SharePoint Experience Expertise Content

Which is better - SPS or STS?

Before we begin - let us see what do these two abbreviations stand for.

1. SPS means SharePoint Portal Services
2. STS means SharePoint Team Services

- Document management system in SPS is better than STS.
- The search engine in SPS is better, more efficient and possesses the capability to crawl multiple content sources in comparison to STS.
- If Document Management is not required, STS is easier to manage for team environment while SPS is better for an organization where Document Management is required.

Differentiate between CustomMasterUrl & MasterUrl?

- MasterUrl is used to change the layout of all end user pages while CustomMasterUrlis used for changing the layout of admin pages.

Explain Farm in SharePoint. - Farm is a collection of SharePoint servers with same configuration database. - All the required information to run the farm is carried in Configuration DB. There exists only one configuration database for each farm. - Central administration is used for the administration of each farm.

Explain WebApplication. - WebApplication is a IIS website. Content database is created for each WebApplication. - WebApplication can be created from central admin. - Once a web application is created, it can be extended to different zones.

What tools can be used to back up a SharePoint 2010 environment?

- SharePoint farm backup and recovery
- SQL Server

What do you mean by Field Control?

- Field controls are ASP.NET 2.0 server controls. They provide basic field functionality in SharePoint.
- They also provide basic general functionality such as displaying or editing list data as it appears on SharePoint list pages

Explain an ancestral type. How is it related to content types?

- An ancestral type is the base type that the content typed is derived from.
- It defines the metadata fields included with the custom content type.

Explain Module in Sharepoint

- A module is a file or collection of file instances which define the location where the files are installed during site creation.
- They are used to implement a Web Part Page in the site.
- Modules can be defined by using a module element within a feature definition file.

Explain the CreateChildControls() method with an example

CreateChildControls() method notifies the server about the control that to implement the child controls for posting back and for rendering. The statement is given as:

Protected: virtual void CreateChildControls();

The example shows the implementation of the CreateChildControls() method that is:

‘Override CreateChildControls to create the control tree.
<System.Security.Permissions.PermissionSetAttribute(System.Security.Permissions.SecurityAction.Demand, Name:="FullTrust")> _
Protected Overrides Sub CreateChildControls()

' Add a LiteralControl to the current ControlCollection.
Me.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("<h3>Value: "))


' Create a text box control, set the default Text property,
' and add it to the ControlCollection.
Dim box As New TextBox()
box.Text = "0"
Me.Controls.Add(box)

Me.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("</h3>"))
End Sub 'CreateChildControls

This is the method that is used to instantiate the control and fetches the properties to set it according to the website. The add () method of the control class adds the control in the collection. The method CreateChildControls () implies that the WebPart consists of a collection of child controls.

What are the different types of elements used in CAML?

CAML allows the developers to construct and display the data using the rendering process and other processes. CAML consists of different types of elements to represent the lists and the sites by using some predefined style.

1. Data definition elements : It is used to define the lists and the sites by using the XML tags with the same style. The code will look like this:

<Fields>
<Field Type="Counter" Name="ID"/>
// insert other statements here
</Fields>

2. Data rendering elements : CAML also allows the generation of HTML based sets that use the tags like the loops that are used to loop around a given condition. The example is given below that shows the drop down menu with choices:

<ForEach Select="CHOICES/CHOICE">
<HTML>fld.AddChoice(</HTML>
<ScriptQuote>
<Property Select="."/>
</ScriptQuote>
<HTML>, </HTML>
<HTML>);</HTML>
</ForEach>

What is the difference between the Sharepoint Web-Part and ASP.NET 2.0 Web-Part base class?

The difference between the two types lies in the architecture produced by them:

Sharepoint webpart base class : Is designed to build over the Microsoft ASP.NET web part infrastructure. Whereas, ASP.NET 2.0 WebParts base class : Provide the integrated set of controls to create a website. This enable the user to modify the content and behavior of the webpage using the user interface and directly from the browser.

Sharepoint webpart base class : It provides the backward compatibility and can be used with ASP.NET application also and other applications that include the functionality to execute the code. Whereas,ASP.NET 2.0 WebParts base class : Doesn't include backward compatibility and allow easy to use user interface.

Sharepoint webpart base class : There are some features to be provided with it such as:

1. Cross page connections : This is used to include the pages that are connected with each other but not as a part of the website.
2. Connections between Web Parts : These are the connections that are outside the Web Part.
3. Client-side connections : Includes the webpart service components that include all the services that are required to be shown.
4. Data caching infrastructure : Consists of the data structure that is used to keep all the data in the cache for future use.
Whereas, ASP.NET webparts base class : Consists of controls that can be saved and some session that can be personalized using the web part capabilities.

ONET.xml -

1) Onet.xml file specifies all the components contained in a site. It is considered as the core of a site definition.
2) It is present at following location: 

%SharePoint Root% \TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates\XML\Onet.xml