If you are reading Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Creating and Implementing Real-World Projects, it is likely that you are experienced with SharePoint but looking for ways to really get the most from the out-of-the-box tools. Let’s face it; the truth is that SharePoint is a large platform, with many different tools and methods for building and creating solutions. For someone who is getting started, there is much to take in and learn. That is where this book will come in handy! In the pages of this book, you will be working through and examining many different everyday examples that you are likely to have encountered at your organization.
This book is designed so that you can examine the business problems and then pull together the various tools and techniques available for building solutions within SharePoint to address the given business needs. We have quite a bit of ground to cover, so let’s get started.
Before jumping into the chapters, you should be aware that we are expecting you to have a general understanding of the basics of SharePoint. This means that you should be somewhat familiar with common site administrator tasks. This allows us to focus more on why and how to do some advanced configurations. If you aren’t familiar with some of these techniques, you can still continue with the book, and you will still gain lots of knowledge, but you might want to supplement your reading with some of the resources that we recommend in the resource appendix at the end of this book.
To help you understand the level of experience that is prerequisite for this book, the following is a list of common tasks that we expect you to be familiar with:
Creating sites and webs (subsites)
Creating lists and libraries
Managing site permissions
Creating and customizing list views
Working with web parts
Customizing a site with Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010
Customizing list forms with Microsoft InfoPath 2010
SharePoint and Office integration
We define familiar as knowing the general concepts, not necessarily knowing how to configure and manage everything on the list. For example, in a chapter we might provide an instruction such as “Create a new view for this list.” We expect that you know what a SharePoint view is, and our examples for the view will be specific to the solution at hand and won’t really be focused on the general concept of a SharePoint view. If you are unfamiliar with any of the following items, don’t worry, because it should be easy for you to get up to speed so that you are familiar enough to work through the chapters. Besides, if you are reading a chapter and run into something that you aren’t familiar with, Bing is only a few clicks away!
Another assumption that we have made in the writing of this book is that all of our solutions have been built in separate and unique site collections. This was done as a way to provide a clean slate for each new solution. As you consider implementing the ideas within the book in your organization, it is important for you to review with your SharePoint team the governance in place, which determines when you should use a site collection and when you should use a site. You can easily adapt the solutions in this book so they can be created as a site in an existing site collection. There are many considerations to think about as you look at the best location to add these solutions within your organization. If your organization does not have any existing governance plans surrounding the creation of sites or site collections, we recommend you read “Plan sites and site collections (SharePoint Server 2010)” at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263267.aspx to help you determine the best solution for your needs.