Microsoft SharePoint products and technologies are server applications

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1 Itroducig SharePoit Products ad Techologies Microsoft SharePoit products ad techologies are server applicatios that facilitate collaboratio, provide comprehesive cotet maagemet, implemet busiess processes, ad provide access to iformatio that is essetial to orgaizatioal goals ad processes. They provide a itegrated platform to pla, deploy, ad maage itraet, extraet, ad Iteret applicatios. Some applicatios appeal to particular groups of users. For example, SAP, Excel, ad Lotus 123 are targeted at CFO s, accoutats, ad bookkeepers. Powerpoit PowerPoit has always bee a essetial tool for sales people ad professioal speakers o may topics. SharePoit, i cotrast, is a set of techologies that has applicability to everyoe i a orgaizatio. For example: CEOs ca use SharePoit KPIs (Key Performace Idicators) to see the health of their busiess or divisios at a glace. Accoutats ca use Excel services to publish live fiacial data to a Web page. Kowledge maagers ad librarias ca use SharePoit s documet maagemet features to make iformatio discoverable ad accessible, while the legal team ca breathe easier kowig that their corporate records maagemet policies are beig followed. Ad fially, the thousads of workers i a orgaizatio ca use search to fid people ad iformatio quickly, ad to discover valuable relatioships ad iformatio that they may ot have realized existed usig the kowledge etwork ad a well-orgaized portal taxoomy. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL This chapter describes Microsoft Office SharePoit Server 2007, provides a high-level feature compariso betwee the previous 2003 ad ew 2007 product versios, ad helps the reader choose betwee Widows SharePoit Services ad Microsoft Office SharePoit Server. IN THIS CHAPTER Explorig Microsoft Office SharePoit Server 2007 Comparig product versios Choosig betwee WSS 2007 ad MOSS

2 Part I Gettig Started with SharePoit Explorig Microsoft Office SharePoit Server 2007 Microsoft Office SharePoit Server, or MOSS 2007 is the third release of Microsoft s portal offerig. You may have heard that Microsoft products hit their stride i the third release. Havig worked with SharePoit sice the first release (SharePoit Portal Server 2001), we believe that Microsoft has stayed true to form, releasig a robust, mature, ad feature-rich portal platform i this versio. You ca fid may defiitios of portal i the marketplace, but because this book is focused o Microsoft s portal offerig, we will share the Microsoft defiitio with you: A portal is a cetral Web site that ca be used to orgaize ad distribute compay iformatio. The portal compoets i MOSS 2007 provide techology to facilitate coectios betwee people withi the orgaizatio who have the required skills, kowledge, ad project experiece. Some of the portal-specific features provided i MOSS are: User profiles: Each user has a set of attributes, such as a phoe umber or workgroup, which costitutes a user profile. Users ca cotrol which attributes i their user profile ca be viewed by others. I additio, user profiles ca be used whe creatig audieces to cotrol cotet viewig. Audieces: A audiece is a group of users defied based o their user profiles. Portal cotet ca be targeted to specific audieces. Cotet targetig: The portal cotet that appears is customized depedig o the group membership or SharePoit audiece of the perso accessig the portal. This icreases productivity by esurig that users get iformatio that is relevat to them. My Site: Each user ca have his or her ow persoal site amed My Site. This site allows users to store their ow cotet ad ca serve as a cetral startig poit whe they are lookig for iformatio. Cotet i My Site ca be desigated as private or public to cotrol whether other users have access to the cotet. Ehaced otificatio services: Basic otificatios ca be set by to iform users about chaged items i lists or documet libraries. Users participatig i a workflow automatically receive otificatios related to the workflow. Office SharePoit Server 2007 adds the ability to be otified whe the results of a search query chage. Eterprise search: Eterprise cotet such as documets, PDF files, SQL databases, Exchage files, Lotus Notes, ad other types of cotet ca all be crawled by the portal server ad exposed by usig a search query from ay page i the portal. 4

3 Itroducig SharePoit Products ad Techologies 1 MOSS 2007 improves orgaizatioal effectiveess by providig a extesive set of techologies ad features that address a diverse set of busiess-critical eeds that are ofte classified i the followig categories: Portals: Icludig, but ot limited to: Kowledge: Collectios of orgaizatioal kowledge ad iformatio Eterprise: Aggregatio poits for eterprise applicatios ad data Busiess itelligece: Utilizes OLAP (O Lie Aalytical Processig) ad other aalytic techiques to provide a dashboard view of treds ad data comparisos that shorte the time eeded to make decisios Itraet/extraet: Iteral ad exterally facig portals ad Web sites Parter: Provides a busiess parter facig Web presece Sales ad marketig: Web site focused o sales ad marketig materials Eterprise search: Idexig of may types of eterprise documets ad data, providig users the ability to issue oe query with results retured by relevace regardless of locatio ad format of cotet Cotet maagemet: Web-cotet orgaizatio, publishig, ad editig capabilities Documet maagemet: Versio cotrol, security, check i/check out, idexig, ad archival capabilities Policy ad records maagemet: Regulatory ad compliace maagemet usig a rules dispositio egie ad records vault with auditig capabilities Collaboratio: Workig with teams or projects i geographically dispersed locatios usig documet libraries, lists, blogs, wikis, discussios, ad real-time collaborative tools Process automatio: Addig busiess rules, approvals, ad forms to busiess process May of these scearios are possible with the out-of-the-box cofiguratio, ad others are developed as composite applicatios or third-party solutios that use MOSS 2007 as a set of backed services ad fuctioality. SharePoit 2007 cotiues to itegrate well with Microsoft s products. By exposig collaborative Web-based fuctioality i Microsoft Office applicatios, ed users ca take advatage of advaced features with miimal traiig i the cotext of what they are workig o. Microsoft Office P has basic itegratio with SharePoit, Office 2003 provided may itegratio ehacemets, ad Office 2007 provides the most comprehesive ad deepest itegratio with the platform. The itegratio betwee MOSS 2007 ad Office 2007 is discussed i detail i Chapter 13. CROSS-REF The itegratio poits iclude how Office 2007 applicatios make usig MOSS easier as well as how MOSS 2007 ca publish Office 2007 cotet. 5

4 Part I Gettig Started with SharePoit Comparig Microsoft SharePoit Portal Server 2003 ad MOSS 2007 Microsoft SharePoit Portal Server 2003 (SPS 2003) added collaborative team sites ad eterprise scalability to the SPS 2001 platform, i additio to addig ASP.NET developmet extesios ad may other features. MOSS 2007 builds o this foudatio by addig popular ew fuctioality such as RSS subscriptios, blogs, ad wikis as well as combiig the features that were previously provided by Cotet Maagemet Server 2003 (CMS). The features are listed i Table 1.1. This table does ot list every feature available i SharePoit, but istead lists the most popular features as well as compares ad cotrasts the differeces betwee the 2003 to the 2007 products. TABLE 1.1 SharePoit Portal Server 2003 ad MOSS 2007 Feature Matrix Microsoft SharePoit Microsoft Office Feature Portal Server 2003 SharePoit Server 2007 PORTAL Social etworkig Sites ad documets roll-up Web part Colleagues ad memberships Web parts Web parts Web part pages Eterprise search Cotet targetig Site directory Automatic categorizatio News Shared services Busiess itelligece Sigle sig-o Site ad list templates Ifopath server Excel server 6

5 Itroducig SharePoit Products ad Techologies 1 Microsoft SharePoit Microsoft Office Feature Portal Server 2003 SharePoit Server 2007 Collaboratio Persoal sites Team sites Wikis Blogs Alerts Cofigurable alerts to users ad groups Discussio boards Lists Surveys Workflow Cotet review ad approval Site ad list templates Usability/Itegratio Outlook caledar Save to library from Office applicatios Persoal views of Web part pages Ifopath itegratio Documet Maagemet Documet maagemet sites Records maagemet Documet libraries Documet- ad folder-level security Cotet Maagemet Page layouts ad publishig Web page versioig ad approval Desig cotrol via master pages Browser-based, i-place cotet editig 7

6 Part I Gettig Started with SharePoit Choosig betwee MOSS ad WSS Widows SharePoit Services 2007 (WSS 2007) is a collectio of services for Microsoft Widows Server 2003 that ca be used to share iformatio, collaborate with other users via documet libraries, blogs, wikis, ad discussios, as well as provide the ability to create lists ad Web part pages. I additio to off-the-shelf fuctioality, WSS 2007 is used as a developmet platform for creatig collaboratio ad iformatio-sharig applicatios. WSS is very popular ad ofte viruletly adopted at the departmet level i orgaizatios because it is icluded at o additioal charge with the purchase of Widows Server 2003 user liceses. Comparig MOSS ad WSS MOSS 2007 is built o top of WSS 2007 ad therefore all WSS features are available i a MOSS deploymet. Table 1.2 compares the two products from a feature perspective. TABLE 1.2 MOSS 2007 ad WSS 2007 Feature Matrix Widows SharePoit Microsoft Office Feature Services 2007 SharePoit Server 2007 PORTAL Social etworkig Sites ad documets roll-up Web part Colleagues ad memberships Web parts Web parts Web part pages Eterprise search Cotet targetig Site directory Automatic categorizatio News Shared services Busiess itelligece Sigle sig-o Site ad list templates Ifopath server Excel server 8

7 Itroducig SharePoit Products ad Techologies 1 Widows SharePoit Microsoft Office Feature Services 2007 SharePoit Server 2007 Collaboratio Persoal sites Team sites Wikis Blogs Alerts Cofigurable alerts to users ad groups Discussio boards Lists Surveys Workflow Cotet review ad approval Site ad list templates Usability/Itegratio Outlook caledar Save to library from Office applicatios Persoal views of Web part pages Ifopath itegratio Documet Maagemet Documet maagemet sites Records maagemet Documet libraries Documet- ad folder-level security Cotet Maagemet Page layouts ad publishig Web page versioig ad approval Desig cotrol via master pages Browser-based, i-place cotet editig Comparig features is useful to help uderstad ad delieate the two products, but busiess size ad requiremets are also importat additioal criteria to cosider. 9

8 Part I Gettig Started with SharePoit Cosiderig orgaizatioal size Most small busiesses (5 to 500 iformatio workers) ca beefit from a WSS deploymet. If a orgaizatio is creatig ad reviewig documets, trackig cotacts, customers, ad evets, or collaboratig with other orgaizatios, they are good cadidates for WSS. Perhaps there is the eed to quickly create Web sites to commuicate with iteral employees or exteral customers. Agai, WSS is a great solutio for rapid Web site deploymets. Small busiess owers will wat to cosider startig with or upgradig to MOSS if they will be creatig a large umber of team sites. For example, may small cosultig firms will create a ew team site for each project. It does t take log to recogize the value of havig a site directory structure to help orgaize those sites by project type or category. I additio to the orgaizatioal beefits of a site directory, small busiesses may wat to perform a compay-wide search across all sites ad other data sources. Geerally, we do ot recommed deployig just WSS i a orgaizatio larger tha 500 users if the itet is to allow users to create their ow team sites for collaboratio. If you have ever worked with Lotus Notes or WSS 2003, you kow that this type of techology spreads virally with the potetial to quickly become umaageable. The exceptio to this would be the orgaizatio that provisios the team sites ad documet repositories cetrally. I this sceario, WSS ca scale ad provide valuable fuctioality for ay size orgaizatio. Meetig the requiremets Busiess requiremets ca help determie which SharePoit product is appropriate for your orgaizatio. The WSS requiremets usually ceter o team-level collaboratio ad support of easy Web publishig, ad MOSS requiremets are focused o eterprise kowledge maagemet ad cetralizatio. Typical WSS requiremets The followig requiremets ca be met with a stadard WSS deploymet: Template-based Web sites to maage meetigs, teams, ad project documets Blogs ad wikis provide RSS aggregatio Share cotact lists, evet caledars, ad aoucemets with teams, customers, ad parters Post documets for review ad approval Provide self-service site creatio for ed users Provide admiistratio for uused Web sites Ability to archive project s Documet maagemet Cotet otificatio Desire to pilot collaboratio ad kowledge maagemet software to gai acceptace i the orgaizatio 10

9 Itroducig SharePoit Products ad Techologies 1 If your busiess requiremets are oe or more of the above ad your orgaizatio falls withi the orgaizatio size cosideratios, choosig to deploy WSS is appropriate. Typical MOSS requiremets The commo MOSS busiess requiremets are eterprise scearios where it is importat to categorize, fid, ad admiister data across a large departmet or at the eterprise level. The commo MOSS requiremets are Provide eterprise cotet maagemet Records maagemet ad compliace solutios Use eterprise search to easily fid posted cotet Ability to create busiess itelligece (BI) portals Provide busiess process automatio Provide sigle sig-o to multiple iteral applicatios Desire to push targeted cotet to users based o their profile withi the compay Provide persoal sites ad the ability to locate subject matter experts i the orgaizatio If your requiremets alig with ay of these MOSS requiremets, you should deploy MOSS as your portal ad collaboratio product. NOTE For most orgaizatios that deploy WSS, we recommed cetral cotrol of team site creatio. WSS does ot have a cetral site directory, or does it provide cross-site search. Siftig through dozes of sites to fid what you are lookig for ca be a frustratig experiece for users ad admiistrators. I geeral, wait util you have deployed MOSS to eable self-service site creatio. Summary The SharePoit products are a powerful set of tools to eable collaboratio ad publishig for orgaizatios. After readig this chapter, you should be familiar with the feature set provided by both MOSS ad WSS ad be able to decide which SharePoit product works best i your orgaizatio. 11

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