Understanding the Different Types of Migration Tasks

The process of migrating a Content Management Server Web site to SharePoint Server 2007 can be separated into two different types of tasks: administrator-oriented tasks and developer-oriented tasks.

Administrator-Oriented Migration Tasks

Migration tasks performed by administrators typically are those surrounding the content migration. Site administrators perform tasks such as creating migration profiles in SharePoint's Central Administration Web site and running analyses on the profiles. Any content, structural, or organizational related warnings or errors reported in the analyses should be addressed by site administrators before executing the migration profile.

Some warnings and errors will not prohibit the successful execution of a migration profile, nor will you be required to resolve all of them prior to execution of the migration profile. In these instances, site administrators should review each issue identified by the analysis of the migration profile and determine a course of action either before or after execution of the migration profile.

Developer-Oriented Migration Tasks

Developers will likely have the most significant tasks in the migration of a Content Management Server Web site to SharePoint Server 2007. This is primarily because the custom code in a Content Management Server Web site has been written against the Content Management Server Publishing API, which is no longer available in SharePoint Server 2007. Therefore, most of the custom code in a Content Management Server Web site solution will need to be addressed and likely rewritten.

Microsoft recognizes that redevelopment of custom code written for Content Management Server Web sites will be a significant task. In an effort to assist developers with this task, Microsoft has released a free utility, the CMS Assessment Tool, which assists developers in identifying parts of their Content Management Server Web site solution that could lead to migration problems, as well as in determining the scope of the migration effort. We'll discuss this tool in depth later in this chapter in the "CMS Assessment Tool" section.

In addition to using the CMS Assessment Tool, analyzing the generated reports, and rewriting custom code, developers will also be involved in adding some of the new included features of SharePoint Server 2007 into the migrated Content Management Server Web site. These include tasks such as developing custom workflows and document converters, as well as incorporating the SharePoint Server 2007 search components and capabilities into the new site.

Note 

Because many of the tasks that required custom development in Content Management Server 2002 are included in SharePoint Server 2007, developers should not have to rewrite 100 percent of the custom code in the migrated Content Management Server Web site.