Exploring the Portal Web Parts

Right out of the box, SharePoint Portal Server contains a number of Web Parts that are available for addition to a portal area. These Web Parts are as follows:

Area Contents Shows the contents of subareas.
Area Details Displays specific information about a certain area, such as contact information and description.
Contacts Displays the address book information for the area, including information such as phone number, office location, and any other information entered into Contacts.
Content Editor A useful Web Part that allows for formatted text, tables, and images to be easily added to a page. This can be a useful type of Web Part because you can cut and paste from documents with rich text, images, and links and paste it into this type of Web Part. The formatting stays the same, and no special coding is required. More information on this Web Part is presented later in this chapter.
Document Library Displays contents of a particular SharePoint document library.
Events Displays calendar-style information about particular events.
Form Web Part Can be used to create simple HTML forms. The results of the forms can then be inputted directly into your site content. You can create the form in FrontPage or even straight HTML and just cut and paste the form HTML code directly into the Web Part.
General Discussion Displays newsgroup-style discussion threads.
Grouped Listings Groups the area listings into a single Web Part.
Image Library Displays pictures from a Portal Image Library.
Image Web Part Displays specified graphics.
Links Displays user-inputted hyperlinks.
Links for You Displays hyperlinks directed toward the user currently logged in.
My Alerts Summary Gives a personal summary of the SharePoint alerts that the logged-in user has.
My Calendar Links to Exchange Server 2003 Calendar information.
My Inbox Links to the Exchange Server 2003 Inbox of a user's mailbox.
My Links Displays personally created links.
My Mail Folder Displays a defined and specific Exchange Server 2003 mail folder.
My Tasks Links to Exchange Server 2003 tasks.
My Workspace Sites Displays personal SharePoint workspace sites.
News Shows the five most recent news items in a particular area.
News Areas Displays news listing grouped by areas.
News for You Shows targeted news items.
Page Viewer Allows for entire web pages or pieces of web pages to be displayed within the confines of a particular Web Part's boundaries. More information on this Web Part can be found later in this chapter.
Tasks Displays SharePoint tasks (not to be confused with the My Tasks Web Part, which displays Exchange mailbox tasks).
Topic Assistant Suggestions Shows suggestions given by the SharePoint topic assistant.
XML This type of Web Part is extremely valuable because it can be customized and coded to do almost the same type of behavior that a regular web server would do. Simply by cutting and pasting the HTML or XML code into this Web Part, you can create your own customized Web Part functionality.
Your Recent Documents Displays a list of documents recently modified or created by the logged-in user.

In addition to these default Web Parts, Web Parts for individual document libraries and/or lists created within a SharePoint area are available for input onto a particular page.

Many of these Web Parts provide easy-to-understand functionality and do not need to be discussed further. A few of them, however, are unique and should be discussed in more detail.

Using the Content Editor Web Part

The content Editor Web Part can be very useful because information from Word documents or other data sources can simply be cut and pasted, along with the formatting, directly into the Rich Text Editor of the Web Part, shown in Figure 21.6. This allows administrators to quickly create and modify content without requiring knowledge of HTML or custom coding.

Figure 21.6. Using the Content Editor Web Part.

Creating Customized XML Web Parts

As previously mentioned, a Web Part is simply a mechanism by which information is displayed. By default, several useful Web Parts are provided, and others can be easily downloaded from the Web and installed. Some administrators, however, may not be satisfied with what is available and may want to create their own Web Parts that display information particular to their site or projects.

Fortunately, a built-in mechanism known as an XML Web Part can be leveraged to house customized code that will display whatever an administrator can program. You can program your own XML code and input the code directly into the Web Part to make it do what you want it to do. In addition to XML, the Web Part will also be able to use snippets of HTML code, which can be useful if you want to leverage existing code from web pages that you already created, or from the Internet.

To create and populate an XML Web Part, follow these steps:

1.	From the page where you want to add the Web Part, click on the Modify Shared Page drop-down link.
2.	From the drop-down box, select Add Web Parts and then select Browse.
3.	On the Web Part panel that opens up on the right side, choose the appropriate Gallery (normally SITENAME Gallery) and choose XML Web Part. (You may have to click Next to view the option.)
4.	Select the zone to add it to from the Add To drop-down box and then click Add.
5.	After the XML Web Part has been added, click the down arrow to the upper-right of the Web Part and choose Modify Shared Web Part.
6.	In the XML Web Part Options, click XML Editor to add the custom code into the Text Entry box.
7.	Enter XML or HTML code into the Text Entry box, as shown in Figure 21.7. Click OK when finished. Figure 21.7. Populating an XML Web Part with code.
8.	Click OK again to save the settings.

Adding Exchange Mailbox Web Parts

The four Exchange Server 2003 related Web Parts can be useful for integrating the messaging component of Exchange with the collaboration component of SharePoint. The four Exchange Server 2003 Web Parts available by default are as follows:

My Calendar
My Inbox
My Mail Folder
My Tasks

These Web Parts, shown added to a portal area in Figure 21.8, can give users a quick view of mail, calendar, and tasks information from their Exchange Server 2003 mailboxes.

Figure 21.8. Adding Exchange Server 2003 Web Parts to a portal area.

NOTE

These default Web Parts only work seamlessly with Exchange Server 2003 that has Outlook Web Access enabled. Other versions of Exchange OWA are not natively supported via this technique.

Working with the Page Viewer Web Part

The Page Viewer Web Part is also convenient because it allows for a particular web server without replicating that data on the SharePoint Server itself. Entire web pages, or pieces of data accessible via a URL, can be displayed in this Web Part, as shown in Figure 21.9.

Figure 21.9. Viewing an external web page using the Page Viewer Web Part.

Outlining Differences in WSS Site Web Parts

One big difference between SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services is that the availability of default Web Parts is dramatically different between the two environments. SharePoint Portal Server allows for more than 23 default Web Parts, as described earlier in this chapter. Windows SharePoint Services, on the other hand, includes only 13 Web Parts as part of a default team site configuration, even fewer with some templates. Two types of Web Parts are included in a WSS site that are not present on a SharePoint portal, however. Those two types of Web Parts are as follows:

Announcements Shows any messages created in the site.
Members Displays all SharePoint users who are members of the particular site, and also includes their online status if using a service such as Live Communications Server.