CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t SharePoint 2007 deployment at CERN Alex Lossent CERN IT/IS

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Outline Overview of Windows SharePoint Services Motivations Use cases at CERN CERN SharePoint deployment Integration with existing applications Conclusion

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t WSS: overview Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 –A more advanced “MOSS 2007” exists A platform for collaborative applications –Share information and documents “Content Management System” Not limited to web content –Facilitate team work Integrates with Office (2007) –Though any modern web browser is sufficient

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Motivations SharePoint was initially investigated for internal use in the Internet Services group –Replacement for NNTP newsgroups: web forums –Replacement for mailing list archives Exchange Public Folders deprecated in Exchange 2007 Search and Threading capabilities –Several options evaluated, SharePoint selected SharePoint answers other needs –Replacement for “FrontPage sites” 3700 FPSE sites at CERN Microsoft initially planned no such sites in IIS7! –Repeating user requests for advanced web features Forums, wiki, web forms, image libraries, blogs… Users invest a lot of time developing custom solutions

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Motivations Benefits for the Internet Services group –Stop NNTP service (Linux + Exchange) –Allow stopping deprecated PF by moving mailing list archives (needed for next version of Exchange) –Evolution of the FrontPage sites –All 3 services merged into one! –Seamless integration with AD/mailing lists End-user benefits –Single interface for newsgroups, list archives, forums With new features: RSS –Improvements of web hosting services Easy access to advanced features: forums, wiki, forms Excellent integration with MS Office Support for “External Accounts”

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Use cases Discussion forums –And replace NNTP, mailing list archives Web forms –Typical trio: web form/database/view page –Questionnaires/surveys (statistics) Shared folders “a la Outlook” –Calendars, contact lists, task management Collaboration work on documents –Administration, HR, procedures, etc. Documentation –FAQ, Q&A, help pages, wiki… Community sites –Clubs, picture libraries, social events…

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Usage scenario: CERN market

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Usage scenarios: HR Version tracking

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Usage scenarios: HR Version tracking

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Usage scenarios: HR Approval workflow

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Usage scenarios: HR Team sites: information sharing

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Usage scenarios: HR Surveys

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Collaboration workspaces Provide the vanilla functionality of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, out-of-the-box “Collaboration workspace” is a new site type in central web site management system Very little emphasis on SharePoint Designer –People encouraged to use web interface only ~200 sites so far (pilot started in March 2007)

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t User education Article in CERN IT publication (CNL) Seminars –1000 invitations sent, 120 attendees Technical Training Few help pages –CERN specificities –Send users to relevant online guides/tutorials

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t CERN customizations Support for non-IE browsers –Telerik RadEditor (cross-platform WYSIWYG) FAST component for intranet search Custom SOAP administration service –Communication with central WebServices Custom SharePoint “feature” –Apply CERN settings on new sites and subwebs Maintenance tasks with Powershell scripts –Message expiration in CERN Market –Export internal documentation to static files

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t CERN theme Official colors and logo (CSS + images) Theme only: no change of layout Additional theme in theme gallery Presentation title - 16

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Technical details “Farm” approach (scalability) –1 web front-end –1 SQL 2005 database server Disaster recovery –Rely on SQL backups 1 daily full + log backup every 3h Will review SharePoint specific products –Took a long time to figure out and test! –Need separate farm for individual site restore Can restore site state at any point-in-time Never requested so far

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Integration with other apps Central WebServices site –Site management, creation, ownership CERN “official theme” Simba mailing list system –Permission management, invitations CERN External Accounts Intranet Search (FAST) Indico –Via RSS feeds

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Integration with other apps(2) CERN Alerter –Uses SharePoint for storage Automated publication of announcements –Using SharePoint’s SOAP services 2008: migration of mailing list archives from Exchange PF –Use SharePoint forums to store messages –Benefits: search, threading, RSS –Rely on SharePoint mail integration features –Powershell script to fix timestamp during migration

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Wish-list Integration with web Single-Sign-On –Hooks exist but development effort needed –Difficult to keep Office integration working! WebDAV –Manipulate files from any platform Better cross-platform support –Pictures, WYSIWYG… –Mostly OK with Firefox, some issues with Safari

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Demo CERN Market –Externals Site creation –Compose home page –Content types –Contact list + add custom columns + connect to Outlook –Create a questionnaire

CERN - IT Department CH-1211 Genève 23 Switzerland t Conclusion SharePoint allowed consolidation of existing services Empowers end users (non-experts in particular) to build themselves simple collaborative solutions –Just from a web browser –Simpler: reduced support load from IT –Without development in IT Emphasis on saving time –Quick publication, no web editor software needed –Automatic theme/navigation/links etc.