Sharepoint 2007 ( MOSS ) Interview preparation

- What does AllowUnsafeUpdates do ?

If your code modifies Windows SharePoint Services data in some way, you may need to allow unsafe updates on the Web site, without requiring a
security validation. You can do by setting the AllowUnsafeUpdates property. C#:
?

1 using(SPSite mySite = new SPSite("yourserver"))

2 { using(SPWeb myWeb = mySite.OpenWeb())
3 {
4 myWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
5
SPList interviewList = myWeb.Lists["listtoinsert"];
6
SPListItem newItem = interviewList.Items.Add();
7
newItem["interview"] = "interview";
8
newItem.Update();
9
1
}
0 }

- What does RunWithElevatedPrivileges do?

Assume that you have a Web Part in which you want to display information obtained through the Windows SharePoint Services object model, such as
the name of the current site collection owner, usage statistics, or auditing information. These are examples of calls into the object model that
require site-administration privileges. Your Web Part experiences an access-denied error if it attempts to obtain this information when the
current user is not a site administrator. The request is initiated by a nonprivileged user. you can still successfully make these calls into the
object model by calling the RunWithElevatedPrivileges method provided by the SPSecurity class. C#:
?

1 SPSite siteColl = SPContext.Current.Site;

2 SPWeb site = SPContext.Current.Web;
3 SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
4 {
5 using (SPSite ElevatedsiteColl = new SPSite(siteColl.ID))
6 {
7 using (SPWeb ElevatedSite = ElevatedsiteColl.OpenWeb(site.ID))
8 {
9 string SiteCollectionOwner = ElevatedsiteColl.Owner.Name;
1 string Visits = ElevatedsiteColl.Usage.Visits.ToString();
0 string RootAuditEntries = ElevatedSite.RootFolder.Audit.GetEntries().Count.ToString();
1 }
1 }
1 });
2
1
3
1
4

- What is a SharePoint Feature? What files are used to define a feature?

A SharePoint Feature is a functional component that can be activated and deactivate at various scopes throughout a SharePoint instances.
Scopes include

 Farm
 WebApplication
 Site (site collection)
 Web (site)

Features have their own receiver architecture, which allow you to trap events such as when a feature is

 installing
 uninstalling
 activated
 deactivated

The element types that can be defined by a feature include

 menu commands
 link commands
 page templates
 page instances
 list definitions
 list instances
 event handlers
 workflows

The two files that are used to define a feature are

 feature.xml
 manifest file(elements.xml)

The feature XML file defines the actual feature and will make SharePoint aware of the installed feature. The manifest file contains details about
the feature such as functionality.
Common stsadm commands associated with feature are
  stsadm -o installfeature
 stsadm -o uninstallfeature
 stsadm -o activatefeature
 stsadm -o deactivatefeature

- What are content types ?

A content type is a flexible and reusable WSS type definition that defines the columns and behavior for an item in a list or a document in a
document library.
For example,
-you can create a content type for a customer presentation document with a unique set of columns, an event handler, and its own document
template.
-You can create a second content type for a customer proposal document with a different set of columns, a workflow, and a different document
template.
Then you can attach both the contenttypes to a document library, which allows you to capture metadata based on the contenttype selected during
creation of the document.

Content type can be created by the following

 from the rootweb of a site collection, go to Site Action > Site Settings > Galleries > Site content types
 using a feature

5. Workflow can be applied to what all elements of SharePoint ?

While workflow associations are often created directly on lists and document libraries, a workflow association can also be created on a content
type that exists within the Content Type Gallery for the current site or content types defined within a list.
In short, it can be applied ...

 At the level of a list (or document library)

 At the level of a content type defined at site scope
 At the level of a site ( Sharepoint 2010 )

- What are the ways to initiate the workflow ?

 Automatic (on item added or item deleted)

 Manual (standard WSS UI interface)
  Manual (Custom UI Interface)
 Programatically through custom code

7. What are the types of input forms that can be created for a workflow ?

You can create four different types of input forms including an association form, an initiation form, a modification form, and a task edit form.
Note that these forms are optional when you create a workflow template.

8. What are ways to create input forms for workflow ?

Two different approaches can be used to develop custom input forms for a WSS workflow template.

 You can create your forms by using custom application pages, which are standard .aspx pages deployed to run out of the _layouts directory.
( disadv: lot of code required when compared to Infopath approach)
 using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 (disadv: picks up a dependenct on MOSS, i.e. it cannot run in a standalone WSS environment)

9. What is the difference between method activity and event activity in WF ?

A method activity is one that performs an action, such as creating or updating a task. An event activity is one that runs in response to an
action occurring.

10. What does SPWeb.EnsureUser method do?

Checks whether the specified login name belongs to a valid user of the Web site, and if the login name does not already exist, adds it to the Web
site. e.g SPUser usr = myWeb.EnsureUser("mmangaldas");

11. While creating a Webpart, which is the ideal location to Initialize my new controls ?

Override the CreateChildControls method to include your new controls. To make sure that the new controls are initialized.. call
'EnsureChildControls' in the webparts Render method. You can control the exact Rendering of your controls by calling the .Render method in the
webparts Render method.

12. How to query from multiple lists ?

Use SPSiteDataQuery to fetch data from multiple lists. more details..

13.How Does SharePoint work?

The browser sends a DAV packet to IIS asking to perform a document check in. PKMDASL.DLL, an ISAPI DLL, parses the packet and sees that it has
the proprietary INVOKE command. Because of the existence of this command, the packet is passed off to msdmserv.exe, who in turn processes the
packet and uses EXOLEDB to access the WSS, perform the operation and send the results back to the user in the form of XML.

14. What is the difference between Syncronous & Asyncronous events?

Syncronous calls ending with 'ing' E.g. ItemDeleting Event Handler code execute BEFORE action is committed WSS waits for code to return Option to
cancel and return error code
Asyncronous calls ending with 'ed' E.g. ItemDeleted Event Handler code executes AFTER action is committed WSS does not wait for code to return
Executed in its own Worker thread.

15. What is ServerUpdate() ?

Any changes in the list, i.e. new addition or modification of an item.. the operation is complete by calling the Update method.But if a List is
set to maintain versions .. and you are editing an item, but don't want to save it as a new version, then use the SystemUpdate method instead and
pass in 'false' as the parameter.

16. What is query.ViewAttributes OR How can you force SPQuery to return results from all the folders of the list?

If you use SPQuery on any SPlist .. it will bring back results from the current folder only. If you want to get results from all the folders in
the list.. then you need to specify the scope of the query by the use of ViewAttributes..
e.g. query.ViewAttributes = "Scope=\"Recursive\"";

- What are the two base classes a WebPart you are going to use within SharePoint 2007 can inherit from?

There are two base classes that a WebPart which is going to be consumed by SharePoint can inherit from, either the SharePoint WebPart Base class
or the ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart base class. When inheriting from the SharePoint WebPart Base class your derived WebPart class will inherit from
Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart. When inheriting from the ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart base class your derived WebPart class will inherit from
System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart. It is considered good practice to use the ASP.NET WebPart base class since the old base class is
meant for backwards compatibility with previous version of SharePoint, however there are four exception when it is better to leverage
functionality from the SharePoint WebPart base class:

 Cross page connections

 Connections between Web Parts that are outside of a Web Part zone
  Client-side connections (Web Part Page Services Component)
 Data caching infrastructure

- What are the differences between the two base classes and what are the inherit benefits of using one over another?

The difference is the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart base class is meant for backward compatibility with previous versions of
SharePoint. The benefit of using the SharePoint WebPart base class is it supported:

 Cross page connections

 Connections between Web Parts that are outside of a Web Part zone
 Client-side connections (Web Part Page Services Component)
 Data caching infrastructure

ASP.NET 2.0 WebParts are generally considered better to use because SharePoint is built upon the ASP.NET 2.0 web architecture. Inheriting from
the ASP.NET 2.0 base class offers you features that inherit to ASP.NET 2.0, such as embedding resources as opposed to use ClassResources for
deployment of said types.

- What is the GAC?

The GAC stands for the global assembly cache. It is the machine wide code cache which will give custom binaries place into the full trust code
group for SharePoint. Certain SharePoint assets, such as Feature Receivers need full trust to run correctly, and therefore are put into the GAC.
You should always try to avoid deployment to the GAC as much as possible since it will possibly allow development code to do more than it was
intended to do.

- What is strong naming (signing) a WebPart assembly file mean?

Signing an assembly with a strong name (a.k.a strong naming) uses a cryptographic key pair that gives a unique identity to a component that is
being built. This identity can then be referred throughout the rest of the environment. In order to install assemblies into the GAC, they must be
strongly named. After signing, the binary will have a public key token identifier which can be use to register the component in various other
places on the server.

- What are safe controls, and what type of information, is placed in that element in a SharePoint web.config file?

When you deploy a WebPart to SharePoint, you must first make it as a safe control to use within SharePoint in the web.config file. Entries made
in the safe controls element of SharePoint are encountered by the SharePointHandler object and will be loaded in the SharePoint environment
properly, those not will not be loaded and will throw an error.
In the generic safe control entry (this is general, there could be more), there is generally the Assembly name, the namespace, the public key
token numeric, the typename, and the safe declaration (whether it is safe or not). There are other optional elements.

- What is the CreateChildControls() method? How can you use it to do something simple like displaying a Label control?

The CreateChildControls method in WebParts is used to notify the WebPart that there are children controls that should be output for rendering.
Basically, it will add any child ASP.NET controls that are called instantiating each control with its relevant properties set, wire any relevant
event handlers to the control, etc. Then the add method of the control class will add the control to the controls collection. In the relevant
WebPart render method, the EnsureChildControls method can be called (or set to false if no child controls should be called) to ensure that the
CreateChildControls method is run. When using CreateChildControls it implies that your WebPart contains a composition of child controls.
In order to create something like a label control in Create, you would create a new label control using the new keyword, set the various
properties of the control like Visible=True and ForeColor = Color.Red, and then use Controls.Add(myLabelControl) to add the control to the
controls collection. Then you can declare EnsureChildControls in the Render method of the WebPart.

- What does the RenderContents method do in an ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart?

The render contents method will render the WebPart content to the writer, usually an HtmlTextWriter since WebParts will output to an HTML stream.
RenderContents is used to tell how the controls that are going to be displayed in the WebPart should be rendered on the page.
*** Side Question: I got asked what the difference between CreateChildControls and the RenderContents method. The CreateChildControls method is
used to add controls to the WebPart, and the RenderContents method is used to tell the page framework how to render the control into HTML to
display on a page.

- What is the WebPartManager sealed class? What is its purpose?

The WebPartManager sealed class is responsible for managing everything occurring on a WebPart page, such as the WebParts (controls), events, and
misc. functionality that will occur in WebPartZones. For example, the WebPartManager is responsible for the functionality that is provided when
you are working with moving a WebPart from WebPartZone to WebPartZone. It is known as the “the central class of the Web Part Control Set.”
*** Side Question: I got asked how many WebPartManager controls should be on a page. In order to have WebParts on a page there has to be just one
WebPartManager control to manage all the WebParts on the page.

- What is a SPSite and SPWeb object, and what is the difference between each of the objects?

The SPSite object represents a collection of sites (site collection [a top level sites and all its subsites]). The SPWeb object represents an
instance SharePoint Web, and SPWeb object contains things like the actual content. A SPSite object contains the various subsites and the
information regarding them.
- How would you go about getting a reference to a site?

1C#: 
2oSPSite = new  SPSite("http:/server");
3   
4oSPWeb = oSPSite.OpenWeb();

- What does a SPWebApplication object represent?

The SPWebApplication objects represents a SharePoint Web Application, which essentially is an IIS virtual server. Using the class you can
instigate high level operations, such as getting all the features of an entire Web Application instance, or doing high level creation operations
like creating new Web Applications through code.

- Would you use SPWebApplication to get information like the SMTP address of the SharePoint site?

Yes, since this is a Web Application level setting. You would iterate through each SPWebApplication in the SPWebApplication collection, and then
use the appropriate property calls (OutboundMailServiceInstance) in order to return settings regarding the mail service such as the SMTP address.
Side Question: I got asked if there are other ways to send emails from SharePoint. The answer is yes, there is. You can use the SendMail method
from the SPutility class to send simple emails, however it is not as robust as using the System.Net.Mail functionality since it doesn’t allow
things like setting priorities on the email.

- How do you connect (reference) to a SharePoint list, and how do you insert a new List Item?

1 C#: 
2 using(SPSite mySite = new SPSite("yourserver"))
3 {
4 using(SPWeb myWeb = mySite.OpenWeb())
5 {
6 SPList interviewList = myWeb.Lists["listtoinsert"];
7 SPListItem newItem = interviewList.Items.Add();
8    
9 newItem["interview"] = "interview";
1 newItem.Update();
0 }
1 }
1
1
2

- How would you loop using SPList through all SharePont List items, assuming you know the name (in a string value) of the list you want to
iterate through, and already have all the site code written?

1C#: 
2SPList interviewList = myWeb.Lists["listtoiterate"];
3foreach (SPListItem interview  in interviewList)
4{
5// Do Something
6}

- How do you return SharePoint List items using SharePoint web services?

In order to retrieve list items from a SharePoint list through Web Services, you should use the lists.asmx web service by establishing a web
reference in Visual Studio. The lists.asmx exposes the GetListItems method, which will allow the return of the full content of the list in an XML
node. It will take parameters like the GUID of the name of the list you are querying against, the GUID of the view you are going to query, etc.
Side Question: I got asked how I built queries with the lists.asmx web service. In order to build queries with this service, one of the
parameters that the GetListItems method exposes is the option to build a CAML query. There are other ways to do this as well, but that was how I
answered it.

- What is the difference between an Internet and an intranet site?

An internet site is a normal site that anyone on the internet can access (e.g., www.msn.com, www.microsoft.com, etc.). You can set up a site for
your company that can be accessed by anyone without any user name and password.
An intranet (or internal network), though hosted on the Web, can only be accessed by people who are members of the network. They need to have a
login and password that was assigned to them when they were added to the site by the site administrator

- What are the various kinds of roles the users can have?

A user can be assigned one of the following roles

 Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.

 Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.
 Web Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web site.
 Administrator - Has full control of the Web site.
- How customizable is the user-to-user access?

User permissions apply to an entire Web, not to documents themselves. However, you can have additional sub webs that can optionally have their
own permissions. Each user can be given any of four default roles. Additional roles can be defined by the administrator.
Can each user have access to their own calendar?
Yes there are two ways to do this,

 by creating a calendar for each user, or

 by creating a calendar with a view for each user

- Can SharePoint be linked to a SQL database?

This is possible via a custom application, but it not natively supported by SharePoint or SQL Server.

- What does partial trust mean the Web Part developer?

If an assembly is installed into the BIN directory, the code must be ensured that provides error handling in the event that required permissions
are not available. Otherwise, unhandled security exceptions may cause the Web Part to fail and may affect page rendering on the page where the
Web Part appears

- How can I raise the trust level for assemblies installed in the BIN directory?

Windows SharePoint Services can use any of the following three options from ASP.NET and the CLR to provide assemblies installed in the BIN
directory with sufficient permissions. The following table outlines the implications and requirements for each option.
Option Pros Cons
This option is least secure.
Easy to implement.
Increase the trust level for the entire This option affects all assemblies used by the virtual server.
virtual server. For more information, see In a development environment, increasing the trust level allows
"Setting the trust level for a virtual you to test an assembly with increased permissions while allowing
server" you to recompile assemblies directly into the BIN directory without
resetting IIS. There is no guarantee the destination server has the required trust level. Therefore,
Web Parts may not work once installed on the destination server.
Create a custom policy file for your Recommended approach. Requires the most configuration of all three options.
assemblies. For more information, see
 This option is most secure.

"How do I create a custom policy file?" An assembly can operate with a unique policy that meets the
minimum permission requirements for the assembly.

By creating a custom security policy, you can ensure the destination

server can run your Web Parts.
This option is less secure.

Assemblies installed in the GAC are available to all virtual servers and applications on
a server running Windows SharePoint Services. This could represent a potential
security risk as it potentially grants a higher level of permission to your assembly
across a larger scope than necessary
Easy to implement.

Install your assemblies in the GAC

This grants Full trust to your assembly without affecting the trust
level of assemblies installed in the BIN directory.
In a development environment, you must reset IIS every time you recompile
assemblies.

Licensing issues may arise due to the global availability of your assembly.

- When retrieving List items using SharePoint Web Services, how do you specify explicit credentials to be passed to access the list items?

In order to specify explicit credentials with a Web Service, you generally instantiate the web service, and then using the credentials properties
of the Web Service object you use the System.Net.NetworkCredential class to specify the username, password, and domain that you wish to pass when
making the web service call and operations.
*** Side Question: I got asked when you should state the credentials in code. You must state the credentials you are going to pass to the web
service before you call any of the methods of the web service, otherwise the call will fail.

- What is CAML, and why would you use it?

CAML stands for Collaborative Application Markup Language. CAML is an XML based language which provides data constructs that build up the
SharePoint fields, view, and is used for table definition during site provisioning. CAML is responsible for rending data and the resulting HTML
that is output to the user in SharePoint. CAML can be used for a variety of circumstances, overall is used to query, build and customize
SharePoint based sites. A general use would be building a CAML query in a SharePoint WebPart in order to retrieve values from a SharePoint list.

- What is impersonation, and when would you use impersonation?

Impersonation can basically provide the functionality of executing something in the context of a different identity, for example assigning an
account to users with anonymous access. You would use impersonation in order to access resources on behalf of the user with a different account,
that normally, that wouldn’t be able to access or execute something.

- What is the IDesignTimeHtmlProvider interface, and when can you use it in WebParts?

The IDesignTimeHtmlProvider interface uses the function GetDesignTimeHtml() which can contain your relevant render methods. It was helpful to use
in 2003 since it allowed your WebPart to have a preview while a page was edited in FrontPage with the Webpart on it, because the
GetDesignTimeHtml() method contains the HTML for the designer to render.

- What are WebPart properties, and what are some of the attributes you see when declaring WebPart properties in code?

WebPart properties are just like ASP.NET control properties, they are used to interact with and specify attributes that should be applied to a
WebPart by a user. Some of the attributes you see with ASP.NET 2.0 properties are WebDescription, WebDisplayName, Category, Personalizable, and
WebBrowsable. Although most of these properties come from the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts class, ones like Category come out of
System.ComponentModel namespace.

- Why are properties important in WebPart development, and how have you exploited them in past development projects? What must each custom
property have?

Properties are important because WebParts allow levels of personalization for each user. WebPart properties make it possible for a user to
interact, adjust, and increase overall experience value with the programmatic assets that you develop without having the need to use an external
editor or right any code. A very simple example of exploiting a property would be something like allowing the user to change the text on the
WebPart design interface so that they can display whatever string of text they desire.
Each custom property that you have must have the appropriate get and set accessor methods.

- What are ClassResources? How do you reference and deploy resources with an ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart?
ClassResources are used when inheriting from the SharePoint.WebPart.WebPartPages.WebPart base class, and are defined in the SharePoint solution
file as things that should be stored in the wpresources directory on the server. It is a helpful directory to use in order to deploy custom
images. In ASP.NET 2.0, typically things such as images are referenced by embedding them as resources within an assembly. The good part about
ClassResources is they can help to eliminate recompiles to change small interface adjustments or alterations to external JavaScript files.

- What is a SharePoint Solution File? How does it differ from WebPart .cab files in legacy development? What does it contain?

A SharePoint solution file is essentially a .cabinet file with all a developers ustom componets suffixed with a .wsp extension that aids in
deployment. The big difference with SharePoint solution files is is that a solution:
allows deployment to all WFE’s in a farm
is highly manageable from the interface allowing deployment, retraction, and versioning
Can package all types of assets like site definitions, feature definitions (and associated components), Webparts, etc.
Can provide Code Access Security provisioning to avoid GAC deployments
Just to name a few things…

- What is a .ddf file and what does it have to do with SharePoint Solution creation?

A .ddf file is a data directive file and is used when building the SharePoint solution bundle specifying the source files and their destination
locations. The important thing for someone to understand is that the .ddf file will be passed as a parameter to the MAKECAB utility to
orchestrate construction of the SharePoint solution file.

- What file does a SharePoint solution package use to orchestrate (describe) its packaged contents?

The solution Manifest.XML file.

- What deployment mechanism can you use to instigate Code Access Security attributes for your WebParts?

SharePoint solution files can add in order to handle code access security deployment issues. This is done in the element in the SharePoint
solution manifest.XML, which makes it easier to get assemblies the appropriate permissions in order to operate in the bin directory of the web
application.

- What is a SharePoint Feature? What files are used to define a feature?

A SharePoint Feature is a functional component that can be activated and deactivate at various scopes throughout a SharePoint instances, such as
at the farm, site collection, web, etc. Features have their own receiver architecture, which allow you to trap events such as when a feature is
installing, uninstalling, activated, or deactivated. They are helpful because they allow ease of upgrades and versioning.
The two files that are used to define a feature are the feature.xml and manifest file. The feature XML file defines the actual feature and will
make SharePoint aware of the installed feature. The manifest file contains details about the feature such as functionality.
Side Question: I got asked how the introduction of features has changed the concept of site definitions. SharePoint features are important when
understanding the architecture of site definitions, since the ONET.XML file has been vastly truncated since it has several feature stapled on it.

- What types of SharePoint assets can be deployed with a SharePoint feature?

Features can do a lot. For example, you could deploy

 Simple site customizations

 Custom site navigation
 WebParts
 pages
 list types
 list instances
 event handlers
 workflows
 custom actions

- What are event receivers?

Event receivers are classes that inherit from the SpItemEventReciever or SPListEventReciever base class (both of which derive out of the abstract
base class SPEventRecieverBase), and provide the option of responding to events as they occur within SharePoint, such as adding an item or
deleting an item.

- When would you use an event receiver?

Since event receivers respond to events, you could use a receiver for something as simple as canceling an action, such as deleting a document
library by using the Cancel property. This would essentially prevent users from deleting any documents if you wanted to maintain retention of
stored data.

- What base class do event receivers inherit from?

Event receivers either inherit from the SPListEventReciever base class or the SPItemEventReciever base class, both which derive from the abstract
base class SPEventReceiverBase.
- If I wanted to not allow people to delete documents from a document library, how would I go about it?

You would on the ItemDeleting event set: properties.Cancel= true.

33) What is the difference between an asynchronous and synchronous event receivers?
An asynchronous event occurs after an action has taken place, and a synchronous event occurs before an action has take place. For example, an
asynchronous event is ItemAdded, and its sister synchronous event is ItemAdding.

- How could you append a string to the title of a site when it is provisioned?

In the OnActivated event:

?

1SPWeb site = siteCollection.RootWeb;

2site.Title += "interview";
3site.Update();

- Can an event receiver be deployed through a SharePoint feature?

Yes.

- What is a content type?

A content type is an information blueprint basically that can be re-used throughout a SharePoint environment for defining things like metadata
and associated behaviors. It is basically an extension of a SharePoint list, however makes it portable for use throughout an instance regardless
of where the instantiation occurs, ergo has location independence. Multiple content types can exist in one document library assuming that the
appropriate document library settings are enabled. The content type will contain things like the metadata, listform pages, workflows, templates
(if a document content type), and associated custom written functionality.

- Can a content type have receivers associated with it?

Yes, a content type can have an event receiver associated with it, either inheriting from the SPListEventReciever base class for list level
events, or inheriting from the SPItemEventReciever base class. Whenever the content type is instantiated, it will be subject to the event
receivers that are associated with it.

- What two files are typically (this is kept generally) included when developing a content type, and what is the purpose of each?
There is generally the main content type file that holds things like the content type ID, name, group, description, and version. There is also
the ContentType.Fields file which contains the fields to include in the content type that has the ID, Type, Name, DisplayName, StaticName,
Hidden, Required, and Sealed elements. They are related by the FieldRefs element in the main content type file.

- What is an ancestral type and what does it have to do with content types?

An ancestral type is the base type that the content type is deriving from, such as Document (0x0101). The ancestral type will define the metadata
fields that are included with the custom content type.

- Can a list definition be derived from a custom content type?

Yes, a list definition can derive from a content type which can be seen in the schema.XML of the list definition in the element.

- When creating a list definition, how can you create an instance of the list?

You can create a new instance of a list by creating an instance.XML file.

- What is a Field Control?

Field controls are simple ASP.NET 2.0 server controls that provide the basic field functionality of SharePoint. They provide basic general
functionality such as displaying or editing list data as it appears on SharePoint list pages.

- What base class do custom Field Controls inherit from?

This varies. Generally, custom field controls inherit from the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.BaseFieldControl namespace, but you can inherit
from the default field controls.

- What is a SharePoint site definition? What is ghosted (uncustomized) and unghosted (customized)?

SharePoint site definitions are the core set of functionality from which SharePoint site are built from, building from the SiteTemplates
directory in the SharePoint 12 hive. Site definitions allow several sites to inherit from a core set of files on the file system, although appear
to have unique pages, thereby increasing performance and allowing changes that happen to a site propagate to all sites that inherit from a site
definition. Ghosted means that when SharePoint creates a new site it will reference the files in the related site definition upon site
provisioning. Unghosted means that the site has been edited with an external editor, and therefore the customizations are instead stored in the
database, breaking the inheritance of those files from the file system.
- How does one deploy new SharePoint site definitions so that they are made aware to the SharePoint system?

The best way to deploy site definitions in the SharePoint 2007 framework is to use a SharePoint solution file, so that the new site definition is
automatically populated to all WFE’s in the SharePoint farm.

- What is an ancestral type and what does it have to do with content types?

An ancestral type is the base type that the content type is deriving from, such as Document (0x0101). The ancestral type will define the metadata
fields that are included with the custom content type.

- Can a list definition be derived from a custom content type?

Yes, a list definition can derive from a content type which can be seen in the schema.XML of the list definition in the element.

- When creating a list definition, how can you create an instance of the list?

You can create a new instance of a list by creating an instance.XML file

- What is a Field Control?

Field controls are simple ASP.NET 2.0 server controls that provide the basic field functionality of SharePoint. They provide basic general
functionality such as displaying or editing list data as it appears on SharePoint list pages.

- What base class do custom Field Controls inherit from?

This varies. Generally, custom field controls inherit from the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.BaseFieldControl namespace, but you can inherit
from the default field controls.

- Can multiple SharePoint installs point to the same DB?

Multiple SharePoint installs can use the same database server. Not literally the same database on that server. That server must be SQL Server
2000 or SQL Server 2005. It cannot be Oracle or another vendor.
- How to create links to the mapped network drives?

Creating links to mapped drives in WSS v3 or MOSS 2007 can be done via the new content type for .lnk files.

- While creating a Web part, which is the ideal location to Initialize my new controls?

Override the CreateChildControls method to include your new controls. You can control the exact rendering of your controls by calling the .Render
method in the web parts Render method.

- What is the WebPartManager sealed class? What is its purpose?

The WebPartManager sealed class is responsible for managing everything occurring on a WebPart page, such as the WebParts (controls), events, and
misc. functionality that will occur in WebPartZones. For example, the WebPartManager is responsible for the functionality that is provided when
you are working with moving a WebPart from WebPartZone to WebPartZone. It is known as the “the central class of the Web Part Control Set.”

- What is a SPSite and SPWeb object, and what is the difference between each of the objects?

The SPSite object represents a collection of sites (site collection [a top level site and all its subsites]). The SPWeb object represents an
instance SharePoint Web, and SPWeb object contains things like the actual content. A SPSite object contains the various subsites and the
information regarding them.

- What does a SPWebApplication object represent?

The SPWebApplication objects represents a SharePoint Web Application, which essentially is an IIS virtual server. Using the class you can
instigate high level operations, such as getting all the features of an entire Web Application instance, or doing high level creation operations
like creating new Web Applications through code.

- Would you use SPWebApplication to get information like the SMTP address of the SharePoint site?

Yes, since this is a Web Application level setting. You would iterate through each SPWebApplication in the SPWebApplication collection, and then
use the appropriate property calls (OutboundMailServiceInstance) in order to return settings regarding the mail service such as the SMTP address.

- How do you return SharePoint List items using SharePoint web services?
In order to retrieve list items from a SharePoint list through Web Services, you should use the lists.asmx web service by establishing a web
reference in Visual Studio. The lists.asmx exposes the GetListItems method, which will allow the return of the full content of the list in an XML
node. It will take parameters like the GUID of the name of the list you are querying against, the GUID of the view you are going to query, etc.
Side Question: I got asked how I built queries with the lists.asmx web service. In order to build queries with this service, one of the
parameters that the GetListItems method exposes is the option to build a CAML query. There are other ways to do this as well, but that was how I
answered it.

- When retrieving List items using SharePoint Web Services, how do you specify explicit credentials to be passed to access the list items?

In order to specify explicit credentials with a Web Service, you generally instantiate the web service, and then using the credentials properties
of the Web Service object you use the System.Net.NetworkCredential class to specify the username, password, and domain that you wish to pass when
making the web service call and operations.

- What is CAML, and why would you use it?

CAML stands for Collaborative Application Markup Language. CAML is an XML based language which provides data constructs that build up the
SharePoint fields, view, and is used for table definition during site provisioning. CAML is responsible for rending data and the resulting HTML
that is output to the user in SharePoint. CAML can be used for a variety of circumstances, overall is used to query, build and customize
SharePoint based sites. A general use would be building a CAML query in a SharePoint WebPart in order to retrieve values from a SharePoint list.

- What is impersonation, and when would you use impersonation?

Impersonation can basically provide the functionality of executing something in the context of a different identity, for example assigning an
account to users with anonymous access. You would use impersonation in order to access resources on behalf of the user with a different account,
that normally, that wouldn’t be able to access or execute something.

- What are WebPart properties, and what are some of the attributes you see when declaring WebPart properties in code?

WebPart properties are just like ASP.NET control properties, they are used to interact with and specify attributes that should be applied to a
WebPart by a user. Some of the attributes you see with ASP.NET 2.0 properties are WebDescription, WebDisplayName, Category, Personalizable, and
WebBrowsable. Although most of these properties come from the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts class, ones like Category come out of
System.ComponentModel namespace.

- Why are properties important in WebPart development, and how have you exploited them in past development projects? What must each custom
property have?
Properties are important because WebParts allow levels of personalization for each user. WebPart properties make it possible for a user to
interact, adjust, and increase overall experience value with the programmatic assets that you develop without having the need to use an external
editor or right any code. A very simple example of exploiting a property would be something like allowing the user to change the text on the
WebPart design interface so that they can display whatever string of text they desire.
Each custom property that you have must have the appropriate get and set accessor methods.

- What are ClassResources? How do you reference and deploy resources with an ASP.NET 2.0 WebPart?

ClassResources are used when inheriting from the SharePoint.WebPart.WebPartPages.WebPart base class, and are defined in the SharePoint solution
file as things that should be stored in the wpresources directory on the server. It is a helpful directory to use in order to deploy custom
images. In ASP.NET 2.0, typically things such as images are referenced by embedding them as resources within an assembly. The good part about
ClassResources is they can help to eliminate recompiles to change small interface adjustments or alterations to external JavaScript files.

- What is a SharePoint Solution File? How does it differ from WebPart .cab files in legacy development? What does it contain?

A SharePoint solution file is essentially a .cabinet file with all a developers ustom componets suffixed with a .wsp extension that aids in
deployment. The big difference with SharePoint solution files is is that a solution:
allows deployment to all WFE’s in a farm
is highly manageable from the interface allowing deployment, retraction, and versioning
Can package all types of assets like site definitions, feature definitions (and associated components), Webparts, etc.
Can provide Code Access Security provisioning to avoid GAC deployments
And much more..

- What is a .ddf file and what does it have to do with SharePoint Solution creation?

.ddf file is a data directive file and is used when building the SharePoint solution bundle specifying the source files and their destination
locations. The important thing for someone to understand is that the .ddf file will be passed as a parameter to the MAKECAB utility to
orchestrate construction of the SharePoint solution file.

- What file does a SharePoint solution package use to orchestrate (describe) its packaged contents?

The solution Manifest.XML file.

- What deployment mechanism can you use to instigate Code Access Security attributes for your WebParts?
SharePoint solution files can add in order to handle code access security deployment issues. This is done in the element in the SharePoint
solution manifest.XML, which makes it easier to get assemblies the appropriate permissions in order to operate in the bin directory of the web
application.

- When would you use an event receiver?

Since event receivers respond to events, you could use a receiver for something as simple as canceling an action, such as deleting a document
library by using the Cancel property. This would essentially prevent users from deleting any documents if you wanted to maintain retention of
stored data.

- What base class do event receivers inherit from?

Event receivers either inherit from the SPListEventReciever base class or the SPItemEventReciever base class, both which derive from the abstract
base class SPEventReceiverBase.

- If I wanted to not allow people to delete documents from a document library, how would I go about it?

You would on the ItemDeleting event set: properties.Cancel= true.

- When running with SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges (web context) what credentials are being used?

In a web context, this is the application pool identity. In a timer job and workflow, this will be the 'Windows SharePoint Timer Services'
identity.

- When should you dispose SPWeb and SPSite objects? And even more important, when not?

You should always dispose them if you created them yourself, but not otherwise. You should never dispose SPContext.Current.Web/Site and you
should normally not dispose SPWeb if IsRootWeb is true. More tricky constructs are things along the line of SPList.ParentWeb.
Also dispose each web when iterating over SPWeb.Webs
Also dispose SPLimitedWebPartManager's SPWeb property (.web)

- What bugs have you found in SharePoint? And what did you do to work around them?
- What base classes do event receivers inherit from?

SPListEventReceiver, SPItemEventReciever, and SPWebEventReceiver inherit from the abstract base class SPEventReceiverBase.
SPWorkflowLibraryEventReceiver inherits from SPItemEventReceiver.
SPEmailEventReceiver inherits directly from System.Object.

- What are the built in ways to backup a SharePoint install?

A: Through the central administration and the stsadm command

- (more advanced) You've created and deployed a Web Part, when you deploy to the server you get a page saying your Web Part couldn't be loaded,
click here to go to the Web Part maintenance page, etc. to disable the web part. What step(s) should you take to get a stack dump from your web
part instead of that error page?

Go to the web.config file for your website and find the CallStack Attribute in the SafeControls element and set the value to true

- How would you programmatically retrieve a list item?

SPQuery and SPSiteDataQuery. Bonus points for knowledge of CrossListQueryCache, PortalSiteMapProvider. Negative points for use of foreach.

- What are the data types which are supported as Lookup column in SharePoint.

Only Single Line of Text and Calculated columns are supported as lookup columns.

- how can debugging share point application and timer jobs ? with steps?

1. build application place .dll into gac and reset iis

2. On the Debug menu, select Attach to Process
3. select the Show processes from all users check box.
4. select W3W.exe and OSWTIMER.exe can attach
5. refresh sharepoint site point break point

- what is web part?

Web Parts are the fundamental building blocks for Share Point user interface, and with them we can build and integrate many different types of
applications.In share point also be create custom web part using .oscx control
steps create custom web part

1. create web part project copied .oscx control and build application.place .dll file in GAC .reset IIS.
2. go 12 hive _layout folder create folder past your .oscx control
3. go inetpub ->wwwroot->wss->open Your site ->web con fig->create safe control write assembly information of web part application
4. open sharepoint site ->site action-site editing->Galleries ->web part->new Add your web part.

follow few web part in WSS 3.0

Content Editor Web Part
Data View Web Part
List View Web Part
Image Web Part
Members Web Part .
Page Viewer Web Part

- What are the advantages of SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) over SharePoint Team Services (STS)?

harePoint Portal Services (SPS) has MUCH better document management. It has check-in, check-out, versioning, approval, publishing, subscriptions,
categories, etc. STS does not have these features, or they are very scaled back. SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has a better search engine, and
can crawl multiple content sources. STS cannot. STS is easier to manage and much better for a team environment where there is not much Document
Management going on. SPS is better for an organization, or where Document Management is crucial.