Webinar for the European SharePoint Community, presented on April 24th 2012, with lessons learned while building public facing websites on SharePoint Server 2010.

1. Building Public Websites inSharePoint 2010
Lessonsfromthefield
André Vala
andre.vala@create.pt

2. Agenda
 Branding
 ContentStructure
 Multi-languageContents
 DevelopmentBestPractices
 ContentDeployment
 DeploymentTips
 SearchEngineOptimization
 CachingandPerformance
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3. Branding
 Customerswantawebsitewithauniqueand
attractivelook&feel
 SharePoint’sout-of-the-boxtemplatesarenotsuited
forpublicfacingwebsites
 ButSharePointisnotalimitation!
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5. #1BuildYourOwnMasterPage
 Mostsitesrequireonly1or2masterpages
 Startwithaminimalmasterpage
 Checkouthttp://startermasterpages.codeplex.com
 NeverdeleteaSharePointplaceholder
 Ifyouthinkyoudon’tneedit,hideit
 HidetheribbonandallSharePointelementsfromanonymous
users
 Doitserver-sidetomakethepageslighter
 UseSPSecurityTrimmedControlorEditModePanel
 Alternatively,youcanhaveadifferentmasterpagefor
anonymoususersbutthisrequiresadditionalcoding
Branding
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6. #2CreatePageLayouts
 Makeyourpagelayoutsgenericenoughtohandlemorethan
onepage
 Maketheunderlyingcontenttypesevenmoregenericto
handlemorethanonepagelayout
 Includewebpartzonestohandleoptionalcomponentsinthe
layoutandincreaseflexibility
 Numberofpagelayoutscanvarywildlydependingonthe
designneeds,butit’sagoodideatokeepitcontrolled:
 1or2areprobablynotenoughortoogeneric
 Under10isusuallyagoodnumber
 Over10areprobablytoomanyornotgenericenough
Branding
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7. ContentStructure
 Pagespresentcontents,butwhereshouldthe
contentsbestored?
 Publishingpages
 Customlists
 Externaldatabases
Depends on the contents
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8. #3ContentsinPublishingPages
 Pros
 Changesaremadeinplacewithimmediateresults
 Developmenteffortisminimal
 Informationisstoredwhereitisused
 Usefulwheneachareaofthesiteismanagedseparately
 Cons
 Deploymentandupdateofsitesandpagesismorecomplex
 Samecontentintwodifferentpagesismanagedseparately
 Lessexperiencedusershavemoredifficultymanagingcontents
 Useitfor
 Contentsthatarenotupdatedoften(monthlyorless)
Content Structure
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9. #4ContentsinCustomLists
 Pros
 Veryeasytomanagecontents
 Datasheetviewcanincreaseproductivitywheneditinglargeamountsof
contents
 Easiertolearnforlessexperienceusers
 Morecontentmanagementsupporttools
 Easytoexportandimportcontents
 Deploymentandupdateoflistsissimpler
 Cons
 Requiresmoredevelopmenteffort
 Changesarenotinplace,hencenotimmediatelyvisible
 Requiresdevelopingandadditionalcachingmechanism
 Useitfor
 Frequentlyupdatedcontents(dailyorweekly)
Content Structure
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10. #5ContentsinExternalDatabases
 Pros
 Supportslargeamountsofdata
 Greatforapplicationloggingandreporting
 Thecontentsarenotreplicatedincontentdeployment
 UserscanaccessthedatausingBCSandExternalLists,withan
experiencesimilartoaregularSharePointlist
 Cons
 Developmenteffortislargerthatthealternatives
 Accesstoinformationismuchharderfortheuser(unlessanExternal
Listorsomeothermeansisgiventotheuser)
 Requiresdevelopingandadditionalcachingmechanism
 Useiffor
 Informationthatisnotmeanttobeeditedorveryrarelyupdated
Content Structure
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11. Multi-languageContents
 SharePoint’sVariationsmechanismwasdesignedto
handle multi-language contentmanagement
 Defineasourcelanguage
 Definethetargetlanguages
 Authorcontentinthesourcelanguage
 Publishandapprovethecontent
 Propagatechangestotargetlanguages
 Translatecontentineachtargetlanguage
 Publishandapprove
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12. #6UseVariations
 Variations
 Greattocreatetheinitialstructureforallthelanguagesoftheportal
 Newsitesandpagesareautomaticallyreplicatedinallthelanguages
 Replicationcanbeturnedofftoavoidaccidentallyreplacing
translatedversionsofpages
 Allowslanguage-specificcontenttobecreated
 Useitwhentheportalstructureissimilarforallthelanguages
(evenifthereareafewexceptions)
 Alternatively,youcanmanuallycreatethemulti-language
structurewhenthestructuresarecompletelydifferentforeach
language
 Forlargeportals,unlessyouuseatoolformassprovisioningofsites,
listsandpages,thiscanbeadauntingtask
Multi-language Contents
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13. GeneralDevelopmentBestPractices
 AfewrulesthateverySharePointdevelopershould
follow
 Disposecorrectly
 Avoidexcessivelogging
 Lazyloadpattern
 WebPartsandUserControls
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14. #7DisposeCorrectly
 UndisposedSPSiteandSPWebobjectstakeupalot
ofmemoryspaceintheservercausing performance
issues
 AlwaysuseSPDisposeCheck
 http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/SPDisposeCheck
 UsetheDisposePatterns
 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rogerla/archive/2008/02/12/s
harepoint-2007-and-wss-3-0-dispose-patterns-by-
example.aspx
General Development Best Practices
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15. #8AvoidExcessiveLogging
 Logging isagreatdiagnosticstoolbutitcomeswith
aperformance penalty
 Toomuchlogging createsverylongandhardtoread
logfiles
 Don’tlogmethodentriesandexitsunlessit’sa
criticalareaofyourcode
 Definelogging policiesatthestartoftheproject
General Development Best Practices
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16. #9LazyLoadPattern
 Implementthelazyloadpatternwhenloadingdata
fromlistsorexternaldatabases
 Loadonlywhatyouneedwhenyouneedit
 Makesureyouonlyloaditonce
 Reducesserverloadandmemoryusage
General Development Best Practices
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17. #10WebPartsandUserControls
 Usewebparts
 Foroptionalcomponentsofpages
 Forpersonalizationofpages
 Ifuserconfigurationisrequired
 Useusercontrols
 Toincludeinpagelayouts(requiredcomponents)
 Wheneverpersonalizationisnotrequired
 WhenyouwantmorecontroloverthegeneratedHTML
General Development Best Practices
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18. ContentDeployment
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19. #11UseContentDeployment
 Pros
 Allowsaseparationoftheauthoringandproductionenvironments,
improvingsecurityoftheproductionenvironment
 Replicatesallthechangesinthesourceenvironmenttothetarget
environment
 Disasterrecoveryiseasier
 Cons
 Replicatesallthechangesinthesourceenvironment,eventheones
wedon’twanttoreplicate
 Hasissueswithupdatestocustomwebpartsinpagelayouts
 Useitalways,butdoitright
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee721058.aspx
Content Deployment
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20. #12UseFeaturesandSolutions
 Everythinggetsdeployedthroughfeaturesand
solution(wsp)packages
 Betterdisasterrecovery
 Automaticdeploymenttoallmachinesinthefarm
 Supportforupdates
Deployment Tips
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21. #13UseSeparatePackageforImages
 Useadifferentsolutionpackageforsiteimages
 Imagesarerarelyupdated
 Imagestakealotofspace,increasingpackagesize
 Largepackagestakelongertoinstall/update
Deployment Tips
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22. PackageStructureSample
 DataStructureforsitecolumns,contenttypesandlisttemplates
 Layoutsforstylesheets,scripts,pagelayoutsandmasterpages
 SystemImagesforsiteimages
 Business/Datafordataaccessandintegrationassemblies
 WebControlsforusercontrolsandresources
 WebControls.Moduleforusercontrolsofaspecificmodule
 WebPartsforwebparts
Deployment Tips
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23. SearchEngineOptimization
Searchengineoptimization(SEO)istheprocessof
improving thevisibility ofawebsiteorawebpagein
searchengines'"natural," orun-paid ("organic"or
"algorithmic"),searchresults.
inwikipedia
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24. #14DescribetheContents
 Makesureeachpagehasauniquetitlethatreflectsits
contents
 Makesureeachpagehasadescription
 Addadescriptioncolumntoallthecontenttypesusedforpage
layouts
 Addthedescriptionfieldtoaneditmodepanelinthepage
layout
 Usethevalueofthedescriptioncolumninadescriptionmeta
tag
 Makesureeachimagehasanalternativetext(alt
attribute)thatdescribesit
Search Engine Optimization
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25. #15AddaSiteMapPage
 AddaSiteMappagethatcontainslinkstothemost
relevantpagesinthesite
 Thesitemapcanbeautomaticallygeneratedormanaged
manually
Search Engine Optimization
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26. #16No BrokenLinks
 Makesuretherearenobrokenlinksintheportal
 UseW3CLinkCheckertooltoverifyifyoumissedone
Search Engine Optimization
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27. #17ImproveURLStructure
 UsewordsinpageURLs
 Usedashinstead ofunderscoretoseparatewords
 Eachpageshould haveasingleaddresswithasingle
capitalization
 Searchenginesarecasesensitive
 UseIISRewriteModuletotransformalltheaddressesto
lowercase
Search Engine Optimization
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28. #18HelptheWebCrawlers
 UseaROBOTS.TXTfile
 Containsalltheaddressesofpagesandimagestobeignoredbysearch
engines
 http://www.robotstxt.org/faq.html
 UseaSITEMAP.XMLfile
 XMLfilewithalltheaddressesofallthepagesinthesitethatshouldbe
crawledbysearchengines
 http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html
 Usethelast-modifiedtag
 Everypageshouldcontainthelast-modifiedtagintheheader
 Tellsthesearchenginewhenthepagewaslastupdated
 UsetheLinkCanonicalandLinkAlternatetagswhenservingsimiliar
contentsindifferentlanguages
Search Engine Optimization
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29. #19Useful404Pages
 CreatecustomizedandusefulPageNotFound(404)
errorpages
 Helptheusersfindthecontenttheywerelookingfor
 Offeradditionalinterestingcontent
 Encouragetheusertoexplorethesite
Search Engine Optimization
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30. #20Configure301Redirects
 Whenpageschangeaddresses, usea301Redirect
tomakesuretheirsearchengineranksarekept
 IISRewriteModulecanbeusedtothisend
 Avoid302Temporary Redirects
 SharePointuses302TemporaryRedirectstoredirect
userstothewelcomepageofawebsite
 Amodulecanbeusedtotransformthe302temporary
redirectsto301redirects
Search Engine Optimization
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31. #21UseWebMasterTools
 UseGoogle/Bing freewebmastertools
 Easytointegrate
 Sitecontentandstructureanalysis
 Recommendchangestoimproveranking
Search Engine Optimization
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32. #22UseCaching
 ReadthearticlePlanforcachingandperformance
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424404.aspx
 ActivatetheBLObcache
 Storesbinaryfilesinthewebserver’sfilesystemavoidingcostlydatabasecalls
 ActivatetheOutputcache
 StoresthegeneratedpageHTMLtoacceleratesubsequentrequestsforthe
samepage
 ImplementaVaryByCustomcachehandlerifnootherSharePointoutput
cacheoptioncanfulfillyourrequirements
 CustomCaching
 UseASP.NETOutputCache(orothercachingmechanisms)whenyouhave
theneedtoconfigurecachingonausercontrolbasis
Caching and Performance
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33. #23ReduceHTTPRequests
 Reducethenumberofstylesheetandscriptfilesby
mergingthem,whenpossible
 UseCSSspritesforthesiteimages,whenpossible,
combining multiple imagesintoasingleimage
Caching and Performance
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34. #24MinimizePayload
 Optimizeimages
 Compresssiteimages
 Makesurecontenteditorsunderstandtheimportanceof
compressingimages
 UsePNGsorGIFsforsiteimages,andJPEGsforphoto-like
images
 Minify CSSfiles
 MinifyJavaScriptfiles
 Deferloading ofJavaScript
Caching and Performance
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35. #25ImproveSpeed
 IntheHTML
 Placeallthestylesheetreferencesfirstandtogether
 Placeallthescriptfilereferencestogetherandafterthe
stylesheetreferences
 UseaContentDeliveryNetwork(CDN) servicefor
images,stylesheets andscriptstoensurethebest
possibleperformanceeverywhereintheworld
Caching and Performance
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36. Summary
#1BuildYourOwnMasterPage
#2CreatePageLayouts
#3ContentsinPublishingPages
#4ContentsinCustomLists
#5ContentsinExternalDatabases
#6UseVariations
#7DisposeCorrectly
#8AvoidExcessiveLogging
#9LazyLoadPattern
#10WebPartsandUserControls
#11UseContentDeployment
#12UseFeaturesandSolutions
#13UseSeparatePackageforImages
#14DescribetheContents
#15AddaSiteMapPage
#16NoBrokenLinks
#17ImproveURLStructure
#18HelptheWebCrawlers
#19Useful404Pages
#20Configure301Redirects
#21UseWebMasterTools
#22UseCaching
#23ReduceHTTPRequests
#24MinimizePayload
#25ImproveSpeed
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37. Thank You
André Vala
andre.vala@create.pt