Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed (287 page)

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FIGURE 35.8

All Site Content page.

FIGURE 35.9

The Create page.

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designed to store data in much the same way as an Excel spreadsheet does. The following

sections provide an overview of the capabilities of these two key components of Windows

SharePoint Services 3.0.

Libraries in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Many users wonder what the difference is between simply continuing to store their files in

a file share on a network server, keeping them on their local hard drives to make sure they

are close at hand, or emailing them to people when needed. Windows SharePoint Services

3.0 document libraries offer a variety of features that have proven to be useful to a wide

range of users and projects and that empower the site administrators to customize the

storage and collaborative features of the library and enhance user productivity. Some of

the advantages provided by a SharePoint document library include the following:

. The administrator of a document library can customize who can add, modify, and

delete documents in a document library, or just read them.

. Versioning can be turned on for a document library that keeps a complete copy of

previous versions of the documents for reference or recovery purposes.

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. Alerts can be set on a document within the library or for the entire library so the

user receives an email notification if a document is modified, added, or deleted.

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. Documents can be checked out, and the name of the person who has the document

checked out can be listed in the library, so that other users can’t modify the docu-

ment and know who has it reserved.

. A template can be stored in the document library that can be used to create a new

document in the library.

. Metadata can be added to a document library that enables users to better describe

what the document contains, by, for example, clarifying which client it belongs to,

key words in the document, or pretty much any other kind of textual or numerical

information.

. Views can be created that group documents by certain criteria, sort them by any of

the columns in the library, or only display documents that meet certain criteria.

. The library can be searched for text contained within the document, a feature often

not available on a corporate network. In addition, the metadata associated with a

document can be searched.

. If the organization decides on certain standards for the customization of a document

library, it can create a template that can be used in other sites.

In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, the standard document libraries provided are as follows:

. Document library

. Form library

. Wiki page library

. Picture library

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The following section walks through the main features of a document library. Form libraries

are designed to store InfoPath-based forms, whereas wiki page libraries contain pages that

provide wiki-like functionality (multiple people can modify the content and changes are

tracked) and the picture library is designed to store and manage graphic file types.

A Tour of a Document Library

To access a document library, a user first needs to have a level of privileges that allows

access to the site that houses the library, and also have privileges to open the library.

Figure 35.10 shows the AllItems.aspx view of a document library (note the uniform

resource locator [URL] in the address bar of Internet Explorer in the figure). Note that

many of the features on this web page are similar to the home page of the site itself,

including the look and feel of the home page and the Quick Launch area on the left side,

but it now displays library-specific data in the main body of the page, where three docu-

ments are visible that were uploaded to this sample library. Note that the document titled

“Test PDF Document” does not have the PDF icon assigned to it, which is expected. This

PDF icon file needs to be placed in the proper directory, and the appropriate XML file

edited, for the icon to appear.

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FIGURE 35.10

The Allitems.aspx view of the document library.

Following is a summary of the features offered in the different toolbar menus in a docu-

ment library. These tools allow the user to perform a great number of tasks quickly and

easily within the library, from adding new documents from a template, to uploading one

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or multiple documents, to connecting to Outlook, to adding columns, to exporting to

Microsoft Access.

The New Menu

The New menu allows a user with the Add Items permission for lists and

libraries to launch a template document that can be modified and saved by default back to

the library, or to create a New Folder in the document library. Other users won’t see this

option on the toolbar.

The Upload Menu

The Upload menu offers the Upload Document option, and if the

appropriate version of Office is installed, the Upload Multiple Documents option is

provided. Only users with the Add Items permission for the library will see this menu on

the toolbar. If a user chooses to Upload Multiple Documents, an interface allows multiple

documents from within the same folder to be uploaded. Note that whole folders cannot

be checked, nor can files from multiple folders be uploaded at once.

The Actions Menu

The Actions menu offers a number of different and powerful options

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and is context sensitive based on the privileges of the logged-on user. This menu is

visible to all users who can access the document library, but users with lesser privileges

will have fewer options available to them. The following list gives a brief overview of the

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features provided:

.
Edit in Datasheet—
When a user selects this option, the contents of the document

library are displayed in a spreadsheet fashion, assuming the appropriate Office

components are installed on the computer. Generally, the Datasheet view is used to

rapidly enter recurring text for columns of metadata that are editable. There are also

additional tools available in Datasheet view. To access these additional tools, click

the arrow on the right side of the document library to expand the tasks pane. This

tasks pane includes the following tools as indicated by icons in the upper portion of

the tasks pane: Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Sort, Remove Filter/Sort, and Help. Below

these tools in the Office Links section of the tasks pane, the user can access addi-

tional tools: Track This List in Access, Export to Access, Report with Access, Query

List with Excel, Print with Excel, Chart with Excel, and Create Excel Pivot Table

Report. Using the Print with Excel option is also handy because printing directly

from Internet Explorer doesn’t provide much flexibility.

NOTE

Make sure that the standard desktop is compatible with Datasheet view, or users will

be filing help desk tickets when they try to access this feature. The following are

requirements for Datasheet view:

. Per Microsoft, Office 2007 must be installed on your computer. However, testing

with Office 2003 showed normal functionality, but with the “old” tasks pane from

SharePoint 2003.

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. Install the Microsoft Office Access Web Datasheet Component that is included

with the 2007 Office release on your computer. This is also a requirement for

Office 2003, and is found on the Office 2003 Professional CD.

.
Open with Windows Explorer—
When this option is selected, a separate Explorer

window opens, which provides standard Explorer functionality, such as Open, Edit,

New, Print, Copy, and Paste. The user’s rights in the document library are still

respected, so right-clicking an item and deleting it doesn’t delete it from the library

if the user doesn’t have appropriate rights.

.
Connect to Outlook—
This option allows the user to connect a SharePoint library

to Outlook 2007. This is very handy if a user wants to take the contents of the

library offline in Outlook so she can access it when not connected to the network or

the Internet.

.
Export to Spreadsheet—
Similar to the commands available from the tasks pane

that is available in Datasheet view, the Export to Spreadsheet option opens Excel

2007 (or Excel 2003).

.
View RSS Feed—
When selected, this option opens the listfeed.aspx page, as

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shown in Figure 35.11, which gives the user a chance to see what the content of the

document library will look like when accessed through the RSS feeder functionality

in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. If the user clicks on the Subscribe to This Feed

link in Internet Explorer 7 or 8, he will be prompted for the following information

in an Internet Explorer window: name for the feed, folder to create the feed in, and

the option to create a new folder.

CAUTION

Note that the View RSS Feed functionality is not supported in Internet Explorer 6—only

in Internet Explorer 7 or 8.

.
Alert Me—
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 can send an email alert if certain condi-

tions are met in a document library. As shown in Figure 35.12, the alerting feature

allows the user to add multiple names to the alert or even distribution lists. The user

can specify the conditions that will send them an alert, such as all changes, new

items are added, and other conditions such as only if someone else changes a docu-

ment created by me. The email alert can be sent immediately, in a daily summary, or

even in a weekly summary at a given day and time.

The Settings Menu

The Settings menu is only available to site visitors with Manage Lists

permissions. This menu offers the Create Column, Create View, and Document Library

Settings options. Figure 35.13 shows the listedit.aspx page that will open if the

Document Library Settings choice is selected. By glancing at the options on this page, it is

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FIGURE 35.11

View RSS Feed page.

FIGURE 35.12