WSS 3.0 and MOSS FAQ: Part-1

1) What is WSS?

The Windows SharePoint Services is a component of the Windows Server 2003 that allows corporate to create Web sites for information sharing and documentcollaboration, benefits that help increase individual and team productivity.It also serves as a platform for application development. Including such IT resources as portals, team workspaces, e-mail, presence awareness, and Webbased conferencing, Windows SharePoint Services enables users to locate distributed information quickly and efficiently, as well as connect to and work with others more productively.

WSS supplies out-of-the-box collaboration features that make it simple for users to create and design Web sites with shared elements such as calendars, contacts lists, and document libraries. WSS 3.0 is an add-on for Windows Server™ 2003. At its core, WSS acts as a scalable site-provisioning engine, easing the process of creating and managing hundreds or thousands of Web sites and making them accessible to tens of thousands of users. WSS scalability is achieved by using an architecture designed with a Web-farm environment in mind. This architecture is based on stateless front-end Web servers that rely on SQL Server™ for storing content and other site-related data.

2) What is MOSS?

MOSS is Microsoft’s first integrated server platform that aims to provide web content management, enterprise content services, and enterprise search, as well as shared business processes and business intelligence dashboarding to the small/medium enterprise. Essentially, it is a super-powerful Content Management System.

Check question number (5) to know what are the extra features MOSS provides compare to WSS 3.0.

3) What is the difference between SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services WSS 2.0?

SharePoint Portal Server is the global portal offering features like global navigation and searching. Windows SharePoint Services is more of content management based with document libraries and lists.

The basic difference between Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server is that the WSS is primarily based on collaboration theme, whereas SPS is based on an aggregation theme and performs the role of a content aggregator. Moreover, Windows SharePoint Services provides “a place to put all your content while SharePoint Server provides an efficient means to navigate and search through your content when you need it.” According to Microsoft, “WSS is based on a collaboration theme in the sense that it’s designed to store and share list-based data and documents. SPS, on the other hand, is based on an aggregation theme. An SPS portal site is useful for aggregating information and documents from many different places. SPS adds value because it provides users with a quick and easy way to find information and documents that are spread out around a private network or scattered throughout the internet.

4) What are the new features added in WSS 3.0?

There are new features added to WSS 3.0 compare to WSS 2.0:

a) WSS 3.0 is built on top of ASP.NET, and supports Master Page and Site navigation.

b) One problem developers had with WSS 2.0 was that several valuable features supported with document libraries were not supported with lists. For example, document libraries supported versioning and events, but lists did not. With WSS 3.0, lists support many of the same features as document libraries including versioning, events, and folders. There are also some new features supported by both lists and document libraries, such as exposing data through automatic RSS feeds.

c) WSS 3.0 introduces a new column-indexing feature to alleviate some performance problems with document libraries and lists that existed in WSS 2.0.

d) WSS 3.0 adds new extensible field types. You can create an extensible field type by writing a class in C# or Visual Basic® that inherits from one of the built-in SharePoint field types such as SPFieldText and SPFieldNumber.

e) WSS 3.0 allows to create custom site columns. A site column is a reusable definition that can be applied across multiple lists. It defines the name for a column, its underlying field type, and other characteristics such as the default value, formatting, and validation. Once you’ve defined a site column, you can then use it as you define the structure of your user-defined lists. An obvious advantage is that you can update the site column in a single place and have that update affect all the lists where the site column has been used. A site column is defined within the scope of a single site, yet it is visible to all child sites below. You can create a site column that is usable across an entire site collection by defining it inside the top-level site

Site columns give you the ability to perform field lookups across sites, something you couldn’t accomplish in previous versions of SharePoint without writing custom code

f) To support heterogeneous types of content in lists and document libraries, WSS 3.0 introduces a powerful new storage mechanism called content types to solve this problem. A content type is a flexible and reusable WSS type that defines the shape 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 customer presentation document with a unique set of columns, an event handler, and its own document template. You can create a second content type for a customer proposal document with a different set of columns, a workflow, and a different document template. Then you can create a new document library and configure it to support both of these content types.

g) Events in WSS 2.0 supported document libraries but not lists. Moreover, version 2 supported only asynchronous events that fired after a user action had been committed to the SQL Server database. There was no way for the developer to cancel a user’s action inside an event handler.

WSS 3.0 improves event handling by retaining support for the asynchronous events that existed in version 2 and adding support for synchronous events that let you cancel user actions.

h) To make the development of the site definition simpler, WSS 3.0 added “features”. A feature is like a site definition: a directory containing CAML-based XML files and page templates. But features offer a much more modular approach because you don’t need to define the entire blueprint for a site. Instead, a simple feature can define a single site element such as a custom list definition or menu commands to be displayed in one of the standard WSS menus.

i) WSS 3.0 introduces a new deployment mechanism called a solution. This is similar to Web Part packages in the sense that it is an aggregate .cab file containing XML instructions and files that need to be deployed on each front-end Web server. However, solutions go beyond Web Part packages to support the deployment of features, site definitions, and related assemblies used for event handlers and workflows.

WSS 3.0 support for solutions also assists in pushing deployment files to each Web server in a farm. An administrator adds a solution to a WSS farm, which copies the solution .cab file into the configuration database. Next, the administrator runs a command to deploy the solution, at which time WSS starts a timer job to push the solution .cab file out to each Web server and install it.

j) Authentication in WSS 2.0 was based on Windows accounts and their associated Security IDs (SIDs). In a practical sense this meant that WSS 2.0 was tightly coupled with Active Directory® when used in anything but the smallest deployments. This dependency wasn’t a problem for companies that deployed Active Directory when they started using WSS 2.0 and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 for building intranet-based solutions. But for companies building extranet-based solutions, it was far more challenging. The tight coupling of WSS to Active Directory forced companies to create and maintain domain accounts for non-company users such as venders and customers.

All this changes with WSS 3.0 because authentication has been redesigned on top of the new authentication provider infrastructure introduced with ASP.NET 2.0. If you don’t want to maintain user accounts for WSS and MOSS 2007 sites inside Active Directory, you simply build or acquire an ASP.NET authentication provider that’s been designed to store and manage user accounts in a different identity repository.

For example, ASP.NET 2.0 ships with the forms authentication provider that allows you to maintain user accounts inside a SQL Server database. This authentication provider can be configured for use in a WSS site. With little effort, you can put a WSS site on the Internet that allows unknown users to register themselves as members. ASP.NET 2.0 provides convenient support for creating and maintaining user accounts and even allows users to change and reset their passwords.

5) What is difference between WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007?

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS 3.0) comes free with Windows Server 2003. In contrast, MOSS is not free and it is installed on top of WSS 3.0. MOSS has both a server cost and a client access license (CAL) cost.

Note: MOSS 2007 is the portal system, comparable to Sharepoint Portal Server 2003. It brings a wealth of built-in functionality and interoperability to a company's intranet over and above the functions of WSS 3.0.

Following are the additional features that come with MOSS 2007:

a) My Site Personal Site: The My Site personal site gives users an opportunity to aggregate information “for me,” “by me,” and “about me.”

b) User Profiles and the Profile Store: Allows each user to store profile information

c) Audience Targeting: Enables use of Web Part pages, Web Parts, and content to target distribution lists and groups in addition to SharePoint audiences

d) Workflow: Pre-built workflow templates (Approval, Collect Feedback, Collect Signatures, Disposition Approval, Translation Management, Issue Tracking). WSS does not provide workflow templates like MOSS.

e) Integration with Microsoft Information Rights Management (IRM): Helps ensure that access rights applied to Microsoft Office documents in a central library travel with the documents, even when they are downloaded from the library.

d) Site templates: Includes support for several new enterprise site templates:

-->The Enterprise Portal template provides a means for a business unit to create and share content that is relevant to the ongoing operation of an enterprise, division, or business unit.

--> The Corporate Internet Presence Site template includes tools and workflows to create and manage Web content for products and service descriptions, company news, and public filings, among other things.

--> The Application Portal template brings together all of the tools and information related to a particular line-of-business (LOB) application.

--> The Roll-up Portal template consolidates data and content from several applications or locations and presents it in an integrated format.

e) Site Variations: A new feature of Office SharePoint Server, sites can be linked together in a parent-child type of relationship providing a 1-way orchestration framework for web content. This feature allow organizations to deploy multi-lingual publishing sites in a much more structured and manageable environment.

f) InfoPath Forms Services available in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 makes it possible to design Web-capable forms in Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 and distribute them on corporate intranets, extranets, or the Internet. Users can fill out forms in a browser or HTML enabled Mobile device with no download or client components needed.

g)The Business Data Catalog (BDC) tightly integrates external data into the Office SharePoint Server 2007 user experience, providing access to external data residing within backed LOB applications, and enabling the display of and interaction with external data through a set of Business Data Web Parts.

h) Excel Services empowers spreadsheet authors to easily and broadly share spreadsheets that use the new Business Intelligence functionality through the browser. Fully interactive, data-bound spreadsheets including charts, tables, and PivotTable views can be created as part of a portal, dashboard, or business scorecard, without requiring any development.

i) Enterprise Search: Search Sharepoint Sites and Portals across entire enterprises. Searches over 200 file types in many enterprise content sources, including files shares, web sites, SharePoint sites, Exchange Public Folders, and Lotus Notes databases out of the box with the ability to extend to additional 3rd party repostitories and filetypes through the use of Protocol Handlers and iFilters

j) People search capabilities allow users to find people not only by department or job title but also by expertise, social distance, and common interests.

k) Single Sign-On (SSO) - Allows the User to log onto a variety of applications with a single user name and password, therefore integrating back office applications, and helps pre-population with integration to the Profile part of MOSS 2007.

l) Report Center - Provides consistent management of reports, spreadsheets, and data connections.

m) Key performance indicators - A KPI web Part can connect to Analysis Services, Excel Spreadsheets, SharePoint Lists, or manual entered data.

You can get the complete features comparision list from this excelsheet:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/d/c/1dc632e8-71e1-466f-8a2f-c940f1438e0a/SharePointProductsComparison.xls

6) Which features were incorporated in WSS3.0 that existed in SharePoint Portal Server 2003?

a) SharePoint Shared Services
b) Search

7) What is Knowledge Network?

Big organization typically have a hard time sharing knowledge across the whole company. For example in Microsoft, many people would be working on the same problem in different departments unbeknownst to each other. An add-on is available for MOSS 2007 which will make knowledge sharing easier from now on. The add-on is called the Sharepoint’s Knowledge Network.

Knowledge Network for Office SharePoint Server 2007 is powerful, easy to use software that helps people make better decisions more quickly. It automates the discovery and sharing of undocumented knowledge and relationships, enabling you to quickly locate who knows whom and who knows what within your constantly changing organization.

Knowledge Network will make your organization more effective by providing one of the quickest ways to connect with people who can successfully impact your business.

8) What is presence?

In this new Office version, the collaboration functionality is extended to have people availability (Online-offline status, chatting, Instant Messaging, E-Mails, Workspace sharing etc) in almost all the office platforms, which is in general termed as ‘Presence’. For example, a people search in SharePoint results in showing the people are either available for collaboration or not.

9) Define and describe the relation between Web Farm,Web Application, Managed Paths, Site Collection, Portal, Site?

a) Web Farm: The Web Farm is a server or set of server that hosts SharePoint. After installation of SharePoint, roles are assigned to each server in the farm, and services are bound to servers based on roles. The firm is also defined by its connectivity with external services, including AD and Exchange Server.

b) Web Application: In WSS 3.0, An IIS Web site extended with WSS functionality is known as a Web application.
A web application is also known as a virtual server (in WSS 2.0) and an web site / application pool in ISS, web applications allow for logical separation of sharepoint content. Each web application runs under a different process on the IIS web server. Two examples of different web applications are the central administrator site which runs on an arbitrary port number and then standard sharepoint sites which typically run on port 80. They both run under separate processes in IIS.

c) Managed Paths: Managed Paths are elements that can be setup for a web application under Central Administration. There are 2 types of managed paths (Explicit and Wildcard). Explicit managed paths allow you to create a single site collection at that specific path only. Wildcard managed paths all you to create multiple site collections using that managed path.

By defining a managed path you specify which paths in the URL namespace in a web application are used for site collections. You can specify one or more than one site collection exists in a specified path

d) Site Collection: Site collection is a group of sites built on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services that all exist under a top-level site and they share global settings.

A site collection is just that, a collection of different web sites that all fall under the same administrative context. After a web application has been provisioned, a root site collection is created. Additional sites can be created under the site collection and these site have the same security context. Additional site collections can be provisioned within a web application for different security contexts and rights, e.g. you may wish to create a site collection for every department within your company where each site collection needs to be managed differently and by different people.

The users within the site collection are determined by the web application and thus all sites and site collections have the same users. Administrative permissions are given to different users at a site collection level thus allowing the business unit to manage their own site.

e) Portal: A portal is a set of SharePoint Site collection are spread across an organisation through geographic locations and functional areas. The portal is viewed as a single access point to content within the organization

f) Site:A site is a collection of lists, libraries and web parts as well as the web pages that are used to manage them. After a user has provisioned a site collection, a top level site (often called root) is created.[The top level site is the same as any other site in SharePoint, however when editing the site there are additional options to manage the site collection, galleries.]

A user can provision a site anywhere within a site collection where he/she has rights. A site typically provides a web page with web parts to provide some business functionality. When the user provisions a site, he/she chooses the type of site to provision and there are many different templates to choose from.

10) What is Groove?

Here's the official Microsoft description:
Microsoft® Office Groove® 2007 is a collaboration software program that teams can use to work together dynamically in collaborative workspaces from virtually any location.
It is an easy to use, peer to peer desktop collaboration client (not web) application targeted towards small/medium groups that facilitates the secure (192 bit encryption) sharing of information. It allows the creating of customizable workspaces that facilitates the sharing of documents that are automatically synchronized with all the members of a given workspace. Any changes made while offline will automatically be synchronized when next online. Groove is all about bringing teams together seamlessly regardless of geographic location, bandwidth restrictions and allowing a fully collaborative experience for all its use

Key features are as follows:

· Document collaboration tools - make the process of sharing and revising team files easy and efficient, and help you publish completed files to Microsoft Windows® SharePoint® Services document libraries for workflow or storage.

· Threaded discussions - enable everybody on your team to track and contribute to a shared, ongoing conversation on important topics.

· Meeting tool and Calendar tool - help keep everybody on your team apprised of important project milestones, meetings, and updates.

· Custom forms - make it possible to collect structured information from your team using the Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2007 information-gathering program or Office Groove 2007 Forms.
· Presence awareness - helps you figure out who is working on what, when, so you can engage team members at the right time.

· Alerts - let you know when files and information change in your workspaces and when team members perform important activities.

· Workspace Chat - enables you to hold impromptu, spontaneous exchanges of information with team members—wherever they are. Integration with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and 2005 - enables you to initiate phone calls and instant messaging sessions with your team members right from Office Groove 2007.