Keynote. (Joel Oleson)

10 Steps to a successful SharePoint deployment

• SharePoint = a killer bunny, looks cute, but it can bite you in the…
• Governance: consistent management, cohesive policies, processes and decision-rights for a given area of responsibility.
• Executive sponsor with vision and budget.
• SharePoint team: Site Collection admin, SP Designer or Business analyst, Content Administrator, SP Infrastructure admin, SP Developer [Admin <> Devs].

Best Practices for Developing Web Parts. (Todd Bleeker)

• Start with a well named VS.NET library, e.g. companyProject.content.purpose (content = e.g. webpart, workflow), should be unique on the internet.
• Start with a class library.
• Use common webpart suffixes e.g. FooPart.cs.
• .NET webpart vs. SharePoint webpart – .NET webpart can work in all environments not only in SharePoint.
• Never use Render, Rendercontrol, rarely use RenderContent
• Sign or strong name the assembly.
  • GAC = full trust (bad practice and needs IISRESET).
  • BIN = wss_minimal trust and no recycle of the application pools.
• Get public key options (slides).
• Signing Best Practice: AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers() in assembly.cs.
• Use the 12 hive structure in your project to organize your project.
• Use MakeCab.exe, command line tool to generate CAB/WSP.
• Post build vs. Target, use Target.
• Use XCopy commands to install (slides).
• isCallBackEventHandler(), like AJAX.
• Move the UI to a User control – Page.LoadControl.
• User control  vs. Server Control, use User Control.
• Code Access Security (CAS).
• EnsureChildControls().

Making the most of the Out of the box Web Parts. (Brett Lonsdale)

• Excel Web Access (EE).
• Filter Web Parts (EE).
  • Current User Filter.
  • BDC filter – web service.
  • Choice filter.
  • Date filter.
  • Filter Actions.
  • Page field filter.
  • Query string filter.
  • SharePoint list filter.
  • SQL Server Analysis Services filter.
  • Text Filter.
• Content Query Web Part.
• Summery Link Web Part.
• Table of Contents Web Part.
• Outlook Web Access Web Part.
• BDC Web Parts.
• Data View Web Part, db connection, web service.

Difference between Field Controls and Web Parts in publishing sites. (Andrew Connel)

• Field Controls.
  • Window to content.
  • Content in SPListItems.
  • Content Versioning.
  • Structure of page is important.
  • Page History is important.
  • Consistent branding.
• Web Parts.
  • Content is stored in Web Part in the ASP.NET personalization store.
  • Content in the context of the current page.
  • To provide functionality.
  • History and structure are not important.
• Don’t use Content Editor Web Part on publishing sites.
  • No history.
  • No centralized control.
  • Links are absolute, not relative
  • Content owners can use JavaScript, CSS, HTML.
  • Block usage:
    • <SafeControl Type=”ContentEditorWebPart” Safe=”False” />
• http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm
• http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ProhibitCEWP

Capacity planning and Performance tuning. (Mike Watson)

• Capacity planning is an educated decision.
• Goals are:
  • Performance.
  • Scalability and affordability.
  • Maintainability.
  • Simplicity.
• Monitor growth of system (trending).
• Cheap, fast, good – choose 2.
• Concurrency increase – plan for it through capacity planning.
• Max 5 web front end servers / SQL instance.
• Use 64bit – 32bit is dead.
  • Sequence of upgrading: SQL Server – index – excel – search – WFE.
• Virtualization:
  • Disks:
    • Use pass through or fixed VHD.
    • No dynamic disks.
  • Networking:
    • Use multiple NIC’s and NIC teaming on the hosts.
• 1.2 – 1.5 times the file system is needed on the SQL server.
• 30% – 50% of the size of all content is needed on the index server.
• Size of index is needed for the Query Server.
• Performance:
  • Mirorring 27% performance loss
  • DAS < 1s., SAN > 5s.
• Performance in Visual Studio Test Suite (Trial), Web Test Edition
  • Use 10% of total users for normal tests, use 50% of users for peak tests.
• SPDataPop, Data Population Tool

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