Service Application Framework in SharePoint 2010

What is Service Application Framework?

The Service Application Framework allows developers to provide load balanced middle-tier resources that can be managed through SharePoint and leverage the full power of SharePoint 2010.

• Replacement for the Shared Services Provider in MOSS 2007
• API provided by backend application servers and consumed by front-end application servers.
• Used for developing middle-tier applications that are hosted in SharePoint and provide data and resources to other SharePoint features
• Enables services to be shared between computers on a server farm
• Load balance and manage services
• Out of the box - 20 built in services
• Certain objects automatically backed up and restored
• Ideal for deploying, managing and discovering WCF service clients and endpoints.
• Windows Powershell support
• Timer job infrastructure available at Service-scope
• Use of SharePoint configuration store and support for storing data in SharePoint managed custom database is available.

Load Balancing :

• Use Round robbing load balancing
• Service application proxy method invocations must be routed thru the front end web server to an appropriate app server by using a load balancing tool.
• Calls between frontend and app servers to require separate external load balancer than the load balancing for front-end web servers
• SPRoundRobinServiceLoadBalancer can be enhanced or replaced by third party

Management and Administration :

• Services plug their management UI into SharePoint Service Management page
• Common admin tools such as upgrade, backup, restore and account management
• Common UI to manage, start, stop, group, associate, federate and backup SharePoint services.
• Can define specialized admin roles and can be delegated to users who are not farm admins
• Security trimmed

Security :

• Claims-based identity model

For example - Search Service

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What are the Aadvantages of Sharepoint Portal Services (SPS) over Sharepoint Team Service

Aadvantages of Sharepoint Portal Services (SPS) over Sharepoint Team Service:

SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has MUCH better document management. It has check-in, check-out, versioning, approval, publishing, subscriptions, categories, etc. \

Sharepoint Team Service(STS) does not have these features, or they are very scaled back. 

SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has a better search engine, and can crawl multiple content sources. Sharepoint Team Service(STS) cannot crawl multiple contents. 

Sharepoint Team Service(STS) is easier to manage and much better for a team environment where there is not much Document Management going on. 

SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) is better for an organization, or where Document Management is crucial.

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What is a Content Type in SharePoint 2010 ?

Content Type in SharePoint 2010 :

A Content Type is an information blueprint basically that can be re-used throughout a SharePoint environment for defining things like metadata and associated behaviors.

It is basically an extension of a SharePoint list, however makes it portable for use throughout an instance regardless of where the instantiate occurs, ergo has location independence. Multiple content types can exist in one document library assuming that the appropriate document library settings are enabled. 

The content type will contain things like the metadata, list form pages, workflows, templates (if a document content type), and associated custom written functionality.

When would I create a Custom Content Type in SharePoint 2010?

• To associate an information management policy with a group of documents (you should get these groupings from your organization’s retention policy, assuming you have one)
• To associate a global workflow with a group of documents (based on already-established business processes, if possible. It’s really hard to create new processes AND get them right in SharePoint at the same time. )
• To associate a template (such as a blank form or contract) with a group of documents
• To add unique site columns to a specific group of documents to enhance search functionality(search) and/or usability (views). Make sure the metadata is really needed for search functionality and usability, and not just “nice to have” for a certain group of users.

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What is difference between SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010?

Difference between SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010:

SharePoint Foundation 2010 is free software by Microsoft to download and use without any purchase, and SharePoint Server 2010 is paid one licensed.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 is base on which SharePoint Server 2010 is developed however SharePoint Server 2010 is having extra good features than SharePoint Foundation 2010 .

SharePoint Foundation 2010 doesnt have good exposure to Advanced Search functionality, MS Excel Spredsheet support, Visio diagrams, Info Path forms and security features whereas SharePoint 2010 does have all this and some other features too.

SharePoint 2010 Server = SharePoint Foundation 2010 + SharePoint 2010 Additional Features

Click here for more differences here...

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What is the Difference between SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 ?

Difference between SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010

SharePoint Foundation 2010 :

You can find here some of the more important features of SharePoint Foundation:

This is the free/unlicensed version of SharePoint. It replaces Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 2007.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 is built upon Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, IIS and .NET 3.5. All you need is a licensed copy of Windows Server 2008. There are no other licensing costs unless you want the full-fledged version of SQL Server.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 is equivalent of WSS i.e. new WSS version 4.

SharePoint Server 2010 :

SharePoint Server 2010 uses the all features of SharePoint Foundation 2010 and then added a many other features and functionality which are useful for SharePoint application development.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 + SharePoint Server 2010

This is the licensed version of SharePoint, offering a business collaboration platform for the enterprise. It replaces Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007

SharePoint Server 2010 provides the added functionality or features like Advance Search, display, and edit content in external databases, such as SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL, using the Business Connectivity Service.

More exposure towards MS Visio Diagrams, Excel Spreadsheet integration as a webparts on the portal.

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What are the benefits of using SharePoint?

Benefits of using SharePoint?

1. Improve team productivity: Connect people with the information and resources they need. Users can create team workspaces, coordinate calendars, organize documents, and receive important notifications and updates through communication features including announcements and alerts.

2. Easily manage documents and help ensure integrity of content: With enhanced document management capabilities the ability to view revisions to documents and restore to previous versions, SharePoint can help ensure the integrity of documents stored on team sites.

3. Get users up to speed quickly: User interface includes enhanced views and menus that simplify navigation within SharePoint sites. Familiarity with the Microsoft product line, makes it easy for users to get up to speed quickly.

4. Take file sharing to a new level: SharePoint supplies workspaces with document storage and retrieval features, including check-in/check-out functionality, version history and customizable views.

5. Provide a cost-effective foundation for building Web-based applications: SharePoint provides a common framework for document management and collaboration from which flexible Web applications and Internet sites, specific to the needs of the organization, can be built.

6. Search capabilities: SharePoint provides unlimited resources for searching, including allowing the user to input a “friendly” name.

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Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services

What is Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services?

Windows SharePoint Services (referred to generically as SharePoint) is a tool to help organizations, teams and business units to be more effective by connecting people and information. It provides the infrastructure for collaboration and a foundation for building and creating Web Sites to share information with other users; however, you do not need to have expertise in designing web sites to get started.

SharePoint provides places to capture and share ideas, information, communication and documents. The sites facilitate team participation. The document libraries allow for easy checking in and checking out of documents and version control.

A SharePoint Site can have many subsites. Similar to storing file in folders, you can store them within SharePoint sites. However, SharePoint takes file storage to a new level by providing communities for team collaboration. You can create and use a SharePoint site for any purpose. For example, you can build a site to serve as a primary web site for a team or create a site to facilitate a meeting. A typical SharePoint site may include information such as shared document libraries, contacts, calendars, task lists, discussions, etc. The sites can be easily searched and users can be alerted when documents have been changed or new ones added.

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Developer Basics - Introduction to SharePoint 2010 Development

Introduction to SharePoint 2010 Development

Here, you’ll learn everything you need to start developing on the new SharePoint 2010
platform.

In particular this tutorial we will explore in detail the primary development tool: Visual Studio
2010.

You’ll learn the strengths and weaknesses of SharePoint Designer 2010 and how it compares with
Visual Studio.

The topics covered in this article are

• SharePoint developer support
• Debugging your code
• Installation scenarios and how to set up your development environment
• Visual Studio 2010 and the SharePoint tools
• Developing on 64-bit computers

Not all developer tasks can be accomplished using visual tools. The SharePoint SDK (software
development kit—for SharePoint it’s a collection of help files, manuals, and examples) is a great
collection of tools, code examples, and documentation. This chapter will introduce the SDK and
highlight the most useful tools.

SharePoint projects tend to become large. Visual Studio Team System and the Team Foundation
Server are good bases for team development. We recommend, for optimal output from multiple
developers, that you establish a shared environment based on a SharePoint farm. You’ll learn how to set
up and use such an environment and how to incorporate desirable software development practices such
as continuous integration and rapid deployment.

Before You Start

This post assumes that you’re already familiar with SharePoint—at least SharePoint 2007—and its
underlying technologies and platform. However, it begins by clarifying some matters that might be
unclear even for an experienced developer.

First and foremost, SharePoint is an application platform. An application platform is a software
development foundation that consists of an operating system, one or more frameworks, and interfaces
that applications use to accomplish tasks. Primarily, an application platform has the user in mind.
Microsoft SharePoint is an example of a very good application platform.

The platform is a reliable, reusable, and well-documented set of products, technologies, and tools.
While some of these modules are highly usable out of the box, others may be replaced, customized, or
modified according to specific needs. The platform components are dedicated to specific services they
provide and that other components can consume.


An application provides business capabilities to its users via its components. A platform is classified
as having a service-oriented architecture (SOA) if the components provide a standard way to
communicate via services. The services use providers that act as a transparent layer between the
underlying data source and the service. SOA has evolved predominantly by using XML-based web
services. However, these services are not limited to XML, and modern platforms may support many
other data transmission standards. An application platform provides many ways to access the services,
and this is true for SharePoint. As a developer you not only consume such services, but also create
services, customize existing ones, and install providers appropriate to the business cases.

The production environment for the SharePoint application platform consists of the following:

• Windows Server as the common server platform.

For SharePoint 2010, Windows Server 2008 (64 bit) is the minimum requirement.
As parts of the operating system, you have to have access to the following:

• Microsoft Management Console (MMC) as the common server interface.

• The .NET Framework and the underlying Common Language Runtime

(CLR), as well as the additional libraries such as Windows Workflow
Foundation (WF).

• SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008/2008 R2, or a corresponding version of SQL
Server Express edition. SQL Server must be a 64-bit platform regardless of the
actual version.

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Microsoft SharePoint Server for Developers

The SharePoint Community
However, keep in mind that SharePoint is not just a huge piece of software. It is also part of an ecosystem
of communities, information sources, consultant companies, third-party developers, forums, and books
that provide support, help, training, and ideas. You can find people to communicate with, and meet to
exchange ideas or discuss issues. There is a developer community, conferences exclusively devoted to
SharePoint, MVPs, and authors you can hire. There are patterns and best practices available from
Microsoft. While SharePoint may have a steep learning curve, it will be much easier if you don’t walk
alone.

Windows SharePoint Foundation for Developers
Before you start coding, you should understand what the pieces of the puzzle are. From one perspective,
you can consider SharePoint to be built with tiers (although it’s not really a multitier architecture behind
the scenes, and the levels aren’t as loosely coupled as you might like). But treating such a complex
system as a collection of parts provides a well-structured way for you to understand it. From a developer
perspective, we can identify six layers:

• The execution environment
• The data layer
• The business logic layer
• The UI layer
• The security layer
• The developer toolbox


Microsoft SharePoint Server for Developers
SharePoint Server 2010 is everything SharePoint Foundation is. You can see SharePoint Foundation as a
functional subset of SharePoint Server. Additionally, many high-level features have been added to
SharePoint Server. The following list shows the areas that SharePoint server deals with exclusively:
• Content (document related)
• Search (mostly document related)
• Dashboards (data related)
• Forms and workflows (mostly data related)
• Community (people related)
• Content publishing (mostly people related)

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Welcome to SharePoint Development

Here, we treat and express SharePoint as a development platform. This includes the fact that the
applications developed on top of SharePoint must run in some kind of runtime environment. Having
this in mind this lets you recognize SharePoint as an application server platform, too. It is, however, not
an isolated piece of software. It is built on top of a broad range of interconnected technologies. One of
these technologies is ASP.NET, a platform for creating web applications, and another is the .NET
Framework, the underlying application platform, which consists of both developer capabilities and a
runtime environment. SharePoint adds a bunch of functionality to these basic platforms. Applications
designed for SharePoint are always built using the .NET Framework and quite often ASP.NET. They also
make use of several services provided exclusively by SharePoint.

For developers, a deep knowledge of ASP.NET is essential. If you already have this, you’ll have a
head start into learning SharePoint development. Unless your organization is forcing you to use
SharePoint, you might be struggling with the question of whether to use SharePoint as an application
platform or stay with the ASP.NET platform. While ASP.NET is versatile and allows you to create
powerful applications, there are some reasons that make SharePoint a viable alternative.

SharePoint is a technology that lets users create their own web applications without having to
understand classic web site development. With SharePoint, rather than having to seek out a developer,
users can now just talk to the database and server administrators, and start creating and deploying sites
themselves. SharePoint provides various templates and features for modifying and customizing almost
everything, from simple layout to the data structure held in lists. For the user, SharePoint acts like an
application. Several tools accompany it, including Central Administration, SharePoint Designer, and the
default site settings dialogs.

Developers can do even more with the SharePoint platform. SharePoint is extensible in many ways,
and this extensibility gives developers access to almost all the internal modules. You can extend
SharePoint whenever a user cannot achieve a specific task with the embedded functions. Whether you
need to make a slight modification or a large-scale one, such as adding an application page, you can
extend the platform endlessly.

So, SharePoint is powerful both as an application platform and a developer platform. You can
understand it in greater depth by looking at its main parts:

• SharePoint Foundation: Along with the other foundations, including Windows Communication
Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and Windows Identity Foundation
(WIF), SharePoint bundles a collection of class libraries, runtime environments, tools, and
support applications. The various tools address different roles, such as power users being
supported by SharePoint Designer.
• SharePoint Server 2010: This is a product built on top of SharePoint Foundation that delivers a
basic stack of features required to create an intranet- or Internet-aware application with little to
no coding effort. It’s a classic 20:80 ratio between effort and effect. Using SharePoint Server, you
can create 80 percent of what an average site requires with 20 percent of the usual cost.
Using SharePoint as a development platform primarily involves SharePoint Foundation. However,
you can develop on SharePoint Server as well. SharePoint became such a success worldwide because it
allows you to reduce the risk of software project drastically by using it. SharePoint products provide what
you need either out of the box or by extending the platform by coding.

SharePoint Applications

Ordinary users will be able to do lot of things with SharePoint by themselves (e.g., creating web sites,
modifying the look and feel, adding certain features, and entering data), and developers equipped with
at least basic SharePoint knowledge will be able to customize SharePoint further. This includes things
such as adding a new menu item in site menus, creating Web Parts, adding code that invokes custom
actions, and creating workflows beyond the built-in three-state limit.
Imagine that you’re supposed to write a web-based application using ASP.NET, IIS, and SQL Server
(as you may have done many times). Instead, you can use SharePoint Foundation to create your
application, and you’ll still have ASP.NET, IIS, and SQL Server at your disposal. Considering SharePoint
as a development platform can only strengthen your development portfolio.
Figure 1 illustrates a general overview of SharePoint and its related technologies.

The figure shows what a SharePoint application typically includes and how it relates to the Windows
Server components. Users interact with some UI, the behavior is controlled by some business logic, and
data is stored somewhere. Some development tools are used to empower both developers and power
users. Additionally, SharePoint allows you to define three different roles: users, administrators, and
developers. As you can see, the developer role spans all parts and is indeed the most demanding.

SharePoint is a platform that supports all of the following:
• The ability for administrators to maintain any installation, from a single server to a hierarchical
farm
• A built-in way to work with data, including schemas created by end users
• The ability to create and execute business logic, including workflows
• A basic, easy-to-use UI, along with sophisticated customization features
• Visual Studio 2010 and a set of development tools that support everything from simple
customization to huge team-based projects

While the developer support is not SharePoint specific, the other features are enhancements of the
existing infrastructure.

This is an important factor in considering SharePoint as a development platform.

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Introduction: What is Sharepoint?

SharePoint is a web product from Microsoft which is used in the Companies to manage their data which is in the form of documents, emails, contacts, etc. It is a repository for all users in the Enterprise to retrieve required information they need. The below example will clear what is the main purpose of SharePoint.

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is a rich server application for the enterprise that facilitates collaboration, provides full content management features, implements business processes, and provides access to information that is essential to organizational goals and processes. It provides an integrated platform to plan, deploy, and manage intranet, extranet, and Internet applications across and beyond the enterprise.

This With SharePoint 2010, Microsoft has shifted the developer experience toward a new paradigm—the paradigm of high-level development. This allows developers to extend Microsoft’s software and adapt the parts to behave exactly as you would have designed them. However, things are not that clear on a closer look. SharePoint is multifaceted—it’s an application, a platform, a server, a framework, and a database.

Prerequisites
As a basic platform, we use Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate running on 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 with IIS 7.5. When a client is involved, and when we run SharePoint in a client environment for development purposes, we use 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate. (64-bit Windows is a requirement; you cannot even run the installer on 32-bit Windows anymore). A similar platform is required for getting all the samples running. Nevertheless, we encourage you to look to the future and work with the most current tools and platforms you can obtain. If you travel a lot and need to take your development environment with you, we suggest using a laptop with at least 4GB memory (8GB will be best if you can afford it) and Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 with Hyper-V installed. You can run several different development environments in virtual machines on such a computer. If you need external hard disk space, it’s strongly recommended to use eSATA instead of USB. Connect to this machine using your regular laptop via remote desktop.

Versions of SharePoint: 

2010 – SharePoint 2010
2007 – Windows SharePoint services 3.0 + MOSS 2007
2003 – Windows SharePoint Services 2.0
2001 – SharePoint Team Services

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