Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010: What s New and What s Changed?

Transcription

1 ASPE RESOURCE SERIES Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010: What s New and What s Changed? Prepared for ASPE by Global Knowledge's Marcellus Duffy, MCT, MCSD, MCTS, MCAD Real Skills. Real Results. Real IT. in partnership with

2 Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010: What s New and What s Changed? Marcellus Duffy, Global Knowledge Instructor, MCT, MCSD, MCTS, MCAD Introduction SharePoint 2010 is the next step for companies that want to provide their employees the tools and information they need to be effective and efficient in the workplace. Microsoft breaks SharePoint 2010 into six functional areas: sites, communities, search, content, composites, and insights. These areas come together to reduce operating cost, empower employees, and allow SharePoint the flexibility to change with the changing needs of business. Sites provide the foundation for collaboration. Microsoft has made a number of changes to the user interface that have made it easier to work directly on the site and from the site. The new structure provides users an intuitive environment to do their work. Communities are the social networking aspect of SharePoint. The improvements to SharePoint wikis and blogs address the challenges of how to communicate across a company. User profiles give employees the data needed to build the right team, contact the right person, and build effective corporate social networks. Search has a wildcard. Enhancements to search allow employees to perform complex queries from SharePoint or the Windows 7 desktop. The queries can now include wildcards, Booleans, and free-text, as well as pre- and post-query suggestions. Content is managed through an improved enterprise content management (ECM) feature of SharePoint This makes it easier to control unmanaged data and, with the rich integration the ECM, it provides a more adoptable end-user solution. Automated metadata, tagging, and improved retention provide a more effective solution that saves users a lot of time. Composites provide a business unit with the platform to rapidly deal with their challenges while complying with the organization s standards. You can develop no code collaborative solutions using built-in SharePoint workflows, web parts, and other controls right from the browser. This can be taken further with SharePoint Designer The integration between Visio, Access, and SharePoint makes it easy for a user to share information with a group, department, company, or the web. Business connective services (BCSs) provide users the ability to work with all their business data resources from a single interface and offline. Copyright 2010 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 2

3 Insights are SharePoint s way of getting you the information you need to make better-informed decisions. The new features in SharePoint allow you to quantify the value for your information. SharePoint provides you the ability to access managed and unmanaged data in an integrated environment. With new tools like chart web parts, Performance Point service, Visio service, and Excel services, getting the information to people is simple. Enhancements for the Administrator SharePoint 2010 streamlines the efforts of the administrator through the use of integrated power shell commands and enhanced central administration. The improved user interface of central administration makes it easier for the administrator to locate and manage services and resources within SharePoint. The use of power shell allows administrators to develop and execute scripts to manage their SharePoint farm. These scripts can be used to manage permissions to create sites and even install and configure a new SharePoint environment. Figure 1: New SharePoint 2010 Central Administration. Monitoring the performance of your SharePoint environment has been enhanced through new features like the health analyzer. The health analyzer can be configured to automatically fix simple configuration issues within your environment. It will check the status of your environment using rules that you have specified, and make recommendations and explanations on how to adjust the system. Copyright 2010 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 3

4 Figure 2: Health Analyzer showing problems with current farm settings Development projects have been made more manageable through sandbox solution and throttling. As a Share- Point administrator, you can allow areas in your organization to develop and self-manage the use of their own custom development package while maintaining a healthy environment. Sandbox solutions allow.wsp solution packages to be uploaded to the solutions library and activated by a site collection owner. These packages run in an isolated process and can be configured by the administrator to only use a set amount of resources. Dealing with large lists has been improved in SharePoint While there may be millions of items in a list, SharePoint does not display every item in a single query of the list. With SharePoint 2010, the administrator can set a rule for the number of items that will be returned to a user and to a site administrator. The administrator can also configure filters to make it easier for the user to retrieve the actual data they are looking for. While SharePoint 2010 still saves everything in a similar style to its predecessor, content databases now have the ability to be previewed as an unattached content database. This allows you to export information from one content database to another without having to perform a backup and restore. The upgrade path from SharePoint 2007 technologies to SharePoint 2010 can be seamless to the user. When upgrading to SharePoint 2010, you can choose to keep the existing interface and simply choose the v4 layout and master page when you are ready. Enhancements for the Developer Visual Studio, meet SharePoint. In the past, SharePoint development was like an afterthought for Visual Studio. With SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010, that is no longer the case. Built into Visual Studio 2010 are templates, controls, and tools to make SharePoint development easier than ever. The new templates for SharePoint projects in Visual Studio 2010 provide wizards for developing the feature and packaging your solution. (See figure 3.) Using tools like the server explorer, you can choose the SharePoint Connections and connect to your Copyright 2010 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 4

5 SharePoint site, revealing the objects for that site. (See figure 4.) When it comes time to deploy and debug, Visual studio lets you configure your deploy and retraction steps by simply selecting the activities you want to run. Figure 3: New Visual Studio project templates for SharePoint 2010 Developing and debugging SharePoint solutions has been improved in two major ways. First, you can install a developer edition of Share- Point on Windows 7 and Vista 64-bit operating systems and easily use team suite source safe tools to manage code files. This means that you no longer need a system running server or some virtual machine solution to develop SharePoint solutions. Second is the deployment and debug. Visual Studio not only lets you create a deployment configuration, it provides a packaging and feature wizard that will create the WSP solution file and feature for you. It also attaches to the proper process so when you are ready to test your solution, press f5 to run and the solution will be installed into your web application, deployed, and activated. Using debug tools like break points and variable value watching is just like using the debugging tools in an ASP. Net application. You can set a break point in your code, then run Figure 4: Server explorer with new SharePoint Connections browser Copyright 2010 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 5

6 debug. Visual Studio 2010 will install the code in a SharePoint 2010 site and allow you to use the debug tools to test the code. When you do something in SharePoint 2010 that uses the code with the break point, Visual Studio 2010 will pause the execution of the code, allowing you to evaluate the code. The developer dashboard can be used to see information about the processes the page used, including any query request objects and event information, such as how long the page took to load. SharePoint development can be done as a farm-level solution or a sandbox. This means that you can write a solution for just your department or, if you are in an environment where it is difficult to add your solution to the farm, you can now just upload it to the solutions library. SharePoint solution can also be developed in Share- Point Designer 2010 without having to write any code. Using SharePoint Designer 2010, a business user or developer can customize a SharePoint site and save the site as a SharePoint Solution package.wsp file that can be installed into the sandbox and used by other areas of the company SharePoint 2010 has made improvements in accessing its data from third-party applications. RSS access to lists can be exploited in.net application with the same ease as using SQL server. The LINQ to SharePoint gives developers access to SharePoint data through LINQ queries. Business connectivity services (BCSs) replaces the business data catalog. Unlike the business data catalog, the BCSs allow read and write access to the source of the external data. The BCSs also allow access to the data as though it were a normal SharePoint list. Visual Studio provides a simple interface to develop the business data connector using ADO.Net to access the data source of your choosing. Enhancements for the End User The first thing you will notice when you open your first Team Site is the new look to the site. SharePoint is now using wiki pages as your way of displaying information. While you still get the standard list and libraries you are familiar with, you get an additional library titled Pages when you create a team site or when you create your first page in a blank site. This Pages library is a wiki library and working with the pages in the library has been made a lot easier. Instead of a basic page with a rich text editor, you get a ribbonized document within the browser with a Microsoft Word-like experience. You can also drag and drop content from you Word document onto your SharePoint page. SharePoint uses ribbons throughout the site to enhance the user experience; from working with a list, library, or site, to dealing with an item or file. The ribbon is contextual; it knows what rights you have, where you are, and what you have selected. Copyright 2010 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 6

7 Figure 5: Editing home page in web browser. When you go to a list, the ribbon will change, based on if you are in a list or library. The ribbon show two main tabs: one for the list or library and the other for the item or file. When working on an item, the new, edit, and display page dialogs have a ribbon at the top of the page to allow you to perform different things, based on the item. The ribbons links have super tool tips with information about the actual ribbon item you are hovering over. Figure 6. List Ribbon Figure 7. Item Ribbon Copyright 2010 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 7

8 Figure 8. View Item Figure 9: Edit Item SharePoint will open your office documents in the browser as a web page. This way, you can view the information and even make simple edits via the browser. You can always open the office document in the office product and work on it, but SharePoint s ability to open the document for you in the browser allows you to share the information in the document with someone who might not be able to open the document locally. Enhancements to the SharePoint list include the ability to easily choose a view, toggle between the datasheet view and the standard view, and edit an item inline in the standard view. SharePoint list and libraries also now allow you to receive text messages to your phone when you subscribe to an alert. In SharePoint 2010, you can also have two lists linked to one another and configure referential integrity between to two lists. SharePoint 2010 has modified navigation, making it easier to find what you need by grouping choices into logical categories. You will also find that the navigation options are similar to the way you navigate in Windows. There is a new, bold breadcrumb showing you how you got to where you are with fly-outs to allow quick choices to different locations. There is also a navigate-up button that, when clicked, will provide a tree view of the path to your current location within the site. Copyright 2010 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 8

9 Summary SharePoint 2010 provides a lot of new feature services and capabilities, making the use of this product in your organization a win, win, win. The organization will be able to easily distribute and manage information. This means employees will spend less time hunting for the data and knowledge they need to do their work. When a customer solution is required, developer tools like SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 make it easy to produce the solution. The debugging, throttling, solution versioning, and sandbox option make managing the solution simple and do not require a server administrator s involvement. Make sure the SharePoint environment runs properly has been simplified through tools like the developer dashboard and the best practice analyzer. The developer dashboard allows you to review how pages are loading. The best practice analyzer allows you to set rules for optimizing the farm and can be configured take action when a current configuration setting is no longer optimal. Overall, the enhancements to SharePoint 2010 can build stronger relations between the company s people and its data. Learn More Learn more about how you can improve productivity, enhance efficiency, and sharpen your competitive edge. Check out our complete list of Microsoft Training courses. For more information or to register, visit or call COURSES to speak with a sales representative. Our courses and enhanced, hands-on labs and exercises offer practical skills and tips that you can immediately put to use. Our expert instructors draw upon their experiences to help you understand key concepts and how to apply them to your specific work situation. Choose from our more than 1,200 courses, delivered through Classrooms, e-learning, and On-site sessions, to meet your IT and business training needs. About the Author Marcellus Duffy is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Microsoft Certified Solution Developer with 15+ years of experience as a technology consultant. Based in Saint Louis, MO, he provides consulting and training services for.net development, SQL, and, primarily, SharePoint. He has provided SharePoint consulting and training for government, manufacturing, research, medical, and financial organizations. He has written SharePoint Excel Services, Power User, and Administrator classes. At the time of authoring this paper, he was working on a Share- Point 2010 project for managing assets. Marcellus graduated from Saint Louis University Summa Cum Laude as a member of the Golden Key Honor Society, Alpha Sigma Lambda National Honor Society, Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society. Copyright 2010 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 9