Q. How does Client object model works?
Ans. When we use
SharePoint client API’s to perform a specific task, the SharePoint Foundation
2010 managed client object model bundles up these uses of the API into XML and
sends it to the server that runs SharePoint Foundation. The server receives this
request, and makes appropriate calls into the object model on the server,
collects the responses, forms them into JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and
sends that JSON back to the SharePoint Foundation 2010 managed client object
model. The client object model parses the JSON and presents the results to the
application as .NET Framework objects (or ECMAScript objects for ECMAScript).
Q. How many types of Client Object model extension are available
in 2010 and when would you use one or the other.
Ans. To develop rich client side solutions, three set of
client-side APIs has been introduced in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client
namespace. The three APIs are targeted for three different types of clients.
1. .net Managed applications – These are used when we have to create console
applications or window applications, web applications which are not running
inside SharePoint Contex.
2. For Silverlight applications
3. ECMAScript – It is a client object model extension for using with JavaScript
or JScript. This is used for creating applications which are hosted inside
SharePoint. For example, web part deployed in SharePoint site can use this
JavaScript API for accessing SharePoint from browser using JavaScript.
Q. What is difference between Load() and LoadQuery() methods ?
Ans. Load method populates the client object directly with what
it gets data from the server i.e. a collection object like ListItemCollection
etc. but LoadQuery returns the data as a completely new collection in
IEnumerable format. Other major difference is that the Collections that you
load using the Load() method are eligible for garbage collection only when
the client context variable itself goes out of scope where as, in these
collections go out of scope at the end of IEnumerable list.
Q. How can you write efficient and better performing client
object applications?
Ans. You
can always use Lambda expressions in your queries to return only specific
properties that will be used in your block. You can also use LoadQuery() method
and specify multiple levels of properties to load for e.g. while returning
specific properties of the lists using LoadQuery(), you can also specify the
fields to return from each list to optimize the data access.
Q. What are the Authentication methods for your client object model
application ?
Ans. Basically there are three (3) authentication options you
can use when you’re working with the Client Object Model in SharePoint 2010:
* Anonymous
* Default
* FormsAuthentication
You can
specify clientContext.Authentication = Anonymous\Default\FormsAuthentication, If
you do not choose an authentication method in your code, the application will
default to using the client’s Windows Credentials (DefaultCredentials).
Q. How do you access ECMAScript object model API’s?
Ans. The ECMAScript library is available in a number of JS
files in the LAYOUTS folder. The main file among number of .js files
is SP.js. When you include this file in the APSX page using a ScriptLink
control, all other required JS files are loaded automatically. By linking SP.js
to your page, the SP namespace gets registered. SP is the SharePoint namespace
that contains all objects. For debugging purposes every js file also has a
‘debug’ equivalent in the same folder.
Q. What is the
purpose of calling clientContext.ExecuteQuery() ?
Ans. ExecuteQuery gives you the option to minimize the
number of roundtrips to the server from your client code. All the components
loaded into the clientcontext are executed in one go.
Q. Why would you use LINQ over CAML for data retrieval?
Ans. Unlike
CAML, with LINQ to SharePoint provider, you are working with strongly
typed list item objects. For example, an item in the Announcements list is
an object of type Announcement and an item on a Tasks list is an object of type
Task. You can then enumerate the objects and get the properties for your use.
Also, you can use LINQ syntax and the LINQ keywords built into C# and VB for
LINQ queries.
Q. Can we use our custom master page with the application pages
in SharePoint 2010 ?
Ans. With
2010, you can now set whether the pages under _Layouts use the same Master Page
as the rest of your site. You can enable or disable this functionality through
the web application settings in Central Administration. This however, is not
applicable to your custom application pages. If you want your custom
application page to inherit the site master page you must derive it
fromMicrosoft.SharePoint.WebControls.LayoutsPageBase class.
Q. What are WebTemplates and Site Definitions?
Ans. Site definitions consist primarily of multiple XML and
ASPX files stored on a front-end Web server in folders under the
%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server
extensions\14\TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates directory.
Custom Web templates on the other hand, are stored in the database, and are
created using an existing site, with or without its specific content, as a
model. This provides a means for reusing sites that you have customized.In some
ways, Web templates continue to depend, throughout their lifecycle, on the site
definition that is their ultimate foundation.
Q. How do you write to SharePoint ULS logs in 2010?
Ans. In SharePoint
Foundation, ULS exposes configurable settings in two ways, through the – Object
model and Windows PowerShell cmdlets. For writing to SharePoint ULS logs
developers can use Diagnostics Service, which will make the customized
categories viewable in the administrative UI for our errors.
or they can use the number of cmdlets available for accessing ULS logs using
powershell. Some of the cmdlets are Get-SPDiagnosticConfig ,Get-SPLogEvent etc.
Q. What does CMDUI.XML contain?
Ans. The definitions for the out-of-the-box ribbon elements are
split across several files in the SharePoint root, with
TEMPLATE\GLOBAL\XML\CMDUI.XML being the main one.
Q. What has changed in SharePoint 2010 Object model?
Ans. Microsoft
has replaced the “12 hive” structure that we had in SharePoint 2007 with “14
Hive” structure in 2010.
It has apparently added four
new folders to its hive.
The Folders are :
* Policy
* UserCode
* WebClients
* WebServices
Q. How would you deploy WebPart Using Windows PowerShell?
Ans. At
the Windows PowerShell command prompt (PS C:\>), type the below command :
Install -SPWebPartPack
-LiteralPath “FullPathofCabFile” -Name “Nameof WebPart”
Q. How would you re-deploy the old custom solutions in
SharePoint 2010.What Changes are needed to the old Solution files?
Ans. SharePoint 2010 object model contains many changes and
enhancements, but our custom code will still compile and, will run as expected.
You should however, rewrite and recompile any code that refers to files and
resources in “12 hive”.
For Details See :
SharePoint Object Model – Backward Compatibility
Q. How would you add a link in the Ribbon?
Ans. You can add any link or Custom Action under any of the
existing tabs of the ribbon or can create a new a new tab and place your links
under it.
Q. What does CMDUI.XML contain?
Ans. The
definitions for the out-of-the-box ribbon elements are split across several
files in the SharePoint root, with TEMPLATE\GLOBAL\XML\CMDUI.XML being the main
one.
Q. What are the Disadvantages of Using LINQ in your Code?
Ans. LINQ translates the LINQ queries into Collaborative
Application Markup Language (CAML) queries thus adding an extra step for
retrieving the items.
Q. What is different with SharePoint 2010 workflows?
Ans. Some of the additions in workflow model are :
1. SharePoint 2010 workflows
are build upon the workflow engine provide .Net Framework 3.5.
2. In addition to the
SharePoint lists we can now create workflows for SharePoint sites as well.
3. SharePoint Designer 2010
also has a new graphical workflow designer for designing workflows and
deploying them directly to SharePoint.
4. Another Improvement in
SharePoint Designer 2010 is that it now allows you to edit the out-of-the-box
workflows that come with SharePoint.
Q. How does Ribbon works ?
Ans. A file called CMDUI.XML stays at the web front end which
contains the Out-of-Box site wide Ribbon implementation i.e. all the Ribbon UI
for the entire site. In addition to this you have a CustomAction for each
ribbon component. These CustomActions have CommandUIExtentions block which has
CommandUIDefinitions and CommandUIHandlers which make up the activity of the
ribbon component. So, when the ribbon is loaded the CommandUIDefinition merges
with Out-of-Box definition in the CMDUI.XML
Q. How will you use WebParts or other solutions Created in
SharePoint 2007 in SharePoint 2010 ?
Ans. In SharePoint 2010 the 12 hive is now replaced by 14 hive,
So we will rewrite and recompile any code that refers to files and resources in
“12″ hive. In addition to we must recompile custom code written for Windows
SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 that does not run on
IIS.
Q. What is the advantage in using Windows PowerShell over stsadm
in SharePoint 2010 ?
Ans. Unlike
stsadm, which accept and return text, Windows PowerShell is built on the
Microsoft .NET Framework and accepts and returns .NET Framework objects.
Windows PowerShell also gives you access to the file system on the computer and
enables you to access other data stores, such as the registry and the digital
signature certificate stores etc..
Q. What is REST? How is it used in SharePoint 2010?
Ans. REST (Representational State transfer) is a protocol
(powered by ADO.NET services) which is used for getting data out of SharePoint
via Url. It is mostly used to access data from SharePoint even when you are not
in the SharePoint context.
Q. What data type is returned by REST ?
Ans. REST does not return an object of type SharePoint
Site\List. Instead, it returns an XML output.
Q. What is a workflow?
Ans. Workflows are the way organization functions, a series of
actions that correspond to a work process, such as the process for purchase
orders. SharePoint 2010 helps you automate these workflows, thereby increasing
the efficiency and productivity of the organization.
Q. What are the types of workflow that you can design in
SharePoint 2010.
Ans. you can design List Workflows, Reusable List Workflows and
Site workflows using SharePoint designer 2010.
Q. What Reusable List Workflows and Site workflows?
Ans.
Reusable List Workflows -
You can create a reusable
list workflow (reusable workflow) in the top-level site in the site collection,
and that workflow can be made globally reusable — meaning that the workflow can
be associated to any list, library, or content type in the site collection. You
can also create a reusable workflow in any subsite in the site collection; this
workflow is available for reuse in that particular subsite.
Site workflows - A site
workflow is associated to a site — not to a list, library, or content type. So
unlike most workflows, a site workflow is not running on a specific list item.
Because of this, many of the actions that is available for items not available
for site workflows.
Q. Can you modify the Out-of-Box workflows in SharePoint 2010?
Ans. In SharePoint 2010, you have an option to customize the
Out-of-Box workflows. The four most popular workflows in SharePoint Server 2007
— the Approval, Collect Feedback, Collect Signatures, Publishing Approval
workflows — have been completely rebuilt as declarative reusable workflows,
meaning that they are now fully customizable in SharePoint Designer 2010.
Q. What are events, actions, conditions and steps?
Ans. Lets look at this one by one.
Events - An event is
what starts or initiates a workflow. Events can also be used to manage the
timing of actions within a workflow, such as waiting for the status of an item
to change. There are three events that can start a workflow:
* An item is created.
* An item is changed.
* A workflow participant clicks a start button on the SharePoint site.
Actions – An action is the most basic unit of work in a workflow.
SharePoint Designer 2010 provides a set of ready-made, reusable actions for you
to incorporate into your workflow.
For example, your workflow
can:
* Create, copy, change, or
delete list items (including documents).
* Check items in or out.
* Send an e-mail message.
Conditions - When you
design a workflow, you can use the workflow editor to create rules that apply
conditional logic to SharePoint sites, lists, items and content types. A rule
establishes a condition where the workflow performs the associated action only
if that condition is true. For example, you can create a rule where the
workflow sends a reviewer an e-mail message only if an item is created by a
specific person.
Q. What are Parallel and Serial actions?
Ans. When you have more than one action associated with a
condition, the actions can be set up to run at the same time (parallel) or one
after another (serial), the default.
Q. What are the Types of forms associated with the workflow?
Ans. With SharePoint Designer 2010, you can create three types
of workflow forms:
Initiation
form – An initiation form gathers information from the workflow
participant when they start the workflow. It is automatically generated when
you create the workflow in SharePoint Designer 2010. Initiation forms are
displayed to users when they manually start a workflow on a given SharePoint
item. With an initiation form, users can specify additional parameters or
information about the workflow as it applies to the given SharePoint item.
Task form – A custom task form allows
workflow participants to interact with tasks in the Tasks list specified for
the workflow. With the Custom Task Wizard, you can easily create custom form
fields and add them to a custom task form. When you finish designing the
workflow, SharePoint Designer 2010 automatically generates the InfoPath or
ASP.NET forms for your custom tasks.
Reusable
workflow – association form – A reusable workflow, by default, only
provides the fields common to all items, such as Created and Modified by. This
is because a reusable workflow isn’t by default associated with a list,
library, or content type. An association form enables you to associate fields
with a reusable workflow so that the fields will be available when you design
and run the workflow.
Q. When are these forms get created? And how do you customize it
?
Ans. SharePoint Designer 2010 automatically generates the
forms, but you can customize them by going to the settings page for the
workflow, in the Forms section, click the form you want to customize. Workflow
forms are either InfoPath or ASP.NET pages. They are stored on the SharePoint
site with the workflow source files.
Q. How will you deploy files such as Css, js in SharePoint 2010?
Ans. The most preferable way to deploy files
in SharePoint is by using the solution package. In SharePoint 2010
you can create an empty project with VS 2010 and then add a
new SharePoint Mapped folder in it. This will give the desired
location in 14 hive where you can then add a file to deploy.
Q. Can you display a page as a modal dialog?
Ans. Yes,
any page can be displayed as modal dialog. A Modal dialog takes
options as a parameter and we can specify the url for any page
usually saved in _layouts.
Q. Can you display the modal dialog from a webpart?
Ans. Yes
a modal dialog can be displayed from within a webpart code since its
a JavaScript block that can be registered on the page.
Q. What is difference between an Application page and a Custom
aspx page in SharePoint 2010. If you have to deploy a page with some
code in it which one would you prefer?
Ans.
Application Page – You would typically use an application page
when you need some content that is merged with SharePoint master page. A master
page enables application pages to share the same appearance and behavior as
other pages on a site. Application page generally gets deployed in _layouts and
inhertirs the look and feel of the site that you are using.
A Custom .net aspx page on the other hand would need content and master page
tags in your page to make it inherit the look and feel of the site.
I would prefer deploying an application page with code as it is much easier and
has built-in templates available in VS 2010.
Q. What is Docuement Set and how is it useful to the end users?
Ans. A
Document Set is a group of related documents that can be created in one step
and then managed as a single entity. This can be seen as a folder of documents
with a cover letter(welcome page) and which can share common data between its
documents (share document set info\columns).
Document Set is very useful when it comes to managing the documents for a
single project or task. For e.g. a manager while working on a project wants to
create a single folder\entity with all the documents related to that project.
He also wants that each document shares the project info (for e.g. Project Id,
Manager name etc.) and can be checked in\checked out individually. Document Set
will also allow him to add a cover letter\welcome page to the entity(or his set
of documents) and use some basic document features like record version history,
start a workflow, e-mail document set etc.
Q. What are Projected Fields in SPQuery and when would you use
that?
Ans. In
SharePoint 2010, Referential integrity can now be implemented using Lookup
columns. Joins and ProjectedFields properties of SPQuery were introduced to
facilitate this. Projected Fields are the fields which you can access when a
list is joined by a lookup solumns. These are additional columns from a parent
lookup column list.
Q. What is WebProvisioned event receiver and when would you use
that?
Ans. WebProvisioned
event receiver is fired after the site has been created and is fully
provisioned (asynchronous). For e.g. if you want to update the site title of
logo after its been created or if you want to add a new list\library after the
out-of-box site has been created you can use the WebProvisioned event handler.
Q. If you have to add a new Ribbon button to one of the existing
tabs how will you identify the location?
Ans. The
Its typically Ribbon.Tabs.group.Controls._children.
Q. How would you
re-deploy the old custom solutions in SharePoint 2010.What Changes are needed
to the old Solution files.
Ans. SharePoint
2010 object model contains many changes and enhancements, but our custom code
will still compile and, will run as expected. You should however, rewrite and
recompile any code that refers to files and resources in "12 hive".
For Details See: SharePoint 2010 Object Model - Backward Compatibility
Q. How many types
of Client Object model extension are available in 2010 and when would you use
one or the other.
Ans. To
develop rich client side solutions, three set of client-side APIs has been
introduced in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client namespace. The three APIs are
targeted for three different types of clients.
1. .net Managed applications – These are used when we have to create console
applications or window applications, web applications which are not running
inside SharePoint Contex.
2. For Silverlight applications
3. ECMAScript – It is a client object model extension for using with JavaScript
or JScript. This is used for creating applications which are hosted inside
SharePoint. For example, web part deployed in SharePoint site can use this
JavaScript API for accessing SharePoint from browser using JavaScript.
Q. What are the
security improvements in SharePoint 2010?
Ans. In
SharePoint 2010 a variety of security methods have been introduced.
Claims-Based Authentication - Claims based authentication is based on identity.
and trust.
Code Access Security - in which you can specify your own code access
security (CAS) policy for your web parts.
Sandbox Solutions - Sandbox Solutions which when deployed to the server,
SharePoint runs in a special process that has limited permissions.
Cross-Site Scripting - Introduced to prevent Cross - Site Scripting (XSS)
attacks.
Q. Whats New with
SharePoint WebParts?
Ans. A
developer can create two types of webparts using Visual Studio 2010.
1. Visual Webparts - Allows you to Drag and Drop the controls from the Toolbox
to WebPart Design surface. You can of course write your custom code in the code
file. You can also package and deploy your webparts directly to Sharepoint from
VS by pressing Clt+F5. Visual studio 2010 also provides you with three
different views for developing webparts. The views are split view, design view
and Source view(as we have in designer 2007).
Note: The Visual Webpart project Item basically loads a User Control as a
WebPart.
2. ASP.Net WebParts - Where a developer can build up User Interface and logic
in a class file. You do not have designer for drag and drop of controls. This
webpart inherits from standard ASP.Net webpart. For Deployment we can again use
ctrl+f5 to deploy this webpart.
Q. What are the Visual
Studio 2010 Tools for SharePoint.
Ans. Visual
Studio 2010 includes SharePoint-specific project types and project item types,
and includes powerful packaging, deployment, and debugging features that help
increase your efficiency as a SharePoint 2010 developer.
Some of the Templates avaiable are :
1.Visual Web Part project template.
2. List defination template.
3. Content Type template.
4. Empty Project template.
5. Event Receiver template.
6. some workflow template.
7. the Site Definition template
and many more....
Q. What are SharePoint
Sandboxed soultions ?
Ans. SharePoint
2010 provides a new sandboxed environment that enables you to run user
solutions without affecting the rest of the SharePoint farm. This environment
means that users can upload their own custom solutions without requiring
intervention from administrators, and without putting the rest of the farm at
risk. This means that the existing sites\pages or components will not be
effected by the newly added soultion.
Users can deploy the below four things as sandboxed soultions :
1. WebParts.
2. Event Receivers.
3. List Definations.
4. Workflows.
Q. What are
Requirenments for SharePoint 2010.
Ans. SharePoint
Server 2010 will support only 64 - bit. It will require 64 bit Windows Server
2008 or 64 bit Windows Server 2008 R2. In addition to this, it will require 64
bit version of SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005.
Q. What is LINQ. How is
it used in Sharepoint ?
Ans. LINQ
is a feature of the programming languages C# 3.0 and Visual Basic .NET. LINQ
allows you to query in an object-oriented way, supports compile-time check,
gives you intellisense support in Visual Studio and defines a unified, SQL like
syntax to query any data source. But unlike other languages and query syntaxes
which vary from one type of data source to another, LINQ can be used to query,
in principle, any data source whatsoever. It is commonly used to query objects
collections, XML and SQL server data sources.
The LINQ to SharePoint Provider is defined in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq
namespace. It translates LINQ queries into Collaborative Application Markup
Language (CAML) queries.
Q. What Changes are made
in SharePoint 2010 to enforce Referential Integrity?
Ans. In
SharePoint 2010, Referential Integrity is enforced using two options, available
with Look-up columns.
While creating a Look-up column, you can either choose a) Restrict Delete or b)
Cascade Delete to define a relationship between the Look-up list and the list
containing the look-up Column. Read Details at SharePoint 2010 Referential
integrity - Using LookUp Column
Q . Whats New in
SPALerts ?
Ans. In SharePoint
2007, alerts were send only through e-mails, but in SP2010 users can also send
an alert to mobile devices as SMS Message. A New property DeliveryChannels is
introduced to indicate, whether the alert is delivered as E-mail or as an SMS
Message.
Q. What Has Changed with
SSP in SharePoint 2010.
Ans. In
SharePoint 2010 Shared Service Providers (SSP's) are replaced by Service
Applications. Services are no longer combined into a SSP. They are running
independent as a service application. The service application architecture is
now also built into Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, in contrast to the
Shared Services Provider (SSP) architecture that was only part of Office
SharePoint Server 2007.
A key
benefit here is that all services are installed by default and there is no SSP
setup.