Bjørn Christoffer Thorsmæhlum Furuknap
Building the SharePoint
User Experience
Building the SharePoint User Experience
Copyright © 2009 by Bjørn Christoffer Thorsmæhlum Furuknap
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This book is entirely dedicated to the most beautiful woman in the universe, my wife Lena.
Lena, without your support, your love, and your endless patience, I could never have
written this book or been as happy as I am today.
I love you.
Contents at a Glance
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
About the Technical Reviewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
PART 1
■ ■ ■
Setup and Basics
■CHAPTER 1 Checking Your Gear for Departure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
■CHAPTER 2 Taking a Crash Course in XML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
■CHAPTER 3 Exploring Feature Basics and Not-So Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
PART 2
■ ■ ■
Dissecting the Default User
Experience
■CHAPTER 4 Excavating the Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
■CHAPTER 5 Evolving the Default User Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
■CHAPTER 6 What Lurks in the Forest of Lists? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
■CHAPTER 7 Encountering the Monsters in the Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
■CHAPTER 8 The Liquid Nitrogen of SharePoint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
■CHAPTER 9 Strolling Through Fields of Gold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
■CHAPTER 10 Intermission: The Mentality of a SharePoint Developer . . . . . . . . . 229
PART 3
■ ■ ■
Building an Empire
■CHAPTER 11 Starting Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
■CHAPTER 12 Creating Your First Content Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
■CHAPTER 13 Accounting Gone Haywire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
■CHAPTER 14 Pages and Pages of Fun!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
■CHAPTER 15 Our Empire United . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
■APPENDIX A Fast Track to Feature Generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
■APPENDIX B Questions from the Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
■INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
v