...what are the essential components(files required) for a "Feature"..
and can anyone point to any best practice tutorials on creating features (using the "12 hive")...
sharepoint dev is new to me, and im just looking for best practice development.
tutorial/screencasts will be a bonus
thanks
A major headache, grounds for divorce, plausible excuse for murder, etc...
But actually the answer is a lot more complicated. The quick answer is it's a unit of deployment that generally includes content such as .aspx application pages, list schemas, customizations expressed in CAML (potentially huge XML files without much documentation.)
JD's suggestion for Ted Pattison's book is a good one but I suggest picking up a few books because you'll usually find something in one that you don't find in another and it will help you to see what is required by convention and what is just a particular author's preference.
You will really need to comb a lot of different sources and plan on spending a considerable amount of time with SharePoint before becoming comfortable with these concepts.
Check out the SharePoint Patterns and Practices information here and here
I also highly recommend picking up a copy of Ted Pattisons book Inside SharePoint Windows Services 3.0
These should be required reading for noob SharePoint developers. Good luck on your SharePoint journey.
This webcast about how to add social networking features to Sharepoint might be helpful.
And there's lots of videos here, some free and some not.
The minimum you need is feature.xml, and elements.xml if you want the feature to actually do something. I recommend the templates from WSPBuilder as a starting point.
Related
I'm looking for a page that provides a good, fairly basic and brief, end-user targeted overview of the capabilities of Sharepoint 2010, and another that does the same for Sharepoint 2013. I searched microsoft.com and couldn't really find much. Most of what I found was based on the assumption that the reader was familiar with Sharepoint already and was upgrading from an older version. I was hoping to find something for folks new to Sharepoint, checking it out for the very first time. Something kind of like a product info sheet that you'd see in a trade show booth, maybe.
Any pointers to something along these lines would be appreciated.
Background:
I work for a large university, and we offer Google Apps, Box, and Sharepoint (2010 now, 2013 soon) as options to support collaborative projects. I'm trying to help our user community understand the different capabilities of and optimal use cases for each tool. I've found good overview material for Box and Google Apps, but I'm getting stuck finding this for Sharepoint. And -- as luck would have it -- our users tend to be the least familiar with Sharepoint.
It's often hard to find decent information about SharePoint on the internet.. ;)
Maybe some of these links will help, but most probably you have already seen them all:
http://www.slideshare.net/pointbeyond/comparison-webinar3
http://sharepointpromag.com/blog/sharepoint-2010-vs-sharepoint-2013-small-step-or-big-jump
http://www.rharbridge.com/?page_id=966 [from a technical point of view]
http://www.fpweb.net/sharepoint-server-2013/features/end-user/
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/social-business/sharepoint-2013-social-features-highlights-019624.php
http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/sharepoint/sharepoint-2013-overview-collaboration-software-features-FX103789323.aspx [collaboration feature overview - and it's official! ;)]
JFYI: there are also a couple of frameworks and platforms available which improve the social capabilities, for example MatchPoint Snow is one I have heard of.
Update:
Ok, if you're willing to actually convince people to use SharePoint, try following query - I think there are some good results there (but maybe there also too tech-targeted): https://www.google.ch/#q=why%20should%20i%20use%20sharepoint
For example:
http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/whitepaper/6-things-every-manager-should-know-about-microsoft-sharepoint
http://www.degdigital.com/blog/why-sharepoint-2013-considerations-for-your-platform-selection/
http://newsletter.stc-carolina.org/How+to+Encourage+Good+Use+of+SharePoint
Can anyone point to any good 'beginners walkthroughs' for the Business Data Catalog in MOSS 2007 Enterprise? It seems to be very powerful, but all the official guides assume preexisting knowledge.
Have a look at SharePoint 2007 Developer's Guide to Business Data Catalog. The authors (Brett Lonsdale and Nick Swan) have been developing tools and working with the BDC for 'ages' and really know their stuff.
There is an early access available now with the final due to be published in September 2009.
This has a great overview on the BDC, some examples on what it can do, and how to configure it:
http://sharepointmagazine.net/technical/administration/everything-you-need-to-know-about-bdc-part-1-of-8
It's a really great starting place that will help you get better footing when proceeding on to the more technical sites & how-tos. It's the best "starter" resource I've found yet.
Take a look at BDC Metaman, this tool will support you connecting to a BDC.
I played around with it a few months ago, and was able to display data from a db. Do you have a problem you're trying to solve, or are you just trying to get an understanding of what you can do with it?
By "preexisting knowledge", do you mean of Sharepoint, or the BDC itself?
Check out these links, as a start:
http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/In+the+Office/Introducing-the-Business-Data-Catalog-BDC/
http://blah.winsmarts.com/2007-4-SharePoint_2007__BDC_-_The_Business_Data_Catalog.aspx
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I'm starting a new job involving Sharepoint design/development. While the job will involve training courses on Sharepoint and other technologies I haven't used, I am interested to get a headstart and learn a little more about Sharepoint.
Are there any good articles explaining Sharepoint development and what I need to know (being a beginner in the technology)? I am strong with C# and ASP.NET as I use it everyday (job or no job), it's just the Sharepoint specific stuff I wonder. I am checking out MSDN. I did check out some other threads on this, but I am not really looking for a book.
A better question would be what blogs are there which focus on code snippets and best practises?
Thanks
There are lots of SharePoint virtual labs. They are good b/c they let you get your hands on the technology without too much of the setup hassle. :)
http://www.microsoft.com/click/SharePointDeveloper/html/Default.html
This site has the information I started with when learning SharePoint: webcasts from TechEd by Andrew Connell and Rob Bogue and the hands-on-labs that go along with them.
There are very many SharePoint MVPs that have blogs that are easy to find and many of them hang around on twitter so it's easy to get help.
http://andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2008/11/25/Free-MSDN-Webcasts-amp-HOLs-for-MOSS-2007-WCM-Development.aspx has info on some newer webcasts
http://www.sharepointpodshow.com/ and http://www.methings.com/podcast/70342/MOSS-Gone-Wild.php
are 2 excellent SharePoint Podcasts.
A few months ago I was looking for decent SharePoint articles just to get an introduction to the technology. I found an entire section on CodeProject dedicated to it. Check it out if you haven't already, I found a number of good articles there.
Also, check out the SharePoint dev wiki
In addition to all the links provided by others:
Microsoft has a Best Practices Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2007 on Technet
The official SharePoint Team Blog has some good info.
Sharepoint Joel has a list of Top 100 SharePoint blogs, though a year old provides a good starting point of blogs to look at.
Several MSDN articles such as:
Disposal Best Practices
Common Coding Issues using the SharePoint Object Model
Edit: Also just noticed that the Patterns & Practices team has a SharePoint Guidance project on codeplex.
Sharepoint was a disaster for me (as I've said before), but I'd be willing to give it another try once .Net 4.0 and VS 2010 are released.
I would definitely download the VS 2010 beta and give the new Sharepoint integration a spin. I hear that it is a big improvement over what we have now.
As for documentation, msdn was the best learning resource I could find. It was more concise than what you will get with most books, although books usually provide a storyline and cohesive progression of learning.
Hope that helps, Good luck.
Codeplex is good for examples of developement. Given the rate of change with "best practices" I have seen some books that have become out of date quite rapidly.
I personally have gained a lot of valuable knowledge from looking at questions on forums like this one, trying to replicate the issue on a developement VM. I would recommend having a VM for "play" as hands on will run you up against many of the strengths and weaknesses with different approaches.
If you can get a backup of an existing content database you are using, having lots of documents and document libraries is good for hitting real data and trying out different search configurations etc.
One additional site you shouldn't forget is myrampup.com. It's a community-based training site which will help you get the knowledge you need to develop solutions on the SharePoint platform.
Before learning SharePoint development, learn what SharePoint can do. Use it and become familiar with its features. Many people's first thought is to develop new features when much of what they want to do can be done with existing SharePoint features. It's a huge, complex product.
I've found some very good videos for learning Sharepoint at Point8020
Very good reference for SharePoint Object Model:
http://www.etechplanet.com/post/2009/08/28/Overview-of-SharePoint-Object-Model.aspx
A good starting resource is the Microsoft RampUp Site it's a free resource that has 2 tracks for SharePoint for developers. Each track consists of articles, slide casts and virtual labs to help you gain an understanding of what goes into developing for SharePoint. They are not all inclusive but it should give you a good starting point.
There is also a user centric overview on the Microsoft Office Site for SharePoint 2007 that can help get you an understanding of some of the features in SharePoint.
I don't know if any of the resources have been update yet for SharePoint 2010, but hopefully those will follow soon.
Also check Microsoft Learning with SharePoint 2010 around the corner you might find free courses. Microsoft usually releases free online courseware for new products around the time of release.
For uo to date announcements check out the SharePoint Team blog, usually there's lots of good information around there.
Good Luck.
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Developer Documentation: Sharepoint Document Management vs. ScrewTurn Wiki
I have been tasked with picking a wiki tool for a development organization, comprised of several different development teams. Sharepoint is installed and upper management would prefer this to be used, but in the past it has only used when PMs are forced to use it. None of the developers will update it with content that needs to be shared. I developed in Sharepoint and I liked it, so I have nothing against it. But for this to work I need something I can get everyone using, so Sharepoint will not work.
Step one is to convince management why Sharepoint will not work. We need the typical wiki features:
WYSIWYG, Clean interface, Easy to use, Attach Files to pages, Support for groups of users, Open source, Hosted Locally. (Maybe others I am not considering now?)
Can anyone provide a list of objective reasons why Sharepoint is not the solution we can use to take our first step?
There are many such products out there so step 2 should be easier.
SharePoint is the exact opposite of a wiki: A wiki is lightweight, easy to use, obvious, quick, doesn't get in the way.
To elaborate: A wiki allows your to jot down an idea quickly and moving details to the next page. In SP, people start to create processes, editing rights, workflows.
Wikis are designed to not get in the way. SP is designed to prevent you from doing "something bad"; whatever that might be. Wikis are driven by the idea that brainstorming works in open space while SP is driven by FUD: Who can see this information? Can it be used against me? How can I prevent someone to see/edit something?
Note: This is not a critique of SP per se; it's just how it used in most organizations. If you look at the security settings and edit rights, you sometimes feel like the workers of the company must all have been inmates in some high-profile prison (or should be).
I have absolutely no sharepoint-foo at all, but the sharepoint setup by IT at my employer has a wiki that we can use for documentation. Wouldn't that be good enough? Works ok-ish in firefox on mac, so I'm a happy camper.
SharePoint is best when using many of it's features (eg DM, WCM, workflow, collaberation etc) - you get a lot of it's benefits from the synergy of using all these things together with a common interface.
In any one area though, it's far from the 'best of breed' application - so, if you want a product for a specific job (eg a wiki), SharePoint isn't the most fully-featured/easy-to-use/delete-as-applicable product to be using - there will be products that do that (single) job far better.
You could also try looking at this question to see others experiences with SharePoint wiki's
I have used MediaWiki, Instiki and Sharepoint. Sharepoint does not work correctly with firefox on purpose. Its wiki functionality is an after thought. All kinds of additional features nobody use. But it does appeal to managers.
Instiki can be up and running in less than a minute and MediaWiki has everything you could need. Sharepoint annoyed most people on our team so nobody wanted to use it which meant a lot of knowledge was lost.
Which version of SharePoint are you using WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007 includes both wiki and blog functionality.
Although the SharePoint wiki isn't as feature-rich as most, the fact is that if your developers would not update a SharePoint wiki, chances are that they would not update any other kind, either.
I recommend creating a SharePoint wiki, and then actually reading the starting page, where it gives the definition of wikiwiki. I recommend only using a wiki (of any kind) for documents that can be written quickly, so that developers can get back to developing as soon as possible. Let the structure and accuracy grow over time. Just get the facts into the wiki quickly.
Wikis offer workflows, Document management and more too. I would disagree with those who say you can't do this in a wiki. Check out Confluence by Atlassian
Are there any blogs, guides, checklists, or controls we should be using to ensure our SharePoint implementation is accessible?
Preferrably to the W3C double A standard, or as close to that as we can get.
We're implementing an extranet solution.
This study has already been funded by Microsoft, and unfortunately the results only seem to be online in a Word Document.
The document is hosted on this blog:
http://blog.mastykarz.nl/best-practices-for-developing-accessible-web-sites-in-microsoft-office-sharepoint-server-2007/
And the path to the document is here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=121877
I'm unsure on whether it would be a good thing to copy the contents of that into here to fully answer the question in a way that will be indexed by search engines, but I'll play safe as it's not my content.
The best place to start is the Accessibility Kit for Sharepoint. With this, you may reach single A standard, but in my experience, you will find it very tough to reach AA.
Microsoft didn't factor in accessibility in Sharepoint, and even 2007 suffers from a huge overdependence on table layout.
Good luck!
How are you deploying the implementation? Is it as an Intranet, or, is it as a public facing website.
I think one of the first rules is to be extremely selective with the use of out of the box web parts. Many of the web-parts I looked at weren't compliant even on a basic level.
Andrew
The best way is to run checks as you develop so you know where your pain points are.
The next step maybe to start with a minimal masterpage so you can choose what elements are presented to the user.
More advanced you can override the render methods to remove or change bits of the page that are not compliant with your checks. EG changing the case of tags (XHTML does not like all caps)
A bit more in this guide.
http://techtalkpt.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/building-accessible-sharepoint-sites-part-1/
http://techtalkpt.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/building-accessible-sharepoint-sites-part-2/
I recently read the MOSS book by Andrew Connell (www.andrewconnell.com) and it has a chapter dedicated to accessibility and SharePoint sites.
Simply put SharePoint sites are very difficult to generate W3C AAA standards, but the Accessibility Kit is one of the best starting points.
Stronly recommend his book for this chapter (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470224754?tag=andrewconnell-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0470224754&adid=18S6FKQJR5FZK56WHH6A&)
It depends how much of Sharepoint out of the box you are intending to use. In implementing our public facing site we managed to achieve AA compliance, although the amount of custom development required has raised questions over the benefits we are actually gaining from using Sharepoint in the first place.
A few pointers:
We made heavy use of SPQuery/SPSiteDataQuery to render site data to screen using xslt which gave us full control over the output. I found this link helpful:
http://blog.thekid.me.uk/archive/2007/02/25/xml-results-using-spsitedataquery-in-sharepoint.aspx
Check out RadEditor for Sharepoint for a nice accessible rich text editor for publishing.
For xhtml compliance, things were a little more tricky, we had to override most of the Sharepoint publishing controls' render methods to correct dodgy output.
If you are wanting to leverage the portal like capabilites of Sharepoint in your extranet it is more problematic. The web part framework is not accessible and I have not yet found a way to make it so. Any suggestions welcome!