Difference between WSS 3.0 Search and MOSS Search

Source/ Reference:http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101748761033.aspx

http://www.rightpointconsulting.com/community/blogs/viewpoint/archive/2008/04/28/sharepoint-search-exposed-wss-3-0-search-vs-moss-2007.aspx

WSS Search
Scalability:Search covers a single site collection. Only SharePoint content in the site collection can be crawled. You cannot crawl databases, mail servers, application servers, or Web sites and file shares outside of the site collection. In a deployment with more than one site collection, each site collection provides search only for content on that site collection, and there is no aggregation of search results across site collections.



Content sources: One content source is automatically created for each Web application in the site collection, and no administration details are exposed to administrators.
Search scopes: Search is automatically scoped to current context and limited to site and subsites, list or library, or folder. These search scopes appear in the search dropdown menu. If you are looking at a subsite, you cannot search over the entire site collection, but you can search over all of the subsites of the current site. Scope management is not exposed to administrators.
Crawling: Full crawls occur automatically without scheduling and without administrator control.
Error logging: Administrators can view a limited set of error message types, including:
- Authorization messages.
- Propagation messages.
- Hardware failure and data corruption messages.
IFilters: A limited set of IFilters to search content in certain formats are included with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Other IFilters are available by installing the Microsoft Filter Pack or through other distributors
The search service runs on one or more servers in the farm, depending upon the servers you select during deployment and configuration. Search consists of search query and index roles. Search queries are performed using the network service account, or another account selected during installation. A separate content access account is used when crawling content sources and indexing content. A small set of administration tasks are available to site collection and farm administrators.
People using a site collection type search terms into the search box, and select a search scope from the dropdown menu. Search results appear in order of relevancy.
MOSS Search
High Level Search Concepts: Essentially, there are two main components of search: the indexing and the querying. The indexing is the process in which all documents and content are reviewed and many key items about the item (meta data) are stored. The querying is when a user wishes to search for an item. The user enters keywords or phrases and the query engine looks at the indexed content and returns items that match. The indexing process is called “crawling” and the indexed content is called “crawled content.” The querying and the query results (search results) is the end-user experience of the MOSS Search capabilities. Usually in a MOSS farm, there is one server dedicated to perform the indexing and the querying, however, these functions may be split out onto two separate servers.

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

- Relevance is tuned for enterprise content with the best results across structured and unstructured data sources determined by a rich and broad range of factors.
- Robust security, granular administrative controls comprehensive monitoring, analytics, and reporting help ensure compliance and protect intellectual property (IP).
- Enterprise-grade scalability, extensibility, and manageability meet the needs of even the largest organizations.

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

- Search file shares, Web sites, SharePoint sites, Exchange Public Folders, and Lotus Notes databases out of the box and easily extend search to third party sources and file types.
- Index, search, and intelligently display information from line-of-business applications, relational databases, and other structured content using the Business Data Catalog.
- Leverage "people search" capabilities to find people not only by department or job title but also by expertise, social distance, and common interests.

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.

- Find, use and share information in the context of where you are working with the familiar tools you use every day.
- Results are displayed more clearly, hits are highlighted, duplicate entries are collapsed, and synonyms are suggested.
- Results are actionable and further enhanced through optional integration with tools such as real-time communications.

In Short,
WSS 3.0 Search Single Site collection, automatically scoped to current site (and subsites):
Only SharePoint content in the site collection can be crawled. You cannot configure Search to crawl databases, mail servers, application servers, or Web sites and file shares outside of the site collection. In a deployment with more than one site collection, each site collection provides Search only for content on that site collection, and there is no aggregation of search results across site collections.
MOSS Search
MOSS uses an enhanced relevance algorithm for its search engine, and is able to crawl content from multiple sites within an enterprise, as well as non-sharepoint web sites. In short, the MOSS search engine is a powerful enterprise search engine with a relevance algorithm, while the WSS site-local search engine is actually pretty useless beyond simple "dumb keyword" search.

The difference between Site Master Page and System Master Page

Site Master Page: The site master page will be used by all publishing pages.
System Master Page: Use the system master page for all forms and view pages in this site.

Look at the Page directive in master page, MasterPageFile setting that will usually be one of the following:
"~masterurl/default.master" means the page is using the system master page
"~masterurl/custom.master" means the page is using the site master page

Refer:http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms476046.aspx

How to create a custom e-mail alert handler in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

To customize the email alerts sent from SharePoint we need to intercept the e-mail alert and modify it using IAlertNotificationHandler interface.

Refer to the below URL
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948321/en-us

Debugging Custom Timer Jobs

You can debug timer jobs by using Visual Studio just as you would any other managed application. Timer jobs are executed by a special Windows service that is set up on the server when you install Windows SharePoint Services: the Windows SharePoint Services Timer. This service triggers the executable Owstimer.exe. You must attach to this process to debug custom timer jobs.

Rename discussion board reply link name

How to rename the reply link 'Reply' to 'Comments' in the Discussion board (MOSS 2007)?

1. Open the Schema.xml from 12\Templates\Features\DiscussionsList\Discuss

2. Locate ReplyNoGif field

3. Check the resource file mapped to the field and update the value of resource name ReplyLinkText as 'Comments'.

4. Save

Webpart connection

Webpart connections menu will list all the webparts in the page that uses the same Interface.

Features of Sharepoint

Check the Capabilities of MOSS
http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/capabilities/default.mspx

What is Sharepoint Server
http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/prodinfo/what.mspx

Product Comparision Chart
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/d/c/1dc632e8-71e1-466f-8a2f-c940f1438e0a/SharePointProductsComparison.xls
This Excel file will give you an idea of the features MOSS support

- Syndication (RSS and ATOM) - Yes and Inbuilt support for RSS and how to Manage RSS
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA100214251033.aspx
- Support to Web Clipping - Yes
- Implement different kinds ok workflows, for example to approve some content update and this has to be approved - Supported

You can use Inbuilt Workflows or Create Custom Workflow using Sharpoint Designer / Visual Studio

see Developer Introduction to Workflows for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa830816.aspx

- Support for most know Web Browser (Is there any identified problem with anyone)
See - http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2006/05/17/3115.aspx and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263526.aspx

- In-Built Statics
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262541.aspx
and You can Use Sharepoint Designer for Site Statistics ( Sharepoint Designer is Free Now www.microsoft.com/spd )

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA101741361033.aspx and here http://www.bluedoglimited.com/SharePointThoughts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=129
- autoeliminate bot traffic

- integrate easily custom security (any experience with this)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262331.aspx

- Taxonomy support for searching within sharepoint
http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2007/01/22/taxonomy-tagging-starter-kit-for-sharepoint-server.aspxhttp://www.mindsharpblogs.com/bill/archive/2006/07/06/1196.aspx

- Metadata management
Managing Enterprise Metadata with Content Types -
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=101604&clcid=0x409


To Know More Check this Link
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/GetThePoint/default.aspx
and this site discuss these features

Branding
Building Solutions
Business Intelligence
Business Processes
Calendaring
Collaboration
Compliance
Design
Education
Feedback
Lists and Libraries
People Wrangling
Planning & Process
Productivity
Publishing
Search
Site Admin
Social Networking
Team Sites
Training
Web Parts

--Source,
blog

2007 Microsoft Office System – Learning Portal

The Microsoft Office Online Web site hosts additional learning resources for the 2007 Microsoft Office system, as well as templates, job-aids, special offers, and links to a community of Office users that you can participate in to extend your productivity.
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/office2007/default.mspx

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=66672&clcid=0x409

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=67626

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=67705&clcid=0x409

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=67721&clcid=0x409

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=67722&clcid=0x409

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=67720&clcid=0x409

Configuring Single Sign-On Services

You must complete four steps to configure the Office SharePoint Server 2007 Single Sign-On Services.

To configure Single Sign-On Services

1. The first step to configuring Single Sign-On Services is to use the SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration Web application to complete the Enable SSO in the Farm task that is created after Office SharePoint Server 2007 has been installed. This task involves managing the Single Sign-On Administrator Account and the Enterprise Application Definition Administrator Account settings for determining who can administer and create Single Sign-On applications.

2. The next step is to manage the encryption key that is used to encrypt user information and passwords. The encryption key protects the information stored in the Single Sign-On database.

3. You can then add enterprise application definitions to the Single Sign-On Service. For example, you can provide connection details and descriptions for line-of-business applications.

4. Finally, you can add details of user accounts for accessing the enterprise applications, and you can map those credentials to Office SharePoint Server 2007 users

--Source
Microsoft Elearning

Creating and Configuring Policies for Document and Records Management

A policy is a set of rules for a specific type of important content.
Policies can be used to control and evaluate

- who can access the information,
- how long to retain the information, and
- when and how to discard information that must be destroyed.

Policies are usually added to lists and document libraries by compliance officers or records managers. Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes predefined policies that non-developers can use for a number of common scenarios, such as records retention, records expiration, and auditing. Office SharePoint Server 2007 also includes policies for document barcodes and official labels.

--Source
Microsoft Elearning

Create custom page layout

1. Create custom site columns for the custom page layout under new custom group

2. Create a site content type for page layout under new content group

3. Add the custom site columns created to the newly created site content type.

4. Launch SharePoint Designer and open the site

5. The custom page layout must reside in master page gallery

6. Create File --> new --> SharePoint Content --> SharePoint Publishing --> Page Layout

7. Select and create the Content groups and type

8. After adding the page, go to design view, and add the fields available under the Toolbox "SharePoint Controls" --> Content Fields

9. Save

10. Now the new custom page layout is available in the site page layouts (Site Actions --> Create Page)

SharePoint BDC

BDC can be used in SharePoint

1. Directly using BDC web parts
2. As SharePoint Lists
3. In Search
4. User Profile Data
5. Expose as a Web Service for other applications (Programmable API abstracts all the LOB data souces to a single and easy to use runtime object model)

-- Source
winsmarts.com

SharePoint - Approach

If we wanna do a task or resolve a problem in SharePoint, the approach should be in the given order

1. Browser -- Lets start with a browser and see if we can deliver the solution using point & click

2. SharePoint Designer -- Have a lot more stuff then you would do through the browser

3. Visual Studio 2005 --- Final resolve if something that cannot be done in browser and designer.


--Source
dnrTV, winsmarts.com

Web part Zones

Web part Zones live in the ASP file (eg: default.aspx) and not in Master pages, So ideally we can create various templates for the various pages, one template could have 2 web part zones and other could have 3 webpart zones or columns.

--Source
dnrTV, winsmarts.com

Shared Services Provider (Unprovisioning)

Cannot delete Shared Service in Sharepoint Central Administration, and the SSP is displayed with the message “Unprovisioning”. Run the below command to fix this issue

stsadm -o deletessp -title -force

SharePoint Designer 2007

The following article will show about User permissions and permissionlevels to customize SharePoint using SharePoint Designer 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepointdesigner/archive/2008/11/25/locking-down-sharepoint-designer.aspx

Some parts of your personal site cannot be created. Contact your site administrator for more information.

When creating my site....

Error: Some parts of your personal site cannot be created. Contact your site administrator for more information.

Cause: Inappropriate security account

Resolution: Update the security account for the personal sites.

IIS > Appropriate application pool > Properties > Identity > Provide appropriate account

Access denied when navigate to Shared Services Administration

When you cannot access the Shared Services Administration page make sure you have been added as an administrator for the respective SSP site collection.

Central Administration > Application Management > Site Collection Owners

Select the site collection of the Shared Services and add your ID/Name.

Click OK to submit.

Import Outlook Calendar to SharePoint

For Outlook 2003 Users:

1. Create a new calendar list on your SharePoint site. You can do this by clicking Site Actions > View all Site Content then...
click Create
And select Calendar

2. Now that our blank calendar is created we can now work on getting the items imported Open your Microsoft Outlook Calendar and copy the Public Folder by
(a.) right-clicking on the Calendar Icon and
(b.) copying it into a new folder called "Calendar Copy" located in your mailbox folders (you will have to create this folder before copying).

Above: Depending on how old the Calendar and its size it could take 2-20 minutes to copy.

3. Export your Outlook Calendar into a Excel file format with the following columns:
· Subject
· Location
· Start Date
· Start Time
· End Date
· End Time
· All Day event
We can do this by selecting the "Calendar copy" folder that we just created and clicking
File à Import and Export


This will bring up the Wizard view . Select Export to a file

Now select Microsoft Excel 97-2003

Select the location you wish to save the file.

This will bring up the date range configuration popup. Select the appropriate dates.

Confirm the actions and finish the Wizard.

4. Now that your data is in the Excel file let's open it up and see what's in there. At this point you will notice the Start Date and End Date are in two separate columns. Now before we do anything to this data we will need to go back to the blank Calendar list in SharePoint and switch to All Event View. You can do this by entering the list and clicking Modify View àAll Events View


5. Export this empty view to a Excel Spreadsheet and open it. You can do this by clicking
Actions à Export to Spreadsheet

6. Open this exported Outlook Calendar, merge Start Day and Start Time to a single column.
You can use a formula similar to: =CONCATENATE(B:B," ",C:C) or =CONCATENATE(D:D," ",E:E) for a blank column in the same workbook to merge 2 column's data. The "B:B" is the column containing the Start date, the " " adds a space, and the "C:C" is the End Date. If your data is in another you must column change the letters correspond to the appropriate column.
Above: In the image above you can see column M and N hold both Start/End date and times.

7. Merge End Date and End Time to another single column. Both of these two column should have two spaces between date and time and YY as year, not YYYY or 4 digits.

8. Copy all Subjects from the exported Calendar to Title column of the Calendar list. The rest are straight forward. Do not put anything to WorkSpace column since it's read-only.

9. Correct any errors if you have any and please post them within this article's comment for a solution. Then sync this list to the SharePoint calendar.

Final Result:

All items from Outlook are now on our new Calendar.
Source: www.dlocc.com/sharepoint/36-solutions/61-import-outlook-calendar-to-sharepoint.html

Regular Expressions - Samples

1. Area Code : "^(\d\d\d)$"
Eg: 080, 044

2. Country Code: "^\d{2,4}$"
Eg: 91, 011, 1234

3. City : "[a-zA-Z].$"
Eg: Chennai

Configuring and Extending Search for Portal Solutions

Portal administrators usually customize the Search Center by adding and configuring Web Parts.For example, a typical Search Center page might include a

a. Core Results Web Part,
b. a People Results Web Part,
c. a Query Summary and Statistics Web Part,

d. an Actions Web Part, and

e. a High Confidence Results Web Part

The following code illustrates how to construct and issue a query using object model

Extending MOSS Solutions

Source: Microsoft Learning: Extending Office SharePoint Server 2007 Solutions

In Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, there are many opportunities for you, as a developer, to extend the functionality of these features. By developing components and services, you can create specific custom solutions.

In portal solutions, for example, you can develop

1. Custom Web parts to provide specific functionality.
2. Customized components for the business data catalog, and
3. Custom search components and solutions.

In business intelligence solutions, you can develop

1. Custom Web parts that are specific to the business intelligence dashboards of your organization,
2. Components that extend the Analysis Services and Excel Services that are provided by Microsoft SQL Server and Office SharePoint Server 2007.

For Web content management solutions, you can develop

1. Custom converters and field controls that enable your application to handle specific content types and authoring processes.

In records management solutions, you can

1. Create components, templates, and policies that are specific to the vertical industry of your organization, or to that of your customers.

In addition to extending and developing features for the four main areas, you can also develop custom workflows and configure other shared services that provide functionality for all types of solutions. For example, you can develop server-side InfoPath forms for data entry, and you can create specific extensions for the Single Sign-On service.

SharePoint Fundamentals

Source: Microsoft Learning - Inside Look at Building and Developing Solutions with Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 can be used to build four main types of applications:
1. Portal solutions,
2. Business intelligence solutions,
3. Web content management solutions, and
4. Records management solutions.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides many configurable features that can be included in these types of solutions.
You can adopt an assemble-and-configure approach to incorporate specific features that your organization requires when you start to build Office SharePoint Server 2007 solutions.

Building portal solutions typically includes configuring Windows SharePoint Services lists and libraries, Office SharePoint Server 2007 search capabilities, user profiles, and other shared services. Business data catalog features are also often included in portal solutions to provide business process functionality and access to line-of-business data.

Building business intelligence solutions typically includes configuring Excel Services and SQL Server Analysis and Reporting Services to provide insight into business information. In addition, many organizations require business intelligence dashboards to be incorporated into portal solutions, to provide a user interface that enables information workers to make well-founded business decisions.

Building Web content management solutions typically involves configuring the content management features of Office SharePoint Server 2007. These features include a content-authoring environment, content templates, publishing and approval processes, and content deployment features.

Building a records management solution, you will typically incorporate many of the features of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, such as lists and document libraries. This type of solution also incorporates specific Office SharePoint Server 2007 features, such as policies, official file sites, and rights management functionality.

You can include any combination of the features from the four main application areas to build applications that are specifically tailored for the requirements of your organization.
When you have assembled and configured the features for your solution, you can extend its functionality by developing additional custom features and components.