'NET Development for Microsoft SharePoint 2003 Technologies

1
.NET Development for Microsoft SharePoint 2003
Technologies

• Bob GermanTechnology ArchitectMicrosoft
  Technology Center Boston

2
Agenda

• What is this SharePoint thing(and why should I
  care?)
• Product Architecture and Development Basics
• Web part development
• Data management via lists and document libraries
• UI Customization
• Application Integration Options
• SharePoint Portal Server 2003Overview and
  Extensibility Options
• Summary

3
SharePoint 2003 Technologies

• Correcting some Common Misconceptions
• There is no product called SharePoint
• Windows SharePoint Services 2003
• SharePoint Portal Server 2003
• SharePoint 2003 products are scalable and
  managable
• Stateless web servers and SQL Server back-end
• Its come a long way since 2001!
• FrontPage 2003 is not a toy
• Greatly improved in 2003
• SharePoint-aware some tasks best done in
  FrontPage, others in Visual Studio 2003

4
SharePoint Family
Enterprise Portal Solution
SharePoint Portal Server 2003
Team Collaboration Solution
Windows SharePoint Services 2003
Windows Server 2003 Technologies
Site Framework Foundation
ASP.Net
SQL Server
5
SharePoint Family

• Windows SharePoint Services
• Site Framework Foundation
• Web Parts/Web Parts Pages
• Page ghosting
• Lists
• Sites
• Collaboration Features
• Document management
• Workspace sites
• Surveys, discussions, etc.
• SharePoint Portal Server
• An application of WSS
• Areas and Listings provides organization/structu
  re
• Search, Alerts
• User Profiles, Audiences, My Site

6
Demonstration

• Windows SharePoint Services 2003Out of the
  Box experience

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SharePoint Development

• Web Part Development
• Event Handlers
• UI Customizations
• Style sheets
• FrontPage customizations
• Custom Pages
• Custom Site Definitions
• Web Services Interfaces

8
Lists Rule in SharePoint!

• Virtual table storing item data and metadata
• Building block for collaborative applications
• Lists are everywhere!
• Obvious stuff (contacts, tasks, links, etc.)
• Clever stuff (calendars, surveys, threaded
  discussions)
• With attached binaries (document libraries, forms
  libraries, picture libraries)
• In Portal Areas (Listings)
• Custom lists and list templates
• Metadata Auto-promotion from Office

9
Web Parts and Page Rendering

• Web Parts are ASP.NET WebControls
• Web Parts Pages are ASP.NET Pages
• Standard .ASPX format (without inline script)
• Standard page object is in class hierarchy
• Can use standard ASP.NET server (a.k.a. custom)
  controls

ASP.NET Page
Web Part Framework
ASP.NET Page
Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3
Content DB
Web Part
Inheritance relationship
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Demonstration

• Web Part Galleries
• Hello World Web Part

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SharePoint Page Rendering

• ISAPI filter handles
• Ghosting
• Web parts (if applicable)
• API context
• ASP.NET handles
• Page and control rendering
• By this time
• Ghosted pages appear to be just pages
• Web parts appear to be just web controls

IIS 6.0
ISAPI Filter
Web Part Framework
Site
V. Server
Profile
ASP.NET
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Composite Applications
WebPart Interaction Personalization Categorization
Search Single Sign-On
Web Part
Web Part
Web Part
Portal
SharePoint Portal
Single Sign-On Orchestration Business
Rules Schema Mapping Load Balancing Sync/Async Aud
iting
WebServices
Integration BizTalk
App Server Windows.Net
Process and Integration
BT Adapters
Connectors
SAP
Siebel
. . .
Applications
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Web Part Development

• SharePoint 2003 Web Parts are controls which
• Allow non-technical end users to create site
  pages
• Live in Web Part Zones(or are hard-coded on
  pages via FrontPage or Visual Studio more on
  that later)
• Are connectable (pass data to one another)
• Have metadata (to configure for all users or
  individual users)
• Precursor to .NET 2.0 Web Parts (will converge in
  next version)

14
Building Web Parts

• Quick Approach
• Define Properties
• Emit a lot of HTML in RenderWebPart
• Better Approach (Composite Control)
• Define properties
• Override CreateChildControls
• a. Instantiate controls and add to Controls
  collection
• b. Define OnLoad event handler for each control
• Implement OnLoad event handler(s)
• Have controls render themselves during
  RenderWebPart
• Cheating
• Smart Part (hosts user control with caveats)
• Client-side only (script as metadata)

15
More Web Part Development

• Exception Handling
• Web Parts as User Controls
• Web Part Connections

16
Demonstration

• Application Surfacing Techniques
• Connected Web Parts

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Great Web Parts

• Factors that separate average Web Parts from
  great
• Web Parts(a.k.a., what most people havent
  quite figured out)
• Reusability smart use of metadata and
  connections
• State management
• Caching
• Deployment and security
• Logging and debugging

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Sites, Workspaces and Areas

• Collection of pages, lists and other information
  to present a set of related information
• Analogous to a Site in IIS
• Same as a Site or Webin FrontPage
• Windows SharePointServices
• Team Sites
• Meeting workspaces
• Document workspaces
• SharePoint PortalServer
• Areas
• Personal sites(My Site)

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Sites and Workspaces

• Refer to WSS (whether or not SPS is installed)
• Technically, Site Workspace
• Top-level sites are islands (without SPS site
  directory)
• Child sites are sub-directories below their
  parents
• Top-level site and its children are called a
  Site Collection
• Site collection stores common
• Web Part Gallery
• List Template Gallery
• Site Template Gallery

Top-Level Site
Child Site
Child Site
Child Site
Child Site
Site Collection
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Templates (WSS Only)

• List Templates and Site Templates
• Allows end-users to reuse and share
  customizations
• Stored in site-collection level galleries
• Packaged as .STP files (import and export from
  gallery)
• A FrontPage .FWP file is almost the same thing
• Rename to end in .CAB to see whats inside!
• Template changes do not affect existing sites and
  lists

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Demonstration

• Site Templates

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Page Customization

• The best thing about SharePoint
  technologiesReady-to-use Out of the Box UI
• The worst thing about SharePoint
  technologiesReady-to-use Out of the Box UI
• Customizing the SharePoint look and feel
• Themes
• Cascading Stylesheets
• FrontPage 2003
• Site Definitions

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Demonstration

• Themes and Cascading Stylesheets
• Editing with FrontPage 2003

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Ghosting and Site Definitions

• FrontPage 2003 and CSS Changes are nice but
• CSS options are limited
• FrontPage 2003 limits scalability in some cases
• You may want to modify more than web part pages
• Administrative pages
• Javascript/client-side behavior
• Requires understanding whats going on at a
  deeper level ghosting and site definitions

25
SharePoint Ghosting
Physical File Structure
SharePoint Database
Apparent File Structure
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Ghosting and Site Definitions

• Pages and list schema are read from the site
  definition files and cached at IIS process
  startup
• Pages are only written to the database when
  customized within a site
• Browser-based customization (i.e. adding/removing
  web parts) does not change the actual ASPX pages,
  hence doesnt unghost
• FrontPage customization changes ASPX pages,
  always unghosts
• Scalability impact
• One-off unghosting is NO PROBLEM
• Site templates can propagate hundreds
  orthousands of unghosted pages PROBLEM

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Where is the content?

• Site definitions
• Admin Pages
• Javascript
• Style sheets
• Web part code

Files
Application

• Lists
• Web part placement,
• metadata
• Site metadata
• User Content

SQL
Content
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What Is A Site Definition?

• Each Site Definition defines a unique type of
  SharePoint site
• Multiple site definitions ship in Microsoft
  Windows SharePoint Services
• Team Site
• Meeting Workspace
• Document Workspace
• Still more ship in Microsoft Office SharePoint
  Portal Server 2003
• Portal Topic Area
• Portal My Site
• And others are available through other products
• Great Plains
• Project Server 2003

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What Is A Site Definition? (cont.)

• Set of files located in the file system of a
  Windows SharePoint Services Web server (incl.
  SharePoint Portal Server)
• XML files
• ASPX pages
• Document templates (.dot, .htm, etc.)
• Content files (.gif, .doc, etc.)
• Site definitions specify list types, Web pages,
  navigation, and site content
• Site definitions reference installed list
  definitions, Web Parts, event handlers, and
  custom JScript

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Templates vs. Site Definitions

• Site and List Templates
• Stored in the database
• Starting point for a site or list(if the
  template changes, derived sites and lists stay
  the same)
• Easy, end-user accessible
• Site Definitions
• Stored in the filesystem (all the goodies which
  are ghosted)
• Basis for a site or list(if the site definition
  changes, all derived sites and lists change or
  break if youre not careful!)
• Best practice for scalability

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Resources

• SharePoint Products and Technologies on MSDN
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint
• User Samples and informal Resource postings on
  GotDotNet
• http//www.gotdotnet.com
• SharePoint Customization http//www.sharepoint
  customization.com
• SharePoint FAQ http//www.spsfaq.com
• Web Component Directory http//www.microsoft.c
  om/sharepoint/webparts
• Product Information http//www.microsoft.com/s
  harepoint
• Newsgroups on msnews.microsoft.com

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Questions?
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SharePoint APIs

• WSS Object Model
• WSS Web Services
• SPS Object Model
• SPS Web Services
• Other interfaces
• HTTP
• WebDAV

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Accessing List DataWSS Object Model

• Available objects under Microsoft.SharePoint names
  pace
• SPList Basic list object for getting to list
  data
• SPListCollection Collection of list objects
• SPListItem Item/Row in a list
• SPListItemCollection Collection of list items
• SPView View of a SharePoint list
• SPField Field/Column in a list
• SPListTemplate Template of a list

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Accessing List DataWSS Code Snippet

• Get a SPList or SPDocumentLibrary object
• SPList mylist web.ListsEvents
• SPDocumentLibrary myDocLib
  (SPDocumentLibrary) web.ListsShared
  Documents
• Call .Items property to get list items
  collection
• SPListItemCollection items mylist.Items
• Call GetItems() method and pass a SPQuery object
  to get subset of list items
• SPListItemCollection items mylist.GetItems(query
  )

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Accessing List DataWSS Code Snippet

• To get data for a field, specify field name in
  indexer for an SPListItem
• foreach (SPListItem item in items)
• Response.Write(item"Due Date".ToString())
• Response.Write(item"Status".ToString())
• Response.Write(item"Title".ToString())
• Note SPEncode.HtmlEncode() should be used for
  HTML output

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Web Part Integration Models
38
SharePoint Portal Server Overview
39
SharePoint Portal Server

• Application written on WSS platform
• Adds Portal features, including
• Flexible navigation
• Audience Targeting
• Search
• Sites Directory
• Listings
• My Site
• Single Sign-On

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Single Sign-on

• Credential Mapping Database
• Per-user credentials
• Group credentials
• Programmable at display or application tier
• Distributed Ticketing
• Integrated into BizTalk adaptors (Actional
  first)
• Does not require Windows.Net/2000 AD deployment

WP WP WP
1. Authenticate
Web FE
3b. Pass ticket
WS Adaptor For BizTalk
BizTalk Adaptors
BizTalk 2002
5. Login with credentials
2a. Retrieve credentials for app/user
2b. Retrieve ticket for app/user
4. Retrieve credentials for ticket
SSO
Ex. SAP
Encrypted DB storage
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SharePoint Search

• Content Sources
• Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server sites
• Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services sites
• Exchange 2000 Server folder
• File share
• Lotus Notes
• Any web page orweb site
• Site registry
• Interactive Search
• Alerts

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Core Search Architecture
Content Source
Documents
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Programming Search

• Using the Search Engine
• Metadata Definition
• Search.asmx
• SQL Variant for queries
• Enhancing the Search Engine
• IFilters
• Protocol Handlers

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Secure Searches

• When content source supports ACL, so does Search
• Windows file system
• Exchange
• SharePoint Portal Server/Windows Sharepoint
  Services
• Notes (via mapping layer)
• NT/AD groups must be domain-based and resolvable
  by search server

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Scalable Indexing
Web
Files
User queries
Microsoft Exchange
Propagates
SPS
SearchServer
Notes
DedicatedIndex Builders
46
Scalable Distributed Search
User queries

• Duplicated query servers
• Complete replacement of entire content and index,
  including subscriptions on target
• Useful for slow WANs
• Reduces load on network bandwidth

Search server
Search servers