Building portals, intranets, and corporate Web sites using Microsoft servers

< Day Day Up >

• Table of Contents

Building Portals, Intranets, and Corporate Web Sites Using Microsoft Servers

By James J. Townsend, Dmitri Riz, Deon Schaffer

Publisher: Addison Wesley

Pub Date: March 19, 2004

ISBN: 0-321-15963-2

Pages: 544

Building Portals, Intranets, and Corporate Web Sites Using Microsoft Servers is the practical guide

to designing, developing, and implementing Web portals using Microsoft servers and the .NET

Framework. James J. Townsend provides portal development teams with a working developer's

overview of the concepts, technologies, and products used in building successful corporate portals.

Readers learn how to create a portal architecture based on Microsoft .NET and integrate multiple

server technologies and components to create a powerful portal solution.

After introducing basic concepts in portal development, Townsend describes the Microsoft portal

strategy and the importance of Web services to .NET. Readers become familiar with the .NET portal

framework and the roles of Microsoft's SQL Server, Commerce Server (MCS), SharePoint Portal

Server, BizTalk Server, Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server, Content Management

Server (MCMS), and related technologies. Key topic coverage includes security feature integration,

personalization, content management, enterprise application integration (EAI), collaboration

features, providing full search capability, and achieving scalability. A companion Web site features

all the source code used in examples throughout the book.

This book provides practical development advice in answer to questions commonly faced by portal

developers, such as:

When does it make sense to develop or deploy a Web service?

Is there a straightforward way to mitigate almost all potential security risks?

How do you get the most out of personalization?

How can you measure the return on investment for content management?

Which is the best online conferencing solution for your organization?

< Day Day Up >

• Table of Contents

Building Portals, Intranets, and Corporate Web Sites Using Microsoft Servers

By James J. Townsend, Dmitri Riz, Deon Schaffer

Publisher: Addison Wesley

Pub Date: March 19, 2004

ISBN: 0-321-15963-2

Pages: 544

Building Portals, Intranets, and Corporate Web Sites Using Microsoft Servers is the practical guide

to designing, developing, and implementing Web portals using Microsoft servers and the .NET

Framework. James J. Townsend provides portal development teams with a working developer's

overview of the concepts, technologies, and products used in building successful corporate portals.

Readers learn how to create a portal architecture based on Microsoft .NET and integrate multiple

server technologies and components to create a powerful portal solution.

After introducing basic concepts in portal development, Townsend describes the Microsoft portal

strategy and the importance of Web services to .NET. Readers become familiar with the .NET portal

framework and the roles of Microsoft's SQL Server, Commerce Server (MCS), SharePoint Portal

Server, BizTalk Server, Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server, Content Management

Server (MCMS), and related technologies. Key topic coverage includes security feature integration,

personalization, content management, enterprise application integration (EAI), collaboration

features, providing full search capability, and achieving scalability. A companion Web site features

all the source code used in examples throughout the book.

This book provides practical development advice in answer to questions commonly faced by portal

developers, such as:

When does it make sense to develop or deploy a Web service?

Is there a straightforward way to mitigate almost all potential security risks?

How do you get the most out of personalization?

How can you measure the return on investment for content management?

Which is the best online conferencing solution for your organization?

When and how should you scale up and/or out?

Building Portals, Intranets, and Corporate Web Sites Using Microsoft Servers shows you how to

choose and integrate the right products and build the best portal for your organization.

< Day Day Up >

< Day Day Up >

• Table of Contents

Building Portals, Intranets, and Corporate Web Sites Using Microsoft Servers

By James J. Townsend, Dmitri Riz, Deon Schaffer

Publisher: Addison Wesley

Pub Date: March 19, 2004

ISBN: 0-321-15963-2

Pages: 544

Copyright

Praise for Building Portals, Intranets, and Corporate Web Sites Using Microsoft Servers

Preface

Audience and Goals

Prerequisites

Software Requirements

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Introduction to Portals

Rise of the Portal

Portal Definitions

Types of Portals

Benefits of Portals

Attributes of Portals

Summary

Chapter 2. Portal Elements

Look-and-Feel

Security

User Profile

Personalization

Taxonomy

Application Integration

Database and Other Repositories

Support for Transactions

Collaboration Tools

Multichannel Support

Search Engine

Portal Solution Requirements Table

Putting the .NET Portal Together

Chapter 3. Microsoft's Portal Strategy

The Microsoft Portal Perspective

Microsoft Office Group

Microsoft Enterprise Software Group

Microsoft Online Properties

Fundamental Portal Elements

Optional Portal Elements

Third-Party Portal Elements

Future Evolution of Portal Platform to Jupiter and Beyond

Migration of Server Products to .NET

Conclusion: A Two-Pronged Portal Approach

Chapter 4. Web Services

Life Before Web Services

Current Technologies

Defining Web Services

Choosing to Deploy a Web Service

Fitting Web Services into the Portal

Sample Web Service

Web Service Benefits

Conclusion

Chapter 5. Portal Framework—.NET

The Fundamentals of .NET

Building Blocks of the .NET Framework

.NET Versus Other Approaches

Portal Architecture

Portal Framework

Conclusion

Chapter 6. Security Services

Building Blocks of Secure Applications

Authentication and Authorization Flow

IIS Authentication Methods

ASP.NET Authentication Methods

Web Services Authentication

ASP.NET Process Identity

Code Access Security and the .NET Framework

Microsoft SQL Server Security

Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000

Designing a Security Strategy

Security Model Changes in Windows Server 2003

Example: Securing an Intranet or Extranet Portal

Conclusion

Chapter 7. User Profiles

Identifying Key User Groups

Registration Methods

Creating User Profiles with Self-Registration

Self-Registration with Commerce Server 2002

Profile Information

Administering the Profile

Tracking Anonymous Users

Defining SPS Profiles

SharePoint Audiences

SharePoint Single Sign-On

Analyzing Profile and Data

Conclusion: Taking the Next Step with Profiles

Chapter 8. Personalization

Personalization Cycle

Creating Content for Personalization

Personalizing Home Page Content

Subscriptions, Notifications, and Alerts

Advertising Based on Profiles

Conclusion: Getting More Out of Personalization

Chapter 9. Content Management

Measuring Return on Investment for Content Management

Content Management Options

Site Framework for Content Management

Content Management Server Overview

Site Framework for Content Management Server

Starting the Portal Site in MCMS

Creating Templates

Content Creation and Approval Process

Defining Channels

Multilingual Sites

Web Page Workflow Implementation

Enabling Security on MCMS

.NET and Web Services Integration

Content Management in SharePoint

Integrating SharePoint with Microsoft Content Management Server

Custom Content Management

Conclusion

Chapter 10. Developing Portal Taxonomy

What Is Taxonomy?

Taxonomy Concepts

Context Specificity of Taxonomy

Taxonomy Best Practices

Implementing a Taxonomy

Instantiating a Taxonomy

Conclusion: Business Value of the Taxonomy

Chapter 11. Integrating Line-of-Business Applications

Integration Concepts

Providing Intelligent Forms

SharePoint Portal Server and EAI

Integration with Custom Code

BizTalk Concepts

BizTalk Workflow

Accelerators and Third-Party Tools

Benefits of Business Integration

Conclusion

Chapter 12. Collaboration in the Enterprise Portal

Collaboration Checklist

The Human Side of Collaboration

SharePoint Version 2 Paradigm

Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server

Creating a Basic Collaboration Site

Creating a Discussion Board

Document Management

Project Teams

Enabling Self-Service Site Creation

Online Conferencing

Understanding Web Parts

Conclusion: Integrating SharePoint Portal Server with Content Management Server

Additional Resources

Chapter 13. Search Engine

Search Concepts

Microsoft Indexing Service

Managing Search Settings in SharePoint Portal Server

Managing Search Schedules

Managing Search Scopes

Managing Keywords

Scaling Up Your Search Solution

Extending Search

Conclusion

Chapter 14. Scalability and the Portal

Planning for Scalability

Scaling Up and Out

Server Operating System

Application Servers

Scaling Up Your Search Solution

Database Repository—SQL Server

ASP.NET Optimization

Performance Testing with the Web Application Center Test

Hosting for Scalability

Additional Scalability Information

Conclusion

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Copyright

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are

claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Addison-Wesley was

aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all

capitals.

The authors and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but make no expressed

or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is

assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the

information or programs contained herein.

The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases and special

sales. For more information, please contact:

U.S. Corporate and Government Sales

(800) 382-3419

[email protected]

For sales outside of the U.S., please contact:

International Sales

(317) 581-3793

[email protected]

Visit Addison-Wesley on the Web: www.awprofessional.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Townsend, James J.

Building portals, intranets, and corporate Web sites using Microsoft servers / James J. Townsend.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-321-15963-2 (alk. paper)

1. Web portals--Design. 2. Intranets (Computer networks)--Design and construction. I.

Title.

TK5105.888.T69 2004

25.04--dc22

2003069633

Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or

otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

For information on obtaining permission for use of material from this work, please submit a written

request to:

Pearson Education, Inc.

Rights and Contracts Department

75 Arlington Street, Suite 300

Boston, MA 02116

Fax: (617) 848-7047

Text printed on recycled paper

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10—CRS—0807060504

First printing, March 2004

Dedication

For Julia

—Jim

For Irene

—Dmitri

In loving memory of my mother, Bernice Schaffer

—Deon

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Praise for Building Portals, Intranets, and

Corporate Web Sites Using Microsoft

Servers

"This book provides concise information on building a robust and user-friendly site. It

highlights the key development issues and guides you through the options for addressing

them."

—Christa Carpentiere

Program Manager

"Jim Townsend's book provides a highly accurate and comprehensive overview of the portal

development process on the Microsoft platform. It should be required reading for anyone

engaging in an enterprise portal project."

—Chris Roberts

Global Industry Manager, E Government

Microsoft Corporation

"Finally, a holistic approach to building enterprise portal projects using the full combined

power of Microsoft's technologies and servers! Jim Townsend's book provides excellent,

experience-based advice on understanding, designing, and implementing successful portal

solutions."

—Margery Reynolds

Microsoft Government Solutions Specialist III

Microsoft Corporation

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Preface

Not even the implosion of the dot.com bubble was enough to derail the proliferation of Internet

technology and the move toward e-business that has extended to nearly every industry in the

developed world. Few organizations are content to tolerate the isolation of applications into

separate "silos" of information, or poor interoperability among their software solutions. The portal

has been held up as a means to achieve better application integration and provide a consistent user

interface both inside and outside the enterprise.

Companies and other organizations need to take a broader look at their portal strategy to make the

various elements of their architecture work together. This is a pivotal time not only in the

emergence of new technology but in the convergence of technologies toward open standards and

enhanced interoperability.

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Audience and Goals

The portal market is an amorphous and elusive target, with a small number of universal standards

and a large population of vendors attempting to define those standards in ways that are most

beneficial for their product sales. The first generation of portal books was devoted to explaining

why portals were such a good idea, and how they could benefit their users. The bulk of these books

were devoted to enterprise portals and to extolling the virtues of extensible markup language

(XML). Others were devoted to explaining how to use a single product with "portal" in the name,

such as Oracle Portal or Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server; but they covered only a small number

of the features that an organization needs in a portal.

While these theoretical portal books were helpful and necessary, they didn't go far enough in

explaining how to implement their solutions. Some of the theories they expounded were not borne

out by experience in the software market. The single-product books could go no further than the

products themselves, leaving administrators with half or less of the solution they had in mind.

This book is a practical guide for developers and information technology managers. It is focused on

conveying what elements make up a portal and how to construct these elements using the Microsoft

development platform. It is a combination of introductions to key concepts, suggestions for portal

planning, and limited detailed technical instruction by way of examples that relate to all the main

portal elements. Most chapters describe what to build and then show how to build it.

The most important section for managers is the first five chapters. These chapters address the

portal from the perspective of a user and provide valuable background that can help managers

form reasonable project expectations. The focus is not on individual products and features. Indeed,

portals with the functionality described here could be implemented with a number of different

technologies and products, and these are introduced in the second part of the book.

Developers will spend more time with the remainder of the book to understand how to fill the gap

between products and where each portal service belongs. They will want to review the early

chapters to understand the vision for a .NET portal and to ensure that the IT manager doesn't know

something that they don't. These later chapters do not attempt to restate the vast amount of

information in help files and product documentation for the products used in our examples. Rather,

our goal is to create a higher-level overview that encompasses multiple products and puts each

product and feature in its proper place. We also highlight best practices and hints that are not

found in the product documentation but can save many hours of work or frustration.

No single product provides the infrastructure and tools needed to build a full-featured portal.

Therefore we have had to include a number of server and development products to fill each niche in

our portal ecosystem.

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Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for grasping the material in this book, as it explains the anatomy of a

portal from the ground up. Our goals are to provide a compelling vision for portals that can be

applied to your business requirements and to explain in detail how this vision maps to the Microsoft

.NET Framework and web services.

This book does not attempt to teach much of the fundamental knowledge and techniques that are

required to be a successful and productive developer. For instance, it does not provide background

information on the following fundamental topics:

Relational database concepts

Web development technologies other than .NET

Networking and security

Object-oriented programming

The source code examples included in this book are not sufficient to learn any of the products that

are used for examples, nor is the code presented all that would be needed for a full portal

implementation. In other words, we are not going to be eliminating any jobs in the information

technology service industry by publishing this book. The code examples are intended to be

illustrative and inspirational, a springboard from which you can work out your own solution.

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Software Requirements

To work through all the code examples in this book, you need the following products:

Visual Studio.NET

Commerce Server 2002

Content Management Server

SharePoint Portal Server 2003

Microsoft Office 2003

BizTalk Server

SQL Server 2000

Windows 2000 or Windows XP

Windows Server 2003

Although it may possible to configure a single server with all these products, a more practical

development environment would be to allocate one server to SQL Server, one as the web server,

and one for everything else. The number of servers required for a full implementation is discussed

in Chapter 14, "Scalability and the Portal."

There has never been a better time to enrich your organization's web presence. We hope you enjoy

learning about portals and putting these ideas into practice.

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Acknowledgments

Like a software project or a Hollywood movie, a book is a collaborative venture and depends on the

talents of many performers. So it is with this book.

My biggest debt is to my coauthors Dmitri Riz and Deon Schaffer, and contributor Chris Wildgoose.

Their hard work and sacrifice made this project possible, and their comments made each chapter

better than it was before. Our reviewers Christa Carpentiere and James Edelman gave us

tremendous insights and perspectives that were lost to our jaded eyes and made the content much

more accurate and accessible.

I would like to thank all the talented team at Information Strategies for their contributions to the

effort, including Tim McCaffrey, Jimmy Kuo, Gerald Ellison, Steven Nossal, Robyne Kenton, Mike

Chiaramonte, Lauren Adler, Erin Rothman, and Kristina Harrison. Tim has kept the ship on course

regardless of my multitasking, and Mike came through in the eleventh hour with significant and

thankless technical chores essential to finishing the manuscript.

We had tremendous support from Microsoft both in Redmond and in the Washington, DC, field

office. Special thanks are due to Ken Brown, Kathleen Burns, Teresa Carlson, Jim Ferguson, Jason

Katz, Carol Kerins, Amy Marchibroda, Margie Reynolds, Chris Roberts, Lisa Ruff, Darryl Schaffer,

Candace Sokulski, Nelson Taggart, Jamie Tozzi, Christina Treacy, Jim Treacy, and Cliff Ward.

Thanks go to our clients for entrusting us with their projects and data, including David DiEugenio,

Rena Lewis, Mike Easley, Tom Thompson, Tony Bingham, Venus Baines, Silvia Edgar, Bob Blake,

David Melton, and Rebecca Danvers. There is only one way to learn the most important lessons of

delivering software solutions, and that is to do it. These solutions invariably involve difficult

projects, tight deadlines, and limited resources. This book contains many of the lessons we have

learned through working closely with our clients.

Most of all, I owe thanks to my wife Marcella, for putting up with me working a second shift all

these months and for giving encouragement and insight when they were needed most.

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Chapter 1. Introduction to Portals

Rise of the Portal

Portal Definitions

Types of Portals

Benefits of Portals

Attributes of Portals

Summary

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