Share Point Conclave

Sharepoint List Template Id's

2011-03-23T15:49:00.000+05:30

The following are values for the default list template types
100 Generic list
101 Document library
102 Survey
103 Links list
104 Announcements list
105 Contacts list
106 Events list
107 Tasks list
108 Discussion board
109 Picture library
110 Data sources
111 Site template gallery
112 User Information list
113 Web Part gallery
114 List template gallery
115 XML Form library
116 Master pages gallery
117 No-Code Workflows
118 Custom Workflow Process
119 Wiki Page library
120 Custom grid for a list
130 Data Connection library
140 Workflow History
150 Gantt Tasks list
200 Meeting Series list
201 Meeting Agenda list
202 Meeting Attendees list
204 Meeting Decisions list
207 Meeting Objectives list
210 Meeting text box
211 Meeting Things To Bring list
212 Meeting Workspace Pages list
300 Portal Sites list
301 Blog Posts list
302 Blog Comments list
303 Blog Categories list
850 Page Library
1100 Issue tracking
1200 Administrator tasks list
2002 Personal document library
2003 Private document library

The Web Application at could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly

2011-03-23T15:45:00.002+05:30

When running some C# code containing a reference to SPSite ie

string siteUrl = "http://servername/";

using (SPSite spSite = new SPSite(siteUrl))

I was getting the following error:

The Web Application at could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly. If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.

Solution: Go to Project Properties -> Build -> Target Platform -> Make it Any CPU (default is x86)

How to delete a corrupted Sharepoint list

2011-03-23T15:42:00.003+05:30

Sometime you will find you have a currupted list that you cant delete through the normal way as when you try & access the list or the list settings the webpage throws errors.
In this case use STSADM

stsadm.exe -o forcedeletelist -url http://servername/Lists//

How to embed a powerpoint presentation into a Sharepoint page

2011-03-23T15:41:00.002+05:30

Open a PowerPoint File
Save As > Other Formats > Save as type Single File Web Page
Upload the .mht file to a document library
Add a Page Viewer WebPart to a Page
Point the Page Viewer WebPart URL to the .mht file of that document library.
Now you can view your presentation in the webpart.

Converting a Sharepoint List into XML

2011-03-23T15:38:00.003+05:30

This easiest way is to use the URL below & insert your list GUID
http://servername/site/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=Display&List=*YOURUNIQUELISTID*&XMLDATA=TRUE
To get the GUID of the list you need to go into the list & click ‘Settings’ -> ‘List Settings’.
Now if you look at your URL you will see something like:
/_layouts/listedit.aspx?List=%7B7B476F98%2D1075%2D4A6D%2D8F63%2D4C754B3F41FC%7D

The URL is encoded so you will need to replace “%7B” with “{” and “%7D” with “}” and “%2D” with “-” so the end result would look something like: {7B476F98-1075-4A6D-8F63-4C754B3F41FC}

Enable anonymous access on a Sharepoint site

2011-03-23T15:36:00.000+05:30

To perform this procedure, an administrator must have enabled anonymous access for the Web application. If they haven’t done so, the Anonymous Access option does not appear.

Open the site on which you want to enable anonymous access.
On the Site Actions menu , click Site Settings.

Note: On a site for which the Site Actions menu is customized, point to Site Settings, and then click the settings that you want to view.

On the Site Settings page, in the Users and Permissions column, click Advanced permissions.
On the Permissions page, on the Settings menu, click Anonymous Access.
On the Change Anonymous Access Settings page, select the parts of your Web site that you want anonymous users to access.

Common Sharepoint Error codes

2011-03-23T15:33:00.001+05:30

401 errors – These are generally access related.
401;1 Unauthorized access because the logon has failed
401;2 Unauthorized access because the logon has failed due to the server configuration
401;3 Unauthorized access because of an Access Control List (ACL) entry
401;4 Unauthorized access because an IIS filter is blocking access
401;5 Unauthorized access because of an ISAPI or CGI application

403 errors – These are security related also.
403;1 Forbidden because execute access isn’t allowed
403;2 Forbidden because read access isn’t allowed
403;3 Forbidden because write access isn’t allowed
403;4 Forbidden because SSL use is required
403;5 Forbidden because 128 bit SSL use is required
403;6 Forbidden because the IP address was rejected
403;7 Forbidden because a client certificate is required
403;8 Forbidden because access to the site is denied
403;9 Forbidden because too many users are presently attached to the site
403;10 Forbidden because of an invalid configuration
403;11 Forbidden because of an invalid password
403;12 Forbidden because the Web site requires a valid client certificate
403;13 Forbidden because the client certificate was revoked
403;14 Forbidden because the directory listing is denied
403;15 Forbidden because client access license count was exceeded
403;16 Forbidden because the client access certificate is invalid or untrusted
403;17 Forbidden because the client access certificate is expired or is not yet valid

424 Errors
424 errors normally show up when an application protection level is set too high. To cure this on your IIS server goto the web application, select the Properties Virtual Directory tab & set the Application Protection to Low (IIS Process).

500 Error
This is a generic internal error on the IIS server. A common cause of this error in a Sharepoint environment is that Check That File Exists check box in the Internet Service Manager is checked so check here first!

503 Error
This means a service has stopped running or hung, check in Event Viewer on the server to see which one is causing the problem.

Common error situation when using backup/restore to transfer a database to a new farm on MOSS 2007

2011-03-23T15:04:00.005+05:30

When moving a database with backup/restore between different web farms the URL from the Publishing Pages to the PageLayout often contains the server name of the original farm.
For Example:
A customer creates a backup of a content database on one server farm (e.g. using STSADM -o backup or a DB backup in SQL) and restores the backup on a different farm and attaches the content database to a web application.
After this operation is done several operations (like variations and content deployment) fail to work with the following exception:

System.ArgumentException. Value does not fall within the expected range.
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.GetMetadataForUrl(String bstrUrl, Int32 METADATAFLAGS, Guid& pgListId, Int32& plItemId, Int32& plType, Object& pvarFileOrFolder)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.GetMetadataForUrl(String bstrUrl, Int32 METADATAFLAGS, Guid& pgListId, Int32& plItemId, Int32& plType, Object& pvarFileOrFolder)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.GetMetadataForUrl(String relUrl, Int32 mondoProcHint, Guid& listId, Int32& itemId, Int32& typeOfObject, Object& fileOrFolder)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.GetFileOrFolderObject(String strUrl)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.CommonUtilities.GetFileFromUrl(String url, SPWeb web)
...

The reason for this problem is that backup/restore does not adjust the references from the publishing page objects in the Pages library to their Page Layouts. These URLs are sometimes stored as absolute URLs including the server name. And this server name is the server name of the old server farm which cannot be resolved on the new farm.
Be aware that backup/restore of MOSS content databases between server farms are not fully supported! Official documentation of this support limitation is currently in the works. The supported way to transfer content between server farms is to use STSADM -o export/import or content deployment. Backup/restore is only supported for the same server farm. In case that you have run into the above problem you have two options:

Throw away the database and transfer it correctly using STSADM -o export/import or content deployment
Fix the incorrect links manually using the following steps

Open the web in SharePoint Designer
On the “task panes” window, pick hyperlinks.
For the “hyperlink” heading, click the arrow and pick (custom…)
In the dialog, ask to show rows where the hyperlink begins with a URLs which are not valid on the current server farm
For each of the files, right click and say “Edit hyperlink…” and Replace hyperlink with the hyper link that is valid on the current server farm

This tool allows to correct this problem.

To build this tool you need to
- create a new C# console application project in VS.NET with name "FixPageLayout"
- replace the .cs file with the FixPageLayout.cs file included in this download
- add references to Microsoft.SharePoint.dll and Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.dll
- build the project
Syntax to use the tool:
FixPageLayout.exe [url-to-sitecollection

]

Code:
///
/// This source code is freeware and is provided on an "as is" basis without warranties of any kind,
/// whether express or implied, including without limitation warranties that the code is free of defect,
/// fit for a particular purpose or non-infringing. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of
/// the code is with the end user.
///
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing;

namespace FixLayouts
{
    class FixPageLayout
    {
        const string USAGE = "Usage: FixPageLayout.exe ";

        const string MASTER_PAGE_LIB = "_catalogs/masterpage";

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            if (args.Length < 1)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(USAGE);
                return;
            }

            string SiteCollectionUrl = args[0];

            if (!Uri.IsWellFormedUriString(SiteCollectionUrl, UriKind.Absolute))
            {
                Console.WriteLine(USAGE);
                return;
            }

            try
            {

                // get the site collection
                using (SPSite site = new SPSite(SiteCollectionUrl))
                {

                    // get the servername from RootWeb as it should be
                    using (SPWeb RootWeb = site.RootWeb)
                    {
                        SiteCollectionUrl = RootWeb.Url.ToLower();
                        if (!SiteCollectionUrl.EndsWith("/"))
                            SiteCollectionUrl += "/";
                    }
                    // check each site in the site collection
                    foreach (SPWeb web in site.AllWebs)
                    {
                        try
                        {
                            // check if the site is a publishing site
                            if (PublishingWeb.IsPublishingWeb(web))
                            {
                                PublishingWeb pubWeb = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(web);

                                // check each Publishing page in the current publishing site
                                foreach (PublishingPage page in pubWeb.GetPublishingPages())
                                {
                                    // retrieve the page layout of the publishing page
                                    string pageLayout = page.ListItem.Properties["PublishingPageLayout"] as string;

                                    // check for correct syntax of the page layout URL
                                    if (pageLayout != null)
                                        pageLayout = pageLayout.ToLower();

                                    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(pageLayout))
                                    {
                                        Console.WriteLine("Error: Page \"{0}\" does not have a Page Layout assigned.\n", page.Uri);
                                    }
                                    else if (!pageLayout.Contains(MASTER_PAGE_LIB))
                                    {
                                        Console.WriteLine("Error: The Page Layout {0} for Page \"{1}\" does not point to the masterpage document library.\n",
                                            pageLayout, page.Uri);
                                    }
                                    else if (!pageLayout.StartsWith(SiteCollectionUrl) && pageLayout.StartsWith("http"))
                                    {
                                        // here we have a page which has a page layout with different URL which we have to fix
                                        Console.WriteLine("Page {0} has incorrect PageLayout Url", page.Uri);
                                        Console.WriteLine("Old URL: {0}", pageLayout);
                                        string pageLayoutWithoutPrefix = pageLayout.Substring(pageLayout.IndexOf(MASTER_PAGE_LIB));
                                        string newPageLayout = SiteCollectionUrl + pageLayoutWithoutPrefix;

                                        // perform the update in a try/catch block to cover problems
                                        try
                                        {
                                            int version = page.ListItem.File.MinorVersion;
                                            page.CheckOut();
                                            page.ListItem.Properties["PublishingPageLayout"] = newPageLayout;
                                            page.ListItem.File.Properties["PublishingPageLayout"] = newPageLayout;
                                            page.ListItem.Update();
                                            page.CheckIn("PublishingPageLayout corrected");

                                            //major version means that the item was published. Lets publish it again.
                                            if (version == 0)
                                                page.ListItem.File.Publish("PublishingPageLayout corrected");

                                            Console.WriteLine("Fixed URL: {0}\n", newPageLayout);
                                        }
                                        catch (Exception e)
                                        {
                                            Console.WriteLine("An error occurred while trying to fix the URL to the page layout:\n{0}", e);
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }//if Publishing web
                        }
                        finally
                        {
                            // don't forget to dispose the SPWeb object
                            web.Dispose();
                        }
                    }
                }//using SPSite
            }
            catch (System.IO.FileNotFoundException ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0}", ex.Message);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("An error has occured: {0}", ex.Message);
            }
        }
    }
}

Activating Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure - Access Denied

2011-03-23T14:53:00.001+05:30

To solve the ‘Access Denied’ problem you need to elevate the permissions of the AppPool of the web application on which you are trying to activate the Publishing Infrastructure feature.

One way to achieve this is to temporarily change the AppPool of the web application…

1. Open IIS Admin.
2. Location the Web Site for your WSS web application.
3. Goto to the properties and select the ‘Home Directory’ tab.
4. Change the AppPool to be the same as Central Administration.
5. IISRESET
6. Activate the Publishing Infrastructure feature on your site.
7. Change to AppPool back to the original.
8. IISRESET.

This should allow you to enable the feature and use the publishing features within MOSS.

New Features in Sharepoint 2010

2010-10-15T13:04:00.003+05:30

UI Design:

Entire interface in SharePoint 2010 to be W3C XHTML compliant
SharePoint 2010 "more accessible mode" to be WCAG 2.0 AA compliant
New ribbon interface replaces toolbars and menus (and considerations for old "CustomAction" commands which may no longer work!)
Wiki content allows web parts to be dropped in (removing over-reliance on web part zones)

Lists:

There are a whole load of new List capabilities (in addition to the "External List" that BCS brings to the plate!).

Lookup to Multiple

This means that when you create a new lookup column, you can now pull down additional fields from the lookup list item and use them for filtering.

CAML support for Joins!

You can now perform "JOIN" operations in your CAML queries for linking lists together.

Enforced List Relationships

You can now enforce specific relationships for lookup columns with two options:

Restrict Delete - cannot delete parent if child items exist.
Cascade Delete - If you delete the parent, all child items are automatically deleted (recycle bin aware with "restore" options!)

Store-level enforcement

This is code level "required fields", so now you can enforce the requirements even through code !

Unique Fields

Specify a unique field, so that no two values can match (e.g. Email addresses in contacts list)

Compound Indices

If you want to query by 2 fields, you can now index both at once as a compound index.

clause for reverse lookups

This allows a CAML query to do a reverse lookup to get all child items that are associated with the parent!

Formula based validation

e.g. Don't allow Field2 to be lower than Field1.

Workflows:

Out of the box SharePoint 2010 workflows can now be extended in SharePoint Designer 2010.
SharePoint Designer 2010 can be used to create "re-usable" workflows
Site Workflows - to manage processes across an entire site.
You can now import a SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow into Visual Studio 2010!
Import/Export workflow using Visio 2010 for visual workflow modelling.

Content & Document Management:

"Document Sets" allow you to treat a group of documents as a single item (with 1 version history, group executed workflow and policy, and a "download as zip" option).

Managed Metadata Service allows cross-farm Content Type management and a pre-defined enterprise taxonomy structure! This is a killer-app, bringing true enterprise content management to SharePoint 2010.

Enterprise Wiki's allow more rapid "in edit" content, as well as Web Parts deployed directly into the rich text editor (no more web part zones?).

Spelling check and broken link check when you "check-in" WCM pages.

Event Handlers:

Three new event handlers added

WebAdded - Fired every time a child site is created in the web.
ListAdded - Fired every time a list is created in the web.
Feature Upgrading - Fired when a feature has it's "upgrade" method called

Security:

Editing of ASPX pages now required "Designer" permissions (instead of contribute).
XSS (Cross Site Scripting) protection for pages and web parts.
HTML pages will now "force download" by default. This stops people from uploading HTML files with malicious scripts, so if you click on an HTML file in a document library you will get a download dialog instead of the file opening in the browser!
There are still no field level permissions

BI and Connectivity:

New Business Connectivity Services (BCS) allows no-code connections of databases and LOB systems to content types and lists with two-way synchronisation of data and full CRUD support.
BCS interactivity from within Office clients, allowing LOB system data to be edited directly from desktop applications (such as Outlook and Word).
PowerPivot for Excel allows upwards of 100 million rows into an excel workbook with phenominal performance.

Office Application Support:

New web level services for applications (Excel / Visio with JavaScript events!)
SharePoint Workspace to replace "Groove" for offline file support and editing.
Office Web Applications to allow for direct opening and editing of documents from within the browser!
InfoPath 2010 can now be used to edit the List forms out of the box!

Databases:

Still a 100GB "limit" for content databases.
Still cannot have site collections spanning multiple databases.
New support for "Failover" databases, SharePoint 2010 is now SQL mirror aware!
All "Service Applications" have their own SQL database, along with many other new databases (e.g. Feed Activity, Social Data, Usage Logs).
New "read only content databases" open the door for simple content deployment (utilising SQL log shipping or database replication).

Content Deployment:

All execution now in Timer Jobs.
Performance (and memory usage) improved.
Export routine now creates database snapshot to improve data integrity!

Sandboxed Solutions:

Ability to upload WSPs directly into the content database to execute in minimal permissions using "virtual files" (no impact on the file system!)
Resource throttling, code performance checking and "bad routine" blocking
Provides new best practice for code development and deployment!

Search:

New FAST search with thumbnail views (and navigation!) for office documents
Improved relevancy and non-query searching
2 new search products (FAST based)
New refinement panel for advanced sorting and filtering "on the fly"
Multi-lingual support with over 80 languages built-in.

Social Networking:

New My Sites structure
Activity Feeds to provide updates on user activity with an extensible architecture!
"Social Feedback" functions akin to Delicious and Digg allowing tagging of any URL based content, and subsequent discussions around items that have been "tagged".
Ratings mechanism distributed throughout the product.

Get User Profile

2010-09-16T18:29:00.004+05:30

Here's the code to retrieve the UserProfile from User Profiles Service Application in Sharepoint 2010 by passing the account name

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()

{

using (SPSite site = new SPSite("SiteUrl"))

{

SPServiceContext context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(site);

UserProfileManager allProfiles = new UserProfileManager(context);

string loginName = @"DomainName\AccountName";
//Ex: TestDoamin\abc
//You can also use UserExists method to check

if (allProfiles.ResolveProfile(loginName).Length == 1)

{

UserProfile up = allProfiles.GetUserProfile(loginName);

}

});

Adding Item Level Security to a List Item

2010-06-15T17:20:00.000+05:30

Item Level Security for the User:

public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)
{
            SPUser usr = null;
            using (SPWeb web = properties.Web)
            {
                usr = web.SiteUsers.GetByID(web.CurrentUser.ID);

            }

            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
                using (SPSite site = new SPSite(properties.SiteId))
                {
                    using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
                    {
                        SPList lst = web.Lists[properties.ListId];
                        SPListItem li = lst.GetItemById(properties.ListItemId);

                        SPRoleDefinition rd = web.RoleDefinitions.GetByType(SPRoleType.Reader);

                        SPRoleAssignment ra = new SPRoleAssignment((SPPrincipal)usr);

                        ra.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add(rd);
                        if (!li.HasUniqueRoleAssignments)
                        {
                            li.BreakRoleInheritance(false);
                        }
                        for (int i = 0; i <= li.RoleAssignments.Count - 1; i++)
                        {
                            li.RoleAssignments.Remove(i);
                        }
                        li.RoleAssignments.Add(ra);
                        li.Update();

                    }
                }
            });
}

Item Level Security for a Group:

public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)
{
   SPGroup grp = null;
            string groupname = "ListUsers";

            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
                        {
                            using (SPSite site = new SPSite(properties.SiteId))
                            {
                                using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
                                {
                                    web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
                                    SPGroupCollection groupCollection = web.Groups;
                                    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(groupname) || (groupCollection == null) || (groupCollection.Count == 0))
                                    {
                                        throw new ArgumentNullException("Security Group Not Found");
                                    }
                                    else
                                    {
                                        grp = groupCollection[groupname];
                                        SPList lst = web.Lists[properties.ListId];
                                        SPListItem li = lst.GetItemById(properties.ListItemId);

                                        SPRoleDefinition rd = web.RoleDefinitions.GetByType(SPRoleType.Reader);

                                        SPRoleAssignment ra = new SPRoleAssignment((SPPrincipal)grp);

                                        ra.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add(rd);
                                        if (!li.HasUniqueRoleAssignments)
                                        {
                                            li.BreakRoleInheritance(false);
                                        }
                                        for (int i = 0; i <= li.RoleAssignments.Count - 1; i++)
                                        {
                                            li.RoleAssignments.Remove(i);
                                        }
                                        li.RoleAssignments.Add(ra);
                                        li.Update();
                                        web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        });
}

SPContext Object

2010-04-28T10:47:00.000+05:30

When building custom web parts for Windows SharePoint Services V3. You can use the SPContext object to get for instance the site or web from the current context.You can also get the listitem and the webfeatures.

In WSS V2 you would use SPControl.GetContextSite() or SPControl.GetContextWeb() but that's a lot less flexible and it's slower as well.

A couple of different uses of SPContext are shown below:

*************************************************************************
SPList currentList = SPContext.Current.List;

SPWeb currentSite = SPContext.Current.Web;

SPSite currentSiteCollection = SPContext.Current.Site;

SPWebApplication currentWebApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication;

*************************************************************************

SPListItem item = (SPListItem)SPContext.Current.Item;

*************************************************************************

SPWeb site = SPContext.Current.Site.OpenWeb(guid);

SPUser user = SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser;

*************************************************************************

SPSiteDataQuery siteQuery = new SPSiteDataQuery();

DataTable queryResults = SPContext.Current.Web.GetSiteData(siteQuery);

queryResults.TableName = "queryTable";

queryResults.WriteXml("C:\\queryTable.xml");

The last example makes use of the SPSiteDataQuery object. In WSS V3 there are two different query objects. Besides SPSiteDataQuery object there is also the SPQuery object.
The difference between the two is that SPQuery can only be used for queries within a single folder in a single list. SPSiteDataQuery can be used for cross lists and even cross site queries.

SPQuery Samples

2010-04-27T13:06:00.001+05:30

Basic Query - Query to get all the Items from a list where Category field is equal to "Sp2007"

// Get SiteColl
SPSite curSite = new SPSite("http://myPortal");

//Get Web Application
SPWeb curWeb = curSite.OpenWeb();

// Create a SPQuery Object
SPQuery curQry = new SPQuery();

//Write the query (suggested using U2U Query Bulider Tool)
curQry.Query = " SP2007 ";

// Set the Row Limit
curQry.RowLimit = 100;

//Get the List
SPList myList = myWeb.Lists["ListName"];

//Get the Items using Query
SPListItemCollection curItems = myList.GetItems(curQry);

// Go through the resulting items
foreach (SPListItem curItem in curItems)
{
string ResultItemTitle = curItem["Title"].ToString();
}

Query on DateTime Field - Query to Find Items in the List with Today's date.

// Create a SPQuery Object
SPQuery DateFieldQuery = new SPQuery();

//Write the query
DateFieldQuery.Query = “+ DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:\\:mm \\:ssZ") + ”;

//Get the List
SPList myList = myWeb.Lists["ListName"];

//Get the Items using Query
SPListItemCollection ResultItems = myList.GetItems(DateFieldQuery);

Query Using Yes\No Columns - Query to Retrieve all the Items from a list where a Yes\NO type Field, named "AreYouCool?" is "Yes".

// Create a SPQuery Object
SPQuery CheckBoxQuery = new SPQuery();

//Write the query
CheckBoxQuery .Query = “1 ”;

//Get the List
SPList myList = myWeb.Lists["ListName"];

//Get the Items using Query
SPListItemCollection ResultItems = myList.GetItems(CheckBoxQuery);

SharePoint Server Publishing features

2010-04-27T13:05:00.000+05:30

The publishing features that are enabled when the SharePoint Server Publishing feature is enabled on a nonpublishing site.

In Site settings - When you enable the SharePoint Server Publishing feature, the following changes are made to the Site Settings page:

* In the Galleries section, the Master pages link is removed, and it is replaced with the Master pages and page layouts link at both the site collection and site level.

* In the Site Administration section, a Site output cache link is added at the site level only.

* In the Look and Feel section, the following links are added at both the site collection and site level:

o Master Page

o Page layouts and site templates

o Welcome Page

* In the Site Actions section, the Save site as template link is removed at both the site collection and site level.

* In the Site Collection Administration section, the following links are added at the site collection level only:

o Site collection cache profiles

o Site collection object cache

o Site collection output cache

Regional settings- When you enable the SharePoint Server Publishing feature, the Subsite Settings section is added to the Regional Settings page. This enables you specify whether all sites below the current site should inherit the regional settings set for the current site.

Document libraries and lists Created

When you enable the SharePoint Server Publishing feature, the following document libraries and lists are added:

* Documents This library stores documents that are used on pages in the site.

* Images This library stores images that are used on pages in the site.

* Pages This library stores pages that are created in the site.

* Workflow Tasks This list stores workflow tasks that are created in the site.

List and Libraries Settings- In addition to the libraries and lists that are created, the following changes are made to document library settings:

* On the Document Library Settings page, in the General Settings section, a Manage item scheduling link is added.

* On the Versioning Settings page, the following changes are made:

o The Document Version History option is set to Create major and minor (draft) versions. This option determines what versions are created when a file is edited in the Pages library.

o The Draft Item Security option is set to Only users who can edit items. This option determines who can see draft items in the Pages library.

o The Require Check Out option is set to Yes. This option requires documents to be checked out before they can be edited.

Navigation

The following navigation changes are made when you enable the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature:

* The top link bar is replaced with the global navigation menu.

* Default settings for the global navigation menu and the Quick Launch menu are specified.

Web Parts

When you enable the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature, the following Web Parts are added at the site collection level and are available to use in all sites that are created within the site collection:

* Content Query Web Part

* Media Web Part

* Summary Links Web Part

* Table Of Contents Web Part

Page editing menu

When you enable the SharePoint Server Publishing feature, the following changes are made to the page editing menu:

* The Publish tab and Publish button are added to the master page.

Other changes

When you enable the SharePoint Server Publishing feature, the following changes are made:

* Users can no longer create pages that have a space in the name. Spaces are automatically converted to a dash ‘-‘.

* The Manage Content and Structure link is added to the Site Actions menu. This opens the Site Content and Structure tool for the entire site collection.

SharePoint Web services Samples

2010-04-27T13:01:00.000+05:30

//Add a New List Item
protected void CreateListItem(string ID, string Title)
{

SpWebservice.Lists SPService = new SpWebservice.Lists();
SPService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

System.Xml.XmlNode ndListView = SPService.GetListAndView("MyList", "");
string strListID = ndListView.ChildNodes[0].Attributes["Name"].Value;
string strViewID = ndListView.ChildNodes[1].Attributes["Name"].Value;

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();

System.Xml.XmlElement batch = doc.CreateElement("Batch");

batch.SetAttribute("OnError", "Continue");

batch.SetAttribute("ListVersion", "1");

batch.SetAttribute("ViewName", strViewID);

batch.InnerXml = " " +
"" + ID + "" + Title+ "";
try
{
SPService.UpdateListItems(strListID, batch);
}
catch { }

}

//Update list Item
protected void UpdateListItem(string ListID,string Title)
{
SpWebservice.Lists SPService = new SpWebservice.Lists();
SPService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

System.Xml.XmlNode ndListView = SPService.GetListAndView("MyList", "");
string strListID = ndListView.ChildNodes[0].Attributes["Name"].Value;
string strViewID = ndListView.ChildNodes[1].Attributes["Name"].Value;

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();

System.Xml.XmlElement batch = doc.CreateElement("Batch");

batch.SetAttribute("OnError", "Continue");

batch.SetAttribute("ListVersion", "1");

batch.SetAttribute("ViewName", strViewID);

batch.InnerXml = "" + ListID+ "" + Title + "";

try
{
SPService.UpdateListItems(strListID, batch);
}
catch { }

}

//Get List Items
protected void GetListItems(string ID)
{

SpWebservice.Lists SPService = new SpWebservice.Lists();
SPService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

System.Xml.XmlNode ndListView = SPService.GetListAndView("MyList", "");
string strListID = ndListView.ChildNodes[0].Attributes["Name"].Value;
string strViewID = ndListView.ChildNodes[1].Attributes["Name"].Value;

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();

XmlNode ndQuery = xmlDoc.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "Query", "");

XmlNode ndViewFields = xmlDoc.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "ViewFields", "");

ndViewFields.InnerXml = "";

ndQuery.InnerXml = "" + ID +"";

try
{
XmlNode ndListItems =
SPService.GetListItems(strListID, null, ndQuery, ndViewFields, null, null, null);

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(ndListItems.OuterXml);
XmlNamespaceManager mg = new XmlNamespaceManager(doc.NameTable);
mg.AddNamespace("sp", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/");
mg.AddNamespace("z", "#RowsetSchema");
mg.AddNamespace("rs", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset");
mg.AddNamespace("y", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/ois");
mg.AddNamespace("w", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2");
mg.AddNamespace("d", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/directory");

XmlNodeList NodeList = doc.SelectNodes("//sp:listitems/rs:data", mg);

foreach (XmlNode ListItem in NodeList)
{
foreach (XmlNode node in ListItem.ChildNodes)
{
string ID = string.Empty;
string Title = string.Empty;

XmlAttribute id = node.Attributes["ows_ID"];

if (id != null)
{
ID = id.Value;
}

XmlAttribute _Title= node.Attributes["ows_Title"];

if (_Title!= null)
{
Title= _Title.Value;
}

_AddToDataTable(ID, Title);
}
}
catch { }

}

// Get list Fields (using GetList method)

Below is the code to get the values of a choice field in a sharepoint list . You can save these values into a datatable and can bind the datatable with a Drop-down control.

//get choice field values from sharepoint list
protected void GetDrpDownValuesFromList()
{
SPWebservice.Lists FMService = new SPWebservice.Lists();
FMService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
XmlNode ndLists = FMService.GetList("MyList"); //add list name
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(ndLists.OuterXml);

XmlNamespaceManager mg = new XmlNamespaceManager(doc.NameTable);
mg.AddNamespace("sp", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/");
mg.AddNamespace("z", "#RowsetSchema");
mg.AddNamespace("rs", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset");
mg.AddNamespace("y", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/ois");
mg.AddNamespace("w", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2");
mg.AddNamespace("d", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/directory");

XmlNodeList FieldsInList = doc.SelectNodes("//sp:Field", mg);

foreach (XmlNode Field in FieldsInList)
{
if (Field.HasChildNodes)
{
if (Field.Attributes["Name"].Value == "choiceFieldName")
{
foreach (XmlNode node in Field.ChildNodes)
{
if (node.HasChildNodes)
{
foreach (XmlNode Newnode in node.ChildNodes)
{
if(Newnode.HasChildNodes)
{
_addToDataTable(Newnode.InnerText); // Add node value to datatable
}}}}}}}

SharePoint Interview Questions - 3

2010-04-27T12:59:00.000+05:30

Web Parts are componentized, self-contained packages of user interface that can be dropped into place on SharePoint Web Part pages to provide discrete sets of functionality to users.
It can be incredibly easy to get confused between sites, webs, web applications, and site collections. The farm is the topmost level in the hierarchy. Below the farm, you have web applications represented by the SPWebApplication class, which typically correspond to an IIS application pool. Below that, you have a collection of site collections contained in the SPSiteCollection class. Finally, you have site collections represented by the SPSite class and individual websites represented by the SPWeb class.

Features allow reusable pieces of functionality to be created and deployed to other sites,without modifying site templates.It is always better to deploy a feature in new site instead ofdirectly embedding mountains of complex XML.Using Features, you can do everything from adding a link to the Site Settings page to creating a complete, fully functioning Project Management suite that can be added to any SharePoint site.Features are organized in folders under the Features directory located under 12 hives; Where SharePoint Server 2007 puts all of its system files, at the following path: %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12. The two files that are used to define a feature are the feature.xml and Elements.xml .The feature XML file defines the actual feature and will make SharePoint aware of the installed feature. It usually identifies the Feature itself and its element manifest file and sets the Feature scope to Web site.
Elements.xml file identifies the assembly, class, and method to implement in feature.

You can directly deploy a feature in sharepoint site with

stsadm -o installfeature -filename XYZEventHandler\Feature.xml

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename DeletingEventHandler\Feature.xml -url href="http://server/Site/Subsite">http://Server/Site/Subsite

iisreset

OR To Deploy it as solution package you need a solution manifest (manifest.xml).

Solutions allow you to package Features in a cabinet (.cab) file and define important metadata about those Features. After a Solution is installed on a server in the farm, you can then use SharePoint’s Solution management features to automate the deployment of that Solution to other sites within the farm.

The solution manifest (always called manifest.xml) is stored at the root of a solution file. This file defines the list of features, site definitions, resource files, Web Part files, and assemblies to process. It does not define the file structure—if files are included in a solution but not listed in the manifest XML file, they are not processed in any way.

Because the solution file is essentially a .cab file, use the makecab.exe tool to create the solution package. The makecab.exe tool takes a pointer to a .ddf file, which describes the structure of the .cab file. The format of a .ddf file is, declare a standard header and then enumerate, one file per line, the set of files by where they live on disk, separated by where they should live in the .cab file.

Features & Solutions:
The Feature Framework has been extended to allow developers to create custom Features. Features can be deployed by using SharePoint Portal Server 2007 new form of deployment, namely Solution Deployment. Solutions as you know, are custom packages (e.g. WSP file) or redistributable CAB files, created by developers and deployed by SharePoint Administrators. Administrator can deploy Features to the individual site or to all Web front End Servers.

Features are a method for developers to package customisations and deploy them to the SharePoint portal. They can then be activated and deactivated at the Site Collection level. Solutions are a way to bundle features together for deployment.

Custom action : Represents a link, toolbar button, menu item, or any control that can be added to a toolbar or menu that appears in the UI. You define custom actions by using a custom action element within a feature definition file. You can bind custom actions to a list type, content type, file type, or programmatic identifier (ProgID). For more information, see Custom Action Definitions.

Event receiver: Evaluator of an event and definer of the behavior of an application. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 allows you to define event handlers within libraries, lists, and sites. Event receivers can be defined by using a receiver element within a feature definition file. For more information, see Event Registrations.

Master page: Pages that provide a consistent layout and appearance (look and feel) for SharePoint sites. They allow you to factor out layout, structure, and interface elements such as headers, footers, navigation bars, and content placeholders. Master pages in ASP.NET 2.0 and master pages in Windows SharePoint Services work in the same way. For more information, see Building Simple Master Pages for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Module : A file or collection of file instances that define the location where the files are installed during site creation. Modules are frequently used to implement a Web Part Page in the site. You can define modules by using a module element within a feature definition file. For more information, see Modules.

SharePoint site: A Web site hosted in a virtual URL. A SharePoint site is a place for collaboration, communication, or content storage. Depending on your business needs, you can create sites such as team sites, blog sites, wiki sites, and others. You can customize a site's appearance, users, user permissions, galleries, and site administration by using the Site Settings administration pages.

SharePoint site collection: A collection of SharePoint sites that share common administration pages and site settings. Site collections allow you to share content types, site columns, templates, and Web Parts within a group of SharePoint sites.

SharePoint Web farm: A group of Office SharePoint 2007 servers that share the same configuration database. All site content and all configuration data is shared for all front-end Web servers in a server farm.

Site definition.: A set of files that includes a master XML configuration file that is stored on all front-end Web servers. A site definition provides the basic blueprint for how sites look, what lists they include, their default navigational structures, and so on. For more information, see Working with Site Templates and Definitions.

Theme: A group of files (CSS, images) that allow you to define the appearance (look and feel) of Web pages. Themes in ASP.NET 2.0 and themes in SharePoint Products and Technologies work in the same way. Themes are used to help organizations to brand their portals and team sites. Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes a set of predefined themes. However, as a developer, you can create custom themes for your company.

SharePoint Interview Questions - 2

2010-04-27T12:00:00.000+05:30

Q. What are Application Pages in SharePoint?
Ans : Unlike site pages (for example, default.aspx), a custom application page is deployed once per Web server and cannot be customized on a site-by-site basis. Application pages are based in the virtual _layouts directory. In addition, they are compiled into a single assembly DLL.

A good example of an Application Page is the default Site Settings page: every site has one, and it's not customizable on a per site basis (although the contents can be different for sites).

With application pages, you can also add inline code. With site pages, you cannot add inline code.
Typically, you link custom application pages to application.master, the master page file that is used by the default application pages in Windows SharePoint Services. You should also write application pages to inherit from a base class defined inside the Microsoft.SharePoint assembly named LayoutsPageBase.

Q. Which is Better a UserControl or WebPart?
Ans: Advantages of Using User Control are :
Advantages of User control
There are three primary advantages to user controls when dealing with SharePoint. They are: familiarity, reusability, and development speed.
*Familiarity:
One of the keys to development is managing the degree of change that the team is put through as it transitions from technology to technology. Part of managing that change is minimizing it where possible. This is one of the reasons that user controls are such a good solution for many organizations. User controls are a core ASP.NET construct, they are something that developers are likely already familiar with — or at least aware of. This familiarity increases the knowledge reuse coming into the project, which keeps morale high, improves productivity, and improves reuse of the experience after the SharePoint project.

*Reusability
Another way user controls are advantageous is that they can be used with other ASP.NET-based solutions. They aren't explicitly tied to SharePoint. If for some reason in the future you decide that SharePoint isn't the right platform for the solutions you're building — or you decide you need to reuse the technology in another non-SharePoint project — you have that capability.

*Development Speed:
Direct support by Visual Studio for a visual interface for user controls — as opposed to manually adding in controls through code — is a great advantage in development speed. Having a visual look and feel instantly available makes the process go faster.

*Debugging is faster too, as you can construct testing harnesses that fully exercise and instrument the user control. Web Parts are essentially only runable from within SharePoint. This means that you must deal with all of the SharePoint infrastructure while trying to debug.
Maintenance is also easier and faster with User Controls, primarily because they are easier to understand and debug. The net of this is that developing with user controls is substantially faster than developing a Web Part for everything but the most trivial implementations

Q. When to use Diffrent Site Collections?
Ans. An Individual Site collection offers following :
For the Users:
Dedicated Recycle bins
Dedicated usage Reports
Distributed administration (site collection administrators)
Dedicated search scopes, keywords, and best-bets
Custom feature deployments
Dedicated language translation maintenance
Dedicated galleries for web parts, master pages, content types, site columns, site templates, and list templates
Dedicated shared libraries, such as site collection images and site collection styles
Dedicated real estate (Self Containment)

For the IT Administrators:
Site quota templates
Distributed administration
Site locking
Database maintenance options
Backup / Restore abilities
Content Deployments
InfoPath forms services global template targeting

Q. Why to use diffrent site collections:
Ans. Following are the resons:
1. Site quotas is one of the reasons. The issue is the recycle bin is based on site collections and the quota for a site collection. If everyone shares a site collection, then they share the recycle bins storage size.

2. Delegated Security and distributed administration is the next big thing. For eg, you have a IT department that doesn't know who should be able to see what content, besides how it should be organized. This is the job of the content owners and users. SharePoint site collections offers IT the ability to create a site collection for a project, team, department, document, or whatever the needs are, then assign an owner and hand it off to them.

3. In addition to these two points is the need to separate the content between databases.

Q. What is Authentication and Authorization.
Ans : An authentication system is how you identify yourself to the computer. The goal behind an authentication system is to verify that the user is actually who they say they are.
Once the system knows who the user is through authentication, authorization is how the system decides what the user can do.

Q. What are Security methods(Authentication methods) available in sharepoint.
Ans : "Out of the box", SharePoint 2007 supports nine authentication methods. NTLM (short for NT Lan Manager, which is simply the Windows authentication that everyone is familiar with) and Kerberos (also a Windows "standard" authentication) are offered during installation, but I recommend to get started with NTLM, as Kerberos requires "special configuration by the domain administrator", while NTLM works without further hassle.

Q. What is the relationship between Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and Microsoft Windows Services?
Ans. Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies (including SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services) deliver highly scalable collaboration solutions with flexible deployment and management tools. Windows SharePoint Services provides sites for team collaboration, while Share Point Portal Server connects these sites, people, and business processes-facilitating knowledge sharing and smart organizations. SharePoint Portal Server also extends the capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services by providing organizational and management tools for SharePoint sites, and by enabling teams to publish information to the entire organization.

Q. What is a SharePoint Feature? What files are used to define a feature?
Ans. A SharePoint Feature is a functional component that can be activated and deactivate at various scopes throughout a SharePoint instances, scope of which are defined as
1. Farm level 2. Web Application level 3. Site level 4. Web level
Features have their own receiver architecture, which allow you to trap events such as when a feature is
Installing, Uninstalling, Activated, or Deactivated.
The element types that can be defined by a feature include
menu commands, link commands, page templates, page instances, list definitions, list instances,
event handlers, and workflows.

The two files that are used to define a feature are the feature.xml and manifest file(elements.xml). The feature XML file defines the actual feature and will make SharePoint aware of the installed feature. The manifest file contains details about the feature such as functionality.

Q. Workflow can be applied to what all elements of SharePoint ?
Ans. Workflow associations are often created directly on lists and libraries, a workflow association can also be created on a content type that exists within the Content Type Gallery for the current site or content types defined within a list. In short, it can be applied ...
At the level of a list/library
At the level of a content type defined at site scope
At the level of a content type defined at list scope

Q. What are the types of input forms that can be created for a workflow ?
Ans. You can create four different types of input forms including
1. An association form
2. An initiation form
3. A modification form
4. A task edit form.

Note that these forms are optional when you create a workflow template.

Q. What are ways to create input forms for workflow ?
Ans. 1. You can create your forms by using custom application pages, which are standard .aspx pages deployed to run out of the _layouts directory. ( disadv: lot of code required when compared to Infopath approach)
2. Using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 (disadv: picks up a dependenct on MOSS, i.e. it cannot run in a standalone WSS environment)

Q. What is the difference between method activity and event activity in WorkFlow ?
Ans. A method activity is one that performs an action, such as creating or updating a task. An event activity is one that runs in response to an action occurring.

Q. What are content types?
Ans. A content type is a flexible and reusable WSS type definition (or we can a template) that defines the columns and behavior for an item in a list or a document in a document library. For example, you can create a content type for a leave approval document with a unique set of columns, an event handler, and its own document template and attach it with a document library/libraries.

Q. Can a content type have receivers associated with it?
Ans. Yes, a content type can have an event receiver associated with it, either inheriting from the SPListEventReciever base class for list level events, or inheriting from the SPItemEventReciever base class. Whenever the content type is instantiated, it will be subject to the event receivers that are associated with it.

Q. What two files are typically (this is kept generally) included when developing a content type, and what is the purpose of each?
Ans. There is generally the main content type file that holds things like the content type ID, name, group, description, and version. There is also the ContentType.Fields file which contains the fields to include in the content type that has the ID, Type, Name, DisplayName, StaticName, Hidden, Required, and Sealed elements. They are related by the FieldRefs element in the main content type file.

Q. What is an ancestral type and what does it have to do with content types?
Ans. An ancestral type is the base type that the content type is deriving from, such as Document (0x0101). The ancestral type will define the metadata fields that are included with the custom content type.

Q. Can a list definition be derived from a custom content type?
Ans. Yes, a list definition can derive from a content type which can be seen in the schema.XML of the list definition in the element.

Q. When creating a list definition, how can you create an instance of the list?
Ans. You can create a new instance of a list by creating an instance.XML file

Q. What is a Field Control?
Ans. Field controls are simple ASP.NET 2.0 server controls that provide the basic field functionality of SharePoint. They provide basic general functionality such as displaying or editing list data as it appears on SharePoint list pages.

Q. What base class do custom Field Controls inherit from?
Ans. This varies. Generally, custom field controls inherit from the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.BaseFieldControl namespace, but you can inherit from the default field controls.

Q. Can multiple SharePoint installs point to the same DB?
Ans. Multiple SharePoint installs can use the same database server. Not literally the same database on that server. That server must be SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005. It cannot be Oracle or another vendor.

Q. How to create links to the mapped network drives?
Ans. Creating links to mapped drives in WSS v3 or MOSS 2007 can be done via
the new content type for .lnk files.

Q. While creating a Web part, which is the ideal location to Initialize my new controls?
Ans. Override the CreateChildControls method to include your new controls. You can control the exact rendering of your controls by calling the .Render method in the web parts Render method.

Q. What are the two base classes a WebPart you are going to use within SharePoint 2007 can inherit from?
Ans. There are two base classes that a WebPart which is going to be consumed by SharePoint can inherit from, either the
SharePoint WebPart Base class
or the
ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart base class.
When inheriting from the SharePoint WebPart Base class your derived WebPart class will inherit from Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart. When inheriting from the ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart base class your derived WebPart class will inherit from System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart. It is considered good practice to use the ASP.NET WebPart base class since the old base class is meant for backwards compatibility with previous version of SharePoint, however there are four exception when it is better to leverage functionality from the SharePoint WebPart base class:
Cross page connections
Connections between Web Parts that are outside of a Web Part zone
Client-side connections (Web Part Page Services Component)
Data caching infrastructure

Q. What is the WebPartManager sealed class? What is its purpose?
Ans. The WebPartManager sealed class is responsible for managing everything occurring on a WebPart page, such as the WebParts (controls), events, and misc. functionality that will occur in WebPartZones. For example, the WebPartManager is responsible for the functionality that is provided when you are working with moving a WebPart from WebPartZone to WebPartZone. It is known as the “the central class of the Web Part Control Set.”

Q. What does AllowUnsafeUpdates do ?
Ans. If your code modifies Windows SharePoint Services data in some way, you may need to allow unsafe updates on the Web site

, without requiring a security validation. You can do by setting the AllowUnsafeUpdates property.

Q. What does RunWithElevatedPrivileges do?
Ans. There are certain object model calls model that require site-administration privileges. To bypass access-denied error, we use RunWithElevatedPrivileges property when request is initiated by a nonprivileged user. We can successfully make calls into the object model by calling the RunWithElevatedPrivileges method provided by the SPSecurity class.

Q. What does SPWeb.EnsureUser method do?
Ans. Checks whether the specified login name belongs to a valid user of the Web site, and if the login name does not already exist, adds it to the Web site.
e.g SPUser usr = myWeb.EnsureUser("user");

Q. What is a SPSite and SPWeb object, and what is the difference between each of the objects?
Ans. The SPSite object represents a collection of sites (site collection [a top level site and all its subsites]). The SPWeb object represents an instance SharePoint Web, and SPWeb object contains things like the actual content. A SPSite object contains the various subsites and the information regarding them.

Q. What does a SPWebApplication object represent?
Ans. The SPWebApplication objects represents a SharePoint Web Application, which essentially is an IIS virtual server. Using the class you can instigate high level operations, such as getting all the features of an entire Web Application instance, or doing high level creation operations like creating new Web Applications through code.

Q. Would you use SPWebApplication to get information like the SMTP address of the SharePoint site?
Ans. Yes, since this is a Web Application level setting. You would iterate through each SPWebApplication in the SPWebApplication collection, and then use the appropriate property calls (OutboundMailServiceInstance) in order to return settings regarding the mail service such as the SMTP address.

Q. How do you return SharePoint List items using SharePoint web services?
Ans. In order to retrieve list items from a SharePoint list through Web Services, you should use the lists.asmx web service by establishing a web reference in Visual Studio. The lists.asmx exposes the GetListItems method, which will allow the return of the full content of the list in an XML node. It will take parameters like the GUID of the name of the list you are querying against, the GUID of the view you are going to query, etc.
Side Question: I got asked how I built queries with the lists.asmx web service. In order to build queries with this service, one of the parameters that the GetListItems method exposes is the option to build a CAML query. There are other ways to do this as well, but that was how I answered it.

Q. When retrieving List items using SharePoint Web Services, how do you specify explicit credentials to be passed to access the list items?
Ans. In order to specify explicit credentials with a Web Service, you generally instantiate the web service, and then using the credentials properties of the Web Service object you use the System.Net.NetworkCredential class to specify the username, password, and domain that you wish to pass when making the web service call and operations.

Q. What is CAML, and why would you use it?
Ans. CAML stands for Collaborative Application Markup Language. CAML is an XML based language which provides data constructs that build up the SharePoint fields, view, and is used for table definition during site provisioning. CAML is responsible for rending data and the resulting HTML that is output to the user in SharePoint. CAML can be used for a variety of circumstances, overall is used to query, build and customize SharePoint based sites. A general use would be building a CAML query in a SharePoint WebPart in order to retrieve values from a SharePoint list.

Q. What is impersonation, and when would you use impersonation?
Ans. Impersonation can basically provide the functionality of executing something in the context of a different identity, for example assigning an account to users with anonymous access. You would use impersonation in order to access resources on behalf of the user with a different account, that normally, that wouldn’t be able to access or execute something.

Q. What are WebPart properties, and what are some of the attributes you see when declaring WebPart properties in code?
Ans. WebPart properties are just like ASP.NET control properties, they are used to interact with and specify attributes that should be applied to a WebPart by a user. Some of the attributes you see with ASP.NET 2.0 properties are WebDescription, WebDisplayName, Category, Personalizable, and WebBrowsable. Although most of these properties come from the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts class, ones like Category come out of System.ComponentModel namespace.

Q. Why are properties important in WebPart development, and how have you exploited them in past development projects? What must each custom property have?
Ans. Properties are important because WebParts allow levels of personalization for each user. WebPart properties make it possible for a user to interact, adjust, and increase overall experience value with the programmatic assets that you develop without having the need to use an external editor or right any code. A very simple example of exploiting a property would be something like allowing the user to change the text on the WebPart design interface so that they can display whatever string of text they desire.
Each custom property that you have must have the appropriate get and set accessor methods.

Q. What are ClassResources? How do you reference and deploy resources with an ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart?
Ans. ClassResources are used when inheriting from the SharePoint.WebPart.WebPartPages.WebPart base class, and are defined in the SharePoint solution file as things that should be stored in the wpresources directory on the server. It is a helpful directory to use in order to deploy custom images. In ASP.NET 2.0, typically things such as images are referenced by embedding them as resources within an assembly. The good part about ClassResources is they can help to eliminate recompiles to change small interface adjustments or alterations to external JavaScript files.

Q. What is a SharePoint Solution File? How does it differ from WebPart .cab files in legacy development? What does it contain?
Ans. A SharePoint solution file is essentially a .cabinet file with all a developers ustom componets suffixed with a .wsp extension that aids in deployment. The big difference with SharePoint solution files is is that a solution:
allows deployment to all WFE’s in a farm
is highly manageable from the interface allowing deployment, retraction, and versioning
Can package all types of assets like site definitions, feature definitions (and associated components), Webparts, etc.
Can provide Code Access Security provisioning to avoid GAC deployments
And much more..

Q. What is a .ddf file and what does it have to do with SharePoint Solution creation?
Ans. A .ddf file is a data directive file and is used when building the SharePoint solution bundle specifying the source files and their destination locations. The important thing for someone to understand is that the .ddf file will be passed as a parameter to the MAKECAB utility to orchestrate construction of the SharePoint solution file.

Q. What file does a SharePoint solution package use to orchestrate (describe) its packaged contents?
Ans. The solution Manifest.XML file.

Q. What deployment mechanism can you use to instigate Code Access Security attributes for your WebParts?
Ans. SharePoint solution files can add in order to handle code access security deployment issues. This is done in the element in the SharePoint solution manifest.XML, which makes it easier to get assemblies the appropriate permissions in order to operate in the bin directory of the web application.

Q. What are event receivers?
Ans. Event receivers are classes that inherit from the SpItemEventReciever or SPListEventReciever base class (both of which derive out of the abstract base class SPEventRecieverBase), and provide the option of responding to events as they occur within SharePoint, such as adding an item or deleting an item.

Q. When would you use an event receiver?
Ans. Since event receivers respond to events, you could use a receiver for something as simple as canceling an action, such as deleting a document library by using the Cancel property. This would essentially prevent users from deleting any documents if you wanted to maintain retention of stored data.

Q. What base class do event receivers inherit from?
Ans. Event receivers either inherit from the SPListEventReciever base class or the SPItemEventReciever base class, both which derive from the abstract base class SPEventReceiverBase.

Q. If I wanted to not allow people to delete documents from a document library, how would I go about it?
Ans. You would on the ItemDeleting event set: properties.Cancel= true.

Q. What is the difference between an asynchronous and synchronous event receivers?
Ans. An asynchronous event occurs after an action has taken place, and a synchronous event occurs before an action has take place. For example, an asynchronous event is ItemAdded, and its sister synchronous event is ItemAdding

Q. Workflow can be applied to what all elements of SharePoint ?
Ans. While workflow associations are often created directly on lists and document libraries, a workflow association can also be created on a content type that exists within the Content Type Gallery for the current site or content types defined within a list. In short, it can be applied ...
At the level of a list (or document library)
At the level of a content type defined at site scope
At the level of a content type defined at list scope

Q. What are the ways to initiate the workflow ?1. Automatic
2. Manual (standard WSS UI interface)
3. Manual (Custom UI Interface)

Q. What are the types of input forms that can be created for a workflow ?
Ans. You can create four different types of input forms including an association form, an initiation form, a modification form, and a task edit form. Note that these forms are optional when you create a workflow template.

Q. While creating a Webpart, which is the ideal location to Initialize my new controls ?
Ans. Override the CreateChildControls method to include your new controls. To make sure that the new controls are initialized.. call 'EnsureChildControls' in the webparts Render method. You can control the exact Rendering of your controls by calling the .Render method in the webparts Render method.

Q. How to query from multiple lists ?
Ans. Use SPSiteDataQuery to fetch data from multiple lists.

Q.How Does SharePoint work?
Ans. The browser sends a DAV packet to IIS asking to perform a document check in. PKMDASL.DLL, an ISAPI DLL, parses the packet and sees that it has the proprietary INVOKE command. Because of the existence of this command, the packet is passed off to msdmserv.exe, who in turn processes the packet and uses EXOLEDB to access the WSS, perform the operation and send the results back to the user in the form of XML.

Q. What is ServerUpdate() ?
Ans. Any changes in the list, i.e. new addition or modification of an item.. the operation is complete by calling the Update method.
But if a List is set to maintain versions .. and you are editing an item, but don't want to save it as a new version, then use the SystemUpdate method instead and pass in 'false' as the parameter.

Q. What is query.ViewAttributes OR How can you force SPQuery to return results from all the folders of the list?
Ans. If you use SPQuery on any SPlist .. it will bring back results from the current folder only.
If you want to get results from all the folders in the list.. then you need to specify the scope of the query by the use of ViewAttributes..
e.g. query.ViewAttributes = "Scope=\"Recursive\"";

Add Basic Workflow with InfoPath Roles and Rules

2010-04-12T20:22:00.001+05:30

Two user roles, one named "Employee" and one named "Manager."
Two views, one named "Expenses" and one named "Manager Approval."
Two data connections for submitting the form by e-mail, one called "Standard" and one called "For Approval."
A "Total" field in the data source.

Adding User Roles:

Tools --> User Roles --> Add

Adding a View:

For the purposes of demonstrating how to switch views, rename the default view and add a second view to the form template:

On the Views task pane, click the View Properties button.
Change "View 1" in the View name box to "Expenses."
Click OK.
Click the Add a New View link on the Views task pane.
Name the new view "Manager Approval."
Click OK.

Adding a Rule to Switch Views on Open:

Once you have user roles defined and a view added, it is easy to create a rule to switch views based on the current user's role. To switch views when a form is first opened, the rule must run at that time. Follows these steps to create a rule that runs when a form is opened:

Click Form Options from the Tools menu.
Click the Open and Save category in the Form Options dialog box.
Then click the Rules button in the Open behavior section.

In the Rules for Opening Forms dialog box:

Click the Add button.
Give the rule a name.
Click the Set Condition button.

This will display the Condition dialog box, which contains a series of three drop-down list boxes as shown in Figure 2.

SwitchToMangerView

Click the first drop-down and select User's current role. The second drop-down, unless changed, has a value of is equal to. Click the third drop-down to select "Manager," then click OK.

Once the condition is set, add an action to switch the view based on the user's role.

Click the Add Action button on the Rule dialog box.
Choose Switch views from the Action drop-down list box.
Choose the "Manager Approval" view from the View drop-down list box.
Press OK four times to dismiss all dialog boxes and return to the form.

Adding Data Connections:

Toolsà Data Connection

Click Create a new connection to:, then Submit data on the first screen of the Data Connection Wizard. Click Next.
Click As an e-mail messsage for the How do you want to submit your data? option on the second screen. Click Next.
For the To: line, insert a valid email address. When creating the second data connection, use a different email address in order to test the submit rules.
For the Subject: line, insert either "Expense Report" for the "Standard" data connection or "Expense Approval" for the "For Approval" data connection. Click Next.
Select Send the form data as an attachment, and check the Attach the form template to ensure that users can open the form checkbox. Click Next.
Name the connection either "Standard" or "For Approval," depending on which e-mail data connection you are creating, then click Finish.
Repeat steps 1 through 6 to create the second e-mail data connection.

Adding a Total field

Drag a Text Box from the Controls task pane onto the form.
With the text box selected, click Text Box Properties on the Format menu.
In the Text Box Properties dialog box, change the Field name to "Total" and the Data type to Decimal (double), then click OK.

Enabling the Submit Button and Adding Logic

Click Submit Options on the Tools menu.
Check the Allow users to submit this form and click Perform custom action using Rules.
Change the caption of the Show the Submit menu item and the Submit toolbar button to "Submit Expenses" and then click the Rules button.

To create the Manager Submit rule:

Click the Add button on the Rules dialog box.
Name the rule "Manager Submit" and press the Set Condition button.
In the Condition dialog box, select User's current role, is equal to, and "Manager" for the three drop-down list boxes.
Click OK.
Click the Add Action button on the Rules dialog box.
Select Submit using a data connection from the Action drop-down box.
Select "Standard" from the Data connection drop-down box.
Click OK.
Click the Stop processing rules when this rule finishes checkbox.
Click OK.

To create the Employee Submit rule:

Click the Add button on the Rules dialog box.
Name the rule "Employee Submit" and press the Set Condition button.
In the Condition dialog box, select User's current role, is equal to, and "Employee" for the three drop-down list boxes.
Click the And >> button at the end of the third drop-down list box to add a second condition.
Click Select a field or group from the first drop-down list box and choose the "Total" field.
Click is less than or equal to in the second drop-down list box.
Click Type a number in the third drop-down list box and type "1000" without the quotation marks.
Click OK.
Click the Add Action button on the Rules dialog box.
Select Submit using a data connection from the Action drop-down box.
Select "Standard" from the Data connection drop-down box.
Click OK.
Click the Stop processing rules when this rule finishes checkbox.
Click OK.

To create the Approval Submit rule:

Click the Add Action button on the Rules dialog box.
Name the rule "Approval Submit" and press the Add Action button.
Select Submit using a data connection from the Action drop-down box.
Select "For Approval" from the Data connection drop-down box.
Click OK on the Rule dialog box, OK on the Rules dialog box, and then OK on the Button Properties dialog box.

Previewing by Role:

To test the form logic, you need to preview the form using different roles. Click Form Options from the Tools menu and click the Preview category. Select either "Employee" or "Manager" from the Preview as drop-down list box, then click OK. These options are also accessible from the Preview split-button on the Standard toolbar. Click Preview on the Standard toolbar to test the form logic.

After selecting "Employee" from the Preview as drop-down, preview the form and enter a value of "1500" in the "Total" field and click Submit Expenses. This will display the e-mail submit dialog, which will send an e-mail to the address entered in the "For Approval" data connection.

Installing The PDF Ifilter In SharePoint and Registering the PDF Icon

2010-04-12T20:20:00.000+05:30

Here are the steps for adding the PDF ifilter and icon
1. Download Adobe iFilter 6 here:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2611
2. Install Adobe iFilter on the Indexing Server (SharePoint Server 2007)
3. Add it to the File Type in the SSP
a. In Central Administration click on Application Management
b. Under Office SharePoint Server Shared Services click:
Create or configure this farm's shared services
c. Click on the defualt SSP
d. Under Search click Search settings
e. Under Crawl Settings click File Types
f. Click New File Type and add pdf
4. Add PDF Icon:
a. Switch to the folder that contains the Adobe PDF Filter 6.0 files.
For example, switch to the following folder:
Drive:\Program Files\Adobe\PDF IFilter 6.0
b. Type regsvr32.exe pdffilt.dll, and then press ENTER.
c. If you receive a message that the operation was successful, click OK .
d. Copy the .gif file that you want to use for the icon to the following
folder on the server:
Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server
Extensions\12\Template\Images
Icon can be found here (use 17 x 17 one):
http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html
e. Edit the Docicon.xml file to include the .pdf extension. To do so:
Start Notepad, and then open the Docicon.xml file.
Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server
extensions\12\Template\Xml
f. Add an entry for the .pdf extension. For example, where NameofIconFile
is the name of the .gif file:

g. On the File menu, click Save, and then quit Notepad.

Deploying User Control as a WebPart

2010-04-12T20:17:00.000+05:30

Introduction:
To Create a Web Part for sharepoint sites, Create a User control in Visual studio(handling all the events). Drag it into a sharepoint Webpart application(project). And Finally, Deploy the webpart into sharepoint site.
Steps:
1. Create a blank web application and add a web user control (name WebUserControl1.ascx) into it.

2. Add one TextField and a Button to the user control. The ids of these controls are TextBox1 and Button1 respectively.

3. Add a button1_click even in codebehind file of WebUserControl1 , i.e. WebUserControl1.cs
Like:
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
TextBox1.Text = "I am in Web part -> In user control ";
}

4. Now copy this user control to a new folder,name it "controls".The folder should be placed under your (Web Application)
path.eg: “C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80\controls\”.

5. Create a New Web part application using Visual Studio SharePoint Web Part template.

And The code in Web part application goes below:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages;
namespace WepPart_Usercontrol
{
[Guid("68dd6b12-7b2d-4dc8-941f-80acbf83f16f")]

public class WepPart_Usercontrol : System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart
{

UserControl userControl;

public WepPart_Usercontrol()
{
this.ExportMode = WebPartExportMode.All;
}

protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
userControl.RenderControl(writer);
}
protected override void CreateChildControls()
{

base.CreateChildControls();
userControl = (UserControl)Page.LoadControl(@"/controls/WebUserControl1.ascx");
Controls.Add(userControl);
}
}
}

SharePoint Interview Questions - 1

2010-02-22T12:47:00.000+05:30

1) Where are Master Pages and Layout Pages located in a SharePoint site?

Ans: masterPage(Master Page Gallery) under _catalogs folder of root site.

2)What will you use to make a web part zone invisible when its not containing any web part?

Ans:You can set the id and the name attribute of the tag containing the web part zone as _invisibleIfEmpty.

For e.g

WebPart zone....

3)What is the Difference between Master Pages and Layout Pages in SharePoint?

Ans:Master pages and page layouts dictate the overall look and feel of your SharePoint site.

Differences are

1) Master pages contain controls that are shared across multiple page layouts,

such as navigation,search, or language-preference for multilingual sites.

Page layouts contain field controls and Web Parts.

2) Page layouts can be used by all page instances that are based on that

page layout.Master pages can be used by all page instances in a site.

4)Explain the Page Processing Model?

Ans:The following list gives a step-by-step breakdown of how ASP.NET 2.0 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 interact to render pages in a SharePoint site:

1) The browser requests a Web page from Microsoft Internet Information Services IIS).

2) IIS passes the request to ASP.NET 2.0.

3) An HttpApplication pipeline is created for the request.

4) ASP.NET 2.0 fetches the page via the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 file provider. ASP.NET passes the URL to the file provider, and the file provider fetches the page and returns the page stream. The Windows SharePoint Services file provider implements caching and reduces round-trips to the database.

5) ASP.NET loads a Page class, parses the page stream, and finds a reference to the page layout upon which the page is based.

6) The ASP.NET engine compiles the page stream and stores it in memory.

7) ASP.NET queries the Windows SharePoint Services file provider for the page layout.

8) ASP.NET loads the stream for the page layout associated with the current page.

9) ASP.NET compiles the page layout and stores it in memory. ASP.NET can free this memory later if the system needs memory.

10) ASP.NET determines the master page for the site and fetches the master page via the Windows SharePoint Services file provider.

11) ASP.NET compiles the master page and writes to the disk so you never have to recompile the master page unless you modify it.

12) The page layout runs each control on the page in the context of the page that was requested.

13) ASP.NET updates the necessary caches.

14) IIS returns the page to the browser.

5) What are absolute and relative URL?

Ans: When a URL is absolute, it defines unambiguously where the object is located.

Relative Url is an abbreviated to a current location.

6) What Do you know about SharePoint Object Model?

Ans:In Sharepoint Object model there are two Important namespaces, Microsoft.Office.Server and Microsoft.SharePoint . The Microsoft.Office.Server namespace is the root namespace of all Office Server objects and Microsoft.SharePoint is the root namespace for all WSS objects.

In Sharepoint Object model there are two Important namespaces.

The Microsoft.Office.Server namespace is the root namespace of all Office Server objects and Microsoft.SharePoint is the root namespace for all WSS objects.

The Chart Below illustrates some of the key classes contained in each of these namespaces, as well as to which functional area they belong.

Document Libraries (Microsoft.SharePoint)
SPDocumentLibrary , SPPictureLibrary

Business Data Catalog (Microsoft.Office.Server.ApplicationRegistry.Administration)
EntityCollection , ApplicationRegistry
Features (Microsoft.SharePoint)
SPFeatureDefinition, SPFeatureScope, SPElementDefinition, SPFeature, SPFeatureProperty
Sites (Microsoft.SharePoint)
SPSite, SPSiteAdministration, SPSiteCollection, SPWeb
Meetings (Microsoft.SharePoint.Meetings)
SPMeeting, MtgUtility

User Profiles (Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles)
UserProfile, UserProfileManager
Solutions (Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration)
SPsolution, SPFeatureReceiver, SPSolutionCollection

Lists (Microsoft.SharePoint)
SPList, SPListItem, SPListItemCollection
Notes:
* To use the SharePoint API, your code must reside on one of the machines in a SharePoint
application server farm. Your code can still work with other sites in the farm from any
other site in the farm, but you cannot, for example, work with the SharePoint API from a
machine on which MOSS or WSS is not installed.

* The only practical way to consume SharePoint data and functionality from a remote client is to use the SharePoint web services.

* The object model is not designed to support Remoting.

* To add a reference to a Sharepoint API, Right-click the project(in VS) and select Add Reference. Click the Browse tab and select the
following directory:
C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\isapi

7) How Do you implement Impersonation in SharePoint.

Ans: By Using RunWithElevatedPrivileges method provided by SPSecurity class.
Although not recommended, there may be times when you need your code to perform certain functions that the current user does not have the necessary permissions to perform.

The SPSecurity class provides a method (RunWithElevatedPrivileges) that allows you to run a subset of code in the context of an account with higher privileges than the current user.
The premise is that you wrap the RunWithElevatedPrivileges method around your code. And also In certain circumstances, such as when working with Web forms, you may also need to set the AllowSafeUpdates method to true to temporarily turn off security validation within your code. If you use this technique, it is imperative that you set the AllowSafeUpdates method back to false to avoid any potential security risks.

Code example

{
SPSite mySite = SPContext.Current.Site;
SPWeb myWeb = mySite.OpenWeb();

//Using RunWithElevatedPrivileges

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
// Get references to the site collection and site for the current context.
// The using statement makes sures these references are disposed properly.

using (SPSite siteCollection = new SPSite(mySite.ID))
{

using (SPWeb web = siteCollection.OpenWeb(myWeb.ID))
{

web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;

try
{
//Your code
}

web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;

//siteCollection = null;
//web = null;

}

8)What is the performance impact of RunWithElevatedPrivileges?

Ans: RunWithElevatedPrivileges creates a new thread with the App Pool's credentials, blocking your current thread until it finishes.

9) What is the difference between a Site Definition and a Site Template?

Ans: Site Definitions are stored on the hard drive of the SharePoint front end servers. They are used by the SharePoint application to generate the sites users can create. Site Templates are created by users as a copy of a site they have configured and modified so that they do not have to recreate lists, libraries, views and columns every time they need a new instance of a site.

10) How Do you use\refer External Javascript and Css file in your WebPart?

Ans: You can use javascript,Css or Image files placed in _Layouts or any other location by registering them on the webpart page. See Code examples at Using External Javascript, CSS or Image File in a WebPart.

11) Can you add a Custom aspx or WebApplication Page in SharePoint ?

Ans: Yes, Following modification are required in the Page to display it in SharePoint.

1. Add the references for various share point assemblies on the Page.

2. Wrap the Code in PlaceHolderMain contentPlaceholder, so that it gets displayed as a content page.

3. Specify SharePoint Master in aspx and Code behind. You can switch the master page in code behind of the Page as well.

12) When should you dispose SPWeb and SPSite objects? And even more important, when not?

Ans: You should always dispose them if you created them yourself, but not otherwise. You should never dispose SPContext.Current.Web/Site and you should normally not dispose SPWeb if IsRootWeb is true.

13) When modifying a list item, what is the "main" difference between using SPListItem.Update() and SPListItem.SystemUpdate()?

Ans:Using SystemUpdate() will not create a new version and will also retain timestamps.

14) If you have an ItemUpdated or ItemUpdating event receiver and it causes an update to the item, how do you prevent another ItemUpdated and ItemUpdating event from being fired during your update?

Ans: Before performing your update, call DisableEventFiring().

After update, call EnableEventFiring().

15) What is a SharePoint Feature? What files are used to define a feature?

Ans: A SharePoint Feature is a functional component that can be activated and deactivate at various scopes throughout a SharePoint instances, scope of which are defined as 1. Farm level 2. Web Application level 3. Site level 4. Web level

Features have their own receiver architecture, which allow you to trap events such as when a feature is Installing, Uninstalling, Activated, or Deactivated.

The element types that can be defined by a feature include menu commands, link commands, page templates, page instances, list definitions, list instances, event handlers, and workflows.

The two files that are used to define a feature are the feature.xml and manifest file(elements.xml). The feature XML file defines the actual feature and will make SharePoint aware of the installed feature. The manifest file contains details about the feature such as functionality.

16) How Do you bind a Drop-Down Listbox with a Column in SharePoint List ?

Ans:

Method 1 : You can get a datatable for all items in the list and add that table to a data set. Finally, specify the dataset table as datasource for dropdown listbox.

Method 2 : You can also use SPDatasource in your aspx or design page.

See Code example Binding Drop-Down with Sharepoint List data

Method 1:
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
DataSet ds = new DataSet();

SPSite mySite = SPContext.Current.Site;
SPWeb myWeb = mySite.OpenWeb();

SPList list = myWeb.Lists["ListName"];
DataTable DTable_List = list.Items.GetDataTable();
DTable_List.TableName = "Table1";
ds.Tables.Add(DTable_List);

DropDownList.DataSource = ds.Tables["Table1"];
DropDownList.DataTextField = "FieldName";
DropDownList.DataValueField = "FieldName";
DropDownList.DataBind();
DropDownList.SelectedIndex = 0;

}

Method2:

17) Can you name some of the tools used for SharePoint Administration?

Ans:

Axceler's ControlPoint

Latest Version : ContolPoint 3.5

Description : ControlPoint 3.5 helps enterprises adopt and embrace Microsoft SharePoint more than ever before. ControlPoint 3.5 boasts powerful new capabilities that give enterprises more control over their configuration and deployment of SharePoint while strengthening their SharePoint security.

Key Features: Moving sites, site collections, list, library, documents and items accross the farm.

DocAve

Latest Version : DocAve Software Platform v5.3

Description : DocAve Software Platform v5.3, is considered the industry's most comprehensive software solution for SharePoint backup and recovery, administration, archiving, auditing, replication, reporting, compliance, and migration. This latest release introduces the DocAve Storage Optimization Suite, comprised of an enhanced DocAve Archiver module, and the new DocAve Connector and DocAve Extender modules - each delivering features that enable the efficient management of SharePoint storage.

Key Features : Used as a good SharePoint archiving solution. It has a great UI and performs good reporting and auditing.

Nintex Workflow 2007

Description : Nintex Workflow 2007 enables organizations to build complex workflow processes quickly and easily using a web browser interface. Nintex Workflow 2007 empowers users across the organization to automate business processes, review workflow activities and automate common SharePoint administrative tasks.

Key Features : Easy to Use, and well intergrates with Active Directory.

18) What is Authentication and Authorization?

Ans: An authentication system is how you identify yourself to the computer. The goal behind an authentication system is to verify that the user is actually who they say they are.

Once the system knows who the user is through authentication, authorization is how the system decides what the user can do.

19) How Do you Increase trust level for a single WebPart for in the WebConfig file.

Ans: To list a Web Part with Full Permissions within your Web Application while still retaining a WSS_Minimal permission set for all other Web Parts follow these steps:

1. Make a copy of the WSS_Minimal.Config file from the 12\Config folder and paste it into the same folder renaming it to Custom_WSS_Minimal.Config.

2. Edit the Custom_WSS_Minimal.Config file with an XML editor such as Visual Studio.NET or NotePad.

3. Obtain the Public Key Token and Public Key Blob for the Web Part assembly that you want to deploy using the following command: sn –Tp filename.dll.

4. Create a new entry in your Custom_WSS_Minimal.Config file for your WebPart.

5. Create a new TrustLevel element for your config file in the Web.Config called Custom_WSS_Minimal that points to your custom file in the 12\config folder.

6. Set the Trust Level of the Web.Config to Custom_WSS_Minimal

7. Recycle the Application Pool or run IISReset

8. Deploy & Test your Web Part.

20)What SharePoint Databases are Created during the standard Install?

Ans: During standard install, the following databases are created :

SharePoint_AdminContent

SharePoint_Config

WWS_Search_SERVERNAME%_%GUID_3%

SharedServicesContent_%GUID_4%

SharedServices1_DB_%GUID_5%

SharedServices1_Search_DB_%

GUID_6%WSS_Content_%GUID_7%

21) What are content types?

Ans: A content type is a flexible and reusable WSS type definition (or we can a template) that defines the columns and behavior for an item in a list or a document in a document library. For example, you can create a content type for a leave approval document with a unique set of columns, an event handler, and its own document template and attach it with a document library/libraries.

22) Can a content type have receivers associated with it?

Ans: Yes, a content type can have an event receiver associated with it, either inheriting from the SPListEventReciever base class for list level events, or inheriting from the SPItemEventReciever base class. Whenever the content type is instantiated, it will be subject to the event receivers that are associated with it.

23) What two files are typically (this is kept generally) included when developing a content type, and what is the purpose of each?

Ans: There is generally the main content type file that holds things like the content type ID, name, group, description, and version. There is also the ContentType.Fields file which contains the fields to include in the content type that has the ID, Type, Name, DisplayName, StaticName, Hidden, Required, and Sealed elements. They are related by the FieldRefs element in the main content type file.

24) Can a list definition be derived from a custom content type?

Ans: Yes, a list definition can derive from a content type which can be seen in the schema.XML of the list definition in the element.

25) While creating a Web part, which is the ideal location to Initialize my new controls?

Ans: Override the CreateChildControls method to include your new controls. You can control the exact rendering of your controls by calling the .Render method in the web parts Render method.

26) How do you return SharePoint List items using SharePoint web services?

Ans:

In order to retrieve list items from a SharePoint list through Web Services, you should use the lists.asmx web service by establishing a web reference in Visual Studio. The lists.asmx exposes the GetListItems method, which will allow the return of the full content of the list in an XML node. It will take parameters like the GUID of the name of the list you are querying against, the GUID of the view you are going to query, etc.

27) What are ClassResources? How do you reference and deploy resources with an ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart?

Ans:ClassResources are used when inheriting from the SharePoint.WebPart.WebPartPages.WebPart base class, and are defined in the SharePoint solution file as things that should be stored in the wpresources directory on the server. It is a helpful directory to use in order to deploy custom images. In ASP.NET 2.0, typically things such as images are referenced by embedding them as resources within an assembly. The good part about ClassResources is they can help to eliminate recompiles to change small interface adjustments or alterations to external JavaScript files.

28)What are event receivers?

Ans: Event receivers are classes that inherit from the SpItemEventReciever or SPListEventReciever base class (both of which derive out of the abstract base class SPEventRecieverBase), and provide the option of responding to events as they occur within SharePoint, such as adding an item or deleting an item.

29) When would you use an event receiver?

Ans: Since event receivers respond to events, you could use a receiver for something as simple as canceling an action, such as deleting a document library by using the Cancel property. This would essentially prevent users from deleting any documents if you wanted to maintain retention of stored data.

30) If I wanted to not allow people to delete documents from a document library, how would I go about it?

Ans: You would on the ItemDeleting event set: properties.Cancel= true.

31) What is the difference between an asynchronous and synchronous event receivers?

Ans: An asynchronous event occurs after an action has taken place, and a synchronous event occurs before an action has take place. For example, an asynchronous event is ItemAdded, and its sister synchronous event is ItemAdding

32) While creating a Webpart, which is the ideal location to Initialize my new controls ?

Ans: Override the CreateChildControls method to include your new controls. To make sure that the new controls are initialized.. call 'EnsureChildControls' in the webparts Render method. You can control the exact Rendering of your controls by calling the .Render method in the webparts Render method.

33) How to query from multiple lists ?

Ans: Use SPSiteDataQuery to fetch data from multiple lists.

34)What is the difference between a site and a web?

Ans: A site in sharePoint is a site collection. It is an object of SPsite class in sharepoint. While a Web is simply a blank site within that site collection. Web is a Part of SPweb class, thus represents a site within a site collection.

35) Can a web application use few shared services like search,audience from ssp?

Ans: No, it has to use all the shared services in that SSP.

Deploying a WebPart Solution in SharePoint 2007 the Simple Way

2010-02-19T17:25:00.000+05:30

Deploying web parts into MOSS 2007 isn’t exactly straight forward and after looking around the web for a while it became apparent that there is no ’standard’ way for deploying them.

I looked at a few different options and found that creating a Solution file using Visual Studio’s CAB Setup Project was the easiest and most reusable way of accomplishing this task.

Below is a step by step guide to developing and deploying a simple WebPart.
First we need to create a WebPart to deploy; the easiest way I have found of doing this is to download the Visual Studio SharePoint extensions from Microsoft
After installing the extensions open Visual Studio and create a new project. You should now have some extra project templates under the SharePoint section.

Select ‘Web Part’ project, give it a name and click OK.
Visual studio will now create a basic Web Part class for you to edit.
My Web Part was called ClientViewerWebPart and I inserted some code into the overridden Render method which basically outputs data from a SharePoint list. This code looks like this so far:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages;

namespace ClientViewerWebPart
{
[Guid(“6bf05a67-118d-4cc4-80f7-b923be02773a”)]
public class ClientViewerWebPart : System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart
{
public ClientViewerWebPart()
{
this.ExportMode = WebPartExportMode.All;
}

protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
SPSite site = new SPSite(“http://leesbs/”);
SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb();
SPListCollection collection = web.Lists;
SPList list = collection.GetList(new Guid(“{936518FF-CC2E-4BD9- ABB9-0580EA04BCD6}”),false);

for (int index = 0; index < list.Items.Count; index++)
{
SPListItem item = list.Items[index];
writer.Write(“”);
writer.Write(“”);
writer.Write(“”);
writer.Write(“

Client Name

” + item[“Client Name”].ToString() + “

”);
}
}
}
}
Next we need to tell SharePoint to allow this web part to be executed from a partially trusted location. We do this by making an entry into the web parts AssemblyInfo file.
In Solution Explorer Expand Properties and open up the AssemblyInfo.cs file. At the bottom of the file insert the following:

[assembly: System.Security.AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers()]

Now we need to add a manifest file to out Web Part project. This manifest file is what defines our solution and tells SharePoint everything it needs to know about our Web Part.
Add a new XML file to tthe project and rename it manifest.xml. Insert the following XML into the file:

SolutionId=“{E3CF88A3-0EC3-49b9-B09E-5F84417EC6ED}“>

Location=“ClientViewerWebPart.dll“>

Namespace=“ClientViewerWebPart“ TypeName=“*“/>

You need to provide your own GUID value for the SolutionId attribute, you can do this within Visual Studio by using the GUID Generator under the Tools menu. You also need to enter your assemblies PublicKeyToken value which can be found by either using ILDASM.exe or Reflector.

The last thing we need to do to our Web Part project is make sure it has a strong name when it’s compiled, you can do this either using the SN.exe command line tool, or opening the project properties from within Visual Studio and navigating to the Signing section. From here you can create a new key file which will be used to strong name the assembly at compile time.

Now we have a fully working Web Part which can be compiled, what we need to do now is deploy this Web Part into our SharePoint site.

We are going to use a Visual Studio setup project to accomplish this, so add a new project to the same solution your Web part project is in, and create a CAB setup project. I called my setup project ClientViewerWebPartSetup.

Right click on the project and goto Add -> Project Output, from the ‘Add Project Output Group’ dialog box, select your Web Part project and then select ‘Primary Output’.

Repeat the step above but this time instead of selecting ‘Primary Output’ select ‘Content Files’.

After this is done you should have a solution that looks something like this:

Now you can compile your setup project, this will create a cab file containing the WebPart assembly and the manifest.xml file so all we need to do now to create our SharePoint solution file is rename our .cab file to .wsp.

We are now ready to deploy this solution file into SharePoint and we do this by using the STSADM.exe tool. This tool is located in your SharePoint installation directory under the bin folder mine was located here C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN. I strongly suggest you add this path to you PATH environment variable for ease of use.

You need to use the addsolution argument to the STSADM tool the first time you deploy a Web Part into your SharePoint site. When updating the Web Part you can use the upgrade solution argument.

The following is how I deployed my Web Part into my SharePoint site for the first time.

Great! Your Web Part is now deployed into your SharePoint site, or is it?

We need to do one more thing to make out Web Part available to our SharePoint site.

Open up Central Administration and navigate to ‘Operations’ under ‘Global Configuration’ click ‘Solution Management’. You should see your Web Part Solution sitting in the list with ‘Not Deployed’ as it’s status. Click on the Solution and click the ‘Deploy Solution’ button.

You should now be able to add your Web Part to any sites Web Part gallery.

Configure Single Sign-On (Office SharePoint Server)

2009-11-02T11:03:00.000+05:30

Single Sign-On (SSO) is a Microsoft Office Share Point Server feature that provides storage and mapping of credentials such as account names and passwords. Using SSO, portal site–based applications can retrieve information from third-party applications and back-end systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relations Management (CRM) systems.

The use of single sign-on functionality enables users to authenticate only once when they access portal site–based applications that need to obtain information from other business applications and systems.

Configuring single sign-on consists of five tasks:

Configure and start the Microsoft Single Sign-On service
Configure Single Sign-On for Office SharePoint Server 2007
Manage the encryption key
Manage enterprise application definitions
Manage account information for an enterprise application definition

Note that you must be logged into the SharePoint Central Administration Web site on a farm server to configure single sign-on (SSO) for Office SharePoint Server 2007. If you attempt to configure SSO on a workstation or any computer that is not a farm server, you will see an error message that reads "Single sign-on cannot be configured from this server. To configure single sign-on, go to the computer running the single sign-on service and specify these settings locally."

Follow the procedures in the sections that follow to configure SSO for your Office Share Point Server 2007 environment.

Configure and start the Microsoft Single Sign-On service

To use single sign-on, the Microsoft Single Sign-On service (SSOSrv) must be installed on all Microsoft Windows front-end Web servers in the farm. SSOSrv must also be installed on all servers running Excel Services. If the Business Data Catalog search is used, SSOSrv must also be installed on the index server.

SSOSrv is configured by using the Services console. When configuring the service, a logon account is required. The logon account must meet all of the following criteria:

Must be a domain user account. It cannot be a group account.
Must be an Office SharePoint Server farm account.
Must be a member of the local Administrators group on the encryption-key server. (The encryption-key server is the first server on which you start SSOSrv.)
Must be a member of the Security Administrators role and db_creator role on the computer running Microsoft SQL Server.
Must be either the same as the single sign-on administrator account, or a member of the group account that is the single sign-on administrator account.

Configure and start the Microsoft Single Sign-On service

On the server, click Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management.
In the Computer Management console, expand Services and Applications, and then click Services.
Right-click Microsoft Single Sign-On Service, and then choose Properties.
On the General tab, change the Startup type to Automatic.
On the General tab, under Service Status, click Start.
Click OK to save your changes and close the Properties window.
Repeat steps 1 through 6 for each applicable server in the farm.

Configure Single Sign-On for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Managing server settings for single sign-on includes specifying the appropriate administrator accounts, the single sign-on database server and server name, and time-out and audit log settings.

Note:

You must open Central Administration on the computer that runs Office SharePoint Server 2007 to manage server settings for single sign-on.

Configure SSO for Office SharePoint Server 2007

On Central Administration, on the top navigation bar, click Operations.
On the Operations page, in the Security Configuration section, click Manage settings for single sign-on.
On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On page, in the Server Settings section, click Manage server settings.
On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On page, in the Account name box in the Single Sign-On Administrator Account section, type the single sign-on administrator account name by using the form domain/group or domain/username.

Note:

The single sign-on administrator account specifies the set of people who can create, delete, or modify application definitions. The administrator account can also back up the encryption key.

The user or group that you specify as the single sign-on administrator must be all of the following:

Either a Windows global group or an individual user account. This account cannot be a domain local group account or a distribution list.
The same account as the single sign-on service account, if a user is specified. If a group is specified, the single sign-on service account must be a member of that group.
The same as the configuration account for single sign-on, if a user is specified. If a group is specified, the configuration account for single sign-on must be a member of that group.
A member of the Farm Administrators group on Central Administration.

If a group is specified, all users who are added to the group for the purpose of administering single sign-on must be members of the local Administrators group on the encryption-key server. Do not make this account a member of the local Administrators group on the encryption-key server.

In the Enterprise Application Definition Administrator Account section, in the Account name box, type the account name of the group or user who can set up and manage enterprise application definitions. Type the name by using the form domain/group or domain/username.

The enterprise application definition administrator account can manage credentials of an enterprise application definition, including changing the password of a group enterprise application definition and changing or deleting credentials for an individual enterprise application definition.

The user or group that you specify must be the following:

Either a Windows global group or an individual user account. This account cannot be a domain local group account or a distribution list.
A member of the Reader SharePoint group on Central Administration.

In the Database Settings section, in the Server name box, type the NetBIOS name of the single sign-on database server (for example, computer_name or computer_name\SQL_Server_instance). Do not type the fully qualified domain name.
In the Database name box, enter the name of the single sign-on database server.

Note:

Unless you are pre-creating databases, we recommend that you use the default database server and single sign-on database server.

In the Time Out Settings section, in the Ticket time out (in minutes) box, type a value for how many minutes passes before a single sign-on ticket expires. The time-out should be long enough to last between the time that the ticket is issued and the time that the enterprise application redeems the ticket. Two minutes is the recommended value.
In the Delete audit log records older than (in days) box, type a value for how many days the audit log holds records before deleting them.
Click OK.

Manage the encryption key

The first server that SSOSrv is enabled on becomes the encryption-key server. The encryption-key server generates and stores the encryption key. The encryption key is used to encrypt and decrypt the credentials that are stored in the SSO database.

Because the encryption key protects security credentials, we recommend that you create a new encryption key on a regular schedule (for example, every 90 days). We also recommend that you create a new encryption key immediately if you suspect that account credentials have been compromised.

The encryption key must be backed up each time a new key is created. You do not need to back up the encryption key at any other time (except when you are moving the encryption-key server role from one server to another). You must back up the encryption key from the encryption-key server locally; the key cannot be backed up remotely.

You can also use encryption key backup and restore to move the encryption-key server role from one server to another. (Other tasks must also be completed to move the encryption-key server role.)

Note:

You must open Central Administration on the computer that runs Office SharePoint Server 2007 to manage the encryption key.

Manage the encryption key

On Central Administration, on the top navigation bar, click Operations.
On the Operations page, in the Security Configuration section, click Manage settings for single sign-on.
On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On page, in the Server Settings section, click Manage encryption key.

From the Manage Encryption Key page, you can perform three management tasks:

Create a new encryption key
Back up an encryption key
Restore an encryption key

Create a new encryption key

On the Manage Encryption Key page, in the Encryption Key section, click Create Encryption Key.
On the Create Encryption Key page, select the Re-encrypt all credentials by using the new encryption key check box.

Important:

If you do not re-encrypt the existing credentials with the new encryption key, users must retype their credentials for individual application definitions, and administrators must retype group credentials for group application definitions.

Click OK.

Back up an encryption key

On the Manage Encryption Key page, in the Drive list in the Encryption Key Backup section, click the removable media drive on which you want to store the encryption-key backup.
Click Back Up.

Restore an encryption key

You should always back up the encryption key when you back up the single sign-on database, because the database is useless without the encryption key. Also, before you replace an encryption-key server, make sure to back up the encryption key so that it can be restored on the new encryption-key server.

On the Manage Encryption Key page, in the Drive list in the Encryption Key Restore section, click the removable media drive from which you want to restore the encryption-key backup.
Click Restore.

Manage enterprise application definitions

In the single sign-on environment, the back-end external data sources and systems are referred to as enterprise applications. For each enterprise application that Office SharePoint Server 2007 connects to, a corresponding enterprise application definition needs to be configured.

On Central Administration, on the top navigation bar, click Operations.
On the Operations page, in the Security Configuration section, click Manage settings for single sign-on.
On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On page, click Manage settings for enterprise application definitions.

Manage account information for an enterprise application definition

If you are using a group to connect to the enterprise application, you need to provide account credentials for the group to use. If individual users are connecting directly to the enterprise application, you can preset or reset user passwords, or you can delete users from the enterprise application definition.

On Central Administration, on the top navigation bar, click Operations.
On the Operations page, in the Security Configuration section, click Manage settings for single sign-on.
On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On page, in the Enterprise Application Definition SettingsManage account information for enterprise application definitions. section, click
On the Manage Account Information for an Enterprise Application Definition page, in the Enterprise application definition list in the Account Information section, click the application definition for which you want to manage account information.
In the Group account name box, type the name of the group that is allowed access to the enterprise application.
In the Enterprise Application Definition section, select one of the following:

Option	Purpose
Update account information	Enter credentials for the first time or update the credentials used to connect to the enterprise application.
Delete stored credentials for this account from this enterprise application definition	Delete the credentials currently used to connect to the enterprise application.
Delete stored credentials for this account from all enterprise application definitions	Delete the credentials currently used to connect the selected enterprise application from all enterprise application definitions. Deleting stored credentials deletes credentials only for individual accounts; it does not delete credentials for group accounts.

If you select Update account information, complete the following steps:

Click Set.
On the Provide Account Information page, in the Logon Information section, type the user name and password of the account that will be used to connect to the enterprise application.
Click OK.

Click Done.

SharePoint Object Model Code Samples

2009-10-30T14:40:00.000+05:30

SharePoint provides a solid framework for the .Net developers to write code against and extend sharepoint functionality. As sharepoint is done on ASP.NET 2.0 and have a power code base of .Net Class libraries, a lot of developers can now make use of them and create excellent applications utilizing sharepoint features and libraries.

SPSiteDataQuery Class
Imagine a scenario in which you want to run a single query against every list in the current site collection that has been created from the Announcements list type and return all list items that were created today. The following code sample demonstrates how to do this by creating an SPSiteDataQuery object, initializing it with the necessary CAML statements, and then passing it to the current SPWeb object’s GetSiteData method.

SPSiteDataQuery query = new SPSiteDataQuery();
query.Lists = @"";
query.ViewFields = @"";
query.Webs = "";

string queryText = @" ";

query.Query = queryText;

DataTable table = site.GetSiteData(query);

foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows) {
Console.WriteLine(row["Title"].ToString());
}

Using SPQuery to query specific items in the list
To get back specific results within a list, you can use the SPQuery object. When you use an SPQuery object, you will create CAML statements to select specific data within the target list. To select announcements that have expired, you may want to use a query built with CAML statements, as shown in the following example:
SPQuery query = new SPQuery();
query.ViewFields = @"";
query.Query =
@" ";

SPList list = site.Lists["News"];
SPListItemCollection items = list.GetItems(query);
foreach (SPListItem expiredItem in items) {
Console.WriteLine(expiredItem["Title"]);
}
You must specify the fields you want returned in the query by using the ViewFields property. Also note that you must specify the fields in terms of the field Name, and not DisplayName. If you attempt to access fields without specifying them in ViewFields, you will experience an exception of type ArgumentException

Enumerating through the Fields excluding Hidden and read only fields
foreach (SPListItem item in list.Items) {
foreach (SPField field in list.Fields) {
if (!field.Hidden && !field.ReadOnlyField)
Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}", field.Title, item[field.Id]);
}
}
foreach (SPListItem item in list.Items) {
foreach (SPField field in list.Fields) {
if (!field.Hidden && !field.ReadOnlyField)
Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}", field.Title, item[field.Id]);
}
}

Checking if the List Exists and Adding a new list if it does not Exists
using System;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;

class Program {
static void Main() {
using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://spdevserver"3000")) {
using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb()) {
string listName = "News";
SPList list = null;
foreach (SPList currentList in web.Lists) {
if (currentList.Title.Equals(listName,
StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)) {
list = currentList;
break;
}
}

if (list == null) {
Guid listID = web.Lists.Add(listName, "News",
SPListTemplateType.Announcements);
list = web.Lists[listID];
list.OnQuickLaunch = true;
list.Update();
}
}
}
}
}

Check if list is of the type Document Library or Not?
public bool CkechIfListisDocLib(SPList list) {
if (list is SPDocumentLibrary)
return true;
else
return false;
}

Running a Code with Elevated Permissions
If you want to run a portion of the code with elevated permissions

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
// do something
});

Download a file from Document Library and Save it locally
private static void DownloadFile()
{
//site url
SPSite site = new SPSite("http://spdevser:3000/");
//web url
SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb(@"/sites");
//list name
SPList list = web.Lists["Form Templates"];
//downloading first items
File.WriteAllBytes(@"c:\test.doc", list.Items[0].File.OpenBinary());file

}

Add an Item to the List
private static void AddItem()
{

SPSite site = new SPSite("http://spdevserver:3000/"); //site url

SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb(@"/Dev/template"); //weburl

SPList list = web.Lists["COI"]; //list

SPListItem item = list.Items.Add(); //item to be added

item["Title"] = "Welcome"; //update the title field

list.Update(); //update list

}

Update a file to the Document Library

SPSite site = new SPSite("http://spdevserver:3000/");
SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb();
web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;

FileStream fs = File.Open(@"C:\Sample.doc",FileMode.OpenOrCreate,FileAccess.Read);

SPFolder myfolder = web.Folders["Documents"];

myfolder.Files.Add("Sample.doc", fs);
myfolder.Update();

web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;

Getting / Setting values for Lookup & Hyperlink Fields

2009-10-30T14:37:00.000+05:30

Set the url field of a link

Use the SPFieldUrlValue class to create an object that holds the url to link to, and the title to display:

SPList list = web.Lists["Links"];

SPListItem newLink = list.Items.Add();

SPFieldUrlValue value = new SPFieldUrlValue();

value.Description = "Sample";

value.Url = "http://sharepoint-unleashed.blogspot.com/";

newLink["URL"] = value;

newLink.Update();

Get the url field of a link

Use the SPFieldUrlValue class to create an object that gets the url and description:

SPList list = web.Lists["Links"];

SPListItem existingLink = list.Items[0];

SPFieldUrlValue value = new SPFieldUrlValue(existingLink["URL"].ToString());

string linkTitle = value.Description;

string linkURL = value.Url;

Set the value of a lookup field for a known title and ID

In the following example I am using SPFieldLookupValue to set the value of a lookup field ("Group Name") to item "Program Operations", whose ID is 14:

SPList list = web.Lists["Branches"];

SPListItem newBranch = list.Items.Add();

newBranch["Title"] = "A New Branch";

SPFieldLookupValue newValue = new SPFieldLookupValue(14,"Program Operations");

newBranch["Group Name"] = newValue;

newBranch.Update();

Get the value of a lookup field from an item

Reading the value of the group name field (which is a lookup field in the branches list):

SPList list = web.Lists["Branches"];

SPListItem existingBranch = list.Items[0];

SPFieldLookupValue group = new SPFieldLookupValue(existingBranch["Group Name"].ToString());

int lookedUpItemID = group.LookupId;

string lookedUpItemTitle = group.LookupValue;

Retrieving a user profile property value

2009-10-30T14:30:00.000+05:30

if (Profile[this.UserProfilePropertyName].Count == 1)
return Profile[this.UserProfilePropertyName].Value.ToString();
else
{
StringBuilder sbret= new StringBuilder("");
UserProfileValueCollection profilevalues = Profile[this.UserProfilePropertyName];
System.Collections.IEnumerator enmValues = profilevalues.GetEnumerator();
while(enmValues.MoveNext())
{
sbret.Append(allValues.Current.ToString());
sbret.Append(";");
}
return sbret.ToString();
}

SharePoint 2010 New Features

2009-10-30T13:08:00.001+05:30

Microsoft announced SharePoint 2010 New Features

- New User Interface including Ribbon
- Web Edit
- Silverlight WebPart
- Rich Theming
- Multiple Browser Support
- Visio Services
- Business Connectivity Services
- SharePoint Workspace
- Rich Media Support
- Tagging any type of content/site
- Streamlined Central Administration
- SharePoint Best Practices Analyzer
- Usage Reporting and Logging
- Large List Resource Throttling
- Unattached Content Database Recovery
- Visual Upgrade
- Language Integrated (LINQ) for SharePoint
- Developer Dashboard
- Business Connectivity Services
- Client Object Model (OM)

Tom Rizzo, SharePoint Senior Director, shares exciting news about SharePoint 2010.
http://media.nuveminc.net:8080/spc09/tom_rizzo.wmv

Differences between WSS 3.0 & Moss 2007

2009-10-29T18:00:00.000+05:30

WSS 3.0

MOSS 2007

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS3.0) comes

free with Windows Server 2003.

MOSS is not free and it is installed on top of WSS

3.0.MOSS has both a server cost and a client access

license (CAL) cost.

WSS 3.0 offers all the standard site templates

to build team sites, document workspaces,

blank sites, blogs, wikis, and meeting

workspaces.

MOSS 2007 offers business intelligence features

that allow you to track key performance indicators

and build BI dashboards into your team site.

WSS 3.0 can be used to create people and

group lists.

Moss is used as a super powerful content

management system, which aims to provide content

management, enterprise content services and

enterprise search.

You can integrate WSS 3.0 sites with Access

2007, Excel 2007, Outlook 2007, Word 2007

and PowerPoint 2007.

Workflow can also be integrated into MOSS 2007.

It also serves as a platform for application

development. Including such IT resources as portals, team workspaces, e-mail, presence awareness, and Web based conferencing, Windows SharePoint Services enables users to locate distributed information quickly and

efficiently, as well as connect to and work with others more productively.

Moss also offers My Sites, which are individual minisites

that can be set up to show who in your

company you're connected to, what your tasks and skills are, your contact information, and more. MOSS 2007 is the portal system, comparable to SharePoint Portal Server 2003. It brings a wealth of

built-in functionality and interoperability to a company's intranet over and above the functions of WSS 3.0.

Create Site Collection: Select template will give minimum options it's like Collaboration and Meetings.

Create Site Collection:Select template will give more

options it's like Collaboration, Meetings, Enterprise,

Custom and Publishing Only WSS 3.0

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 top 10 Benefits

2009-10-29T14:23:00.000+05:30

1) Provide a simple, familiar, and consistent user experience.
MOSS 2007 is tightly integrated with familiar client desktop applications, e-mail, and Web browsers to provide a consistent user experience that simplifies how people interact with content, processes, and business data. This tight integration, coupled with robust out-of-the-box functionality, helps you employ services themselves and facilitates product adoption.
2) Boost employee productivity by simplifying everyday business activities.
Take advantage of out-of-the-box workflows for initiating, tracking, and reporting common business activities such as document review and approval, issue tracking, and signature collection. You can complete these activities without any coding. Tight integration with familiar
client applications, e-mail, and Web browsers provide you with a simple, consistent experience. Modifying and extending these out-ofthe-box workflow processes is easy.
3) Help meet regulatory requirements through comprehensive control over content.
By specifying security settings, storage policies, auditing policies, and expiration actions for business records in accordance with compliance regulations, you can help ensure your sensitive business information can be controlled and managed effectively. Tight integration of Office SharePoint Server 2007 with familiar desktop applications means that policy settings are rendered onto client applications in the Microsoft Office system, making it simpler for employees to be aware of and comply with regulatory requirements.
4) Effectively manage and repurpose content to gain increased business value.
Business users and content authors can create and submit content for approval and scheduled deployment to intranet or Internet sites. Managing multilingual content is simplified through new document library templates that are specifically designed to maintain a relationship between the original version and different translations of a document.
5) Simplify organization wide access to both structured and unstructured information across disparate systems.
Give your users access to business data found in common line-of-business (LOB) systems like SAP and Siebel through Office SharePoint Server 2007. Users can also create personalized views and interactions with LOB systems through a browser by dragging configurable back-end connections. Enterprisewide repositories help your organizations store and organize business documents in one central location.
6) Connect people with information and expertise.
Enterprise search in Office SharePoint Server 2007 incorporates business data along with information about documents, people, and Web pages to produce comprehensive, relevant results. Features like duplicate collapsing, spelling correction, and alerts improve the relevance
of the results, so you can easily find what you need.
7) Accelerate shared business processes across organizational boundaries.
Without coding any custom applications, you can use smart, electronic forms–driven solutions to collect critical business information from customers, partners, and suppliers through a Web browser. Built-in data validation rules help you gather accurate and consistent data that
can be directly integrated into back-end systems to avoid redundancy and errors that result from manual data re-entry.
8) Share business data without divulging sensitive information.
Give your employees access to real-time, interactive Microsoft Office Excel® spreadsheets from a Web browser through Excel Services running on Office SharePoint Server 2007. Use these spreadsheets to maintain and efficiently share one central and up-to-date version while helping to protect any proprietary information embedded in the documents (such as financial models).
9) Enable people to make better-informed decisions by presenting business-critical information in one central location.
Office SharePoint Server 2007 makes it easy to create live, interactive business intelligence (BI) portals that assemble and display information from disparate sources, using integrated BI capabilities such as dashboards, Web Parts, scorecards, key performance indicators, and business data connectivity technologies.
Centralized Report Center sites give users a single place for locating information.
10) Provide a single, integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet, and Internet applications across the enterprise.
Office SharePoint Server 2007 is built on an open, scalable architecture, with support for Web services and interoperability standards including
XML and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). The server has rich application programming interfaces (APIs) and event handlers for lists and
documents. These features provide integration with existing systems and the flexibility to incorporate non-Microsoft IT investments.

An Introduction to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

2009-10-16T14:49:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 is an enterprise content management server that is tightly integrated with Microsoft (MS) Office. It is a single infrastructure for intranet, internet and extranet portals or applications. It has been designed to provide strategic business solutions in order to increase the business values for organizations. It allows enterprises to build applications on the basis of different types of solutions. These solutions include Portal, Collaboration, Enterprise search, Enterprise content management, Business Forms and Business Intelligence (BI). While we implement solutions using MOSS 2007, we need to plan in order to manage these new capabilities. MOSS 2007 also provides new capabilities over the Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0

Design Goals

It is specifically designed to meet these goals:

1. Aggregation

2. Collaboration

3. Communication

4. Distribution

5. Integration

6. Management

Partners, Customers, Vendors, Independent Software Vendor (ISV) make use of MOSS 2007 in order to build solutions for business and technical requirements of respective organizations. As a result efficiency of information employees, Business Development Managers (BDMs) is improved at the job level.

The six building blocks of MOSS 2007 can be categorized as

· Collaboration

· Portal

· Enterprise Search

· Content Management

· Business Forms

· Business Intelligence

Collaborative Solutions

The design goals for collaborative solutions include provision for Collaboration-oriented base framework as team. These solutions are interoperable with communication technologies. These solutions include extended features that enable information to collaborate in intuitive and efficient ways. An example of these solutions is integrating Workspaces, E-Mail integration, Outlook integration, Project management "lite," Offline documents/lists, Tasks, Forums, Surveys, Blogs, RSS and Wikis.

Portal Solutions

The design goals for portal solutions focused on providing accurate, relevant information in a timely, effective and context-sensitive manner. Due to this feature Employees have the required tools and information to undertake their role-specific/job specific tasks. These solutions are integrated with Windows Share Point Services.

Some of the examples of portal solutions are Topics, Site Directory, People and Expertise Search:

People specific search "tab," Social network support, My Site, Improved Public Page, Personal homepage, Targeting and personalization, Easier targeting – Distribution lists and Security Groups, Profile store improvements, Scalability, flexible schema, LDAP synchronization

Enterprise Search Solutions

The design goals for enterprise search solutions include ensuring that information workers have access to appropriate information, content, and people to efficiently perform their tasks. A well-designed search-and-indexing strategy provides adequate and appropriate search results.

There are ways to programmatically admin the enterprise search.

Content Management Solutions

The design goals for content management solutions include providing robust and flexible frameworks which in turn help organizations manage every aspect of their content processes and life cycles, such as managing documents, records, and Web-based content.

Business Forms Solutions

The design goals for forms solutions include streamlining, consolidating, and automating data capture processes so that business processes can run smoothly and efficiently.

Business Intelligence (BI) Solutions

The design goals for business intelligence solutions include providing features and technologies that enable business decision makers to make informed decisions on the basis of easy data access and robust data analysis. MOSS 2007 provides these solutions with the help of Excel client/services, Dash Boards and KPI's.

The need for Excel client is for creating the spreadsheets and then it is published to the MOSS 2007 document libraries. The Excel Services provides the necessary features for displaying the Excel files as reports or customized manner in the web browser.

Dashboard provides optimized analysis of data by the end user. They also make the information relevant within in the reports. This data can be stored in the form of Aggregate workbooks, reports, scorecards, etc.