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Feature

Our Experience with MS Sharepoint

FlexWEB

Content must be easy to author, without knowledge of HTML

Page templates are provided for content creation.  Authors will only fill in the predefined sections (much like a Word template). For highly formatted authored content, SharePoint provides a WYSIWYG control allowing the author to format the content by a toolbar rather than by HTML tags. At design time, this control can be constrained to limit the number of options available to the author.

Page templates are provided for content creation.  Authors will only fill in the predefined section (much like a Word template). For highly formatted authored content, FlexWEB  provides a WYSIWYG control allowing the author to format the content by a toolbar rather than by HTML tags.  The editor is so easy to use that editors with very little computer experience can edit and manage website pages. It includes an image library enabling users to easily insert pictures on web pages. At design time, editior styles can be set up for  authors to maintain consistency in design.

Authors should be able to implement links to content (within the same site or on external sites) without having to know HTML syntax for linking

There are several places where URLs can be pasted. There are URL type fields. SharePoint has a Summary Links section on a content page that will provide dialog boxes to help the author build a link to a document or page within that SharePoint site.

 FlexWEB has a linking tool that easily enables authors to link text or images to other pages in the website, to events on the calendar, to content articles, to documents stored in the file library, to other websites or to an email address.  This also enables authors to set anchors lower on a page and easily link to the anchor point.  No HTML is required for any of this.

Templates should be used for authoring and presentation to ensure consistency of all content

SharePoint uses Templates for page authoring. One template with two modes (edit and view) handles both authoring and presentation.

 FlexWEB also uses templates to maintain the consistency of the website and also uses saved styles that can be applied to editable content.  Authors can always preview work before publishing to see how edited content looks within the template.

The tool must support a delegated content authoring model, and must provide security roles to control author access by site and site area

Security can be set at the site collection, subsite, and list/library level. Permissions can be assigned to groups or people. Here are the default groups:

Approvers

Members of this group can edit and approve pages, list items, and documents.

Designers

Members of this group can edit lists, document libraries, and pages in the site. Designers can create Master Pages and Page Layouts in the Master Page Gallery and can change the behavior and appearance of each site in the site collection by using master pages and CSS files.

Hierarchy Managers

Members of this group can create sites, lists, list items, and documents.

Quick Deploy Users

Members of this group can schedule Quick Deploy jobs.

Restricted Readers

Members of this group can view pages and documents, but cannot view historical versions or review user rights information.

Style Resource Readers

Members of this group are given read permission to the master page gallery and the Restricted read permission to the Style Library. By default, all authenticated users are a member of this group. To further secure this site, you can remove all authenticated users from this group or add users to this group.

Site Members

Use this group to give people contribute permissions to the current SharePoint site

Site Owners

Use this group to give people full control permissions to the current SharePoint site

Site Visitors

Use this group to give people read permissions to the current SharePoint site


 Security can be set up at site creation and can be maintained by the Global Admin.

Global Admins Can set up all security rites and do all editing functions on the website.
Approvers Can login and make changes to content pages that they are assigned the security rites to work on.  These pages can be set up in a staging area of the website and once approved can be copied into the live website.
Designers Can be limited to being able to edit and change all page templates in the website, including all navigation.
Authors Can be assigned to edit content on pages.  They can be limited to certain pages or categories of pages.
Site Members

There is no limit to the number of security groups that can be set up to login to the website.  After all security groups are created, users can be assigned to the proper groups – users can belong to multiple groups.  These groups can be restricted to view the certain portions depending on what group or groups they belong to.  Site member groups are set up and can be changed only by the Global Admin.  The Global Admin also sets up the rites for all viewable info that is assigned to these site member groups.

The tool must provide basic workflow capability so that content can be approved before it goes live on the site

The Approval Workflow is the #1 feature in SharePoint 2007. Microsoft gave it a lot of coverage and advertising leading up to the final release. (see: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101544251033.aspx)

FlexWEB currently only has manual workflow.  All pages of the site can be duplicated in a staging area on the webite, viewable only to Global Admins and Assigned Authors.  Authors can be assigned to view, edit and make comments to their assigned pages.  After approval these pages can be copied into the live site.

Ability to preview newly authored content in full page context before it goes live

SharePoint pages have 3 modes:

1.       Draft – only the author can preview new pages or page updates

2.       Share Draft – anyone in the Authors or Approvers groups can preview

3.       Publish – everyone sees the content

In addition, SharePoint allows for future publishing through scheduling (a page can go live publicly on Jan 1 without anyone having to come into the office on a holiday).

In 2 months, FlexWEB will have automated Workflow.  For pages that are set up with Workflow, Authors will make changes to content and these changes will be saved and sent to designated approvers to make comments and approve all changes.  Upon final approval of the change to the content, these can be published to the live website.

Automation of content review cycles (e.g. reminders to authors to review and re-approve content that has not been edited in the past 6 months)

Sharepoint provides Disposition Approval Workflow and Expiration Policies (see: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101544291033.aspx)

Reports that show the average age of content throughout a site

Not Available. This feature would have to be custom developed.

Not Available. This feature would have to be custom developed.

Automatic highlighting of “new” content

Sharepoint will automatically show a little, green New icon if the content is less than two days old.

This is not available.

The folder structure of the content system should be easily extensible to account for future site structure changes

Folders can be created within a list or library. Creating subfolders is as easy as creating pages. Work is required to migrate content to and from folders and/or subfolders

Folders can be created within the site administration. Creating subfolders is as easy as creating pages.  This is similar to adding Folders in Windows Explorer.  The navigation of the website is based on the file tree (Folders, Subfolders and Pages) which is set up for the website.  Folders and Subfolders can be copied so migration of data is very easy.

The content system should make it easy to add keywords and meta-tags to content, and to centrally manage lists of meta-tags.

There is no single feature or wizard that automatically provides this functionality. This can be done but it is a multi step process... Meta-tags and lookup fields are added to every content page.

Keywords and meta tags can be added to the entire site and can also be added to page templates, Categories and pages within the website.

There should be a centrally managed library of approved image files that can be added into content.  Authors should not have to know HTML to embed an image into content.

The default image picker used in Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows users to browse the contents of the Site Collection Images library and the current site's Images library.

There is an image library that stores and categorizes the images into folders that are created by Authors.  Authors can add images to the image library by uploading them into the image library from any drive.  Upon upload images can be downsized automatically to be web friendly.  Once an image is in the image library, it can be easily inserted into a page.  After insertion, it can be further downsized to fit the page and can easily be adjusted to allow text to wrap around the image.  Authors can be limited to view only certain folders of images and have their own folder to store images that only they are going to use on the website.

The content management system must allow an administrator to query the system to get a listing of all content (HTML, PDF, Word, etc.) elements.  The report should list the content name/ID, location, type, author, created date, last modified date, and metadata.

This can be done for Document Libraries, but it requires some customization. The Content Query Web Part will search all Document Libraries in current site collection (current site and any subsites). By default, it only displays title and description. A customized search must be created to search more than one Document Library. There may be limitations to searching attachments.

There is a lsiting of all pages within the website that includes:

  • The Title of the page
  • The Document ID
  • The Type - Category, Page, Link, Slide Show
  • List of Authors
  • List of Group or Groups it is visible to
  • Date Created
  • Date Changed
  • Last Changed By

Meta Data can be easily accessed for the  global website, Category or Page Template.  All documents can easily be lsited in the File Library.


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