SharePoint Interview Questions and Answers II

By Gaurav Goyal - May 12, 2012

What is Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services? How is it related to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Windows SharePoint Services is the solution that enables you to create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration. Windows SharePoint Services -- a key piece of the information worker infrastructure delivered in Microsoft Windows Server 2003ice system and other desktop applications, and it serves as a platform for application development.
Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds on top of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to provide additional capabilities including collaboration, portal, search, enterprise content management, business process and forms, and business intelligence.

What is Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server?
SharePoint Portal Server is a portal server that connects people, teams, and knowledge across business processes. SharePoint Portal Server integrates information from various systems into one secure solution through single sign-on and enterprise application integration capabilities. It provides flexible deployment and management tools, and facilitates end-to-end collaboration through data aggregation, organization, and searching. SharePoint Portal Server also enables users to quickly find relevant information through customization and personalization of portal content and layout as well as through audience targeting.

What is Microsoft Windows Services?
Microsoft Windows Services is the engine that allows administrators to create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration. Windows SharePoint Services provides additional functionality to the Microsoft Office System and other desktop applications, as well as serving as a plat form for application development. SharePoint sites provide communities for team collaboration, enabling users to work together on documents, tasks, and projects. The environment for easy and flexible deployment, administration, and application development.

What is the relationship between Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and Microsoft Windows Services?
Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies (including SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services) deliver highly scalable collaboration solutions with flexible deployment and management tools. Windows SharePoint Services provides sites for team collaboration, while Share Point Portal Server connects these sites, people, and business processes—facilitating knowledge sharing and smart organizations. SharePoint Portal Server also extends the capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services by providing organizational and management tools for SharePoint sites, and by enabling teams to publish information to the entire organization.

Who is Office SharePoint Server 2007 designed for?
SharePoint is fundamentally designed for information workers, but it is designed in such a way that it assists a wide spectrum of users and support staff. Key stakeholders are:

· business users,

· business administrators,

· IT administrators,

· IT developers.

The true beauty of SharePoint is the way that conduct of tasks can be devolved to the lowest possible level:

· many tasks can be achieved by business users without IT support;

· if a business user cannot perform a function, then in many cases a business administrator can assist;

· in the unlikely even that a business administrator cannot perform the task, then there is a large world-wide community that has developed thousands of 'add-ins' and web-parts that can be easily installed by an IT administrator;

· in the even more unlikely event that a ready-made 'add-in' is not available, then SharePoint provides a highly structured environment for developers.

SharePoint also provides a framework which is designed to simplify IT development and ongoing administration, in the first instance developers should endeavour to:

· develop as a web-part in order to preserve all other site functionality without losing the ability for business users to maintain the site;

· if the desired functionality cannot be developed as a web-part, then SharePoint provides a range of other (reversible) development options;

· the option for business users to reset components to the 'site definition' is invaluable and great caution should be exercised when making changes that alter components at this level;

· generally, (perhaps only as a last resort) is it rarely necessary to customise SharePoint in such a way that the full set of default functionality is altered.

· Business users gain greater control over the storage, security, distribution, and management of their electronic content, with tools that are easy to use and tightly integrated into familiar, everyday applications.

· Organizations can accelerate shared business processes with customers and partners across organizational boundaries using InfoPath Forms Services–driven solutions.

· Information workers can find information and people efficiently and easily through the facilitated information-sharing functionality and simplified content publishing. In addition, access to back-end data is achieved easily through a browser, and views into this data can be personalized.

· Administrators have powerful tools at their fingertips that ease deployment, management, and system administration, so they can spend more time on strategic tasks.

· Developers have a rich platform to build a new class of applications, called Office Business Applications, that combine powerful developer functionality with the flexibility and ease of deployment of Office SharePoint Server 2007. Through the use of out-of-the-box application services, developers can build richer applications with less code.

How does SharePoint empower business users?
SharePoint is a set of powerful technologies that provide a large range of functions to users and administrators without the need to engage IT or developers. Once the basic SharePoint service is deployed, users can self-serve with a minimum of IT support.

· By default, all users can personalise their user experience, this includes such things as adding, removing or updating web-parts on any web-part page. These user changes can then be saved as a personal view. This is particularly useful because it allows users to create pages which contain the information that is relevant to them and it allows users to hide information (eg information that does not relate to their department or role).

· By default, all users can also create custom personal views in SharePoint. This is particularly helpful for large lists of information and gives users the ability to filter large lists of information to only show the information that is relevant to them, perhaps their department or division.

SharePoint also empowers users at the administration level. It is normal for users to be given the ability to alter "site settings", this is done by nominating one or more users to have "Full Control" of the user experience for any site. A user with "Full Control" can add additional web-parts, customise web-parts by adding metadata, and change the default view for all users. In effect, a user with "Full Control" over a site can create a rich user experience for the group of users that are using the particular site without any IT support or development skills.
It is also common for selected expert users to be appointed as "Site Collection Administrators" in order to facilitate the management of multiple sites which are called a site collection. The "Site Collection Administration" function also allows selected users to view all deleted items across an entire site, as well as turn on or off global features.
All of the functions listed above can normally be managed by business users and do not require IT support. No coding is required. All of these functions are managed by SharePoint through the SharePoint user interface. Thus, because there is no coding, there is no requirement for change control, testing or development protocols. A change log is still suggested.
For this reason, SharePoint is ideal for work-teams or project-teams that need to collaborate on a defined task. SharePoint gives the business user/ or team the ability to create a "site" that is highly customised for their particular needs without any need for IT support or development tools.
Indeed, all of the functionality listed above can generally be supported without the need for significant levels of governance. Some central governance is normally suggested, in order to do such things as maintain some control over different site collections, to maintain user groups, to share common infrastructure and to ensure that sites are managed through their lifecycle.
However,.. if (and many would say only if) the standard set of functions is insufficient, and additional functionality is required, then SharePoint provides a very strong set of tools and an excellent framework for developers. The beauty of SharePoint is that it is only at this point that IT support is really required.
And even then, many companies will find that the only IT support they require is to install "add-ons" from the SharePoint user community to their SharePoint server. Deployment of additional web-parts or "add-ons" generally requires specialist server administrator skills to deploy.
Business users can achieve a lot in SharePoint without writing a line of code or using development tools like Microsoft SharePoint Designer or similar development tools.

What is the difference between Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 have identical feature functionality. While the feature functionality is similar, the usage rights are different.
If you are creating an Internet, or Extranet, facing website, it is recommended that you use Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites which does not require the purchase client access licenses. Websites hosted using an “Internet sites” edition can only be used for Internet facing websites and all content, information, and applications must be accessible to non-employees. Websites hosted using an “Internet sites” edition cannot be accessed by employees creating, sharing, or collaborating on content which is solely for internal use only, such as an Intranet Portal scenario. See the previous section on licensing for more information on the usage scenarios.

What suites of the 2007 Microsoft Office system work with Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Office Outlook 2007 provides bidirectional offline synchronization with SharePoint document libraries, discussion groups, contacts, calendars, and tasks.
Microsoft Office Groove 2007, included as part of Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, will enable bidirectional offline synchronization with SharePoint document libraries.
Features such as the document panel and the ability to publish to Excel Services will only be enabled when using Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007or Office Enterprise 2007.
Excel Services will only work with documents saved in the new Office Excel 2007 file format (XLSX).

How do I invite users to join a Windows SharePoint Services Site? Is the site secure?
SharePoint-based Web sites can be password-protected to restrict access to registered users, who are invited to join via e-mail. In addition, the site administrator can restrict certain members' roles by assigning different permission levels to view post and edit.

Can I post any kind of document?
You can post documents in many formats, including .pdf, .htm and .doc. In addition, if you are using Microsoft Office XP, you can save documents directly to your Windows SharePoint Services site.

Can I download information directly from a SharePoint site to a personal digital assistant (PDA)?
No you cannot. However, you can exchange contact information lists with Microsoft Outlook.

How long does it take to set up the initial team Web site?
It only takes a few minutes to create a complete Web site. Preformatted forms let you and your team members contribute to the site by filling out lists. Standard forms include announcements, events, contacts, tasks, surveys, discussions and links.

Can I create custom templates?
Yes you can. You can have templates for business plans, doctor's office, lawyer's office etc.

How can I make my site public? By default, all sites are created private.
If you want your site to be a public Web site, enable anonymous access for the entire site. Then you can give out your URL to anybody in your business card, e-mail or any other marketing material. The URL for your Web site will be: http:// yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com
Hence, please take special care to name your site. These Web sites are ideal for information and knowledge intensive sites and/or sites where you need to have shared Web workspace. Remember: Under each parent Web site, you can create up to 10 sub-sites each with unique permissions, settings and security rights.

How do the sub sites work?
You can create a sub site for various categories. For example:

· Departments - finance, marketing, IT

· Products - electrical, mechanical, hydraulics

· Projects - Trey Research, Department of Transportation, FDA

· Team - Retention team, BPR team

· Clients - new clients, old clients

· Suppliers - Supplier 1, Supplier 2, Supplier 3

· Customers - Customer A, Customer B, Customer C

· Real estate - property A, property B

The URLs for each will be, for example:

· http://yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com/finance

· http://yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com/marketing

You can keep track of permissions for each team separately so that access is restricted while maintaining global access to the parent site.

1. Login as an administrator

2. Click on site settings

3. Click on Go to Site Administration

4. Click on Manage anonymous access

5. Choose one of the three conditions on what Anonymous users can access:

· Entire Web site

· Lists and libraries

· Nothing

Default condition is nothing; your site has restricted access. The default conditions allow you to create a secure site for your Web site.

Can I get domain name for my Web site?
Unfortunately, no. At this point, we don't offer domain names for SharePoint sites. But very soon we will be making this available for all our SharePoint site customers. Please keep checking this page for further update on this. Meanwhile, we suggest you go ahead and set up your site and create content for it.

What are picture libraries?
Picture libraries allow you to access a photo album and view it as a slide show or thumbnails or a film strip. You can have separate folder for each event, category, etc

What are the advantages of a hosted SharePoint vs. one that is on an in-house server?

· No hardware investment, i.e. lower costs

· No software to download - ready to start from the word go

· No IT resources - Anyone who has used a Web program like Hotmail can use it

· Faster deployment

Can I ask users outside of my organization to participate in my Windows SharePoint Services site?
Yes. You can manage this process using the Administration Site Settings. Simply add users via their e-mail alias and assign permissions such as Reader or Contributor.

Are there any IT requirements or downloads required to set up my SharePoint site?
No. You do not need to download any code or plan for any IT support. Simply complete the on-line signup process and provide us your current and correct email address. Once you have successfully signed up and your site has been provisioned, we will send a confirmation to the email address you provided.

I am located outside of the United States. Are there any restrictions or requirements for accessing the Windows SharePoint Services?
No. There are no system or bandwidth limitations for international trial users. Additionally language packs have been installed which allow users to set up sub-webs in languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish and Swedish.

Are there any browser recommendations?
Yes. Microsoft recommends using the following browsers for viewing and editing Windows SharePoint Services sites: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 with Service Pack 2, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 with Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer 6, Netscape Navigator 6.2 or later.

· Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.

· Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.

· Web Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web site.

· Administrator - Has full control of the Web site.

How secure are Windows SharePoint Services sites hosted by Microsoft?
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Technical security measures provide firewall protection, intrusion detection, and web-publishing rules. The Microsoft operation center team tests and deploys software updates in order to maintain the highest level of security and software reliability. Software hot-fixes and service packs are tested and deployed based on their priority and level of risk. Security related hot-fixes are rapidly deployed into the environment to address current threats. A comprehensive software validation activity ensures software stability through regression testing prior to deployment.

What is the difference between an Internet and an intranet site?
An internet site is a normal site that anyone on the internet can access (e.g., www.msn.com, www.microsoft.com, etc.). You can set up a site for your company that can be accessed by anyone without any user name and password. The internet is used for public presence and a primary marketing tool managed typically by web programmers and a system administrator.
An intranet (or internal network), though hosted on a Web site, can only be accessed by people who are members of a specific network. They need to have a login and password that was assigned to them when they were added to the site by the site administrator. The intranet is commonly used as an internal tool for giving employees access to company information. Content is driven by business relevance, business rules and has increasingly become a common tool in larger organizations. An intranet is becoming more and more the preferred method for employees to interact with each other and the central departments in an organization, whether or not the organization has a Web presence.

What is a workspace?
A site or workspace is when you want a new place for collaborating on Web pages, lists and document libraries. For example, you might create a site to manage a new team or project, collaborate on a document or prepare for a meeting.

What are the various kinds of roles the users can have?
A user can be assigned one of the following roles:

· Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.

· Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.

· Web Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web site.

· Administrator - Has full control of the Web site.

Can more than one person use the same login?
If the users sharing that login will have the same permissions and there is no fear of them sharing a password, then yes. Otherwise, this is discouraged.

How customizable is the user-to-user access?
User permissions apply to an entire Web, not to documents themselves. However, you can have additional sub webs that can optionally have their own permissions. Each user can be given any of four default roles. Additional roles can be defined by the administrator.

Can each user have access to their own calendar?
Yes there are two ways to do this:

· by creating a calendar for each user, or

· by creating a calendar with a view for each user

How many files can I upload?
There is no restriction in place except that any storage consumed beyond that provided by the base offering may have an additional monthly charge associated with them.

What types of files can I upload / post to the site?
The only files restricted are those ending with the following extensions: .asa, .asp, .ida, .idc, .idq. Microsoft reserves the right to add additional file types to this listing at any time. Also, no content that violates the terms of service may be uploaded or posted to the site.

Can SharePoint be linked to an external data source?
SharePoint data can be opened with Access and Excel as an external data source. Thus, SharePoint can be referenced as an external data source. SharePoint itself cannot reference an external data source.
But 3rd pary software can do this for you:
http://www.layer2.de/en/products/pages/sharepoint-business-data-list-connector.aspx

Can SharePoint be linked to a SQL database?
SharePoint 2007 Portal Server (MOSS2K7) allows connections to SQL based datasources via the Business Data Catalog (BDC). The BDC also allows connecting to data via Web Services. Or you can link lists directly qith sql queries in the list settings using the BDLC found here: http://bit.ly/p30tJ.

Can I customize my Windows SharePoint Services site?
YES! Windows SharePoint Services makes updating sites and their content from the browser easier then ever.
SharePoint includes tools that let you create custom lists, calendars, page views, etc. You can apply a theme; add List, Survey and Document Library Web Parts to a page; create personal views; change logos; connect Web Parts and more.
To fully customize your site, you can use Microsoft FrontPage 2003. Specifically, you can use FrontPage themes and shared borders, and also use FrontPage to create photo galleries and top ten lists, utilize standard usage reports, and integrate automatic Web content.

Will Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 run on a 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows?
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Office SharePoint Server 2007, Office Forms Server 2007, and Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Search will support 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003.

How Office SharePoint Server 2007 can help you?
Office SharePoint Server 2007 can help us:
Manage content and streamline processes. Comprehensively manage and control unstructured content like Microsoft Office documents, Web pages, Portable Document Format file (PDF) files, and e-mail messages. Streamline business processes that are a drain on organizational productivity.
Improve business insight. Monitor your business, enable better-informed decisions, and respond proactively to business events.
Find and share information more simply. Find information and expertise wherever they are located. Share knowledge and simplify working with others within and across organizational boundaries.
Empower IT to make a strategic impact. Increase responsiveness of IT to business needs and reduce the number of platforms that have to be maintained by supporting all the intranet, extranet, and Web applications across the enterprise with one integrated platform.
Office SharePoint Server 2007 capabilities can help improve organizational effectiveness by connecting people, processes, and information.
Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides these capabilities in an integrated server offering, so your organization doesn't have to integrate fragmented technology solutions itself.

What are the features that the portal components of Office SharePoint Server 2007 include?
The portal components of Office SharePoint Server 2007 include features that are especially useful for designing, deploying, and managing enterprise intranet portals, corporate Internet Web sites, and divisional portal sites. The portal components make it easier to connect to people within the organization who have the right skills, knowledge, and project experience.

What are the advanced features of MOSS 2007?

· User Interface (UI) and navigation enhancements

· Document management enhancements

· The new Workflow engine

· Office 2007 Integration

· New Web Parts

· New Site-type templates

· Enhancements to List technology

· Web Content Management

· Business Data Catalog

· Search enhancements

· Report Center

· Records Management

· Business Intelligence and Excel Server

· Forms Server and InfoPath

· The “Features” feature

· Alternate authentication providers and Forms-based authentication

What are the features of the new Content management in Office SharePoint 2007?
The new and enhanced content management features in Office SharePoint Server 2007 fall within three areas:

· Document management

· Records management

· Web content management

Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds on the core document management functionality provided by Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, including check in and check out, versioning, metadata, and role-based granular access controls. Organizations can use this functionality to deliver enhanced authoring, business document processing, Web content management and publishing, records management, policy management, and support for multilingual publishing.

Does a SharePoint Web site include search functionality?
Yes. SharePoint Team Services provides a powerful text-based search feature that helps you find documents and information fast.

· A consistent and familiar search experience.

· Increased relevance of search results.

· New functions to search for people and expertise.

· Ability to index and search data in line-of-business applications and

· Improved manageability and extensibility.

What are the benefits of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?

· Provide a simple, familiar, and consistent user experience.

· Boost employee productivity by simplifying everyday business activities.

· Help meet regulatory requirements through comprehensive control over content.

· Effectively manage and repurpose content to gain increased business value.

· Simplify organization-wide access to both structured and unstructured information across disparate systems.

· Connect people with information and expertise.

· Accelerate shared business processes across organizational boundaries.

· Share business data without divulging sensitive information.

· Enable people to make better-informed decisions by presenting business-critical information in one central location.

· Provide a single, integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet, and Internet applications across the enterprise.

Will SharePoint Portal Server and Team Services ever merge?
The products will come together because they are both developed by the Office team.

What does partial trust mean the Web Part developer?
If an assembly is installed into the BIN directory, the code must be ensured that provides error handling in the event that required permissions are not available. Otherwise, unhandled security exceptions may cause the Web Part to fail and may affect page rendering on the page where the Web Part appears.

How can I raise the trust level for assemblies installed in the BIN directory?
Windows SharePoint Services can use any of the following three options from ASP.NET and the CLR to provide assemblies installed in the BIN directory with sufficient permissions. The following table outlines the implications and requirements for each option.
Option Pros Cons
Increase the trust level for the entire virtual server. For more information, see "Setting the trust level for a virtual server" Easy to implement.
In a development environment, increasing the trust level allows you to test an assembly with increased permissions while allowing you to recompile assemblies directly into the BIN directory without resetting IIS. This option is least secure.
This option affects all assemblies used by the virtual server. There is no guarantee the destination server has the required trust level. Therefore, Web Parts may not work once installed on the destination server.
Create a custom policy file for your assemblies. For more information, see "How do I create a custom policy file?" Recommended approach.
This option is most secure.
An assembly can operate with a unique policy that meets the minimum permission requirements for the assembly.
By creating a custom security policy, you can ensure the destination server can run your Web Parts.
Requires the most configuration of all three options. Install your assemblies in the GAC
Easy to implement. This grants Full trust to your assembly without affecting the trust level of assemblies installed in the BIN directory.
This option is less secure.
Assemblies installed in the GAC are available to all virtual servers and applications on a server running Windows SharePoint Services. This could represent a potential security risk as it potentially grants a higher level of permission to your assembly across a larger scope than necessary
In a development environment, you must reset IIS every time you recompile assemblies.
Licensing issues may arise due to the global availability of your assembly.

Does SharePoint work with NFS?
Yes and no. It can crawl documents on an NFS volume, but the sharepoint database or logs cannot be stored there.

How is SharePoint Portal Server different from the Site Server?
Site Server has search capabilities but these are more advanced using SharePoint. SPS uses digital dashboard technology which provides a nice interface for creating web parts and showing them on dashboards (pages). SS doesn't have anything as advanced as that. The biggest difference would be SPS document management features which also integrate with web folders and MS Office.

What would you like to see in the next version of SharePoint?
A few suggestions:

1. SPS and STS on same machine

2. Tree view of Categories and Folders

3. General Discussion Web Part

4. Personalization of Dashboards

5. Role Customization

6. Email to say WHY a document has been rejected for Approval

7. More ways to customize the interface

8. Backup and restore an individual Workspaces

9. Filter for Visio

10. Better way to track activity on SPS

11. Ability to Save as from Adobe to space on My Network Places

Why Sharepoint is not a viable solution for enterprise wide deployments?
Planning an enterprise deployment using SharePoint features is a very difficult task unless you can establish a Service Oriented Architecture, using AD for managing security with well defined roles based information access(EISA). Sounds reasonable, although it seems difficult to deploy with the tools limitations in document storage.
Document management does not scale beyond a single server, but scales great within a single server. For example, a quad Xeon machine with 4GB of RAM works great for a document management server that has about 900,000 - 1,000,000 document, but if you need to store 50,000,000 document and want to have them all in one single workspace then it does not scale at all. If you need a scenario like this, you need to plan your deployment right and it should scale for you, it just does not right out of the box. If you are using your server as a portal and search server most for the most part it scales great. You can have many different servers crawl content sources and have separate servers searching and serving the content.
If you have < 750,000 documents per server and fewer than 4 content sources and fewer than 50,000 users, SPS should scale just fine for your needs with the proper planning.

What are the actual advantages of SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) over SharePoint Team Services (STS)?
SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has MUCH better document management. It has check-in, check-out, versioning, approval, publishing, subscriptions, categories, etc. STS does not have these features, or they are very scaled back. SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has a better search engine, and can crawl multiple content sources. STS cannot. STS is easier to manage and much better for a team environment where there is not much Document Management going on. SPS is better for an organization, or where Document Management is crucial.

How Does SharePoint work?
The browser sends a DAV packet to IIS asking to perform a document check in. PKMDASL.DLL, an ISAPI DLL, parses the packet and sees that it has the proprietary INVOKE command. Because of the existence of this command, the packet is passed off to msdmserv.exe, who in turn processes the packet and uses EXOLEDB to access the WSS, perform the operation and send the results back to the user in the form of XML.

How do I open an older version of a document?
Normally, all previous versions are located in the shadow, so if you right click a published document from within the web folders, go to properties and then the third tab, versions you can view older versions.
If you want to do this in code:

strURL = "url of the last published version"

Set oVersion = New PKMCDO.KnowledgeVersion

Set prmRs = oVersion.VersionHistory(strURL)

Set oVersion = Nothing

prmRS will contain a recordset, which contains the url to the old versions in the shadow.

Why do the workspace virtual directories show the error “stop sign” symbol in the IIS snap-in?
If World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC) starts before Microsoft Exchange Information Store (MSExchangeIS), “stop sign” symbols appear under the Default Web Site folder of the Internet Information Services console in Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
There is a dependency between the local paths of the SharePoint Portal Server virtual directories and the MSExchangeIS. You must start MSExchangeIS first, followed by W3SVC.
Complete the following steps to prevent the stop signs from appearing each time you restart:

1. Change the Startup type for W3SVC to Manual.

2. Restart the server. The MSExchangeIS service starts automatically.

3. Start W3SVC.

What newsgroups are available?
There are two,

· microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver and

· microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver.development.

What is SharePoint from a Technical Perspective?
Technically SharePoint illustrates neatly what Microsoft's .net strategy is all about: integrating Windows with the Web. Microsoft has previously made accessing stuff on a PC easier, (Windows) then on a network (NT) and now on the web (.NET). SharePoint is an application written to let a user access a web accessible directory tree called the Web Storage System.
SharePoint was written with a set of technologies that allow the programmer to pass data, functions, parameters over HTTP, the web's medium. These are XML, XSL and SOAP, to name a few I understand the basics of!
To the user it looks easy, like Hotmail, but every time they click a button or a link, a lot has to happen behind the scenes to do what they want to do quickly and powerfully. Not as easy as you might think, but SharePoint does it for you. Accessing this Web storage system and the server itself is also done using technologies like ADO, CDO, PKMCDO, LDAP, DDSC, ADSC. More on these later. SharePoint is a great example of how the Internet Platform can be extended and integrated into an existing well adopted technology, Windows.

What is SharePoint from an Administration Perspective?
Administering SharePoint mainly consists of setting it up, which is much easier than you expect, adding the content, which can be just dragging and dropping in whole directory structures and files, and then organizing the files better by giving them categories or other metadata. This is done either through the Web interface or through the SharePoint Client: a program what means you can access SharePoint as a Web folder and then right-click files to select options like "edit profile". Or add files by dragging them in individually or in bulk.
Setting the security is also important, using NT accounts, either NT4 or Active Directory (or both in mixed mode) you can give users access to files/folders the same way as you do in standard Windows. Users can be grouped and the groups given access privileges to help manage this better. Also SharePoint has 3 Roles that a User or Group can be given on a particular item. Readers can see the item (i.e. document/file or folder) but not change it, Authors can see and edit items and coordinators can set security privileges for the part of the system they have control over. Thus, you could set 12 different coordinators for 12 different folder trees, and they could manage who can do what within that area only.

What is SharePoint from a Users Perspective?
From a Users perspective SharePoint is a way of making documents and folders on the Windows platform accessible over the web. The user visits the SharePoint Portal web page, and from there they can add documents, change documents & delete documents. Through this Portal, these documents are now available for discussion, collaboration, versioning and being managed through a workflow. Hence the name "Share-Point". Details about the document can be saved too, such as: who wrote it, when, for whom, its size, and version, category or target audience. These can then be used to find the document through SharePoint's Search facility. Even documents not "in" SharePoint can be included in the search engine's index so they become part of the portal. All in all, it's a great way to get stuff up on the web for users with average technical skills, and for administrators to manage the content.

What are the various Sharepoint 2003 and Exchange integration points?
Link to Outlook
This is a button on contacts or events lists that lets Outlook 2003 add a pst file named Sharepoint Folders and it links to the data on the site. It’s read-only, but you could make the home page for that PST be the Sharepoint site for easier viewing. The link to outlook feature seems more to be where some can public a calendar, but not want too much collaboration. For example, a holiday schedule, company meeting schedule, etc, can be made available for people to be able to view from Outlook without having to go to a web browser. Another nice thing about OL2K3 is that you can compare these calendars with others side by side.
Searching Public Folders
With SPS you can index Exchange’s public folders with the search engine so that all that precious public folder content is searchable. You’ll want to look at content sources and indexing in Sharepoint administration.
Displaying Public Folders in a web part
Since exchange web-enables public folders, you can create a web part that displays that content. IE, http://exchangeserver/Public/IT/Helpdeskwill display the IT/Helpdesk public folder via OWA. So you add the Page Viewer web part to a page and point it at that URL. The key here is to add ?cmd=contents to the end of the url if you don’t want the navigator pane on the left.
Smart web parts
Some of the web parts that come with SPS allow you to add a web part to a page that actually takes the users outlook info (calendar, inbox, contacts, tasks) and put them into the page.
The SmartPart Web Part project template for Visual Studio allows developers to create quickly a project which contains the base infrastructure to:
* write a web user control (ASCX)
* wrap the user control in a SmartPart instance
* generate a SharePoint Solution file (WSP) for easy deployment
* generate a setup package for a wizard driven installation

Can SharePoint compare two document versions?
"In Word 2003, you can compare documents side by side. Open two documents. Then, from the Window menu of one of them, select the Compare Side By Side command. If you have only two documents open, the command will automatically choose to compare them. If you have three or more documents open, you'll have to select which document to compare with the current file.
A floating toolbar with two buttons will open. If the button on the left is selected, Word will scroll both documents at the same time. Press the button on the right side of the toolbar to return to where the cursor was located when you started comparing."

What are the integration differences between SPS 2003 and the various Office versions?
SPS webpage can detect you have installed the Office 2003 and run local dll to implement some SPS function, e.g. multi-file upload only works when you have office 2003 installed.
Integration with Office XP is gone.
You will get guys telling you that you can integrate with SPSv2 if you install a backwards compatible document library - but that’s really just putting a bit of SPS 2001 on the server.
Believe me, check-in, check-out, which are themselves very basic, are not available from inside Office XP, or even from the context menu in Windows Explorer.
The ONLY option you have is to use the web interface to check-in or check-out.

What is SharePoint?
SharePoint is Microsoft's Portal Collaboration Software.
- SharePoint is Microsoft's enterprise information portal. It can be configured to run Intranet, Extranet and Internet sites.
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows people to connect and collaborate.
- A SharePoint enterprise portal is composed of SharePoint Portal and Windows SharePoint Services.
- SharePoint Server is designed medium to large company wide enterprise portal.

What is the difference between SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services?
SharePoint Portal Server is the global portal offering features like global navigation and searching. Windows SharePoint Services is more content management based with document libraries and lists. You apply information to certain areas within your portal from Windows SharePoint Services or directly to portal areas.

What is a document library?
A document library is where you upload your core documents. They consist of a row and column view with links to the documents. When the document is updated so is the link on your site. You can also track metadata on your documents. Metadata would consist of document properties.

What is a meeting workspace?
A meeting workspace is a place to store information, attendees, and tasks related to a specific meeting.

What is a document workspace?
Document workspaces consist of information surrounding a single or multiple documents.

What is a web part?
Web parts consist of xml queries to full SharePoint lists or document libraries. You can also develop your own web parts and web part pages.

What is the difference between a document library and a form library?
Document libraries consist of your core documents. An example would be a word document, excel, powerpoint, visio, pdf, etc… Form libraries consist of XML forms.

What is a web part zone?
Web part zones are What your web parts reside in and help categorize your web parts when designing a page.

How is security managed in SharePoint?
Security can be handled at the machine, domain, or sharepoint level.

How are web parts developed?
Web parts are developed in Visual Studio .Net. VS.Net offers many web part and page templates and can also be downloaded from the Microsoft site.

What is a site definition?
It’s a methods for providing prepackaged site and list content.

What is a template?
A template is a pre-defined set of functions or settings that can be used over time. There are many templates within SharePoint, Site Templates, Document Templates, Document Library and List Templates.

How do you install web parts?
Web Parts should be distributed as a .CAB (cabinet) file using the MSI Installer.

What is CAML?
tands for Collaborative Application Markup Language and is an XML-based language that is used in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services to define sites and lists, including, for example, fields, views, or forms, but CAML is also used to define tables in the Windows SharePoint Services database during site provisioning.

What is a DWP?
he file extension of a web part.

What is the GAC?
Global Assembly Cache folder on the server hosting SharePoint. You place your assemblies there for web parts and services.

What are the differences between web part page gallery, site gallery, virtual server gallery and online gallery?
Web Part Page Gallery is the default gallery that comes installed with SharePoint. Site Gallery is specific to one site. Virtual Server gallery is specific to that virtual server and online gallery are downloadable web parts from Microsoft.

What is the difference between a site and a web?
The pages in a Web site generally cover one or more topics and are interconnected through hyperlinks. Most Web sites have a home page as their starting point. While a Web is simply a blank site with SharePoint functionality built in; meaning you have to create the site from the ground up.

How to deploy wsp?
In Command prompt, navigate to the 12-hive bin folder, then write the command to add the solution i.e.
Stsadm -o addsolution -filename filelocation
Then go to “central administration -> operations” under “global configuration” there is “solution management” click on that.
Then click on “wsp file name”, and then click on “deploy solution” for deploy it, for retrieve click on “retrieve solution”, for remove it click on “remove solution” after retrieve it.

Explain the Share Point Architecture.
Having 3 layers, like 3 tire architecture
1. WFE <Front End Web Server>
2. Application Layer
3. Data base Layer
1. WFE :-
Here we have share point Installed.
We have 12-hive structure & virtual drives.
Here IIS web sites are hosted.
Here servers are clustered on & are in synch.
2. Application Lay er:-
Share Point provides different services.
This layer provides those services, like my site hosting, user profile & searching etc.
One server can be dedicated to particular service depend upon the scalability.
3. Data Base Layer :-
Here we have SQL server installed.
Here content DB is hosted.
For moss 2007, it is SQL server 2005. For Share Point 2010, it is SQL server 2008.
Here servers are clustered on & are in synch.
* Every layer has load balancer for control the traffic.

How to Create a custom feature?
To create custom feature :-
Create xml file named feature.xml and its manifest file. Save it in a folder and save that folder in 12- hive \template\feature.
To install :-
Go to command prompt, navigate 12- hive bin folder & run the command.
Stsadm -0 installfeature –filename <filelocation+name>
To Activate :-
Go to command prompt, navigate 12- hive bin folder & run the command.
Stsadm -0 activefeature –name <name> -url <url>
To Deactivate :-
Go to command prompt, navigate 12- hive bin folder & run the command.
Stsadm -0 deactivefeature –name <name> -url <url>
To uninstall :-
Go to command prompt, navigate 12- hive bin folder & run the command.
Stsadm -0 uninstallfeature –filename <filelocation+name>

What is Web part life cycle?
Web Part Life Cycle starts with
OnInit- to configure the webpart.
OnLoad- to load add controls.
CreateChildControls- It is use to create controls and set its property.
LoadViewState- The view state of the web part is populated over here.
OnPreRender- it is use to change the web part properties.
RenterContents- it generate the output in html.
OnUnLoad- to unload the web part.
Dispose- to free the memory.

What is BDC and How it is differ from BCS?
BDC (Business Data Catalogue) is use to connect an external database and view it in share point.
BCS (Business connectivity Services) is new in SharePoint2010. Using BDC one can only read from external Database, but using BCS one can read and write into the external Database.

What is the difference between Site Definition and Site template?
1. To create or use site definition you need server admin access, but site template can install from web UI by site owners.
2. Site definition supports feature stapling, but for site template additional features must be activated in gallery.
3. Site definitions are stored in hard disk, but site templates are stored in content DB.
4. Site definition can provision multiple webs, but site templates for single web only.
5. Creating site definition is relatively complex then site template creation.

What is CAML?
CAML is the collaborative application markup language. This is the XML-based language used to customize and to develop the sharepoint based sites and features.

How WSS 3.0 differes from MOSS 2007?
1. Windows SharePoint Services (3.0) are free available with Windows Server. Microsoft Office sharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 is licensed version. WSS 3.0 can be freely downloaded from Microsoft site.
2. MOSS 2007 is based on WSS3.0 with some additional features like Enterprise Search, Business Data Catalog(BDC), User Profile, Excel Services, Single-Sign on, additional Workflows, My site feature etc.

What is WebApplication in SharePoint?
1. In SharePoint WebApplication is a IIS website.
2. From Central Admin we can create the web application. Each web application is associated with one IIS web site.
3. Once the web application is created, we can extend the web application in different zones.
4. For each web application, content database is created.

What is a Site Collection in SharePoint?
1. A site collection is a set of web sites.
2. Every site collection has top-level site, created when the site collection is created.
3. THere might be multiple site collections in web application and each site collection may have a multiple child sites.

How the WSS3.0 basic installation differs from the advanced installation?
1. When we choose the basic installation, Windows Internal Database(WID), a relational database based on SQL server technology, is installed for the WSS3.0 databases. This WID has only 4 GB limitations. While if we go for advanced search, WSS 3.0 uses installed SQL server for the databases.
2. When we use basic installation, application pool uses the LocalSystem account.
3. Also once we go for Basic installation, we are unable to add more servers to the farm.

How many web applications we can create on WSS server?
NOTE: This is objective type question, Please click question title for correct answer.

What are the zones in SharePoint?

1. Zones provides the separate logical paths of authentication for the same web application.

2. We can create 5 zones for each web application as follows :

a. Default

b. Intranet

c. Extranet

d. Internet

e. Custom

3. Each zone represented by different web sites in IIS.

What is the Farm in SharePoint?

1. Farm is a collection of SharePoint servers having the same configuration database.

2. Configuration DB stores all the required information to run the farm.

3. Each farm is administered through a central administration

4. There is only one configuration database per farm.

What is SharePoint Delegate Control?

a. With the help of delegate control, we can take any OOB control of SharePoint and replace with our custom control without any modification in the SharePoint page. So that new custom control overrides the existing one.

b. So the delegate control provide one of the option to add control (either server control or user control) on a SharePoint page.

c. This is one of the important features of SharePoint, introduced in WSS v3 and so in MOSS 2007.

d. For example : In master page SearchBox control is included as
<SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="SmallSearchInputBox" />

e. The above lines instantiate the delegate control object.

f. This delegate control object uses features to locate the control which is specified in ControlId. So there must be the features (it includes feature at any scope) which creates and deploys the SmallSearchInputBox control.

What is Sandbox solution?
When user writing custom code then it is not trusted, its failure causses on entire site. So the sandbox solution concept is used. In that case program is only written for particular site & solution is uploaded in the same site. The solution size limit is decided at the time of site creation & if size increases or code sHowing bad performance then it is easy to administrator to stop the working of solution.

What is the difference between Sandbox solution & farm solution?
We can create sandbox solution for particular site but not for the entire site collection or farm. It is not applicable for farm solution. There are some restriction while creating the sandbox solution.

Why we use the properties.current.web instead of SPContext.Current.web in event receiver?
When we deploy project from Visual studio then we can use the SPContext.Current.web but when we use the powershell to activate or deactive the feature then we have to use properties.current.web beacuse there is no access of browser here.

Which are default master pages in Sharepoint 2010?

1. v4.master - This is default master page.

2. default.master - this is used to support the 2007 user interface

3. minimal.master

4. simple.master- it is used for accessdenied.aspx, confirmation.aspx, error.aspx, login.aspx, reqacc.aspx, signout.aspx & webdeleted.aspx pages.

What is the difference between CustomMasterUrl & MasterUrl?
MasterUrl is used to change the layout of all use end pages but CustomMasterUrl is for changing the layout of admin side pages.

How can debugging share point application and timer jobs? with steps?
Steps 1: Build application place .dll into gac and reset iis
steps 2: On the Debug menu, select Attach to Process
steps 3: Select the SHow processes from all users check box.
steps 4: Select W3W.exe and OSWTIMER.exe can attach
steps 5: Refresh sharepoint site point break point

What is web part?and type
Web Parts are the fundamental building blocks for Share Point user interface, and with them we can build and integrate many different types of applications.In share point also be create custom web part using .oscx control
Steps to create custom web part:

1. Create web part project copied .oscx control and build application.place .dll file in GAC .reset IIS.

2. Go to hive _layout folder create folder past your .oscx control

3. Go inetpub ->wwwroot->wss->open Your site ->web con fig->create safe control write assembly information of web part application

4. Open sharepoint site ->site action-site editing->Galleries ->web part->new Add your web part.

Following are few web parts in WSS 3.0

· Content Editor Web Part

· Data View Web Part

· List View Web Part

· Image Web Part

· Members Web Part

· Page Viewer Web Part

What is MOSS?
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) is the full version of a portal-based platform for collaboratively creating, managing and sharing documents and Web services.
In MOSS additional feature add that can not in WSS 3.0.

What are ways to create input forms for workflow?
There are two ways to create input forms for workflow:

1. You can create your forms by using custom application pages, which are standard .aspx pages deployed to run out of the _layouts directory.

2. Using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007

What are the types of input forms that can be created for a workflow?
You can create four different types of input forms including

1. An association form

2. An initiation form

3. A modification form

4. A task edit form

What is CAML?
CALM tands for Collaborative Application Markup Language and is an XML-based language that is used in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services to define sites and lists, including, for example, fields, views, or forms, but CAML is also used to define tables in the Windows SharePoint Services database during site provisioning.

What are the advantages of SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) over SharePoint Team Services (STS)?
SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has MUCH better document management. It has check-in, check-out, versioning, approval, publishing, subscriptions, categories, etc. STS does not have these features, or they are very scaled back. SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has a better search engine, and can crawl multiple content sources. STS cannot. STS is easier to manage and much better for a team environment where there is not much Document Management going on. SPS is better for an organization, or where Document Management is crucial.

What is a web part?
Web parts consist of xml queries to full SharePoint lists or document libraries. You can also develop your own web parts and web part pages.

What Do you know about SharePoint Object Model?
In Sharepoint Object model there are two Important namespaces.
The Microsoft.Office.Server namespace is the root namespace of all Office Server objects and Microsoft.SharePoint is the root namespace for all WSS objects.

Can you develop webparts and other SharePoint solutions at your local machine?
In order to run and debug sharePoint solutions, the project must reside on the server which has Windows sharePoint services installed. However, you can reference the Microsoft.SharePoint dll in your project at your local, but you won’t be able to run it.

How do you debug SharePoint Webparts?
To debug SharePoint webpart (or any solution) you can simply drag and drop your complied .dll in GAC and recycle the app pool. You can also run upgrade solution command from stsadm.

How would you retrieve large number of Items form the list ?
To retrieve large number of items with a better performance we can either use SPQuery or PortalSiteMapProvider Class.

How Do you implement Impersonation in SharePoint?
By Using RunWithElevatedPrivileges method provided by SPSecurity class.

What is the performance impact of RunWithElevatedPrivileges?
RunWithElevatedPrivileges creates a new thread with the App Pool's credentials, blocking your current thread until it finishes.

How will you add Code behind to a Custom Applictaion Page or a Layout Page in SharePoint?
You do not deploy a code behind file with your custom Layouts page. Instead, you can have the page inherit from the complied dll of the solution to access the code behind.

What is the difference between a Site Definition and a Site Template?
Site Definitions are stored on the hard drive of the SharePoint front end servers. They are used by the SharePoint application to generate the sites users can create. Site Templates are created by users as a copy of a site they have configured and modified so that they do not have to recreate lists, libraries, views and columns every time they need a new instance of a site.

Why do you use Feature Receivers ?
Feature Receivers are used to execute any code on Activation\Deactivation of a Feature. You can use it for various purposes.

Can you give a example where feature receivers are used?
You can use it to assign an event receiver feature to a specific type of list or can write a code in a feature receivers Deactivate method to remove a webpart from webpart gallery.

Where do you deploy the additional files used in your webpart, like css or javascript files, and how do you use them in your WebPart?
You can deploy the css or javascript files in _layouts folder in SharePoint's 12 hive. To use them in your webpart, you need to first register them to your webpart page and then specify a virtual path for the file for e.g. _layouts\MyCSS.css See Code examples at Using External Javascript, CSS or Image File in a WebPart.

When should you dispose SPWeb and SPSite objects?
According to the best Practices you should always dispose them if you have created them in your code. You can dispose them in Finally block or you can use the "Using" clause, so that they gets disposed when not required. If you are using SPContext then you need not dispose the spsite or spweb objects.

What are the best practices for SharePoint development?
Some of the best practices are:

1. You should always dispose SPsite and SPWeb objects, once you refer them in your code. Using the "Using" clause is recommended.

2. Use RunwithelevatePrivilages to avoid errors for end users.

3. Try writing your errors to SharePoint error logs (ULS Logs). Since it’s a bad idea to fill-up event log for your production environment.

4. Use SPQuery instead of foreach loop while retrieving Items from the list.

5. Deploy additional files used in your webpart to 12 hive. Use your solution package to drop the files in 12 hive. Also, make sure that all the references (for e.g. Css or .js files) get removed when the solution is retracted.

What is the main difference between using SPListItem.Update() and SPListItem.SystemUpdate()?
Using SystemUpdate() will not create a new version and will also retain timestamps.

When do you use SPSiteDataQuery?
You can use SPSiteDataQuery when you need to extract data from more than one list\library in your site colletcion. The data is extracted on the basis of the query you write and is returened as a Datatable. You can also specify the GUID for the lists\libraries you want to query against.

How do you create a Custom action for an item in a list?
This can be done by adding a new feature into SharePoint. You would need to use customaction tag in your elements.xml file and will have to set various properties like imageurl or UrlAction for your customaction. You can later add this feature into sharepoint using stsadm install feature command.

How would you bind this CustomAction to a specific list?
To do this you can either create a new list type(again a feature) and use the listtype number for the new list in your RegistrationType property of the Customaction. The CustomAction will then show up only for the items of this list type. or You can create a new content type and then use that content type's id in your cutsomaction to bind the custom action to items of just that content type. Add the new content type to the list where you need this customaction.

How will you deploy an existing asp.net webapplication or website in SharePoint?
You would need to wrap the web application in a solution package in order to deploy it in 12 hive or say ShraePoint. It is recommended to create a feature first, and then wrap everything in a Solution package. See example Depoly a Custom aspx Page in SharePoint

How will you cancel a deployment from central admin -> solution managment, if its stuck at “deploying” or “Error”?
You can either try to force execute timer jobs using execadmsvcjobs command or can cancel the dpeloyment using stsadm command stsadm –o cancaldeployment –id {GUID} command. The Id here would be GUID of the timer or deployment job. You can get the Id from stsadm enumdeployment command. This will display all the deployments which are process or are stuck with Error.

How do make an existing non-publishing site Publishing?
You can simply activate the SharePoint Publishing Feature for the Site, you want to make publishing.

Can you name some of the tools used for SharePoint Administration?
Tools Used for SharePoint Administration

What are Application Pages in SharePoint?
Unlike site pages (for example, default.aspx), a custom application page is deployed once per Web server and cannot be customized on a site-by-site basis. Application pages are based in the virtual _layouts directory. In addition, they are compiled into a single assembly DLL.
A good example of an Application Page is the default Site Settings page: every site has one, and it's not customizable on a per site basis (although the contents can be different for sites).
With application pages, you can also add inline code. With site pages, you cannot add inline code.

What is Authentication and Authorization?
An authentication system is how you identify yourself to the computer. The goal behind an authentication system is to verify that the user is actually who they say they are.
Once the system knows who the user is through authentication, authorization is how the system decides what the user can do.

How do you deploy a User Control in SharePoint?
You deploy your User Control either by a Custom webpart, which will simply load the control on the page or can use tools like SmartPart, which is again a webpart to load user control on the page. User Control can be deployed using a custom solution package for the webapplication or you can also the control in the webpart solution package so that it gets deployed in _controlstemplate folder.

Which is faster a WebPart or a User Control?
A WebPart renders faster than a User Control. A User Control in SharePoint is usually loaded by a webpart which adds an overhead. User Controls however, gives you an Interface to add controls and styles.

What SharePoint Databases are Created during the standard Install?
During standard install, the following databases are created:

· SharePoint_AdminContent

· SharePoint_Config

· WWS_Search_SERVERNAME%_%GUID_3%

· SharedServicesContent_%GUID_4%

· SharedServices1_DB_%GUID_5%

· SharedServices1_Search_DB_%

· GUID_6%WSS_Content_%GUID_7%

What are content types?
A content type is a flexible and reusable WSS type definition (or we can a template) that defines the columns and behavior for an item in a list or a document in a document library. For example, you can create a content type for a leave approval document with a unique set of columns, an event handler, and its own document template and attach it with a document library/libraries.

Can a content type have receivers associated with it?
Yes, a content type can have an event receiver associated with it, either inheriting from the SPListEventReciever base class for list level events, or inheriting from the SPItemEventReciever base class. Whenever the content type is instantiated, it will be subject to the event receivers that are associated with it.

Can you add a Cutsom Http Handler in SharePoint?
Yes, a Custom httphandler can be deployed in _layouts folder in SharePoint. Also, we need to be register the handler in the webapp's webconfig file.

While creating a Web part, which is the ideal location to Initialize my new controls?
Override the CreateChildControls method to include your new controls. You can control the exact rendering of your controls by calling the .Render method in the web parts Render method.

How do you return SharePoint List items using SharePoint web services?
In order to retrieve list items from a SharePoint list through Web Services, you should use the lists.asmx web service by establishing a web reference in Visual Studio. The lists.asmx exposes the GetListItems method, which will allow the return of the full content of the list in an XML node. It will take parameters like the GUID of the name of the list you are querying against, the GUID of the view you are going to query, etc.

How Do you deploy Files in 12 hive when using wspbuilder or vsewss?
Typically, you can add these files in the 12 hive folder structure in your project. In Vsewss however, you will have to create this structure manually.

What files gets created on a file system, when a Site collection is created?
Windows SharePoint Services does not create any files or folders on the file system when the site collection or sites are created; everything is created in the content database. The Pages for the site collection are created as instances in the content database. These instances refer to the actual file on the file system.

What are Customized and Uncustomized Files in SharePoint?
There are two types of Pages in SharePoint; site pages (also known as content pages) and application pages.
Uncustomized:
When you create a new SharePoint site in a site collection, Windows SharePoint Services provisions instances of files into the content database that resides on the file system. That means if you create a new Site "xyz" of type Team Site(or Team sIte Definition), an instance of the Team Site Definition( Which resides on the File System), i.e. "xyz" gets created in the Content database. So, When ASP.NET receives a request for the file, it first finds the file in the content database. This entry in the content database tells ASP.NET that the file is actually based on a file on the file system and therefore, ASP.NET retrieves the source of the file on the file system when it constructs the page.
Customized:
A customized file is one in which the source of the file lives exclusively in the site collection's content database. This happens When you modify the file in any way through the SharePoint API, or by SharePoint Designer 2007,which uses the SharePoint API via RPC and Web service calls to change files in sites. So, When the file is requested, ASP.NET first finds the file in the content database. The entry in the database tells ASP.NET whether the file is customized or uncustomized. If it is customized, it contains the source of the file, which is used by ASP.NET in the page contraction phase.

What are event receivers?
Event receivers are classes that inherit from the SpItemEventReciever or SPListEventReciever base class (both of which derive out of the abstract base class SPEventRecieverBase), and provide the option of responding to events as they occur within SharePoint, such as adding an item or deleting an item.

When would you use an event receiver?
Since event receivers respond to events, you could use a receiver for something as simple as canceling an action, such as deleting a document library by using the Cancel property. This would essentially prevent users from deleting any documents if you wanted to maintain retention of stored data.

If I wanted to restrict the deletion of the documents from a document library, how would I go about it?
You would create a event receiver for that list/library and implement the ItemDeleting method. Simply, set: properties.Cancel= true and display a friendly message using Properties.Message("How can u delete this... Its not your stuff!");

What is the difference between an asynchronous and synchronous event receivers?
An asynchronous event occurs after an action has taken place, and a synchronous event occurs before an action has take place. For example, an asynchronous event is ItemAdded, and its sister synchronous event is ItemAdding

How do you Increase trust level for a single WebPart in the WebConfig file?
To list a Web Part with Full Permissions within your Web Application while still retaining a WSS_Minimal permission set for all other Web Parts, You need to create a Custom policy file. This file will be then referenced in SharePoint Web.config file and will allow your specific webpart to be of Full trust.
Steps:

1. Make a copy of the WSS_Minimal.Config file from the 12\Config folder and paste it into the same folder renaming it to Custom_WSS_Minimal.Config.

2. Now, edit the Custom_WSS_Minimal.Config file using NotePad. Obtain the Public Key Token for the Web Part assembly that you want to deploy, using the following command: sn –Tp filename.dll.

3. Create a new entry in your Custom_WSS_Minimal.Config file for your WebPart.

4. Save the File.

5. Finally, Create a new TrustLevel element for your config file in the Web.Config called Custom_WSS_Minimal that points to your custom file in the 12\config folder.

6. Recycle the Application Pool and You’re Done.

How does Windows SharePoint Services help render the Webapplictaion in ShrePoint?
When a new web applictaion is created via Central Admin, Windows SharePoint Services creates a new Web application in IIS. Then the WSS, loads the custom HTTP application and replaces all installed HTTP handlers and modules with Windows SharePoint Services–specific ones. These handlers and modules essentially tell IIS to route all file requests through the ASP.NET 2.0 pipeline. This is because most files in a SharePoint site are stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database.

How would you pass user credentials while using SharePoint WebService from your Web Part or application?
The web service needs credentials to be set before making calls.
Examples:

listService.UseDefaultCredentials = true;

// use currently logged on user

listService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(

"user", "pass", "domain");

// use specified user

How would you remove a webapart from the WebPart gallery? Does it get removed with Webpart retraction?
No, Webpart does not get removed from the WebPart gallery on retraction. You can write a feature receiver on Featuredeactivating method to remove the empty webpart from the gallery.

What is a SharePoint Feature? Features are installed at what scope?
A SharePoint Feature is a functional component that can be activated and deactivate at various scopes throughout a SharePoint instances, scope of which are defined as:

1. Farm level

2. Web Application level

3. Site level

4. Web level

Features have their own receiver architecture, which allow you to trap events such as when a feature is Installing, Uninstalling, Activated, or Deactivated.

What type of components can be created or deployed as a feature?
We can create menu commands, Custom Actions,page templates, page instances, list definitions, list instances,event handlers,webparts and workflows as feature.

How Do you bind a Drop-Down Listbox with a Column in SharePoint List?
Method 1 : You can get a datatable for all items in the list and add that table to a data set. Finally, specify the dataset table as datasource for dropdown listbox.
Method 2 : You can also use SPDatasource in your aspx or design page.

What is CAML?
CAML stands for Collaborative Application Markup Language and is an XML-based languagethat is used in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services to define sites and lists, including, for Eg, fields, views, or forms, but CAML is also used to define tables in the Windows SharePoint Servies database during site provisioning. Developers mostly use CAML Queries to retrieve data from Lists\libraries.

Can you display\add a Custom aspx or WebApplication Page in SharePoint Context?
You need to make some modification in the aspx file to display it in SharePoint Context. Firstly, add the references for various sharepoint assemblies on the Page. Then wrap the Code in PlaceHolderMain contentPlaceholder, so that it gets displayed as a content page. Lastly, add a reference to SharePoint Master Page in aspx file and swicth it in Code behind if needed. See Code Example at Display aspx Page in SharePoint context

What is 14 hive in SharePoint?
See SharePoint 2010 Object Model

How would you re-deploy the old custom solutions in SharePoint 2010. What Changes are needed to the old Solution files?
SharePoint 2010 object model contains many changes and enhancements, but our custom code will still compile and, will run as expected. You should however, rewrite and recompile any code that refers to files and resources in "12 hive".

How many types of Client Object model extension are available in 2010 and when would you use one or the other?
To develop rich client side solutions, three set of client-side APIs has been introduced in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client namespace. The three APIs are targeted for three different types of clients.

1. .NET Managed applications – These are used when we have to create console applications or window applications, web applications which are not running inside SharePoint Contex.

2. For Silverlight applications.

3. ECMAScript – It is a client object model extension for using with JavaScript or JScript. This is used for creating applications which are hosted inside SharePoint. For example, web part deployed in SharePoint site can use this JavaScript API for accessing SharePoint from browser using JavaScript.

What are the security improvements in SharePoint 2010?
In SharePoint 2010 a variety of security methods have been introduced.
Claims-Based Authentication - Claims based authentication is based on identity. and trust.
Code Access Security - In which you can specify your own code access security (CAS) policy for your web parts.
Sandbox Solutions - Sandbox Solutions which when deployed to the server, SharePoint runs in a special process that has limited permissions.
Cross-Site Scripting - Introduced to prevent Cross - Site Scripting (XSS) attacks.

Whats New with SharePoint WebParts?
A developer can create two types of webparts using Visual Studio 2010.
1. Visual Webparts - Allows you to Drag and Drop the controls from the Toolbox to WebPart Design surface. You can of course write your custom code in the code file. You can also package and deploy your webparts directly to Sharepoint from VS by pressing Clt+F5. Visual studio 2010 also provides you with three different views for developing webparts. The views are split view, design view and Source view(as we have in designer 2007).
Note : The Visual Webpart project Item basically loads a User Control as a WebPart.
2. ASP.NET WebParts - Where a developer can build up User Interface and logic in a class file. You do not have designer for drag and drop of controls. This webpart inherits from standard ASP.NET webpart. For Deployment we can again use ctrl+f5 to deploy this webpart.

What are the Visual Studio 2010 Tools for SharePoint?
Visual Studio 2010 includes SharePoint-specific project types and project item types, and includes powerful packaging, deployment, and debugging features that help increase your efficiency as a SharePoint 2010 developer.
Some of the Templates avaiable are:

1. Visual Web Part project template.

2. List defination template.

3. Content Type template.

4. Empty Project template.

5. Event Receiver template.

6. Some workflow template.

7. The Site Definition template.

and many more....

What are SharePoint Sandboxed soultions?
SharePoint 2010 provides a new sandboxed environment that enables you to run user solutions without affecting the rest of the SharePoint farm. This environment means that users can upload their own custom solutions without requiring intervention from administrators, and without putting the rest of the farm at risk. This means that the existing sites\pages or components will not be effected by the newly added soultion.
Users can deploy the below four things as sandboxed soultions :

1. 1. WebParts.

2. 2. Event Receivers.

3. 3. List Definations.

4. 4. Workflows.

What are Requirenments for SharePoint 2010?
SharePoint Server 2010 will support only 64 - bit. It will require 64 bit Windows Server 2008 or 64 bit Windows Server 2008 R2. In addition to this, it will require 64 bit version of SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005.

What is LIN? How is it used in Sharepoint?
LINQ is a feature of the programming languages C# 3.0 and Visual Basic .NET. LINQ allows you to query in an object-oriented way, supports compile-time check, gives you intellisense support in Visual Studio and defines a unified, SQL like syntax to query any data source. But unlike other languages and query syntaxes which vary from one type of data source to another, LINQ can be used to query, in principle, any data source whatsoever. It is commonly used to query objects collections, XML and SQL server data sources.
The LINQ to SharePoint Provider is defined in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq namespace. It translates LINQ queries into Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML) queries.

What Changes are made in SharePoint 2010 to enforce Referential Integrity?
In SharePoint 2010, Referential Integrity is enforced using two options, available with Look-up columns.
While creating a Look-up column, you can either choose a) Restrict Delete or b) Cascade Delete to define a relationship between the Look-up list and the list containing the look-up Column. Read Details at SharePoint 2010 Referential integrity - Using LookUp Column

Whats Ribbon in SharePoint 2010?

Whats New in SPALerts?
In SharePoint 2007, alerts were send only through e-mails, but in SP2010 users can also send an alert to mobile devices as SMS Message. A New property DeliveryChannels is introduced to indicate, whether the alert is delivered as E-mail or as an SMS Message.

What Has Changed with SSP in SharePoint 2010?
In SharePoint 2010 Shared Service Providers (SSP's) are replaced by Service Applications. Services are no longer combined into a SSP. They are running independent as a service application. The service application architecture is now also built into Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, in contrast to the Shared Services Provider (SSP) architecture that was only part of Office SharePoint Server 2007.
A key benefit here is that all services are installed by default and there is no SSP setup.

Basic Intro SharePoint Architecture Questions

1) What are Web Applications in SharePoint?

An IIS Web site created and used by SharePoint 2010. Saying an IIS virtual server is also an acceptable answer.

2) What is an application pool?

A group of one or more URLs that are served by a particular worker process or set of worker processes.

3) Why are application pools important?

They provide a way for multiple sites to run on the same server but still have their own worker processes and identity.

4) What are zones?

Different logical paths (URLs meaning) of gaining access to the same SharePoint Web application.

5) What are Web Application Policies?

Enables security policy for users at the Web application level, rather than at the site collection or site level. Importantly, they override all other security settings.

6) What is a site collection?

A site collection contains a top-level website and can contain one or more sub-sites web sites that have the same owner and share administration settings.

7) What are content databases?

A content database can hold all the content for one or more site collections.

8) What is a site?

A site in SharePoint contains Web pages and related assets such as lists, all hosted within a site collection.

9) What are My Sites?

Specialized SharePoint sites personalized and targeted for each user.

10) What is the difference between Classic mode authentication and Claims-based authentication?

As the name implies, classic authentication supports NT authentication types like Kerberos, NTLM, Basic, Digest, and anonymous. Claims based authentication uses claims identities against a against a trusted identity provider.

11) When would you use claims, and when would you use classic?

Classic is more commonly seen in upgraded 2007 environments whereas claims are the recommended path for new deployments.

12) Describe the potential components for both a single server, and multiple servers, potentially several tiered farms:

A single-server SharePoint Server 2010 environment leverages a built-in SQL Server 2008 Express database. The problems with this environment is scalability, not being able to install the with built-in database on a domain controller, the database cannot be larger than 4 GB, and you cannot use User Profile Synchronization in a single server with built-in database installation.

An example of a multiple tier farm would be a three-tier topology, considered one of the more efficient physical and logical layouts to supports scaling out or scaling up and provides better distribution of services across the member servers of the farm. This is considered a good architecture since one can add Web servers to the Web tier, add app servers to the application tier, and add database servers to the database tier.

SharePoint Backup and Restore Questions

13) What are some of the tools that can be used when backing up a SharePoint 2010 environment?

· SharePoint farm backup and recovery

· SQL Server

· System Center Data Protection Manager

14) What Microsoft tool can be used for incremental backups?

System Center Data Protection Manager

Managed Metadata Questions

15) What is Managed Metadata?

Managed metadata is a hierarchical collection of centrally managed terms that you can define, and then use as attributes for items.

16) What are Terms and Term Sets?

A term is a word or a phrase that can be associated with an item. A term set is a collection of related terms.

17) How do Terms And Term Sets relate to Managed Metadata?

Managed metadata is a way of referring to the fact that terms and term sets can be created and managed independently from the columns themselves.

18) Are there different types of Term Sets?

There are Local Term Sets and Global Term Sets, one created within the context of a site collection and the other created outside the context of a site collection, respectively.

19) How are terms created and used?

There are several ways; however the most common is to use the Term Store Management Tool.

20) How is Managed Metadata, and the related Term technology used?

Through the UI, the most common use is through the managed metadata list column which allows you to specify the term set to use. It also related to searching and enhancing the user search experience.

Sandbox Solutions Questions

21) What is a sandboxed solution?

Components that are deployed to run within the sandboxed process rather than running in the production Internet Information Services (IIS) worker process.

22) What are some examples of things that might run within the SharePoint sandbox?

Any of the following are acceptable answers:

Web Parts
Event receivers
Feature receivers
Custom Microsoft SharePoint Designer workflow activities
Microsoft InfoPath business logic

others….

23) Why are sandboxed solutions used?

Primarily because they promote high layers of isolation. By default they run within a rights-restricted, isolated process based around Code Access Security (CAS). Isolation is possible to increase with activities like running the sandboxing service on only specific SharePoint 2010 servers.

SharePoint Search Questions

24) What is a content source in relation to SharePoint search? Whatï¿½s the minimum amount of content sources?

A content source is a set of options that you can use to specify what type of content is crawled, what URLs to crawl, and how deep and when to crawl. You must create at least one content source before a crawl can occur.

25) What is a search scope?

A search scope defines a subset of information in the search index. Users can select a search scope when performing a search.

26) What is a federated location with SharePoint search?

Federated locations provide information that exists outside of your internal network to your end-users.

27) How does managed metadata affect search?

Enhances the end-user search experience by mapping crawled properties to managed properties. Managed properties show up in search results and help users perform more successful queries.

28) What is query logging in SharePoint 2010?

Collects information about user search queries and search results that users select on their computers to improve the relevancy of search results and to improve query suggestions.

29) What authentication type does the SharePoint crawler use?

The crawl component requires access to content using NTLM authentication.

Services Architecture Questions

30) Please describe what a Service Application is in SharePoint 2010.

Service applications in SharePoint 2010 are a set of services that can possibly be shared across Web applications. Some of these services may or may not be shared across the SharePoint 2010 farm. The reason these applications are shared is the overall reduction of resources required to supply the functionality these services cultivate.

31) Please provide an example of one of these service applications.

Any of the below are acceptable answers:

Access Services
Business Data Connectivity service
Excel Services Application
Managed Metadata service
PerformancePoint Service Application
Search service
Secure Store Service
State service
Usage and Health Data Collection service
User Profile service
Visio Graphics Service
Web Analytics service
Word Automation Services
Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Subscription Settings Service

32) What are Service Application Groups used for?

Just provides a logical grouping of services that are scoped to a particular Web Application.

33) How are Service Applications deployed in terms of IIS (Internet Information Services)?

They are provisioned as a single Internet Information Services (IIS) Web site.

34) Explain how connections are managed with Service Applications.

A virtual entity is used that is referred to as a proxy, due to label in PowerShell.

35) What are some common examples of SharePoint 2010 services architectures, and what are the advantages of each design?

The three most popular designs are single farms with either a single service application group or multiple service application groups, or Enterprise services farms.

Single farms with a single service application group are generally the most common, and have the advantages of easy deployment, simple service application allocation, effective resource utilization and cohesive management.

Single farms with multiple service application groups is less common, and have the advantage of potential individual management of service applications as well as allowing data isolation, and while being more complex to deploy and maintain allows targeting of sites to particular service applications.

Enterprise Service Farms is pretty uncommon as it is a complete farm dedicated to Service Applications but promotes autonomous management and high levels of data isolation.

36) Are there any other type of relevant service architectures?

Depending on the environment requirements, a specialized farm can also be used in order to deploy specific services tailored to the organizational requirements which can aid in scaling out and conservation of resources.

37) What is the User Profile service?

Allows configuring and managing User profile properties, Audiences, Profile synchronization settings, organization browsing and management settings, and My Site settings.

38) What are User Profiles?

Aggregates properties from diverse identity content sources together to create unified and consistent profiles across an organization, used throughout the SharePoint environment.

39) What is Excel Services?

Allows sharing, securing, managing, and using Excel 2010 workbooks in a SharePoint Server Web site or document library. Excel Services consists of the Excel Calculation Services (ECS), Microsoft Excel Web Access (EWA), and Excel Web Services (EWS) components.

40) What is PerformancePoint Services?

Allows users to monitor and analyze a business by building dashboards, scorecards, and key performance indicators (KPIs).

41) What is Visio Services?

Allows users to share and view Microsoft Visio Web drawings. The service also enables data-connected Microsoft Visio 2010 Web drawings to be refreshed and updated from various data sources.

42) What is Access Services?

Allows users to edit, update, and create linked Microsoft Access 2010 databases that can be viewed and manipulated by using an internet browser, the Access client, or a linked HTML page.

43) What is the Secure Store Service (SSS)?

A secure database for storing credentials that are associated with application IDs

44) What is Content Deployment?

Content deployment enables you to copy content from a source site collection to a destination site collection.

Backup / DR Questions

45) Describe how redundancy can be built into a SharePoint environment. Please be specific in regards to any auxiliary components.

Multiple front-end web servers (WFEï¿½s) can be deployed and correlated through Windows NLB or anything approach. Application servers can be deployed into the farm for a variety of purposes, depending on organizational requirements. Databases can be clustered or mirrored, again depending on requirements and environment.

46) From a basic standpoint, what is the difference between SQL clustering and mirroring?

Clustering provides a failover scenario whereby one or more nodes can be swapped as active depending on whether a node goes down. In mirroring, transactions are sent directly from a principal database and server to a mirror database to establish essentially a replica of the database.

Governance Questions

47) What Is Governance in terms of SharePoint 2010?

Governance is the set of policies, roles, responsibilities, and processes that guide, direct, and control how an organization’s business divisions and IT teams cooperate to achieve business goals.

48) What are some useful, OOB features of SharePoint that aid with governance of an environment?

Any of the below are acceptable answers. There are some others but these are the major ones that I generally look for from a candidate:

Site templates – consistent branding, site structure, and layout can be enforce a set of customizations that are applied to a site definition.

Quotas – limits to the amount of storage a site collection can use.

Locks - prevent users from either adding content to a site collection or using the site collection.

Web application permissions and policies – comprehensive security settings that apply to all users and groups for all site collections within a Web application.

Self-service site creation - enables users to create their own site collections, thus must be incorporated into a governance scheme.

Monitoring Questions

49) Describe the monitoring features that are baked into SharePoint 2010.

Diagnostic logging captures data about the state of the system, whereas health and usage data collection uses specific timer jobs to perform monitoring tasks, collecting information about:

· Performance Counter Fata

· Event Log Data

· Timer Service Data

· Metrics For Site Collections and Sites

· Search Usage Data

General Workflow Questions

50) What is a declarative workflow? Can non-authenticated users participate in workflows?

Workflows created by using Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010, the default setting enables deployment of declarative workflows. Yes, however you do not give non-authorized users access to the site. The e-mail message and attachments sent from notifications might contain sensitive information

How will you deploy files such as Css, js in SharePoint 2010?
The most preferable way to deploy files in SharePoint is by using the solution package. In SharePoint 2010 you can create an empty project with VS 2010 and then add a new SharePoint Mapped folder in it. This will give the desired location in 14 hive where you can then add a file to deploy.

Can you display a page as a modal dialog?
Yes, any page can be displayed as modal dialog. A Modal dialog takes options as a parameter and we can speciy the url for any page usually saved in _layouts.

Can you display the modal dialog from a webpart?
Yes a modal dialog can be displayed from within a webpart code since its a JavaScript block that can be registered on the page.

What is difference between an Application page and a Custom aspx page in SharePoint 2010. If you have to deploy a page with some code in it which one would you prefer?
Application Page – You would typically use an applictaion page when you need some content that is merged with SharePoint master page. A master page enables application pages to share the same appearance and behavior as other pages on a site. Application page generally gets deployed in _layouts and inhertirs the look and feel of the site that you are using.
A Custom .net aspx page on the other hand would need content and master page tags in your page to make it inherit the look and feel of the site.
I would prefer deploying an application page with code as it is much easier and has built-in templates available in VS 2010.

What is Docuement Set and how is it useful to the end users?
A Document Set is a group of related documents that can be created in one step and then managed as a single entity. This can be seen as a folder of documents with a cover letter(welcome page) and which can share common data between its documents (share document set info\columns).
Document Set is very useful when it comes to managing the documents for a single project or task. For e.g. a manager while working on a project wants to create a single folder\entity with all the documents related to that project. He also wants that each document shares the project info (for e.g. Project Id, Manager name etc.) and can be checked in\checked out individually. Document Set will also allow him to add a cover letter\welcome page to the entity(or his set of documents) and use some basic document features like record version history, start a workflow, e-mail document set etc.

What are Projected Fields in SPQuery and when would you use that?
In SharePoint 2010, Referential integrity can now be implemented using Lookup columns. Joins and ProjectedFields properties of SPQuery were introduced to facilitate this. Projected Fields are the fields which you can access when a list is joined by a lookup solumns. These are additional columns from a parent lookup column list.

What is WebProvisioned event receiver and when would you use that?
WebProvisioned event receiver is fired after the site has been created and is fully provisioned(asynchronous). For e.g. if you want to update the site title of logo after its been created or if you want to add a new list\library after the out-of-box site has been created you can use the WebProvisioned event handler.

If you have to add a new Ribbon button to one of the existing tabs how will you identify the location?
The Its typically Ribbon.Tabs.group.Controls._children.

How does Client object model works ?
When we use SharePoint client API’s to perform a specific task, the SharePoint Foundation 2010 managed client object model bundles up these uses of the API into XML and sends it to the server that runs SharePoint Foundation. The server receives this request, and makes appropriate calls into the object model on the server, collects the responses, forms them into JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and sends that JSON back to the SharePoint Foundation 2010 managed client object model. The client object model parses the JSON and presents the results to the application as .NET Framework objects (or ECMAScript objects for ECMAScript).

How many types of Client Object model extension are available in 2010 and when would you use one or the other.

To develop rich client side solutions, three set of client-side APIs has been introduced in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client namespace. The three APIs are targeted for three different types of clients.
1. .net Managed applications – These are used when we have to create console applications or window applications, web applications which are not running inside SharePoint Contex.
2. For Silverlight applications
3. ECMAScript – It is a client object model extension for using with JavaScript or JScript. This is used for creating applications which are hosted inside SharePoint. For example, web part deployed in SharePoint site can use this JavaScript API for accessing SharePoint from browser using JavaScript.

What is difference between Load() and LoadQuery() methods ?

Load method populates the client object directly with what it gets data from the server i.e. a collection object like ListItemCollection etc. but LoadQuery returns the data as a completely new collection in IEnumerable format. Other major difference is that the Collections that you load using the Load() method are eligible for garbage collection only when the client context variable itself goes out of scope where as, in these collections go out of scope at the end of IEnumerable<List> list.

How can you write efficient and better performing client object applications ?

You can always use Lambda expressions in your queries to return only specific properties that will be used in your block. You can also use LoadQuery() method and specify multiple levels of properties to load for e.g. while returning specific properties of the lists using LoadQuery(), you can also specify the fields to return from each list to optimize the data access.

What are the Authentication methods for your client object model application ?

Basically there are three (3) authentication options you can use when youï¿½re working with the Client Object Model in SharePoint 2010:

* Anonymous
* Default
* FormsAuthentication

You can specify clientContext.Authentication = Anonymous\Default\FormsAuthentication, If you do not choose an authentication method in your code, the application will default to using the clientï¿½s Windows Credentials (DefaultCredentials).

How do you access ECMAScript object model API’s ?

The ECMAScript library is available in a number of JS files in the LAYOUTS folder. The main file among number of .js files is SP.js. When you include this file in the APSX page using a ScriptLink control, all other required JS files are loaded automatically. By linking SP.js to your page, the SP namespace gets registered. SP is the SharePoint namespace that contains all objects. For debugging purposes every js file also has a ï¿½debugï¿½ equivalent in the same folder.

What is the purpose of calling clientContext.ExecuteQuery() ?

ExecuteQuery gives you the option to minimize the number of roundtrips to the server from your client code. All the components loaded into the clientcontext are executed in one go.

Why would you use LINQ over CAML for data retrieval?

Unlike CAML, with LINQ to SharePoint provider, you are working with strongly typed list item objects. For example, an item in the Announcements list is an object of type Announcement and an item on a Tasks list is an object of type Task. You can then enumerate the objects and get the properties for your use. Also, you can use LINQ syntax and the LINQ keywords built into C# and VB for LINQ queries.

Can we use our custom master page with the application pages in SharePoint 2010 ?

With 2010, you can now set whether the pages under _Layouts use the same Master Page as the rest of your site. You can enable or disable this functionality through the web application settings in Central Administration. This however, is not applicable to your custom application pages. If you want your custom applictaion page to inherit the site master page you must derive it from Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.LayoutsPageBase class.

What are WebTemplates and Site Definitions ?

Site definitions consist primarily of multiple XML and ASPX files stored on a front-end Web server in folders under the %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates directory.
Custom Web templates on the other hand, are stored in the database, and are created using an existing site, with or without its specific content, as a model. This provides a means for reusing sites that you have customized.In some ways, Web templates continue to depend, throughout their lifecycle, on the site definition that is their ultimate foundation.

How do you write to SharePoint ULS logs in 2010 ?

In SharePoint Foundation, ULS exposes configurable settings in two ways, through the – Object model and Windows PowerShell cmdlets. For writing to SharePoint ULS logs developers can can use Diagnostics Service, which will make the customized categories viewable in the administrative UI for our errors.
or they can use the number of cmdlets available for accessing ULS logs using powershell. Some of the cmdlets are Get-SPDiagnosticConfig ,Get-SPLogEvent etc.

What does CMDUI.XML contain?

The definitions for the out-of-the-box ribbon elements are split across several files in the SharePoint root, with TEMPLATE\GLOBAL\XML\CMDUI.XML being the main one.

What has Changed in SharePoint 2010 Object model?

Microsoft has replaced the “12 hive” structure that we had in SharePoint 2007 with “14 Hive” structure in 2010.

It has apparently added four new folders to its hive.

The Folders are :
* Policy
* UserCode
* WebClients
* WebServices

How would you deploy WebPart Using Windows PowerShell?

At the Windows PowerShell command prompt (PS C:\>), type the below command :

Install -SPWebPartPack -LiteralPath “FullPathofCabFile” -Name “Nameof WebPart”

How would you re-deploy the old custom solutions in SharePoint 2010.What Changes are needed to the old Solution files.

SharePoint 2010 object model contains many changes and enhancements, but our custom code will still compile and, will run as expected. You should however, rewrite and recompile any code that refers to files and resources in “12 hive”.
For Details See :
SharePoint Object Model ï¿½ Backward Compatibility

How would you add a link in the Ribbon?

You can add any link or Custom Action under any of the existing tabs of the ribbon or can create a new a new tab and place your links under it.

What does CMDUI.XML contain?

The definitions for the out-of-the-box ribbon elements are split across several files in the SharePoint root, with TEMPLATE\GLOBAL\XML\CMDUI.XML being the main one.

What are the Disadvantages of Using LINQ in your Code?

LINQ translates the LINQ queries into Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML) queries thus adding an extra step for retrieving the items.

What is different with SharePoint 2010 workflows ?

Some of the additions in workflow model are :

1. SharePoint 2010 workflows are build upon the the workflow engine provide .Net Framework 3.5.

2. In addition to the SharePoint lists we can now create workflows for SharePoint sites as well.

3. SharePoint Designer 2010 also has a new graphical workflow designer for designing workflows and deploying them directly to SharePoint.

4. Another Improvement in SharePoint Designer 2010 is that it now allows you to edit the out-of-the-box workflows that come with SharePoint.

What are the Hardware and Software requirements for SharePoint 2010.
Hardware requirements :
# Processor 64-bit, four-core, 2.5 GHz minimum per core.
# RAM 4 GB for developer or evaluation use, 8 GB for single server and multiple server farm installation for production use.
# Hard disk 80 GB for installation
For production use, you need additional free disk space for day-to-day operations. Add twice as much free space as you have RAM for production environments.
Software requirements :
# The 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Standard with SP2. If you are running Windows Server 2008 without SP2, the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies 2010 Preparation Tool installs Windows Server 2008 SP2 automatically.

What Has Changed with SSP in SharePoint 2010.
In SharePoint 2010 Shared Service Providers (SSP's) are replaced by Service Applications. Services are no longer combined into a SSP. They are running independent as a service application. The service application architecture is now also built into Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, in contrast to the Shared Services Provider (SSP) architecture that was only part of Office SharePoint Server 2007.
A key benefit here is that all services are installed by default and there is no SSP setup.
Additional improvements for the service application model include:
• The services architecture is extensible, allowing third-party companies to build and add services to the platform.
• Services are managed directly in Central Administration (rather than a separate administration site).
• Services can be monitored and managed remotely.
• Services can be managed and scripted by Windows PowerShell™.
• Shared services communications take place over HTTP(S). Shared services do not directly access databases across farms.
• Most new services are built on the Windows Communications Framework. They have optimization built into their protocol, using binary streams instead of XML for data transfer. Test results show improvements in network throughput with this change.

What are the advantages of Service Applications over
SSP ?
The key limitation of the SSP architecture was that it was configured by using a set of services, and all Web applications associated with the SSP bore the overhead of all the services even if they weren’t being used. To change the service configuration for a particular Web application, a new SSP would have to be created.
The service application architecture on the other hand, allows a set of services to be associated with a given Web application and a different set of services to be associated with another Web application. Also, the same service application can be configured differently in different Web applications; therefore, Web sites can be configured to use only the services that are needed, rather than the entire bank of services.

Can we create a Single set of Services that will be shared across the farm?
Similar to the SSP model in Office SharePoint Server 2007, a single set of services can be shared by all sites in a farm. By publishing a service application (from the sharing group, under Service application tab), you can share it across server farms. This capability does not apply to all service applications, and some services can be shared only within a single server farm.

What are Managed Accounts?
To reduce the load of managing various service accounts in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, the concept of managed accounts has been introduced. Much like managed accounts in Windows Server 2008, they allow SharePoint Server to take control of all the service accounts you use. After SharePoint Server has control of these accounts, it can either manage their passwords — automatically changing them as necessary — or it can notify you when an accounts password is about to expire, allowing you to make the change yourself.

What are the Methods of Backup and Recovery in SharePoint 2010?
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 provides a broad range of levels for performing backups, including the entire farm, farm configuration information, site collections, subsites, or lists.
SharePoint Server 2010 uses two different tools to configure backup and recovery.
1. Central Administration : Central Administration provides a user interface where SharePoint Administrators will be prompted via menu structures to select the information that needs to be backed up. (see the Image below)
2. Windows PowerShell : Windows PowerShell is a command line tool that provides SharePoint administrators a way to perform backup and recovery with additional options such as file compression or working with SQL snapshots.
Listed below are a few of the benefits available when working with Windows PowerShell:
• Windows PowerShell scripts can be developed and scheduled (with Windows Task Scheduler), whereas Central Administration is used for single-use backups and restores.
• Windows PowerShell has the advantage of running against SQL snapshots instead of the production database. One of the parameters of the Windows PowerShell command will cause a SQL snapshot to be generated, and then Windows PowerShell will run the action against the snapshot instead of the production database. This will reduce the resource impact of the backup operation on the production environment.
• With Windows PowerShell, SharePoint administrators will have more granular control of options for the backup or restore.

How to Move content Databases using PowerShell ?
To attach\detach an existing content database use
Mount-SPContentDatabase "<ContentDb>" –DatabaseServer "<DbServer>" –WebApplication http://WebapplicationName
<ContentDb> is the content database to be attached.
<DbServer> is the name of the database server.
http://WebapplicationName is the name of the Web application to which the content database is being attached.
To detach a content database:
Dismount-SPContentDatabase "<ContentdBName>"

How to Export a Site or List in SharePoint 2010?
SharePoint Server 2010 provides several new features that provide a granular level of backup for various components of site content. This includes content at the site, subsite, and list level.
Through Central Administration(Granular level Back-up) a SharePoint Administrator can configure a backup of a subsite or list. An Administrator can choose a site and a specific list to be exported.The administrators can also choose to export security and select the different versions that will be exported with the list.

Changes in Themes in SharePoint 2010. Can we re-deploy and use the Old Cutsom themes in SharePoint 2010?
SharePoint Server 2010 has changed the way themes work, making them easier to customize. You can now, change colors, fonts, links etc from themes interface itself. Also, you can import PowerPoint themes directly into SharePoint Server. Additionally, themes can now be applied to all subsites from one interface.
No, you cannot re-deploy and use your old cutsom themes in sharePoint. Any customizations and design work that you have done with themes will not be imported into the new interface.

What is Enterprise Metadata Management?

What is Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint ?
SharePoint 2010 provides a new set of technologies known as Business Connectivity Services for retrieving, editing, updating, and deleting data from external systems(for e.g. data from ERP or CRM database). BCS enhances the SharePoint platform’s capabilities with out-of-box features, services and tools that streamline development of solutions with deep integration of external data and services.

How is BCS Different from BDC in SharePoint 2007 ?
Even though the BDC made it relatively easy to create read-only solutions that display data in the Business Data List Web Part, it was not so simple to create a solution that enabled users to make changes and write that data back to the external store.
BCS, on the other hand, provides you with Read-Write capable connectivity from Client and Server to Database, WCF/Web Services and .Net Sources. A Developer can now use SharePoint Designer 2010 and VS 2010 rapid development tools to access external data.

How would you create an Information Site in SharePoint 2010?
In SharePoint 2010 You can create a Read-Only Farm/site or site-collection by setting the Content database as Read-only.

What would you clean up before upgrading to SharePoint 2010?
Before you begin upgrading from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, you should make sure that your environment is functioning in a healthy state and that you clean up any content that you do not have to upgrade.

What Browsers are not supported with SharePoint 2010?
Older browsers — such as Internet Explorer 6.x and Internet Explorer for Macintosh are not supported by Microsoft .

What is a workflow?
Workflow is sometimes described as a series of tasks that produce an outcome. In the context of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies, workflow is defined more narrowly as the automated movement of documents or items through a sequence of actions or tasks that are related to a business process. Workflows can be used to consistently manage common business processes within an organization by enabling the organization to attach business logic to documents or items in a SharePoint list or library. Business logic is basically a set of instructions that specifies and controls the actions that happen to a document or item.

What are the types of workflow that you can design in SharePoint 2010.
There are three types of workflows we can design in SharePoint 2010:
1. List Workflows:
2. Reusable List Workflows: Workflow can be associated to any list, library, or content type in the site collection.
2 Site workflows: is associated to a site

Can you modify the Out-of-Box workflows in SharePoint 2010 ?
In SharePoint 2010, you have an option to customize the Out-of-Box workflows.

What are the Types of forms associated with the workflow ?
1. Initiation form: An initiation form gathers information from the workflow participant when they start the workflow.
2. Task form: A custom task form allows workflow participants to interact with tasks in the Tasks list specified for the workflow. With the Custom Task Wizard, you can easily create custom form fields and add them to a custom task form. When you finish designing the workflow, SharePoint Designer 2010 automatically generates the InfoPath or ASP.NET forms for your custom tasks.
3. Reusable workflow - Association form: A reusable workflow, by default, only provides the fields common to all items, such as Created and Modified by. This is because a reusable workflow isnï¿½t by default associated with a list, library, or content type. An association form enables you to associate fields with a reusable workflow so that the fields will be available when you design and run the workflow.

When are these forms get created ? And how do you customize it ?
SharePoint Designer 2010 automatically generates the forms, but you can customize them by going to the settings page for the workflow, in the Forms section, click the form you want to customize. Workflow forms are either InfoPath or ASP.NET pages. They are stored on the SharePoint site with the workflow source files.

Administrator

What are the Hardware and Software requirements for SharePoint 2010.

What Has Changed with SSP in SharePoint 2010.
In SharePoint 2010 Shared Service Providers (SSP's) are replaced by Service Applications

What are the Methods of Backup and Recovery in SharePoint 2010?
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 provides a broad range of levels for performing backups, including the entire farm, farm configuration information, site collections, subsites, or lists.
SharePoint Server 2010 uses two different tools to configure backup and recovery.
1. Central Administration: Central Administration provides a user interface where SharePoint Administrators will be prompted via menu structures to select the information that needs to be backed up.
2. Windows PowerShell: Windows PowerShell is a command line tool that provides SharePoint administrators a way to perform backup and recovery with additional options such as file compression or working with SQL snapshots.

How to Export a Site or List in SharePoint 2010?
SharePoint Server 2010 provides several new features that provide a granular level of backup for various components of site content. This includes content at the site, subsite, and list level.
Through Central Administration(Granular level Back-up) a SharePoint Administrator can configure a backup of a subsite or list. An Administrator can choose a site and a specific list to be exported.The administrators can also choose to export security and select the different versions that will be exported with the list.

What is Enterprise Metadata Management?
Enterprise metadata management (EMM) is a set of features introduced in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 that enable taxonomists, librarians, and administrators to create and manage terms and sets of terms across the enterprise.

What is Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint ?
SharePoint 2010 provides a new set of technologies known as Business Connectivity Services for retrieving, editing, updating, and deleting data from external systems(for e.g. data from ERP or CRM database). BCS enhances the SharePoint platformï¿½s capabilities with out-of-box features, services and tools that streamline development of solutions with deep integration of external data and services.

General

What are the security improvements in SharePoint 2010 ?
In SharePoint 2010 a variety of security methods have been introduced.
Claims-Based Authentication: Claims based authentication is based on identity. and trust.
Code Access Security: in which you can specify your own code access security (CAS) policy for your web parts.
Sandbox Solutions: Sandbox Solutions which when deployed to the server, SharePoint runs in a special process that has limited permissions.
Cross-Site Scripting: Introduced to prevent Cross - Site Scripting (XSS) attacks

Whats New with SharePoint WebParts?
A developer can create two types of webparts using Visual Studio 2010.
1. Visual Webparts: Allows you to Drag and Drop the controls from the Toolbox to WebPart Design surface. You can of course write your custom code in the code file. You can also package and deploy your webparts directly to Sharepoint from VS by pressing Clt+F5. Visual studio 2010 also provides you with three different views for developing webparts. The views are split view, design view and Source view(as we have in designer 2007).
Note : The Visual Webpart project Item basically loads a User Control as a WebPart.
2. ASP.Net WebParts: Where a developer can build up User Interface and logic in a class file. You do not have designer for drag and drop of controls. This webpart inherits from standard ASP.Net webpart. For Deployment we can again use ctrl+f5 to deploy this webpart.

What are the Visual Studio 2010 Tools for SharePoint.
Visual Studio 2010 includes SharePoint-specific project types and project item types, and includes powerful packaging, deployment, and debugging features that help increase your efficiency as a SharePoint 2010 developer.
Some of the Templates avaiable are :
1.Visual Web Part project template.
2. List defination template.
3. Content Type template.
4. Empty Project template.
5. Event Receiver template.
6. some workflow template.
7. the Site Definition template
and many more....

What are SharePoint Sandboxed soultions ?
SharePoint 2010 provides a new sandboxed environment that enables you to run user solutions without affecting the rest of the SharePoint farm. This environment means that users can upload their own custom solutions without requiring intervention from administrators, and without putting the rest of the farm at risk. This means that the existing sites\pages or components will not be effected by the newly added soultion.
Users can deploy the below four things as sandboxed soultions :
1. WebParts.
2. Event Receivers.
3. List Definations.
4. Workflows.

What are Requirenments for SharePoint 2010.
SharePoint Server 2010 will support only 64 - bit. It will require 64 bit Windows Server 2008 or 64 bit Windows Server 2008 R2. In addition to this, it will require 64 bit version of SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005.

What is LINQ. How is it used in Sharepoint ?
LINQ is a feature of the programming languages C# 3.0 and Visual Basic .NET. LINQ allows you to query in an object-oriented way, supports compile-time check, gives you intellisense support in Visual Studio and defines a unified, SQL like syntax to query any data source. But unlike other languages and query syntaxes which vary from one type of data source to another, LINQ can be used to query, in principle, any data source whatsoever. It is commonly used to query objects collections, XML and SQL server data sources.
The LINQ to SharePoint Provider is defined in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq namespace. It translates LINQ queries into Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML) queries.

Whats Ribbon in SharePoint 2010?

Whats New in SPALerts ?
Ans. In SharePoint 2007, alerts were send only through e-mails, but in SP2010 users can also send an alert to mobile devices as SMS Message. A New property DeliveryChannels is introduced to indicate, whether the alert is delivered as E-mail or as an SMS Message.

What Has Changed with 12 hive in SharePoint 2010?
Three New Folders have been added in 12 hive structure in SharePoint 2010:
1. UserCode ï¿½ files used to support sandboxed solutions
2. WebClients ï¿½ used for the client Object Model
3. WebServices ï¿½ .svc files

Whats New with webparts in Visual Studio 2010?
A developer can create two types of webparts using Visual Studio 2010.
1. Visual Webparts - Allows you to Drag and Drop the controls from the Toolbox to WebPart Design surface. You can of course write your custom code in the code file. You can also package and deploy your webparts directly to Sharepoint from VS by pressing Clt+F5. Visual studio 2010 also provides you with three different views for developing webparts. The views are split view, design view and Source view(as we have in SharePoint Designer 2007).
2. ASP.Net WebParts - Where a developer can build up User Interface and logic in a class file. You do not have designer for drag and drop of controls. This webpart inherits from standard ASP.Net webpart. For Deployment we can again use ctrl+f5 to deploy this webpart.

What are SharePoint Sandboxed soultions ?
SharePoint 2010 provides a new sandboxed environment that enables you to run user solutions without affecting the rest of the SharePoint farm. This environment means that users can upload their own custom solutions without requiring intervention from administrators, and without putting the rest of the farm at risk. This means that the existing sites\pages or components will not be effected by the newly added soultion. Users can deploy the below four things as sandboxed soultions :
1. WebParts.
2. Event Receivers.
3. List Definations.
4. Workflows.

What Changes are made in SharePoint 2010 to enforce Referential Integrity?
In SharePoint 2010, Referential Integrity is enforced by using two options available with Look-up columns. While creating a Look-up column, you have two options :
1. Restrict Delete
2. Cascade Delete
These options define a relationship between the Look-up list and the list containing the look-up Column.

What is Ribbon in SharePoint 2010?
The Ribbon Bar, is one of the finest improvements that Microsoft added to Office 2007 . SharePoint 2010 follows the same path. The ribbon basically, is a toolbar that appears across the top of each page in SharePoint.
The top-level elements in the Ribbon are tabs. Each tab organizes a set of groups (like Edit.Browse) and contains a set of controls. The controls inside the groups include buttons, drop-down menus, check boxes, combo boxes, split buttons, and galleries. In short, the users now can see the options like checkOut,Check In, Edit Page,Publish Page, delete page under edit tab, on the top of the Page itself.

Whats New with SPAlerts in SharePoint 2010?
In SharePoint 2007, alerts were send only through e-mails, but in SharePoint 2010 users can also send an alert to mobile devices as SMS Message. A New property DeliveryChannels is introduced to indicate, whether the alert is delivered as E-mail or as an SMS Message.

What has changed with SSP in SharePoint 2010.
In SharePoint 2010 Shared Service Providers (SSP's) are replaced by Service Applications. Services are no longer combined into a SSP. They are running independent as a service application. The service application architecture is now also built into Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, in contrast to the Shared Services Provider (SSP) architecture that was only part of Office SharePoint Server 2007. A key benefit here is that all services are installed by default and there is no SSP setup.

How does Ribbon works ?
A file called CMDUI.XML stays at the web front end which contains the Out-of-Box site wide Ribbon implementation i.e. all the Ribbon UI for the entire site. In addition to this you have a CustomAction for each ribbon component. These CustomActions have CommandUIExtentions block which has CommandUIDefinitions and CommandUIHandlers which make up the activity of the ribbon component. So, when the ribbon is loaded the CommandUIDefinition merges with Out-of-Box definition in the CMDUI.XML

How will you use WebParts or other solutions Created in SharePoint 2007 in SharePoint 2010 ?
In SharePoint 2010 the 12 hive is now replaced by 14 hive, So we will rewrite and recompile any code that refers to files and resources in “12″ hive. In addition to we must recompile custom code written for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 that does not run on IIS.

What is the advantage in using Windows PowerShell over stsadm in SharePoint 2010 ?
Unlike stsadm, which accept and return text, Windows PowerShell is built on the Microsoft .NET Framework and accepts and returns .NET Framework objects.Windows PowerShell also gives you access to the file system on the computer and enables you to access other data stores, such as the registry and the digital signature certificate stores etc..

What is REST ? How is it used in SharePoint 2010 ?
REST (Representational State transfer) is a protocol (powered by ADO.NET services) which is used for getting data out of sharepoint via Url. It is mostly used to access data from sharepoint even when you are not in the sharepoint context.

What datatype is retured by REST ?
REST does not return an object of type SharePoint Site\List. Instead, it returns an XML output.

What is a workflow?
Workflows are the way an organization functions, a series of actions that correspond to a work process, such as the process for purchase orders.SharePoint 2010 helps you automate these workflows, thereby increasing the efficiency and productivity of the organization.

What are the types of workflow that you can design in SharePoint 2010.
you can design List Workflows, Reusable List Workflows and Site workflows using SharePoint designer 2010.

What Reusable List Workflows and Site workflows ?
Reusable List Workflows: You can create a reusable list workflow (reusable workflow) in the top-level site in the site collection, and that workflow can be made globally reusable ï¿½ meaning that the workflow can be associated to any list, library, or content type in the site collection. You can also create a reusable workflow in any subsite in the site collection; this workflow is available for reuse in that particular subsite.|
Site workflows - A site workflow is associated to a site ï¿½ not to a list, library, or content type. So unlike most workflows, a site workflow is not running on a specific list item. Because of this, many of the actions that are available for items not available for site workflows.

Can you modify the Out-of-Box workflows in SharePoint 2010 ?
In SharePoint 2010, you have an option to customize the Out-of-Box workflows. The four most popular workflows in SharePoint Server 2007 ï¿½ the Approval, Collect Feedback, Collect Signatures, Publishing Approval workflows ï¿½ have been completely rebuilt as declarative reusable workflows, meaning that they are now fully customizable in SharePoint Designer 2010.

What are events, actions, conditions and steps?
Events - An event is what starts or initiates a workflow. Events can also be used to manage the timing of actions within a workflow, such as waiting for the status of an item to change. There are three events that can start a workflow:
* An item is created.
* An item is changed.
* A workflow participant clicks a start button on the SharePoint site.
Actions – An action is the most basic unit of work in a workflow. SharePoint Designer 2010 provides a set of ready-made, reusable actions for you to incorporate into your workflow. For example, your workflow can:
* Create, copy, change, or delete list items (including documents).
* Check items in or out.
* Send an e-mail message.
Conditions - When you design a workflow, you can use the workflow editor to create rules that apply conditional logic to SharePoint sites, lists, items and content types. A rule establishes a condition where the workflow performs the associated action only if that condition is true. For example, you can create a rule where the workflow sends a reviewer an e-mail message only if an item is created by a specific person.

What are Parallel and Serial actions ?
When you have more than one action associated with a condition, the actions can be set up to run at the same time (parallel) or one after another (serial), the default.

What are the Types of forms associated with the workflow ?
With SharePoint Designer 2010, you can create three types of workflow forms:
Initiation form – An initiation form gathers information from the workflow participant when they start the workflow. It is automatically generated when you create the workflow in SharePoint Designer 2010. Initiation forms are displayed to users when they manually start a workflow on a given SharePoint item. With an initiation form, users can specify additional parameters or information about the workflow as it applies to the given SharePoint item.
Task form – A custom task form allows workflow participants to interact with tasks in the Tasks list specified for the workflow. With the Custom Task Wizard, you can easily create custom form fields and add them to a custom task form. When you finish designing the workflow, SharePoint Designer 2010 automatically generates the InfoPath or ASP.NET forms for your custom tasks.
Reusable workflow – association form – A reusable workflow, by default, only provides the fields common to all items, such as Created and Modified by. This is because a reusable workflow isnï¿½t by default associated with a list, library, or content type. An association form enables you to associate fields with a reusable workflow so that the fields will be available when you design and run the workflow.

Can each user have access to their own calendar?
Yes, there are two ways to do this :
1. By creating a calendar for each user
2. By creating a calendar with a view for each user

Can SharePoint be linked to a SQL database?
This is possible via a custom application, but it is not natively supported by SharePoint or SQLServer.

What is WSS (Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services)?
Windows SharePoint Services is the solution that enables you to create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration. It is a key part of the information worker infrastructure delivered in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 which provides additional functionality to the Microsoft Office system and other desktop applications, and uses as a platform for application development.

What is MOSS (Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server)?
MOSS (Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server) is a portal server that connects people, teams, and knowledge across business processes. SharePoint Portal Server integrates information from various systems into one secure solution through single sign-on and enterprise application integration capabilities. It provides flexible deployment and management tools, and facilitates end-to-end collaboration through data aggregation, organization, and searching. SharePoint Portal Server also enables users to quickly find relevant information through customization and personalization of portal content and layout as well as through audience targeting.

How is WSS 3.0 related to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds on the top of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to provide additional capabilities including collaboration, portal, search, enterprise content management, business process and forms, and business intelligence.

What is Microsoft Windows Services?
Microsoft Windows Services is the engine that allows administrators to create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration.

What are the main benefits of Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides a single integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet, and Internet applications across the enterprise. It has the following benefits for different type of users :
Business users gain greater control over the storage, security, distribution, and management of their electronic content, with tools that are easy to use and tightly integrated into familiar, everyday applications.
Organizations can accelerate shared business processes with customers and partners across organizational boundaries using InfoPath Forms Servicesï¿½driven solutions.
Information workers can find information and people efficiently and easily through the facilitated information-sharing functionality and simplified content publishing. In addition, access to back-end data is achieved easily through a browser, and views into this data can be personalized.
Administrators have powerful tools at their fingertips that ease deployment, management, and system administration, so they can spend more time on strategic tasks.
Developers have a rich platform to build a new class of applications, called Office Business Applications, that combine powerful developer functionality with the flexibility and ease of deployment of Office SharePoint Server 2007. Through the use of out-of-the-box application services, developers can build richer applications with less code.

What are the advanced features of MOSS 2007?
1. User Interface (UI) and navigation enhancements
2. Forms Server and InfoPath
3. Document management enhancements
4. Report Center
5. The new Workflow engine
6. Enhancements to List technology
7. Office 2007 Integration 8. Search enhancements
9. The ï¿½Featuresï¿½ feature
10. New Web Parts
11. Records Management
12. Business Intelligence and Excel Server
13. New Site-type templates
14. Business Data Catalog
15. Web Content Management
16. Alternate authentication providers and Forms-based authentication

Can I download information directly from a SharePoint site to a personal digital assistant (PDA)?
No you cannot.

What is CAML?
CAML stands for Collaborative Application Markup Language. It is an XML-based language that is used in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services to define sites and lists including fields, views, or forms. CAML is also used to define tables in the Windows SharePoint Services database during site provisioning

What is the difference between an Internet and an intranet site?
An internet site is a normal site that anyone on the internet can access (e.g., www.expertsupdates.com, www.om-eg.com, etc.). You can access it without any user name and password.
An intranet Web site can only be accessed by people who are members of a specific network. They need to have a login and password that was assigned to them when they were added to the site by the site administrator. The intranet is commonly used as an internal tool for giving employees access to company information.

What is the SharePoint Hive directory?
SharePoint Hive directory is C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12.

Can multiple SharePoint applications points to the same DB?
Multiple SharePoint installs can use the same database server not the same database on that server.

Can we install SharePoint on the database server other then SQL Server?
SharePoint database server must be SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005. It cannot be Oracle or another vendor.

What is a meeting workspace?
A meeting workspace is a place to store information, attendees, and tasks related to a specific meeting.

What is a template?
A template is a pre-defined set of functions or settings that can be used over time. There are many templates within SharePoint like Site Templates, Document Templates, Document Library and List Templates.

What is a DWP?
The file extension of a web part.

Can I customize my Windows SharePoint Services site?
Yes, Windows SharePoint Services makes updating sites and their content from the browser easier then ever. SharePoint includes tools that let you create custom lists, calendars, page views, etc. You can apply a theme, add List, Survey and Document Library Web Parts to a page, create personal views; change logos; connect Web Parts and more.

What are Application Pages in SharePoint?
Unlike site pages (for example, default.aspx), a custom application page is deployed once per Web server at the time of SharePoint installation and cannot be customized on a site-by-site basis. Application pages are based in the virtual _layouts directory of SharePoint hive. In addition, they are compiled into a single assembly DLL.

What is Authentication and Authorization.
An authentication system is how you identify yourself to the computer. The goal behind an authentication system is to verify that the user is actually who they say they are. Once the system knows who the user is through authentication, authorization is how the system decides what the user can do.

What is the difference between a Site Definition and a Site Template?
Site Definitions are stored on the hard drive of the SharePoint front end servers. They are used by the SharePoint application to generate the sites. Site Templates are created by users as a copy of a site they have configured and modified so that they do not have to recreate lists, libraries, views and columns every time they need a new instance of a site.

What is a Module?
A file or collection of file instances that define the location where the files are installed during site creation. Modules are frequently used to implement a Web Part Page in the site. You can define modules by using a module element within a feature definition file.

What are content types?
A content type is a flexible and reusable WSS type definition (or template) that defines the columns and behavior for an item in a list or a document in a document library. For example, you can create a content type for a leave approval document with a unique set of columns, an event handler, and its own document template and attach it with a document library/libraries.

What two files are typically included when developing a content type, and what is the purpose of each?
One is main content type file that holds things like the content type ID, name, group, description, and version. Second is ContentType Fields file which contains the fields to include in the content type that has the ID, Type, Name, DisplayName, StaticName, Hidden, Required, and Sealed elements. They are related by the FieldRefs element in the main content type file.

What is an ancestral type and what does it have to do with content types?
An ancestral type is the base type that the content type is deriving from, such as Document. The ancestral type will define the metadata fields that are included with the custom content type.

Can a list definition be derived from a custom content type?
Yes, a list definition can derive from a content type which can be seen in the XML schema of the list definition in the element.

How to create links to the mapped network drives?
Creating links to mapped drives in WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 can be done via the new content type for .lnk files.

What is a Field Control?
Field controls are simple ASP.NET 2.0 server controls that provide the basic field functionality of SharePoint. They provide general functionality such as displaying or editing list data as it appears on SharePoint list pages.

What is the base class of custom Field Controls?
Generally, custom field controls inherit from the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.BaseFieldControl namespace, but you can inherit from the default field controls.

What is a SharePoint Feature?
SharePoint Feature is a functional component that can be activated and deactivate at various scopes throughout a SharePoint instances. Scope of the features are defined as :
1. Farm level
2. Web Application level
3. Site level
4. Web level
Features have their own event receiver architecture, which allow you to trap events such as when a feature is Installing, Uninstalling, Activated, or Deactivated.

Which type of elements are included in features?
The element types that can be defined by a feature include menu commands, link commands, page templates, page instances, list definitions, list instances, event handlers, and workflows.

What files are used to define a feature?
The two files that are used to define a feature are the feature.xml and manifest file(elements.xml). The feature XML file defines the actual feature and will make SharePoint aware of the installed feature. The manifest file contains details about the feature such as functionality.

Where the feature files resides on the file system?
These files resides in the TEMPLATE\Features directory of SharePoint hive.

What is SharePoint?
Portal Collaboration Software.

What is a meeting workspace?
A meeting workspace is a place to store information, attendees, and tasks related to a specific meeting.

What is a document workspace?
Document workspaces consist of information surrounding a single or multiple documents.

What is a web part?
Web parts consist of xml queries to full SharePoint lists or document libraries. You can also develop your own web parts and web part pages.

What is a web part zone?
Web part zones are What your web parts reside in and help categorize your web parts when designing a page.

how is security managed in SharePoint?
Security can be handled at the machine, domain, or sharepoint level.

how are web parts developed?
Web parts are developed in Visual Studio .Net. VS.Net offers many web part and page templates and can also be downloaded from the Microsoft site.

What is a site definition?
Itï¿½s a methods for providing prepackaged site and list content.

how do you install web parts?
Web Parts should be distributed as a .CAB (cabinet) file using the MSI Installer.

What is a DWP?
he file extension of a web part.

What is the GAC?
Global Assembly Cache folder on the server hosting SharePoint. You place your assemblies there for web parts and services.

What is Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services? How is it related to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Windows SharePoint Services is the solution that enables you to create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration. Windows SharePoint Services ï¿½ a key piece of the information worker infrastructure delivered in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 ï¿½ provides additional functionality to the Microsoft Office system and other desktop applications, and it serves as a platform for application development. Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds on top of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to provide additional capabilities including collaboration, portal, search, enterprise content management, business process and forms, and business intelligence.

What is the relationship between Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and Microsoft Windows Services?
Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies (including SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services) deliver highly scalable collaboration solutions with flexible deployment and management tools. Windows SharePoint Services provides sites for team collaboration, while Share Point Portal Server connects these sites, people, and business processesï¿½facilitating knowledge sharing and smart organizations. SharePoint Portal Server also extends the capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services by providing organizational and management tools for SharePoint sites, and by enabling teams to publish information to the entire organization.

Who is Office SharePoint Server 2007 designed for?
Office SharePoint Server 2007 can be used by information workers, IT administrators, and application developers.
is designed

What are the main benefits of Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides a single integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet, and Internet applications across the enterprise.
* Business users gain greater control over the storage, security, distribution, and management of their electronic content, with tools that are easy to use and tightly integrated into familiar, everyday applications.
* Organizations can accelerate shared business processes with customers and partners across organizational boundaries using InfoPath Forms Servicesï¿½driven solutions.
* Information workers can find information and people efficiently and easily through the facilitated information-sharing functionality and simplified content publishing. In addition, access to back-end data is achieved easily through a browser, and views into this data can be personalized.
* Administrators have powerful tools at their fingertips that ease deployment, management, and system administration, so they can spend more time on strategic tasks.
* Developers have a rich platform to build a new class of applications, called Office Business Applications, that combine powerful developer functionality with the flexibility and ease of deployment of Office SharePoint Server 2007. Through the use of out-of-the-box application services, developers can build richer applications with less code.

What is the difference between Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 have identical feature functionality. While the feature functionality is similar, the usage rights are different. If you are creating an Internet, or Extranet, facing website, it is recommended that you use Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites which does not require the purchase client access licenses. Websites hosted using an ï¿½Internet sitesï¿½ edition can only be used for Internet facing websites and all content, information, and applications must be accessible to non-employees. Websites hosted using an ï¿½Internet sitesï¿½ edition cannot be accessed by employees creating, sharing, or collaborating on content which is solely for internal use only, such as an Intranet Portal scenario. See the previous section on licensing for more information on the usage scenarios.

What suites of the 2007 Microsoft Office system work with Office SharePoint Server 2007?
Office Outlook 2007 provides bidirectional offline synchronization with SharePoint document libraries, discussion groups, contacts, calendars, and tasks. Microsoft Office Groove 2007, included as part of Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, will enable bidirectional offline synchronization with SharePoint document libraries. Features such as the document panel and the ability to publish to Excel Services will only be enabled when using Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007or Office Enterprise 2007. Excel Services will only work with documents saved in the new Office Excel 2007 file format (XLSX).

Can I download information directly from a SharePoint site to a personal digital assistant (PDA)?
No you cannot. However, you can exchange contact information lists with Microsoft Outlook.

Can I create custom templates?
Yes you can. You can have templates for business plans, doctor's office, lawyer's office etc.

How can I make my site public? By default, all sites are created private.
If you want your site to be a public Web site, enable anonymous access for the entire site. Then you can give out your URL to anybody in your business card, e-mail or any other marketing material. The URL for your Web site will be:
http:// yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com Hence, please take special care to name your site.
These Web sites are ideal for information and knowledge intensive sites and/or sites where you need to have shared Web workspace.
Remember: Under each parent Web site, you can create up to 10 sub-sites each with unique permissions, settings and security rights.

How do the sub sites work?
You can create a sub site for various categories. For example:
* Departments - finance, marketing, IT
* Products - electrical, mechanical, hydraulics
* Projects - Trey Research, Department of Transportation, FDA
* Team - Retention team, BPR team
* Clients - new clients, old clients
* Suppliers - Supplier 1, Supplier 2, Supplier 3
* Customers - Customer A, Customer B, Customer C
* Real estate - property A, property B The URLs for each will be, for example:
* http://yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com/finance
* http://yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com/marketing You can keep track of permissions for each team separately so that access is restricted while maintaining global access to the parent site.

How do I make my site non-restricted?
If you want your site to have anonymous access enabled (i.e., you want to treat it like any site on the Internet that does not ask you to provide a user name and password to see the content of the site), follow these simple steps:
# Login as an administrator
# Click on site settings
# Click on Go to Site Administration
# Click on Manage anonymous access
# Choose one of the three conditions on What Anonymous users can access:
** Entire Web site
** Lists and libraries
** Nothing Default condition is nothing; your site has restricted access. The default conditions allow you to create a secure site for your Web site.

What are the advantages of a hosted SharePoint vs. one that is on an in-house server?
* No hardware investment, i.e. lower costs
* No software to download - ready to start from the word go
* No IT resources - Anyone who has used a Web program like Hotmail can use it
* Faster deployment

What security levels are assigned to users?
Security levels are assigned by the administrator who is adding the user. There are four levels by default and additional levels can be composed as necessary.
* Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.
* Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.
* Web Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web site.
* Administrator - Has full control of the Web site.

What are the various kinds of roles the users can have?
A user can be assigned one of the following roles
* Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.
* Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.
* Web Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web site.
* Administrator - Has full control of the Web site.

Can each user have access to their own calendar?
Yes there are two ways to do this,
* by creating a calendar for each user, or
* by creating a calendar with a view for each user

Can SharePoint be linked to a SQL database?
This is possible via a custom application, but it not natively supported by SharePoint or SQL Server.

Can I customize my Windows SharePoint Services site?
YES! Windows SharePoint Services makes updating sites and their content from the browser easier then ever. SharePoint includes tools that let you create custom lists, calendars, page views, etc. You can apply a theme; add List, Survey and Document Library Web Parts to a page; create personal views; change logos; connect Web Parts and more. To fully customize your site, you can use Microsoft FrontPage 2003. Specifically, you can use FrontPage themes and shared borders, and also use FrontPage to create photo galleries and top ten lists, utilize standard usage reports, and integrate automatic Web content.

How Office SharePoint Server 2007 can help you?
Office SharePoint Server 2007 can help us: Manage content and streamline processes. Comprehensively manage and control unstructured content like Microsoft Office documents, Web pages, Portable Document Format file (PDF) files, and e-mail messages. Streamline business processes that are a drain on organizational productivity. Improve business insight. Monitor your business, enable better-informed decisions, and respond proactively to business events. Find and share information more simply. Find information and expertise wherever they are located. Share knowledge and simplify working with others within and across organizational boundaries. Empower IT to make a strategic impact. Increase responsiveness of IT to business needs and reduce the number of platforms that have to be maintained by supporting all the intranet, extranet, and Web applications across the enterprise with one integrated platform.
Office SharePoint Server 2007 capabilities can help improve organizational effectiveness by connecting people, processes, and information. Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides these capabilities in an integrated server offering, so your organization doesn't have to integrate fragmented technology solutions itself.

What are the advanced features of MOSS 2007?
* User Interface (UI) and navigation enhancements
* Document management enhancements
* The new Workflow engine
* Office 2007 Integration
* New Web Parts
* New Site-type templates
* Enhancements to List technology
* Web Content Management
* Business Data Catalog
* Search enhancements
* Report Center
* Records Management
* Business Intelligence and Excel Server
* Forms Server and InfoPath
* The ï¿½Featuresï¿½ feature
* Alternate authentication providers and Forms-based authentication

What are the features of the new Content management in Office SharePoint 2007?
The new and enhanced content management features in Office SharePoint Server 2007 fall within three areas:
* Document management
* Records management
* Web content management
Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds on the core document management functionality provided by Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, including check in and check out, versioning, metadata, and role-based granular access controls. Organizations can use this functionality to deliver enhanced authoring, business document processing, Web content management and publishing, records management, policy management, and support for multilingual publishing. Does a SharePoint Web site include search functionality?
Yes. SharePoint Team Services provides a powerful text-based search feature that helps you find documents and information fast.

Write the features of the search component of Office SharePoint Server 2007?
The search component of Office SharePoint Server 2007 has been significantly enhanced by this release of SharePoint Products and Technologies. New features provide:
* A consistent and familiar search experience.
* Increased relevance of search results.
* New functions to search for people and expertise.
* Ability to index and search data in line-of-business applications and
* Improved manageability and extensibility.

What are the benefits of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?
* Provide a simple, familiar, and consistent user experience.
* Boost employee productivity by simplifying everyday business activities.
* Help meet regulatory requirements through comprehensive control over content.
* Effectively manage and repurpose content to gain increased business value.
* Simplify organization-wide access to both structured and unstructured information across disparate systems.
* Connect people with information and expertise.
* Accelerate shared business processes across organizational boundaries.
* Share business data without divulging sensitive information.
* Enable people to make better-informed decisions by presenting business-critical information in one central location.
* Provide a single, integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet, and Internet applications across the enterprise.

Will SharePoint Portal Server and Team Services ever merge?
The products will come together because they are both developed by the Office team.

How can I raise the trust level for assemblies installed in the BIN directory?
Windows SharePoint Services can use any of the following three options from ASP.NET and the CLR to provide assemblies installed in the BIN directory with sufficient permissions. The following table outlines the implications and requirements for each option. Option Pros Cons Increase the trust level for the entire virtual server. For more information, see "Setting the trust level for a virtual server" Easy to implement. In a development environment, increasing the trust level allows you to test an assembly with increased permissions while allowing you to recompile assemblies directly into the BIN directory without resetting IIS. This option is least secure. This option affects all assemblies used by the virtual server.
There is no guarantee the destination server has the required trust level. Therefore, Web Parts may not work once installed on the destination server. Create a custom policy file for your assemblies. For more information, see "How do I create a custom policy file?" Recommended approach. This option is most secure. An assembly can operate with a unique policy that meets the minimum permission requirements for the assembly. By creating a custom security policy, you can ensure the destination server can run your Web Parts. Requires the most configuration of all three options.
Install your assemblies in the GAC Easy to implement.
This grants Full trust to your assembly without affecting the trust level of assemblies installed in the BIN directory. This option is less secure. Assemblies installed in the GAC are available to all virtual servers and applications on a server running Windows SharePoint Services. This could represent a potential security risk as it potentially grants a higher level of permission to your assembly across a larger scope than necessary In a development environment, you must reset IIS every time you recompile assemblies. Licensing issues may arise due to the global availability of your assembly.

Does SharePoint work with NFS?
Yes and no. It can crawl documents on an NFS volume, but the sharepoint database or logs cannot be stored there.

How is SharePoint Portal Server different from the Site Server?
Site Server has search capabilities but these are more advanced using SharePoint. SPS uses digital dashboard technology which
provides a nice interface for creating web parts and showing them on dashboards (pages). SS doesn't have anything as advanced as that. The biggest difference would be SPS document management features which also integrate with web folders and MS Office.

What would you like to see in the next version of SharePoint?
A few suggestions: # SPS and STS on same machine
# Tree view of Categories and Folders
# General Discussion Web Part
# Personalization of Dashboards
# Role Customization
# Email to say WHY a document has been rejected for Approval
# More ways to customize the interface
# Backup and restore an individual Workspaces
# Filter for Visio
# Better way to track activity on SPS

Why Sharepoint is not a viable solution for enterprise wide deployments?
Document management does not scale beyond a single server, but scales great within a single server. For example, a quad Xeon machine with 4GB of RAM works great for a document management server that has about 900,000 - 1,000,000 document, but if you need to store 50,000,000 document and want to have them all in one single workspace then it does not scale at all. If you need a scenario like this, you need to plan your deployment right and it should scale for you, it just does not right out of the box.
If you are using your server as a portal and search server most for the most part it scales great. You can have many different servers crawl content sources and have separate servers searching and serving the content. If you have < 750,000 documents per server and fewer than 4 content sources and fewer than 50,000 users, SPS should scale just fine for your needs with the proper planning.

What are the actual advantages of SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) over SharePoint Team Services (STS)?
SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has MUCH better document management. It has check-in, check-out, versioning, approval, publishing, subscriptions, categories, etc. STS does not have these features, or they are very scaled back. SharePoint team Services (SPS) has a better search engine, and can crawl multiple content sources. STS cannot. STS is easier to manage and much better for a team environment where there is not much Document Management going on. SPS is better for an organization, or where Document Management is crucial.

    strURL = "url of the last published version"

    Set oVersion = New PKMCDO.KnowledgeVersion

    Set prmRs = oVersion.VersionHistory(strURL)

    Set oVersion = Nothing

prmRS will contain a recordset, which contains the url to the old versions in the shadow.

Why do the workspace virtual directories show the error ï¿½stop signï¿½ symbol in the IIS snap-in?
If World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC) starts before Microsoft Exchange Information Store (MSExchangeIS), ï¿½stop signï¿½ symbols appear under the Default Web Site folder of the Internet Information Services console in Microsoft Management Console (MMC). There is a dependency between the local paths of the SharePoint Portal Server virtual directories and the MSExchangeIS. You must start MSExchangeIS first, followed by W3SVC. Complete the following steps to prevent the stop signs from appearing each time you restart: # Change the Startup type for W3SVC to Manual.
# Restart the server. The MSExchangeIS service starts automatically.
# Start W3SVC.

What newsgroups are available?
There are two,
* microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver and
* microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver.development.

What is SharePoint from a Technical Perspective?
Technically SharePoint illustrates neatly What Microsoft's .net strategy is all about: integrating Windows with the Web. Microsoft has previously made accessing stuff on a PC easier, (Windows) then on a network (NT) and now on the web (.NET). SharePoint is an application written to let a user access a web accessible directory tree called the Web Storage System. SharePoint was written with a set of technologies that allow the programmer to pass data, functions, parameters over HTTP, the web's medium. These are XML, XSL and SOAP, to name a few I understand the basics of! To the user it looks easy, like Hotmail, but every time they click a button or a link, a lot has to happen behind the scenes to do What they want to do quickly and powerfully. Not as easy as you might think, but SharePoint does it for you. Accessing this Web storage system and the server itself is also done using technologies like ADO, CDO, PKMCDO, LDAP, DDSC, ADSC. More on these later. SharePoint is a great example of how the Internet Platform can be extended and integrated into an existing well adopted technology, Windows.

What is SharePoint from an Administration Perspective?
Administering SharePoint mainly consists of setting it up, which is much easier than you expect, adding the content, which can be just dragging and dropping in whole directory structures and files, and then organizing the files better by giving them categories or other metadata. This is done either through the Web interface or through the SharePoint Client: a program What means you can access SharePoint as a Web folder and then right-click files to select options like "edit profile". Or add files by dragging them in individually or in bulk. Setting the security is also important, using NT accounts, either NT4 or Active Directory (or both in mixed mode) you can give users access to files/folders the same way as you do in standard Windows. Users can be grouped and the groups given access privileges to help manage this better. Also SharePoint has 3 Roles that a User or Group can be given on a particular item. Readers can see the item (i.e. document/file or folder) but not change it, Authors can see and edit items and coordinators can set security privileges for the part of the system they have control over. Thus, you could set 12 different coordinators for 12 different folder trees, and they could manage who can do What within that area only.

What are the various Sharepoint 2003 and Exchange integration points?

Link to Outlook

This is a button on contacts or events lists that lets Outlook 2003 add a pst file named Sharepoint Folders and it links to the data on the site. Itï¿½s read-only, but you could make the home page for that PST be the Sharepoint site for easier viewing. The link to outlook feature seems more to be where some can public a calendar, but not want too much collaboration. For example, a holiday schedule, company meeting schedule, etc, can be made available for people to be able to view from Outlook without having to go to a web browser. Another nice thing about OL2K3 is that you can compare these calendars with others side by side.

Searching Public Folders

With SPS you can index Exchangeï¿½s public folders with the search engine so that all that precious public folder content is searchable. Youï¿½ll want to look at content sources and indexing in Sharepoint administration.

Displaying Public Folders in a web part

Since exchange web-enables public folders, you can create a web part that displays that content. IE, http://exchangeserver/Public/IT/Helpdesk will display the IT/Helpdesk public folder via OWA. So you add the Page Viewer web part to a page and point it at that URL. The key here is to add ?cmd=contents to the end of the url if you donï¿½t want the navigator pane on the left.

Smart web parts

Some of the web parts that come with SPS allow you to add a web part to a page that actually takes the users outlook info (calendar, inbox, contacts, tasks) and put them into the page.

Can SharePoint compare two document versions?
"In Word 2003, you can compare documents side by side. Open two documents. Then, from the Window menu of one of them, select the Compare Side By Side command. If you have only two documents open, the command will automatically choose to compare them. If you have three or more documents open, you'll have to select which document to compare with the current file. A floating toolbar with two buttons will open. If the button on the left is selected, Word will scroll both documents at the same time. Press the button on the right side of the toolbar to return to where the cursor was located when you started comparing."

What are the integration differences between SPS 2003 and the various Office versions?
SPS webpage can detect you have installed the Office 2003 and run local dll to implement some SPS function, e.g. multi-file upload only works when you have office 2003 installed. Integration with Office XP is gone. You will get guys telling you that you can integrate with SPSv2 if you install a backwards compatible document library - but thatï¿½s really just putting a bit of SPS 2001 on the server. Believe me, check-in, check-out, which are themselves very basic, are not available from inside Office XP, or even from the context menu in Windows Explorer. The ONLY option you have is to use the web interface to check-in or check-out.

Can I post any kind of document in document library?
Yes, you can post documents in many formats, including .pdf, .htm and .doc.

What is a document workspace?
Document workspaces consist of information surrounding a single or multiple documents.

What is the difference between a document library and a form library?
Document libraries consist of core documents. An example would be a Word document, Excel, Powerpoint, pdf etc. Form libraries consist of XML forms.

How many files can I upload?
There is no restriction.

Where are the files deployed in SharePoint 2007 ?
Developers generally deploy various files in the in the 12 hive folders that make SharePoint Interface. For e.g. if a Custom Css file needs to be deployed it will go under
“C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extenstions\12\Templates\Layouts\1033\Styles” path. This path is well mapped with Out-of-box SharePoint components and is suppose to contain Custom and Out-of-Box Css files.

How are these files deployed?
Solution packages or wsp are used to deploy or drop these files in various 12 hive folders. The manifest.xml (solution package file ) contains various tags such as or to drop in these files in the 12 hive. Tags in manifest.xml file are well mapped with the 12 hive folders, so all you need is to provide a virtual location for a folder under Templates to drop your file in Files.

How can you add an existing user control on a SharePoint Page ? Do you need to make any modifications to the control ?
You can either use a Custom webpart or a smartPart webpat to load your usercontrol in the page. You can also add a user control to a master page if that’s your requirement. You must drop the signed assembly for the UserControl in GAC and add the usercontrol in _ControlTemplates folder under 12 hive.

If you create a event receiver feature how can you bind it with one specific list.
We can create a FeatureReceiver and write some code in FeatureActivating method of the FeatureReceiver to assign the specific list to the event receiver feature itself.

How would you pass user credentials while using SharePoint WebService from your Web Part or application.
The web service needs credentials to be set before making calls.
Examples:
listService.UseDefaultCredentials = true; // use currently logged on user
listService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(“user”, “pass”, “domain”); // use specified user

What is the difference between SPQuery and SPSiteDataquery ?
SPQuery is a CAML query used to retrieves items fromone perticular list . SPSiteDataquery on the other hand retrieves items from multiple lists and libraries in the same site collection. you can however, specify the Guid of the Lists for the SPsiteDataQuery to run on.

How can you display data from a Parent site in a Subsite or Cross sites ?
Even though, its difficult to do this Out-of-box we have sevral options :
1. Using sharepoint designer – We can use DataviewWebPart and choose to connect to a different site and after creatign a connection, you will be listed with all list and libraries of the parent site or the cross site or site collection.
2. Use Site Lookup column – We can also create a column in the parent site as a Site column of type Lookup and then can add this column in subsites list\library.
3. Can export a listView webpart from a parent site (ofcourse displaying parent site list data) and import it into any subsite page.

How do you display an infopath form on any SharePoint page.
You need to use xmlformviewer webpart to display the admin uploaded infopath form.

How can we debug share point application and timer jobs?
1. Build Web Application and place the .dll into GAC
2. Reset IIS
3. In Visual Studio open the Debug menu and select Attach to Process
4. Select the Show processes from all users check box
5. Select W3W.exe and OSWTIMER.exe and click on Attach
6. Refresh sharepoint site and it will point to breakpoint

What does AllowUnsafeUpdates do ?
If you are trying to modify Windows SharePoint Services data using code, you may need to allow unsafe updates on the Web site, without requiring a security validation. For this you need to set AllowUnsafeUpdates property to true.

What does RunWithElevatedPrivileges do?
There are certain object models that calls another models that require site-administration privileges. To bypass access-denied error, we use RunWithElevatedPrivileges property when request is initiated by a nonprivileged user. We can successfully make calls into the object model by calling the RunWithElevatedPrivileges method provided by the SPSecurity class.

What does SPWeb.EnsureUser method do?
Checks whether the specified login name belongs to a valid user of the Web site, and if the login name does not already exist, adds it to the Web site. e.g SPUser user = objWeb.EnsureUser("testuser");

What is the SPSite object, and
The SPSite object represents a site collection (a top level site and all its subsites).

What is SPWeb object?
The SPWeb object represents an instance SharePoint Web

What is the difference between SPSite and SPWeb objects?
SPWeb object contains things like the actual content. A SPSite object contains the various subsites and the information regarding them.

What does a SPWebApplication object represent?
The SPWebApplication objects represents a SharePoint Web Application, which essentially is an IIS virtual server. Using the class you can instigate high level operations, such as getting all the features of an entire Web Application instance, or doing high level creation operations like creating new Web Applications through code.

Would you use SPWebApplication to get information like the SMTP address of the SharePoint site?
Yes, since this is a Web Application level setting. You would iterate through each SPWebApplication in the SPWebApplication collection, and then use the appropriate property calls (OutboundMailServiceInstance) in order to return settings regarding the mail service such as the SMTP address.

If I wanted to not allow people to delete documents from a document library, how would I go about it?
You would on the ItemDeleting event set: properties.Cancel= true.

What base class do event receivers inherit from?
Event receivers either inherit from the SPListEventReciever base class or the SPItemEventReciever base class, both which derive from the abstract base class SPEventReceiverBase.

What are event receivers?
Event receivers are classes that provide the option of responding to events as they occur within SharePoint, such as adding an item or deleting an item.

What does partial trust mean for SharePoint Web Part developer?
If an assembly is installed into the BIN directory, the code must be ensured that provides errorhandling in the event that required permissions are not available. Otherwise, unhandled securityexceptions may cause the Web Part to fail and may affect page rendering on the page where theWeb Part appears.

What is ServerUpdate() ?
Any changes in the list, i.e. new addition or modification of an item. The operation is complete by calling the Update method. But if a List is set to maintain versions. and you are editing an item, but don't want to save it as a new version, then use the SystemUpdate() method instead and pass in 'false' as the parameter.

When modifying a list item, what is the "main" difference between using SPListItem.Update() and SPListItem.SystemUpdate()?
SystemUpdate() will not create a new version of listitem and will also retain timestamps.

What is query.ViewAttributes and its use?
If you use SPQuery on any SPList, it will bring back results from the current folder only. If you want to get results from all the folders in the list.. then you need to specify the scope of the query by the use of ViewAttributes.
e.g. query.ViewAttributes = "Scope=\"Recursive\"";

What Do you know about SharePoint Object Model?
In Sharepoint Object model there are two Important namespaces, Microsoft.Office.Server and Microsoft.SharePoint . The Microsoft.Office.Server namespace is the root namespace of all Office Server objects and Microsoft.SharePoint is the root namespace for all WSS objects.

How Do you implement Impersonation in ShrePoint.
By Using RunWithElevatedPrivileges method provided by SPSecurity class.

What is the performance impact of RunWithElevatedPrivileges?
RunWithElevatedPrivileges creates a new thread with the App Pool's credentials and block your current thread until it finishes.

How can you use external Javascript and Css file in your WebPart?
You can use javascript, Css or Image files placed in _Layouts or any other location by registering them on the webpart page.

Can you add a Custom aspx or WebApplication Page in SharePoint?
Yes, Following modification are required in the Page to display it in SharePoint:

· Add the references for various sharepoint assemblies on the Page

· Wrap the Code in PlaceHolderMain contentPlaceholder, so that it gets displayed as a content page

· Specify SharePoint Master in aspx and Code behind. You can switch the master page in code behind of the Page as well

When should you dispose SPWeb and SPSite objects? And when not?
You should always dispose them if you created them yourself, but not otherwise. You should never dispose SPContext.Current.Web/Site and you should normally not dispose SPWeb if IsRootWeb is true.

How Do you bind a Drop-Down Listbox with a Column in SharePoint List ?
There are two ways to do this:
1. You can get a datatable for all items in the list and add that table to a data set. Finally, specify the dataset table as datasource for dropdown listbox.
2. You can also use SPDatasource in your aspx or design page.

How do the permissions for sub sites work?

You can create a sub site for various categories. You can keep track of permissions for each team separately so that access is restricted while maintaining global access to the parent site.

What security levels are assigned to users?
Security levels are assigned by the administrator who is adding the user. There are four levels by default and additional levels can be composed as necessary.
1. Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.
2. Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.
3. Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web site.
4. Full Control - Has full control of the Web site.

How is security managed in SharePoint?
Security can be handled at the machine, domain, or sharepoint level.

What is web part?
Web Parts are the fundamental building blocks for Share Point user interface, and with them we can build and integrate many different types of applications.

How many types of webparts available?
These are the following types of webpart :
1. Content Editor Web Part
2. Data View Web Part
3. List View Web Part
4. Image Web Part
5. Members Web Part
6. Page Viewer Web Part

While creating a Web part, which is the ideal location to Initialize the web controls?
Override the CreateChildControls method to include web controls. You can control the exact rendering of your controls by calling the Render method.

What are the two base classes a WebPart can inherit from?
There are two base classes that a WebPart consumed by SharePoint can inherit from, either the SharePoint WebPart Base class or the ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart base class.

What are the differences between the SharePoint WebPart Base class and ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart base class?
Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart base class is meant for backward compatibility with previous versions of SharePoint. The benefit of using the SharePoint WebPart base class is it supported:
1. Cross page connections
2. Connections between Web Parts that are outside of a Web Part zone
3. Client-side connections (Web Part Page Services Component)
4. Data caching infrastructure
ASP.NET 2.0 WebParts are generally considered better to use because SharePoint is built upon the ASP.NET 2.0 web architecture.

What are the inherit benefits of using ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart base class?
Inheriting from the ASP.NET 2.0 base class offers you features that inherit to ASP.NET 2.0, such as embedding resources as opposed to use ClassResources for deployment of said types.

What is the WebPartManager sealed class? What is its purpose?
The WebPartManager sealed class is responsible for managing everything occurring on a WebPart page, such as the WebParts (controls), events, and misc. functionality that will occur in WebPartZones. For example, the WebPartManager is responsible for the functionality that is provided when you are working with moving a WebPart from WebPartZone to WebPartZone. It is known as the ï¿½the central class of the Web Part Control Set.ï¿½

What is a web part zone?
Web part zones are what your web parts reside in and help categorize your web parts when designing a page.

What are the types of input forms that can be created for a workflow ?
You can create four types of input forms :
1. An association form
2. An initiation form
3. A modification form
4. A task edit form

What are ways to create input forms for workflow ?
There are two ways :
1. You can create your forms by using custom application pages, which are standard .aspx pages deployed to run out of the _layouts directory.
2. Using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007

What are the all elements of SharePoint on which Workflow can be applied?
Workflow can be applied on the following:

· At the level of a list/library

· At the level of a content type defined at site scope

· At the level of a content type defined at list scope

What are the types of input forms that can be created for a workflow ?
You can create following four types of input forms for workflow :
1. Association form
2. Initiation form
3. Modification form
4. Task Edit form.
Note : that these forms are optional when you create a workflow template.

What is the difference between method activity and event activity in WorkFlow ?
A method activity is one that performs an action, such as creating or updating a task. An event activity is one that runs in response to an action occurring.

What is Windows Powershell ?
Windows PowerShell is a new Windows command-line shell designed especially for system administrators. In the SharePoint administration context, Windows PowerShell is another administration tool that supersedes the existing Stsadm.exe.

How is Windows Powershell different from Stsadm ?
Unlike stsadm, which accept and return text, Windows PowerShell is built on the Microsoft .NET Framework and accepts and returns .NET Framework objects. In addition to that it also gives you access to the file system on the computer so that you can access registry,digital signature certificate etc..

What are cmdlet’s?
Windows PowerShell introduces the concept of a cmdlet which are simple build in commands, written in a .net language like C# or VB.

Can you Create PowerShell scripts for deploying components in SharePoint ?
If you are creating a webpart with VS 2010 then you can deploy it using ctrl + f5. However, to activate the webpart feature you can write a powershell script (.ps1) and execute it after dpeloyment.

Where is Powershell located in sharePoint ?
On the Start menu, click All Programs -> Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products -> Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

If you need going to install a webpart or any custom solution in SharePoint 2010 using PowerShell What permissions do you need?
In order to use Windows PowerShell for SharePoint 2010 Products, a user must be a member of the SharePoint_Shell_Access role on the configuration and content database. In addition to this, the user must also be a member of the WSS_ADMIN_WPG local group on the computer where SharePoint 2010 Products is installed. See Details
Permissions for Windows PowerShell – SPShellAdmin

How to list all the commands in PowerShell ?
Get-Command * commands gets you all the Powershell commands.

Search This Blog

SharePoint By Gaurav Goyal