Microsoft Office

Sharepoint

Product Description
Content types are a core concept used throughout the functionality and services offered in SharePoint 2007, and are designed to help users organize their SharePoint content in a more meaningful manner. A content type is a reusable collection of settings users apply to a certain category of content in order to manage the metadata and behaviors of a document or item type in a centralized, reusable way. If you have ever created or thought about creating document-centric SharePoint solutions, then this book is for you. It teaches power users, administrators, and developers how to use SharePoint content types and walks them through the process of creating one in a sample scenario. The first two chapters provide an overview of content types and can be read by anyone who has had experience with SharePoint. Chapters 3 through 8 are targeted at SharePoint power users and administrators, offering details about the components of document content types and walking readers through the process of creating a sample performance appraisal solution. The last two chapters are geared toward developers and describe how to programmatically manipulate the sample performance appraisal solution with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. Topics covered include creating columns, associating document templates, customizing the Document Information Panel, adding workflows, defining an information management policy, reusing content types within a site collection, and programmatically manipulating a content type.

Office Live Workspace

Microsoft Presspass has a great interview with Michael Schultz, Microsoft Office Live Director of Marketing.

There are millions and millions of people around the world using Microsoft Office to help manage their lives. They use the Office products to help schedule carpools, grocery shopping, design party invitations, write reports, just to name a few of the many helpful ideas Microsoft Office helps.

This week, Presspass (of the Microsoft network) spoke to Michael Shultz at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Schultz talked about how using traditional desktop software in conjunction with services such as the upcoming Office Web applications (lightweight, Web-based versions of Office applications expected to be released as part of the next version of Office) could change how consumers work and play, as well as about how parents, students, and home-based businesses can use Office 2007 to make life easier.

In part, here’s what Shultz and Presspass had to say:

Office 2007 can synchronize with Office Web Online to help search for ideas, products and reports. This can help students with school products, businesses with employees online and many other applications. Office Web applications, such as one being developed for Microsoft Office OneNote (becomea MOONie–MicrosOft OneNote!).

Office 2007 can help with tracking your exercise. Says Schulz: “After each daily run, you can post your time to a personal fitness workspace in Office Live Workspace and compare it to previous times. If you share that workspace with your teammates, they’ll get an e-mail every time you update the workspace and will be able to see how you’re doing, and whether they need to step it up.”

Use one of the many online options to share your information: from Office Online, Web based applications, Groove, Infopath, Outlook, for starters. The options are limitless on how you choose to share your information.

Families, businesses, schools and friends can keep in touch instantly with all the available technology Microsoft Office has to offer.

Keeping track of business assets is a thankless task, but it’s an important one. In our department, the form we use for asset tracking is slightly more sophisticated than the forms I showed you earlier, and it’s used by at least 200 people — not just my immediate team.

From the Microsoft Infopath Blog: Until recently, Margaret, the business administrator in my department, used an Excel workbook to keep track of everyone’s equipment. She would send an e-mail request to the team asking for computer statistics, and we would respond by crawling around under our desks in search of the asset ID stickers on each piece of hardware. Once we found the sticker (usually in the very back, next to all the dust bunnies), we would enter the ID number into the workbook, together with the computer’s name, make, model, and other identifying information. Frankly, it was a hassle for everyone. People often transposed numbers or otherwise entered the wrong thing in the workbook. Sometimes they left out key bits of information. It was then up to Margaret to make sense of it all.

Things are much easier now. Instead of a manual tracking workbook, Margaret uses an InfoPath form to keep track of our computer equipment.

The form consists of some identifying fields, such as e-mail address, name, immediate manager, group manager, and so on. When I first open the form, InfoPath automatically fills out these fields for me based on my network credentials. When I enter a computer name, the form can automatically detect the specs for my computer over the network and fill in the corresponding fields. Now all I have to do is glance at the summary to verify the information before sending it on. If I happen to be working offline, I can enter the specs manually, by following the detailed instructions in a task pane that is part of the form.

Technically speaking, this form is more involved than the other two. Still, if you have an idea for a form, it’s possible to start a grassroots campaign to bring your form to fruition, even if you don’t happen to have the required technical expertise. If you can make a business case for the form, you can get management buy-off. Once you have that, you can work with your IT department or whomever else to identify any design issues and technical requirements.

Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 includes a variety of form template samples. You can use any one of these sample templates as the basis for a Groove InfoPath Forms tool. You can add your own customization, or use them without making any design or layout changes. You can also create a new form template in InfoPath starting with a blank form, customizing it in InfoPath, and then importing the newly-created template into Microsoft Office Groove 2007.

Preparing InfoPath Templates to Use in Groove
To use any sample or new form template in Groove, you must complete several form template customization tasks.

Create a new InfoPath form template or select a template to customize.

(Optional) Insert and lay out controls, if necessary. In some cases, you might be able to use an existing InfoPath template as is. You can see detailed information on designing form templates in InfoPath in Microsoft InfoPath Help.

Promote fields in the InfoPath form template design so that they can be recognized in the Groove InfoPath Forms tool.

Set Form Submit options to “Submit to hosting environment”.

Set Form Security options to “Restricted”.

Save the InfoPath template as an .xsn file.

Typically, you create and lay out most design objects (forms and the fields that display on forms) in InfoPath. Then, import the solution into the Groove Forms Tool designer. Once imported, you can update the form design in InfoPath and then re-import the form in Groove. Once in Groove, you can add other Groove tool features such as customized views

Open an InfoPath Form in InfoPath Designer
You create form templates in design mode, which is the InfoPath design environment. A form template is a file that uses an .xsn file name extension. The .xsn file defines the data structure, appearance, and behavior of finished forms which are .XML files.

A form template defines several items, including the following:

The controls, labels, and instructional text that appear on the form.

The way that controls behave when users interact with them.

Whether the form has additional views.

How and where the data in a form is stored.

The fonts, colors, and other design elements that are used in the form.

Whether users can customize the form.

After you complete the design of a form template, you make it available to users by publishing it as an .xsn file.

To start working with an InfoPath form in InfoPath Designer:

Open InfoPath.

From the Getting Started screen, select Design a Form Template…

From the InfoPath Design a Form Template screen, select an existing form template or decide to design a new form template.

Additional Recommendations for Configuring the InfoPath 2007 Template
The following are features and functions that are available in InfoPath 2007 templates but are not supported in the Groove InfoPath Forms tool when you import the InfoPath template into Groove 2007.

Secondary user interface features, such as a task pane, menu, menu area, or toolbar integration, are not supported in the Groove InfoPath tool. If an InfoPath forms tool contains these features, a warning message will display when the form is imported.

The InfoPath template must include one or more promoted fields. The Groove InfoPath tool designer only recognizes promoted fields for use in the InfoPath tool design. Additionally, the selected promoted fields must be field types that are supported in the Groove InfoPath Forms tool. For example, the Groove InfoPath tool does not recognize Time fields, even if promoted.

Custom validation settings in InfoPath form fields are not honored in InfoPath form templates imported into Groove. See the Microsoft InfoPath help for more information on adding or removing validation settings.

Select and Promote Fields
As you prepare your InfoPath Forms template, consider which form fields you will want to make available in the Groove InfoPath tool. Select fields to display on forms, to reference in views, and to make available for use in view filters and searches. In making this determination, it is also important that you should consider which field types can be used use in Groove.

To promote fields, do the following in InfoPath 2007:

Open the form template in the designer.

On the Tools menu, select Form Options.

In the Form Options dialog box, click Property Promotion.

Click Add and then select a field to promote.

Repeat until you have selected all fields you want to promote.

Click OK.

Read more by clicking above.

You can use InfoPath to collect business data from the people whom you work with, including your colleagues, partners, suppliers, and customers. For example, you can use InfoPath to create a form template for expense reports for the people in your organization.

InfoPath form templates can be straightforward, simple form templates that are used by several people in a small workgroup. For example, a 10-person sales team can use an InfoPath form to informally collect and share information about sales calls. The data in those forms can be merged into a single summary report that is sent to management each month.

Alternatively, organizations can design highly sophisticated form templates that are connected to existing corporate databases or integrated into existing business systems. For example, the developers in your information technology (IT) department can design an InfoPath form template to manage the expense reporting process for your organization. The form template can include views (view: A form-specific display setting that can be saved with a form template and applied to form data when the form is being filled out. Users can switch between views to choose the amount of data shown in the form.) and business logic features that enable different categories of users to submit the expense report, review it, approve it, and reimburse the submitter.

The following list outlines some of the benefits of using InfoPath:

Wider access to forms If you use InfoPath and a server running InfoPath Forms Services, you can design browser-compatible form templates in InfoPath and enable them for use on internal and external Web sites. This lets you share business forms with a variety of users, including employees, customers, suppliers, and partners. Users aren’t required to have InfoPath installed on their computers to fill out a form, nor are they required to download anything extra from the Web. All users need is access to a browser, such as Windows Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, or Mozilla Firefox. If users do have InfoPath installed on their computers, they can display and fill out the form in InfoPath rather than a browser. You can even design your form template so that users can open it and fill it out by using a mobile device.

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for InfoPath Forms Services environments (Office SharePoint Server)

This performance and capacity planning scenario incorporates a single Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm that is running InfoPath Forms Services. The farm is used to publish InfoPath form templates. Note that the test results that are shown in this article are specific to InfoPath Forms Services in Office SharePoint Server 2007. Test results may not be representative of the performance characteristics of Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007.

Key characteristics
Key characteristics describe environmental factors, usage characteristics, and other considerations that are likely to be found in deployments based on this scenario.

The key characteristics for this scenario include the following:

Authentication, access control, and authorization Integrated Windows authentication is used in this scenario. Typically, sites and content are secured either by using security groups or by granting access to individual users based on their user accounts. Authentication and authorization affect throughput and require a network connection between farm servers and domain controllers. Throughput is the number of operations that a server farm can perform per second. Throughput is measured in requests per second (RPS).

Associated directory service This scenario incorporates an associated Active Directory directory service to provide user and organizational information. This information is used by Office SharePoint Server 2007 features to provide advanced functionality such as presence, targeting, and audiences.

Complex (read/write) user operations In a forms environment, users view and contribute to content. Throughput targets for this scenario are designed to ensure reasonable response times for complex user operations such as uploading form templates or filling out forms.

Data and site growth over time In addition to estimating the initial data volume, an Office SharePoint Server 2007 collaboration environment must also allow for data and site growth over time. A server farm that is designed for the initial data volume can quickly become insufficient.

User response times Target user response times for common, uncommon, long-running, and rare operation are listed in the User response time table at the end of the article Plan for software boundaries (Office SharePoint Server). Some organizations might tolerate slower user response times or might require faster user response times. The expected user response time is a key factor that determines overall throughput targets. When you have more users, you require a higher throughput target to achieve the same user response time.

User concurrency A concurrency rate of 10 percent is assumed, with 1 percent of concurrent users making requests at a given moment. For example, for 10,000 users, 1,000 users are using the solution simultaneously, and 100 users are making requests.