introduction to sharepoint for developers

Webinar 1 - Intro to SharePoint 1

SharePoint 2010 Developer Mini-Bootcamp:Introduction to SharePoint 2010

John B. UnderwoodTechnical Evangelist,

ThreeWill [email protected]

Audio options are available in your GoToWebinar control panel. You may use computer speakers or you may choose to connect to audio via phone.


Educational Opportunities in 2011• 5-day SharePoint 2010 Developer Bootcamp• 5-episode webinar series highlighting topics from the

bootcamp• Targeted to experienced .NET developers that have

little or no experience with SharePoint


Introduction• Part I– What is SharePoint?– SharePoint Hierarchy– Databases

• Part II– Understanding Lists and Libraries– Views– Alerts


What is SharePoint? • A web-based information management and

presentation platform• Lists and libraries for storing document and structured

information– Tasks, contacts, links, calendar, announcements

• Workflows for carrying out steps in a business process• Search facility for finding information• A floor wax and a dessert topping…

5

History

• 2001– SharePoint Team Services– SharePoint Portal Server

• 2003– Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v2– SharePoint Portal Server 2003

• 2007– Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v3– Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

(MOSS) 2007• 2010

– Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010– Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Webinar 1 - Intro to SharePoint

Free with operating system

• “WSS”• “Foundation”

Purchased product• “MOSS”• “Server”


Things to do, places to see• Central Administrator– A special website for administering the farm– Used by admins (production) and developers (development,

testing)

• Sites– Users do their work here: adding documents, changing

items in a list, running workflows to carry out a business process

– Site Actions | Site Settings: somewhat like Central Administration, but scoped to Site level


Demonstration• Visiting Central Administration• Visiting a SharePoint Site• Creating/modifying content• Accessing Site Settings


Terminology


Terminology (cont.)

• Farm – SPFarm class– One or more Web Applications– Single configuration database– One or many physical machines

• Web Application – SPWebApplication, SPAdministrationWebApplication

classes– Analogous to IIS Website– Contains one or more Site Collections


Terminology (cont.)

• Site Collection– SPSite class– A set of websites

• 1 top-level Site, 0 or more Sub-Sites

– Common owner– Shared administrative settings– Security boundary– Navigation boundary – Contained within a single content

database


Terminology (cont.)

• Site– SPWeb class– End-user interaction– Container for Lists and Libraries

• List– SPList, SPListItem classes– Rows and columns

• Library– SPDocumentLibrary class– Library is really a list that hold documents


Hierarchy


Databases• Configuration Database– One per farm– Stores information on mapping to content databases– May be run on Web Server or separate machine

• Content Database– One or more per Web Application (cannot be shared across

Web Applications)– Site Collection fully contained in one Content Database– One Content Database can contain multiple Site Collections

• Service Application Databases


Database View


Demonstration• Creating a Site Collection• Creating a Site

Lists and Libraries


Lists• Designed for tabular data (rows and columns)– Similar to database table or spreadsheet

• Specific data types for columns– Numbers, people, strings, text, lookup

• Pre-defined templates for lists– Tasks, announcements, calendar– May be customized

• Custom lists• Lists may contain folders– Folder button disabled by default


Demonstration• Creating and using lists• Creating and using a custom list


Libraries• Specialized list for holding documents• May include columns• Contrasts with List Item attachment– Use library if there’s always a document, attachment for

sporadic documents

• Folders (nesting)• Versioning/Check-out/Check-in


Demonstration• Creating and using libraries• Check-in, check-out, versioning


Views• Allows a user to customize the presentation of a list or

library– Sort, filter, omit columns, etc.

• Created from scratch or modeled after existing views– Standard, Calendar, Access, DataSheet, Gantt

• Further options with SharePoint Designer • Personal or Public


Alerts• Notification of changes to list (insert, update, delete)• Change scenarios (i.e. someone else changes an item

created by me)• Notification scheduling (immediately, once a day, once

a week)• Delivered via Email or SMS


Accessing External Data• BCS (Business Connectivity Services)• Allows external data to be surfaced in SharePoint• Connects to:– Relational Database– Web Service– Other sources via Custom .NET Assembly

• Users are mostly unaware that data is coming from an external source

• IT department can consolidate data without costly coding effort


Custom Content Types• All lists/libraries are built from a “definition” known as

a Content Type• New Content Types can be created for custom

solutions• Once List or Library is created there is no linkage back

to its definition• Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010

provide tooling for Custom Content Types


Conclusions• Developers need to have a clear understanding of

SharePoint’s moving parts before proceeding to development work

• Don’t reinvent the wheel! If there’s a SharePoint OOB capability that solves the problem at hand then use it!

• Future webinars will look at the tooling and techniques for building custom SharePoint solutions


Thanks for attending today!

• Developer bootcamp runs on February 14th

– Class is already half full

• 25% discount for webinar attendees http://sharepoint-boot-camp-feb-2011.eventbrite.com/

– Discount code “webinar”– Does not apply to late registrations

introduction to sharepoint for developers

Technology

day sharepoint

microsoft sharepoint

web server

toplevel site

site collectionswebinar

site levelwebinar

terminology cont

site collectionspsite