SharePoint 2007: Customising the site directory

Customizing the site directory in SharePoint 2007.

Let's see what cool links we'll find to do this:

http://glenc.wordpress.com/2006/07/23/customizing-the-site-directory-in-moss-2007/

Above post is extermely interesting ...

If you go to the Settings of the Sites list, you will find quite a few interesting play things especially in the views.

1. Categories - this looks like the categories which are used to perform drill down in the site directory.
2. Site Creation Categories - the options which will be visible when you try to create a site.

Limitations:

1. No Lookups can be used. The only viable options seems to be choice values. This makes the categories fairly static, changeable only by going deeply into the settings. My favourite option would be to make them dependable on a simple Custom List, so that I would give the client access to this list, which in turn adjusts the Categories.
2. No dates can be used as categories either.

Hmm ... I wonder how these limitations can be gotten around... What I need is to be able to categorize by:

• Date
• Members of the site e.g. categorize by site by site owners (Project Managers?)

Would playing with XSL be able to do it?

Edit: to edit the Welcome Page of the Site Directory (e.g. I think its better to default to the Site Map), enter the Site Settings > Look and Feel > Welcome Page, browse and choose the welcome page you want, in this example sitemap.aspx.

SharePoint 2007: Windows Authentication and Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration

Steps to remove the login screen from SharePoint 2007

• Enable Windows Authentication (NTLM)
• Add the SharePoint site to your Intranet
• If you still get the login screen, this might be because you have Internet Explorer Enhanced Security switched. You need to disable it to remove the login screen. To disable it, go to Add / Remove control panel applet, go to Add / Remove Windows Components, find the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration checkbox and switch off.

If you try to log on now, the login screen is not brought up and you should find yourself logged on to SharePoint with your Windows login.

SharePoint 2007: Installation Requirements (2007 Server Farm)

Software Requirements

• Windows 2003 Server (SP1) with IIS
• SQL Server 2005 (SP1)
• .NET Framework 3.0

If the installation of SharePoint stops you asking for Windows Workflow foundation, download and install .NET Framework 3.0 and you should be able to proceed.

Pre-installation Setup

• Create a Windows User Account which SharePoint will be using to access the SQL Server. If the SQL Server will be hosted on a different server, you must specify a domain account.

Installation

• Run Setup, to install a Farm, Choose Advanced > Complete
• Configuration Wizard is run after files are copied
• Choose "No I want to create a new Server Farm"
• Insert Database Server (name) and Configuration Database name.
• Insert the Windows account which you have created previously.
• Accept port, and choose NTLM if you don't have a domain.

Post-Installation

• Central Administration page is brought up.
• Configure and start all required services in the Farm
• You need to have the following a number of sites / application pools to be able to work correctly:
• One AppPool / Site for SharedServices
• One AppPool / Site Central Administration
• One AppPool / Site for Portal
• One AppPool / Site for MySites

To be able to access the Portal, you must create a new Site Collection for the portal. This is done in the Application Management. Create a new Site Collection on the Portal Web Application. To have a new Portal you must choose Publishing > Collaboration Portal.

Also refer to the following site: http://mindsharpblogs.com/bill/archive/2006/06/27/1153.aspx