This book is for SharePoint developers working with Publishing
sites-sites that leverage MOSS 2007 WCM capabilities. It does not
cover administrative topics in any great detail, only where
absolutely necessary. For the most part, no two chapters are
dependent upon each other, so each chapter can be used as a
reference independently of the others. Readers need not have any
development experience with SharePoint, but they should have some
experience with and a working knowledge of ASP.NET 2.0 development
practices and topics. Of course, it is beneficial if the reader
does have at least a working knowledge of what SharePoint is all
about.
This book covers MOSS 2007 WCM Publishing sites. You will find
some chapters that seem to cover general WSS 3.0 topics, but
everything is treated in the context of a Publishing site. While
the chapters are arranged in a logical order, it is not necessary
to read the book from cover to cover in a linear fashion. The
following is a brief description of each chapter:
Chapter 1, "Embarking on Web Content Management
Projects"-This chapter explains what this book is all
about, who the target audience is, and who will benefit most from
the book. It also details what the reader needs in terms of a local
development environment in order to implement the solutions. In
addition, each of the subsequent chapters is explained very briefly
to provide an overview and clarify how each chapter fits in.
Chapter 2, "Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Development
Primer"-This chapter covers the fundamentals of WSS,
including definitions of terms such as farm, Web application, site
collection, site, list, and document library, and the general
architecture of WSS. Some basic object model techniques are
demonstrated in this chapter.
Chapter 3, "Overview of Office SharePoint Server 2007
and Web Content Management"-This chapter briefly explains
each of the various components that make up MOSS. In addition
,while the book is development-focused, the "ABCs" of
content-centric Internet sites is covered.
Chapter 4, "SharePoint Features and the Solution
Framework"-Both new to WSS 3.0, the SharePoint Feature and
solution frameworks are covered in great detail in this chapter, as
well as a process for automatically creating WSS solution packages
on every project build.
Chapter 5, "Minimal Publishing Site
Definition"-Many users create new WCM sites by using the
Publishing Portal template. Unfortunately, this adds quite a bit of
unnecessary content to the site. This chapter picks apart the
Publishing Portal template and Publishing Features and demonstrates
how to create a minimal Publishing Portal template.
Chapter 6, "Site Columns, Content Types, and
Lists"-Three core components to every WSS 3.0 site-site
columns, content types, and lists-are covered in this chapter.
Chapter 7, "Master Pages and Page Layouts"-This
chapter covers everything you need to know about creating, editing,
and leveraging master pages and page layouts within Publishing
sites.
Chapter 8, "Navigation"-While WSS 3.0's
navigation is founded on the ASP.NET 2.0 navigation provider
framework, there are a few SharePoint-specific topics, which are
covered in this chapter.
Chapter 9, "Accessibility"-If it's not already,
accessibility is becoming an increasingly important topic with
regard to Web sites. This chapter explains the different levels of
accessibility and discusses some techniques and tools developers
can leverage to create sites for users with disabilities.
Chapter 10, "Field Types and Field
Controls"-Although it's a WSS 3.0 concept, field types and
field controls are covered in this chapter in the context of a
Publishing site. This includes creating custom field types with
custom values types and controls, as well as custom field controls
that leverage existing field types.
Chapter 11, "Web Parts"-This chapter covers
creating custom Web Parts and some advanced topics related to
custom Web Part development, such as Editor Parts, customizing the
Verbs menu, and leveraging asynchronous programming techniques.
This chapter also covers the three Publishing-specific Web Parts
and some advanced customization and styling options of the Content
Query Web Part.
Chapter 12, "Leveraging Workflow"-The Windows
Workflow Foundation, part of the .NET Framework 3.0, is fully
leveraged by WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. This chapter explains how to
create custom workflows using Visual Studio and leveraging InfoPath
Web-rendered forms.
Chapter 13, "Search"-Every content-centric site
needs a robust search offering. This chapter explains the different
components of MOSS search, as well as many customization
opportunities such as modifying the search results.
Chapter 14, "Authoring Experience
Extensibility"-While the authoring experience in
Publishing sites is quite robust, at times developers need to
extend this offering for specific content owner requirements. This
chapter covers this, including customizing the Page Editing Toolbar
and the Rich Text Editor HTML field control.
Chapter 15, "Authentication and
Authorization"-This chapter covers everything you need to
know about the ASP.NET 2.0 authentication provider model SharePoint
fully leverages.
Chapter 16, "Implementing Sites with Multiple Languages
and Devices"-This chapter covers the topic of maintaining
sites that need to offer their content in multiple languages, as
well as developing custom Web Parts that are multilingual
aware.
Chapter 17,
"ContentDeployment"-A
common request for larger content-centric Web sites is to have an
internal authoring environment for content and then push the
changed content out to a destination site, either in an
organization's DMZ or at a co-location facility. This chapter
describes the content deployment capability in MOSS designed to
handle such business requirements.
Chapter 18, "Offline Authoring with Document
Converters"-While MOSS 2007 Publishing sites offer a very
robust Web-based content authoring experience, SharePoint provides
a way to author content offline using tools such as Microsoft Word
or InfoPath. This chapter explains what you need to know about
configuring the document converter infrastructure and creating
custom document converters.
Chapter 19, "Performance Tips, Tricks, and
Traps"-Internet-facing content-centric sites built on the
SharePoint platform need to be designed and developed with
performance in mind. This chapter provides numerous guidelines and
tips that developers can leverage to create the most performant
sites.
Chapter 20, "Incorporating ASP.NET 2.0
Applications"-SharePoint (both WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007) is
not an end-to-end solution but an application platform. While it
provides a significant amount of functionality out of the box,
developers can leverage this platform in building custom
applications. This chapter discusses some techniques that can be
used for such tasks.
One approach book takes is not to dwell on the more common
minutia of creating projects in Visual Studio, or the huge topics
of core Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 development or
SharePoint administration. These topics warrant their own books,
and throughout this book you will find recommended resources for
these topics. This book does cover some subjects that have their
roots in WSS, but they are presented within the context of a
Publishing site.
Finally, this book approaches every topic of implementation from
the perspective of SharePoint customization and SharePoint
development. While one implementation may seem to be better than
the other, it takes no position on either, as the goal is to simply
educate readers about the advantages and disadvantages of each.
These concepts are defined in Chapter 2, "Windows SharePoint
Services 3.0 Development Primer."
This book is also available as part of the 4-book SharePoint
2007 Wrox Box (ISBN: 0470431946) with these 4 books:
- Professional SharePoint 2007 Development (ISBN:
0470117567)
- Real World SharePoint 2007 (ISBN: 0470168358)
- Professional Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Design (ISBN:
047028580X)
- Professional SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development
(ISBN: 0470224754)