Customising SharePoint David Gristwood Developer & Platform Group

Agenda 1. Developing Data Driven SharePoint Solutions Focus: DataViews and live data 2. Customizing SharePoint Focus: Package and re-use sites

1) Developing Data Driven SharePoint Solutions SharePoint is excellent integration point for many data sources Databases Web services XML feeds, such as blogs InfoPath electronic forms etc...

FrontPage 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services Going beyond the browser and WSS Work with Web Part pages Bring external data into SharePoint High quality page design Extend Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server

FrontPage 2003 Working with Web Part Pages Do more with Web Parts Create custom Web Part pages Use Web Part connections to build solutions Add/edit/configure Web Part zones Save to site catalog and Web Packages for reusing customized Web Parts and solutions

FrontPage 2003 High Quality Page Design Professional design tools make customized SharePoint sites look great New layout tables and cell formatting for high quality page layout and design New dynamic web templates for a consistent look across pages More, professional looking themes

FrontPage 2003 Extending SharePoint Web sites Expand the scope of SharePoint sites XSLT Data View Web Part for creating highly formatted views on XML data Conditional Formatting for rich presentation of data Hide, change fonts, colours, etc Connected Data Views for detailed solution pages eg. master-details views

Data Driven SharePoint Sites

Blogs and RSS Many blogs now expose RSS feed Blog data as XML conforming to RSS schema RSS aggregators collate these feeds Custom client apps E.g. SharpReader, Pluck, NewsGator, etc Portals SharePoint can act as aggregator Surface relevant RSS feeds on site Links back to original article Standard XML or custom Web Part

Blogs and RSS feeds

What is InfoPath? A new program in Microsoft Office System 2003 Included in Office 2003 Pro/Ent Editions Available standalone A desktop application The platform for a new generation of electronic forms SP1 supports Visual Studio.NET and managed code

Why Electronic Forms? Forms drive business processes Inefficiencies and inaccurate information cause significant negative downstream effects Forms hide the complexities of processes Electronic information capture helps streamline the complex processes sitting behind forms Forms are everywhere People in your organization are inundated by forms – expense reports, benefit statements, etc.

Rich, dynamic InfoPath form Consistent, accurate, timely info Readily accessible Easy to aggregate via WSS Inconsistent input methods Difficult to keep track of status Painful to reconcile info across team Hard to share info among team Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint™ Services (WSS) InfoPath 2003 Example Scenario – Workgroup Team / Department Status Report Before InfoPath With InfoPath

How InfoPath Stands Out – Collecting Information Rich validation based on embedded business rules UI elements speed data acquisition; date picker, auto-fill Ability to collect images Support for rich text collection, including numbered and bulleted lists Support for optional and repeating sections, that allow the form to adapt Support for offline use

How InfoPath Stands Out – Integrating With Other Systems Can pre-populate data from multiple backend systems Can validate data against backend systems Tools in the designer allow integration with other systems and XML web services without programming

SharePoint and InfoPath Expense Reports

2) Customizing SharePoint Turn a site into a re-usable package The look and feel of the site Includes any custom lists, etc Even content, if desired Windows SharePoint Services was designed to be a platform that could support different types of sites Hence template architecture

Customization Three databases for a portal Associate URLs with templates Templates with components and content Pages with style sheets Store other metadata about the portal's pages On page request SQL query retrieves metadata associated with the requested page Combines page with the metadata for response

Customizing SharePoint Using FrontPage to Change Site Appearance Page layout, colours, graphics, style, … Themes help manage the appearance of your pages in one convenient place Dynamic Web Templates New to FrontPage 2003 Specify content and master pages

Overview of Templates ‘Site Definitions’ are similar to the STS V1 style of template Fully fledged definition of a site They are composed of multiple XML files and located in the file system of the SharePoint web server ‘Custom Templates’ are a way of enabling customized lists and sites to be re-used Customise via UI They are stored as content in the SharePoint database

Custom Templates Types Custom Templates come in two types List Templates Site Templates List Templates include columns, form pages, and optionally the content that is associated with a list Scenario: “Hey, you customized your document library into a cool ‘Media Library’. I’d like to use that on my site.” Site Templates cover entire site

stsadm Tool used to perform many admin tasks Sites, users, web parts, etc Command line tool Windows GUI wrapper available Maps to object model closely

Site Definitions All site types that you can create out of the box are made using Site Definitions Team Site: Blank Site, Document Workspace Basic Meeting Workspace: Blank, Decision, Social … Site Definitions are built up as a combination of multiple XML files Site Definitions are stored in a directory in the file-system of the SharePoint Web Servers

Site Definitions XML Schemas. Nav Bars (Top, Quick Launch) Available Lists Document Templates Base Types Generic List, Doc Lib, Discussion Board, Survey, Issue Tracking ConfigurationsModules

When to Use What? Site Definitions require access to the file systems of SharePoint Web Servers, end- users therefore will always create Custom Templates The target audience for Site Definition development includes 3 rd party developers and IT professionals. IT will always need to be involved in the deployment of Site Definitions.

Custom Templates

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