Designing and branding using Custom Site Definitions. (Eric Shupps)

• http://sharepointcowboy.com
• Themes – SharePoint Designer – Site Definitions.
• Site Definitions:
  • Pro
    • Packaged customization.
    • Easy migration.
    • Best performance.
    • Complex functionality.
  • Con
    • Difficult to create.
    • Programming.
    • Only for new sites.
• upgradeSolution – STSADM

Search can be your best friend. (Agnes Molnar)

• Information Workers search for about 8h/week, 3.5h/week they don’t find what they are looking for.
• Use keywords, best bets (site collection admin only).
• Different Search result web parts depending on searched keywords.
• Google cannot be federated because it doesn’t return RSS or ATOM.
• Use scopes.
• Use Master Site Directory.
• Train users.
• Use content types.
• Add SharePoint search to IE (Harrison has a post on how to use this with a Group Policy).

Creating Custom Field Types. (Todd Bleeker)

• Custom data validation.
• Custom field rendering.
• Custom behavior logic.
• Limitations.
  • Not in Document Information Panel.
  • Not in datasheet.
  • Farm level.
  • Complex coding.
• Coding:
  • Required.
    • Field Definition (XML).
    • Field Class.
  • Optional.
    • Control Class (custom presentation).
    • Value Class (special data structure).
  • User Controls.
    • Schema User Control (custom properties).
    • Field User Control (for new / edit).
    • Rendering Template (ASCX).
• Field Definitions – fldtypes_Foo.xml
  • .\12\template\xml\fldtypes_*.xml.
• Field Class – FooField.cs
  • .\12\templates\fldtypes.xml.
  • Inherits the field type that comes closest.
• Control Class – FooFieldControl.cs
  • Renders the field types properties.
  • If not used, it uses the default presentation.
• Value Class – FooFieldValue.cs
  • Maintain multiple values in a single field.
  • Custom data validation (getValidatedString).
  • Use SPFieldValidationException for a user friendly error message.
• User controls – FooFieldEditControl.cs – FooFieldPropertyControls.cs
• Start with a class library
• Visual Studio: add user control – use GUID hack (slides)
• Testing:
  • Spaces in column name.
  • 2 Columns in 1 list.
  • Export to Excel.
  • Document Information Panel.
  • Edit custom properties.
  • Required fields.
  • Empty/large values

Building high performance solutions for Publishing Sites. (Andrew Connel)

• Group anonymous and secured resources for more effective caching.
• Minimize number of secured items.
• Keep files uncustomized, custom pages are subject to the safe mode parser.
• Minimize page payload:
  • CSS based design (no more tables).
  • ISS HTTP Compression (watch out for increase in server load).
  • Lazy load core.js (read MSKB #933823).
  • Clustering of images, clipping the images (http://www.getrpo.com/).
  • IIS 7 > IIS6
  • SharePoint caching per site (output cache).
  • Object cache.
  • Disk based cache.

Dev Expert Panel.

• Don’t use web gardens with SharePoint.
• Using State Workflow when you need to go back up in your WorkFlow.
• When you need to update a used WorkFlow, it’s better to create a new one and use it from then on, you don’t want to update an existing WorkFlow.

Related posts:

1. SharePoint Best Practices Conference Notes (London 2009) – Day 3
2. SharePoint Best Practices Conference Notes (London 2009) – Day 1