Using a Windows SharePoint Services Web Site

A Windows SharePoint Services Web site provides a convenient way for the Web site users to share information with one another. Users of the Web site can be given different levels of access that span from simply being able to browse the site without changing any content to being able to redesign the pages themselves right within the Web browser.

Windows SharePoint Services Web sites work in a completely different way than Web sites you are probably familiar with. Instead of storing the content in a disk location (such as c:\inetpub\wwwroot), the content is stored in Microsoft SQL Server. This means that you won't be able to see your Web site's files using Windows Explorer. You will have no access to the files that make up your Web site unless you use FrontPage or Windows SharePoint Services running inside a browser. If you're one of those developers who makes changes to your Web site using an editor other than FrontPage, you need to be aware that such changes are not possible with a Windows SharePoint Services Web site.

How Windows SharePoint Services Works with IIS

Windows SharePoint Services Web sites store all their content in SQL Server. Therefore, there are no virtual directories in IIS that you can configure. All Windows SharePoint Services Web sites inherit their IIS-specific settings from the Default Web Site or the root-level provisioned site.

If you look in the Internet Information Services Manager, you will notice that none of your content appears there. So just how is it that Windows SharePoint Services is able to access server content via HTTP on the Web server?

When a request is made for a Web page on a virtual server that is running Windows SharePoint Services, the request is first processed through a special file running in IIS called an ISAPI filter. That ISAPI filter sits at a very low-level in the request process, and its job is to grab that request and process it through the Windows SharePoint Services content database. It then sends that content back to IIS, and IIS then serves it to the Web browser. To IIS, it looks like the content is in the regular content directory, but it isn't. It all comes from SQL Server.

Understanding Web Parts

At this point, your Default Web Site should be provisioned as a Windows SharePoint Services Web site. Open the Default Web Site in your Web browser by browsing to http://localhost on the Web server, and you will see the Home page for your Windows SharePoint Services Web site.

A Windows SharePoint Services Web site consists of Web Parts, sections of the Web page that contain specific types of information. The Web site shown in Figure C.1 contains several Web Parts that can be edited from within the Web browser if you have sufficient permissions.

Figure C.1. Adding new items to a Windows SharePoint Services Web page is done from within the browser.

Look at the Announcements section of the page. The Announcements section is a Web Part. You can add a new announcement to this section by clicking on the Add New Announcement link. Clicking that link takes you to the Announcements New Item page (shown in Figure C.1), where you can add new announcements to display on the page. The Expires text box allows you to specify a date when the announcement automatically disappears.

If you don't have an Add New Announcement link, see "Cannot Add New Announcements" in the "Troubleshooting" section of this appendix.

To enter a new announcement:

1. Click the Add New Announcement link.

2. Enter a title for your announcement.

3. In the Body text area, enter the text you want to appear below your announcement. Use the formatting toolbar to format your text as you'd like it to appear.

4. Enter a date for the announcement's expiration or click the calendar button to select an expiration date for the announcement. The announcement will automatically be removed from the site on the expiration date.

5. If you'd like to attach a file to your announcement, click the Attach File link and browse to the file.

6. Click the Save and Close link to save your announcement.

Once your announcement has been added to the page, you can click its title to display its details, as seen in Figure C.2. By clicking the Edit Item link, you can make changes to your item. You can also specify that you would like email notification when changes are made to the item by clicking the Alert Me link.

Figure C.2. Editing a previously entered announcement is accomplished by clicking the item and then clicking Edit Item.

NOTE

In order for alerts to work, the virtual server email settings must be configured in the SharePoint Central Administration page. See the Windows SharePoint Services documentation for more information.

Modifying and Adding Web Parts

If you have sufficient rights to the Windows SharePoint Services Web site, you can also modify the configuration and layout of the Web Part itself. To configure the Web Part, click the Web Part menu, as shown in Figure C.3.

Figure C.3. The Web Part menu allows you to edit Web Parts within the browser.

If you don't have a Web Part menu, see "Web Part Menu Not Visible" in the "Troubleshooting" section of this appendix.

To edit a Web Part, click the Web Part menu button and then select Modify Shared Web Part from the menu to display the tool pane as shown in Figure C.4. Using the tool pane, you can configure the appearance and behavior of the Web Part.

Figure C.4. The Web Part's tool pane allows for advanced configuration.

The FrontPage client also provides the ability to configure Web Part properties in an interface very similar to the Web Part tool pane using the Web Part Options menu.

For more information on using the Web Part Options menu in FrontPage to configure a Web Part, see "Configuring a Data View and Web Parts," p. 743.

In addition to modifying a particular Web Part's appearance using the tool pane, you can also easily modify the layout of the entire page and where each Web Part appears on that page using the Web Part Page menu as shown in Figure C.5. When you click this button, you will see the Web Part zones that exist on the page. A Web Part zone is a compartment for Web Parts, and they appear as areas around a dark border with a text label at the top.

Figure C.5. The Web Part Page menu provides access to tools that allow you to modify the Web page.

If you don't have a Web Part Page menu, see "Web Part Menu Not Visible" in the "Troubleshooting" section of this appendix.

To modify a page

1. Click the Web Part Page menu and select Design This Page. The page will switch to Design mode.

2. Move your mouse pointer over the title bar of a Web Part so that the pointer changes to a four-way arrow. For example, in the page shown in Figure C.6, the mouse pointer is over the title bar for the Links Web Part.

   Figure C.6. A page in design mode. Note the mouse pointer on the Links Web Part is positioned in preparation for moving the Web Part.

   

3. While holding the mouse button down, drag the Web Part to a new location. In Figure C.7, the Links Web Part is being repositioned so that it appears underneath the Announcements Web Part. Figure C.8 shows the Web Part in its new location. A Web Part can only be moved into a Web Part zone.

   Figure C.7. The Links Web Part is being moved to a new location as indicated by the translucent rectangle.

   

   Figure C.8. The Links Web Part in its new location.

   

4. From the Web Part menu, select Design this Page from the Web Part Page menu again to turn off design mode.

Shared View and Personal View

When the Web Part Page menu says Modify Shared Page, you are editing in shared view, and changes you make to the Web page are visible to all visitors to the site. Windows SharePoint Services can also display Web pages in personal view, where pages are specific to the user browsing the site. Any changes made in personal view are visible only to the user who makes those changes.

Windows SharePoint Services will display the Web page in personal view by default under the following circumstances:

• You have previously modified the page in personal view.

• You do not have sufficient rights to modify a shared page.

• A meta tag with a name attribute of WebPartPageDefaultViewPersonal meta tag exists in the page.

To manually switch to personal view, click the Web Part Page menu and select Personal View from the menu. If you then click the Web Part Page menu and select Design This Page, any changes made will only be visible by you and subsequent visits to the page will load in personal view by default.

Creating a New Web Part

In addition to editing existing Web Parts, Windows SharePoint Services users with sufficient rights can also add new Web Parts to a Web page.

To add a new Web Part to a Web page

1. Click the Web Part Page menu and select Add Web Parts, Browse to display the Add Web Parts tool pane, as shown in Figure C.9.

   Figure C.9. The Add Web Parts tool pane makes adding new content easy.

   

2. Select a Web Part from the Web Part List and drag its icon on to the page.

3. Drop the Web Part on to a Web Part zone on the page.

Working with Web Part Data

Windows SharePoint Services provides some very powerful tools for working with data collected in your Web site. For example, Windows SharePoint Services is a great place to keep contact information for a team of people. If someone's contact information changes, they just update it on the Windows SharePoint Services Web site. However, you might find yourself needing to do more with that data than just display it on a Web page.

Suppose that you wanted to take the list of contacts from your Windows SharePoint Services Web site and create a Microsoft Access database with the data so that it can be used in other applications. Another scenario might be that your team is getting ready to move to another part of your building, and the administrative assistant needs to update office numbers and email a diagram of the new assignments. It might be beneficial to have a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet containing all the team members that can be updated quickly and easily. Windows SharePoint Services makes it easy to take the data from your site and use it in many powerful ways.

1. Add a Contacts Web Part to your page and add some contacts to it.

2. Click on Contacts in the title bar of the Contacts Web Part to display the Contacts list.

3. Click the Edit in Datasheet link on the toolbar to display the Datasheet view, as shown in Figure C.10.

   Figure C.10. The Datasheet view is very similar to Microsoft Excel.

   

The Datasheet view provides a spreadsheet view of your data. The Datasheet view is very much like Microsoft Excel in that you can filter data, run calculations on data, move data around, and so on. By clicking on the Task Pane link in the toolbar, you can access links (shown in Figure C.11) that allow you to work on your data in Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access. You can export your data to Excel or create graphs and PivotTables. You can also generate reports in Access or export your data to Access.

Figure C.11. The Task Pane contains links that allow for tight integration with Office and Windows SharePoint Services.

TIP

You will naturally need to have Office products installed in order to be able to utilize them in conjunction with your Windows SharePoint Services Web site.