Technical Overview for IT Professionals s1

Technical Overview for IT Professionals

Application Template: Discussion Database

Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 is technology in Windows Server® that offers an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services designed to connect people, information, processes and systems both within and beyond the organizational firewall. Now available at no additional cost, Windows SharePoint Services makes it simpler for IT professionals to implement and manage a team collaboration infrastructure. Application Templates are tailored to address the needs and requirements for specific business processes or sets of tasks for organizations of any size. The templates provide out-of-the-box, customizable scenarios which solve business needs as well as providing a starting point for partners and developers looking to build more sophisticated Windows SharePoint Services solutions.

Description of Template The Discussion Database application template for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 helps teams organize track public discussions on topics generated by team members. When a new discussion topic is generated, the owner designates a category, which helps structure the discussions so they can more easily be located by those interested in the content. Additionally, team members can subscribe to the RSS feed of the discussion database through an RSS reader such as Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007.

Activities Performed in this Application Template

 Category Creation: Site owners have the capability of creating categories that team members can use to group interrelated discussions. When a new discussion topic is created, the user selects a category, which allows grouping of discussions by category name within the site.

© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. www.microsoft.com/sharepointapps i  Site Based Discussions: The Discussion Database allows users to discuss topics directly from the Discussion Database site. Users can post replies to topics which are visible to all members of the web by using the ‘reply’ button. The main page of the site makes it easier for members to track recent discussions by listing both recently created topics and recently updated discussion threads separately.

 RSS Feeds and integration with Office Outlook 2007: Users also have the capability of viewing discussions from within an RSS Reader such as that provided with Office Outlook 2007. Instead of forcing users to visit the site track updates, Windows SharePoint Services sends updates to Office Outlook 2007 clients at intervals set by the IT administrator. Team members can use Office Outlook 2007 to forward the discussion to an email address, or can click the ‘view article’ hyperlink to access the Discussion Database site and post a reply. When synchronized for offline capabilities, Office Outlook 2007 also allows users to read the posts to the Discussion Database while offline, helping productivity improve when a user is out of the office.

Site Lists and Libraries Discussions: This discussion board is used to house all the discussions held on the site Discussion Categories: The discussion categories help group related discussions and can be chosen by team members as they create new discussion topics.

Customizing SharePoint Sites and Templates Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is a Web site development and management program that provides powerful tools to build, customize, and contribute to Windows SharePoint Services sites using the latest Web design technologies and established standards in an IT-controlled environment.

Use Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to create and deploy interactive solutions without having to write code. Automate business processes, such as document approval, custom event notification and other collaboration The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, places, or events is intended or should be inferred. This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. www.microsoft.com/sharepointapps ii tasks with the workflow designer. Create reporting and tracking applications using data views and forms to easily gather and aggregate data from outside your site and from lists and document libraries on the Web.

Extend your solution by building advanced interactive Microsoft ASP.NET pages. Insert and edit controls with the same powerful activity menus and control property grids previously found only in the Microsoft Visual Studio® development system.

Technical Dependencies

The Discussion Database application template has the following technical requirements:  Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0*  Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (optional)

*Review Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system requirements for additional information: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/techinfo/sysreqs.mspx

More Information For more information on the technologies described in this article, please visit:

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007: http://office.microsoft.com/sharepointdesigner

Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services: http://www.microsoft.com/sharepointapps

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, places, or events is intended or should be inferred. This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.