Learning Experince MOSS 2007 step by step Part1

Introduction

I would like to share my experience in developing a complete website using SharePoint 2007. The website is English/Arabic website features CMS, News and hosts .Net Application. This project was my first project in SharePoint i was not having any clue about sharepoint, so i decided to learn as much as i can in order to be able to finish the project, the time was very short (only one month). i spent two weeks for just surfing the Net and learning.

As Senior Architect, i should have the knowledge inorder to guide my team of developers to be able to start working on the project. At last we have completed the project on time. I should also thanks my friend/collegue (Mr. Velladurai - SharePoint 2007 Certified) for helping me to learn SharePoint 2007.

Through this project i have acheived the following:

• Understand the default sharepoint website templates and choosing the suitable one for our case which is CMS
• Step-By-Step to Create a SharePoint Publishing Website
• Using SharePoint Variation Feature to create multiple languages website.
• Branding/Customizing A SharePoint 2007 Website
• Creating Layout Pages for your SharePoint 2007 website
• Using Query Web Part in your website and customizing it
• Running ASP.Net Application in A SharePoint 2007 Website
• Step-by-Step to Import SharePoint Website 2007 from Staging Server to Production Server

I going to cover each point above in a separate article. In this article i am going to give an overview of each SharePoint 2007 website template, and decide to choose the suitable website template for our website

MOSS 2007 Site templates:

In Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, either a site definition or a custom site template defines how to instantiate a Web site when an end user creates a site through the user interface (UI). A definition or template determines, for example, the lists, files, Web Parts, Features, or settings with which to provision a new SharePoint site.

MOSS 2007 Site templates we have four category of templates

1. Collaboration
2. Meetings
3. Enterprise
4. Publishing

1. Collaboration

• Team Site : A site for teams to quickly organize, author, and share information. It provides a document library, and lists for managing announcements, calendar items, tasks, and discussions.
• Blank Site : A blank site for you to customize based on your requirements.
• Document Workspace : A site for colleagues to work together on a document. It provides a document library for storing the primary document and supporting files, a tasks list for assigning to-do items, and a links list for resources related to the document.
• Wiki Site : A site for a community to brainstorm and share ideas. It provides Web pages that can be quickly edited to record information and then linked together through keywords
• Blog : A site for a person or team to post ideas, observations, and expertise that site visitors can comment on.

2. Meetings

• Basic Meeting Workspace : A site to plan, organize, and capture the results of a meeting. It provides lists for managing the agenda, meeting attendees, and documents.
• Blank Meeting Workspace : A blank meeting site for you to customize based on your requirements.
• Decision Meeting Workspace : A site for meetings that track status or make decisions. It provides lists for creating tasks, storing documents, and recording decisions.
• Social Meeting Workspace : A site to plan social occasions. It provides lists for tracking attendees, providing directions, and storing pictures of the event.
• MultiPage Meeting Workspace : A site to plan, organize, and capture the results of a meeting. It provides lists for managing the agenda and meeting attendees in addition to two blank pages for you to customize based on your requirements.

3. Enterprise

• Document Center : A site to centrally manage documents in your enterprise.
• Records Center : This template creates a site designed for records management. Records managers can configure the routing table to direct incoming files to specific locations. The site prevents records from being modified after they are added to the repository.
• Site Directory : A site for listing and categorizing important sites in your organization. It includes different views for categorized sites, top sites, and a site map.
• Report Center : A site for creating, managing, and delivering Web pages, dashboards, and key performance indicators that communicate metrics, goals, and business intelligence information.
• Search Center With Tabs : A site for delivering the search experience. The welcome page includes a search box with two tabs: one for general searches, and another for searches for information about people. You can add and customize tabs to focus on other search scopes or result types.
• My Site Host : A site used for hosting personal sites (My Sites) and the public People Profile page. This template needs to be provisioned only once per Shared Service Provider, please consult the documentation for details.
• Search Center : A site for delivering the search experience. The site includes pages for search results and advanced searches.

4. Publishing

• Collaboration Portal : A starter site hierarchy for an intranet divisional portal. It includes a home page, a News site, a Site Directory, a Document Center, and a Search Center with Tabs. Typically, this site has nearly as many contributors as readers and is used to host team sites.
• Publishing Portal : A starter site hierarchy for an Internet-facing site or a large intranet portal. This site can be customized easily with distinctive branding. It includes a home page, a sample press releases subsite, a Search Center, and a login page. Typically, this site has many more readers than contributors, and it is used to publish Web pages with approval workflows.

Choosing the Site Template

Before deciding which site template should we choose, we need first to define what exactly we need in our website. In our case (Our Website) is internet website which features CMS functionality where users can manage the contents of the website and get published through an approval workflow. Web Developers also, should easily creates custom templates and can change the look and feel of the website.

For That we have selected the "Publishing Portal" because it meets our requirements.

Next

Step-By-Step to Create a SharePoint Publishing Website - My Learning Experience in MOSS2007 - Part 2

References

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/web-content-management-with-sharepoint-moss-2007-part-1-001994.php
http://www.dotnetspider.com/resources/2417-MOSS-Site-templates-their-features.aspx