Microsoft® SharePoint® Technologies Solution

Architecture

Overview

Information Architecture

Solution Architecture

Lesson 1 Introduction

Key planning questions for information architecture*:

• What information do your users need to have and use to achieve their goals?

• Where is that information stored now?

• What is the best way to organize it?

Use taxonomies to organize information

• Metadata taxonomy – primarily for searching

• Navigational taxonomy – primarily for browsing

* Adapted from the SharePoint Products & Technologies Resource Kit, Ch. 8

Lesson 1 Overview

Metadata Taxonomy

Site Columns

Content Types

Managed Properties

Navigational Taxonomy

Logical Architecture Review

Components and Architecture Models

Other Planning Topics

Secondary Impacts of Taxonomies

Content Databases

Metadata Taxonomy at a Glance

All Metadata

Crawled Properties

Site Columns*

Site Columns

in Content Types

Managed Properties**

*Site columns that are not yet used for any items are not part of crawled properties.

**Managed properties can be configured without any associated crawled properties.

Site Columns

Site Columns

List A List B

Planning for Site Columns

Site columns are “column templates”

Updates to site columns can be propagated to the entities that use them – but do so with care!

Site columns should be grouped into meaningful categories

Use to improve data quality and simplify data entry

Planning scopes:

Site collection level – for intrasite search & data entry

Enterprise – for intersite search & enterprise data entry

* Be careful about renaming OOTB site columns – see KB article 923589 for details

Content Types

Document Library

Content Types

Planning for Content Types

Content types are composed of site columns

Content types are independent of file type

Plan for workflows to associate business processes with specific content types

Site columns should be grouped into meaningful categories

Planning scopes:

Site collection level – for intrasite search, data entry, and business processes

Enterprise – for intersite search and enterprise data entry & business processes

DEMOMetadata Taxonomy:

Site Columns & Content Types

Managed Properties

Metadata associated with an item of content. Content items from different content sources have different property names for the same properties.

Crawled

Property

A single property with a one to many relationship with many crawled properties. Enables improved search and metadata control.

Managed

Property

Implementing Managed Properties

Managed Property Crawled PropertyCustomer Client (SharePoint)

Cust (BDC)

Customer (Word)

Managed Properties Used In:

Scope definitions

Advanced Search Web part

Property filter query syntax

• author:luis

Custom SQL queries

Results display

DEMOMetadata Taxonomy:

Managed Properties

Metadata Taxonomy Planning Summary

Element Scope(s) Planning Questions

Site Column Site

Site Collection

Web Application*

Farm*

Who is the information aimed at?

What type of data do users work with?

Can users already find the information they

require?

How do users work with content?

Content Type Site

Site Collection

Web Application*

Farm*

What document types do your users deal with?

What site columns have you defined for user

content?

How will your users locate content?

Managed Property

(MOSS ONLY)

SSP What content sources are available to users?

How does content from one source relate to

content from another?

Will there be a benefit to the user if you create

a managed property?

*Requires use of Features (Lesson 2)

SharePoint Containment Hierarchy

ItemsFolders, Documents, List Items, Other Files, Calendar Items, Images, etc.

ListsDoc Lib, Pages, Events, Discussions, Surveys, etc.…

SitesWikis, Blogs, Team, Doc, Mtg, etc.

Site Collections

Publishing, Intranet Portal, Team, Records Center, MySite, etc.

DatabasesContent, Config, SSP, Search, SSO

Web ApplicationsCentral Admin, SSP Admin, Content (with Zones & Managed Paths, associated with SSP)

ServersWeb Front End, Application (Index, Excel, Query, etc.), SQL

Farm

SharePoint Isolation and Scalability

SharePoint Intranet Information Architecture Model

Permanent Central PortalEnterprise SearchEnterprise Browse

DivisionalPortals

Groups & Teams

Projects & Workspaces

Personal Sites

Corporate

Business Taxonomy

With Divisional

Stakeholders

Per

User

Ad Hoc Self

Service

w/ Life Cycle

Management

Permanent Division PortalsBusiness Process Management

Division NewsGroup Reporting & Scorecards

Semi StructuredGroup, Team, ProjectSites and Workspaces

Blogs, bios, Social networking

CentralPortal

Managed Paths & Site Directories

Managed Paths

Wildcard – Many site collections

Explicit – One site collection

Site Directories

Cross-site and site collection navigation!

“Ordinary” Site Directories

•Sites list & site categories

•Site navigation pages

•Connection between site creation and sites list

•Ad-hoc links to sites

Master Site Directory

•Connection between site collection creation and sites list

Keep sites lists up-to-date with Site Directory Links Scan

Examples: Secondary Impacts of Taxonomies

Metadata Taxonomy Impacts on Browsing

List & Library Views

Content Query Web Parts

Audience Targeting

Navigational Taxonomy Impacts on Search

URL Matching

Hyperlink text

URL Depth

Click distance

Content Database Planning Considerations

Setup considerations

Who will create them?

Naming conventions

Physical considerations

Plan for software boundaries

Plan for backup/restore SLAs

Content-specific considerations

Dedicated content DBs

Database Administrator (DBA) Checklist

Configure the database surface area

Create a database with a collation of LATIN1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS

Set the database owner to be the setup user account

Add the application pool account to the Users group and assign roles

Content Database Configuration

stsadm –o extendvs –url <URL> - donotcreatesite –exclusivelyusentlm –

databaseserver <Server Name> -databasename <Database Name> -apidtype

configurableid – description <IIS Website Name> -apidname <Application

Pool Name> -apidlogin <Domain\Username> -apidpwd <Password>

Lesson 2: Solution Architecture

Feature Architecture

Installing and Uninstalling Features

Activating and Deactivating Features

Site Definitions

Site Templates

Solutions and Deployment

Feature Architecture

Feature Scopes

Installing and Uninstalling FeaturesFeature Receivers

Feature Dependencies

Feature Scopes

Installing and Uninstalling FeaturesFeature Stapling

Installing and Uninstalling FeaturesHidden Features

Installing and Uninstalling Features

stsadm –o –installfeature –filename <Feature xml path>

stsadm –o –uninstallfeature –filename <Feature xml path> -force

Activating and Deactivating Features

stsadm –o –activatefeature –name <Feature name> -url <site>

stsadm –o –deactivatefeature –name <Feature name> -url <site>

When activating a feature via STSADM, check the logs to confirm successful deployment. See

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936913 for details.

DEMOFeature Architecture and Deployment

Site Definitions

<Template Name="MySiteDefinition" ID="1091">

<Configuration ID="0" Title="My Custom Site Definition"

Hidden="FALSE"

ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/stsprev.png"

Description="A custom site for teams"

DisplayCategory="Collaboration" >

</Configuration>

</Template>

Custom WEBTEMP entry

DEMOCreating and deploying

custom site definitions

Site Definition

Site Template

Site Templates

List of changes

Site Definition

Customization

DEMOCreating and deploying

custom site templates

Solutions and Deployment

Solution

Features

Solution Deployment Cycle

1. Install (Server Administrator)

2. Deploy (Farm Administrator)

3. Synchronize (Server Administrator - optional)

Used when adding or restoring servers

4. Retract (Farm Administrator)

5. Delete (Farm Administrator)

DEMOSolution Architecture and Deployment

Design Considerations

Scoping

Site Definitions are scoped at the Farm level only

Site Templates can only be scoped at the site, web, and farm level (unless you use a feature to install them)

Modifications

Features can be used to customize existing sites

Changes to site definitions cannot extend existing sites (though these changes may break them)

Changes to site definitions may break existing site templates

Design Considerations (continued)

Inheritance and deployment

Site templates can be deleted without consequence

Site definitions should not be deleted (though they can be hidden)

Features can be deactivated and uninstalled

Site templates can be deployed ad-hoc by site owners

Some features can be activated and deactivated by site owners and site collection administrators

Review

Information Architecture

Metadata Taxonomy

Navigational Taxonomy

Logical Architecture

Solution Architecture

Features

Solutions

Site Definitions

Site Templates

Recommended References

Information Architecture

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator’s Companion, Ch. 8, by Bill English and The Microsoft SharePoint Community Experts

Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit, Chapter 8, by Bill English and Microsoft SharePoint Team

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville

Unlocking Knowledge Assets by Susan Conway and Char Sligar

Boxes And Arrows (Information Architecture Design site): http://www.boxesandarrows.com/

Plan for software boundaries: http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/6a13cd9f-4b44-40d6-85aa-c70a8e5c34fe1033.mspx?mfr=true

SharePoint Governance Checklist Guide: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=91896&clcid=0x409

Solutions, Features, Site Definitions, and Site Templates

WSPBuilder: http://www.codeplex.com/wspbuilder

WSS 3.0 Application Templates: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/wssapps/templates/default.mspx

Working with Templates and Definitions: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms434313.aspx

How to increase the size of a Site Template beyond 10MB: http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/03/15/you-learn-something-new-every-day-site-template-limit.aspx