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Introduction: Enterprise Search is one of the most compelling features of SharePoint Server 2007. The out-of-the-box capabilities can drastically improve end users’ experience in retrieving relevant information. The same capabilities are available for custom SharePoint applications through dedicated APIs. There are three ways to create and run search queries against the SharePoint API, each with specific advantages. A description of each approach follows. Keyword Search Queries Search Web Service List Query API (SPQuery Class) Keyword Search Queries: This is the most straightforward approach. Once you specify in your code what keywords to look for, you can just run that query and start retrieving results. For its simplicity, the keywords-only approach comes with limitations. In particular you will not be able to define comparison constraints in the query. Search Web Service: SharePoint Server 2007 exposes most of its search functionalities as a web service. You can reference this web...

Open SharePoint Designer. On the File menu, click New, point to SharePoint Content, and then click the Page tab. Double-click Master Page to create a new master page. Click Design to show the master page in design view. You should see header and left margin areas and several content placeholders in the master page. Click Code to show the master page in code view. Copy the Code into the Master Page. On the File menu, click Save As, provide a unique file name with the .master extension, and then save the file to the master page gallery (/_catalogs/masterpage) in your site collection. Cheers...

Introduction One of the first tasks that you must complete when configuring a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Web site is to create one or more master pages. A master page contains references to elements that you can share across multiple pages in an Office SharePoint Server 2007 site, such as navigation, search controls, logon controls, and banner images. A master page can also contain the cascading style sheet (CSS) and ECMAScript (JScript, JavaScript) references that define the overall look and feel of your site. Commonly, every site—and therefore every page—in your site collection uses the same master page to present a consistent user experience across the entire site collection. Depending on your needs, you can use a different master page for one or for all of the sites in your site hierarchy to distinguish the various areas of your portal. Master Page Galleries When you provision a site collection in Office SharePoint Server 2007, the system creates a master page gallery ...

You can extend the navigation provider in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 by deriving a custom provider class from any of the default site map providers. Deriving from an Office SharePoint Server 2007 site map provider supplies several benefits such as navigation node caching and security trimming. The following code example derives from the PortalSiteMapProvider class and demonstrates how to add items to the site map provider. Although the site map provider classes have approximately twenty abstract or virtual methods, only a small number must be overridden and implemented in a custom site map provider. Create a Microsoft Visual C# class library project with following code, add the required references, and then build the project. using System;using System.Collections.Generic;using System.Text;using Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing;using Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation;using System.Web;using System.Web.UI.WebControls;using System.Configuration; namespace MyCustomNav ...

To customize navigation, you should rely on the ASP.NET Site Navigation mechanism, because it provides a standard, consistent, and easily managed solution. Customizing Web Display Controls (Menu, TreeView, and SiteMapPath) : You can customize the look and feel of standard display controls by using cascading style sheets (CSSs). You can also write your own ASP.NET 2.0 controls and use them in Office SharePoint Server 2007 navigation. To learn more, see the Menu class documentation. Note : Office SharePoint Server 2007 also provides default navigation components that you can customize, such as the Content By Query Web Part and the Table of Contents Web Part. You can configure these two controls to present a custom selection of links. To implement your own site map provider, you can derive a custom provider class from any of the default site map providers. Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes several default providers. You can also derive a custom provider class from the SiteMapProvid...

The PortalSiteMapProvider object is the true source of hierarchical navigation data and it provides the data to the PortalSiteMapDataSource object. The PortalSiteMapProvider retrieves nodes from the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SPNavigation store. You use the SPNavigation object to create static links and groupings. After you provide static links and groupings, the application merges in dynamic items that represent Web sites and pages with the static links and groupings. Office SharePoint Server 2007 also applies security trimming so that users see only the navigation items to which they have permission to navigate. Declare named providers in the application's web.config file to make them widely accessible. Declarations of the two most important PortalSiteMapProvider objects— CombinedNavSiteMapProvider and CurrentSiteNavSiteMapProvider—are shown in the following code. add name="CombinedNavSiteMapProvider" description= "MOSS 2007 provider for Combined naviga...

The PortalSiteMapDataSource is a data source specific to Office SharePoint Server 2007 that retrieves data from the PortalSiteMapProvider object and exposes data according to the ASP.NET 2.0 hierarchical data source interface. The PortalSiteMapDataSource object specifies the name of the PortalSiteMapProvider object it uses to retrieve data through the ASP.NET 2.0 SiteMapProvider property. When the master page markup includes the DataSourceID="GlobalNavDataSource" attribute, the application returns a PortalSiteMapDataSource object. PublishingNavigation:PortalSiteMapDataSource ID="GlobalNavDataSource" Runat="server" SiteMapProvider="CombinedNavSiteMapProvider" ShowStartingNode="false" StartFromCurrentNode="true" StartingNodeOffset="0" TrimNonCurrentTypes="Heading" TreatStartingNodeAsCurrent="true" /> The properties are, ShowStartingNode - Affects whether the starting node is returned by ...

When you first create a site structure that includes a root or top-level site, more than one Web site, and pages and additional sites that are children of the top-level site, Office SharePoint Server 2007 creates two menus: a horizontal (top) menu, and a vertical (left) menu. Horizontal and vertical menus are declared in master page markup. The following example declares a horizontal menu. SharePoint:AspMenu ID="GlobalNav" Runat="server" DataSourceID="GlobalNavDataSource" Orientation="Horizontal" StaticDisplayLevels="1" MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="1" /> The vertical menu is declared similarly, but uses different properties from the horizontal menu. These properties are identical to those available on the ASP.NET 2.0 Menu control. The following are the properties included by default in master page markup for both horizontal and vertical menus: DataSourceID - Specifies the data source control that provides the hierarchical...

Any declaration of Horizontal or Vertical menu instructions for navigation in XML for the master page, two classes are used to make the navigation work: PortalSiteMapDataSource PortalSiteMapProvider The PortalSiteMapProvider object provides the site hierarchy (navigation structure) and monitors the relationship between nodes.Many named instances of this site map provider are listed in the web.config file, and are also available through static properties on this class that the master pages in Office SharePoint Server 2007 deliver. Office SharePoint Server 2007 uses these named instances to provide data to the horizontal and vertical navigation menus. The application shares named instances across all Web requests on the current application domain. The class stores no session information. If necessary, session information is stored on the HttpContext class. The PortalSiteMapDataSource object maps navigation features from the PortalSiteMapProvider and filters navigation elements to de...

Most Web sites employ some form of customized user interface (UI) that provides users with visual clues on how to navigate in the site more easily, and find the information they need. Although the look and feel (or branding) can vary from site to site, the same basic navigation elements are usually present, such as navigation bars and menus that expose options a user can choose to navigate to a subsite or page. you can customize it through programmatically and also through the UI, including: Using the provider and data source APIs to customize the structure and behavior of vertical and horizontal menus. Understanding Navigation Settings UI options and using them to set up a site navigation hierarchy. Replacing the default navigation provider included in Office SharePoint Server 2007 with your own custom provider. Configuring multiple navigation providers for a site. Navigation Fundamentals To make it easy to build effective navigation elements such as horizontal and vertical menus and ...

SharePoint pages are built on the foundation of ASP.NET . As a SharePoint developer, you must be aware of two different types of SharePoint pages. These are Application pages and Site pages. Application pages, such as Settings.aspx, are used for all Windows SharePoint Services sites. Therefore, if you modify or extend the functionality in this type of page, your changes will apply to all SharePoint sites. Application pages are stored in the file system of the front-end Web server. They are located in the TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS folder in the Web Server Extensions path. Each SharePoint Web includes a virtual directory, named _layouts, that points to this physical location. So, for example, the Settings page is accessible by using the relative URL of /_layouts/Settings.aspx. In contrast, Site pages, such as Default.aspx, can be customized on a site-by-site basis. Newly-created sites start with site pages based on page templates on the front-end Web server. For example, sites based on the Team S...

Introduction Content types, a core concept used throughout the functionality and services offered in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, are designed to help users organize their SharePoint content in a more meaningful way. A content type is a reusable collection of settings you want to apply to a certain category of content. Content types enable you to manage the metadata and behaviors of a document or item type in a centralized, reusable way. Click here for more... Site and List Content Types You create a content type at the site level. This site content type acts as a template that is independent of any specific list or library. That site content type is then available on any child site.When you create a site content type, it becomes available on any child site. At this point, the site content type is available to be added to lists within the site, but has not actually been added to any specific site list. For more click here... Still more on Content Types... Wait and See...

Web sites based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services are meant to help groups of users work together, they tend to grow quickly and change often. Keeping up with these changes can be difficult for users, especially if they aren't checking on the site every day. To help users stay in touch with changes on a site, Windows SharePoint Services includes a feature called Alerts, an e-mail notification service. When documents, lists, or items in a list on a server running Windows SharePoint Services are created, modified, or deleted, users who sign up for alerts receive messages informing them that changes have been made. The Following topics are covered regarding "Alert" Alerts Overview Default Timer Interval Predefined Alert Templates Alert Template Format Modifying the Appearance of Alerts Event Logs in Windows SharePoint Services Alert Object Model Implementing Alert Handlers Still more to come... Cheers...

The Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) includes documentation, as well as code examples within the topics, for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. The Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK describes the technologies that Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides for developers. It contains overview information and step-by-step, how-to procedures for programming with Windows SharePoint Services that can help you get started writing applications. There are several code examples within the documentation, as well as some tips and best practices, for using the development platform of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.Online Library to study about WSS 3.0. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK A lot to come...

SharePoint Products and Technologies provide enterprise-scale capabilities to meet business-critical needs such as managing content and business processes, simplifying how people find and share information across boundaries, and helping to enable more informed decision-making. Using the combined collaboration features of Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server 2007, plus the design and customization capabilities of Office SharePoint Designer 2007, organizations can enable their users to create, manage, and more easily build their own SharePoint sites, and make these sites more discoverable throughout the organization. Soon there are so many posts to kick off... Wait and See...