Features
- Collaboration
- Portal
- Search
- Content Management
- Business Process and Forms
- Business Intelligence
- Management
- Platform
1. Collaboration
Real-Time Presence and Communication
The enhanced real-time presence smart tag icon, displayed virtually
everywhere a person’s name appears in the system, tells users whether a person
is online and available for a telephone or audio conference call, instant
messaging, or two-way video conversation.
Social Networking Webpart – New in 2007
Include Social Networking Web Parts that use information about your
organization, communities, and electronic communications in Public My Site
pages to help establish connections between colleagues with common interests.
Standard Site Templates
Windows SharePoint Services V3 includes the following standard
collaboration site templates
- Team site
- Document workspace
- Blank site
- Blog
- Wiki
- Meeting workspaces (5 workspace types)
Wikis – New in 2007
A wiki is a new site template in Windows SharePoint Services V3 that makes
it easy to create, edit, link, and restore an individual Web page. Wikis can
be used as creative forums to brainstorm ideas, manage knowledge bases, create
designs as well as instruction guides or simply gather information in an
easy-to-edit format. Wikis are easy to create, modify, and annotate; in
addition to tracking contributions and changes.
Key features include:
- Fast and easy page creation
- Easy and automatic linking
- Version differences
- WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Web page editing
- Wikis leverage existing SharePoint functionality including search,
navigation, alerts, and custom fields.
Blogs – New in 2007
“Blogs provide a publishing-oriented experience for a single user or a
team. Windows SharePoint Services V3 includes a site template that supports:
- Article posting
- Reader comments
- Archive views
- RSS feed generation
People and Groups Lists
“People and Groups offer a unified place to find, communicate with, and
manage people and their permissions, including support for custom fields such
as Department, “Office #” and Area of Focus; in addition to the new Person
field type. The Person field type creates rich displays of lists of people
including support for a People Picker for browsing a list of users.
Member Group provides
- Re-use of groups across sites
- Distribution list for the members of the site
Calendars
Calendars have been enhanced with richer calendar views, expanded support
for recurring events, and all-day events
Email Integration – New in 2007
Document libraries, discussion boards, calendars, and announcements can be
enabled to receive new postings via e-mail. In addition, extensible support is
provided for custom e-mail handlers in Windows SharePoint Services V3.
Similar to the functionality provided by public folders in Microsoft
Exchange Server, e-mail enabled discussion boards support:
- A highly scalable, topic-based architecture
- New “super rich-text” field type
- Unified experience for both e-mail and Web-based discussions
- One-step creation of Active Directory distribution lists as part
of the site creation process - Unified SharePoint group and Active Directory management functions
Task Coordination – New in 2007
The new Project Tasks list template provides lightweight task management
functionality including Gantt charts for visualization of task relationships
and status.
Surveys
Surveys now include conditional branching as well as support for inserting
page breaks in long surveys such as annual employee satisfaction or and
customer surveys.
Document Collaboration
-
“Improvements to SharePoint document libraries include:
- Checking out documents locally
- Offline document library support in Outlook 2007
- Major and minor version numbering and tracking
- Support for multiple content types
- Policy, auditing, and workflow
- Tree view support
Issue Tracking
The Issue Tracking list template has been updated to use the enhanced
versioning and version-history storage features of Windows SharePoint Services
V3.
2. Portal
My Site PersonalSite
The My Site personal site gives users an opportunity to aggregate
information “for me,” “by me,” and “about me.” Significant enhancements
include social networking, privacy controls, SharePoint Sites and Documents
Roll-Up Web Parts, and Colleagues and Memberships Web Parts.
Content Syndication
Use RSS feeds to syndicate content managed in a portal site.
Privacy & Security
Use authorizations to control visibility of information in a My Site public
view.
Site Directory
The Site Directory automatically creates a site map and presents it in
an easy-to-use format. The enhanced directory now includes the
option to scan for changed or deleted links to external content.
User Profiles and the Profile Store
User Profiles store personal information for system users.
Improvements include multi-valued properties bound to taxonomy from Office
SharePoint Server 2007, property-level security controls by person or group,
open and closed vocabularies, and per-site property extensions. Profile
synchronization and directory import support the extended capabilities of the
User Profile Store with enhanced scalability and performance.
AudienceTargeting
Enables use of Web Part pages, Web Parts, and content to target
distribution lists and groups in addition to SharePoint audiences.
Site Manager – New in 2007
Manage a SharePoint site’s navigation, security access, and general look
and feel using this easy drag-and-drop tool. Site Manager unifies site
management tasks for portals and Web sites, including management of areas,
pages, listings, SharePoint site lists, and associated component parts.
Mobile Device Support – New in 2007
All SharePoint portal, team site, and list pages now render on
international and North American mobile devices (including Web-enabled mobile
phones) using a simplified text-only format.
Portal SiteTemplates – New in 2007
Preconfigured templates streamline creating, customization, and deployment
of divisional portals, organization-wide intranet portal sites, and corporate
Web sites.
SharePoint Sites and Documents Roll-up Web Parts – New in 2007
List all the SharePoint sites that a user is part of and documents the user
has authored. The Documents Roll-up Web Part also supports more general
capabilities for querying and filtering the documents stored in a collection
of SharePoint sites.
Colleagues and Memberships Web Parts – New in 2007
List people the user knows and people who belong to common distribution
groups.
Integration with for Access 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and Word 2007 – New in 2007
“Windows SharePoint Services V3 easily integrates with smart client tools
through a set of Web services and documented application interfaces. Users can
readily adopt these new tools because of their similarity to other familiar
environments, such as the Microsoft Office system.For example, users of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel,
Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Microsoft Office InfoPath, Microsoft Office
Project, and Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 can directly interact with
information stored in SharePoint sites without having to manually download the
content.Users can create workspaces, post and edit documents, and assign tasks, all
while working on documents stored in SharePoint sites.
Integration with Outlook 2007 – New in 2007
“With Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, users can view calendars and contact
lists stored on SharePoint sites, and create and manage sites for editing
documents and organizing meetings.
Outlook 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services V3 support a new set of
significantly enhanced functionality including:Read/write access to SharePoint items: calendars, tasks, contacts,
- discussions, and documents
- Synchronization of offline support of document library and lists
- Ability to check out and edit documents when offline
- Roll-up views of calendars and tasks across multiple lists and sites
- Unified view of personal and SharePoint tasks in Outlook 2007
Integration with
SharePoint Designer
Office SharePoint Designer 2007, based in part on Microsoft FrontPage
technology, will provide tools for rich customization of sites, and creating
reporting tools and application templates, without any coding.
3. Search
User Interface
Simple, clean yet powerful user interface with industry-standard query
syntax. Scopes are decoupled from content sources so users can easily
broaden or narrow the scope of a content search. Search can be based on
arbitrary content properties such as URL, type, and author. Actionable
search results can be easily filtered and sorted; used and shared.
Alerts and RSS feeds easily provide updated results for common and frequent
queries.
Search Results
Search results are rendered more clearly. Results are security
trimmed so users only see what they can access. Results include
user-friendly features such as hit highlighting, duplicate collapsing and
synonym suggestion. Optional integration with real time communications
tools allow users to easily contact content authors and experts.
Enterprise Content
Sources
Searches over 200 file types in many enterprise content sources, including
files shares, web sites, SharePoint sites, Exchange Public Folders, and Lotus
Notes databases out of the box with the ability to extend to additional 3rd
party repositories and file types through the use of Protocol Handlers and
iFilters
Relevance
New and improved search algorithms tuned for enterprise content along with
the use of relevance and ranking factors such as click distance, hyperlink
anchor text, URL depth, and metadata extraction yield the best results for
enterprise content
Administration and
Management
Improved administration user interfaces and admin API provides broad
support for various search and indexing scenarios, central controls for
resource-intensive operations, as well as tools for management and reporting
Indexing Controls
Granular indexing controls for easy inclusion and exclusion of searched
content as well as immediate result removal of any site or item.
Continuous index propagation to keep information fresh. Improved crawl
rules and crawl log; multiple start addresses per content source; a new
browsable, filterable index log provide necessary information to optimize
search
Security
Administrator permissions no longer required by crawler. ACL and
ACL-only crawls index content permissions for compliance, privacy, and
protection of IP. Security-trimmed search results only allow users to
see content they are allowed to access.
People Search – New in 2007
People search capabilities allow users to find people not only by
department or job title but also by expertise, social distance, and common
interests.
Business Data Search –
New in 2007
Search data residing in your line of business applications using the
Business Data Catalog. Structured content sources as well as LOB application
data and reports accessible through web services or ADO.NET can be indexed and
retrieved through the Business Data Catalog as search results or into a
SharePoint list
4. Content Management
Business Document Workflow
Support
Automate document review, approval, signature collection, and issue
tracking using workflow applications.
* Approval
* Collect Feedback
* Collect Signatures
* Disposition Approval
Document Management Site
Templates
* The Managed Document Library site template defines large-scale document
management sites.
* The Divisional Library site template includes managed document
libraries, dashboards, key performance indicators (KPIs), and other
reporting tools.
* The Translation Library site template helps organizations manage
multiple translations of a document.
Integration with Microsoft
Information Rights Management (IRM)
Helps ensure that access rights applied to Microsoft Office documents in a
central library travel with the documents, even when they are downloaded from
the library.
Document Information Panel
Makes editing document properties an integral part of the Microsoft Office
system document-authoring experience.
Document Action Bar
Describes to users what business policy or workflow governs the current
document and what action they are expected to take.
Retention and Auditing
Policies
Define customized information management policies to control retention
period, expiration actions, and document-auditing settings.
Records
Repository
Helps ensure the integrity of the files stored in the repository, and
supports information management policies that consistently and uniformly
enforce auditing, and expiration of records.
E-Mail Content as
Records
Provides consistent, policy-based solutions for managing e-mail content
across Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and
Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Legal Holds
Makes it possible for records to be searched and placed on hold during
litigation discovery to override the retention schedule of the records.
High Fidelity Websites
with Consistent Branding
Provides the concept of Master Pages and Page layouts to enforce the
branding and navigation of web sites. CSS supports give pixel level control on
the look and feel of these sites.
Navigation
Controls
Out-of-the box navigation controls that can be easily customized by end
users
Content Authoring
Provides the ability for information workers to create content rich web
pages using a web browser.
Content Publishing and
Deployment
Built in approval workflow allows web content to be sent for approval prior
to publishing. Content deployment to production sites can be scheduled by
setting up jobs and a “live” time period for each page can be specified
within which that page is viewable.
Site Templates
Includes support for several new enterprise site templates:
* The Enterprise Portal template provides a means for a
business unit to create and share content that is relevant to the ongoing
operation of an enterprise, division, or business unit.
* The Corporate Internet Presence Site template includes
tools and workflows to create and manage Web content for products and
service descriptions, company news, and public filings, among other things.
* The Application Portal template brings together all of the tools
and information related to a particular line-of-business (LOB) application.
* The Roll-up Portal template consolidates data and content from
several applications or locations and presents it in an integrated format.
Page Layouts – New in 2007
Page Layouts simplify content authoring and publishing-site administrators
define a structure that guides authors through the publishing process; content
contributors focus on doing their jobs rather than on the details of
publishing and deployment. Flexible Page Layouts also allow designers to
mix and match ASP.NET applications, Web Parts and Authoring Templates in any
configuration to create customized sites to meet specific business needs.
Site Variations – New in 2007
A new feature of Office SharePoint Server, sites can be linked together in
a parent-child type of relationship providing a 1-way orchestration framework
for web content. This feature allow organizations to deploy multi-lingual
publishing sites in a much more structured and manageable environment.
WYSIWYG Web Content Editor
– New in 2007
Extends the SharePoint user interface with additional commands and status
indicators for in-context Web page authoring.
Slide Libraries – New in 2007
The repository features in Windows SharePoint Services V3 provide the
platform support for slide libraries, a feature of Office SharePoint Server
2007. Slide libraries enable the storage of individual slides in a SharePoint
site. PowerPoint 2007 slide decks can be automatically created from a
selection of slides in a slide library.
Policies, Auditing and
Compliance – New in 2007
“Repositories in Windows SharePoint Services V3 support the following
policy, auditing, and compliance features. However, the features denoted with
an asterisk are activated only upon the installation of Microsoft Office
SharePoint Server 2007.
- Document retention and expiration policies*
- Highly customizable policies
- Workflow process to define expiration
- Access control and security
- Information Rights Management policies applied on download to secure the
functional access to documents- Tracking and auditing
- Logging of all actions on sites, content, and workflows
- Official document-of-record repositories*
- Site for storing or archiving enterprise approved content types
5. Business Process and Forms – New in 2007
Browser-based Forms – New in 2007
InfoPath Forms Services available in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007 and Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 makes it possible to design
Web-capable forms in Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 and distribute them on
corporate intranets, extranets, or the Internet. Users can fill out forms in a
browser or HTML enabled Mobile device with no download or client components
needed.
Centralized Forms Management and Control – New
in 2007
InfoPath Forms Services provide a administrator controled centralized form
solution catalog that makes it easy for users to find a form and minimize form
solution downtime when upgrades are necessary. It also provides administrators
with the tools to manage form solution security and accesibility.
“Design Once” Development Model – New in
2007
Forms designers can design their forms once and deploy them for use both
within the rich Office InfoPath 2007 client program and through a Web browser.
Office Forms Server 2007 automatically converts the form into ASP.NET Web
forms, with no additional work from the designer.
Form Import Wizard – New in
2007
The designer in Office InfoPath 2007 provides an easy way to convert forms
designed in Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Office Word into rich Office
InfoPath 2007 forms. The Form Import Wizard handles the conversion of form
fields, repeating tables, rich text boxes, and other elements, dynamically
generating the underlying XML structure for the new form.
Integrated Deployment Model for “No-code” Forms – New in 2007
The Publish Wizard in Office InfoPath 2007 makes it easy to publish forms
that do not have any managed code components to a Windows SharePoint Services
library, while making the form available as a browser-based form at the same
time.
Compatibility Checker – New in
2007
The Compatibility Checker helps forms designers validate those features
that need to work across the broadest range of Web browsers.
6. Business Intelligence – New in 2007
Integrated, Flexible Spreadsheet Publishing – New in
2007
Microsoft Office Excel 2007 provides an integrated publishing experience
that lets information workers easily choose what they want to share with
others and determine how others can interact with published spreadsheets.
Share, Manage, and Control Spreadsheets – New
in 2007
Share business data broadly while maintaining control and helping to
protect sensitive information. Provides access to spreadsheet data and
analysis through server-calculated, interactive Microsoft Office Excel
spreadsheets from a Web browser. Use these spreadsheets to maintain and
efficiently share one centralized version of the truth while helping to
protect any sensitive or proprietary information embedded in documents, such
as financial models, by limiting access to portions of the spreadsheet and
auditing their usage.
Web-based Business Intelligence Using Excel Services – New in 2007
Excel Services empowers spreadsheet authors to easily and broadly share
spreadsheets that use the new Business Intelligence functionality through the
browser. Fully interactive, data-bound spreadsheets including charts, tables,
and PivotTable views can be created as part of a portal, dashboard, or
business scorecard, without requiring any development.
Data Connection Libraries – New in
2007
Data Connection Libraries are centralized SharePoint document libraries
that store Office Data Connections (ODC); ODCs describe connections to
external data. Centralizing Office Data Connections makes it easier to share,
manage, and discover data connections that can be used by any Microsoft Office
program.
Business Data Catalog – New in
2007
The Business Data Catalog (BDC) tightly integrates external data into the
Office SharePoint Server 2007 user experience, providing access to external
data residing within backed LOB applications, and enabling the display of and
interaction with external data through a set of Business Data Web Parts.
Business Data Web Parts – New in
2007
Use SharePoint Business Data Web Parts for viewing lists, entities, and
related information retrieved through the Business Data Catalog.
Business Data Actions – New in
2007
With no custom coding, easily create actions that open Web pages, display
the user interfaces of LOB applications, launch InfoPath forms, and perform
other common tasks. Use the convenient links that appear beside business
objects returned from the Business Data Catalog.
Integrated Business Intelligence Dashboards – New in 2007
Create rich, interactive business intelligence dashboards that assemble and
display business information from disparate sources by using built-in Web
parts such as dynamic KPIs, Excel spreadsheets, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting
Services reports, or a collection of business data connectivity Web Parts that
can visualize information residing in backed LOB applications.
Report Center – New in 2007
An out-of-the-box site optimized for report access and management,
including a report library, data connection library, and a dashboard template.
These sites, hosted by the new Report Center, provide consistent management of
reports, spreadsheets, and data connections.
Key Performance Indicators – New in
2007
KPIs communicate goals and status to drive results. Using the KPI Web Part,
a user can create a KPI list within a Web Part page, without writing code. The
KPI Web Part can display KPIs from Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services,
Excel spreadsheets, SharePoint lists, or manually entered data.
Filter Web Parts – New in
2007
Filters enable dashboards to be personalized by communicating shared
parameters among Web Parts on a dashboard. The parameters passed can be
automatically applied based on user profiles, SharePoint lists, the BDC,
manually entered information, and so forth.
7. Management
Configuration Management
Built on the infrastructure and services provided by ASP.NET version 2.0,
Windows SharePoint Services V3 supports a centralized Web configuration
management object model.
Administration User Interface
The administration Web pages have been reorganized and redesigned based on
feedback from the many customers who deployed Windows SharePoint Services V2
SP2 in their organizations.
Delegation
In Windows SharePoint Services V3, delegation gives SharePoint site owners
a secure, scalable, and centrally managed set of administration rights
Re-Parenting – New in 2007
Re-parenting is the ability to dynamically re-arrange a hierarchy of
SharePoint sites. Previously, in Windows SharePoint Services V2 SP2, a site
needed to be backed up and deleted from its current location and then restored
under a new parent site in the SharePoint site hierarchy.
Provisioning
“Provisioning is a core component of Windows SharePoint Services V3 that:
- Lets users choose their own template
- Defines a shared Web application
SharePoint sites can be provisioned in two ways:
- Site templates (*.STP files) that are typically user-created
- Site definitions that are developer-created and stored on Web server
file system
Usage Analytics
Monitoring
Windows SharePoint Services V3 provides a Microsoft Operations Management
(MOM) package to support centralized monitoring and management of
configurations ranging from single servers and small server farm to very large
server farms.
8. Platform
Alert Filtering – New in 2007
Filters are supported to highlight the more relevant alerts.
Richer Alert Information
More information about the item that has changed is included in the alert.
Alert Customization – New in
2007
Additional platform features are provided for custom formatting, events,
and alerts.
Task Notifications
Task notifications are now sent automatically when a user is assigned a
task. There is no need for the user to subscribe to the notification in
advance.
Notification Service
Extensible platform sends customizable e-mail alerts to users. Users
participating in a workflow automatically receive e-mail alerts without
subscribing in advance. Improved filtering conditions now trigger more
relevant alerts to all users.
RSS Feeds – New in 2007
By integrating RSS feeds for each SharePoint list, Microsoft Windows
SharePoint Services V3 provides an efficient mechanism for end users to
retrieve the information using RSS-enabled programs such as Internet Explorer
7 and Outlook 2007.
Consistent User Experience – New in
2007
Windows SharePoint Services V3 implements many new and enhanced features
that make the Windows SharePoint Services user interface more uniform –
providing a consistent user experience. These features are described below.
Rights Trimmed User Interface – New in
2007
Users are only allowed to see the features that they have the rights to
use. Previously, Windows SharePoint Services Version 2 Service Pack 2 (V2 SP2)
did not inform a user they were not allowed to perform a function until they
clicked its link.
Automatic Breadcrumb Bar – New in
2007
Provides immediate navigational context for the user – creating a greater
sense of “place” within a SharePoint site.
Quick Launch Bar
Available on all view pages and is more easily customizable.
Top Navigation Bar
Available on all view pages and is more easily customizable.
View Improvements
Ability to page forward and backward in addition to improved user interface
for sorting and filtering.
Descriptive Menu Actions
The Actions drop-down menu provides task-based descriptions of the actions
that can be performed on a particular SharePoint list or document library.
Simplified Web Part User Interface
Simplified user interface for browsing, selecting and adding Web Parts to a
Web Part page. The Web Part catalog is presented as a scrollable list; no more
paging forward and backward through the Web Part catalog.
Accessibility
Windows SharePoint Services V3 is Section 508 and W3C compliant.
Recycle Bin – New in 2007
Enables a user to easily restore an item that was deleted accidentally.
Administration tools are also available to manage the lifecycle of deleted
items in the recycle bin.
Backup/Restore Support for VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) – New in 2007
Windows SharePoint Services backup and restore functionality is enhanced
with the support for VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service), a feature of Windows
Server 2003.
Document Libraries
“Improvement to SharePoint document libraries include:
- Checking out documents locally
- Offline document library support in Outlook 2007
- Major and minor version numbering and tracking
- Support for multiple content type
- Policy, auditing, and workflow
- Tree view support
Large-List and Cross-List Indexing – New in
2007
The performance of large lists and cross-lists can be improved through the
use of indexes on specific list column properties. This significantly
increases the capacity and performance of a Windows SharePoint Services V3
list compared to version 2.0.
Metadata
“Users can extend document libraries and lists with custom column
properties.
The practical number of column properties that a list or document library
may have has been significantly increased due to performance and scalability
improvements in WSS V3 Lists.
Content Types – New in 2007
“Content types are reusable definitions of document types across your
organization. A single document library can store content with multiple
document types.
A content type is used to define a group of documents that share a common
set of attributes; including:
- Document templates
- What’s on the “New” button
- Metadata specific to the content type
- Shared column property templates
- Custom InfoPath forms in 2007 Office system applications
- Enterprise defined policies
- Common workflows
Content types are different from traditional file types (which map to
physical file formats like Word documents or Excel spreadsheets). Content
types are used to define and implement business documents such as functional
specifications, budget planning spreadsheets or new product concept
presentation.
Application Templates
“While standard workspaces in Windows SharePoint Services are easy to
implement, organizations seeking a more customized deployment can get started
quickly with application templates for addressing specific business processes
or sets of tasks.
A new set of Application Templates will be available for Windows SharePoint
Services V3. They will highlight aspects of task coordination and will offer
some pre-configured workflows. The application templates provide customers
with a baseline for deploying Windows SharePoint Services in context of
business processes and set of tasks. A rich ecosystem of solution providers
use the application templates as the basis for deeper horizontal and vertical
solutions.
Workflow – New in 2007
“Windows SharePoint Services V3 hosts Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) to
enable customized creation of workflow solutions and use of structured
workflows on document library and list items. Office SharePoint Designer 2007
can be used to design and configure custom workflow solutions with the support
for Windows Workflow Foundation in Windows SharePoint Services V3.
Ready-to-use workflow templates are available with Office SharePoint Server
2007 as well as a new set of application solutions for Windows SharePoint
Services downloadable from the Microsoft TechNet Web site.
Tree View – New in 2007
Tree view controls are now supported for navigating document libraries in a
manner similar to the file system.
Append-only and Multi-Value Lookup Fields – New
in 2007
“Append-only fields enable a user to append text to a field without being
able to modify the existing content of the field. This is useful for logging
and tracking applications.
Multi-valued lookup fields enable multiple values to be selected from
another list field.
Extensible Site and List Templates
In Windows SharePoint Services V3, site and list templates can be edited in
Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
Subsite Promotion – New in 2007
An existing subsite can be promoted (repositioned) within the logical
hierarchy of SharePoint sites (SharePoint site collection) to which it
belongs.
Support for ASP.NET 2.0 – New in
2007
“Windows SharePoint Services V3 leverages the reliability, scalability, and
functionality of ASP.NET version 2.0. This includes support for the ASP.NET
version 2.0 Web Part Model (with added backward compatibility support for
Windows SharePoint Services V2 SP2 Web Parts). Building on ASP.NET not
only provides a deep technical foundation for WSS, but also allows WSS to
leverage the Visual Studio development environment for application
development.
ASP.NET Master Pages – New in
2007
“Each Web page in a SharePoint site references an ASP.NET version 2.0
master page. Master pages provide centralized control of the layout and style
of all the pages in a SharePoint site. Each site has a master page gallery
that the site owner can use to customize the look of all of the pages on the
site.
Performance Caching
Object Model
“All object model changes in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services V3 are
highly backward- compatible with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services V2 SP2.
However, you should be aware that your old code, although it will compile, may
not behave as expected in the new object-model hierarchy.
The Administration object model (Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration) has
been completely re-factored to allow for greater extensibility. There is now a
hierarchical object store.
Field Types – New in 2007
Extensible field types allow you to use enterprise data structures within
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services V3 by creating your own controls, which
are exposed as simple fields within a list or document library by Microsoft
Windows SharePoint Services V3.
Site Columns – New in 2007
Site columns provide a central, reusable model for column definition. When
you create a site column, each list that uses this column has the same
definition, and you do not have to do the tedious work of reproducing the
column in each list.
Content Type Settings – New in
2007
Content types are a core concept used throughout Microsoft Windows
SharePoint Services V3. Content types are designed to help users organize
their SharePoint content in a more meaningful way. A content type is a
reusable collection of settings you want to apply to a certain category of
content. Content types enable you to centrally manage and reuse the metadata
and behaviors of a document or item type.
Folders in Lists – New in 2007
Folders, a popular feature in Windows SharePoint Services V2 SP2 document
libraries, are now also available in lists. Folders allow further segregation
of content within a single list, adding another level of versatility.
Folder Metadata – New in 2007
Users and developers can now assign metadata to a folder. This creates a
rich content holder that contains child content, while appearing as more than
a container. Essentially, this allows the folder to function as a separate,
but fully functional, item type.
List Indexing – New in 2007
By allowing a column to be indexed, and stored as a simple name/value pair
in a separate database, access to specific items in large lists is
significantly improved. These kinds of performance improvements allow
SharePoint lists to become true data stores, capable of supporting external
applications as well as simple team sites.
Cross-List Queries – New in
2007
Cross-list queries allow you to use the SPQuery object to query all the
lists within a Web or site collection. Previously, you had to enumerate
through the parent objects to obtain a collection of SPLists, query the list
to return the items, and then build your own collection of list items from the
multiple lists.
List Items
“Several new enhancements related to list items have been introduced in
Windows SharePoint Services V3:
- Per-item and per-folder security
- Versioning
- Required checkout
Property Bags – New in 2007
Property Bags are now supported on several major objects: SPWeb, SPFile,
SPFolder, and SPListItem.
Web Services – New in 2007
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services V3 expands several existing Web
services, increasing the number of methods provided through the Lists,
SiteData, UserGroup, WebPartPagesWebService, and Webs services. More
information is available in the section A Developer’s Perspective near the end
of this evaluation guide and the Windows SharePoint Services V3 SDK.
Change Logs – New in 2007
“The change log is a repository storage feature in Microsoft Windows
SharePoint Services V3 that provides item change tracking services that are
useful, for example, for data synchronization between Windows SharePoint
Services and external applications.
Office Outlook 2007 is an example of an external application that uses the
change log to synchronize documents and list items for offline access.
Event Receivers – New in 2007
“Events fall into two major categories:
- List events. Core events, including changes, additions, and removals of
list items and list columns (schema changes)- Simple site events. Deletion of sites and site collections
Events are either synchronous “before” events, denoted by the “XYZing” name
format, or asynchronous “after” events, denoted by the “ABCed” name format.
Job Service – New in 2007
“The Job service in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services V3 provides
facilities for setting up a timed job that executes:
- after a definable time interval
- during a certain time period in the hour, day, week, month, or year
The Job service also provides a facility for distributing work amongst
servers in a farm; for example, based on a request to create a site (which
originates on a Web front end), a one-time job may run as soon as is
reasonable on an indexing server.
Feature Framework – New in 2007
“Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services V3 contains a new structure called a
“feature.” A “feature” is an end-user-oriented container of one or more
elements. An “element” is an atomic Windows SharePoint Services concept.
The “feature” is defined in an XML format, similar to other existing
SharePoint structures. Each “feature” definition is a set of XML files. Many
items that were previously contained within a site definition in Windows
SharePoint Services V2 SP2 are now able to fit as an element.
In Windows SharePoint Services V3, a SharePoint site definition is
transformed into a list of “features” plus a layout page and a master page.
This enables any templated site to be transformed using any other site
template.
Solution Deployment Model – New in
2007
WSS 3.0 also introduces a new deployment mechanism called a
“solution.” A solution is similar to Web Part packages from WSS v2 in
that it is an aggregated CAB file containing XML instructions and files that
need to be deployed on each front-end Web server. But solutions go
beyond web part packages to supoprt the deployment of features, site
definitions, and related assemblies used for event handlers and
workflows. Solutions also assist in pushing deployment files to each web
server in a farm. An administrator adds a solution to a Windows
SharePoint Services farm, which then copies the solution CAB file into the
configuration database. When the administrator runs the command to
deploy the solution, WSS starts a timer job to push the solution CAB file to
each front end web server to install it.
Extensibility and Programmability of Search
“Includes three categories of application programming interfaces (APIs) for
comprehensive access to Microsoft Search features:
- Data access: protocol handlers and IFilters
- Query object model, APIs, Web services, and reusable Search
Center Web Parts- Administration object model and APIs
- Administration object model and APIs
Excel Spreadsheet Developer Reuse and Extensibility – New in 2007
Spreadsheets published to SharePoint sites are accessible more securely
using Web services. This means that application developers can take advantage
of the logic embedded in a spreadsheet by remotely accessing spreadsheets from
any platform. Business analysts can modify or update the model without
affecting the business application or having to involve an application
developer in the process.
Version History
Changes to the item are shown in the version history. In addition, support
is provided for “append-only” comment fields.
Major and Minor Version Tracking – New in
2007
Tracking of both major version numbers and minor version numbers are
supported in Windows SharePoint Services V3.
Folder- and Item-Level Access Controls – New in
2007
Windows SharePoint Services V3 extends group or role-based access controls
from sites, document libraries, and lists to individual folders, documents,
and list items.
Virtual Server Security Policies – New in
2007
An authentication zone is identified with a SharePoint (IIS) virtual
server. The same content (document libraries and lists) can be made available
to multiple zones (e.g. intranet and extranet). Access control lists (ACLs)
can have a mixture of users from different authentication providers.
Pluggable Authentication – New in
2007
Each authentication zone can have a pluggable, custom authentication
provider in addition to the default support for Windows Basic, Digest, NTLM,
Forms, and Kerberos authentication methods.
LDAP Pluggable Authentication Provider
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Permits a person to enter one name and password to use a variety of
back-end applications. SSO is used for integrating back-office systems and LOB
applications that require separate credentials databases.Take advantage of
single sign on to authenticate users and levearge this to pre-populate
InfoPath forms.
Common Search Technology and Infrastructure – New in 2007
Provides a single indexing and search infrastructure that scales from the
desktop, through team sites and divisional portal sites, to the largest
corporate intranets, extranets, and Internet sites.
Inteoperability and Integration
- SOAP Support
- Web Services
- Open API and Object Model
- WSRP – New in 2007
[REF-MSDN]
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Tagged:
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