Public Web Sites Hosted on MOSS 2007

When I asked someone about a few local web sites being hosted on MOSS 2007, her answer was, "Everyone uses MOSS." I wasn't surprized by the answer though it didn't help me. At wssdemo, I found a list of hundreds of web sites hosted on MOSS 2007: http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/websites.aspx

Approval Workflow Status Values in MOSS 2007

The workflow approval status values are listed below:
the integer values:

0 - Not Started
1 - Failed on Start
2 - In Progress
3 - Error Occurred
4 - Stopped by User 
5 - Completed
6 - Failed on Start, Retrying
7 - Error Occurred, Retrying
8 - View Query Overflow
15 - Canceled
16 - Approved
17 - Rejected

Workflow in MOSS 2007

A workflow can be defined as a model to represent real work for further assessment, In computerized environment, workflow may mean a software solution to capture the events and actions of these assessments as an attempt to computerize the actual business process.

Workflows could be implemented in three different ways in SharePoint 2007. SharePoint 2007 has some OOB workflows. Simple workflows can be created using SharePoint Designer. More complex workflows can be developed in Visual Studio. SharePoint 2007 uses Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) as an engine for workflows. WWF provides workflow runtime, and SharePoint lists and document libraries provide data repository for the items used by workflows.


If you are interested in knowing more this MSDN link is a good starting point: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc514224.aspx#MOSS2007DevWorkflowSolutions_WorkflowPlatform

The 12 Hive in MOSS 2007 Explained

The legendary 12 hive folder is where the OOB system files are located afterSharePoint 2007 installation. 

It is located at "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12" in a standard MOSS 2007 installation. This folder contains the following sub-directories:

• ADMISAPI - This folder maps to IIS virtual directory  for SharePoint Central Administration web service
• BIN - MOSS utilities binary files such as STSADM.EXE. Sub-directory LCIDD stores language specific binary files in individual folders for each language. 
• CONFIG - As the name suggests configuration files used by MOSS
• Data - Indexing services save indexes here.
• HCCab - A set of cab files containing manifest and content information used by the SharePoint help sytem are stored in LCID subdirectory
• Help - The help files used by the configuration wizard
• ISAPI - This folder maps to IIS virtual directory "_vti_bin" and stores all the standard Web Services for SharePoint except SharePoint Central Administration.
• LOGS - SharePoint logs.
• Resources - Localization resources for SharePoint sites
• TEMPLATE - The templates for a SharePoint web site. The features and xml files are also stored in subdirectories of this folder.

A snapshot of 12 hive folder (Click image to zoom)

Server Roles in a MOSS Farm

The architecture of a MOSS farm may contain one or more servers. These servers have various roles which can be divided into three broad categories, Web Front End (WFE), application server and database server.

1. Web Front End (WFE) Servers
The fast and lightweight WFE servers interact with the user. The MOSS site is hosted on the IIS installation on WFE. These servers connect to the database servers to query the MOSS database for grabbing the requested content and rendering the results in the client browser. All WFEs in a farm must be identical and may be load balanced.

2. Application Servers
An application server provides all shared service level capabilities to the users through WFEs.Just like WFEs, load balancing can be implemented on the application servers too. Following are some examples of the shared services hosted on an application server:

• Search Indexing
• Search Query
• Excel Calculation Service
• Windows SharePoint Services Search

3. Database Servers
The database server has the maximum impact on the availability of the MOSS solution because it is the single point of data storage for all MOSS data (users, applications and configurations). Redundancy and high availability can be ensured by clustering or mirroring.

Some SharePoint Jargons

Here is a quick reference of a few  abbreviations, acronyms, and   commonly used while working with SharePoint:

ADSI - Active Directory Service Interfaces
AJAX - Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
BDC - Business Data Catalog
BLOB - Binary Large Objects
CAML - Collaborative Application Markup Language
CAS - Code Access Security
DPM - Data Protection Manager
ECS - Excel Calculation Serv ice
GAC - Global Access Cache
IIS - Internet Information Server
ITIL - Information Technology Infrastructure Library
KPI - Key Performance Indicator
LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LINQ - Language Integrated Query
LOB - Line of Business, Large Objects
MOSS - Microsoft Office SharePoint server
OLAP - Online Analytical Processing
OOB - Out of the Box
SLA - Service Level Agreement
SKU - Stock Keeping Unit
SSP - SharePoint Service Provider
STS - SharePoint Team Services
WCF - Windows Communication Foundation
WFE - Web Front End
WSDL - Web Services Description Language
WSP - Windows SharePoint Solution Package
WSS - Windows SharePoint Services