advanced microsoft content management server development

www.it-ebooks.info Advanced Microsoft Content Management Server Development Working with the Publishing API, Placeholders, Search, Web Services, RSS, and SharePoint Integration Lim Mei Ying Stefan Goßner Angus Logan Andrew Connell BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI www.it-ebooks.info FM-2 Advanced Microsoft Content Management Server Development Working with the Publishing API, Placeholders, Search, Web Services, RSS, and SharePoint Integration Copyright © 2005 Packt Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. First edition: November 2005 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK. ISBN 1-904811-53-1 www.packtpub.com Cover Design by www.visionwt.com www.it-ebooks.info FM-3 Credits Authors Lim Mei Ying Stefan Goßner Angus Logan Andrew Connell Technical Reviewers Mick Badran Spencer Harbar David Mielcarek Chester Ragel Christopher Walker Joel Ward Editorial Manager Dipali Chittar Development Editor Douglas Paterson Technical Editor Richard Deeson Indexer Niranjan Jahagirdar Proofreader Chris Smith Production Coordinator Manjiri Nadkarni Cover Designer Helen Wood www.it-ebooks.info FM-4 About the Authors Lim Mei Ying is a Senior Consultant with Avanade and has extensive experience in setting up MCMS systems at the enterprise level. She has spent many hours figuring out the dos and don'ts of the product, and enjoys finding new ways to solve MCMS-related problems. She contributes actively to the newsgroup community and is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for Content Management Server. Mei Ying lives on the sunny island of Singapore and blogs at http://meiyinglim.blogspot.com. She also co-authored the earlier book, Building Websites with Microsoft Content Management Server (ISBN: 1-904811-16-7, Packt Publishing January 2005). Thanks to my husband, Louis, for the much needed support throughout the many months of writing. Special thanks to my family and friends for their encouragement. Stefan Goßner works for Microsoft as an Escalation Engineer in the Developer Support department. He provides customers with technical solutions to problems related to Microsoft Internet Server Products. Stefan has a broad and deep understanding of all areas of MCMS. His contributions to the newsgroup community have helped many people implement MCMS solutions in corporations around the globe, to the point where it has been said that if you don't know Stefan, then you're probably new to MCMS. He maintains a huge MCMS 2002 FAQ on the Microsoft website and provides MCMS tips and tricks on his personal blog at http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner. He lives in Munich, Germany. I would like to thank my girlfriend, Michaela, for her support throughout months of writing, reviewing, and coding for the book. Also many thanks to my colleagues in the European Developer Support Team and to my friends in the MCMS product team in the US. Angus Logan is a Product Specialist at Data#3 Limited (http://www.data3.com.au), Australia's leading IT solutions company, and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Angus is a MCAD.NET and MCDBA, as well as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for Content Management Server. His specialities are Content Management Server, SharePoint Portal Server, .NET development, SQL Server, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). You can usually find Angus in the microsoft.* newsgroups or blogging ( http://www.anguslogan.com). www.it-ebooks.info FM-5 Angus gets a real buzz from using these technologies in a presales or delivery capacity to find solutions to his customers' real-world problems. To my friends and family, especially Michael, thank you! Working with a great team on this book made all the time and effort worthwhile. Andrew Connell has worked with content-management solutions since obtaining his degree from the University of Florida. As one of the original developers for the most successful versions of AdmiNET, a custom web content administration product, he has consistently focused on the challenges facing businesses today as they strive to maintain an up-to-date site without having to constantly rely on technical expertise. Andrew's background is in content-management solutions and web development using Microsoft technologies. He enjoys working with MCMS and integrating it with other products such as Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. As a Client/Server Consultant for Fidelity Information Services, Andrew has leveraged both MCMS and SharePoint Portal Server to redeploy Fidelity's intranet site as a single solution that capitalizes on the best features of both products. In 2005, he was recognized as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his contributions to the MCMS community. Andrew lives in Jacksonville, Florida in the United States, and maintains a blog at http://www.andrewconnell.com/. Thank you to my wife, Meredith, and first born son, Steven, for their patience and support. Thanks to my girls Maggie and Sadie for providing me company during the many late nights it took to finish this project. Thanks also to my parents and brother for their support and the confidence they showed in me. Shared Acknowledgements We the authors would also like to thank the following people for supporting us and helping us along the way: Our editors, Douglas Paterson and Richard Deeson, and the rest of the team at Packt for accepting our book proposal and for the wonderful work they have done in bringing this book to life. Our project manager, Joel Ward, for his exceptional project management skills. Thanks for being there for us! www.it-ebooks.info FM-6 About the Reviewers Mick Badran has been performing Microsoft technical classroom-based training for more than nine years, and has over 12 years commercial development experience in various languages. Mick has been consulting for Microsoft in areas of CMS, SPS, and BizTalk for over four years. Mick also specializes in customized training in these areas. He can be reached at mickb@breezetraining.com.au and would love to hear your feedback. Spencer Harbar is an MCSD.NET, MCSE, and MVP for MCMS, with over ten years commercial experience of architecture, design, development, deployment, and operational support of web-based applications, and hosting platforms for some of Europe's largest organizations. Spencer maintains http://www.mcmsfaq.com—an MCMS resources portal—and is active in the public newsgroups. His experience of MCMS goes back to the days of NCompass Resolution, and he has been involved in many enterprise implementations. Selected clients include Barclays Bank plc, ScottishPower plc, Microsoft, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, HBOS, Centrica, BASF, and The Automobile Association. Currently working as an independent consultant, Spencer delivers enterprise content management and portal systems architecture, design, development, and deployment solutions, application security best practices, threat modeling, and the implementation of highly available Windows Server System-based hosting platforms. Spencer resides in Edinburgh, UK, and blogs at www.harbar.net. David Mielcarek is employed as the Internet/Domain Administrator at Lower Columbia College in Washington State. Most of the time, he utilizes one of ten programming languages to get the job done. Starting his career as a telecommunications cryptologist in the Air Force, he merged into the corporate world. Following a term with Lockheed, he increased his abilities by taking on larger positions. In 1994, the Internet became his mainstay, and it remains so to this day. Juggling an educational position, outside-work through his GoldBorder.com site, and raising a family of three kids, 11 cats, two dogs, and two rats allows little time for his love of drawing. You can often find him taking his short breaks at the nearest table to pencil something in his art pad. www.it-ebooks.info FM-7 Chester Ragel is a Computer Professional, obtaining his degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Moratuwa. He is an MCSD.NET holder, and enjoys working with Microsoft technologies. Chester contributes to the MCMS community and several IT Magazines. He lives in Sri Lanka and can be found blogging at http://chestermr.blogspot.com. Christopher Walker is a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Services, providing specialist advice on integrated portal solutions (SharePoint, MCMS, BizTalk, and InfoPath). Christopher has a background in portal development and technologies with Unisys and a portal software ISV. Christopher contributes to the community through his blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/cjwalker/, providing real solutions to customers using Microsoft technologies. Christopher lives in Brisbane, Australia. Joel Ward works for Booz Allen Hamilton as a technical manager and developer. Joel likes to work on ASP.NET, MCMS, and SharePoint projects, and he helped create a .NET user group at Booz Allen. He has a background in design, programming, and architecture, and has worked with MCMS since its first release in 2001. As a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, Joel is acknowledged by peers and Microsoft for his active participation in the technical communities around the globe. Joel lives in Virginia in the United States. www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Building CMS Explorer 5 A Central Administrative Tool: CMS Explorer 5 Creating the Workspace 7 The Four MCMS Publishing Modes 8 Determining the Current Publishing Mode 8 Changing the MCMS Publishing Mode 9 The Ugly URL Querystring Specifies the Publishing Mode 9 Toggling Modes with CmsHttpContext 10 Toggling Modes with CmsApplicationContext 11 Adding Querystring Parameters to the URL with CmsHttpContext.PropagateParameter() 13 Specifying the Parent Container 14 Rendering Collections in a DataGrid 16 Displaying Only Selected Properties in the DataGrid 17 Considerations for Template Galleries and Resource Galleries 18 Adding Custom Columns to the DataGrid 19 Building an Edit Menu 21 Building the Toolbar 25 The Up Button 26 The Refresh Button 27 The DropDownList 27 The Channels Button 30 The Templates Button 30 The Resources Button 31 The Completed User Interface 31 Using Reflection to List Properties and their Values 31 Updating Property Values 35 Summary 38 Chapter 2: Managing Channels and Postings with the PAPI 39 Managing Channels and Postings 39 Creating Channels 39 Validating Names 43 www.it-ebooks.info [...]... Professional or higher (2002 or 2003 version) • Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 Developer or Enterprise edition You can also use the Standard edition, but be aware that some features will not be available A 120-day evaluation version of the Enterprise edition is available at http://www .microsoft. com/cmserver To install and run Microsoft Content Management Server 2002, you will need the following:... following operating systems: Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows XP Professional • An installation of SQL Server 2000 Developer or Enterprise edition Some of the chapters utilize Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 For these chapters, you will need: • The NET Framework 1.1 • Windows Server 2003 • An installation of SQL Server 2000 Developer or Enterprise... download page Go to the Packt website at http://www.packtpub.com/support/, and choose Advanced Microsoft Content Management Server Development in the dropdown A Central Administrative Tool: CMS Explorer We put some serious thought into creating an example that would not only give you a thorough grounding in the more advanced methods available in the PAPI but would also leave you with a tool that you... 1-904811-16-7), this book takes MCMS development to a higher level of both power and integration Like its predecessor, this book is packed with code examples and never-before-seen secrets of MCMS Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 is a dynamic web publishing system with which you can build websites quickly and cost-efficiently MCMS provides the administration, authoring, and data -management functionality... Portal Server Search Creating a New Content Source Creating a Content Source with the MCMS Connector Utility Creating a Content Source Manually Search Rights for the MCMS Application Pool Account Adding a Search Page to the MCMS Site Searching with the MCMS SharePoint Connector Building a Custom Search Implementation About the SharePoint Portal Server Query Service Building a Search Input Control The Advanced. .. for DataGrid) 9 Toggle to Design view Double-click on the form to get to its code-behind file Above the namespace declaration, import the Microsoft. ContentManagement.Publishing namespace //MCMS PAPI using Microsoft. ContentManagement.Publishing; namespace CMSExplorer { /// /// Summary description for _default /// public class _default : System.Web.UI.Page { ... File Creating the Guest Account Checking the Server Configuration Setting www.tropicalgreen.net to Execute Locally Configuring the Browser to Bypass the Proxy Testing the Tropical Green Website 507 508 508 509 509 510 510 511 511 Index 513 xi www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Introduction Following on from Building Websites with Microsoft Content Management Server (Packt Publishing, January 2005, ISBN... questions@packtpub.com if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it 4 www.it-ebooks.info 1 Building CMS Explorer The Building Websites with Microsoft Content Management Server book (Packt Publishing, January 2005, ISBN 1-904811-16-7) makes extensive use of MCMS's Publishing Application Programming Interface (PAPI) We show how to use it to provide custom... of postings The authoring experience doesn't always need to be through the browser One author-friendly way of maintaining content is detailed in Chapter 11 In this chapter, we leverage the power of InfoPath to quickly create a GUI that allows authors to submit content directly from Microsoft Word, with the help of MCMS Web Services Since the release of MCMS in 2002, a lot of technologies have changed... 267 267 Loading Content for Authoring and Presentation Using the AllTagsHtmlPlaceholderControl A DataGrid Placeholder Control The DataGridPlaceholderControl Class Loading the DataGrid for Authoring Retrieving Placeholder Content Saving the Modified XML Adding a Row Deleting a Row Editing a Row Updating a Row 267 268 269 270 271 273 276 277 278 278 278 v www.it-ebooks.info Table of Contents Displaying . a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Angus is a MCAD.NET and MCDBA, as well as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for Content Management Server. His specialities are Content Management Server, . Connell BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI www.it-ebooks.info FM-2 Advanced Microsoft Content Management Server Development Working with the Publishing API, Placeholders, Search, Web Services,. www.it-ebooks.info Advanced Microsoft Content Management Server Development Working with the Publishing API, Placeholders, Search, Web