Summary of Migration Steps


You will successfully migrate a Content Management Server 2002 Web site to SharePoint Server by following four unique and very important stages: planning, preparing, upgrading, and testing/deployment. Each stage builds on the preceding stage and makes the next stage as streamlined and easy as possible.

Best Practices 

The primary goal for all Content Management Server 2002 to SharePoint Server 2007 migration projects should be to migrate your site with all existing functionality before attempting to add features, add capabilities, or implement customizations.

Planning the Migration

In this first stage in the migration of a Content Management Server 2002 Web site to SharePoint Server 2007, the goal is to develop a solid plan for the complete migration process. It is here where any potential problems are identified, and those that can be addressed ahead of time are resolved or mitigated. The following tasks will assist in composing a plan for the migration.

Run the CMS Assessment Tool

Obtaining a complete and comprehensive report form the CMS Assessment Tool should be the first thing you do during the planning stage. The report will help you to understand the scope of the migration project by using its many analyses. It should be fairly easy to identify trouble areas-such as heavily used templates and custom placeholders that need to be rewritten as field controls-by analyzing the various reports generated by the CMS Assessment Tool. Some of the issues identified using the CMS Assessment Tools can be addressed prior to migration-such as postings with duplicate names in the same channel, which is not supported in SharePoint Server 2007-making the process of upgrading less error prone.

Stop Current Development and Determine Site Migration Order

If the Content Management Server 2002 Web site that is the subject of the migration project is currently under active development, this should stop while the migration process is determined and a plan is put into place. Otherwise, actions such as changing template definitions and rearranging channel hierarchies could have a dramatic effect on the scope of work and analysis the migration plan is based on.

Run the SharePoint Server 2007 Content Migration Tool

The last step in planning for a migration of a Content Management Server 2002 Web site to SharePoint Server 2007 is to create a content migration profile in SharePoint Central Administration and run it against your Content Management Server 2002 Web site. The content migration task in SharePoint Server 2007 allows for multiple content migrations following an initial migration. This also will help in identifying any content issues that might arise during the migration process. If any errors are found, they should be addressed and resolved prior to migration.

Preparing for Migration

The second stage in the migration of a Content Management Server 2002 Web site to SharePoint Server 2007 involves updating your environment to the latest available version of Content Management Server 2002. In addition, if time permits, you can perform certain development tasks on the Content Management Server Web application solution that could reduce the amount of time required during the code-migration phase of the process. One example of this is if any business logic is included in the code behind of a template file in the Content Management Server Web application that contains calls to objects in the Publishing API, developers could refactor this code to put the Publishing API-specific calls into an abstraction layer that is separate from the template file.

Upgrade Content Management Server 2001 or 2002 to Content Management Server 2002 Service Pack 2

To migrate to SharePoint Server 2007, the Content Management Server Web site must be running the latest version of Content Management Server: Content Management Server 2002 Service Pack 2. If your Web site is running Content Management Server 2001, the server must first be upgraded to Content Management Server 2002 and then patched with Service Pack 1a, followed by Service Pack 2.

Note 

Content Management Server 2002 Service Pack 1a is cumulative, including Service Pack 1. However, Content Management Server 2002 Service Pack 2 is not cumulative, and therefore, Service Pack 1a must be installed prior to installing Service Pack 2.

Upgrade Content Management Server Web Site Application to ASP.NET 2.0

If the migration to SharePoint Server 2007 is not planned for the immediate future or active development is still being performed on the Content Management Server Web site, and the site has not been updated to leverage some of the new features provided in ASP.NET 2.0 (for example, Content Management Server 2002 Service Pack 2 adds ASP.NET 2.0 support to Content Management Server 2002 Web application solutions), it can be advantageous to incorporate some of the ASP.NET 2.0 features into the solution in an effort to make the code migration task easier and shorter.

Master Pages

SharePoint Server 2007 heavily leverages ASP.NET 2.0 master pages in the implementation of the common user interface components. A Content Management Server 2002 Web site that already leverages ASP.NET 2.0 master pages typically takes less time to migrate than an equivalent Content Management Server 2002 Web site that does not. This is because a WCM site not only requires a master page to be specified, but page layouts use them as well. If the source Content Management Server 2002 Web application project already implements master pages, porting them to SharePoint Server 2007 will take less time than creating them from scratch.

Navigation Providers

Similar to master pages, SharePoint Server 2007 uses the ASP.NET 2.0 navigation provider model in all the navigation controls found in SharePoint sites, including WCM sites. A Content Management Server 2002 Web site that already leverages the ASP.NET 2.0 navigation provider model in its navigation controls typically takes less time to migrate than an equivalent Content Management Server 2002 Web site that does not. This is because after migration if the original Content Management Server 2002 Web application project used navigation controls that conformed to the navigation provider model, the only work required in the code migration phase will be to connect the navigation controls with the provided SharePoint navigation data sources. Otherwise, developers are forced to redevelop the navigation controls in the original Content Management Server 2002 Web application as controls that conform to the ASP.NET 2.0 navigation provider model.

Refactor Business Logic from Templates to Class Libraries

The last step is to move as much of the business logic out of Content Management Server 2002 templates. Any direct calls to the Content Management Server 2002 Publishing API in the template code-behind files will require a developer address the template after migration because the Content Management Server 2002 Publishing API is not compatible in SharePoint Server 2007. Ideally, if possible, all calls to the Content Management Server 2002 Publishing API should be moved to a separate set of classes, providing an abstraction layer that can be addressed and making the underlying framework (Content Management Server 2002 or SharePoint Server 2007) transparent to the templates or page layouts.

Perform Test Migrations

Running test migrations in the preparation stage will help you to identify and resolve any content issues that might arise during the final content migration.

Migrating Content Management Server 2002 to SharePoint Server 2007

Now that the migration of a Content Management Server 2002 Web site to SharePoint Server 2007 has been planned and prepared, the next step is to execute the migration. As previously covered in this chapter, the process of migrating can be divided into two types of tasks: content migration and code migration. The content migration task is likely to take the least amount of time considering that code migration requires a significant amount of developer interaction.

When you review the code migration process in the following steps, it should be evident that investing the time to prepare and upgrade the Content Management Server 2002 Web application project to leverage ASP.NET 2.0 capabilities such as master pages and navigation providers was not a waste of time, as it will make the migration process much simpler.

Run the SharePoint Server 2007 Content Migration Tool

To migrate a Content Management Server 2002 Web site to SharePoint Server 2007, first migrate the content. The content must be migrated first because without it, developers will not have a site to test the development of master pages and page layouts against for the new SharePoint Server 2007 Web site. Create and execute a migration profile within SharePoint Central Administration as outlined previously in this chapter.

Apply Master Pages for Site Branding

Once all the content has been migrated to SharePoint Server 2007 from the Content Management Server 2002 Content Repository, the next step is for the developers to create one or more ASP.NET 2.0 master pages to implement the site branding and user interface. Depending on the size of the site that is being migrated, developers might need to create just one master page for a small Web site, or many master pages if the migrated site is quite large. The master pages will then be leveraged by the unbranded page layouts to implement the site branding.

Upgrade Unbranded Page Layouts

When the migration profile is executed in the first step of the migration process, an unbranded page layout is created for each template definition found in the Content Management Server 2002 Content Repository. At this point, developers should address each unbranded page layout, associate it with one of the master pages created in the previous step, and apply any necessary additional modifications to implement the site branding.

Note 

The page layouts that correspond with the most used templates in the migrated Content Management Server 2002 Web site should be addressed first. Implementing the site branding to the most used page layouts results in the most sweeping changes, allowing developers and testers to evaluate the migration and branding process to make the necessary modifications early in the migration process.

Migrate Custom Placeholders and Other Controls

At this point, the migrated Web site will resemble the same branding as the equivalent source Content Management Server 2002 Web site; the next step is to address each of the custom placeholders that require attention. Some of the Content Management Server 2002 placeholders will migrate to new controls included in SharePoint Server 2007. However, it is likely that many Content Management Server 2002 placeholders will not have been automatically updated to equivalent SharePoint Server 2007 controls, such as the XML placeholder control. Developers should revisit each page layout and address any custom placeholders that did not map to a SharePoint Server 2007 control. Some of these placeholders might need to be rewritten as WCM field controls.

Other custom controls written for the original Content Management Server 2002 Web site might not work in SharePoint Server 2007. Each of these controls needs to be analyzed and addressed by a developer to determine whether they need to be rewritten for SharePoint Server 2007. Keep in mind that many controls that required custom code in Content Management Server 2002 Web sites might be replaced by controls included in SharePoint Server 2007.

Update Navigation Providers

Next, the navigation controls in the migrated Web site need to be addressed. If the source Content Management Server 2002 Web application leveraged the ASP.NET 2.0 navigation provider model in its navigation controls, the process of upgrading them to SharePoint Server 2007 should be fairly straightforward. In this case, developers simply need to modify the navigation controls to use the SharePoint navigation data sources instead of the Content Management Server 2002 data sources.

However, if the source Content Management Server 2002 Web application was not leveraging the ASP.NET 2.0 navigation provider model, developers need to rewrite navigation controls to utilize the SharePoint navigation data sources.

Migrate Data Abstraction Layer Code

Finally, the last step in the migration process prior to testing is for developers to rewrite the data abstraction layer from the Content Management Server 2002 Web application that used the Content Management Server 2002 Publishing API to instead use the SharePoint object model. The creation of a data abstraction layer was a common practice with many Content Management Server 2002 developers because it masked calls to the Content Management Server 2002 Publishing API from the site templates and custom controls.

If a data abstraction layer was not part of the source Content Management Server 2002 Web application, this step in the migration is unnecessary.

Testing and Deployment

Once all the content has been migrated from the Content Management Server 2002 Content Repository, master pages and page layouts have been modified to reflect the desired Web site branding, and the Content Management Server 2002 Web application code has been modified to work with the SharePoint object model, the next step is to perform thorough tests of the entire site, ensuring everything is functioning just as it was in the migrated source Content Management Server 2002 Web site. If any issues are found, they should be addressed accordingly until all problems have been eliminated or mitigated.

Once testing is complete and all issues have been addressed, the migration of the Content Management Server 2002 Web site to SharePoint Server 2007 can be considered complete.

After a successful migration of a Content Management Server 2002 Web site to SharePoint Server 2007, the next step is for developers to take advantage of some of the new features and capabilities in SharePoint Server 2007 that were not available in Content Management Server 2002, such as advanced and extensible workflow solutions, customizing the Page Editing toolbar, and implementing search features, among other things.




Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion
MicrosoftВ® Office SharePointВ® Server 2007 Administrators Companion
ISBN: 0735622825
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 299

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net