This article is one of a series of articles that describes an end-to-end scenario that outlines how to plan, design, build, and maintain an enterprise's Internet presence Web site based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Maintaining the site and customizations includes the following:
Authoring and publishing the site on a weekly schedule.
Modifying or adding layout pages, master pages, or cascading style sheets as needed.
Adding new custom site elements such as Web parts or custom field controls.
Maintaining the site’s content
Maintaining the editorial calendar is the responsibility of the content lead in partnership with marketing team members, site authors and site editors. The content team meets weekly. They first verify the results of the previous week’s content deployment to the publishing farm and then they assign and discuss the following week’s assignments.
Action
A new press release is assigned to a writer who starts researching the article.
In the authoring farm, the writer opens the News and Events subsite in a Web browser.
The author creates a new page and selects the correct layout page for press releases.
In the Web browser, the author writes and formats the press release content. At the same time, the graphic artist creates an image to use in the article and uploads the image to the site’s Images library.
When the content is ready for reviewing, the author checks it in and notifies the content editor and technical reviewers. (A graphic artist does the same thing in the Images library.)
After incorporating all review comments, the writer checks the page in as a new major version. The Page library is configured to start an Approval workflow when this happens. The approver is the content lead.
The content lead reviews the pending press release and approves it for publication.
Outcome
The new page is deployed to the Production farm the next time content deployment runs.
The content lead, program manager, and designer maintain a schedule of tasks that are related to site artifacts and branding. They schedule the tasks as needed to meet site customization goals. Changes to the site design may be motivated by branding considerations, such as to introduce new color schemes or fonts, or they may be in support of new, developed site elements.
Action
A new Web part is planned that must be added directly to certain layout pages that are displayed in the Products site. The customization task is assigned to the designer.
In the authoring farm, the designer edits the relevant layout pages, adds the Web part directly to the layout, and checks in the pages as minor versions.
The designer also uploads the layout pages to the integration farm to be used by the Web parts developer and tester.
When the Web part has been tested, approved for use, and deployed to the authoring and production farms, the designer checks the layout page in as a new major version.
Outcome
The new page layout is deployed to the production farm the next time content deployment runs.
Custom site elements add new functionality to the site. These are researched and proposed by the program manager of the Solutions team in partnership with the content lead.
Action
A Web part is needed to provide new functionality to the Products site. The Web part, named “Hyper product view,” will allow site visitors to explore certain products in a three dimensional view that lets them rotate, zoom, expand, and collapse the rendering of the product. The program manager has written a specification of the Web part.
Developed site elements are installed on Web servers that are maintained by the Infrastructure team. Proposals for new site elements, as a result, are reviewed by the program manager and IT service manager on the Infrastructure team and a developer and tester on the Solutions team. A series of specification review meetings occur and the issues are resolved in the specification document to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.
A developer creates the Web part in the development environment. He delivers the completed Web part to the integration farm, where it is tested by a tester.
When the Web part has been thoroughly tested, debugged, and approved for release, a tester builds a solution package that contains the Web part executable and supporting files.
An IT administrator installs the Web part on the authoring and production farms and enables the Hyper product view Web feature on both farms.
Outcome
The new Web part is available for site visitors to use on some pages in the Products site.