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SharePoint Development Improves in Visual Studio 2010

2009-05-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

The focus of the tooling is to automate tedious tasks, enhance the debugging experience, and provide a GUI surface for visually exploring deployment and feature packaging. These tools will replace the much-derided SharePoint Designer.

VS 2010 Tools for SP Quick info:

Building and Debugging
Visual Studio will be able to building and debug SharePoint projects. "F5 Just Works!"

Server Explorer Integration
SharePoint Connections will be an option in the VS Server Explorer. Standard Sharepoint artifacts will be viewable: ContentTypes, Features, Templates, Lists, Sites, Workflows, Workspaces. Direct manipulation of some artifact attributes will be supported through VS property grid integration.

Windows SharePoint Services Project (WSP) Import
This will automate the manual task of creating Windows SharePoint Services solution package files. Previously, to create a solution package file, a developer had to use the Makecab.exe console application that is included in the Microsoft Cabinet Software Development Kit (SDK). Makecab.exe requires specifying the Diamond Directive File (.ddf) that contains a list of all the files to include in the package. Much of this will be automated.

Visual Web Part Designer
A new WSYWIG designer will exist for authoring Web Parts. The designer will also load a user control as a web part for SharePoint. This seems to be a more tightly integrated version of the widely used SmartPart, which is a Web Part that allows hosting of ASP.NET User Controls in SharePoint.

Event Receiver Wizard
Adding Event Receivers and connecting them to Sources can be done visually through a wizard.

Workflow Integration
A new ASPX Workflow Initiation form for Workflow Project will be added. Workflow initiation forms will have a visual designer.

Packaging Editor
A new Packaging Explorer will exist that supports editing Packaging and structuring the SharePoint Features and WSP file.

Programmatically retrieving Site Usage in MOSS 2007

2008-04-12T12:51:00.001-07:00

Site Usage reports can be retrieved programmatically by using the GetUsageData method from the SPWeb class. This method would return a Data Table that contains information about the usage of the site based on the specified type of report, interval, number of columns and the last day to display. The GetUsageData method can be obtained from the Microsoft.SharePoint Namespace.

Alternatively site usage reports can also be viewed from the site settings menu. However this option is available when it is enabled from the Central Administration's Usage Analysis Logging. The log file is located by default in the 12 hive of SharePoint in the LOGS folder. However there is an option available in central administration to change the logging path.

Business Data Catalog Overview

2008-04-12T12:50:00.001-07:00

The Business Data Catalog feature of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides an easy way to integrate business data from back-end server applications, such as SAP or Siebel, with your corporate portal to provide rich solutions for end users without writing any code. You register business data exposed in databases or through Web services in the Business Data Catalog by creating metadata that describes the database or Web service. The Business Data Catalog then uses this metadata to make the right calls into the data source to retrieve the relevant data.

After you register a data source in the Business Data Catalog, the business data entities are available for use by any of the following business data features:

Business Data Web Parts Generic Web Parts that display any entity from the Business Data Catalog, without deploying new code. The Web Parts provide customization, Web Part connections, and the standard Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services look-and-feel capabilities (paging, filtering, and style).

Business Data in Lists New field type that allows you to add any entity defined in the Business Data Catalog to a SharePoint list or document library.

Business Data Actions Business Data Actions bridge the gap between Office SharePoint Server 2007 and a native application user interface by providing a link back to the back-end data source. You can use Business Data Actions to build applications with write-back scenarios, such as a Customer Profile view that allows a user to update profile information directly in a back-end server application, such as SAP or Siebel. Actions are implemented as links, so you can also use actions to perform simple actions such as send an e-mail message or open a customer’s home page.

Business Data Search Offers full-text search of the data sources registered in the Business Data Catalog. You can create new search result types based on the specific data entities registered in the Business Data Catalog.

Business Data in User Profiles You can augment Office SharePoint Server 2007 user profiles from any external data source registered in the Business Data Catalog.

Excel Services - Architecture

2008-04-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

Excel Services is built on the SharePoint products and technologies platform. There are three core components of Excel Services:

Excel Calculation Service
Excel Web Access
Excel Web Service

Here is what each of these components do.

Excel Web Access – This is a web-part in SharePoint that performs the “rendering” (development team speak for “creating the HTML”) of Excel Workbooks on a web page. This is perhaps the most visible component for the end user. For those of you familiar with SharePoint, you can use it like any other web part in SharePoint to create a wide range of web pages.

Excel Web Services – This component provides the programmatic access that I talked about yesterday. It is a web service hosted in SharePoint. You can use methods in this web service to develop applications that incorporate calculations done by Excel Services and to automate the update of Excel spreadsheets.

Excel Calculation Service – This is the component that loads the spreadsheets, calculates them, refreshes external data, and maintains session state for interactivity. This is the heart of Excel Services.

Additionally, there is also a proxy that is used internally to handle the communication between the components on the web front end and the application server in multiple-server configurations. It also handles the load balancing in case there are multiple application servers in your installation.

These three components are divided in two major groups – those that live on a front-end server (which we refer to as a “web front end”), and those that live on a back-end application server. In the simplest of the configurations, all these components could be running on the same machine (we call this a “single box” installation). In a typical production environment with significant number of users, the components on the web front end and the application server would be on different machines. It is possible to scale (up or out) these components independently.

Security

Excel Services leverages the security infrastructure provided by SharePoint. Excel services uses SharePoint for authentication (who can log into the server) as well as authorization (who has access to which spreadsheet and the type of access; read, write, view only etc.). This provides a robust security environment for protecting your spreadsheets.

Performance and Scalability

Excel Services are optimized for scenarios in which multiple users access the same spreadsheets. We have done a lot of work to optimize for this scenario – for example, caching at multiple levels so that collective performance for a group of users is improved by caching spreadsheets as well as external data queried by the spreadsheets. All this is transparent to the end user except for the good response time. (Anticipating a question, we only share cached results between users that have the same rights.)

Excel Services can be scaled up by adding additional CPUs or memory to the server it runs on. It will take full advantage of multiple CPUs to handle multiple requests concurrently. It also supports 64bit CPUs. And it is possible to scale out the web front end and application server components independently, so you can adjust either based on server load and performance requirements. For example, if there is a bottleneck in rendering spreadsheets with Excel Web Access, then you can add more web front ends, and if there is a bottleneck is in calculations, then you can add more application servers to the farm. A lot will depend on the type, size of the workbooks and external data connections in the workbooks you are planning to use with Excel Services. For large deployments, some planning will need to go into the number of users as well as the anticipated workbook mix for the installation. The architecture is designed to meet the needs of a spectrum of deployments from a departmental to enterprise. The multi-tiered approach also allows for better security and isolation of services, for example in extranet scenarios.

Disable Right Click On SharePoint Site

2008-04-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

Follow these steps to prevent users from right-clicking in your sharepoint site.

Add a content editor web .
Add the following piece of code in the source editor of the content editor web part.

<HTML>
<BODY OnContextMenu = "return false;">
No Right Click on this Page.
</BODY>
</HTML>

Save the content editor web part.

Users are now prevented from the right click option on the page.

Reconnecting Content Databases in MOSS 2007

2008-04-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

After the failover of a SharePoint Products and technologies database, it is required to reconnect the content databases. The following are the databases that are required to be reconnected,

Content database
Admin database
Configuration Database
Search Database
Shared Services Provider

The following stsadm commands are used to reconnect to the content database after a failover, the deletecontentdb will remove the reference to the old database server and the addcontentdb will add the new database as the content database

stsadm –o deletecontentdb –url [Site] -databasename -databaseserver [Old Principal]

stsadm –o addcontentdb –url [Site] -databasename -databaseserver [Old Principal]

Reconnecting content databases can also be done using Central Administration,

Navigate to Central Administration.
Navigate to Application management page
Click on the Content Databases.
Select the content database that has failed-over.
In the Manage Content Databases page, choose the Remove content database option, and then click OK.
Select the Add a content database option, and enter the required details.
Replace the Database Server box with the new principal server, and then click OK.

Apply a Theme to all sub sites in SharePoint 2007

2008-04-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

Apply a Theme to all sub sites:(works for MOSS 2007 only, not WSS 3.0)

Change the top site to the theme of your choice using the normal method in Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Theme.

Navigate to the top site to see the newly applied theme.

View the HTML source of the SharePoint page using the theme you want.

Look for a link tag containing the .css file for the applied theme. It will look something like this:

Copy the href value to your clipboard or to a text file if you like. It should look something like:/apps/afe/_themes/Belltown/Bell1011-65001.css

On your top level site, go to the Site Actions > Site Settings > Master Page screen. Scroll to the bottom where the Alternate CSS URL section is. Select the "Specify a CSS file..." option.

Paste the path copied from the href above into the text box.

Check the Reset all sub-sites to inherit this alternate CSS URL option.

Click OK.

Navigate to your sub-sites and verify the theme has been applied.

Difference Between MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0

2008-04-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

It always astounds me what Microsoft are willing to bundle with their software, Analysis Services or SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) with SQL Server for example! They haven't stopped, they bundle Windows Sharepoint Services with Windows Server 2003, with is basically a fully functional SharePoint Server, however they still have SharePoint Server 2007 as a product. So what are the differences? At first glance it doesn't appear to be much, however for tight integration into the enterprise, it seems that MOSS 2007 (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) is a must! I will highlight the most interesting bits that MOSS 2007 has over and above WSS 3.0 (Windows Sharepoint Services) :

User Profiles support - Allows each user to store profile information

Site Manager - Manage Navigation, Security and look and feel with drag an drop functionality

Enterprise Search Tools - numerous tools to search Sharepoint Sites and Portals across entire enterprises

Business Data Catalog - The Business Data Catalog (BDC) tightly integrates external data, providing access to external data residing within other business applications, and enabling the display of, and interaction with external data

Business data search - Search data residing in your business applications using the BDC

Business Data Web Parts - Used for viewing lists, entities, and related information retrieved through the Business Data Catalog

Business document workflow support - Automate document review, approval, signature collection, and issue tracking using workflow applications

Retention and auditing policies - Allows customized information management policies to control retention period, expiration, and auditing

Browser-based forms - Integration with InfoPath, allows integration on to SharePoint of created forms and surveys.

Integrated, flexible spreadsheet publishing - Allows information workers to easily choose what they want to share with others and determine how others can interact with published spreadsheets.

Share, manage, and control spreadsheets - Provides access to spreadsheet data and analysis through server-calculated, interactive spreadsheets from a Web browser. Can help to protect any sensitive or proprietary information embedded in documents, such as financial models, and audits their usage.

Web-based business intelligence using Excel Services - Allows spreadsheets to be broadly and easily shared. Fully interactive, data-bound spreadsheets including charts, tables, and PivotTable views can be created as part of a portal, dashboard, or business scorecard.

Data Connection Libraries - Document Libraries storing ODCs (Office Data Connections), Making one single location for all data connections.

Business Data actions - Easily create actions that open Web pages, display the user interfaces of other business applications, launch InfoPath forms, and perform other common tasks.

Integrated business intelligence dashboards - Rich, interactive BI dashboards that assemble and display business information from disparate sources by using built-in Web parts, Excel spreadsheets, Reporting Services, or a collection of business data connectivity Web Parts.

Report Center - Provides consistent management of reports, spreadsheets, and data connections.

Key performance indicators - A KPI web Part can connect to Analysis Services, Excel Spreadsheets, SharePoint Lists, or manual entered data.

Notification service - Improved allowing workflow users to receive emails by default, and improved triggering and filtering

Single Sign-On (SSO) - Allows the User to log onto a variety of applications with a single user name and password, therefore integrating back office applications, and helps pre-population with integration to the Profile part of MOSS 2007.

Social Networking Part - Connect to Public My Site pages to help establish connections between colleagues with common interests

Personal Site Support - Allows Users to create Personal Web Sites

Content syndication - Use RSS feeds to syndicate content managed in a portal site.

Pros & Cons: Custom Templates and Site Definitions

2008-04-07T12:59:00.000-07:00

Customization of site definitions holds the following advantages over custom templates:

Data is stored directly on the Web servers, so performance is typically better.
A higher level of list customization is possible through direct editing of a SCHEMA.XML file.
Certain kinds of customization to sites or lists require use of site definitions, such as introducing new file types, defining view styles, or modifying the drop-down Edit menu.

Site definition disadvantages include the following:

Customization of site definition requires more effort than creating custom templates.
It is difficult to edit a site definition after it has been deployed.
Doing anything other than adding code can break existing sites.
Users cannot apply a SharePoint theme through a site definition.
Users cannot create two lists of the same type with different default content.
Customizing site definitions requires access to the file system of the front-end Web server.

Custom templates hold the following advantages over customization of site definitions:

Custom templates are easy to create.
Almost anything that can be done in the user interface can be preserved in the template.
Custom templates can be modified without affecting existing sites that have been created from the templates.
Custom templates are easy to deploy.

Custom template disadvantages include the following:

Custom templates are not created in a development environment.
They are less efficient in large-scale environments.
If the site definition on which the custom template is based does not exist on the front-end server or servers, the custom template will not work.

Understanding MOSS 2007

2008-03-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

The core target of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS 2007) is to aggregate disparate (Different but separate applications) information, events, processes and enterprise services into a unified single view without to open multiple applications and cut and paste information across multiple screens.

In MOSS 2007 these composite applications are based on the concept of a service-oriented architecture (SOA). MOSS 2007 framework helps you develop components as distributed, reusable business services. MOSS 2007 split into small applications in small pieces.
MOSS 2007 is basically superstructure who represents the high-level integration of users, one-stop shop form information, managing interactions between people, and line-of-business (LOB) data within organization and cross enterprises. MOSS 2007 based on SOA framework that is driven by standard XML/ Web services.

It provides a window that connects people, processes, and information to create a unique & rich end user experience. For example, during a natural disaster, it can provide critical information to coordinate a response effort, monitoring traffic patterns, delivering supplies, dispatching resources, and aggregating information to present operational insight. In a manufacturing setting, you might use it to monitor inventory levels and assembly processes up and down a supply chain. It's an excellent aggregation point for all of these types of situations.

MOSS 2007 is point of collaboration & contents sharing. For example, SharePoint Portal includes workspace to help loan officers find, organize, and share information so they can process loans more efficiently. These workspaces used to be very limited in their reach, which resulted in a proliferation of mediums to support discrete processes. A mortgage broker might use a file system to store documents, e-mail to deliver loan applications to customers, a Web site to gather additional customer information, and a spreadsheet to monitor the loan approval process.

MOSS 2007 can unify all these tasks and offer collaboration tools to streamline the loan approval workflow. Loan officers will then have a single place to access and modify documents, check documents in and out of a repository, and work collaboratively to process loans, all without having to use multiple interface mechanisms.

So, MOSS 2007 become more process-centric, they serve as clearinghouses for managing multiple activities in multiple manners.

MOSS 2007 - Enterprise Search

2008-03-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is the Microsoft enterprise search solution for organizations that want to increase productivity and reduce information overload by providing their employees, partners, and customers the ability to find relevant content in a wide range of repositories and formats. With actionable search results that respect security permissions, Office SharePoint Server 2007 lets users go beyond documents and across repositories to unlock information, find people, and locate expertise in the enterprise.

Built for the enterprise

In Office SharePoint Server 2007, search results are delivered quickly and relevance is tuned for enterprise and line-of-business data.

Unlock data and expertise

Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides out-of-the-box search for common enterprise repositories and file types as well as for people and experts.

Integrated user experience

Enterprise search functionality is integrated with the collaboration, portals, content management, forms and business intelligence features of SharePoint Server 2007 and can be integrated with other 2007 Office system products to help users easily find, use, and share information and increase productivity.

MOSS 2007 - Portals

2008-03-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

Portal sites connect your people to business critical information, expertise, and applications. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is a world class Enterprise Portal platform that makes it easy to build and maintain portal sites for every aspect of your business.

Connect your people to information and expertise

Quick, easy access to critical information and expertise means better decisions and more rigorous execution.

Connect your people to key business applications

Consolidated access to existing business applications drives consistent performance of common business tasks. Streamlined development of new composite applications can lead to order of magnitude improvements in important business processes.

Connect your people to role-specific resources

Personalized information delivery increases the relevance and value of information.

SharePoint Glossary

2008-03-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

Application template An out-of-the-box WSS site template tailored to address the requirements of a specific business process or task.

Breadcrumbs A form of text-based Web sitenavigation that displays a series of sequential links so that users can see where the current Web page is located within the Web site.

cab File extension for a cabinet file, a single file created to hold a number of compressed files.

Content database The Microsoft SQL Server, MSDE, or WMSDE database that contains the content for one or more SharePoint sites.

Customized site definition A site definition that has been altered from its out-of-the-box condition.

Ghosted page A page whose contents are not stored in the WSS content database but are read from a site definition file. A page that has not been customized.

Gradual upgrade A WSS 3.0 upgrade approach that installs the new version side-by-side with the previous version. The server administrator determines which site collections to upgrade and when to upgrade them.

In-place upgrade A WSS 3.0 upgrade approach that upgrades the content and configuration data in-place, at one time.

Instantiate To create or generate a particular instance or object of a data type.

Master page A template that allows you to define a standard page layout for an entire site with elements such as a banner, navigation controls, and other menus. The pages that link to a master page are known as content pages.

Operation An action resulting from a single instruction.

SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard A tool that allows you to configure the configuration database and Central Administration Web application for WSS 3.0, and which then runs the WSS 3.0 upgrade.

Site A group of related Web pages in Windows SharePoint Services where users can share data in lists and libraries, and can view and edit one or more Web part pages. Sites are generally used for collaboration, but can also be used to host content.

Site collection A set of Web sites that have the same owner and share administration settings. Each site collection contains a top-level Web site and can contain one or more subsites.

Site definition A directory on the front-end Web server containing the .xml files and .aspx page templates that define a blueprint for the site. See also: standard site definition, customized site definition.

Site template A file that includes a set of .xml files that contain the manifests and configuration parameters that modify a site definition.

Site template gallery A collection of site templates.

Standard site definition An out-of-the-box site definition that has not been customized.

.stp File name extension for a site template file.

Stsadm.exe A WSS tool that allows you to administer WSS servers and sites from the command line.

Subsite A complete Web site stored in a named subdirectory of the top-level Web site. Each subsite can have administration, authoring, and browsing permissions that are independent from the top-level Web site and other subsites.

Unghosted page A page that has been modified from the site definition file, and whose contents are stored in the WSS content database.

Upgrade definition file A single .xml file that maps the elements on a site definition template to their upgraded state.

Versioning The process of creating a backup copy of a document or picture whenever a revision is saved to the library.

Web part A modular unit of information that consists of a title bar, a frame, and content. Web parts are the basic building blocks of a Web part page.

Web part page A Web page that can host one or more Web parts. A Web part page usually contains one or more zones to allow Web parts to be manipulated on the page.

WSS Acronym for Windows SharePoint Services.

Zone An area in a Web part page in which Web parts are arranged.

The Six Pillars of MOSS 2007

2008-03-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

1. Collaboration

By integrating Workspaces, Tasks, Forums, Surveys, Blogs, RSS and Wikis, the platform builds on the wild success of the 2003 collaboration features while hitting the Web 2.0 check box items for the new wave of collaboration and knowledge management applications. Point players in this space — SocialText, BlogTronix, SuiteTwo, eTouch, BaseCamp, Automattic, etc. — will no doubt out perform in select areas, on a feature by feature comparison, but previous adoption rates, customizability, and convenience will carry MOSS a long way here.

2. Portal

A one stop site for everything enterprise-related. This concept is getting tired. Or maybe we’re just tired of it. SharePoint is no longer branded as a “portal server” in the 2007 version (though the word is still in the product API Namespace). However, SharePoint still is a portal framework and web parts are still portlets. In fact, this remains one of the primary differentiators between the pay per CAL SharePoint version and the free WSS offering. Some new goodness with Master Pages, new flexibility with a pluggable Single Sign-on architecture, better search, and much improved Visual Studio integration will help on the portal side, but overall its not that exciting to talk about.

3. Enterprise Search

Search was a bit of a painful thing with SPS 2003, especially when it came to integrating various content stores. The core problems have been addressed and the functionality broadly expanded. MOSS 2007 opens up ACL-aware search across both local and remote data stores with features that enable specialized search for people and expertise. The ability to index and search data in line-of-business apps via the Business Data Store integration is powerful and will please both business managers and developers alike. The new “Best Bets” feature adds a new depth of intelligence — pulling search hits from entitled by not included search scopes. There’s new meat here. We feel that in this 2007 release, SharePoint search is transforming from a check box to a compelling feature.

4. Web & Enterprise Content Management

This is the big one for us. Microsoft is including core document management, major and minor versioning, check-in/check-out document locking, rich descriptive metadata, workflow (via Windows Workflow Foundation), content type-based policies, auditing, and role-based-access controls at the document library, folder, and individual document levels. The 2007 release builds on these capabilities delivering enhanced authoring, business document processing, Web Content Management and publishing, records management (DoD 5015.2 certification coming soon), policy management, and support for multilingual publishing.
Whew. There’s a lot happening here. There are several different MS engineering groups working away at these features. No question about it, the content management functionalities in MOSS have been expanded broadly and will continue to do so. Existing MCMS customers considering a growth path will not necessarily find an easy migration story. With that said, the pathway there is evolving, MS’ CM Assessment Tool is helpful, and the partner community — migration, integration, and customization — is pitching its significant weight in.

5. Forms Driven Business Process

Microsoft has overhauled this aspect of SharePoint with XML driven InfoPath forms that are available on a variety of platforms including portable wireless devices. Client/Server based form maintenance has been centralized and improved for business processes for partner and customers. This area is not as close to our hearts, but is another dynamic one that captures attention. As InfoPath gains momentum and additional integration evolves between Visual Studio, InfoPath, and SharePoint, I predict we will a strong uptick in the developer community.

6. Business Intelligence

Finally, BI has been improved across the board with web-based dashboards on the macro level, server-based Excel Services and Excel Web Services API’s, line of business application and data repository integration, and more sophisticated abilities to monitor key performance indicators. Despite Microsoft’s Performance Point BI server, this is one area of MOSS that we feel has the ability to shift the market. SharePoint 2003 transformed workgroup document storage and collaboration. We believe that SharePoint 2007 aims to do the same thing with BI. By enabling business users to build-out simple integration, dashboarding, and PKI monitoring MS are definitely looking for the next dimension for SharePoint growth.

MicroSoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

2008-03-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server 2007, or “MOSS” for short, is Microsoft’s first integrated server platform that aims to provide web content management, enterprise content services, and enterprise search, as well as shared business processes and business intelligence dashboarding to the small/medium enterprise.

Like its predecessor SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) 2003/WSS 2.0, MOSS is fundamentally dedicated to unstructured document storage, structured list storage, and group collaboration. The word “share” has not been removed from the mission concept, which goes something like “connecting people, processes, and information.”

This is SharePoint’s raison d’etre. That has not changed. What has evolved are several new core capabilities. Some seem quite natural extensions and others we feel are indicative of new pathways.

The 2007 product takes a few smaller steps forwards in the Web and “Web 2.0” content management areas, as well as one larger one, with the integration of Web Content Management and Publishing features, previously found only in Microsoft CMS 2002.

Among a number of new integration points, on the back end MOSS now works closely with Microsoft Exchange for Public Folders (read more), on the front end MS Office apps are tied to MOSS in a more sophisticated manner, and the new SharePoint Business Data repository opens channels for chatter between MOSS and any SQL DB or Web Services interface. Information is indeed being connected.

The business use possibilities for the platform are opening broadly and quickly. It is our opinion that, if the product’s history foretells its future, the six pillars of MOSS are going to stir not only the content management marketplace, but the business intelligence pot too.

What SharePoint actually is?

2008-03-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

SharePoint is a web-based collaboration and document management platform from Microsoft. It can be used to host web sites which can be used to access shared workspaces and documents, as well as specialized applications such as wikis, blogs and many other forms of applications, from within a browser. SharePoint functionality is exposed as web parts, such as a task list, or discussion pane. These web parts are composed into web pages, which are then hosted in the SharePoint portal. SharePoint sites are actually ASP.NET applications, which are served using IIS and use a SQL Server database as data storage backend.

The term 'Sharepoint' is commonly used to refer to one of the following two products:

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)

In addition, previous versions of this software used different names (Sharepoint Portal Server for example) but are referred to as "Sharepoint".

MOSS 2007 - Collaboration and Social Computing

2008-03-26T05:14:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 helps your organization get more done by providing a platform for sharing information and working together in teams, communities and people-driven processes. Office SharePoint Server is an important part of the overall Microsoft collaboration vision and integrates with other collaborative products to offer a comprehensive infrastructure for working with others.

Empower Teams Through Collaborative Workspaces
Microsoft delivers a best-of-breed collaborative infrastructure that gives end users the tools to easily create their own workspaces and share assets across teams, departments, and organizations while maintaining IT control.
Connect Organizations Through Portals
Microsoft will help bring the full insight and data of the organization to the right people at the right time by making it easy to connect people with line-of-business data, experts, and business processes across the organization.
Enable Communities with Social Computing Tools
Microsoft gives organizations the tools to deliver a broad set of social computing capabilities within their existing workspace and portal infrastructure, so end users can more easily harness the collective intelligence of the organization.
Reduce Cost and Complexity for IT by Using an Integrated Infrastructure, Existing Investments, and an Extensible Architectural Platform
The Microsoft collaboration infrastructure leverages existing investments, is extensible, and interoperates with other systems, so organizations can maintain a lower cost of ownership and more easily meet business demands by building a single infrastructure.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Overview

2008-03-09T13:30:00.000-07:00

Introduction
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is a versatile technology that organizations and business units of all sizes can use to increase the efficiency of business processes and improve team productivity. With tools for collaboration that help people stay connected across organizational and geographic boundaries, Windows SharePoint Services gives people access to information they need.
Built on Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services also provides a foundation platform for building Web-based business applications that can flex and scale easily to meet the changing and growing needs of your business. Robust administrative controls for managing storage and Web infrastructure give IT departments a cost-effective way to implement and manage a high-performance collaboration environment. With a familiar, Web-based interface and close integration with everyday tools including the Microsoft Office system, Windows SharePoint Services is easy to use and can be deployed rapidly.

Collaborate Easily and Effectively
Windows SharePoint Services helps teams stay connected and productive by providing easy access to the people, documents, and information they need to make more informed decisions and get the job done. Enhancements in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 make it easier than ever to share documents, track tasks, use e-mail efficiently and effectively, and share ideas and information.

Provide a single workspace for teams to coordinate schedules, organize documents, and participate in discussions—within the organization and over the extranet.
Easily author and manage documents, and help to ensure their integrity with enhanced features including the option to require document checkout before editing, the ability to view past revisions and restore to previous versions, and the ability to set document-specific security.
Help people and teams stay on task with a variety of communication features that let users know when actions are required or important changes are made to existing information or documentation, including announcements, sophisticated alerts, surveys, and discussion boards.
Provide creative forums for brainstorming ideas, building knowledge bases, or simply gathering information in an easy-to-edit format with new templates for implementing blogs (also known as weblogs) and wikis (Web sites that can be quickly edited by team members—no special technical knowledge required).
Stay productive while mobile with enhanced support for offline synchronization through Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 that users can use to manage document libraries, lists, calendars, contacts, tasks, and discussion boards even offline, and to synchronize changes when reconnected to the network.

Get Started Quickly
As a built-in component of Windows Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services makes it easy for IT departments to implement a dependable, scalable collaboration infrastructure with minimal administrative time and effort. Close integration of Windows SharePoint Services with familiar tools for authoring, publishing, organizing, and finding information, including the Microsoft Office system, helps users get up to speed quickly.

Simplify the creation and navigation of workspaces with the improved user interface and site creation tools in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 that provide easy-to-use templates, professional-looking site themes, and the ability to rearrange site navigation from within the browser.
Make it easy for users to get up to speed quickly by providing integration with familiar productivity tools such as those found in the Microsoft Office system—users can create workspaces, post and edit documents, and view and update calendars on SharePoint sites, all while working within Microsoft Office system files and programs.
Track work and tasks more easily with enhanced integration with Office Outlook 2007 that helps users organize calendars, tasks, contact lists, discussion boards, and meetings.
Customize workspaces with new application templates that provide custom scenarios for building workflows on the Windows SharePoint Services platform that address specific business processes or sets of tasks.
Implement a collaboration environment with minimal administrative time and effort, and with the flexibility to change deployment settings.

Deploy a Manageable Infrastructure
Deployment of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 increases control over and enhances security of your organization’s data and information resources. Reduce the dependency of business units on your company’s IT department for site provisioning, implementation, backup, and support. Whether you’re a contributor to a team site, a site owner, or a server administrator, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides better administrative controls for managing content, users, and sites so that individuals and teams can operate more efficiently and effectively.

Increase the security of business information with enhanced administrative controls that decrease cost and complexity associated with site provisioning, management, support, operations, and backup and restore.
Give IT better control over your organization’s infrastructure with new and improved services for controlling access to information and setting policies for site creation that enable security to be set as deep down as the item level.
Empower site managers and teams without compromising security by enabling them to initiate and control their own self-service workspaces and tasks, and manage the participation and access of others—all within parameters set by IT.
Provide a more robust document storage environment with document storage, recycle bin item retrieval, and version-control features built in to team workspaces.
Easily manage and configure Windows SharePoint Services by using a Web browser or command-line utilities, and enable a variety of custom and third-party administration solutions using the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Provide a Foundation for Web-Based Applications
With Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, IT professionals can tailor or extend the Windows SharePoint Services foundation to create new, efficient, Web-based tools and services specific to the organization, department, business process, or industry vertical. Through a highly customizable and extensible platform, companies can tie these new tools and services to existing line-of-business applications, capitalizing on existing IT investments and valuable information stored in back-end systems.

Manage business documents more easily with enhanced document library support and a common repository for document storage.
Use the Windows SharePoint Services platform to build rich, flexible, and scalable Web-based applications and Internet sites specific to the needs of your organization.
Take advantage of integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 that expands the platform services and common framework for document management exposed by Windows SharePoint Services to offer enterprise-wide functionality for records management, search, workflows, portals, personalized sites, and more.
Use Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to quickly and easily customize SharePoint sites and build reporting tools and applications tailored to specific tasks without writing or deploying new code.