Create a feature to add custom menu item in Site Actions

Below are the steps I followed to create a custom menu item for the Site Actions Menu on the MOSS 2007 portal.
I went on to create this and it is very simple.Just follow the steps below: http://www.sharemuch.com/2009/04/17/adding-custom-context-menu-items-to-sharepoint-list-or-library/


http://blog.rafelo.com/2008/06/how-to-add-menu-items-to-sharepoint.html


http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb418728.aspx

Custom Feature in MOSS and its uses

What and Why Custom Features

• Features in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 allow you to easily package up functionality that can be deployed and installed across the server farm. This article walks you through the steps of creating and installing a custom Feature.

• Features are a major enhancement to the template framework of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS). Features allow you to test, deploy, and activate custom functionality inside Office SharePoint Server 2007 and provide a way to make functionality available across your server farm. This functionality can be custom workflows, content types, modifications to the user interface, or new templates for lists and document libraries. For example, you can roll out the definition of a custom document library to any number of team sites by packaging it up as a Feature, complete with metadata expressed in the Collaborative Markup Language (CAML) in the schema. You can package the Feature up as a SharePoint solution and provide it to an administrator, where it can be installed and deployed as a unit.

• Another benefit of using Features is in the use of site definition (ONET.xml) files. ONET.xml files provide Windows SharePoint Services with information about the navigation, lists, and document libraries that users can create. In the previous version of SharePoint, ONET.xml files have a tendency to get very large. With the advent of Features, the ONET.xml file shrinks because Features can now contain the information that was previously defined in the ONET.xml file.

• Features provide a level of reusability by providing you with a means to package and deploy functionality as a unit. You can install the Feature at the level of a server farm and then active it only when needed. This has the additional benefits of allowing you to deploy updates to all Web front-end machines in one operation, more easily applying source-control to site resources, and allowing less-technical people to roll-out or roll-back changes, if required.

Exploring the Components of a Feature

Features are typically stored on the SharePoint server at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES. Each Feature has its own sub-directory that resides in this directory. Inside each Feature's sub-directory, you will find, as a minimum, a header file named feature.xml. The feature.xml file points to a manifest file that tells SharePoint where to find the code and XML that defines the Feature. The feature.xml file contains the Feature element that specifies the location of assemblies, files, dependencies, or properties that support the Feature. Optionally, the Feature element may point to an XML file that contains an Element element which defines the components and types that make up the Feature.

SSP in MOSS

SSP

In MOSS 2007 there is this new concept of Shared Services Providers(SSP). The idea being that there are certain services that really make sense to centrally manage and share. A good example being profiles. With a SSP we can import all of the profile information from AD once and then our various web applications can consume the data. So maybe we have http://marketing and http://accounting it doesn't make sense for each one to maintain identical profile information, they should share.

The major services that are handled by the SSP are:

• Profiles and Audiences
• My Sites
• Search
• All of Excel Services
• All of the BDC (Business Data Catalog)

Below is an example screen shot from MOSS 2007 Enterprise:

Switch Views in InfoPath

An easy way to switch views in InfoPath 2007 is the following:

Go to Tools --> FormOptions --> Open and Save -->Click on Rules-->Add a Rule -->Set Condition -->Add Action

Here you will see an action called Switch Views.

From here you can toggle views of InfoPath

SSRS in a nutshell

What is SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services?

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS) is a robust reporting solution that runs on Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) on Microsoft Windows® XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server™ 2003. It works with data that resides on the SQL Server 2005 platform, as well as other data sources. SSRS can deliver reports in a variety of formats. The reports can be delivered on paper or through interactive Web-based reports.

SQL Server Reporting Services supports the full reporting life cycle, including:

• Report authoring. Report developers can create reports to be published to the report server by using design tools that use Report Definition Language (RDL), an XML-based industry standard used to define reports.

• Report management. Report definitions, folders, and resources are published and managed as a Web service. Managed reports can be executed either on demand or on a specified schedule, and are cached for consistency and performance.

• Report delivery. SQL Server Reporting Services supports both on-demand (pull) and event-based (push) delivery of reports. Users can view reports in a Web-based format or in e-mail.

• Report security. SQL Server Reporting Services implements a flexible, role-based security model to protect reports and reporting resources. The product includes extensible interfaces for integrating other security models as well.

Integrating Reporting Services into Applications

Integrating Reporting Services into Applications

Reporting Services is an open and extensible reporting platform, designed to provide developers with a comprehensive set of APIs for developing solutions built on Reporting Services. There are two options for integrating Reporting Services into custom applications: URL access and the Reporting Services Web service, also known as the Reporting Services SOAP API. You must decide how your application will use the report server technology and what functionality you will be providing your users before you can settle on a programming approach. Certain facets of Reporting Services programmability are better suited for particular integration scenarios. For example, if your application requires only that users view and navigate individually rendered reports, you should consider using URL access. Direct URL access provides report navigation functionality in a Web browser or supported HTML viewer. It is the fastest, most efficient way to render reports. URL access does not use the Web service interface, but rather provides direct access to the server. URL access is straightforward, quick, and efficient. It is your best choice for integrating the viewing of reports into your applications.

The Web service provides similar rendering and viewing capabilities through a variety of Web operations. However, the Web service provides additional functionality for managing the contents of a report server through an extensive set of Web methods that are not available through URL access. For scenarios in which the management of reports, subscriptions, data sources, and other report server database items is a requirement, the Web service is the best integration choice. The Web service is a single entry point to the full report-management functionality of the report server.

In some cases, integrating Reporting Services into your custom business applications requires a combination of the two programming approaches. Report Manager, the report access and management Web application that is included with Reporting Services, is an example of one such application. Report Manager is a comprehensive report viewing and management tool. Report Manager uses Web service methods to enable users to create and manage reports, folders, linked reports, report history, schedules, data sources, and subscriptions. Users can also use Report Manager to set properties, report parameters and to manage role definitions and assignments that control user authentication. Whereas the Web service is used to provide access to management functionality in Report Manager, report viewing and navigation is accomplished through URL access. Report Manager is one such application that uses the versatility and comprehensiveness of the Web service methods for report management and the efficiency of direct URL access for report viewing.

stsadm commands

Complete farm backup

stsadm -o backup -directory <\\server name\folder name> -backupmethod full

Syntax

For site collection backup

stsadm -o backup

-url

-filename

[-nositelock]

[-overwrite]

For catastrophic backup

stsadm -o backup

-directory

-backupmethod

[-force]

[-item]

[-percentage]

[-backupthreads]

[-showtree]

[-quiet]

Schedule backups in MOSS(SharePoint 2007)

It is not possible to schedule backups from the SharePoint Central Administration Web site. There is no operation that enables you to automate backups by using the Stsadm command-line tool. You can, however, automate the process by creating a batch file and then using Task Scheduler in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 to run the batch file at a specific time. Because performance can be affected when doing backups with the Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Search built-in tools, you might want to schedule your backups for off-peak times such as at night or on weekends.

Use this procedure to create a batch file that will run a full backup of your Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Search server farm. This procedure assumes that you have already created a shared folder for your backups. For more information about how to create a shared folder, see Prepare to back up and restore a farm (Search Server 2008).

utomate or delay backup of your farm

Tip:
To run the Stsadm command-line tool, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer. When using Task Scheduler, ensure that the system date and time on your computer are accurate. To verify or change this information, double-click the time indicator on the taskbar.

Create a batch file

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. Type notepad, and then click OK.

3. In Notepad, type the following text:

   @echo off echo =============================================================== echo Back up the farm to C:\backup echo =============================================================== cd %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN @echo off stsadm.exe -o backup -directory "\backup" -backupmethod full  echo completed

   Note:
   Change "C:\backup" and "\backup" to the name of your backup shared folder.

4. In Notepad, on the File menu, click Save As.

5. In the Save As box, select the folder where you want to keep your batch file.

6. Using the ".bat" file name extension, type the name of the file in the File name box, for example,backup_batch.bat.

7. In the Save as type box, click All files.

8. Click Save.

Schedule a backup

1. Start the Scheduled Task Wizard, and then click Next.

2. Click Browse, navigate to the batch file that you just created, and then click Open.

3. Type a name for your task, for example, backup_batch.

4. Select how often you want this task performed (for example, weekly), and then click Next.

5. To automatically perform this backup periodically, select an interval such as Weekly or Monthly. To perform this backup one time, or to delay a single backup, select One time only.

6. Choose a time and start date for your backup.

7. Type a name and password for a user, and then click Next. This task will run as if it were started by that user.

8. Click Finish.

   To configure advanced settings for the task, select the Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish check box in the final page of the wizard. This opens the properties dialog box for the task when you clickFinish. You can then change the program being run on the Task tab, fine-tune the schedule on the Scheduletab, customize settings on the Settings tab, or set user and group permissions on the Security tab.

Reporting services integration : Differences in native and SharePoint integrated mode

Comparison point	SharePoint integrated mode	Native Mode using SharePoint 2.0 WebParts
Key integration features	Provides a user interface (UI) to administer, secure, manage, view, and deliver reports by using SharePoint products and technologies. Reports, data sources, and data models are stored, accessed, and managed in a SharePoint library. Integrates Reporting Services with SharePoint databases and security. This configuration enables SharePoint to be the front-end server that users access, and Reporting Services to be the back-end server that provides reporting capability. A single, all-new Report Viewer Web Part displays reports in either full-page view or within a SharePoint Dashboard. It supports the filter and row consumer interfaces, which connect to SharePoint filter Web Parts or other SharePoint Web Parts, such as the Reports Library Web Part or Shared Document Library Web Part. The viewer also provides properties to customize the Report Viewer Web Part. A free Web download of the Reporting Services Add-in provides a setup program that adds report server application pages to a SharePoint Web front-end. Support for data-driven subscriptions and the ability to manage jobs programmatically and by using SQL Server Management Studio in SQL Server 2008.	Two Web Parts provide access and view capability, but no management features: Report Explorer Web Part shows a list of reports that are stored on a report server. Report Viewer Web Part displays a report. These Web Parts cannot be connected to other SharePoint Web Parts.
Data storage	Integrated storage: Users publish or upload reports, models, and data sources to a SharePoint library. Reports, data sources, and data models in a SharePoint document library are stored as files in the SharePoint content database for that SharePoint document library. Files are stored in the .rdl, .rsds, and .smdl extensions. When a user requests to view or manage a report, data source, or data model, Reporting Services synchronizes its contents with the SharePoint content database. For more information, see Storing and Synchronizing Report Server Content With SharePoint Databases. Report metadata, such as schedules, subscriptions, and the cache, are stored only in the report server database.	No storage integration: Report server provides sole storage for items processed on and managed by the report server.
Security and permissions	Integrated security: Authentication providers and permissions defined in the SharePoint Web application are used to control access to report server operations and content. To align and secure Reporting Services items and operations, the report server performs security mapping of SharePoint permissions to Reporting Services permissions. For more information, see Security Overview for Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated Mode.	Separate security: Report server provides security for items and operations managed by the server. Report access and content management is performed through the report server tools.
Content creation	Publish reports, models, and data sources directly to a SharePoint library by uploading them in SharePoint or from Report Designer or Model Designer. Generate models, secure models, and link reports to entities in a model from a SharePoint Web application. Create and edit reports using Report Builder from a SharePoint Web application. Create data sources by using the Report Data Source content type in the SharePoint document library.	All report server content is created in client tools and in Report Builder that launches from Report Manager. All content creation and management is handled exclusively through Reporting Services client tools.
Product and version requirements	SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 SP2. You must also have Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Office SharePoint Server 2007.	SQL Server 2008, all versions of SQL Server 2005, and SQL Server 2000 SP2. You can use Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 and SharePoint Portal Server. The Web Parts are compatible on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Installation and configuration	Download and install the Reporting Services Add-in on each Web front-end in a SharePoint farm. Configure integration in SharePoint Central Administration and Reporting Services Configuration tool.	Add Reporting Services virtual directories to the Windows SharePoint Services list of exclusions. Run a .cab file to install the Web Parts. Modify the Web.config file and manually copy files. For Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Portal Server 2007, you must add the assemblies to the GAC.
Mode requirements	Requires a report server that runs in SharePoint integrated mode.	Requires a native mode report server, with Report Manager enabled.
Limitations	No support for linked reports or Report Manager. Programmatically, there is no support for batch operations.	Requires that you configure and maintain separate security policies in the SharePoint Web application and the report server. Requires separate tools for managing content and operations on each server. Scheduled operations, data sources, report history, data processing and subscriptions must be managed report server tools.

Stsadm Command Line tool

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes the Stsadm tool for command-line administration of Office SharePoint Server 2007 servers and sites.

Location:Stsadm is located at the following path on the drive where SharePoint Products and Technologies is installed: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin. You must be an administrator on the local computer to use Stsadm.

Use:Stsadm provides a method for performing the Office SharePoint Server 2007 administration tasks at the command line or by using batch files or scripts. Stsadm provides access to operations not available by using the Central Administration site, such as changing the administration port. The command-line tool has a more streamlined interface than Central Administration, and it allows you to perform the same tasks. There are certain operations and certain parameters that are only available by using the Stsadm command-line tool.

The command-line tool provides access to the complete set of Office SharePoint Server 2007 operations. You can use Stsadm from the command line or with batch files or scripts. Stsadm must be run on the server itself.

To use Stsadm, you must be a member of the local Administrators group on the server. When you invoke Stsadm, you supply an operation and a set of command-line parameters in the form:

-operation OperationName -parameter value

List of operations stsadm can perform:

• Backup and restore: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Database: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Enterprise Content Management: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Excel Calculation Services: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Features and solutions: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Forms Services: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• General: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Import and export: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Installation: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Logging and events: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Search: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Security: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Shared Services Provider: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Site management: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Upgrade and migration: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

• Workflow management: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server)

An index of stsadm operations is http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263384.aspx#section1

Disadvantages:

• Stsadm is not interactive

Stsadm is not an interactive tool. With Stsadm, you type the operation and parameters all at once. You will not be prompted to fill in missing parameters while the operation is running. If a required parameter is missing, the operation fails, and you must type the operation and parameters again.

This behavior allows better flexibility for batching commands, because the tools do not prompt you for information after you have submitted a command. If you want a more interactive tool, try using the administrative object model or Central Administration pages.

• Do not use the Stsadm backup operation for site collections larger than 15 gigabytes (GB)
• Cannot back up directly to tape. Backup location must be a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path.
• Does not provide automatic deletion of old backup files. You may want to use the backup file deletion script provided in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article, How to automate the deletion of backups in SharePoint Server 2007 and in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by using a Visual Basic script.
• As part of a farm backup, can back up the configuration database and the Central Administration content database, but will not restore them.
• Does not back up any custom solution files in the Inetpub hive or in the 12 hive (that is, %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12).
• Does not back up alternate access mappings.
• Does not back up Internet Information Services (IIS) settings including host headers, dedicated IP addresses, and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates.
• Site collection backups affect performance, and can cause access errors. They are not designed to be used when the server is under active load. Site collection backups can be slow when working with site collections larger than 12-15 gigabytes (GB). We recommend that you use SQL Server backups if you are working with site collections larger than 15 GB.

• In addition to your hardware configuration, the size of the database, site collection, or Web application that you are working with can significantly affect backup and recovery performance.

  The Stsadm command-line tool can be used to back up the configuration database and the Central Administration content database, but the configuration database and the Central Administration content database can only be restored to a server of the same name in the same location.

  We recommend that you use differential backup tools outside of SharePoint Products and Technologies for your backup and recovery needs, such as Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, if backing up your system exceeds the maintenance window that you have available or if your system exceeds the following limits:

  • Content databases larger than 100 GB.

  • Site collections that you want to back up individually that are larger than 12 GB. If you want to back up a site collection individually that is larger than 12 GB, we recommend that you move it to its own database.

MOSS in a nutshell

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight. Office SharePoint Server 2007 supports all intranet, extranet, and Web applications across an enterprise within one integrated platform, instead of relying on separate fragmented systems. Additionally, this collaboration and content management server provides IT professionals and developers with the platform and tools they need for server administration, application extensibility, and interoperability.

The Office SharePoint Servers can be broken down into 6 functional areas:

• Collaboration: Help keep teams connected and productive by providing easy access to the people, documents, and information users need to make more well-informed decisions within their jobs. Windows SharePoint products and technologies include collaboration and community, document life cycle capabilities, alters, task notifications, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), the basic Web-based user interface, and navigation.
• Portal: The portal components of Office SharePoint Server 2007 include features that are especially useful for designing, deploying, and managing enterprise intranet portals, corporate Internet presence Web sites, and divisional portal sites.
• Search: The search component has been significantly enhanced in this release. The new features provide a consistent and familiar search experience, increased relevance of search results, new functions to search for people and expertise, ability to index and search data in line-of-business applications, and improved manageability and extensibility.
• Enterprise Content Management: Windows SharePoint Services provides core document management functionality: major and minor versioning, check-in/check-out document locking, rich descriptive metadata, workflow, content type–based policies, auditing, and role-based-access controls at the document library, folder, and individual document levels. Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds on these capabilities to deliver enhanced authoring, business document processing, Web content management and publishing, records management, policy management, and support for multilingual publishing.
• Forms Driven Business Process: Streamline forms-driven business processes with easy-to-use, intelligent, XML-based electronic forms that integrate smoothly with existing systems. This security-enhanced, client/server platform provides rapid solution creation and deployment, centralizes form management and maintenance, and helps to extend business processes to customers, partners, and suppliers.
• Business Intelligence: Provide business intelligence (BI) capabilities to every employee, so they can share, control, and reuse business information in order to make better business decisions. The BI features of Office SharePoint Server 2007 provide Web and programmatic access to published Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets, programmatic reuse of critical line-fo-business data, and easy development of Web-based BI dashboards that can incorporate rich, data-bound key performance indicators (KPIs), Web Parts, and published spreadsheets.