SharePoint 2010: Installing and Configuring Features

Features are SharePoint Server 2010–specific declarative (XML) programming elements.
Features configure, associate, define, create, and copy.

Features are most commonly used for the following:
■ To define the columns that make up list types and the fields that the columns
are based on
■ To copy Web parts and master pages to their respective galleries
■ To associate Visual Studio workflows with a list or site
■ To modify and extend the configuration of the SharePoint Server 2010 user
interface
■ To serve as a control panel that allows code and configuration changes to be
turned on and off in the browser

Note: Features can affect four different scopes: farm, Web application, site collection, and site. Site-scoped and site collection–scoped features can be controlled by information workers, which allows farm administrators to delegate responsibility for them.

Feature Location:

Features are XML files and must be contained in a folder in C:\Programs Files\Common
Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\ 14\TEMPLATE\FEATURES.

Basic Know-how:

Features are generally composed of two types of files: a feature header file and one or more element files. Because the feature files are simply XML and because they are located in TEMPLATE\FEATURES, they can be easily inspected by browsing to the appropriate folder and examining the contents of the files. Feature header files are generally named Feature.XML.

Feature Life Cycle
There is a four-stage feature life cycle.
-Features are installed, activated, deactivated, and uninstalled.
-Features can be manipulated with Stsadm.exe, Central Administration,and Windows Power Shell.
-Features are deployed using solution packages with either full-trust or sandboxed deployment mechanisms.

How to install a Feature:
Features are deployed with solution packages and should be automatically installed when deployed. Although it is uncommon to have to manually install features, you should know what the installation process does to install features.

To install a feature, the necessary feature files must already be deployed to the
TEMPLATE\FEATURES directory on all servers in the farm. Installing a feature simply
makes it available to be activated. Any installed feature that does not have the
property Hidden=True can be seen and activated through the SharePoint Server
2010 user interface.

Features must be installed using either Stsadm.exe or Windows Power-Shell.

Stsadm.exe is located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web
Server Extensions\14\BIN. To install a feature using Stsadm.exe, use the following
command:

stsadm.exe -o installfeature
{-filename |
-name } [-force]

To install a feature using Windows PowerShell, use the following command:

Install-SPFeature -Path [-AssignmentCollection
] [-Confirm []]
[-Force ] [-WhatIf []]
[]

How to Activate/Deactivate features:

To activate or deactivate a farm-scoped feature using Central Administration,
do the following:
1. Browse to Central Administration, System Settings, Manage Farm Features.
2. Click either the feature’s Activate or Deactivate button.
3. To deactivate a feature, confirm the deactivation.

Activating Web application–scoped features in Central Administration has changed considerably and is now accomplished using the new management Ribbon.

To activate a Web application–scoped feature, do the following:
1. Browse to Central Administration, Application Management, Manage Web
Applications.
2. Click the row that contains the Web application that the feature should be
activated on.
3. Click the Web Application tab in the management Ribbon.
4. Click the Manage Features button in the management Ribbon
5. Click either the feature’s Activate or Deactivate button.
6. To deactivate the feature, confirm the deactivation.

ACTIVATING AND DEACTIVATING FEATURES IN A SITE COLLECTION

If a feature has been installed to the farm and scoped to a site collection, a site collection administrator can then either activate or deactivate the feature. To activate or deactivate a site collection–scoped feature, do the following:

1. Open the appropriate site collection in the browser.
2. From the Site Actions drop-down menu, click Site Settings.
3. Click the Site Collection Features hyperlink in the Site Collection Administration
group,If the Site Collection Administration group contains a Go To Top Level Site Settings hyperlink, click on it to go to the top-level site, and then click the Site Collection Features hyper-link.
4. Click the Activate or Deactivate button.
5. To deactivate a feature, confirm the deactivation.

ACTIVATING AND DEACTIVATING FEATURES IN A SITE

If a feature has been installed to the farm and scoped to a site, a site owner can activate and deactivate the feature. To activate or deactivate a site-scoped feature,
do the following:
1. Open the site in the browser.
2. From the Site Actions drop-down menu, click Site Settings.
3. Click the Manage Site Features hyperlink in the Site Actions group
4. Click the Activate or Deactivate button.
5. Confirm the deactivation.

ACTIVATING AND DEACTIVATING FEATURES USING STSADM.EXE

Features can also be activated and deactivated from the command line using Stsadm.exe. Activate or deactivate features using the appropriate stsadm.exe command:

stsadm.exe -o activatefeature
{-filename | -name |
-id } [-url ] [-force]

Or

stsadm.exe -o deactivatefeature
{-filename | -name |
-id } [-url ] [-force]

ACTIVATING AND DEACTIVATING FEATURES USING WINDOWS POWERSHELL

Windows PowerShell uses a slightly different naming system than Stsadm.exe and
the user interface. Instead of using the activate and deactivate parameters, Windows
PowerShell use the verbs Enable and Disable. To activate (enable) or deactivate
(
disable) features with Windows PowerShell, use the appropriate cmdlet:

Enable-SPFeature -Identity
[-AssignmentCollection ]
[-Confirm []]
[-Force ] [-PassThru ] [-Url ]
[-WhatIf []] []

Or

Disable-SPFeature -Identity
[-AssignmentCollection ]
[-Confirm []]
[-Force ] [-Url ] [-WhatIf []]
[]

SharePoint 2010:Office Features

Some of the capabilities made available in SharePoint are directly tied to Microsoft Office programs.These capabilities use SharePoint to extend the functionality of Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Office programs that have extended capabilities when used in conjunction with SharePoint include Excel, InfoPath, and Visio. There are a set of SharePoint enterprise services that directly integrate with these programs to provide additional information sharing, visualization, and management capabilities.

• Excel Services: Used in conjunction with Excel 2007 or Excel 2010 to publish spreadsheet content and calculations for access with the web browser

• Form Services: Used in conjunction with InfoPath 2007 or InfoPath 2010 to publish forms as web pages allowing for the entry of data through a web-based interface

• Visio Services: Used in conjunction with Visio 2010 to publish diagrams as dynamic web images allowing for viewing and information visualization through the web browser

While we will not be going into detail about how to create complex Excel sheets, InfoPath forms, or Visio diagrams, the information you learn here will allow you to take those files and make them available in SharePoint.

Excel Services

Excel Services is available in SharePoint Server and is designed to extend Excel data analysis and business intelligence capabilities by allowing you to publish Excel resources to SharePoint for access via the web browser. This allows Excel-based information and capabilities to be leveraged as online reporting and analytical tools.

For example, you can create corporate sales reports in Excel using all of the data analysis and visualization tools available in this product, such as PivotTables and pie charts. This information can be configured to represent the organization’s sales statistics and then published to SharePoint and organized into dashboards or online report structures allowing for easy access by individuals with appropriate rights.

Excel Services within SharePoint Server 2010 allows you to publish an entire Excel workbook, a sheet within a workbook, or specific objects, such as PivotTables, pie charts, and named ranges located within Excel worksheets.

Once published, the Excel content can be accessed from within the library via the web browser or added to a SharePoint page using the Excel Web Access web part.

Publishing Excel content to Excel Services is possible using either Excel 2007 or Excel 2010. Once published, the Excel content can be integrated with other SharePoint resources to create business solutions.

Publishing to Excel Services

Excel Services requires that the SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Features be enabled within the site where you wish to publish the content. With this feature enabled, you can publish Excel content in files located within the site’s libraries to Excel Services.

To publish Excel resources to Excel Services using Excel 2007 perform the following steps:

1. Click the Office button and from the Office Button menu highlight the Publish option. Then select Excel Services as seen in following figure:



2. On the Save As window, select a SharePoint library in a site that has the SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Features enabled and click the Excel Services Options button.

3. On the Excel Services Options window:
a. On the Show tab select the type of items to include. Items available for inclusion are:
• Entire Workbook: This will publish the entire Excel document for use in Excel Services.
• Sheets: This will allow you to identify specific worksheets in the workbook that should be made available within Excel Services.
• Items in the Workbook: This allows you to identify specific objects in the Excel document to publish for use in Excel Services. Objects to publish can include named ranges, charts, tables, and PivotTables.

b. On the Parameters tab specify any cells that should be made editable in the published sheets. Only cells that have been named in the Excel sheet can be set as parameters.

c. Once all of the appropriate options have been selected click the OK button.

4. On the Save As window click the Save button.

The Excel items are saved for use within Excel Services, and the items are opened in the web browser.
To publish Excel resources to Excel Services using Excel 2010 perform the following steps:

1. Select the File ribbon and choose the Save & Send option.

2. On the Save & Send page select the Save to SharePoint option, select a library in a site that has the SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Features enabled and click the Publish Options button (Please refer the following figure)



3. On the Publish Options window:
a. On the Show tab select the type of items to include. Items available for
inclusion are:
• Entire Workbook: This will publish the entire Excel document for use in Excel Services.
• Sheets: This will allow you to identify specific worksheets in the workbook that should be made available within Excel Services.
• Items in the Workbook: This allows you to identify specific objects in the Excel document to publish for use in Excel Services. Objects to publish can include named ranges, charts, tables, and PivotTables.

b. On the Parameters tab specify any cells that should be made editable in the published sheets. Only cells that have been named in the Excel sheet can be set as parameters.

c. Once all of the appropriate options have been selected click the OK button.

4. On the Save & Send page click the Save As option.

5. On the Save As window click the Save button.

The Excel items are saved for use within Excel Services, and the items are opened in the web browser.

If you have any queries or doubts regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know,Thanks..

SharePoint 2010: Content Variations

Organizations that operate globally often need to publish resources in several languages to properly support all users. The process of creating the various translations, or variations, of the content can be time consuming and difficult to manage.

SharePoint Server provides site owners the ability to define site variations and define primary and variation locations for content needing to be translated. Changes made to the primary location can be automatically or manually propagated to the associated variations. The variation capabilities can be integrated with SharePoint workflows that drive the updating process for variations. These workflows can also be integrated with third-party translation services to automate the actual creation of the translated versions.

When users access a site that participates in a variation set, they will be automatically taken to the variation supporting their language. SharePoint Server makes this determination based on the web browser’s language preferences. If no variation exists that supports the users’ browser language preferences, they are taken to the primary site page for the variation set.

To use the SharePoint Server variation capabilities, you must configure the variation settings within the site collection. These settings include the identification of the source location where variations will be created and the configuration of variation creation management and notification settings.

To configure the variation settings for the site collection, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Site Settings page for the top-level site in the site collection.

2. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Collection Administration section, click the Variations link.

3. On the Variation Settings page, follow these steps:

a. In the Variation Home section, enter the site that will act as the starting point for creating variations.

b. In the Automatic Creation section, select if site and page variations should be automatically created.

c. In the Recreate Deleted Target Page section, select if new target pages should be re-created when source pages are republished.

d. In the Update Target Page Web Parts section, select if changes to web parts should be propagated to target pages.

e. In the Notification section, identify if e-mail notifications should be sent to the site owner when the variation system creates or updates a site page.

f. In the Resources section, select if the variation page should use the same resources as the source or if copies of the resources should be created for use by the variation.

g. Once all information has been appropriately updated, click the OK button.

Done !!-The variation details are updated and you are returned to the Site Settings page.

If you have any doubts/queries regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know,thanks..

SharePoint 2010:Working with Site and Site Collection Features

Site and site collection features provide added capabilities to your SharePoint environment. While SharePoint Foundation 2010 only provided a couple of site and site collection features, SharePoint Server introduces many additional features. Some of these features support the capabilities provided through the site templates while others introduce a variety of new capabilities.

Before publishing a post on how to activate the site features, I am writing this post to describe brief introduction behind some usefull features which would be beneficial from business point of view.

Site Features

The site features available by default in SharePoint Server follow:

• Content Organizer: Allow for the creation of rules based on metadata to route content to the appropriate location.

• E-mail Integration with Content Organizer: Extend the site content organization features to receive and route e-mail messages.

• Group Work Lists: Use this to identify if the Group Work Calendar list should be made available.

• Hold and eDiscovery: Allow for the tracking of external actions that suspend the disposition of documents.

• Metadata Navigation and Filtering: Provide lists with settings pages allowing them to be configured to use metadata tree views and filter controls.

• Offline Synchronization for External Lists: Enable the ability to synchronize lists with Outlook and SharePoint Workspace.

• PerformancePoint Services Site Features: Make the PerformancePoint Services list and document library templates available.

• SharePoint Server Enterprise Site features: For enterprise license deployments of SharePoint Server, this feature activates the enterprise services, such as the business data catalog, forms services, and Excel services.

• SharePoint Server Publishing: Include resources like the Pages library needed to create and publish web pages within a site.

• SharePoint Server Standard Site features: Enable the standard SharePoint Server features, such as user profiles and searching.

• Team Collaboration Lists: Also available in SharePoint Foundation and this feature enables team collaboration services in a site that allows for the use of lists and libraries.

• Wiki Page Home Page: Create a wiki page as the site’s home page.


Site Collection Features

The following site collection features are available in SharePoint Server 2010:

• Advanced Web Analytics: Makes web analytics reports available.

• Content Type Syndication Hub: Creates a site that will act as the enterprise metadata hub site.

• Custom Site Collection Help: Creates a library used to store custom help documents for the site collection.

• Disposition Approval Workflow: Makes available a standard workflow that is used to manage the expiration of documents.

• Document ID Service: Assigns IDs to documents. (These IDs can be used to retrieve documents independent of their current location.)

• Document Sets: Provides the content types needed to create document sets that allow the grouping of multiple documents to be managed as a single entity.

• In Place Records Management: Enables the ability to define and declare records

• Library and Folder Based Retention: Allow list managers to set retention schedules on libraries and folders.

• PerformancePoint Services Site Collection Features: Enables the PerformancePoint Services content types and site definitions

• Publishing Approval Workflow: Enables a workflow for the routing of pages for approval as part of the page publishing process

• Reporting: Enables SharePoint Foundation 2010 report creation capabilities.

• Search Server Web Parts: Makes available web parts that are needed by Search Center sites

• SharePoint 2007 Workflows: Makes the set of workflows that are available as part of SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) available within the SharePoint 2010 server environment

• SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection features: Enables enterprise site features that are available with the enterprise license of SharePoint Server, such as business data catalog, forms services, and Excel services

• SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure: Enables publishing-related functionality, such as welcome page management, master pages, and page layouts.

• SharePoint Server Standard Site Collection features: Enables standard features introduced by SharePoint Server, such as user profiles and enterprise searches

• Three-state workflow: Makes available a standard workflow that is used to track the state of items in a list

• Workflows: Enables the SharePoint Server 2010 standard workflows

Any of the listed site and site collection features can be enabled or disabled to control the capabilities made available in the SharePoint environment.

Note: Some site and site collection features work together to provide sets of capabilities. It is important to understand the complete impact of disabling a site or site collection feature before making changes.

If you have any doubts/queries regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know,thanks..

Item-Level Permissions:Part2

In addition to managing security for the list as a whole, you can set security on an individual list item to further refine who can access the information stored in the list. List item security is managed similar to list security, using the same concept of inheritance and permission levels.

To edit permissions on a specific list item, perform the following steps:

1. On the list page, click the Manage Permissions link in the context menu of the desired list item. You can also select the Item Permissions command from the Manage group of the List Tools - Items ribbon after selecting the desired list item.

2. On the Permissions screen, select the Stop Inheriting Permissions command from the Inheritance group on the Permission Tools – Edit ribbon.

3. On the confirmation message, click the OK button.

4. On the Permissions screen, check the box next to one or more users, and select the Edit User Permissions command from the Modify group on the Permission Tools Edit ribbon.

5. On the Edit Permissions window, select the appropriate permission levels for this user.

6. Click the OK button.

The Permissions page will refresh and display the updated user permissions. Giving users Read access to a specific list item will cause them to not see the Edit Item option in that list item’s context menu or anywhere else where it would otherwise be displayed.

Just like list security, you can grant a user access to a specific list item by selecting the GrantPermissions command from the Grant group of the Permission Tools-Edit ribbon and performing the same actions described previously to add users to a list. You can also revoke users’ access to the list item completely by checking the box next to their names and selecting the Remove User Permissions command from the Modify group. Revoking a user’s access completely will cause the list item to never
be displayed to that user when viewing the list.

Note: List item security can be applied to folders within the list by following the same steps needed for list items after selecting the Manage Permissions option in a folder’s context menu. Use this to control user permissions to groups of related list items or to hide entire folders of content from specific users or groups.

If you have any doubts or queries regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know,Thanks...