Mano's blog.

SharePoint Job – SPJobLockType – which one should you use ?

2011-01-13T12:12:00.000-08:00

Architecture:

There are 8 Servers in all..
1 Database Server
1 Mail Server
2 Web-FrontEnds
4 App Servers (out of which one is the Central Admin and also a Web Frontend)

Observation:

If you take a look at the Job Status in the Operations tab of the Central Admin, we can see that some jobs are running 6 instances, some 3 and some 1 instance.

The number of instances is controlled by the SPJobLockType parameter that has to be passed to your job constructor. ( For a guide to creating custom jobs refer Andrew Connell's article http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/CreatingCustomSharePointTimerJobs.aspx )

There are 3 Locks available..

SPJobLockType.None -- if you set it none, the instance will run in all the available servers in the Farm (e.g. Application Server Timer Job)
SPJobLockType.ContentDatabase – this will cause 3 instances to be running in each of the Web-Frontends.
SPJobLockType.Job – this will cause only one instance of the job to run on any of the front-end servers. (Note: it is possible to see multiple instances listed in the Job Status .. but if you look at the time it was last run.. only one would have run lately)

If you have to develop a job, you have to first decide on the type of lock you need for your job.
E.g. If your job does something with the files in the Web-Frontend server you might want to use a ContentDatabase lock.. or if you have something that manipulates the data in a list.. you will have to use Job lock.

Note: If you use other types of locks to manipulate the data in a list.. the multiple job instances will run simultaneously and cause Data Update conflict errors.

Note: If for any reason you re-deploy your job.. either put the dll directly in GAC or deploysolution.. make sure you restart the 'Windows Sharepoint Services Timer' service. (OWSTIMER.EXE)

Note: The account used by the Timer service should have access to the Content Database.

Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview Questions - 6

2010-02-13T05:10:00.001-08:00

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- What are WebPart properties, and what are some of the attributes you see when declaring WebPart properties in code?

WebPart properties are just like ASP.NET control properties, they are used to interact with and specify attributes that should be applied to a WebPart by a user. Some of the attributes you see with ASP.NET 2.0 properties are WebDescription, WebDisplayName, Category, Personalizable, and WebBrowsable. Although most of these properties come from the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts class, ones like Category come out of System.ComponentModel namespace.

- Why are properties important in WebPart development, and how have you exploited them in past development projects? What must each custom property have?

Properties are important because WebParts allow levels of personalization for each user. WebPart properties make it possible for a user to interact, adjust, and increase overall experience value with the programmatic assets that you develop without having the need to use an external editor or right any code. A very simple example of exploiting a property would be something like allowing the user to change the text on the WebPart design interface so that they can display whatever string of text they desire.
Each custom property that you have must have the appropriate get and set accessor methods.

- What are ClassResources? How do you reference and deploy resources with an ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart?

ClassResources are used when inheriting from the SharePoint.WebPart.WebPartPages.WebPart base class, and are defined in the SharePoint solution file as things that should be stored in the wpresources directory on the server. It is a helpful directory to use in order to deploy custom images. In ASP.NET 2.0, typically things such as images are referenced by embedding them as resources within an assembly. The good part about ClassResources is they can help to eliminate recompiles to change small interface adjustments or alterations to external JavaScript files.

- What is a SharePoint Solution File? How does it differ from WebPart .cab files in legacy development? What does it contain?

A SharePoint solution file is essentially a .cabinet file with all a developers ustom componets suffixed with a .wsp extension that aids in deployment. The big difference with SharePoint solution files is is that a solution:
allows deployment to all WFE’s in a farm
is highly manageable from the interface allowing deployment, retraction, and versioning
Can package all types of assets like site definitions, feature definitions (and associated components), Webparts, etc.
Can provide Code Access Security provisioning to avoid GAC deployments
And much more..

- What is a .ddf file and what does it have to do with SharePoint Solution creation?

.ddf file is a data directive file and is used when building the SharePoint solution bundle specifying the source files and their destination locations. The important thing for someone to understand is that the .ddf file will be passed as a parameter to the MAKECAB utility to orchestrate construction of the SharePoint solution file.

- What file does a SharePoint solution package use to orchestrate (describe) its packaged contents?

The solution Manifest.XML file.

- What deployment mechanism can you use to instigate Code Access Security attributes for your WebParts?

SharePoint solution files can add in order to handle code access security deployment issues. This is done in the element in the SharePoint solution manifest.XML, which makes it easier to get assemblies the appropriate permissions in order to operate in the bin directory of the web application.

- When would you use an event receiver?

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

- What base class do event receivers inherit from?

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

- If I wanted to not allow people to delete documents from a document library, how would I go about it?

You would on the ItemDeleting event set: properties.Cancel= true.

- When running with SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges (web context) what credentials are being used?

In a web context, this is the application pool identity. In a timer job and workflow, this will be the 'Windows SharePoint Timer Services' identity.

- When should you dispose SPWeb and SPSite objects? And even more important, when not?

You should always dispose them if you created them yourself, but not otherwise. You should never dispose SPContext.Current.Web/Site and you should normally not dispose SPWeb if IsRootWeb is true. More tricky constructs are things along the line of SPList.ParentWeb.
Also dispose each web when iterating over SPWeb.Webs
Also dispose SPLimitedWebPartManager's SPWeb property (.web)

- What bugs have you found in SharePoint? And what did you do to work around them?

- What base classes do event receivers inherit from?

SPListEventReceiver, SPItemEventReciever, and SPWebEventReceiver inherit from the abstract base class SPEventReceiverBase.
SPWorkflowLibraryEventReceiver inherits from SPItemEventReceiver.
SPEmailEventReceiver inherits directly from System.Object.

- What are the built in ways to backup a SharePoint install?

A: Through the central administration and the stsadm command

- (more advanced) You've created and deployed a Web Part, when you deploy to the server you get a page saying your Web Part couldn't be loaded, click here to go to the Web Part maintenance page, etc. to disable the web part. What step(s) should you take to get a stack dump from your web part instead of that error page?

Go to the web.config file for your website and find the CallStack Attribute in the SafeControls element and set the value to true

- How would you programmatically retrieve a list item?

SPQuery and SPSiteDataQuery. Bonus points for knowledge of CrossListQueryCache, PortalSiteMapProvider. Negative points for use of foreach.

- What are the data types which are supported as Lookup column in SharePoint.

Only Single Line of Text and Calculated columns are supported as lookup columns.

- how can debugging share point application and timer jobs ? with steps?

build application place .dll into gac and reset iis
On the Debug menu, select Attach to Process
select the Show processes from all users check box.
select W3W.exe and OSWTIMER.exe can attach
refresh sharepoint site point break point

- what is web part?

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

create web part project copied .oscx control and build application.place .dll file in GAC .reset IIS.
go 12 hive _layout folder create folder past your .oscx control
go inetpub ->wwwroot->wss->open Your site ->web con fig->create safe control write assembly information of web part application
open sharepoint site ->site action-site editing->Galleries ->web part->new Add your web part.

follow few web part in WSS 3.0
Content Editor Web Part
Data View Web Part
List View Web Part
Image Web Part
Members Web Part .
Page Viewer Web Part

- What are the advantages of SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) over SharePoint Team Services (STS)?

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

Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions

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Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview Questions - 5

2010-02-13T05:09:00.000-08:00

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- What is an ancestral type and what does it have to do with content types?

An ancestral type is the base type that the content type is deriving from, such as Document (0x0101). The ancestral type will define the metadata fields that are included with the custom content type.

- Can a list definition be derived from a custom content type?

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

- When creating a list definition, how can you create an instance of the list?

You can create a new instance of a list by creating an instance.XML file

- What is a Field Control?

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

- What base class do custom Field Controls inherit from?

This varies. Generally, custom field controls inherit from the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.BaseFieldControl namespace, but you can inherit from the default field controls.

- Can multiple SharePoint installs point to the same DB?

Multiple SharePoint installs can use the same database server. Not literally the same database on that server. That server must be SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005. It cannot be Oracle or another vendor.

- How to create links to the mapped network drives?

Creating links to mapped drives in WSS v3 or MOSS 2007 can be done via the new content type for .lnk files.

- While creating a Web part, which is the ideal location to Initialize my new controls?

Override the CreateChildControls method to include your new controls. You can control the exact rendering of your controls by calling the .Render method in the web parts Render method.

- What is the WebPartManager sealed class? What is its purpose?

- What is a SPSite and SPWeb object, and what is the difference between each of the objects?

The SPSite object represents a collection of sites (site collection [a top level site and all its subsites]). The SPWeb object represents an instance SharePoint Web, and SPWeb object contains things like the actual content. A SPSite object contains the various subsites and the information regarding them.

- What does a SPWebApplication object represent?

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

- Would you use SPWebApplication to get information like the SMTP address of the SharePoint site?

- How do you return SharePoint List items using SharePoint web services?

In order to retrieve list items from a SharePoint list through Web Services, you should use the lists.asmx web service by establishing a web reference in Visual Studio. The lists.asmx exposes the GetListItems method, which will allow the return of the full content of the list in an XML node. It will take parameters like the GUID of the name of the list you are querying against, the GUID of the view you are going to query, etc.
Side Question: I got asked how I built queries with the lists.asmx web service. In order to build queries with this service, one of the parameters that the GetListItems method exposes is the option to build a CAML query. There are other ways to do this as well, but that was how I answered it.

- When retrieving List items using SharePoint Web Services, how do you specify explicit credentials to be passed to access the list items?

- What is CAML, and why would you use it?

CAML stands for Collaborative Application Markup Language. CAML is an XML based language which provides data constructs that build up the SharePoint fields, view, and is used for table definition during site provisioning. CAML is responsible for rending data and the resulting HTML that is output to the user in SharePoint. CAML can be used for a variety of circumstances, overall is used to query, build and customize SharePoint based sites. A general use would be building a CAML query in a SharePoint WebPart in order to retrieve values from a SharePoint list.

- What is impersonation, and when would you use impersonation?

Impersonation can basically provide the functionality of executing something in the context of a different identity, for example assigning an account to users with anonymous access. You would use impersonation in order to access resources on behalf of the user with a different account, that normally, that wouldn’t be able to access or execute something.

Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions

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SharePoint Interview Questions for Administrator

2010-02-08T10:46:00.000-08:00

SharePoint Interview Questions for Administrator

What do you mean by Customized and UnCustomized Pages ( UnGhosted and Ghosted ) ?

How can you control the access of the 'My Sites' and 'My Links' links from users accessing the site ?

What are recommended limits of various entities of Sharepoint like Lists, Sites etc ?

How can you make sure to create a site collection in a particular content database ?

How can you stop creation of new site collections in a particular content database ?

What are recommended set of service accounts required for a SharePoint farm ?

Why is it important to seperate out the Indexing Service and the Query Service in different machines ?

What are the methods of backup of a Sharepoint farm ?

Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview Questions - 4

2010-02-07T13:20:00.001-08:00

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- What deployment mechanism can you use to instigate Code Access Security attributes for your WebParts?

- What is a SharePoint Feature? What files are used to define a feature?

A SharePoint Feature is a functional component that can be activated and deactivate at various scopes throughout a SharePoint instances, such as at the farm, site collection, web, etc. Features have their own receiver architecture, which allow you to trap events such as when a feature is installing, uninstalling, activated, or deactivated. They are helpful because they allow ease of upgrades and versioning.
The two files that are used to define a feature are the feature.xml and manifest file. The feature XML file defines the actual feature and will make SharePoint aware of the installed feature. The manifest file contains details about the feature such as functionality.
Side Question: I got asked how the introduction of features has changed the concept of site definitions. SharePoint features are important when understanding the architecture of site definitions, since the ONET.XML file has been vastly truncated since it has several feature stapled on it.

- What types of SharePoint assets can be deployed with a SharePoint feature?

Features can do a lot. For example, you could deploy

Simple site customizations
Custom site navigation
WebParts
pages
list types
list instances
event handlers
workflows
custom actions

- What are event receivers?

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

- When would you use an event receiver?

- What base class do event receivers inherit from?

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

- If I wanted to not allow people to delete documents from a document library, how would I go about it?

You would on the ItemDeleting event set: properties.Cancel= true.
33) What is the difference between an asynchronous and synchronous event receivers?
An asynchronous event occurs after an action has taken place, and a synchronous event occurs before an action has take place. For example, an asynchronous event is ItemAdded, and its sister synchronous event is ItemAdding.

- How could you append a string to the title of a site when it is provisioned?

In the OnActivated event:

SPWeb site = siteCollection.RootWeb;
site.Title += "interview";
site.Update();

- Can an event receiver be deployed through a SharePoint feature?

Yes.

- What is a content type?

A content type is an information blueprint basically that can be re-used throughout a SharePoint environment for defining things like metadata and associated behaviors. It is basically an extension of a SharePoint list, however makes it portable for use throughout an instance regardless of where the instantiation occurs, ergo has location independence. Multiple content types can exist in one document library assuming that the appropriate document library settings are enabled. The content type will contain things like the metadata, listform pages, workflows, templates (if a document content type), and associated custom written functionality.

- Can a content type have receivers associated with it?

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

- What two files are typically (this is kept generally) included when developing a content type, and what is the purpose of each?

There is generally the main content type file that holds things like the content type ID, name, group, description, and version. There is also the ContentType.Fields file which contains the fields to include in the content type that has the ID, Type, Name, DisplayName, StaticName, Hidden, Required, and Sealed elements. They are related by the FieldRefs element in the main content type file.

- What is an ancestral type and what does it have to do with content types?

- Can a list definition be derived from a custom content type?

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

- When creating a list definition, how can you create an instance of the list?

You can create a new instance of a list by creating an instance.XML file.

- What is a Field Control?

- What base class do custom Field Controls inherit from?

This varies. Generally, custom field controls inherit from the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.BaseFieldControl namespace, but you can inherit from the default field controls.

- What is a SharePoint site definition? What is ghosted (uncustomized) and unghosted (customized)?

SharePoint site definitions are the core set of functionality from which SharePoint site are built from, building from the SiteTemplates directory in the SharePoint 12 hive. Site definitions allow several sites to inherit from a core set of files on the file system, although appear to have unique pages, thereby increasing performance and allowing changes that happen to a site propagate to all sites that inherit from a site definition. Ghosted means that when SharePoint creates a new site it will reference the files in the related site definition upon site provisioning. Unghosted means that the site has been edited with an external editor, and therefore the customizations are instead stored in the database, breaking the inheritance of those files from the file system.

- How does one deploy new SharePoint site definitions so that they are made aware to the SharePoint system?

The best way to deploy site definitions in the SharePoint 2007 framework is to use a SharePoint solution file, so that the new site definition is automatically populated to all WFE’s in the SharePoint farm.

Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions - 4

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Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview Questions - 3

2010-02-07T13:18:00.001-08:00

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- What is the difference between an Internet and an intranet site?

An internet site is a normal site that anyone on the internet can access (e.g., www.msn.com, www.microsoft.com, etc.). You can set up a site for your company that can be accessed by anyone without any user name and password.
An intranet (or internal network), though hosted on the Web, can only be accessed by people who are members of the network. They need to have a login and password that was assigned to them when they were added to the site by the site administrator

- What are the various kinds of roles the users can have?

A user can be assigned one of the following roles

Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.
Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.
Web Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web site.
Administrator - Has full control of the Web site.

- How customizable is the user-to-user access?

User permissions apply to an entire Web, not to documents themselves. However, you can have additional sub webs that can optionally have their own permissions. Each user can be given any of four default roles. Additional roles can be defined by the administrator.
Can each user have access to their own calendar?
Yes there are two ways to do this,

by creating a calendar for each user, or
by creating a calendar with a view for each user

- Can SharePoint be linked to a SQL database?

This is possible via a custom application, but it not natively supported by SharePoint or SQL Server.

- What does partial trust mean the Web Part developer?

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

- How can I raise the trust level for assemblies installed in the BIN directory?

Windows SharePoint Services can use any of the following three options from ASP.NET and the CLR to provide assemblies installed in the BIN directory with sufficient permissions. The following table outlines the implications and requirements for each option.

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

Option

Pros

Cons

Increase the trust level for the entire virtual server. For more information, see "Setting the trust level for a virtual server"

Easy to implement.

In a development environment, increasing the trust level allows you to test an assembly with increased permissions while allowing you to recompile assemblies directly into the BIN directory without resetting IIS.

This option is least secure.

This option affects all assemblies used by the virtual server.

There is no guarantee the destination server has the required trust level. Therefore, Web Parts may not work once installed on the destination server.

Create a custom policy file for your assemblies. For more information, see "How do I create a custom policy file?"

Recommended approach.

This option is most secure.

An assembly can operate with a unique policy that meets the minimum permission requirements for the assembly.

By creating a custom security policy, you can ensure the destination server can run your Web Parts.

Requires the most configuration of all three options.

Install your assemblies in the GAC

Easy to implement.

This grants Full trust to your assembly without affecting the trust level of assemblies installed in the BIN directory.

This option is less secure.

Assemblies installed in the GAC are available to all virtual servers and applications on a server running Windows SharePoint Services. This could represent a potential security risk as it potentially grants a higher level of permission to your assembly across a larger scope than necessary

In a development environment, you must reset IIS every time you recompile assemblies.

Licensing issues may arise due to the global availability of your assembly.

- When retrieving List items using SharePoint Web Services, how do you specify explicit credentials to be passed to access the list items?

In order to specify explicit credentials with a Web Service, you generally instantiate the web service, and then using the credentials properties of the Web Service object you use the System.Net.NetworkCredential class to specify the username, password, and domain that you wish to pass when making the web service call and operations.
*** Side Question: I got asked when you should state the credentials in code. You must state the credentials you are going to pass to the web service before you call any of the methods of the web service, otherwise the call will fail.

- What is CAML, and why would you use it?

- What is impersonation, and when would you use impersonation?

- What is the IDesignTimeHtmlProvider interface, and when can you use it in WebParts?

The IDesignTimeHtmlProvider interface uses the function GetDesignTimeHtml() which can contain your relevant render methods. It was helpful to use in 2003 since it allowed your WebPart to have a preview while a page was edited in FrontPage with the Webpart on it, because the GetDesignTimeHtml() method contains the HTML for the designer to render.

- What are WebPart properties, and what are some of the attributes you see when declaring WebPart properties in code?

- Why are properties important in WebPart development, and how have you exploited them in past development projects? What must each custom property have?

- What are ClassResources? How do you reference and deploy resources with an ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart?

- What is a SharePoint Solution File? How does it differ from WebPart .cab files in legacy development? What does it contain?

- What is a .ddf file and what does it have to do with SharePoint Solution creation?

A .ddf file is a data directive file and is used when building the SharePoint solution bundle specifying the source files and their destination locations. The important thing for someone to understand is that the .ddf file will be passed as a parameter to the MAKECAB utility to orchestrate construction of the SharePoint solution file.

- What file does a SharePoint solution package use to orchestrate (describe) its packaged contents?

The solution Manifest.XML file.

Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions - 3

NOTE: To prepare for these interview question and to ensure 100% success, you should follow instructions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

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Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview Questions - 2

2010-02-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

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- What are the two base classes a WebPart you are going to use within SharePoint 2007 can inherit from?

There are two base classes that a WebPart which is going to be consumed by SharePoint can inherit from, either the SharePoint WebPart Base class or the ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart base class. When inheriting from the SharePoint WebPart Base class your derived WebPart class will inherit from Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart. When inheriting from the ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart base class your derived WebPart class will inherit from System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart. It is considered good practice to use the ASP.NET WebPart base class since the old base class is meant for backwards compatibility with previous version of SharePoint, however there are four exception when it is better to leverage functionality from the SharePoint WebPart base class:

Cross page connections
Connections between Web Parts that are outside of a Web Part zone
Client-side connections (Web Part Page Services Component)
Data caching infrastructure

- What are the differences between the two base classes and what are the inherit benefits of using one over another?

The difference is the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart base class is meant for backward compatibility with previous versions of SharePoint. The benefit of using the SharePoint WebPart base class is it supported:

Cross page connections
Connections between Web Parts that are outside of a Web Part zone
Client-side connections (Web Part Page Services Component)
Data caching infrastructure

ASP.NET 2.0 WebParts are generally considered better to use because SharePoint is built upon the ASP.NET 2.0 web architecture. Inheriting from the ASP.NET 2.0 base class offers you features that inherit to ASP.NET 2.0, such as embedding resources as opposed to use ClassResources for deployment of said types.

- What is the GAC?

The GAC stands for the global assembly cache. It is the machine wide code cache which will give custom binaries place into the full trust code group for SharePoint. Certain SharePoint assets, such as Feature Receivers need full trust to run correctly, and therefore are put into the GAC. You should always try to avoid deployment to the GAC as much as possible since it will possibly allow development code to do more than it was intended to do.

- What is strong naming (signing) a WebPart assembly file mean?

Signing an assembly with a strong name (a.k.a strong naming) uses a cryptographic key pair that gives a unique identity to a component that is being built. This identity can then be referred throughout the rest of the environment. In order to install assemblies into the GAC, they must be strongly named. After signing, the binary will have a public key token identifier which can be use to register the component in various other places on the server.

- What are safe controls, and what type of information, is placed in that element in a SharePoint web.config file?

When you deploy a WebPart to SharePoint, you must first make it as a safe control to use within SharePoint in the web.config file. Entries made in the safe controls element of SharePoint are encountered by the SharePointHandler object and will be loaded in the SharePoint environment properly, those not will not be loaded and will throw an error.
In the generic safe control entry (this is general, there could be more), there is generally the Assembly name, the namespace, the public key token numeric, the typename, and the safe declaration (whether it is safe or not). There are other optional elements.

- What is the CreateChildControls() method? How can you use it to do something simple like displaying a Label control?

The CreateChildControls method in WebParts is used to notify the WebPart that there are children controls that should be output for rendering. Basically, it will add any child ASP.NET controls that are called instantiating each control with its relevant properties set, wire any relevant event handlers to the control, etc. Then the add method of the control class will add the control to the controls collection. In the relevant WebPart render method, the EnsureChildControls method can be called (or set to false if no child controls should be called) to ensure that the CreateChildControls method is run. When using CreateChildControls it implies that your WebPart contains a composition of child controls.
In order to create something like a label control in Create, you would create a new label control using the new keyword, set the various properties of the control like Visible=True and ForeColor = Color.Red, and then use Controls.Add(myLabelControl) to add the control to the controls collection. Then you can declare EnsureChildControls in the Render method of the WebPart.

- What does the RenderContents method do in an ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart?

The render contents method will render the WebPart content to the writer, usually an HtmlTextWriter since WebParts will output to an HTML stream. RenderContents is used to tell how the controls that are going to be displayed in the WebPart should be rendered on the page.
*** Side Question: I got asked what the difference between CreateChildControls and the RenderContents method. The CreateChildControls method is used to add controls to the WebPart, and the RenderContents method is used to tell the page framework how to render the control into HTML to display on a page.

- What is the WebPartManager sealed class? What is its purpose?

The WebPartManager sealed class is responsible for managing everything occurring on a WebPart page, such as the WebParts (controls), events, and misc. functionality that will occur in WebPartZones. For example, the WebPartManager is responsible for the functionality that is provided when you are working with moving a WebPart from WebPartZone to WebPartZone. It is known as the “the central class of the Web Part Control Set.”
*** Side Question: I got asked how many WebPartManager controls should be on a page. In order to have WebParts on a page there has to be just one WebPartManager control to manage all the WebParts on the page.

- What is a SPSite and SPWeb object, and what is the difference between each of the objects?

The SPSite object represents a collection of sites (site collection [a top level sites and all its subsites]). The SPWeb object represents an instance SharePoint Web, and SPWeb object contains things like the actual content. A SPSite object contains the various subsites and the information regarding them.

- How would you go about getting a reference to a site?

C#: 
oSPSite = new  SPSite("http:/server");
 
oSPWeb = oSPSite.OpenWeb();

- What does a SPWebApplication object represent?

- Would you use SPWebApplication to get information like the SMTP address of the SharePoint site?

Yes, since this is a Web Application level setting. You would iterate through each SPWebApplication in the SPWebApplication collection, and then use the appropriate property calls (OutboundMailServiceInstance) in order to return settings regarding the mail service such as the SMTP address.
Side Question: I got asked if there are other ways to send emails from SharePoint. The answer is yes, there is. You can use the SendMail method from the SPutility class to send simple emails, however it is not as robust as using the System.Net.Mail functionality since it doesn’t allow things like setting priorities on the email.

- How do you connect (reference) to a SharePoint list, and how do you insert a new List Item?

C#: 
using(SPSite mySite = new SPSite("yourserver"))
{
using(SPWeb myWeb = mySite.OpenWeb())
{
SPList interviewList = myWeb.Lists["listtoinsert"];
SPListItem newItem = interviewList.Items.Add();
 
newItem["interview"] = "interview";
newItem.Update();
}
}

- How would you loop using SPList through all SharePont List items, assuming you know the name (in a string value) of the list you want to iterate through, and already have all the site code written?

C#: 
SPList interviewList = myWeb.Lists["listtoiterate"];
foreach (SPListItem interview  in interviewList)
{
// Do Something
}

- How do you return SharePoint List items using SharePoint web services?

Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions - 2

NOTE: To prepare for these interview question and to ensure 100% success, you should follow instructions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

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Visual Studio 2008 - how to enable web application templates in class project

2009-11-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is required that we create a class project and then add controls from other project types.. e.g. for sharepoint development we may want web pages available in a class project.

Following are the steps to do so..
1. Unload the project

2. For C# projects add the following

{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{fae04ec0-301f-11d3-bf4b-00c04f79efbc}

For VB.Net

{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}

3. Reload the project. You should now see all the web item templates.

How to get values from 'Person or Group' or 'Lookup' field

2008-11-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

SPListItem item; 
.... 

// To get value from 'Person or Group' field 
SPFieldUserValue fieldValue = (SPFieldUserValue)item.Fields["Agent"].GetFieldValue((string)item["Agent"]); 

//Sometimes it is possible that the field display name is different that the internal name.. 
// in this case use the internalname
SPFieldUserValue AssignedToValue = (SPFieldUserValue)item.Fields.GetFieldByInternalName("Assign_x0020_to").GetFieldValue((string)item["Assign_x0020_to"]);


//To get value from 'Lookup' field 
SPFieldLookupValue jobValue = (SPFieldLookupValue)item.Fields["Job"].GetFieldValue((string)item["Job"]);

Tooltip Balloon

2008-06-08T19:42:00.001-07:00

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"

"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml/DTD/xhtml-transitional.dtd">

<head>

<!--

Derrived from the work of Eric Meyer

http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/popups/demo.html

-->

<title>| mikezilla | CSS Rollovers for tooltips</title>

<!--

-->

body {font: normal 14px/20px verdana;}

a:hover {background-color: #333;color:#fff;}

p.link a:hover {background-color: #2B2E21;;color:#fff;}

p.link a:link span{display: none;}

p.link a:visited span{display: none;}

p.link a:hover span {

position: absolute;

margin:15px 0px 0px 20px;

background-color: beige;

max-width:220;

padding: 2px 10px 2px 10px;

border: 1px solid #C0C0C0;

font: normal 10px/12px verdana;

color: #000;

text-align:left;

display: block;}

</style>

</head>

<body>

| <a href="http://www.mikezilla.com">mikezilla.com</a>

Tooltips using ONLY CSS, no JavaScript: Mike Golding 2002

<a href="http://www.notestips.com">link 1Tooltip1: This link takes you to www.notestips.com - demo</a>

<a href="http://www.notestips.com">link 2Tooltip2: This link takes you to www.notestips.com - another demo</a>

<a href="#" OnClick="return false;">No tooltip</a>

<a href="http://www.notestips.com">link 3Tooltip3: This link takes you to www.notestips.com This tooltip is on... ...multiple lines - yet another demo</a>

&copy <a href="http://www.notestips.com">Mike Golding</a> 2002

</body>

</html>

Some references in a glance

2008-06-07T19:00:00.001-07:00

Send email with attachments in SharePoint

2008-04-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

SPUtility.SendEmail.. can be used most of the time to send email.
But when you want to send email with attachments..
you can use SmtpClient from System.Net.Mail namespace.

Namespaces required

using System.Net.Mail;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;

First you need to get a instance to the SMTP server configured in your sharepoint farm

private SmtpClient LoadSmtpInformation()
{
    string smtpServer = SPAdministrationWebApplication.Local.OutboundMailServiceInstance.Server.Address;
    SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient(smtpServer);
    client.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("mmangaldas", "");
    return client;
}

Once you have that, let say you want to send the attachments in a list item as email attachments..

private MailMessage BuildMailMessage(SPListItem item)
{
    MailMessage message = new MailMessage();
    SPList list = item.ParentList;
    
    message.From = new MailAddress(SPAdministrationWebApplication.Local.OutboundMailSenderAddress.ToString());
    message.To.Add(new MailAddress("to@mycompany.com");
    message.IsBodyHtml = true;
    message.Body = "Hi there, check out the attachment";
    message.Subject = "Sent Attachment";
    
    for (int attachmentIndex = 0; attachmentIndex < item.Attachments.Count; attachmentIndex++)
    {
        string url = item.Attachments.UrlPrefix + item.Attachments[attachmentIndex];
        SPFile file = list.ParentWeb.GetFile(url);
        Message.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(file.OpenBinaryStream(), file.Name));
    }

    return message;
}

Finally, use the SMTP instance to send the mail.

client.Send(BuildMailMessage(item));

Complete code for an itemeventreciever sending email with attachments can be downloaded here.

Some Small Information to remember

2008-03-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

If your solution specifies elements (a.k.a. "resources") that need to be merged into a Web.config file (i.e. "for a Web application") then you must specify the url parameter. If your solution does not have an assembly or if your solution contains workflows, then you cannot specify the url parameter. more details...
To enable session, do it in the CA and also in the web.config. SSP has to be provisioned. aspnet_regsql must be execute at the end. more details..
Modifying Sharepoint Documents Icon is as simple as changing a value in the xml file... 12\Template\XML\docicon.xml. more info..
To show the standard SharePoint icon against new list items in a data view web part (or other XSLT web parts), use the following snippet:

<xsl:if test="ddwrt:IfNew(string(@Created))">
<img src="/_layouts/1033/images/new.gif" alt="New" />
</xsl:if>
Reveal Unknown Error on Sharepoint 2007 pages
<SafeMode ... CallStack="false" ...> and change it to CallStack="true"
Set <customErrors mode="On" /> to mode="Off"
Set <compilation batch="false" debug="false"> to <compilation batch="true" debug="true">

Important Links

2008-03-06T07:48:00.001-08:00

http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2007/05/sharepoint-designer-article-2-creating.html http://www.helloitsliam.com/Downloads/Forms/AllItems.aspx http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/HowToConfigPublishingSiteWithDualAuthProvidersAndAnonAccess.aspx http://msmvps.com/blogs/sundar_narasiman/

Sharepoint Certification

2008-03-04T11:43:00.001-08:00

A very good guide on getting certified in sharepoint can be found in Isahi's blog http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2007/01/sharepoint-2007-beta-exams-tips.html

Site Templates Vs Site Definitions

2008-02-24T12:36:00.000-08:00

The mail difference between site templates and site definitions is that site templates do not include any code but Site definitions include code when you use to build a site. Any changes to the site template is not directly applied to the sites that were created using it.. but changes made to site definitions is automatically reflected to all its sites Site Templates are also known as Site admin templates (*.stp files).. that are easy for any SharePoint site administrator to install into the template gallery without requiring server administration access Site Definitions are also known as Server admin templates (*.wsp files).. enabling tighter integration and enhanced functionality within the Windows SharePoint Services platform. They require a server administrator to install. The fantastic 40 templates from Microsoft can be downloaded here .

infopath error -- "The form has been closed."

2008-02-23T11:17:00.000-08:00

"The form has been closed" ( and "The specified form cannot be found." )
This is a very common problem faced by beginners while implementing infopath forms based solutions..

This is specific to Workflow using Infopath forms ( remember .. workflow forms can be developed using aspx forms too).

if you get form closed message means there is a problem with your infopath form ,
1. Problem with form urn's -- you build , save and publish the infopath form. Then in File>Properties menu.. you can get the identity of this form from the ID field.

2. Problem with datasource.

3. make sure that the infopath form is browser compatible.. before you create a new form template.. select browser compatible option.

4. make sure that correct trust for forms is given, give domain or full trust.check error log
Tools > Forms Options.. > Security and Trust

5. Dont forget to include the following in the features.xml
ReceiverAssembly="Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"
ReceiverClass="Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature.WorkflowFeatureReceiver"

If you have done all these right.. still cant view the form after deployment... then the probable cause might be that the form itself is not located..
Forms are located using the following..
1. the metadata in workflow.xml
urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:infopath:Association:-myXSD-2008-02-23T21-31-09
2. Make sure that the forms gets uploaded in forms library.
for this.. you have to place the *.xsn along with the features.xml and workflow.xml in the features directory before getting deployed.
once deployed.. you can verify that the file is properly deployed by checking the forms library.
Central Administrator > InfoPath Forms Services > Manage form templates

Tip:
If you are intending to create a .wsp (solution file).. then you have to do the following ..
1. Add the following inside the of feature.xml where Forms\Form1.xsn and Forms\Form2.xsn is the relative path to my infopath form published location and change the line To
2. Modify the wsp_structure.ddf file such that the two xsn form files are copied to the feature folder like "..\DeploymentFiles\FeatureFiles\Forms\Form1.xsn" MSSampleWorkflow\Forms\Form1.xsn "..\DeploymentFiles\FeatureFiles\Forms\Form2.xsn" MSSampleWorkflow\Forms\Form2.xsn where MSSampleWorkflow is the name of the project

Even after this.. if you still get errors.. then it is probably a code problem.. for more information reside in web server extensions/12/logs

WSS WorkFlows

2008-01-25T03:34:00.000-08:00

Reactive Programs The Windows Workflow Foundation is a new programming framework introduced in .NET 3.0 for creating reactive programs. A reactive program typically represents a set of instructions used to capture and automate a specific business process. Reactive programs are often referred to as episodic. This means that they run in episodes- short little bursts of activity that are followed by longer periods of inactivity in which they are waiting for additional input. Reactive programs must also be written so that they are resumable. Due to the episodic nature of a reactive program that automates long-running tasks, such as document approval, it is impractical to merely track its data in memory. Instead, it is necessary to write the data associated with document approvals into some persistent store, such as a database. This is a critical aspect of reactive programs because, without persistence, the approval data would be lost in the face of an application crash or machine reboot. Windows Framework Foundation Architecture In WF terminology, these reactive programs are known as WF programs. It is also required that these WF programs run in a special environment known as the WF runtime, which is included as part of the .NET 3.0 Framework.A WF program is a class definition that is usually designed and implemented to automate a business process. Each time you initiate a WF program, you create a workflow instance.You add fields to the class that represents your WF program to manage the state that must be tracked within each workflow instance. You add control-of-flow logic to your WF program to move each workflow instance through its life cycle from episode to episode until it completes or is terminated.Activities are the building blocks that developers use to construct WF programs. You can think of each activity as an atomic and reusable set of instructions that represents a single unit of work. An activity is a class that inherits from the Activity class defined within the System.Workflow. ComponentModel assembly inside a namespace of the same name. The Activity class contains an overridable method named Execute. The Execute method is overridden by activity authors to give their activities the behavior they require. Note that the Execute method of an activity is always called by the WF runtime and never by programmers directly.Another very important aspect of the WF programming model is that certain types of activities can have child activities, which are known as composite activities. The WF programming model includes a class named CompositeActivity that inherits from Activity. The CompositeActivity class extends the Activity base class by including an Activities property that exposes a collection used to add and track child activities Creating WF Programs A WF program is a composite activity that contains child activities. The WF program’s child activities can also be composite activities with children of their own and so on. Therefore, a WF program is really nothing more than a composition of activities with a hierarchical treelike structure. Every activity within a WF program has a Name property that is assigned by the activity consumer at design timeEvery activity has a Parent property that references the composite activity in which it is contained. The only activity that should have a Parent property value equal to null is the root activity that represents the WF program itself.The SequentialWorkflowActivity class is used to create sequential WF programs, while the StateMachineWorkflowActivity class is used to create state machine WF programs. Both of these classes inherit from CompositeActivity WF Runtime A hosting application simply needs to start the runtime, and it can then create and start workflow instances from any WF program.An application or service written to use the WF must often interact with an external entity, such as a backend database server, to persist the serialized data for its workflow instances. The WF was designed so that all such interaction with external entities is delegated to the WF runtime services. Any developer or company can create a pluggable component that persists workflow instance state to whatever type of database they would like. To persist the serialized data for the workflow instance, where should the data be saved? The obvious answer is to save it right inside the WSS content database.

Sharepoint Interview Questions

2008-01-20T01:21:00.001-08:00

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- What does AllowUnsafeUpdates do ?

If your code modifies Windows SharePoint Services data in some way, you may need to allow unsafe updates on the Web site, without requiring a security validation. You can do by setting the AllowUnsafeUpdates property. C#:

using(SPSite mySite = new SPSite("yourserver"))
{ using(SPWeb myWeb = mySite.OpenWeb())
{
myWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
SPList interviewList = myWeb.Lists["listtoinsert"];
SPListItem newItem = interviewList.Items.Add();
newItem["interview"] = "interview";
newItem.Update();
}
}

- What does RunWithElevatedPrivileges do?

Assume that you have a Web Part in which you want to display information obtained through the Windows SharePoint Services object model, such as the name of the current site collection owner, usage statistics, or auditing information. These are examples of calls into the object model that require site-administration privileges. Your Web Part experiences an access-denied error if it attempts to obtain this information when the current user is not a site administrator. The request is initiated by a nonprivileged user. you can still successfully make these calls into the object model by calling the RunWithElevatedPrivileges method provided by the SPSecurity class. C#:

SPSite siteColl = SPContext.Current.Site;
SPWeb site = SPContext.Current.Web;
SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
using (SPSite ElevatedsiteColl = new SPSite(siteColl.ID))
{
using (SPWeb ElevatedSite = ElevatedsiteColl.OpenWeb(site.ID))
{
string SiteCollectionOwner = ElevatedsiteColl.Owner.Name;
string Visits = ElevatedsiteColl.Usage.Visits.ToString();
string RootAuditEntries = ElevatedSite.RootFolder.Audit.GetEntries().Count.ToString();
}
}
});

- What is a SharePoint Feature? What files are used to define a feature?

A SharePoint Feature is a functional component that can be activated and deactivate at various scopes throughout a SharePoint instances.
Scopes include

Farm
WebApplication
Site (site collection)
Web (site)

Features have their own receiver architecture, which allow you to trap events such as when a feature is

installing
uninstalling
activated
deactivated

The element types that can be defined by a feature include

menu commands
link commands
page templates
page instances
list definitions
list instances
event handlers
workflows

The two files that are used to define a feature are

feature.xml
manifest file(elements.xml)

The feature XML file defines the actual feature and will make SharePoint aware of the installed feature. The manifest file contains details about the feature such as functionality.
Common stsadm commands associated with feature are

stsadm -o installfeature
stsadm -o uninstallfeature
stsadm -o activatefeature
stsadm -o deactivatefeature

- What are content types ?

A content type is a flexible and reusable WSS type definition that defines the columns and behavior for an item in a list or a document in a document library.
For example,
-you can create a content type for a 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 attach both the contenttypes to a document library, which allows you to capture metadata based on the contenttype selected during creation of the document.

Content type can be created by the following

from the rootweb of a site collection, go to Site Action > Site Settings > Galleries > Site content types
using a feature

5. Workflow can be applied to what all elements of SharePoint ?

While workflow associations are often created directly on lists and document libraries, a workflow association can also be created on a content type that exists within the Content Type Gallery for the current site or content types defined within a list.
In short, it can be applied ...

At the level of a list (or document library)
At the level of a content type defined at site scope
At the level of a site ( Sharepoint 2010 )

- What are the ways to initiate the workflow ?

Automatic (on item added or item deleted)
Manual (standard WSS UI interface)
Manual (Custom UI Interface)
Programatically through custom code

7. What are the types of input forms that can be created for a workflow ?

You can create four different types of input forms including an association form, an initiation form, a modification form, and a task edit form. Note that these forms are optional when you create a workflow template.

8. What are ways to create input forms for workflow ?

Two different approaches can be used to develop custom input forms for a WSS workflow template.

You can create your forms by using custom application pages, which are standard .aspx pages deployed to run out of the _layouts directory. ( disadv: lot of code required when compared to Infopath approach)
using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 (disadv: picks up a dependenct on MOSS, i.e. it cannot run in a standalone WSS environment)

9. What is the difference between method activity and event activity in WF ?

A method activity is one that performs an action, such as creating or updating a task. An event activity is one that runs in response to an action occurring.

10. What does SPWeb.EnsureUser method do?

Checks whether the specified login name belongs to a valid user of the Web site, and if the login name does not already exist, adds it to the Web site. e.g SPUser usr = myWeb.EnsureUser("mmangaldas");

11. While creating a Webpart, which is the ideal location to Initialize my new controls ?

Override the CreateChildControls method to include your new controls. To make sure that the new controls are initialized.. call 'EnsureChildControls' in the webparts Render method. You can control the exact Rendering of your controls by calling the .Render method in the webparts Render method.

12. How to query from multiple lists ?

Use SPSiteDataQuery to fetch data from multiple lists. more details..

13.How Does SharePoint work?

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

14. What is the difference between Syncronous & Asyncronous events?

Syncronous calls ending with 'ing' E.g. ItemDeleting Event Handler code execute BEFORE action is committed WSS waits for code to return Option to cancel and return error code
Asyncronous calls ending with 'ed' E.g. ItemDeleted Event Handler code executes AFTER action is committed WSS does not wait for code to return Executed in its own Worker thread.

15. What is ServerUpdate() ?

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

16. What is query.ViewAttributes OR How can you force SPQuery to return results from all the folders of the list?

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

Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions

NOTE: To prepare for these interview question and to ensure 100% success, you should follow instructions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

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Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

2008-01-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

Check-out interview questions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview Questions

Read the book -- Inside Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0

by Ted Pattison and Daniel Larson

This is an excellent book and will give insight on all the topics generally asked in interviews.

Another good book is Professional SharePoint 2007 Development

Some items to look at as a developer..

General info on WSS 3.0 development.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530302.aspx
Application page. Allows the use of inline custom code. Application pages or "_layout" pages are stored on the SharePoint Web server and made available via a Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) virtual directory. Though application pages behave much like other ASPX pages and allow the use of inline custom code, they differ from content pages in that they cannot be used to host SharePoint features such as dynamic Web Parts and Web Part zones. For more information, see Creating an Application Page in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
WebParts.
http://blogs.tamtam.nl/mart/CreateASharePoint2007WebpartStepByStep.aspx
- Server Controls. User Controls on creation and how to install / deploy them.
Content type. A reusable collection of settings to apply to a certain category of content such as documents and folders. Content types are designed to help users organize their SharePoint content in a more meaningful way. For more information, see Introduction to Content Types.
Custom action. Represents a link, toolbar button, menu item, or any control that can be added to a toolbar or menu that appears in the UI. You define custom actions by using a custom action element within a feature definition file. You can bind custom actions to a list type, content type, file type, or programmatic identifier (ProgID). For more information, see Custom Action Definitions.
Event receiver. Evaluator of an event and definer of the behavior of an application. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 allows you to define event handlers within libraries, lists, and sites. Event receivers can be defined by using a receiver element within a feature definition file. For more information, see Event Registrations.
Feature. A package of Windows SharePoint Services elements that can be activated for a specific scope and that helps users accomplish a particular goal or task. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces this inherently portable and modular functionality, which simplifies modification of sites through site definitions. For more information, see Working with Features. -- Inside Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0
Master page. Pages that provide a consistent layout and appearance (look and feel) for SharePoint sites. They allow you to factor out layout, structure, and interface elements such as headers, footers, navigation bars, and content placeholders. Master pages in ASP.NET 2.0 and master pages in Windows SharePoint Services work in the same way. For more information, see Building Simple Master Pages for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
Module. A file or collection of file instances that define the location where the files are installed during site creation. Modules are frequently used to implement a Web Part Page in the site. You can define modules by using a module element within a feature definition file. For more information, see Modules.
Object Model. what is the architecture of sharepoint and how is it represented programmatically. You have to create a webapplication as the first step.. and specify a port number if the default port 80 is already taken. This is not accessible as yet for browsing.. but you can see that a new website is created in the IIS. Next step would be to create a SiteCollection (multiple sitecollection can be created in a single website). Creating a site collection creates a default root site. This root site is accessible through the browser. you can go ahead to create multiple child sites under the root site.
This was the administrative terms used. but for programming, to access the SiteCollection we have to use SpSite and for the Sites we have to use SpWeb.
- SharePoint site: A Web site hosted in a virtual URL. A SharePoint site is a place for collaboration, communication, or content storage. Depending on your business needs, you can create sites such as team sites, blog sites, wiki sites, and others. You can customize a site's appearance, users, user permissions, galleries, and site administration by using the Site Settings administration pages.
- SharePoint site collection: A collection of SharePoint sites that share common administration pages and site settings. Site collections allow you to share content types, site columns, templates, and Web Parts within a group of SharePoint sites.
- SharePoint Web farm: A group of Office SharePoint 2007 servers that share the same configuration database. All site content and all configuration data is shared for all front-end Web servers in a server farm.
Custom List Definition.
http://ari.provoke.co.nz/archive/2007/04/18/creating-a-custom-sharepoint-2007-list-definition.aspx
Site definition. A set of files that includes a master XML configuration file that is stored on all front-end Web servers. A site definition provides the basic blueprint for how sites look, what lists they include, their default navigational structures, and so on. For more information, see Working with Site Templates and Definitions.
Site template. A package containing a set of differences and changes from a base site definition that is created through the UI or through implementation of the object model. The site template package is stored as a .cab-based file that can be downloaded or uploaded to site collections by users with the appropriate rights. Site templates offer a measure of portability to SharePoint applications. For more information, see Working with Site Templates and Definitions.
Solution. A file that is a bundling of all the components for extending Windows SharePoint Services in a particular way. A solution file has a .cab-based format with a .wsp extension. A solution is a deployable, reusable package that can contain a set of Features, site definitions, and assemblies that apply to sites, and that you can enable or disable individually. You can use the solution file to deploy the contents of a Web Part package, including assemblies, class resources, and other package components. For more information see, Solution Overview.
Theme. A group of files (CSS, images) that allow you to define the appearance (look and feel) of Web pages. Themes in ASP.NET 2.0 and themes in SharePoint Products and Technologies work in the same way. Themes are used to help organizations to brand their portals and team sites. Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes a set of predefined themes. However, as a developer, you can create custom themes for your company. For more information, see How to: Customize Themes.
Code Access Security -- general info. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms916855.aspx -- SPS 2003 but gives overall info)
HTTPHandlers in Sharepoint.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457204.aspx
Programming Jobs in Sharepoint.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc427068.aspx
WWF
Custom Webservices. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms464040.aspx .

Sharepoint Interview Questions Links

http://www.sharepointsecurity.com/blog/sharepoint/sharepoint-2007-development/sharepoint-developer-interview-questions-answers/

http://megasolutions.net/qs/Sharepoint_Portal_Interview_Questions.aspx

Ultimate set of How-Tos in Sharepoint development .. (I like Andrew Connell's work the most)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb892193.aspx

A great set of How-to's will get you going..
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100646991033.aspx

Some demo videos..
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA102199841033.aspx

Creating a Site Definition

2007-03-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

What is site definition ? In simple words, it is a set of files present in you file system that make up the core of your site. All the OOB(out of box) site definitions are located under :\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates. When do you use a site definition ? Chances are that you go to a client, show them the features of sharepoint and wow, he agrees to go ahead for a development project. The first thing you will notice is that the clients requirements demands a whole load of custom lists and definitions. And this is recurring, i.e. he wants the same kind of list and definitions in every subsite he wants to create. Here comes Site Definition. You can use site templates for the same purpose of customizing your base site to build your site, but customizing in a broad perspective, site definition is better. Different ways to create and deploy a site definition.. 1. Using the SharePoint Solutions Generator a. SharePoint Solutions Generator is installed when you install Visual Studio Extensions for WSS 3.0 for VS.Net2005. b. Start the SSG ("C:\Program Files\Microsoft SharePoint Developer Tools\ssg\SPSolGen.exe") c. Select Select Definition and click Next. d. Specify the URL of the Site Collection where you want to use the site definition and click Next. e.Specify the name of the project and location to create the project and click Next. f. Click Finish. ( It will generate a copy of the base site definition for us to work on) g. Once done, click on the link "Click here to open the generated solution". This will open the folder containing the VS.Net project . h. Open the project in VS.Net i. For testing purpose, right click on the project title>Add>New Item>List Definition j. Secify a name and click Ok. It will popup a List Definition Settings dialog. k.Select Contacts and check both the checkboxes and click ok. l. Your newly created list will be added to the project. m. Open ItemEventReciever.cs and search for ItemAdded method. n. Add the following code string test = properties.AfterProperties["LastName"] as string; if (test.Contains("NEW:")) { properties.Cancel = true; properties.ErrorMessage = " THe last name must conetain New"; return; } o. Basically, what this code will do is that it will check for the word "NEW:" in the lastname of the item being added in the list. If not found, it will raise an error and cancel the operation. p. To Build & Deploy, first right click on the project>properties>debug>Start browser with URL>specify the URL of the Sharepoint site q. Then goto SharePoint solution in Properties>Expand the Solution>Select Feature with name ItemEventReciever>Element Manifest>ItemAdding Enabled == true q. Just press F5 to build and deploy. r. Open the SharePoint root site > Site Actions > Create Site > In the Templates section Select the newly created site template in the "Developments" tab s. Open the newly created site t. Select Site Actions>Site Settings>Site Administration>Site Features>Search for your List feature>activate u. You are done.. your site and the feature has been activated. v. To test the feature, try adding any item with "New:" not added to the Lastname, it should throw an error. Known Issues 1. I dont know how to uninstall the site definition 2. The site Feature, ie the customized list appears twice 3. I was not able to verify whether the Feature actually worked even after activation.

2. Manual Process 1. Make a copy of folder ...\12\TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates\sts 2. Rename the folder to STSCUST(any name will do) DON'T use any space between the names. 3. To make aware of the WSS V3 about the new site definition(STSCUST), you need to either create a new config file or edit the existing one. Go to the directory ..\12\Template\1033\XML, here you can either modify the WEBTEMP.xml or create a copy of this, I prefer to edit this. Inside this file you could see

Mano's blog.

SharePoint Job – SPJobLockType – which one should you use ?

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NOTE: To prepare for these interview question and to ensure 100% success, you should follow instructions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

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Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions

NOTE: To prepare for these interview question and to ensure 100% success, you should follow instructions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

SharePoint Interview Questions for Administrator

Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview Questions - 4

Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions - 4

NOTE: To prepare for these interview question and to ensure 100% success, you should follow instructions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview Questions - 3

Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions - 3

NOTE: To prepare for these interview question and to ensure 100% success, you should follow instructions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview Questions - 2

Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions - 2

NOTE: To prepare for these interview question and to ensure 100% success, you should follow instructions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

Visual Studio 2008 - how to enable web application templates in class project

How to get values from 'Person or Group' or 'Lookup' field

Tooltip Balloon

Some references in a glance

Send email with attachments in SharePoint

Some Small Information to remember

Important Links

Sharepoint Certification

Site Templates Vs Site Definitions

infopath error -- "The form has been closed."

WSS WorkFlows

Sharepoint Interview Questions

Sharepoint 2010 Interview questions

NOTE: To prepare for these interview question and to ensure 100% success, you should follow instructions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

Check-out interview questions in the post Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview Questions

Creating a Site Definition

Office Sharepoint 2007 (MOSS 2007)

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