Scott Shearer
SharePoint Evangelist/Developer
FlexPoint Technology
sshearer@flexpointtech.com
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SharePoint Evangelist and Consultant for
FlexPoint Technology
Based in Reston, VA
Done everything from System Administration
to C# development to helpdesk
CPA
Former Stock Broker
Former Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
Past Certifications Held: MCSE, MCSD,
MCDBA, MCT, CNE
Conference Speaker
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@ScottJShearer on Twitter
http://spconcierge.wordpress.com
sshearer@flexpointtech.com
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IT Consulting firm based in Reston, VA
Cloud Technologies
SharePoint consulting, “development”,
training
US Government and commercial customers
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My presentation today is based on my
experience and research
It’s just my opinion….
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Discuss as much as we can about
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Dealing with SharePoint Security
Content Types
Dealing with end users
Promoting user adoption
Tips, tricks, etc…
Focus is on team sites and other internal
collaborative sites
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The top priority of the SCA is to secure the site
collection
Its all about inheritance
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It doesn’t have to be complicated
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◦ “Trickle Down Theory” of permissions
◦ By default, all objects inherit permissions from their
parent
◦ Manage SharePoint Groups – not people
◦ Leverage Active Directory Groups
◦ Use Members, Owners and Visitors groups
Don’t assign permissions directly to users
Keep the top level site open to members of
subsites, if possible
SharePoint doesn’t offer column level security
Top Level Site
Lists/Libraries
Rows of
data/documents
Subsite
Folders
Rows of
data/documents
Lists/libraries
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Don’t make decisions on who should have site access
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Plan and document your security structure
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It’s OK to break inheritance, but think it through
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◦ It’s not your data (usually) – data owner should make that decision
◦ Have an access request and approval process with a “paper trail” (CYA)
◦ Avoid the issue by using Active Directory groups
◦ Keep it as simple as possible
◦ If it starts getting complicated, think about another site collection
◦ The more you break inheritance, the harder it is to maintain your site
Permission Levels vs Custom Permission Levels
Site Owners group should own any group that you create
Don’t give users full control unless they know what they are
doing
◦ You’ll have to fix what they mess-up
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SCA vs Site Owner
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Have a written policy approved by management
for creating site collections and subsites
Archive and/or delete site collections that are
inactive for a specified period of time
◦ Don’t keep project oriented sites around when the
project is through
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Never create a site when a list, library or page will
meet the requirement
◦ When a user asks for a new site, ask some questions
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Keep the site structure wide rather than deep
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Keep your sites as “Out of the Box” as possible
◦ Time to deployment is accelerated
◦ Much easier to maintain
◦ Avoid upgrade issues
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Don’t use Designer until you have exhausted
what you can do through the browser
Don’t make changes to your master page for
Team Sites unless you really really need to
◦ The audience for your Team Site is your team
◦ It doesn’t need to have “rounded corners”
◦ Avoid upgrade issues
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What is a Content Type
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Template for collecting data in a list or library
Made up of site columns
All Content types inherit from another content type
Demo
Custom Content Types
◦ Demo – create leave calendar
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Allows for a standard way to record a given
type of data
Allows for slightly different types of data to
be stored in a single list
Allows for reuse
Allows for easy updates
Allows for standard policies
Allows for standard workflows
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NEVER NEVER NEVER ALTER OUT OF THE BOX
CONTENT TYPES OR SITE COLUMNS
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Users don’t care about SharePoint
◦ They care about solutions that help them get their job
done
◦ “What’s in it for me?”
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Give users a reason to care
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Save them time
Save them hassles
Streamline processes
Get Management Buy-in
Big Bang Theory
◦ Not what they needed delivered too late
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Roll-out SharePoint one app at a time
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Identify the power users in each office and
spend your time with them
Show users what they need to know when
they need to know it
◦ “Just in Time Training”
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If you use “out of the box” solutions, need for
training is minimized
Make use of online resources
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Easy customizations to your site
◦ Selectively show/hide columns
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Easy to find lots of examples
SPServices is your friend
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jQuery library
Cascading dropdowns
Filter lookup columns
Retrieve list data
http://spservices.codeplex.com/
Mark Rackley has some great blog posts that will
help get you started
◦ http://www.sharepointhillbilly.com
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Import data into SharePoint
◦ Clean-up data prior to import
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Export data from SharePoint
Combine SharePoint data with data from
other data sources
Bulk updates of SharePoint data
Reporting
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Not all data belongs in SharePoint
◦ Why move data out of Excel?
◦ Relational data belongs in a relational database
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DON’T CLOSE Web Parts
◦ Slows down page load time
◦ ?Contents=1 (Web Part Page Maintenance)
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Don’t enable any feature unless you know
what it does and you need it
◦ Not all features “roll-back” cleanly when deactivated
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Use Choice instead of Lookup Columns
whenever possible
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Never put spaces in the names of SharePoint
objects when creating them
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Create with no spaces
Add spaces to create “friendly names” after creation
Keeps URLs much shorter
Makes working with jQuery and JavaScript easier
Don’t replicate a share drive folder structure
in a document library
◦ Minimize the use of folders
◦ Use managed metadata