24/04/2008

See an overview of a survey and its responses

To see an overview of your survey and its responses, click the name of the survey on the Quick Launch. If the name of your survey does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your survey.

The overview page shows a description of the survey and the number of responses. From the overview page, if you have permissions, you can click links to see a graphical summary of responses or to view a list of all responses. If you are a survey respondent and you don't have permission to see other responses, you can click a link to see and edit the text of your own response, including a partial response.

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View a graphical summary of all responses

The survey questions, number of responses, and percentages appear in the graphical view of summary responses.

Only the responses that are complete appear in the graphical summary. A survey response is considered complete after the respondent views every page and then clicks Finish on the last page.

To view all responses, you must have permission. The person who set up your survey can specify whether people can view all responses or only their own responses.

If the survey is not already open, click its name on the Quick Launch.
If the name of your survey does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your survey.
Click Show a graphical summary of responses.

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View all survey responses

To view all responses, you must have permission. The person who set up your survey can specify whether people can view all responses or only their own.

If the survey is not already open, click its name on the Quick Launch.
If the name of your survey does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your survey.
Click Show all responses.
Tip You can tell whether a survey response is complete or is only a partial response. If a survey response is complete, Yes appears in the Completed column of the All Responses view.

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View a single survey response

If the survey is not already open, click its name on the Quick Launch.
If the name of your survey does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your survey.
Click Show all responses.
Click the response that you want to view.
To view your response, you must have permission to read content on the site. To view someone else's response, you must have permission. The person who set up your survey can specify whether people can view all responses or only their own responses.

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Export responses to a spreadsheet

To export responses, you need a spreadsheet program installed that is compatible with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.

If the survey is not already open, click its name on the Quick Launch.
If the name of your survey does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your survey.
On the Actions menu, click Export to Spreadsheet.
Follow the prompts from your spreadsheet program to open and activate the file, if you believe the data on the SharePoint site is safe.
Note You may be prompted by your spreadsheet program to specify how you want to view the data, such as in an existing spreadsheet or in a new spreadsheet.
If prompted to specify how you want to view the data, select the options that you want (such as in a new spreadsheet), and then click OK.

Note If you are using a spreadsheet program that is compatible with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, such as Microsoft Office Excel 2007, the exported data includes the results of rating scale questions. If you export to earlier versions of spreadsheet programs, the results of rating scale questions are not included.

Posted at 01:52 by ผู้ดูแลไซต์ Sharepoint Thai | Category: Articles, How-To | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Use a Three-state workflow

How does the Three-state workflow work?

The Three-state workflow supports business processes that require organizations to track the status of an issue or item through three different states and two transitions between the states. With each transition between states, the workflow assigns a task to a person and sends that person an e-mail alert about the task. When this task is completed, the workflow updates the status of the item and progresses to the next state. The Three-state workflow is designed to work with the Issue Tracking list template, but it can be used with any list that is set up to contain a Choice column with three or more values. The values in this Choice column serve as the states that the workflow tracks.

The Three-state workflow can be used to manage business processes that require organizations to track a high volume of issues or items, such as customer support issues, sales leads, or project tasks. For example, the employees at a small event planning company can use an issue-tracking list and a customized Three-state workflow to manage the numerous tasks related to events that they are planning. The Three-state workflow tracks the event-planning tasks through three states: Active, Ready for Review, and Complete. All of the event preparation tasks related to a specific event are compiled into an issue-tracking list that was created for that event and marked as Active. The event coordinator assigns individual tasks to her team members and then starts the Three-state workflow on these items to initiate work on the event task.

When the workflow starts, it creates a task for the designated person. When a team member receives a task, he or she performs the work required to complete the task. This may be work that takes place outside of the list or site where the issue-tracking list is located. For example, if a team member receives a workflow task to develop a catering plan, he or she contacts a catering company and then works with them to develop a plan. When the catering plan is drafted, the team member marks his or her workflow task as complete. At this point, the workflow updates the status of the event task in the issue-tracking list from Active to Ready for Review, and it creates a second task for the event coordinator to review the catering plan. After the event coordinator reviews and approves the catering plan, she marks her workflow task as complete, and the workflow updates the status of the task from Ready for Review to Complete.

Note A workflow participant can complete a workflow task in a Three-state workflow in two different ways. A participant can edit the workflow task to mark it as complete, or a participant can change the status of the workflow item in the list (if the participant has permission to change this list). If a participant manually updates the status of the workflow item in the list, the workflow task is completed. If the participant edits the workflow task to mark it as complete, the status of the workflow item in the list is updated to Complete.

The actions in the Three-state workflow in this example follow this process:

Flow chart of example Three-state workflow

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Set up a list to use with a Three-state workflow

Before you can use a Three-state workflow, you must set up a list to use in conjunction with the workflow. This list must contain the items that you plan to track or manage by using the workflow. The Issue Tracking list template is designed to work with the Three-state workflow, but you can also create a custom list to use with these workflows. If you create a custom list to use with the Three-state workflow, you must ensure that the list contains at least one Choice column that includes three or more choice values. When you set up a three-state workflow for use with the list, you must specify the Choice column that contains the state values that the workflow will track.

Create an issue-tracking list for use with a Three-state workflow

By default, you can use a Three-state workflow with any list that you create from the Issue Tracking list template.

Click View All Site Content, and then click Create on the All Site Content page.
Tip In most cases, you can use the Site Actions menu instead to complete this step.
Under Tracking, click Issue Tracking.
In the Name box, type a name for the list. The list name is required.
The name appears at the top of the list page, becomes part of the Web address for the list page, and appears in navigational elements that help users to find and open the list.
In the Description box, type a description of the purpose of the list. The description is optional.
To add a link to this list on the Quick Launch, click Yes in the Navigation section.
Click Create.

Create a custom list for use with a Three-state workflow

If you want to create a custom list for use with a Three-state workflow, you must add at least one Choice column that contains the state values that the workflow will track.

Click View All Site Content, and then click Create on the All Site Content page.
Tip In most cases, you can use the Site Actions menu instead to complete this step.
Under Custom Lists, click Custom List.
In the Name box, type a name for the list. The list name is required.
The name appears at the top of the list page, becomes part of the Web address for the list page, and appears in navigational elements that help users to find and open the list.
In the Description box, type a description of the purpose of the list. The description is optional.
To add a link to this list on the Quick Launch, click Yes in the Navigation section.
Click Create.

Customize a custom list for use with a Three-state workflow

If the list is not already open, click its name on the Quick Launch.
If the name of your list does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your list.
On the Settings menu , click List Settings.
Under Columns, click Create Column.
In the Name and Type section, under Column name, type the name of column that you want to use to specify the state values for the workflow.
Under The type of information in this column is, select Choice (menu to choose from).
In the Additional Column Settings section, under Description, type an optional description for the column.
Under Require that this column contains information, click Yes.
In the list box under Type each choice on a separate line, type three or more choice values that you want for this column.
These values will become the states for the workflow.
Under Display choices using, select either Drop-Down Menu or Radio Buttons.
Under Allow 'Fill-in' choices, click No.
Specify whether you want a specific default value for this column or if you want to add it to the default view for the list.
Click OK.

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Add a Three-state workflow to a list

You must add a Three-state workflow to a list before you can use it on items in that list. When you add a Three-state workflow to a list, you specify which column in the list contains the state values that you want the workflow to track. You also specify information about what you want to happen at each stage of the workflow. For example, you can specify the individuals to whom tasks should be assigned and the details of the e-mail alerts that task recipients receive.

You must have the Manage Lists permission to add a workflow to a list.

Open the list to which you want to add a Three-state workflow.
On the Settings menu , click List Settings, or click the settings for the type of library that you are opening.
For example, in a document library, click Document Library Settings.
Under Permissions and Management, click Workflow settings.
Note If workflows were already added to this list, library, or content type, this step takes you directly to the Change Workflow Settings page, and you need to click Add a workflow to go to the Add a Workflow page. If no workflows were already added to this list, library, or content type, this step takes you directly to the Add a Workflow page.
On the Change Workflow Settings page, click Add a workflow.
On the Add a Workflow page, in the Workflow section, click Three-state under Select a workflow template.
In the Name section, type a unique name for the workflow.
In the Task List section, specify a task list to use with the workflow.
Notes
- You can use the default Tasks list or you can create a new one. If you use the default Tasks list, workflow participants will be able to find and view their workflow tasks easily by using the My Tasks view of the Tasks list.
- Create a new tasks list if the tasks for this workflow will reveal sensitive or confidential data that you want to keep separate from the general Tasks list.
- Create a new tasks list if your organization will have numerous workflows or if workflows will involve numerous tasks. In this case, you might want to create tasks lists for each workflow.
In the History List section, select a history list to use with this workflow. The history list displays all of the events that occur during each instance of the workflow.
Note You can use the default History list or you can create a new one. If your organization will have numerous workflows, you might want to create a separate history list for each workflow.
In the Start Options section, do either of the following:
- If you want to allow the workflow to be started manually, select the Allow this workflow to be manually started by an authenticated user with Edit Items Permissions check box. Select the Require Manage Lists Permissions to start the workflow check box if you want to require additional permissions to start the workflow.
- If you want the workflow to start automatically when new items are created, select the Start this workflow when a new item is created check box.
Click Next.
In the Workflow states section, under Select a 'Choice' field, select the Choice column from the list that contains the values that you want to use for the states in your workflow, and then select the column values that you want for the Initial state, Middle state, and Final state of the workflow.

In the two sections Specify what you want to happen when a workflow is initiated (options for the first task in the workflow) and Specify what you want to happen when a workflow changes to its middle state (options for the second task in the workflow) specify the following information:

Task Details

Task Title:	Type any information that you want to include in the in the task title. If you select the Include list field check box, the Title information for the list item is added to the custom message.
Task Description:	Type any information that you want to include in the description of the task. If you select the Include list field check box, the Title information for the list item is added to the custom message. If you select the Insert link to List item check box, a link to the list item is included in the description.
Task Due Date:	If you want to specify a due date for the task, select the Include list field check box, and then select the date column from the list that contains the due date information that you want to use.
Task Assigned To:	To assign the task to a person who is specified in the list, click Include list field, and then select the column from the list that contains the user information that you want to use. When this workflow is started, the first task is assigned to the person whose name appears in this column for the workflow item. To assign this task in all instances of this workflow to a person or group you specify, click Custom, and then type or select the name of the person or group to whom you want to assign the task.

E-mail Message Details

Select the Send e-mail message check box if you want the workflow participants to receive e-mail alerts about their workflow tasks.

Note If you want to ensure that workflow participants receive e-mail alerts and reminders about their workflow tasks after workflows are started, check with your server administrator to verify that e-mail is enabled for your site.

To	Type the name of the person to whom you want an e-mail alert about the workflow task to be sent. Select the Include Task Assigned To check box if you want to send the e-mail alert to the task owner.
Subject	Type the subject line that you want to use for the e-mail alert. Select the Use Task Title check box if you want to add the Task title to the subject line of the e-mail message.
Body	Type the information that you want to appear in the message body of the e-mail alert. Select the Insert link to List item check box if you want to include a link to the list item in the message.

Click OK.

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Start a Three-state workflow on an item

A Three-state workflow first must be added to a list to make it available for use on items in that list.

A Three-state workflow can be configured to start automatically when new items are added to a list, or it can be configured to allow users with specific permissions to start the workflow manually. Some workflows may allow both options. To manually start a Three-state workflow on a list item, you must have Edit Items permission for the list. Some workflows may require that you have the Manage Lists permission.

Note If you want to ensure that workflow participants receive e-mail alerts and reminders about their workflow tasks after you start a workflow, check with your server administrator to verify that e-mail is enabled for your site.

Open the list that contains the item on which you want to start a Three-state workflow.
Point to the item on which you want to start a workflow, click the arrow that appears, and then click Workflows.
Note The Workflows command is available only when the item is in a list or library that has at least one workflow associated with it.
Under Start a New Workflow, click the name of the Three-state workflow that you want to start.
The workflow starts immediately.

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Complete a workflow task in a Three-state workflow

To complete a workflow task in a Three-state workflow you must have at least the Edit Items permission for the tasks lists where the workflow tasks are recorded.

Open the Tasks list for the site, and then select My Tasks on the View menu to locate your workflow task.
Note If the workflow does not use the default Tasks list, your workflow task may not appear in the Tasks list. To locate your workflow task, go to the list or library where the workflow item is saved. Point to the name of the task that you want to complete, click the arrow that appears, and then click Workflows. On the Workflow Status page, under Running Workflows, click the name of the workflow in which you are a participant. Under Tasks, locate your workflow task.
Point to the name of the task that you want to complete, click the arrow that appears, and then click Edit Item.
In the form that appears, type or select the information that is requested to complete the task.

Posted at 01:52 by ผู้ดูแลไซต์ Sharepoint Thai | Category: Tutorial | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Introduction to workflows

What are workflows?

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 specific 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 organizations 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 actions that happen to a document or item.

Workflows can streamline the cost and time required to coordinate common business processes, such as project approval or document review, by managing and tracking the human tasks involved with these processes. For example, by using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, an organization can create and deploy a basic custom workflow to manage the approval process for drafts of documents in a library. The workflow can route a document to a specified person or a group of people for their review and approval. The workflow can then take specific actions on the document based on the outcome of the workflow. If the document is approved, its status can be updated from Draft to Final, and the document can be automatically copied to another document library. If a document is rejected, its status can remain as Draft and no further actions occur.

When this approval workflow starts, it can create document approval tasks, assign these tasks to the specified workflow participants, and then send e-mail alerts to the participants with task instructions and a link to the document to be approved. While the workflow is in progress, the workflow owner (in this case, the document author) or the workflow participants can check the Workflow Status page to see which participants have completed their workflow tasks. When the workflow participants complete their workflow tasks by approving or rejecting the document, the workflow ends. The workflow automatically takes the appropriate actions on the document, and it alerts the workflow owner about the outcome of the workflow.

The actions in the approval workflow in this example follow this process:

Custom approval workflow flowchart

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A workflow that is predefined for a site

A Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site includes a predefined Three-state workflow. The Three-state workflow supports business processes that require organizations to track the status of an issue or item through different phases. Specifically, the workflow tracks a list item through three different states involving two transitions. With each transition between states, the workflow assigns a task to a person and sends that person an e-mail alert about the task. When this task is completed, the workflow updates the status of the item appropriately and progresses to the next state. The Three-state workflow is designed to work with the Issue Tracking list template, but it can be used with any list that is set up to contain a Choice column with three or more values. The values in this choice column serve as the states that the workflow tracks.

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Support for custom workflows

Your organization may choose to develop and deploy completely custom workflows that are unique to the business processes in your organization. Workflows can be as simple or complex as the business processes in an organization require. Developers can create workflows that are started by people who use a site, or they can create workflows that start automatically based on a specific event, such as when a list item is created or changed. If your organization has developed and deployed custom workflows, these workflows may be available for use on your site.

There are two ways in which custom workflows can be created for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0:

Professional software developers can create workflows by using the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation These workflows contain custom code and workflow activities. After a professional developer creates custom workflows, a server administrator can deploy them across multiple sites.
Web designers can design no-code workflows for use in a specific list or library by using a Web design program that is compatible with Windows SharePoint Services, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 These workflows are created from a list of available workflow activities, and the Web designer who creates the workflow can deploy it directly to the list or document library where it will be used.

If you want to have a custom workflow developed, contact your site administrator for information about what resources may be available in your organization for custom workflow development. For more information about developing custom workflows for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, see the Windows SharePoint Services Developer Center on MSDN.

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Steps involved in using workflows

There are several steps involved in using a workflow on a document or list item. Each of these steps may be completed by individuals in different roles. For example, a site administrator might make a workflow available for use in a specific document library, a list owner or document author might start a workflow on a document or item, and a third person (for example, a document a reviewer or an approver) might complete a workflow task.

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Adding a workflow to a list, library, or content type

Although a no-code workflow created in a Web design program that is compatible with Windows SharePoint Services, such as Office SharePoint Designer 2007, can be deployed directly to the list or library where it will be used, any custom workflow that is installed on the server must be added to a list, library, or content type (content type: A reusable group of settings for a category of content. Use content types to manage the metadata, templates, and behaviors of items and documents consistently. Content types are defined at the site level and used on lists and libraries.) to make it available for documents or items in a specific location. You must have the Manage Lists permission (permissions: The specific security settings that allow or restrict access to a given item, list, library, or site.) to add a workflow to a list, library, or content type. In most cases, site administrators or individuals who manage specific lists or libraries perform this task. The availability of a workflow within a site varies, depending on where it is added:

If you add a workflow directly to a list or library, it is available only for items in that list or library. You might add a workflow directly to a list or library if that workflow will be used only by a specific team or for very specific types of content.
If you add a workflow to a list content type (an instance of a site content type that was added to a specific list or library), it is available only for items of that content type in the specific list or library with which that content type is associated. You might add a workflow directly to a list content type if that workflow will be used only for very specific types of content.
If you add a workflow to a site content type, that workflow is available for any items of that content type in every list and library to which an instance of that site content type was added. If you want a workflow to be widely available across lists or libraries in a site collection for items of a specific content type, the most efficient way to achieve this result is by adding that workflow directly to a site content type. You might want to add a workflow to a site content type if you want it to be widely available to different teams across different sites.

When you add a workflow to a list, library, or content type, you can customize the workflow for its specific location by specifying various options:

The name of the workflow
The task list where workflow-related tasks are stored
The history list that records all of the events related to the workflow
How you want the workflow to be started
Additional options that are specific to the individual workflow (For example: how tasks are routed to participants, what circumstances complete the workflow, and what actions occur after the workflow is successfully completed.)

When you add a workflow to a list, library, or content type, you simply make it available for documents or items in a specific location. You do not start the actual workflow. Find links to more information about adding workflows to lists, libraries, or content types in the See Also section.

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Starting a workflow on a document or item

After a workflow is added to a list, library, or content type and thereby made available for use, you can start this workflow on a specific document or item (if the workflow is configured to allow it to be started manually). To start a workflow, select the workflow that you want from the list of workflows available for the document or item. If necessary, you may also need to fill out a form with the information that the workflow requires. Depending on how the workflow was designed and configured, you may have the option to further customize the workflow when you start it on a document or item by customizing options, such as participants, due date, and task instructions.

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Completing workflow tasks

Any workflow event that requires human interaction is represented by a workflow task. When a workflow assigns a task to a workflow participant, the task recipient can either complete that task or (depending upon the workflow) request changes to the workflow item itself by editing the workflow task form. When a workflow participant completes a workflow task, this prompts the server to move the workflow to the next relevant step.

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Tracking the status of workflows

Workflow owners and participants can follow the progress of a workflow by checking the status page that is associated with the workflow. The status page includes status information about outstanding workflow tasks. It also includes history information that is relevant to the workflow.

Posted at 01:51 by ผู้ดูแลไซต์ Sharepoint Thai | Category: Tutorial | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

What's new for IT professionals in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 has many new features and enhancements that can help IT professionals deploy and maintain Windows SharePoint Services solutions. Together, these new features and enhancements provide IT organizations with better control over information resources; individually these new features and enhancements provide functional benefits that help reduce administrative overhead and help IT administrators work more efficiently and effectively. The changes that impact IT organizations and IT professionals the most include:

An improved administration model that centralizes configuration and management tasks, and helps IT organizations delineate and delegate administrative roles.
New and improved compliance features and capabilities that help organizations secure resources and manage business-critical processes.
New and improved operational tools and capabilities that drive down the total cost of ownership (TCO).
Improved support for network configuration.

Improved extensibility of the object model that makes custom applications and components easier to deploy and manage.

Administration model enhancements

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes several enhancements to the administration model that help IT organizations implement management plans and perform administrative tasks more effectively and efficiently.

Centralized configuration and management

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 now has a centralized configuration and management model, which includes a centralized configuration database and two new services that automatically propagate and synchronize the centrally-stored configuration settings across all of the servers in your server farm. The new configuration and management model allows you to centrally manage your server farm without having to manage farm settings on a server-by-server basis. For example, if you create a Web application on one of your Web servers, the Web application is automatically propagated to all of your Web servers. You no longer have to create and configure individual Web applications on each of your Web servers.

To facilitate this centralized configuration model, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 relies on two new and enhanced services: the Windows SharePoint Services Administration service and the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service. The Windows SharePoint Services Timer service acts as the heartbeat for the server farm and is responsible for running timer jobs that propagate configuration settings across a server farm. The Windows SharePoint Services Administration service works hand in hand with the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service and is responsible for carrying out the actual configuration changes on each of the servers in your server farm.

Two-tier administration model

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 now has a two-tier administration model that makes it easier for IT organizations to differentiate administrative roles and assign administrative responsibilities.

Tier 1 Encompasses all of the administrative features and functionality for centrally managing the server farm. Tier 1 administrative tasks are typically performed by an organization's IT administrators and can include a wide range of tasks such as farm-level resource management tasks, farm-level status checks and monitoring, and farm-level security configuration. For example, a tier 1 administrator might be responsible for creating new Web applications and site collections, managing incoming and outgoing e-mail settings for the farm, and managing server farm topology.

Tier 2 Encompasses all of the administrative features and functionality for managing sites within a server farm. Tier 2 administrative tasks are typically performed by a business unit site administrator and can include a wide range of site-specific management tasks such as Web Part management, access management, and content management. For example, a tier 2 administrator might be responsible for creating a new list on a site, configuring access permissions for users, and modifying site hierarchy.

Farm-based Central Administration user interface

The SharePoint Central Administration Web pages have been redesigned and reorganized, allowing easier implementation of administrative tasks and procedures. These changes include the following new features:

Administrative task list Shows you the key tasks that need to be done, explains why the actions are needed, and provides a link directly to the SharePoint Central Administration Web page where the task can be performed.

Home page topology view Provides a concise view of the servers that are running in a farm and the services that are running on each server.

Services on Server Web page Provides an easy way to manage the services that are running on an individual server.

Flat menu structure The SharePoint Central Administration home page consists of just two top-level navigation pages: an Operations page that lists tasks affecting farm resource usage, and an Application Management page that lists tasks specific to a single application or service within the farm.

Delegation of administrative responsibilities and roles

Because the multi-tier administration model provides a clear delineation of administrative tasks, IT managers can better delegate administrative responsibilities to the appropriate users and administrators within an organization.

New and improved compliance features and capabilities

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes new and enhanced features that provide IT organizations with better control over information resources. These new and enhanced compliance features include:

Policy management

You can now configure policies for Web applications based on the domain or the server authentication zone. For example, you can create intranet and extranet authentication zones to restrict access to information based on how users access information. You can also use authentication zones to create access control lists (ACLs) that include a group of users from different authentication providers.

Auditing and logging

Auditing and logging can now be configured for all actions on sites, content, and workflows.

Item-level access control

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides item-level access control and security settings that allow site administrators and IT administrators to control which people or groups have access to sites, document libraries, lists, folders, documents, and list items. In addition to controlling access to Web page content, item-level access also allows administrators to control which user interface (UI) elements are visible or actionable. This feature, known as UI trimming, also reduces Web page clutter and makes Web pages easier to navigate.

Administrator access control

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 now prohibits IT administrators from viewing site content unless the IT administrator is granted site collection administrator privileges. In addition, an event is written to the Event Viewer application log whenever an IT administrator changes site collection administrator privileges.

New and improved operational tools and capabilities

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes several new and improved tools and capabilities that help IT organizations implement operational plans and tasks. These features and capabilities include:

Backup and recovery support

Several new and improved features make it easier to perform backup and recovery tasks. A multi-stage recycle bin allows users to retrieve inadvertently deleted documents, reducing dependence on IT departments for document retrieval functions. The recycle bin also allows administrators to manage the lifecycle of deleted items in the recycle bin.

The backup and restore functionality is also enhanced, providing support for Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which allows better integration with non-Microsoft backup and recovery programs. In addition, the backup and restore functionality in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 allows you to back up and restore the data that is stored in your SQL database, such as your configuration database, content and configuration data for Web applications, and search databases. Also, backup and recovery functionality is provided natively at the command line through the Stsadm command, and it is provided in the user interface.

Upgrade and migration support

The following features have been added to make upgrades faster and easier:

Gradual upgrade support By performing a gradual upgrade you can gradually upgrade data and functionality on a server that is running Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (version 2) and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. This is particularly useful if you are upgrading a complex environment and you do not want to interrupt business processes.

Migration support Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides support for migrating content. You can migrate content for an entire Web site or you can migrate content on a more granular basis, such as lists and documents. In addition, you can migrate content incrementally. Migration mode support cannot be used to migrate customized settings, features, solutions, or computer settings; migration mode support can only be used to migrate content.

Reparenting This allows you to dynamically rearrange a hierarchy of SharePoint sites and is typically used during a migration. Previously, in Window SharePoint Services (version 2), you needed to back up and then delete a site from its current location, and then restore the site in the new location to move a site.

Monitoring support

Improved instrumentation is provided through Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) management packs. MOM packages support centralized monitoring and management of configurations ranging from single server and small server farms to very large server farms.

Host header mode

Host header mode, a new feature in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, allows you to create multiple domain-named sites in a single Web application. In Windows SharePoint Services version 2, when scalable hosting mode was enabled, you could extend only one Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Web site. Now, with host header mode, you can have host header-based site collections on multiple Web applications, so you're no longer limited to extending just one IIS Web site. In fact, you can have a mix of path-based and host header-based site collections in the same Web application. In addition, you do not need to specify whether you want to use host header site collections when creating the configuration database. Instead, you can now specify whether site collections should be host header-based or path-based when creating the site collection.

Server renaming

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 now has the command Stsadm renameserver command that makes it easier to rename your Web servers and your back-end database servers. When you run Stsadm renameserver, the configuration database for your farm is updated so that any URLs or references to the old server name are now mapped to the new server name.

Credential management

You can now manage service account credentials, such as the application pool identity for your application pools, through the SharePoint Central Administration site. In addition, when you change the user account under which a service runs, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 uses the Windows SharePoint Services Administration service and the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service to stop and start Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) services across your farm so that the credential changes immediately take effect. You can also change just the password for a service account through the command line.

Improved support for network configuration

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes enhanced support for network configuration, including:

Alternate access mappings

Alternate access mappings (AAM) provides a mechanism for mapping newly-added front-end Web servers to your Web application. For example, if you install and configure Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on a single front-end server, and a user browses to your server, the server will render the content that is in your Web application. However, if you add subsequent Web servers to your server farm, the newly-added servers will not have alternate access mappings configured to your Web application.

Pluggable authentication

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 adds support for non-Windows-based identity systems by integrating with the pluggable Microsoft ASP.NET forms authentication system. ASP.NET authentication allows Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to work with identity management systems that implement the MembershipProvider interface. You do not need to rewrite the security administration pages or manage shadow Active Directory directory service accounts.

Extensibility enhancements

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 has several extensibility enhancements that make it easier to create custom applications that are well integrated with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 features, functionality, and user interface elements.

Site definitions have been enhanced so that sites are no longer locked or bound to your original template choice. For example, you can now enhance a document workspace site with features from a team site.
Administration tasks and functionality can be extended to custom applications. For example, if you create a custom database by extending a database that was created by Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, you can have the custom database automatically appear in the backup and restore user interface.
Enhancements to the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service make it easier to create and manage timer jobs that control custom services.

In addition, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hosts the Windows Workflow Foundation, which allows the creation of customized workflow solutions and the use of structured workflows on document library and list items. In conjunction with the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 application templates, the Windows Workflow Foundation allows you to create robust workflow-enabled business applications.

Posted at 01:46 by ผู้ดูแลไซต์ Sharepoint Thai | Category: Articles, How-To | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Enabling and managing social networks (for business use) with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

While the Microsoft / Facebook expanded partnership announcement made earlier today doesn't have anything to do with SharePoint, the publicity it generated will likely get a lot more people to start thinking or asking about the value of social networking capabilities within an enterprise and between a company and its business partners as well as its customers. Eric Charran (Senior Consultant in Microsoft Consulting Services), Dino Dato-on (SharePoint Ranger), and Greg Lang (Program Manager for Microsoft Enterprise Services Communities Tools and Infrastructure) have written a soon to be published white paper that addresses the topic of the importance of social networking in an organization and how to properly implement MOSS 2007 as a social networking solution. Excerpted below are key portions of the white paper, which I hope will get you to think about MOSS 2007 as your default option for enabling and managing social networks for business use.

Overview of Social Networking

The concept of social networking has recently experienced a great deal of visibility as a means to increase the productivity of information workers and organization members. Social networking as a concept involves the ability for a technology platform to provide enhanced information and interaction capabilities with regard to people and resources. Within an organization, the goal of a technology platform providing social networking is to enhance communication, collaboration and bring about productivity increases regarding day to day activities and projects.
Information workers can leverage existing organizational social relationships in order to quickly find resources and colleagues to assist in projects, help with identifying and unblocking daily work issues as well as provide a deeper understanding of team structures and organizational relationships. The application of social networking within professional organizations is designed to help members quickly navigate team structures and groups in order to achieve results.
Comprehension of the value that social networking systems provide to organizations can be provided by the review of some empirical studies that focus on productivity enhancements before and after implementation.
Social networking systems in the enterprise (commonly referred to as “Communities of Practice”) can help increase productivity and efficiency. Take for instance this finding from a study performed by Lesser and Storck in 2001: "Communities appear to be an effective way for organizations to handle unstructured problems and to share knowledge outside of the traditional structural boundaries. In addition, the community concept is acknowledged to be a means of developing and maintaining long-term organizational memory. These outcomes are an important, yet often unrecognized, supplement to the value that individual members of a community obtain in the form of enriched learning and higher motivation to apply what they learn."
Social networking also assists in the extinction of information and capability silos by identifying subject matter experts and resources. Information workers seeking these resources can use a social networking technology platform discover individuals and teams that are related to their initiative or effort. This process, supported by the right technology circumvents a traditionally elongated and arduous discovery and resource-seeking process.

Office SharePoint Server as a Social Networking Solution

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 adds a significant social networking context to its existing collaboration and communication features and capabilities. By providing a framework for the establishment of user profiles and the ability to understand the organizational hierarchy between these profiles, Office SharePoint Server can easily connect information workers and organization members together.
Using the concept of individual, customizable user profiles, Office SharePoint Server allows users to publish their own personal and team information to the organization. Combined with information from organizational directory services such as Active Directory or other Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), Office SharePoint Server builds a foundational organizational hierarchy that is used to present workgroup and colleague information to organization members. This rapid method of presenting friends and colleagues in an automated fashion provides quick access for information workers to teams and extended resources. Office SharePoint Server logically extends existing organizational directory services, combined with additional information sources to knit together a team-based view of organizational relationships and presents them to the user.
Office SharePoint Server Social Networking Features

Through the use of Office SharePoint Server as a collaboration platform, organizations can benefit from the productivity and communication enhancements exposed by social networking features. SharePoint exposes social networking to information workers and organization members through the use of colleagues. Colleagues are a list of friends, team members and co-workers that are related to a specific person through the establishment of a user profile. Colleagues are presented to users through a user's personal site (My Site) and are built using foundational elements that are established when Office SharePoint Portal Server is implemented within the organization.
Based on the organization's implementation of products including Active Directory, Exchange Server, Live Communications Server 2005 or Office Communications Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server will mine this information at the individual user level to determine other team members, organizational managers and direct reports and virtual team members that should appear on an individual's colleagues list. The colleagues list, presented through web parts on an individual’s personal profile page of their My Site will list these related individuals and provide contact, presence and organizational information to visitors.
Through the use of colleagues, organization members can find subject matter experts, key contacts and business relationship owners in the enterprise and gain instant access to the methods of communication with those personnel. This aspect of social networking allows for increased lines of communications, quick decision making and an optimization of human resources.
Managing Heterogeneous Social Networking Source Information

While the organizational hierarchy import from an authoritative directory store (such as Active Directory) is how Office SharePoint Server builds its initial foundation for social networking, organizations often have supplementary sources of information that can be combined to provide increased or enriched personal profile information. Thus, when users are looking for colleagues, rich information from secondary human resource information systems or personnel databases can be combined with Active Directory to provide a deeper "picture" of the colleague. In many cases, Active Directory contains a minimum amount of information about personal details, contact and address information and reporting relationships. Other human resource information systems contain a wealth of rich publicly accessible personnel data that would assist the social networking presentation features of Office SharePoint Server.
The goal for many organizations is to optimize their social networking experience by combining heterogeneous personnel information into an Office SharePoint Server user profile. By combining this information and modifying user profile properties, organizations can enrich the presentation of team and colleague information to organization members. In order to accomplish this goal, organizations require a carefully planned strategy when combining multiple sources of personnel information to provide a rich user profile for social networking using SharePoint Products and Technologies.
The following sections outline the features, patterns and practices involved with implementing social networking with Office SharePoint Server in an organization. These strategies will assist administrators in offering a full-fidelity social networking experience to organization members that build on solid heterogeneous directory and personnel data management. By selecting and implementing a strategy for enriched user profile creation, Office SharePoint Server can present relevant colleague, organizational hierarchy and team information to information workers.
Social Networking in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

The following sections briefly describe the elements of social networking in Office SharePoint Server. These features allow organizations to implement social networking and leverage the aforementioned benefits of increase productivity and efficiency. A critical component to the social networking features is the establishment of a populated user profile object. The population of the user profile by supplying its fields with authoritative personnel data from external sources provides a rudimentary framework that Office SharePoint Server builds to establish social networking relationships.
Social Networking Features

The following feature list outlines the capabilities that are provided to organization members in the context of social networking.
1. My Sites

My Sites are individualized sites created for each user profile that contains personnel information about the user as well as personal and public views of information, documents and other content. The My Site can contain personal and targeted blogs, wikis, lists and web parts displaying colleagues and other profile information. The My Site allows users to present information about their skills, individuals they know as well as other social information to visitors.

My Site Public Profile:

My Site Private View:

2. Colleagues Web Part

The colleagues web part allows users to present their mined and compiled colleagues to visitors. The colleagues list is a presentation of other organization members that the specified user works closely with in terms of organizational structure, interaction (i.e., email conversations and instant messaging contact lists) and group/site memberships. SharePoint can make recommendations regarding a colleague based on commonality of interactivity with these small groups, but users can also manually add and remove colleagues.

3. Colleague Tracker Web Part

The colleague tracker web part allows organization members to privately view their list of compiled colleagues and to modify their views and inclusion in their colleagues list. The colleague tracker web part allows for the presentation of recommended colleagues and allows the user to modify colleague tracking by profile information. For example, users can modify the colleague tracker to present updated colleagues when anniversaries, profile properties, authored documents and blogs change. Additionally, scoping the presentation can occur when users choose to view colleagues specifically for the user’s workgroup or organization-wide.

4. SharePoint Sites, Links, and Membership Web Parts

These web parts provide the ability for users to view their own Office SharePoint Server site, group and mail list memberships and links as well as those that they have in common with others. Additionally, visitors can view a user’s memberships, Office SharePoint Server Sites and distribution group memberships.

5. In Common With Web Part

Office SharePoint Server provides a summary view of information relating to the memberships, organizational managers and colleagues that a visitor has in common with the owner of a My Site.

6. Presence Information

When coupled with Office Communications Server and Exchange Server, presence information indicating online instant messaging status, Out of Office messages and contact information is displayed whenever user information is presented (i.e., colleagues and colleague tracker web parts, etc.).

7. People Search

Office SharePoint Server supports the discovery of team members, colleagues and other individuals by exposing a search interface in which information workers can search on the organization’s personnel. Results are returned to users and are presented in terms of social distance and relevance for grouping. The search can further be refined by user profile attributes including job title and alternatively be viewed based on search term relevance.

People Search on the term “Contractor” displayed by social distance:

8. People Search By User Profile Property

In addition to the various methods organization members can search on individuals using the people search capability, user profile properties displayed on the public profile property page of information worker’s My Site can automatically conduct a people search for individuals with the same property and value grouped by social distance. For example, individuals with a specific interest can select by clicking the interest from their own My Site profile and find others with a similar interest.

People Search initiated from the public profile page for Jesse Merriam for the term “Photography” displayed by social distance:

Social Networking Components

While the user profile population is critical, there are various other hierarchical components that build on each other in order to present the social networking features in Office SharePoint Server to users. The components enumerated below are fundamental in the role that Office SharePoint Server plays as a foundational element for social networking in an organization. These native components assist in assembling a social networking “picture” of personnel information and relationships based on data from heterogeneous sources and mined interactions.
1. User Profile

The user profile is a foundational component that collects and stores data regarding users of an Office SharePoint Server implementation. The profile contains a set of default fields that are extensible by administrators and customizable for organizations. The fields can be sourced from a variety of personnel information within an organization directly and combined to form a holistic view of users. As depicted in the figure below, data sources that populate user profiles can originate from Active Directory as well as an organization’s Human Resource Information System (HRIS) via the Business Data Catalog (BDC). By combining this information, enriched data regarding an individual’s skills, area of expertise, title, job description, etc. can be exposed through Office SharePoint Server’s social networking features.
Example Data Sources of an Office SharePoint Server User Profile:

While the scope and full description of the user profile object are beyond the scope of this documentation, it is important to understand that consistency and accuracy of the user profile information (and ostensibly the accuracy of presentation of this data in social networking functions) is important. The strategies discussed in this document will assist administrators in organizations to craft an information architecture that eliminates conflicting user profile information from disparate data sources.
The user profile is the core foundational object that enables Office SharePoint Server to accurately serve as a social networking solution. The user profile is used to construct an organizational hierarchy and eventually colleagues for users.
2. Organizational Hierarchy

The organizational hierarchy is a critical construct that allows Office SharePoint Server to begin the establishment of colleagues for users. The organizational hierarchy is built directly from fields within the user profile object for each user.
It is of vital importance that the organizational hierarchy is reviewed and accepted by the organization as it is one of the critical foundational elements of Office SharePoint Server’s social networking capabilities. If the organizational hierarchy is not accurate, all further mining and relationships between colleagues can be adversely affected. The best way to ensure that the hierarchy is accurate is to validate the information supplied to the user profile and resolve any differences and inaccuracies between the data sources that feed the profile.
The information in the user profile is used to tie together individuals to managers and peers. Once the hierarchy is established, it can be displayed on user’s My Site as well as used in the analysis to create a list of colleagues. For this reason, it is important to implement an information architecture that provides the user profile with the most accurate information for personnel, teams, colleagues and membership information.
3. Colleagues

Colleagues represent a core underpinning of the social networking experience. By enumerating colleagues and displaying them on user’s My Site and profile information through various web parts, organization members can easily view and connect with individuals that hold relationships to specific teams, initiatives and interests.
Colleagues are built on the information constructed from the organizational hierarchy. Thus, immediate peers, managers and direct reports are included in a specific user’s list of colleagues. They are also further enumerated by a mining process. Office SharePoint Server analyzes interactions of individual users by mining instant messaging contacts and Microsoft Office 2007. SharePoint communicates with the Office 2007 clients (i.e. Outlook, Communicator, etc.) using an ActiveX control whenever a user is added as a member of another user’s colleague and has consented through his/her My Site. .
The following figure outlines the process by which colleagues are constructed and presented in Office SharePoint Server. The organizational hierarchy is depicted as a foundational element that is coupled with contact information mining. Web parts on the user’s My Site and public profile allow for the presentation of colleague information in the context of relation to the specified user as well as an interface for managing colleague mining suggestions and manually adding and removing colleagues.
Hierarchical Structure of Colleague Formation and Presentation:

Accuracy of source information that feeds the user profile is critical to correct colleague presentation. As depicted above, if user profile information is inaccurate (either being fed from Active Directory, or an alternative BDC source), the organizational hierarchy will reflect these same inaccuracies. Thus, colleague formation and presentation will be similarly affected and present seemingly incomplete or incorrect results.
Planning for the implementation of profiles as part of the Office SharePoint Server implementation process involves a long and careful consideration of the information sources of user profiles, authentication privileges and rights for user profile modifications as well as My Site management and social networking feature configuration. See the following guide for additional information and tools on planning for people and profiles.
See the Plan for people and user profiles guide, part of the Planning and architecture for Office SharePoint Server 2007 documentation.
Conclusion

As a social networking platform, Office SharePoint Server provides an easy to implement and administer method for organizations to begin to leverage the benefits of social networking. Administrative staff needs to understand the strategies for coalescing heterogeneous personnel data into the Office SharePoint Server user profile object to ensure that the social networking associations between organizational members are accurate.
Use the BDC or external data source for non-core User Profile fields that require consistency when creating Social Networking features

The Business Data Catalog can easily supplement custom or non-core User Profile fields. These fields can be custom fields that are added to the user profile by administrators in response to demands by the organization to store additional, business-specific information about users. These fields are not used or leveraged in social networking connections within Office SharePoint Server. However, the same strategy should apply to these fields as well. The fewer sources custom or non-core fields have, the easier it is to manage the information architecture surrounding these fields to present a consistent picture of heterogeneous data within the user profile.
Preserve core User Profile fields to originate from the same data source (preferably AD)

Conversely, to aid in the establishment of a reliable and consistent social networking foundation, single-sourcing the user profile information from an authoritative data source (i.e., Active Directory) is preferred. Active Directory represents a widely implemented store of personnel and account information that Office SharePoint Server integrates with natively. Thus, as a store for multiple sources of identify information, it presents an expansive method of coalescing heterogeneous personnel data sources into a true authoritative store of information that can be used to populate the Office SharePoint Server user profile.
As organizations invest in various software packages to be the authoritative information store for various aspects of personnel information, it is important to design an information architecture and technical solution around the inclusion of this data into Office SharePoint Server as part of a user's profile. As such, a strategy is required to ensure that data from these sources don't conflict, overlap and cause inconsistencies in the social mining involved in creating colleague matches.