extension .wsp which contains various components needed to be deployed(features, webparts, custom forms etc) along with files that describe some important metadata about those Components. Once a Solution is installed on a server in the farm, you can deploy it to any webapplication from your Solution Management.

What is the use of a .ddf file ? A .ddf file is a data directive file which describes the files need to be deployed and their destination (in SharePoint). .ddf is used when building the SharePoint solution. This file is a parameter to makecab.exe which outputs the wsp file.

What is Custom action ? Custom action represents a link, toolbar button, menu item, or any control that can be added to a toolbar or menu that appears in the UI. For e.g. "New Folder" button in your document library is a custom action or "View All Site Content" in your Site Settings is a custom action.

What is meant by a SharePoint Theme ? A Theme is a group of files (CSS, images) that allow you to define the appearance (look and feel) of content pages in SharePoint. A Theme defines the design of various components. For e.g. Content Page background-color,button color,webpart title color etc to give a different look and feel to your site.

What is BDC ? BDC stands for Business Data Catalog. It is a shared service that enables Office SharePoint Server 2007 to display business data from various back-end servers into a SharePoint page. It also provides built-in support for displaying data with various webparts and list\list columns that can help in easy creation of dashboards with data from your SQL, web services, SAP, Siebel, or any other line-of-business (LOB) applications.

What is meant by Central administration ? The Central Administration is a site used by admins to mange and configure settings for SharePoint web applications or the whole farm.

What are event receivers or event Handlers in SharePoint ? Event Receivers or Event handlers are created to handle the basic actions or events against an item,list\library, a web or a site. There are two kinds of events in sharepoint. They are: 1) Synchronous Events: Like Itemadding (not added yet), Uploading (document not uploaded yet) etc. 2) Asynchronous Events: ItemAdded (after item is added), Uploaded(after a document is uploaded) Events receivers can be written to override an event. For e.g. ItemAdded event to change the name of an Item once it is added.

What is meant by stsadm ? It is a Command-line tool used for administration of Office SharePoint 2007 (or MOSS 2007) servers and sites. Basic operations like adding a solution or installing activating and feature is usually done by stsadm.

Where is stsadm located ? The stsadm is located in the below given path. C:\Program Files\Common Files\ shared\web server extensions\12\bin

What are Site Columns ? Site columns are pre-defined data columns which are re-used in various content types. A Content type is usually a collection of site columns. For e.g. you can create a site column "Category" with a choice datatype along with the pre-defined values "It","Hr". This column then can be added to any content type in your list or library.

What is meant by a Site definition ? A Site definition is a collection of Files. The files are such as ONET.XML which defines the Site template. For e.g. Team Sites used to create a Site in SharePoit. All the out-of-box site Templates like Blog,Wiki,Team Site etc can be found in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\

What is the command to take backup and restore for sharepoint site ? The commands to take backup and restore for sharepoint site are given as follows: Backup command: stsadm -o backup -url http://moss:4002/ -filename c:\bkupsite.bak To restore : stsadm -o restore -url http://moss:4004/ -filename c:\bkupsite.bak

Mention the ways to initiate the workflow in Sharepoint ? Below are the ways to initiate the workflow in Sharepoint: 1) Automatic (on item added or item deleted) 2) Manual (standard WSS UI interface) 3) Manual (Custom UI Interface) 4) Programatically through custom code