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Sharepoint 2010 Hosting :: How to program Managed Metadata columns in Sharepoint 2010?

clock March 20, 2011 17:41 by author Administrator

You can provision managed metadata column into the content type.

You need to add the “Metadata” column into the site columns and content type using element xml file, and also need to connect the field to metadata column in the feature activation.

Here is the solution:

1.    You need to add a new field element of the type “TaxonomyFieldType”. 

<xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
 <Field ID="{46138ADB-1778-4E05-8371-114006F725A0}"
    Type="TaxonomyFieldType"
    DisplayName="Locations"
    ShowField="Term1033"
    Required="TRUE"
    EnforceUniqueValues="FALSE"
    Group="_Custom"
    StaticName="Locations"
    Name="Locations"
     />
</Elements>

2.    Add this filed to the content type, just need to add a new “FieldRef”

<FieldRef ID="{46138ADB-1778-4E05-8371-114006F725A0}" Name="Locations"/>

3.    Now we have to connect this field to managed metadata service(MMS).

For this we need to create an event receiver for the feature. Right click on the feature  and select “Add event receiver”.
Uncomment the “feature activate” code and replace it with the following code.  

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
 {    
              SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;    
             Guid fieldId = new Guid(“{46138ADB-1778-4E05-8371-114006F725A0}"   
             if (site.RootWeb.Fields.Contains(fieldId))
             {
                       TaxonomySession session = new TaxonomySession(site);        
                       if (session.TermStores.Count != 0)
                       {            
                            var termStore = session.TermStores["Managed Metadata Service"];            
                            var group = termStore.Groups.GetByName("Locations Group");            
                            var termSet = group.TermSets["Towns"];                    
                           TaxonomyField field = site.RootWeb.Fields[fieldId] as TaxonomyField;           
                           field.SspId = termSet.TermStore.Id;            
                           field.TermSetId = termSet.Id;            
                           field.TargetTemplate = string.Empty;            
                           field.AnchorId = Guid.Empty;            
                           field.Update();        
                      }   
                }
} 

This method will check if the field has been deployed. We used Guid to retrieve the filed as defined in the XML.  Your term store group definition should look like this.                              

If it is different then you need to change the “group name” and “term set” name in the feature activation according to your MMS environment.

Now you deploy your content type and can test it by creating a new list from that content type.

The result with the metadata column is shown in the below picture.

  

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MOSS 2007 Hosting :: How to apply a Theme to all sub sites in SharePoint 2007

clock September 5, 2010 17:05 by author Administrator
Apply a Theme to all sub sites:(works for MOSS 2007 only, not WSS 3.0)
  1. Change the top site to the theme of your choice using the normal method in Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Theme.
  2. Navigate to the top site to see the newly applied theme.
  3. View the HTML source of the SharePoint page using the theme you want.
  4. Look for a link tag containing the .css file for the applied theme.  It will look something like this:
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" id="onetidThemeCSS" href="/apps/afe/_themes/Belltown/Bell1011-65001.css?rev=12%2E0%2E0%2E4518"/>
  5. Copy the href value to your clipboard or to a text file if you like.  It should look something like:
    /apps/afe/_themes/Belltown/Bell1011-65001.css
  6. On your top level site, go to the Site Actions > Site Settings > Master Page screen.
  7. Scroll to the bottom where the Alternate CSS URL section is.  Select the "Specify a CSS file..." option.
  8. Paste the path copied from the href above into the text box.
  9. Check the Reset all sub-sites to inherit this alternate CSS URL option.
  10. Click OK.
  11. Navigate to your sub-sites and verify the theme has been applied.
 

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Sharepoint Hosting :: Creating the Design in Sharepoint

clock June 14, 2010 14:55 by author Administrator
Master Page

A crowd favorite, master pages have emerged as the new "it" thing in SharePoint design.  Master pages are a feature of ASP.NET 2.0 and allow you to store common page elements, such as a header, content container, and footer, in a single file.  This file is then applied to every content page in your site creating a unified and branded look across the entire site. 

The benefits to master pages:

-
If your design really deviates from the standard SharePoint look and feel, master pages are for you.  They allow for the most finite control over your page design
- Multiple master pages can be created for various site needs, such as home splash screens, sub page designs, regional or divisional designs, etc
- You can assign a master page to an entire site, or to a single page, and several options in between.  You have excellent control of where the master page is applied within your site

The potential issues that you need to know about:

-
Your custom master page will not reach past your standard web pages and affect the application screens (these are the administrative screens peppered throughout the site; you can pick them out by looking at the URL, they always include "_layouts" in the address). For some sites, especially external facing brochureware sites, this isn't a big deal.  For others, especially internal sites and Intranets, this can present an issue
- Creating and editing master pages does require a certain web skill set. You need to know HTML, CSS and be comfortable with ASP.NET and understand what a content placeholder is and how to use them
- CSS only based master page designs are a challenge to create! Short of pitching everything provided to you by the application, you will have tables in your design no matter what, and working around those tables and needs for SharePoint will cause you CSS headaches

How to create a master page

A great way to create master pages is to use SharePoint Designer.  Yes you can use other tools, but SharePoint Designer helps create that bridge between you and your SharePoint site and just makes working with the site a heck of a lot easier. Through either SharePoint Designer or the SharePoint site interface you can add and manage master pages in the Master Page Gallery and apply master pages to your site and site pages.  To create the file in SharePoint Designer you just do a File / New / SharePoint Content / Master Page.  If you don't use SharePoint Designer, you can use the web interface to upload a master page to the Master Page Gallery much like you would upload a document to a SharePoint document library

When you first deploy your base master page, it can be rather alarming since there is no design or layout!  That is ok, this is a great way to start your design.  Add in your design code to the top of the file, and then locate the content placeholders you need in your design.  Move the content placeholder code to the appropriate place in your design code, then hide all of the ones you did not use at the bottom of the file where indicated. It is a puzzle approach and you essentially fit together your code and the SharePoint content placeholders to create your custom master page

Another approach is to start off with a master page that SharePoint provides (for WSS sites it is only default.master, publishing sites include several other master pages) and then modify the code from there. We personally don't like this approach because we think it takes more time to create custom master pages this way, and it limits your creativity. When you look at an existing design and try to morph it into your own, you may very well end up with a site design that looks similar to the original

Using the master page you created

Once the master page has been created, you can do several things with it. Using SharePoint Designer you can set the master page to be used for the site, or you can attach it to a single page. If you have a MOSS site, you can also use the site settings to specify the master page to be used for the site. Make sure you publish your MOSS master page before you use it for testing or production


Themes

Themes are very useful and provide a more lightweight way to brand your SharePoint site. A theme can change the existing colors and images of a site, but not the layout of the elements in the site design.  A theme does not include any HTML or ASP.NET code, it is only a collection of image files and CSS files. The theme is applied on top of the site, replacing images and CSS styles in the site, essentially re-skinning the site. Themes can be used alone, or in conjunction with a custom master page

The benefits to themes

-
Often a theme can handle your design changes for SharePoint. The web page layout for SharePoint uses the standard formula of header, main navigation across the top and a left navigation area. If your design includes the same layout, you may be able to create your design only with a theme
- Themes can be used to alter a design to create different variations of a design for departments, divisions or regional sub sites
- Themes affect all aspects of a site, including the application screens

The potential issues that you need to know about

-
When you apply a theme to a site, any child sites will not inherit the theme application. You have to individually apply the theme to the child sites. This is an out-of-the-box limitation, and like most SharePoint issues, can be worked around programmatically. If this will create an issue, check out some of the solutions available for forcing theme application via Features and other means
- When you make a change to a theme, you have to reapply the theme to the site to see the change
- When working with a theme, you can only utilize existing CSS styles used in the master page (be it your own or the default SharePoint ones). If there are elements on the page that need to be moved, you will have to use positioning in the CSS styles to shift their layout. You can't add CSS IDs or class names, so you are limited to what you can do with what is given to you in the master page code.

How to create a theme

Themes are applied to a site in the Site Settings. When a Theme is applied, a copy of the theme is created in the content database and it pops up in SharePoint Designer. This makes for a great way to develop a Theme. When you make a change to any of the files in SharePoint Designer, it will automatically appear in the site. Because of this, SharePoint Designer is a great platform for custom theme development, but we don't suggest leaving these changes in the content database post development.  When another theme is applied to the site, the previous theme is wiped out (including your changes) and the new theme is put in its place

So you can create a custom theme in one of two ways. First, just strike out on your own.  You can apply a theme to a site, then open up the CSS file in SharePoint Designer and delete out all of the contents and start writing your own style overrides for the site. Add images in the same way.  Or, you can pick a theme that looks similar to your design (if one exists) then make modifications to that theme in SharePoint Designer until the theme looks like your design

Don't forget about the power of CSS. There isn't necessarily a one to one relationship with elements on the page. If there is a CSS class or ID attached to a page element, you can dictate many things about that element just using CSS, such as display, placement and look. Through CSS, you can actually create a lot of modifications to the page

Using the theme you created

After you are done tweaking your theme, you can create a more permanent version that lives on the web server and is available to all sites. How to create a theme is very well documented. On the web server in the 12 directory, you create a copy of an existing theme, modify the INF file, theme directory name, and the SPTHEMES.XML file.  Then you can strip out the theme contents, and insert in the CSS and images you created in SharePoint Designer. Recycle the application pool for the SharePoint site or reset IIS, and your custom theme is now available for use


CSS

Really no matter how you brand your SharePoint site, you will be dealing with CSS. In addition to master pages and themes, you can choose to only do CSS and not use master pages or themes as a vehicle for implementation. You can just make CSS changes and tell the SharePoint site to reference the new CSS file

The benefit to CSS only solutions

-
The CSS file does not have to live on the SharePoint web server. You can point the CSS reference to anywhere else on the web. This is ideal if you don't have access to your web server

The potential issue that you need to know about

-
WSS only sites don't have a site setting to specify an alternative CSS file. You will have to change something else in the site in order to pull in the CSS file.  You can modify default.master, or a specific content page like default.aspx, or include it at the page level in a Content Editor Web Part. A more elegant way to handle this issue is to use a theme. If you don't have access to the web server, you can assign a theme to your WSS site, empty out the contents of the theme in SharePoint Designer, then point to or include your custom CSS.  Just be sure to keep a back up copy

How to use your custom CSS

MOSS has a nice feature that allows you to specify an alternative CSS file in the Site Settings. If you have multiple files you want to include, just specify one file in the site settings, then use the import declaration in the CSS file to include additional CSS files.  If you have a WSS only site, see the bullet point above for options

What about editing CORE.CSS?

Yes, ok you can do this, but we really don't recommend it.  Here is why:

- You aren't supposed to edit the default SharePoint files - basic rule of thumb and changes can throw you into an "unsupported state".  If you choose to do this anyways, create a back up of Core.css before you make any changes so at anytime you can overwrite your modified file and put yourself back into a supported state
- Core.css is HUGE. 15,000 lines of code kind of huge. We say don't edit this file because dealing with that large of a file is difficult and you will quickly get bogged down trying to keep up with your changes
- Core.css isn't the only CSS file that SharePoint uses. In all, there are 26 CSS files in SharePoint (depending on your installation). So really you aren't looking at making edits to only one CSS file, you will probably get into making tweaks for 1-5 files out of that 26. It really comes down to management of your changes and knowing what was modified where.  Make it easy and just create a separate style sheet.




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WSS 3 Hosting :: The database WSS_myDatabase on computer_name\Microsoft##SSEE is not accessible to missing Windows Internal Database signatures.

clock June 10, 2010 18:05 by author Administrator

When you browse a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site collection, you cannot access the site collection as expected. Instead, you receive an HTTP 404 error message. Additionally, you experience the following symptoms:

- The following error message is logged in the Application log on the server that is running SharePoint Services 3.0:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3
Event Category: Topology
Event ID: 6800
Date: date

Time: time
User: N/A
Computer:
computer_name
Description:
The database WSS_Content on computer_name\Microsoft##SSEE is not accessible to missing Windows Internal Database signatures.

- You receive an error message in the upgrade log that resembles the following:
[SPServerSequence] [DEBUG] [date time]: Web service Instance SPWebServiceInstance Parent=SPServer Name=computer_name not added. Status = Provisioning

Finally, you may also receive one of the following error messages:
Access to the table dbo.sites is blocked because the signature is not valid
Access to module dbo.proc_GetCurrent is blocked because the signature is not valid.


This problem occurs after a hotfix package or a public update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is applied


Cause:

This problem occurs if the SPWebService service has not been fully provisioned.


Resolution:

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Change to the following directory:
system drive
:\
Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Bin
3. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER to stop the SPWebService service:
stsadm -o provisionservice -action stop -servicetype spwebservice -servicename ""
4. After the SPWebService service has stopped, type the following command, and then press ENTER to start the SPWebService service:
stsadm -o provisionservice -action start -servicetype spwebservice -servicename ""
5. After the SPWebService service is started, type the following command to complete the hotfix process or the update process:
psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force

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Sharepoint (WSS) Hosting :: The Advantages of using Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS)

clock June 2, 2010 22:29 by author Administrator
The following describes few advantages of using Windows Sharepoint. ASPHostCentral.com, as a leading Windows Sharepoint and MOSS 2007 hosting provider, proudly presents this article to anyone and we believe it may benefit ASP.NET and Sharepoint community or anyone who are using Sharepoint/MOSS.

1 – Discovered the solutions straight to your business requirements
Small, medium or even world class organizations seeking a more customized deployment can get started quickly with application templates for addressing specific business processes or sets of tasks.

2 – Business security made easy to users
Windows SharePoint able to increase the security of information resources, while decreasing cost and complexity associated with site provisioning, site management, and support.

3 – Take file sharing to new level storage capabilities for all level of users in a company
Enable workspaces with document storage and retrieval features, including check-in/check-out functionality, version history, custom metadata, and customizable views.

4 – Improve team productivity – the main company priority
Connect people with the information and resources they need. Users can create team workspaces, coordinate calendars, organize documents, and receive important notifications and updates through communication.

5 – Feeling slow loading time with SharePoint interface? Not at all with SharePoint 3.0!
The intelligence of Windows SharePoint improvements in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes enhanced views and menus that simplify navigation within and among SharePoint sites. Integration with familiar productivity tools, including programs in the Microsoft Office system

6 – Now you can manage your documents easier than you thought
Users have the ability to view revisions to documents and restore to previous versions, and the control to set document- and item-level security.

7 – many more


Where do you go for Sharepoint (WSS) Hosting?

What we think makes ASPHostCentral.com so compelling is how deeply integrated all the pieces are. We integrate and centralize everything--from the systems to the control panel software to the process of buying a domain name. For us, that means we can innovate literally everywhere. We've put the guys who develop the software and the administrators who watch over the server right next to the 24-hour Fanatical Support team, so we all learn from each other:

- 24/7-based Support - We never fall asleep and we run a service that is operating 24/7 a year. Even everyone is on holiday during Easter or Christmas/New Year, we are always behind our desk serving our customers
- Excellent Uptime Rate - Our key strength in delivering the service to you is to maintain our server uptime rate. We never ever happy to see your site goes down and we truly understand that it will hurt your online business. If your service is down, it will certainly become our pain and we will certainly look for the right pill to kill the pain ASAP
- High Performance and Reliable Server - We never ever overload our server with tons of clients. We always load balance our server to make sure we can deliver an excellent service, coupling with the high performance and reliable server
- Experts in Sharepoint Hosting - Given the scale of our environment, we have recruited and developed some of the best talent in the hosting technology that you are using. Our team is strong because of the experience and talents of the individuals who make up ASPHostCentral
- Daily Backup Service - We realize that your website is very important to your business and hence, we never ever forget to create a daily backup. Your database and website are backup every night into a permanent remote tape drive to ensure that they are always safe and secure. The backup is always ready and available anytime you need it
- Easy Site Administration - With our powerful control panel, you can always administer most of your site features easily without even needing to contact for our Support Team. Additionally, you can also install
more than 100 FREE applications
directly via our Control Panel in 1 minute!

Happy hosting!
 

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SharePoint Hosting :: Windows SharePoint Services (version 3) on the Mac

clock April 30, 2010 17:20 by author Richard

This topic explains the article about SharePoint 3. In case, you are looking for SharePoint 3, you can always consider ASPHostCentral and you can start from our lowest Standard Plan @4.99/month to host your SharePoint site.

What’s New?
There are a lot of new features in Windows SharePoint Services v3. The first thing that most Mac users will notice is an updated user interface that renders much better on the Mac in both Firefox and Safari. The new templates render well and you'll notice better performance when you are customizing your sites and pages from the Mac.

Windows SharePoint Services v3 ships with 6 standard site templates. These templates include some of the site types your familiar with from v2, plus a could of new ones:

- Document Workspace
- Team Site
- Blog
- Wiki
- Meeting Workspace
- Blank Site

The two most commonly used templates are probably the Document Workspace and the Team Site.

A Document Workspace essentially acts as a very smart folder, which supports collaboration on one or more shared documents and supporting files. The Document Library folder supports check in/checkout and versioning and the site features a Task list and a Links list that a group can use to track assignments and progress on the document.

A Team Site is very similar to a Document Workspace, but the scope is usually wider, serving the needs of a larger group of individuals. Team Sites feature a Document Library, an Announcements List, a Calendar, Contacts and a Quick Links list by default.

The Blog site is a new feature in Windows SharePoint Services v3. A blog is simply a list of stories posted with the latest item at the top of the list. This makes it easer for readers to scan a list they've seen for the latest news from the blog. The Blog site in SharePoint v3 also features an RSS feed and the ability for others to comment on blog posts. This ability to comment on posted items allows for the exchange of ideas between the author of the blog and the readers and even between the readers themselves.

Another new site template in SharePoint v3 is the Wiki site. A wiki is a site that allows any authorized user to edit a page quickly and easily. One of the features of the wiki that make it a powerful tool for collaboration is the ability to instantly create a new page based on a term in the current page. Adding double brackets around a word in a paragraph creates a hotlink to a new page in the wiki. Wikis work well as sites where group knowledge is stored and retrieved. For example, you can use a wiki to store information about configuring machines on the network. As the information around that topic changes, admins and users can update the data on the pages of the wiki so that the information is always up-to-date. Wikis can also be used for brainstorming, research, and for planning. Individuals and groups can use a wiki to store meeting notes and other textual information that needs to be updated on a regular basis. SharePoint v3 wiki pages work well on both the PC and the Mac, but only the PC version running in Internet Explorer features a WYSIWYG editor. Users writing to a SharePoint wiki on the Mac will need to use simple HTML markup for formatting and linking.

A Meeting Workspace is a site used to track meeting notes and schedules. At launch SharePoint v3 is scheduled to provide 5 different workspace types.

Finally, the Blank Space is just that, it's blank. This means that you can start a site with just the content you want.

New Content
The version 3 SharePoint sites features an updated Create Page where you can add many of the features I've mentioned already to an existing site. This means you can add additional Document Libraries, Wiki pages, tracking calendars, and even sub-sites to an existing SharePoint site.

The content page types that can be added to a SharePoint v3 site are broken into 5 categories; Libraries, Communications, Tracking, Customer Lists, and Web Pages.

Library types include the Document Library, the Form Library, the Wiki Page Library and the Picture Library. The only library type that might prove difficult for Mac users to use is the Form Library. Form Libraries depend on features found in Microsoft InfoPath, which isn't available on the Mac. The other library types should work fine, except in cases where functionality is dependent on an ActiveX control, for example, when you want to export a list to a spreadsheet.

Communications page types include Announcements, Contacts, and Discussion Boards. Of these, the Discussion Boards feature is interesting in that the boards created in SharePoint v3 have the look and feel of modern web discussion boards and the interface is easy to use from the Mac.

The Tracking page types include Links, Calendars, Tasks, Issue Tracking and Survey pages. One of the most exciting new features of SharePoint version 3 is the Project Tasks tracking page type. This new page type provides a Gantt Chart view that allows you to instantly see the status of items in a project list. This is a great feature for users managing small projects and it works well on the Mac

A Typical Workflow
The workflow is very similar in SharePoint v3, but the user interface is different so it's probably worth walking through a typical document sharing workflow from the Mac. The document workflow for SharePoint v3 is fairly straightforward and consists of the following steps. In our example, we'll add a new Microsoft Word file to a document library from the Mac.

1. Create your new document in Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac and save it somewhere on your local machine.

2. In your SharePoint v3 document library, click upload and use the Upload Document page to add the file you created in Word to the SharePoint document library.

3. The document is now available in the SharePoint document library.

To modify this file, a Mac user should follow these steps to ensure that the file is locked while they work on it and is then updated properly on the SharePoint site.

1. Check out the file by mousing over the file name in SharePoint and click Check Out in the dropdown menu.

2. Click on the file name to download the file to the Mac.

3. Work on the file in Word and save your work.

4. Click Upload in the SharePoint document library to open the Upload Document page.

5. Use the browse button to add the document to the Name text box and make sure that the Add as a new version to exiting files checkbox is checked.

6. Click OK.

Top Reasons to trust your SharePoint 3 website to ASPHostCentral.com

What we think makes ASPHostCentral.com so compelling is how deeply integrated all the pieces are. We integrate and centralize everything--from the systems to the control panel software to the process of buying a domain name. For us, that means we can innovate literally everywhere. We've put the guys who develop the software and the admins who watch over the server right next to the 24-hour Fanatical Support team, so we all learn from each other:

- 24/7-based Support - We never fall asleep and we run a service that is operating 24/7 a year. Even everyone is on holiday during Easter or Christmas/New Year, we are always behind our desk serving our customers
- Excellent Uptime Rate - Our key strength in delivering the service to you is to maintain our server uptime rate. We never ever happy to see your site goes down and we truly understand that it will hurt your onlines business. If your service is down, it will certainly become our pain and we will certainly look for the right pill to kill the pain ASAP
- High Performance and Reliable Server - We never ever overload our server with tons of clients. We always load balance our server to make sure we can deliver an excellent service, coupling with the high performance and reliable server
- Experts in SharePoint 3 Hosting - Given the scale of our environment, we have recruited and developed some of the best talent in the hosting technology that you are using. Our team is strong because of the experience and talents of the individuals who make up ASPHostCentral
- Daily Backup Service - We realise that your website is very important to your business and hence, we never ever forget to create a daily backup. Your database and website are backup every night into a permanent remote tape drive to ensure that they are always safe and secure. The backup is always ready and available anytime you need it
- Easy Site Administration - With our powerful control panel, you can always administer most of your site features easily without even needing to contact for our Support Team. Additionally, you can also install more than 100 FREE applications directly via our Control Panel in 1 minute!

Happy hosting!

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SharePoint Hosting :: Differences Between SharePount 3.0 and Hosted Microsoft MOSS 2007

clock April 28, 2010 14:40 by author Richard

This article explains the brief information about the differences between SharePoint 3 and MOSS 2007. In case, you are looking for SharePoint 3, you can always consider ASPHostCentral and you can start from our lowest Standard Plan @4.99/month to host your SharePoint site.

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Hosted Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 hosting are both part of the SharePoint family. However, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007, both have different features and capabilities. This article enlists the difference between SharePoint 3.0 hosting and the SharePoint server 2007. This document might enable businesses and individuals to decide which SharePoint Services would suit the requirement.

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) is an add-on to Windows Server. WSS offers the base collaborative infrastructure, supporting HTTP- and HTTPS-based editing of documents, as well as document organization in document libraries. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 also has version control capabilities. You can setup wikis, and blogs for a team. Windows SharePoint Services also includes end-user functionality such as workflows, to-do lists, alerts and discussion boards, which are exposed as web parts to be embedded into SharePoint pages. WSS 3.0 is built on top of ASP.NET 2.0. WSS was previously known as SharePoint Team Services. Out of the box, only one workflow is obtainable, which is the tri-state work flow for easy workflow organization. Additional workflows could be created through SharePoint designer or Visual Studio .NET.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 has additional functionalities when compared to WSS 3.0.;

One of the most widely used functionalities with both the Microsoft SharePoint Hosting technologies is that you can create conference space, and use the workspace to issue the agenda; invite attendees and discuss points. You can use the same workspace to track the points and tasks that were mentioned during the meeting. You can view the calendar and decide the best time for you and the attendees before scheduling the meeting.

Microsoft SharePoint server comes with solutions that are modified for specific businesses or tasks. You can convert the template with your own logo, forms, and create user alerts. Managers and CEOs can keep track of actions using these templates. Forums and discussion groups can be used to discuss important projects. This saves plenty of time in arranging meetings and co-ordination.

Using Microsoft Sharepoint 2007 you can centrally store the documents which can be accessed by users. You can control which document is available to which user. Changes to the document can be tracked. These files can be accessed from any location in the world. Many documents like Word and Excel can be opened and edited in the browser itself.

As we move towards a world, where time and boundaries no longer are barriers towards doing business; Microsoft SharePoint And hosted Exchange 2007 is becoming trait rich tools which will help us improve efficiency and increase effectiveness. Using a vendor to host these feature rich collaborative suites will significantly save your precious dollars and time.

Top Reasons to trust your SharePoint 3 website to ASPHostCentral.com

What we think makes ASPHostCentral.com so compelling is how deeply integrated all the pieces are. We integrate and centralize everything--from the systems to the control panel software to the process of buying a domain name. For us, that means we can innovate literally everywhere. We've put the guys who develop the software and the admins who watch over the server right next to the 24-hour Fanatical Support team, so we all learn from each other:

- 24/7-based Support - We never fall asleep and we run a service that is operating 24/7 a year. Even everyone is on holiday during Easter or Christmas/New Year, we are always behind our desk serving our customers
- Excellent Uptime Rate - Our key strength in delivering the service to you is to maintain our server uptime rate. We never ever happy to see your site goes down and we truly understand that it will hurt your onlines business. If your service is down, it will certainly become our pain and we will certainly look for the right pill to kill the pain ASAP
- High Performance and Reliable Server - We never ever overload our server with tons of clients. We always load balance our server to make sure we can deliver an excellent service, coupling with the high performance and reliable server
- Experts in SharePoint 3 Hosting - Given the scale of our environment, we have recruited and developed some of the best talent in the hosting technology that you are using. Our team is strong because of the experience and talents of the individuals who make up ASPHostCentral
- Daily Backup Service - We realise that your website is very important to your business and hence, we never ever forget to create a daily backup. Your database and website are backup every night into a permanent remote tape drive to ensure that they are always safe and secure. The backup is always ready and available anytime you need it
- Easy Site Administration - With our powerful control panel, you can always administer most of your site features easily without even needing to contact for our Support Team. Additionally, you can also install more than 100 FREE applications directly via our Control Panel in 1 minute!

Happy hosting!

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SharePoint 3 Hosting :: Upgrade Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

clock April 25, 2010 14:51 by author Richard

This topic explains the article about SharePoint 3. In case, you are looking for SharePoint 3, you can always consider ASPHostCentral and you can start from our lowest Standard Plan @4.99/month to host your SharePoint site.

Different Approaches for Up-Gradation of Windows SharePoint Services

First of all let us tell you about the different ways in which this upgrade can be done. Currently there are three well known ways to do this:

1. In-Place
2. Gradual
3. Database Migration

The first two approaches are carried out on the same machine as the current server. However, for the third approach, database migration, a separate server is required to complete the upgrade process.

Now let us explore all three of these one by one in a bit detail.

The In-Place Approach

Let’s start with the “In-Place” approach. This approach can also be called the ‘overwritten’ method. It is called so as the older version is completely replaced by the newer one. Once this process is complete, the older version cannot be accessed anymore. During this process, the system is said to be ‘offline’.

This upgrade method is suitable for a single server or a small environment. The advantage is that a separate server or a different machine is not required. Also, as soon as the process is completed all the URLs start pointing towards the new upgraded server, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

The Gradual Approach

The second in line is the “gradual” upgrade approach. In this method both the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 and 3.0 run side by side on the same machine. The data is copied from the running SQL Content (original) database to the new SQL Content Database.

While the upgrade process is going on, only those portions would be online that are actually getting backed up at that point in time. The rest will remain available. Like the ‘in-place’ approach, in this approach as well the old URLs will point towards the new server after the upgrade process is complete.

If you choose to follow this approach, you must take care of the storage requirements. Since the whole process is taking place on one machine, disk space is required for the SQL log files.

The good thing about this method is that unlike the “in-process” method, this approach allows you to roll back to the previous state. This approach is best for bigger SharePoint applications. You can keep almost everything online the whole time. Only different portions will become offline as they get up-graded.

The Database Migration Approach

In the third approach, ‘Database Migration’, another machine is required for the upgrade process. All the data does not have to be taken offline at once. Like the ‘Gradual’ approach, only that data will be offline that is being upgrade at that time.

The data needs to be migrated manually; therefore, this is a much more complex approach than the previous two. Like in the ‘Gradual’ approach, the current as well as the new version is maintained side by side. The complexity is introduced only because of the hardware requirements and due to the need to do things manually.

Since we need a different server, we do need to go though the trouble of installing Windows SharePoint Service 3.0 on it. We will copy all database but we do not need to copy the configuration from the 2.0 version. We will configure the new server on the new machine from scratch to version 3.0.

This approach is particularly good for the situation where you are planning to upgrade your hardware as well, along with the Windows Service.

Happy-up-grading!

There is no hard and fast rule as to which approach to follow and no verdict that which approach is the best. It all depends on your requirements and you can improvise using the knowledge of all the three approaches that you have.

We personally am in the favor of the ‘Gradual’ approach. This approach requires less hassle than the ‘Database Migration’ approach because we do not need a separate machine. It is slightly complicated than the ‘In-Place’ approach but it provides us with the ability to roll back to the previous state any time we like. And we feel that this provision of roll back is highly beneficial for a novice as well as a seasoned professional.

This was the brief overview of all available approaches to upgrade. In my next posts, we will describe the process in steps.

At the end of this part, we would like to wish all the best to everybody who is about to or is already doing this upgrade process. Happy up-grading!

Top Reasons to trust your SharePoint 3 website to ASPHostCentral.com

What we think makes ASPHostCentral.com so compelling is how deeply integrated all the pieces are. We integrate and centralize everything--from the systems to the control panel software to the process of buying a domain name. For us, that means we can innovate literally everywhere. We've put the guys who develop the software and the admins who watch over the server right next to the 24-hour Fanatical Support team, so we all learn from each other:

- 24/7-based Support - We never fall asleep and we run a service that is operating 24/7 a year. Even everyone is on holiday during Easter or Christmas/New Year, we are always behind our desk serving our customers
- Excellent Uptime Rate - Our key strength in delivering the service to you is to maintain our server uptime rate. We never ever happy to see your site goes down and we truly understand that it will hurt your onlines business. If your service is down, it will certainly become our pain and we will certainly look for the right pill to kill the pain ASAP
- High Performance and Reliable Server - We never ever overload our server with tons of clients. We always load balance our server to make sure we can deliver an excellent service, coupling with the high performance and reliable server
- Experts in SharePoint 3 Hosting - Given the scale of our environment, we have recruited and developed some of the best talent in the hosting technology that you are using. Our team is strong because of the experience and talents of the individuals who make up ASPHostCentral
- Daily Backup Service - We realise that your website is very important to your business and hence, we never ever forget to create a daily backup. Your database and website are backup every night into a permanent remote tape drive to ensure that they are always safe and secure. The backup is always ready and available anytime you need it
- Easy Site Administration - With our powerful control panel, you can always administer most of your site features easily without even needing to contact for our Support Team. Additionally, you can also install more than 100 FREE applications directly via our Control Panel in 1 minute!

Happy hosting!

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SharePoint 3 Hosting :: Building Web Parts for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

clock April 23, 2010 16:03 by author Richard

This topic explains the article about SharePoint 3. In case, you are looking for SharePoint 3, you can always consider ASPHostCentral.com and you can start from our lowest Standard Plan @4.99/month to host your SharePoint site.

Overview

SharePoint web parts provide support to create both customized and personalized user interfaces. Customization in this case means that the changes for the web part are seen by all site users. Individual users can personalize their web pages further by adding, moving and removing web parts in their view of the web page. In this case, personalization means that the changes made to the web parts are only visible to the user who made the change.

When developing custom web parts, you can extend the Windows SharePoint site's functionality in an easy and powerful way.

Web parts were first introduced in Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) V2.0. In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 they are no longer just a SharePoint feature, because the ASP.NET team adopted the web part concept and rebuilt the entire web part framework using ASP.NET 2.0.

Because Windows SharePoint Services V3.0 uses .NET Framework 2.0, WSS web parts can also use the ASP.NET 2.0 web parts control set. When you are creating web parts for WSS V3.0, you have the option of inheriting from the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart (ASP.NET 2.0 web part) or Windows SharePoint Services web part class. The Windows SharePoint Services web part class was part of Windows SharePoint Services V2.0, before the ASP.NET web parts were introduced, where they supported web part development.

Developers can now easily apply their .NET development experience and use Visual Studio 2005 to create new ASP.NET 2.0 web parts for Windows SharePoint Services V3.0 sites.

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) V3.0 Web Part Infrastructure

The WSS V3.0 web part infrastructure uses many of the ASP.NET 2.0 web part control sets. The infrastructure also creates its own controls by inheriting them from the base class provided by the ASP.NET 2.0 web part control set.

There are three controls that make up the core web part infrastructure in WSS V3.0. They are SPWebPartManager, WebPartZone and WebPart.

SPWebPartManager Class

WSS V3.0 web pages don't use standard ASP.NET WebPartManager in their pages. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 uses the SPWebPartManager (Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.SPWebPartManager) that inherits from the ASP.NET WebPartMnager (System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPartManager) class. (There is an additional "SP" character in the SharePoint WebPartManager). The reason for having different names in ASP.NET and SharePoint is that the WebPartManager is a new concept introduced by ASP.NET web part controls. SPWebPartManager acts as the central hub, managing all the web parts and zones. In WSS 2.0 site pages, many of the tasks handled by SPWebPartManager were done by web part pages (adding, removing, moving web parts to zones, etc), web part zones, and the web part itself.

By default, the SPWebPartManager object is added to the master page of the WSS V3.0 pages. The SPWebPartManager is included in every content page by default because the master page contains an instance of SPWebPartManager. Because it's already set up for you, you can add a web part to a WSS V3.0 page without having to worry about the SPWebPartManager object.

All web parts now belong to the SPWebPartManager object in a page. This means a reference to the Parent property of the web part class will return SPWebPartManager object rather than the WebPartZone object in WSS V2.

WebPartZone Class

The WebPartZone provides a way to organize the web parts in to regions in the web page. WSS V3.0 uses its own WebPartZone (Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPartZone) that is inherited from the standard ASP.NET 2.0 WebPartZone (System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebPartsWebPartZone) class. The same name is used in both ASP.NET web part control and WSS 3.0 web part controls. This is because the WebPartZone concept was introduced in WSS V2.0 and having the same name supports backward compatibility.

The WebPartZones control the appearance of the web part controls. Each zone is rendered as an HTML table in the browser. A page can contain more than one WebPartZone control. There are two types of WebPartZones:

- WebPartZoneBase - Contains all the web parts in the web part page.
- ToolZone - A specialized zone that enables users to change the properties of the web parts within the selected zone.

The SPWebPartManager and WebPartZone controls manage the serialization of the web part's data with the Windows SharePoint Services content database. ASP.NET web parts must be placed on a page with these two controls, if you want the data to persist and to support personalization.

WebPart Class

ASP.NET 2.0 web parts will run on both ASP.NET web pages and WSS site pages. You can build a web part for WSS V3.0 site that drives from:

- System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart
- Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart

When you create web parts for WSS 3.0 sites, Microsoft recommends using ASP.NET 2.0 web parts rather than SharePoint web parts. An exception to this is when you require additional functionalities that are not part of ASP.NET 2.0 web part control set, but which are provided from SharePoint web parts.

Importing and Exporting Web Parts

You won't be able to simply copy your ASP.NET 2.0 web parts to Windows SharePoint Services V3.0 pages. To use your ASP.NET web parts in the SharePoint environment, you must first export your ASP.NET web parts and then import them to the SharePoint pages. (The Building ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 article covers more details)

When to Use Windows SharePoint Services Web Part Class

There are a few cases when you will have to use Windows SharePoint Services web parts instead of ASP.NET web parts. Windows SharePoint Services web parts support additional Windows SharePoint Services features that are not supported through an ASP.NET web part. Following is a list of features that are only supported through Windows SharePoint Services web parts:

- Connections between web parts that are outside of a Web Part zone
- Cross page connections
- A data caching infrastructure that allows caching to the content database
- Client-side connections (Web Part Page Services Component)

Another reason for using Windows SharePoint Services web parts is when you want to upgrade your Windows SharePoint Services V2.0 web parts to the V3.0 environment. The new version of the web part should be driven from the SharePoint web part class. SharePoint web parts can only be hosted in Windows SharePoint Services site pages.

Top Reasons to trust your SharePoint 3 website to ASPHostCentral.com

What we think makes ASPHostCentral.com so compelling is how deeply integrated all the pieces are. We integrate and centralize everything--from the systems to the control panel software to the process of buying a domain name. For us, that means we can innovate literally everywhere. We've put the guys who develop the software and the admins who watch over the server right next to the 24-hour Fanatical Support team, so we all learn from each other:

- 24/7-based Support - We never fall asleep and we run a service that is operating 24/7 a year. Even everyone is on holiday during Easter or Christmas/New Year, we are always behind our desk serving our customers
- Excellent Uptime Rate - Our key strength in delivering the service to you is to maintain our server uptime rate. We never ever happy to see your site goes down and we truly understand that it will hurt your onlines business. If your service is down, it will certainly become our pain and we will certainly look for the right pill to kill the pain ASAP
- High Performance and Reliable Server - We never ever overload our server with tons of clients. We always load balance our server to make sure we can deliver an excellent service, coupling with the high performance and reliable server
- Experts in SharePoint 3 Hosting - Given the scale of our environment, we have recruited and developed some of the best talent in the hosting technology that you are using. Our team is strong because of the experience and talents of the individuals who make up ASPHostCentral
- Daily Backup Service - We realise that your website is very important to your business and hence, we never ever forget to create a daily backup. Your database and website are backup every night into a permanent remote tape drive to ensure that they are always safe and secure. The backup is always ready and available anytime you need it
- Easy Site Administration - With our powerful control panel, you can always administer most of your site features easily without even needing to contact for our Support Team. Additionally, you can also install more than 100 FREE applications directly via our Control Panel in 1 minute!

Happy hosting!

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Sharepoint Hosting :: Tricks and Traps with Site Columns and Content Types

clock March 3, 2010 19:03 by author Administrator
One of the main selling points of SharePoint is the ability to push content management down to the End User instead of having a dedicated IT staff or Information Management Team manages sites and content. From my perspective, this is also one of its biggest downfalls.

The single greatest problem of a beginning End User is not having an understanding of how to structure a library or list so that it can be part of a centrally managed site structure, built for reusability with document templates attached. Forget about site design. Forget about user interface. They are told to start by adding columns to a library/list to make the information searchable and manageable through metadata, when most End Users do not have a clear understanding of what that is (metadata) much less how to  structure it.

Allowing contributors of content the power to control the Information Architecture of a site or list/library assumes they have the understanding and knowledge of how to structure information so that it is robust, reusable, modular and accessible to all users of that content. This places too much burden on the End User, who is usually an untrained content contributor who just wants to contribute and consume information.

Understanding Content Types is essential when managing a quickly growing site through an expandable, controllable infrastructure. More than in other installments of SharePoint 101: Tricks and Traps, you must be able to put Site Columns and Content Types into your own context to get an understanding of how powerful they are. With each problem statement in this installment, try to rephrase the problem so that it relates directly to a situation in your SharePoint environment.

This section of Tricks and Traps starts with an overview of Site Columns and how they relate to Content Types.  From the overview, we will move into common scenarios using Site Columns to create Content Types. We will end with a series of links to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base, focusing on their in-depth descriptions and examples of Content Types.

The following article summarizes one of the features in Sharepoint Services called Site Columns. ASPHostCentral.com, as the premier ASP.NET and Windows Hosting provider, proudly presents this article to anyone and we believe it will help many ASP.NET communities; especially to those who are using Sharepoint Service. In case you are looking for Sharepoint Hosting, you can always consider ASPHostCentral.com and you can start from our lowest Standard Plan @$4.99/month to host your Sharepoint site.


Introduction to Site Columns

Newly created libraries and lists consist of default columns. These columns are the document or list properties/attributes that are set by default when a list or library is created. You can think of metadata as the aggregate list of these properties. 

Default Document Columns

There are 17 default properties (attributes) associated with an item in a document library. To see the default properties, choose View: Modify this view from the View menu in any newly created document library. You will see the following list:
  1. Type (icon linked to document)
  2. Name (linked to document with edit menu)
  3. Modified (date)
  4. Modified By (person)
  5. Checked Out To (person)
  6. Check In Comment (text)
  7. Content Type
  8. Copy Source (link)
  9. Created (date)
  10. Created By (person)
  11. Edit (link to edit item)
  12. File Size (kb)
  13. ID (unique identifier)
  14. Name (for use in forms)
  15. Name (linked to document)
  16. Title (text)
  17. Version (number)
These properties are the default metadata for any document uploaded, created or published to the library. Stop for a second and think about that… every document knows these 17 things about itself. This is the foundation of the metadata structure for any document within SharePoint.

Core Document Columns

There are additional attributes/properties that can be carried by documents within a SharePoint library. These properties are not available by default, but can be added to the metadata structure of the library and are called “Core Document Columns”. They are listed in the Site Column Gallery for site and site collection administrators. The twenty Core Document Columns are a small subset of all the site columns available in a default SharePoint installation.The Core Document Columns can be found under Site Actions -> Site Settings, Galleries: Site columns:
  1. Author
  2. Category
  3. Comments
  4. Contributor
  5. Coverage
  6. Date
  7. Date Modified
  8. Date Picture Taken
  9. Format
  10. Keywords
  11. Last Printed
  12. Publisher
  13. Relation
  14. Resource Identifier
  15. Resource Type
  16. Revision
  17. Rights Management
  18. Source
  19. Subject
  20. Version
Custom Site ColumnsSharePoint offers the ability to create customized site columns when the default document library columns and the Core Document Columns are not what is needed to identify a document.As an example, if you create a Technical Publications “Specifications Library” there might be a need to associate a specific product with every document. There is no such thing as a default “Product” column in SharePoint. By creating the Product site column and making it mandatory (required) in the Specifications library, when a document is inserted into the library, the document will know what project it is related to.


Introduction to Content Types

Individual site columns can be made much more useful when they are grouped together to create an entire metadata structure. This grouping of site columns is called a Content Type.

Overview of Content Types

A Content Type is a reusable grouping of site columns that can be utilized by a list or library. This makes it possible to maintain a consistent metadata structure for all documents or items of that type in a Site Collection.

A Content Type can carry a workflow,  an Information Management Policy and a document template along with the site columns. Whenever the Content Type is associated with a library or list, all of the functionality built into the customization of that Content Type will be available to that library or list.

Using an example from the EndUserSharePoint.com Site Collection Administration Workshop, let’s take a look at a customized Content Type.The Site Collection Administrator needs a method for accepting new site creation requests, new library requests and requests for help with site planning. All three of these requests have five things in common:
  1. Requester Name
  2. Requester Email
  3. Time Frame
  4. Priority of this Request
  5. Comments
A Content Type can be created to manage all of these columns as a single group of metadata that can be applied to any list that needs it. In our case, all request lists need to have this customized Request Content Type associated with it.

Using a single Content Type in multiple lists allows for consistency in the data structure. The consistency adds to the ability to find those list items through a search across the metadata. “Find me all list items that have a Priority of ‘High’ that were requested by ‘Mark Miller or Bob Mixon’”.

An added benefit of using a Content Type in multiple locations is maintainability. Any changes to the parent Content Type can be passed down to any list that is using that Content Type.One of the things missing from the Request Content Type described above is the ‘Status’ of the request (Open, In progress, Completed, Denied). Adding a Status column to the Request Content Type will now create that column in any list that is utilizing our customized Content Type.


Summary

Site columns and Content Types are the foundation of Information Architecture planning in SharePoint
. Too much duplication of effort is typically done because of lack of planning before starting to build the infrastructure of a Site Collection.Utilizing site columns and Content Types takes additional effort in the upfront time spent when setting up a SharePoint Site Collection, but the investment of time at the beginning will pay huge dividends during the management and maintenance phase of your SharePoint implementation. 

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Sharepoint 2013 Hosting

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