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Get Ready for WSS v3 and MOSS 2007
Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) version 3 delivers new collaboration and workflow capabilities, while Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 extends WSS v3 with enterprise portal and content management features.
by Roger Jennings

Tech•Ed, June 2006

Windows SharePoint Services version 3 (WSS v3) is a major-scale upgrade to the first Windows Server 2003 add-on that Microsoft announced in March 2003 as the replacement for SharePoint Team services (see Resources). WSS v3 is a highly scalable, royalty-free Web site provisioning engine for Windows Server 2003 SP1 and the June 2006 or later Community Technical Preview (CTP) of forthcoming Windows Server "Longhorn." WSS v3 is an Internet Information Services (IIS) 6+ Web application that provides collaboration features—such as shared lists, documents in libraries, and calendars—and stores the content in a SQL Server 2005 Express Edition or later named instance (OFFICESERVERS). The term Web application refers to an IIS Web site that's been upgraded with WSS v3 and replaces WSS V2's use of the term virtual server.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, the replacement for SharePoint Portal Server 2003, adds enterprise-wide portal, search, business intelligence, business process management, and Web content and enterprise record management to WSS v3. If you haven't installed WSS v3 or MOSS 2007 Beta 2, now's the time to get acquainted with their feature sets and capabilities. Read the system requirements, and then download and install the Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) Beta 2.2 runtime before either server. The MOSS 2007 Beta 2 installer includes an integrated WSS v3 setup program; alternatively, you can download the substantially less resource-intensive WSS v3 server (see Resources). Bear in mind that MOSS 2007 isn't a free add-on; the 2007 Microsoft Office System Pricing page says MOSS 2007 licenses are "[a]vailable only through volume licensing; price not quoted."

WSS v3 and MOSS 2007 are major weapons in Microsoft's forthcoming Office System 2007 upgrade blitz. Tech•Ed 2006 offers 89 sessions, labs, or Birds of a Feather get-togethers in the Microsoft Office Systems track, of which 31 cover WSS v3, MOSS 2007, or both. Attendees are receiving a copy of a 200-page book, 7 Development Projects for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. If you didn't make it to Beantown, you can download the entire book in PDF format. In this article, I'll summarize the important new features of WSS v3 and MOSS 2007. Then I'll demonstrate exporting an Access 2007 table to a MOSS 2007 or WSS v3 list and editing the list with a VB 2005 Windows form app.

New WSS v3 and MOSS 2007 Features
The SharePoint team has updated WSS from the .NET Framework 1.1 of version 2 to 2.0 for version 3. .NET 2.0 incorporates the ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts Framework and Web Virtualization features previously supplied by WSS v2. WSS v3 enables defining custom field data types, permits adding folders to lists, improves the performance of larger lists with indexes, establishes per-item security and versioning, and requires document checkout prior to editing. The move to ASP.NET 2.0 lets WSS v3 take advantage of master and content pages. The WSS team also refactored the object model with emphasis on the Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration namespace. With the exception of this namespace, most object-model modifications are backward-compatible.

The preceding enhancements, however, don't compare in importance with these new WSS v3 capabilities:

• Content types enable classifying documents as belonging to a particular category, such as Proposal, Request for Quotation, Contract, Progress Billing, or 10-Q Report. A content type defines the metadata for a document class, including the number and types of columns for a document library list and the template for the class. You can include multiple content types within a single list or document library, and specify a content type within multiple sites.
• Integrated workflows attach business logic to WSS v3 lists and documents. Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer (SPD) includes a graphic designer for adding workflows that don't require code (see Figure 1). Alternatively, download and install the VS 2005 Extensions for WWF Beta 2.2 to create generic workflows with C# or VB code. However, you must download and install the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Starter Kit to add the necessary references to C#-only workflow projects for WSS v3 or MOSS 2007, as well as the activity, event, and task tools to the toolbox (see Figure 2 and Resources). You can initiate WSS workflows manually or automatically from a particular SharePoint event, such as the addition of a list item or library document.
• RSS feed, blog, and wiki support lets users create and syndicate their own Weblogs and wikis. Lists also generate RSS feeds and help users stay up to date with changes (see Figure 3). Ian Morrish's Internet-facing WSS Demo site includes a WSS v3 blog with comments enabled.
• ASP-style Web parts inherit the WebPart base class from the .NET Framework 2.0's System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts namespace instead of Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages. This change lets you create new Web parts for WSS v3 sites with VS 2005; WSS v3 also supports WSS-style Web parts created for WSS V2 without recompilation.