Coskun Cavusoglu SharePoint

I downloaded the new beta realease of CorasWorks and it seems like they have fixed most of the roll-up schema issues we've been having in the first beta release.

In the coming weeks, CorasWorks will also be introducing a product called Design Migrator. (For those of you who were at the last CSUG (Chicago SharePoint User Group) meeting this is the product I demonstrated that allows you to upgrade your v2 site templates.)

This is a great tool that allows you to bring v2 content to a v3 site.  Normally when you update a v2 site to v3 site with SharePoint upgrade methods you don't get the benefits of using the v3 features. So this product allows you to bring your v2 sites but also ensures that you can use the v3 features.

"My opinions do not reflect those of my blog host, SharePoint Experts"

I downloaded the new beta realease of CorasWorks and it seems like they have fixed most of the roll-up schema issues we've been having in the first beta release.

In the coming weeks, CorasWorks will also be introducing a product called Design Migrator. (For those of you who were at the last CSUG (Chicago SharePoint User Group) meeting this is the product I demonstrated that allows you to upgrade your v2 site templates.)

This is a great tool that allows you to bring v2 content to a v3 site.  Normally when you update a v2 site to v3 site with SharePoint upgrade methods you don't get the benefits of using the v3 features. So this product allows you to bring your v2 sites but also ensures that you can use the v3 features.

"My opinions do not reflect those of my blog host, SharePoint Experts"

Chicago SharePoint User Group

I know this is kind of late since it's been a few weeks already but wanted to let you know that we have formed a SharePoint User Group down in Chicago, IL named the Chicago SharePoint User Group. The name says it all

As Chicago SharePoint experts, consultants, and administrators we felt that there wasn't a User Group just for SharePoint in Chicago and one was needed. I would like to inform yo that now we have a Chicago SharePoint User Group. If you live close to Chicago I would definitely recommend you come to the events that Chicago SharePoint User Group is conducting. We try to demonstrate new features, answer questions and also talk about SharePoint experiences that we have with our clients and at our jobs.

For example a few weeks ago I presented How to upgrade to SharePoint 2007 and demonstrated and talked about the differences between the upgrade types. It was a great training opportunity for most of the audience.

"My opinions do not reflect those of my blog host, SharePoint Experts"

Chicago SharePoint User Group

I know this is kind of late since it's been a few weeks already but wanted to let you know that we have formed a SharePoint User Group down in Chicago, IL named the Chicago SharePoint User Group. The name says it all

As Chicago SharePoint experts, consultants, and administrators we felt that there wasn't a User Group just for SharePoint in Chicago and one was needed. I would like to inform yo that now we have a Chicago SharePoint User Group. If you live close to Chicago I would definitely recommend you come to the events that Chicago SharePoint User Group is conducting. We try to demonstrate new features, answer questions and also talk about SharePoint experiences that we have with our clients and at our jobs.

For example a few weeks ago I presented How to upgrade to SharePoint 2007 and demonstrated and talked about the differences between the upgrade types. It was a great training opportunity for most of the audience.

"My opinions do not reflect those of my blog host, SharePoint Experts"

When designing a MOSS 2007 environment we need to understand the core elements of MOSS before you can go forward with designing a MOSS 2007 solution for your organization or your client. So let's take a step back and review the MOSS 2007 core elements.
 
Core Elements of the SharePoint Technology
The following are the core elements that make up the foundation of SharePoint technology. You must clearly understand what each of the following elements are before you start to design your solution.

• SharePoint Web Application: This is an IIS web site that is extended with the SharePoint technology. For those of you who have worked with SPS 2003 this is your “virtual server” in SPS 2003.  A SharePoint web application is where our site collections reside and a SharePoint web application can hold more than one site collection.
• Site Collection: A site collection is a group of sites built on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services that all exist under a top-level site. A site collection contains one top-level Web site. We can also refer to the top-level Web site as the portal site. Site Collections can have multiple Subsites, workspaces, and etc.
• Managed Path: This is an optional setting you can use to group site collections. Managed paths allow you to organize URLs. Managed Path also allows you to define locations in your IIS Web site so that they are not managed by SharePoint.

WSS Core Components
The following are the core elements that make up the foundation of Windows SharePoint Services v3.0. These are the components that allow us to build solutions on WSS.

• Top-level Web Site: This is the top site in the hierarchy hence the name top-level web site. This site is also referred to as the “Root site”. Top-level web sites can have multiple Subsites, workspaces, and etc. beneath.
• Subsites: These are the child sites of the top-level Web site. Subsites can also have multiple Subsites, workspaces, and etc. beneath.
• Workspaces: These are sites that are designed for a specific purpose. Examples to workspaces are;
  • Document Workspace: Designed for collaborating on documents.
  • Meeting Workspace: Designed for coordinating meetings.
• Lists: These are the building blocks of SharePoint sites. There are out of the box lists such as the Task list and the Announcements list. You can also create custom  lists based on your needs.
• Document libraries: These are also the building blocks of SharePoint site. These are lists that are designed to hold documents.
• Web Parts: These are the boxes that contain information, custom code, list views that allow developers and site owners to display data to their visitors. If you've used other portal systems before you can think of Web Parts as “Portlets”.
• Web Part pages: These are pages that contain Web Parts.

SharePoint Portal Core Components

• Portal Site: This is the initial site in a site collection in a portal environment. Portal sites can have multiple Subsites, workspaces, and etc. beneath.

• Subsite: This replaces the Areas in SharePoint Portal Server 20003. These are the child sites of the top-level Web site. Subsites can also have multiple Subsites, workspaces, and etc. beneath.

• Partner Portals: Partner Portals are two or more portal sites in the same environment. (This is when you create different portal sites within on server farm.)

• Parent Portal: This is a portal site that is configured to share services with child portal sites.

• Child Portal: This is a portal site that is configured to use services from a parent portal site.

"My opinions do not reflect those of my blog host, SharePoint Experts"

When designing a MOSS 2007 environment we need to understand the core elements of MOSS before you can go forward with designing a MOSS 2007 solution for your organization or your client. So let's take a step back and review the MOSS 2007 core elements.
 
Core Elements of the SharePoint Technology
The following are the core elements that make up the foundation of SharePoint technology. You must clearly understand what each of the following elements are before you start to design your solution.

• SharePoint Web Application: This is an IIS web site that is extended with the SharePoint technology. For those of you who have worked with SPS 2003 this is your “virtual server” in SPS 2003.  A SharePoint web application is where our site collections reside and a SharePoint web application can hold more than one site collection.
• Site Collection: A site collection is a group of sites built on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services that all exist under a top-level site. A site collection contains one top-level Web site. We can also refer to the top-level Web site as the portal site. Site Collections can have multiple Subsites, workspaces, and etc.
• Managed Path: This is an optional setting you can use to group site collections. Managed paths allow you to organize URLs. Managed Path also allows you to define locations in your IIS Web site so that they are not managed by SharePoint.

WSS Core Components
The following are the core elements that make up the foundation of Windows SharePoint Services v3.0. These are the components that allow us to build solutions on WSS.

• Top-level Web Site: This is the top site in the hierarchy hence the name top-level web site. This site is also referred to as the “Root site”. Top-level web sites can have multiple Subsites, workspaces, and etc. beneath.
• Subsites: These are the child sites of the top-level Web site. Subsites can also have multiple Subsites, workspaces, and etc. beneath.
• Workspaces: These are sites that are designed for a specific purpose. Examples to workspaces are;
  • Document Workspace: Designed for collaborating on documents.
  • Meeting Workspace: Designed for coordinating meetings.
• Lists: These are the building blocks of SharePoint sites. There are out of the box lists such as the Task list and the Announcements list. You can also create custom  lists based on your needs.
• Document libraries: These are also the building blocks of SharePoint site. These are lists that are designed to hold documents.
• Web Parts: These are the boxes that contain information, custom code, list views that allow developers and site owners to display data to their visitors. If you've used other portal systems before you can think of Web Parts as “Portlets”.
• Web Part pages: These are pages that contain Web Parts.

SharePoint Portal Core Components

• Portal Site: This is the initial site in a site collection in a portal environment. Portal sites can have multiple Subsites, workspaces, and etc. beneath.

• Subsite: This replaces the Areas in SharePoint Portal Server 20003. These are the child sites of the top-level Web site. Subsites can also have multiple Subsites, workspaces, and etc. beneath.

• Partner Portals: Partner Portals are two or more portal sites in the same environment. (This is when you create different portal sites within on server farm.)

• Parent Portal: This is a portal site that is configured to share services with child portal sites.

• Child Portal: This is a portal site that is configured to use services from a parent portal site.

"My opinions do not reflect those of my blog host, SharePoint Experts"

I will be posting a series articles that I believe are very important for SharePoint Admins, Project Managers and developers who will be involved in designing SharePoint solutions, sites, portals and web parts. Generally due to lack of resources, time and money some of us jump in directly to developing or creating sites before getting a good understanding of what's out there.
 
Most of the times when I go out to clients I see that they've developed software that is available out of the box with SharePoint.  So I think it's best we understand the core elements of SharePoint before start designing it.
 
I'm hoping that the next few posts will be helpful for those of you who are starting to use SharePoint 2007.

I will be posting a series articles that I believe are very important for SharePoint Admins, Project Managers and developers who will be involved in designing SharePoint solutions, sites, portals and web parts. Generally due to lack of resources, time and money some of us jump in directly to developing or creating sites before getting a good understanding of what's out there.
 
Most of the times when I go out to clients I see that they've developed software that is available out of the box with SharePoint.  So I think it's best we understand the core elements of SharePoint before start designing it.
 
I'm hoping that the next few posts will be helpful for those of you who are starting to use SharePoint 2007.

I'm guessing most of you are excited about the Top Navigation Bar in the new version of SharePoint. If you've experimented with the Top Navigation Bar you probably have seen that by default the Top Navigation Bar only displays 2 sub menu item levels. This short post describes how to change the default number of displayed sub menu item levels in the Top Navigation Bar.

To change the number of sub menu item levels that are displayed on the Top Navigation Bar you need to modify the default.master file that is located under the Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12TEMPLATEGLOBAL folder.

First open the default.master file in an editor and search for “MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels“. Once you find the MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels property of the <SharePoint:AspMenu> element change the number to the requested number of levels.

For example to get 3 sub menu item levels to be displayed in the Top Navigation Bar simply change the number to 3.

MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="3"

P>

Once you've made the change save and close the file. After saving your changes you should refresh your page and see that more levels are displayed on your SharePoint Top Navigation Bar. The below image shows the Top Navigation Bar when the MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels is set to 3.

"My opinions do not reflect those of my blog host, SharePoint Experts"

I'm guessing most of you are excited about the Top Navigation Bar in the new version of SharePoint. If you've experimented with the Top Navigation Bar you probably have seen that by default the Top Navigation Bar only displays 2 sub menu item levels. This short post describes how to change the default number of displayed sub menu item levels in the Top Navigation Bar.

To change the number of sub menu item levels that are displayed on the Top Navigation Bar you need to modify the default.master file that is located under the Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12TEMPLATEGLOBAL folder.

First open the default.master file in an editor and search for “MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels“. Once you find the MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels property of the <SharePoint:AspMenu> element change the number to the requested number of levels.

For example to get 3 sub menu item levels to be displayed in the Top Navigation Bar simply change the number to 3.

MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="3"

P>

Once you've made the change save and close the file. After saving your changes you should refresh your page and see that more levels are displayed on your SharePoint Top Navigation Bar. The below image shows the Top Navigation Bar when the MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels is set to 3.

"My opinions do not reflect those of my blog host, SharePoint Experts"