FAQ’s Part3

What is Windows Powershell ?

Ans. Windows PowerShell is a new Windows command-line shell designed especially for system administrators. In the SharePoint administration context, Windows PowerShell is another administration tool that supersedes the existing Stsadm.exe.

How is Windows Powershell different from Stsadm ?

Ans. Unlike stsadm, which accept and return text, Windows PowerShell is built on the Microsoft .NET Framework and accepts and returns .NET Framework objects. In addition to that it also gives you access to the file system on the computer so that you can access registry,digital signature certificate etc..

What are cmdlet’s?

Ans. Windows PowerShell introduces the concept of a cmdlet which are simple build in commands, written in a .net language like C# or VB.

Can you Create PowerShell scripts for deploying components in SharePoint ?

Ans. If you are creating a webpart with VS 2010 then you can deploy it using ctrl + f5. However, to activate the webpart feature you can write a powershell script (.ps1) and execute it after dpeloyment.

Where is Powershell located in sharePoint ?

Ans. On the Start menu, click All Programs -> Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products -> Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

If you need going to install a webpart or any custom solution in SharePoint 2010 using PowerShell What permissions do you need?

Ans. In order to use Windows PowerShell for SharePoint 2010 Products, a user must be a member of the SharePoint_Shell_Access role on the configuration and content database. In addition to this, the user must also be a member of the WSS_ADMIN_WPG local group on the computer where SharePoint 2010 Products is installed. See Details

Permissions for Windows PowerShell – SPShellAdmin

 How to list all the commands in PowerShell ?

Ans. Get-Command * commands gets you all the Powershell commands.

How will you move or separate a Site Collection which stays in a shared WebApplication content database, into its own separate database.

Ans. You can create a new Content database in the target webapplication (which will contain the new site collection). Then adjust the maximum number of sites allowed for the content database currently being used. Then use stsadm command to backup and restore the site collection. For Details see Move Site Collections into Separate Databases

What are Security methods(Authentication methods) available in sharepoint 2007.

Ans : Out of the box”, SharePoint 2007 supports nine authentication methods. NTLM (short for NT Lan Manager, which is simply the Windows authentication that everyone is familiar with) and Kerberos (also a Windows “standard” authentication) are offered during installation.

Microsoft has replaced the “12 hive” structure that we had in SharePoint 2007 with “14 Hive” structure in 2010.

Some of the folders in 14 hive are :

Program Files\Common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14 -

This directory is the installation directory for core SharePoint Server files.

Program Files\Common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\ADMISAPI -

This directory contains the soap services for Central Administration. If this directory is altered, remote site creation and other methods exposed in the service will not function correctly.

Program Files\Common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\CONFIG -

This directory contains files used to extend IIS Web sites with SharePoint Server. If this directory or its contents are altered, Web application provisioning will not function correctly.

Program Files\Common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS -

This directory contains setup and run-time tracing logs.

Other newly added folders are :

Program Files\Common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\Policy -

Program Files\Common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\UserCode -

This directory contains files used to support your sandboxed solutions.

Program Files\Common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\WebClients -

This directory contains files related to the new Client Object Model.

Program Files\Common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\WebServices -

This directory contains new wcf or .svc related files.

Note : You should rewrite and recompile any code that refers to files and resources in “12″ Hive structure.For example, if you have redeployed all of your files into the “14″ folder and emptied your “12″ folder, any references to files under the “12″ folder will not work.

How is BCS Different from BDC in SharePoint 2007 ?

Even though the BDC made it relatively easy to create read-only solutions that display data in the Business Data List Web Part, it was not so simple to create a solution that enabled users to make changes and write that data back to the external store.

BCS, on the other hand, provides you with Read-Write capable connectivity from Client and Server to Database, WCF/Web Services and .Net Sources.

A Developer can now use SharePoint Designer 2010 and VS 2010 rapid development tools to access external data. For e.g. you can now create read-write connections to external database from SharePoint designer and then can create webpart\other solutions to surface that data.

The BCS data can further be used in other SharePoint Fetaures such as Business Intelligence,Collaboration and in Enterprise Search.

Cascade Delete

SharePoint 2007 : The Lookup column in SharePoint 2007 does not support cascade delete. i.e. if If an Item\Value in the the look-up list is deleted, then all those items referencing that value (as look-up value) will not be delete. This will rather present you with various errors and can also cause errors on the Site page if your are using one of them as filters.

SharePoint 2010 : If an Item\Value in the the look-up list is deleted, then all those items referencing that value (as look-up value) in other lists will also be deleted.

Restrict Delete

SharePoint 2007 : Does not have option to restrict deleting of lookup list items\values.

SharePoint 2010 : Choosing this option would restrict the users from deleting an item in the column in the Look-up list, if the value is being used in some other lists.

Number of columns displayed

SharePoint 2007 : This will only display the chosen lookup column in the referencing list.

SharePoint 2010 : You can now display additional columns from the look-up list, along with the chosen lookup field.