Introduction

You’ve figured out the simple stuff—you can create a list, add some columns, and throw a Web Part on a page to display the list, but then what? Are you really taking advantage of everything SharePoint can do? This book answers that question. Whether you’re a business user just trying to get more value, a SharePoint administrator trying to figure out what can be done, or a developer trying to decide if custom development is necessary, this book can help you. As we at SharePoint911 always like to say, before you go down the custom road, make sure you know all the functionality already included in SharePoint. Because so much functionality is already included in SharePoint, it’s easy to miss features and spend time and money developing something that already exists either in SharePoint or by one of the third-party vendors.

A lot of resources are available for SharePoint, but many of them focus more on the administrative and development side or beginning SharePoint. If you want more advanced information but aren’t interested in server setup or custom development, the resources start to become harder to find. This book fixes this issue by addressing the business problems and questions that SharePoint can solve.

What You’ll Find in This Book

This book is designed to help you create solutions and take your SharePoint sites further. It not only describes the more advanced functionality of SharePoint but also walks you through steps to actually implement the solution. Because both of the authors are current SharePoint consultants and trainers, the examples and solutions provided are based on timely experiences with clients and students in the classroom.

Some of the functionalities described in this book are

• Creating and configuring site collections

• Using site columns and content types for ease of maintenance

• Using SharePoint Designer to create custom edit forms for lists and libraries

• Using the Publishing site template to control content authoring

• Creating and implementing a custom master page

• Using user profiles and audience targeting to create relevant views of content

• Creating search scopes, best bets, and keywords to improve the search experience

• Using InfoPath 2007 and Forms Services to turn paper forms into electronic documents available through the Web browser

• Creating a custom workflow with SharePoint Designer to turn a business process into a managed workflow process

• Using the Business Data Catalog to display and interact in SharePoint with data already existing in other line-of-business applications

• Using SharePoint dashboards to display metrics and key performance indicators in one central location

Who This Book Is For

This book may be titled, MOSS Explained: An Information Worker’s Deep Dive into Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, but everyone from an information worker to a SharePoint administrator to a developer will find the book useful. This book is intended to be nontechnical and easy to understand for a business user but in-depth enough for a SharePoint administrator or developer to discover exactly how far SharePoint can be taken before custom development is required.

How This Book Is Organized

This book starts users off with understanding why organizations use SharePoint and then walks them through several options for customization, ending with creating custom dashboards. Although each chapter stands on its own, optimally you should start at the beginning and work through the chapters in order. All instructions for accomplishing specific tasks are contained within the text of the various chapters and include numbered steps.

Following is a brief overview of each chapter:

• Chapter 1, “The Business Case for SharePoint.” This chapter introduces SharePoint and its functionality. It also covers why companies use SharePoint from a business perspective and how to maximize return on investment.

• Chapter 2, “Creating Corporate Portal Sites.” Many companies use SharePoint as the platform to build their intranet. This chapter shows the anatomy of a corporate portal and how to use SharePoint to build a portal that will allow you to effectively share information.

• Chapter 3, “Lists, Document Libraries, and Content Types.” All content in SharePoint is stored in a list or document library. This chapter unravels the mysteries of lists and document libraries and shows how they can be customized to address many common business problems. From adding a site column to creating custom templates that can be reused to quickly build powerful solutions, this chapter covers many important topics that are referred to throughout the book.

• Chapter 4, “Introduction to SharePoint Designer 2007.” SharePoint Designer (SPD) is one of the primary tools used for customization. This chapter takes you on a tour of the functionality and provides some real-world guidance about the pros and cons of SPD. This is an important chapter because many of the following chapters build on the concepts described here.

• Chapter 5, “Web Content Management Using Publishing Portals.” Almost every MOSS implementation is taking advantage of the Web Content Management (WCM) functionality in one way or another. This chapter discusses how to enable WCM, what happens, and how to use it to solve common business problems.

• Chapter 6, “Creating a Custom UI for SharePoint.” Every SharePoint implementation looks the same out of the box (OOB), but with a little effort, you can make yours stand out from the crowd. This chapter talks about the various pieces that work together to create the SharePoint user interface and the options for changing them.

• Chapter 7, “User Profiles, My Sites, and Audience Targeting.” The Shared Services Provider (SSP) is not just for administrators. This chapter describes user profiles, My Sites, and audience targeting and shows information workers how to take advantage of these power features.

• Chapter 8, “Configuring and Extending Search.” SharePoint Search is one of the most powerful features of the product—and also one of the most misunderstood. This chapter covers the basics of how the SharePoint Search engine works and how it can easily be modified with no code to provide a better search experience and more relevant results.

• Chapter 9, “Microsoft InfoPath 2007 and Forms Services.” Creating dynamic forms is something that most companies have on their list of requirements, and Microsoft InfoPath 2007 is a powerful tool that can be used with SharePoint to address this need. This chapter covers topics ranging from building forms and publishing them to a WSS Forms Library to advanced topics such as accessing databases from forms using trusted connections.

• Chapter 10, “Workflow and Process Management.” Whether you are simply creating content or submitting a standardized form, some business process is probably associated with it. SharePoint provides several OOB workflows to address many common business processes. But for those processes that need more than what’s available OOB, SharePoint Designer can be used to create custom workflows. This chapter shows you how to take advantage of SharePoint workflows and work smarter, not harder.

• Chapter 11, “Leveraging the Business Data Catalog (BDC).” The BDC allows users to integrate with external data sources. This chapter discusses the basics of working with the BDC, including how to use the OOB BDC Web Parts and integrate BDC data with WSS lists and search.

• Chapter 12, “Creating Dashboards.” Collecting data in SharePoint is only part of the equation. This chapter shows you how to use Excel Services and the business intelligence features of SharePoint to display meaningful dashboards that will quickly provide users with a view of their data.

What’s on the Web Site

We’ve created a Web site at http://www.mossexplained.com where you can find the most up-to-date links and resources for many of the topics covered in this book. If you have any questions or comments about the topics covered in the book, you can also contact the authors directly through the site.