Transcript Session Title

Customising SharePoint
David Gristwood
Developer & Platform Group
[email protected]
http://blogs.msdn.com/David_Gristwood
Agenda
1.
Developing Data Driven SharePoint
Solutions
Focus: DataViews and live data
2.
Customizing SharePoint
Focus: Package and re-use sites
1) Developing Data Driven
SharePoint Solutions
SharePoint is excellent integration point for
many data sources
Databases
Web services
XML feeds, such as blogs
InfoPath electronic forms
etc . . .
FrontPage 2003 and Windows
SharePoint Services
Going beyond the browser and WSS
Work with Web Part pages
Bring external data into SharePoint
High quality page design
Extend Windows SharePoint Services and
SharePoint Portal Server
FrontPage 2003
Working with Web Part Pages
Do more with Web Parts
Create custom Web Part pages
Use Web Part connections to build
solutions
Add/edit/configure Web Part zones
Save to site catalog and Web Packages for
reusing customized Web Parts and
solutions
FrontPage 2003
High Quality Page Design
Professional design tools make
customized SharePoint sites look great
New layout tables and cell formatting for
high quality page layout and design
New dynamic web templates for a
consistent look across pages
More, professional looking themes
FrontPage 2003
Extending SharePoint Web sites
Expand the scope of SharePoint sites
XSLT Data View Web Part for creating
highly formatted views on XML data
Conditional Formatting for rich
presentation of data
Hide, change fonts, colours, etc
Connected Data Views for detailed solution
pages
eg. master-details views
Data Driven SharePoint Sites
Blogs and RSS
Many blogs now expose RSS feed
Blog data as XML conforming to RSS schema
RSS aggregators collate these feeds
Custom client apps
E.g. SharpReader, Pluck, NewsGator, etc
Portals
SharePoint can act as aggregator
Surface relevant RSS feeds on site
Links back to original article
Standard XML or custom Web Part
Blogs and RSS feeds
What is InfoPath?
A new program in
Microsoft Office
System 2003
Included in Office
2003 Pro/Ent Editions
Available standalone
A desktop application
The platform for a new
generation of electronic
forms
SP1 supports Visual
Studio .NET and
managed code
Why Electronic Forms?
Forms drive business processes
Inefficiencies and inaccurate information cause
significant negative downstream effects
Forms hide the complexities of processes
Electronic information capture helps streamline
the complex processes sitting behind forms
Forms are everywhere
People in your organization are inundated by
forms – expense reports, benefit statements, etc.
Example Scenario – Workgroup
Team / Department Status Report
Before InfoPath
With InfoPath
InfoPath 2003
Microsoft® Windows®
SharePoint™ Services (WSS)
Inconsistent input methods
Rich, dynamic InfoPath form
• Difficult to keep track of status
• Painful to reconcile info across team
• Hard to share info among team
• Consistent, accurate, timely info
• Readily accessible
• Easy to aggregate via WSS
How InfoPath Stands Out –
Collecting Information
Rich validation based on
embedded business rules
UI elements speed data
acquisition; date picker, auto-fill
Ability to collect images
Support for rich text collection,
including numbered and
bulleted lists
Support for optional and
repeating sections, that allow
the form to adapt
Support for offline use
How InfoPath Stands Out –
Integrating With Other Systems
Can pre-populate data from
multiple backend systems
Can validate data against
backend systems
Tools in the designer allow
integration with other systems
and XML web services without
programming
SharePoint and InfoPath
Expense Reports
2) Customizing SharePoint
Turn a site into a re-usable package
The look and feel of the site
Includes any custom lists, etc
Even content, if desired
Windows SharePoint Services was
designed to be a platform that could
support different types of sites
Hence template architecture
Customization
Three databases for a portal
Associate URLs with templates
Templates with components and content
Pages with style sheets
Store other metadata about the portal's pages
On page request
SQL query retrieves metadata associated with
the requested page
Combines page with the metadata for response
Customizing SharePoint
Using FrontPage to Change Site Appearance
Page layout, colours, graphics, style, …
Themes help manage the appearance of your
pages in one convenient place
Dynamic Web Templates
New to FrontPage 2003
Specify content and master pages
Overview of Templates
‘Site Definitions’ are similar to the STS V1
style of template
Fully fledged definition of a site
They are composed of multiple XML files and
located in the file system of the SharePoint web
server
‘Custom Templates’ are a way of enabling
customized lists and sites to be re-used
Customise via UI
They are stored as content in the SharePoint
database
Custom Templates Types
Custom Templates come in two types
List Templates
Site Templates
List Templates include columns, form pages,
and optionally the content that is associated
with a list
Scenario: “Hey, you customized your document
library into a cool ‘Media Library’. I’d like to use
that on my site.”
Site Templates cover entire site
stsadm
Tool used to perform many admin tasks
Sites, users, web parts, etc
Command line tool
Windows GUI wrapper available
Maps to object model closely
Site Definitions
All site types that you can create out of the
box are made using Site Definitions
Team Site: Blank Site, Document Workspace
Basic Meeting Workspace: Blank, Decision, Social …
Site Definitions are built up as a combination
of multiple XML files
Site Definitions are stored in a directory in the
file-system of the SharePoint Web Servers
Site Definitions
XML Schemas.
Nav Bars (Top, Quick Launch)
Available Lists
Document Templates
Base Types
Generic List, Doc Lib, Discussion Board, Survey, Issue
Tracking
Configurations
Modules
When to Use What?
Site Definitions require access to the file
systems of SharePoint Web Servers, endusers therefore will always create Custom
Templates
The target audience for Site Definition
development includes 3rd party developers
and IT professionals.
IT will always need to be involved in the
deployment of Site Definitions.
Custom Templates
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