Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Features Used in Office Live Small Business

Article
07/24/2014

Microsoft Office Live Small Business is designed to help small organizations increase the efficiency of their business processes and to improve team productivity. Office Live Small Business applications are built on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, which offers many features to assist you in solution development. Office Live Small Business incorporates many, but not all, of these features. This topic discusses which of these features you can use when creating a solution.

Solutions

The business applications, and lists and libraries within those applications, are designed for a variety of purposes and can be used as building blocks in the creation of a custom solution. For more information about solutions, see Best Practices for Creating Solutions.

Site Content

Windows SharePoint Services provides a variety of features, including lists, libraries, calendars, and lookup fields that can be used to build applications. By using features from Windows SharePoint Services, you can expand the set of features that are available with Office Live Small Business. Some of the more commonly-used features are shown in the following table.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Feature	Description
Gantt chart	You can create a Gantt chart for any list that contains date fields.
Lists	Lists allow you to store data in the form of records/items. Lists can be customized by adding or removing columns. Items in lists are supported by versioning and can be set to require checkout. For more information about lists, see Introduction to Lists.
People and Groups list	The People and Groups list provides a place to find, communicate with, and manage people and their permissions.
Calendars	Calendars are lists that provide rich calendar views and the ability to track all-day events and recurring events.
Document libraries	Windows SharePoint Services document libraries include: Local document checkout Offline document library support in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Support for multiple content types Workflow integration Tree view support
Folders	Folders are available in lists as well as in document libraries. Folders allow the segregation of content within a single list, for a very flexible list structure.
Workflows	Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hosts Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) to enable customized creation of workflows on document library and list items. A set of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 application templates provides solutions for building workflows that address specific business processes. They highlight aspects of task coordination and offer some preconfigured workflows. You can download these templates from the Microsoft TechNet Web site. For more information about using workflows in Office Live Small Business, see Configure a Workflow with Office Live Small Business.
E-mail alerts	A user can request to receive e-mail alerts when changes are made to a business application list. Alerts include detailed information about the item that has been changed, and can be customized.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds	In Office Live Small Business, you can display existing RSS feeds and create new feeds of business application list data when publishing that data on a public-facing Web site. For more information about displaying adding an RSS feed to a business application, see Display Data or RSS Feeds from an External Source. For more information about creating an RSS feed from Office Live Small Business data, see Access Application Data from an Outside Web Site.

Integration with Office Applications

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides close integration with Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 2007 applications, as described in the following table.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Feature	Description
Integration with Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word	Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 easily integrates with Microsoft Office applications through a set of Web services and documented application interfaces. For example, users of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office Access, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Microsoft Office InfoPath, Microsoft Office Project, and Microsoft Office OneNote can directly interact with information stored in Windows SharePoint Services sites without having to manually download the content. Users can create workspaces, post and edit documents, and assign tasks, all while working on documents stored in Windows SharePoint Services sites.
Support for Office Outlook	With Microsoft Office Outlook, users can view calendars and contact lists stored on Windows SharePoint Services sites, and create and manage sites for editing documents and organizing meetings.
Integration with SharePoint Designer 2007	Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 provides tools for customizing Web sites and for creating reporting tools and application templates, without any coding required. You can edit business applications using SharePoint Designer; you cannot however edit public Web sites or Contact Manager.

Data Enhancements

The following data features are included in Windows SharePoint Services and are also available in Office Live Small Business.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Feature	Description
Metadata	Users can extend document libraries and lists by using custom columns.
Folder metadata	Users and developers can assign metadata to a folder. This creates a content holder that contains child content, while appearing as more than a container. Essentially, this allows the folder to function as a separate but fully functional item type.
Recycle bin	This feature enables a user to easily restore an item that was deleted accidentally. Administration tools are also available to manage the life cycle of deleted items in the recycle bin.

Versioning

Windows SharePoint Services supports versioning, which is also available in Office Live Small Business as a setting for any library.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Feature	Description
Item versioning	Versioning is supported for all Windows SharePoint Services items.
Version history	Changes to the item are shown in the version history.
Major and minor version tracking	Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 supports tracking of both major and minor version numbers.

Site Management

A key management feature in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is a policy framework used to help secure the delegation of roles and permissions, reducing IT management requirements, and empowering site owners and users with more self-service features. This feature is also available in Office Live Small Business, at the subsite level.

Windows SharePoint Services and Office Live Small Business also support master pages.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Feature	Description
Support for ASP.NET 2.0 and master pages	Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 uses the reliability, scalability, and functionality of Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0. This includes support for the ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part Model with backward compatibility support for Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP2 Web Parts. Each Web page in a SharePoint site references an ASP.NET 2.0 master page. Master pages provide centralized control of the layout and style of all the pages in a SharePoint site. Each site has a master page gallery that the site owner can use to customize the look of all of the pages on the site. Note Office Live Small Business requires that its pages refer to the Office Live Small Business master page.

Support for ASP.NET 2.0 and master pages

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 uses the reliability, scalability, and functionality of Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0. This includes support for the ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part Model with backward compatibility support for Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP2 Web Parts.

Each Web page in a SharePoint site references an ASP.NET 2.0 master page. Master pages provide centralized control of the layout and style of all the pages in a SharePoint site. Each site has a master page gallery that the site owner can use to customize the look of all of the pages on the site.

Note Office Live Small Business requires that its pages refer to the Office Live Small Business master page.

Extensibility

The following table highlights the platform extensibility features in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 that developers can use to create, customize, and extend business solutions created with Windows SharePoint Services.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Feature	Description
Extensible site and list templates	In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, you can edit site and list templates in Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Features Not Supported in Office Live Small Business

The following Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 features are not supported in Office Live Small Business.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Feature	Description
List item per-item and per-folder security	Office Live Small Business provides the ability to set roles at the subsite level. Setting roles at the item, list or folder level is not supported.
Append-only fields	You use append-only fields to append text to a field without being able to modify the existing content of the field. This feature is not available in Office Live Small Business.
E-mail integration	Office Live Small Business does not support Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 e-mail integration, in which you can enable document libraries, discussion boards, calendars, and announcements to receive new postings via e-mail.
Changes to master pages on the server	Office Live Small Business does not support changes to master pages on the server. Server-side code is not understood.
Anonymous access	Office Live Small Business does not support anonymous access to sites.
Add a subsite	It is not possible to add an application to another application.
Search	The Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 search feature is not enabled in Office Live Small Business. Thus, the Windows SharePoint Services Search APIs cannot be accessed as part of a solution.

Content Placeholders Not Supported in Office Live Small Business

The following content placeholders are not visible in Office Live Small Business master pages. They are not displayed when an application that was developed in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is ported to Office Live Small Business.

<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderUtilityContent" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleAreaClass" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="SPNavigation" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTopNavBar" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderHorizontalNav" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderLeftNavBarDataSource" runat="server" visible="false"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderGlobalNavigation" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderCalendarNavigator" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderLeftNavBarTop" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderNavSpacer" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderLeftNavBarBorder" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleBreadcrumb" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSiteName" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderPageImage" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleLeftBorder" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleRightMargin" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleAreaSeparator" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderBodyLeftBorder" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderBodyRightMargin" runat="server">

Application and Workspace Features in Windows SharePoint Services Not Supported in Office Live Small Business

Feature	Business Applications	Contact Manager
Change the name of the default applications	Blocked	Blocked
Change the name of the lists related to default business applications	Blocked	Blocked
Delete the default applications (it is possible however, to hide a default application)	Blocked	Blocked
Delete the lists related to the default applications	Blocked	Blocked
Add lists or libraries to default applications	Available	Blocked
Add columns to default application lists	Available	Blocked
Change column labels	Available	Available
Create new application based on this application	Available	Blocked
Change the names of the default groups on the left navigation bar	Blocked	Blocked
Save the top level site or subsite as a SharePoint template file (.stp) that can be uploaded again to Windows SharePoint Services or other Office Live Small Business sites	Available	Available