SharePoint Interview Questions with Answers Part 1

SharePoint Interview Questions with Answers

Q. 1 What is the difference between SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services?

Ans: SharePoint Portal Server is the global portal offering features like global navigation and searching.Windows SharePoint Services is more content management based with document libraries andlists. You apply information to certain areas within your portal from windows sharepoint Services or directly to portal areas.

Q2. What is a document library?

Ans: A document library is where you upload your core documents. They consist of a row and columnview with links to the documents. When the document is updated so is the link on your site. Youcan also track metadata on your documents. Metadata would consist of document properties.

Q3. What is a meeting workspace?

Ans: A meeting workspace is a place to store information, attendees, and tasks related to a specificmeeting.

Q4. What is a document workspace?

Ans: Document workspaces consist of information surrounding a single or multiple documents.

Q5. What is the difference between a document library and a form library?

Ans:Document libraries consist of your core documents. An example would be a word document,excel, Powerpoint, visio, pdf, etc… Form libraries consist of XML forms.

Q6. What is a web part zone?

Ans: Web part zones are what your web parts reside in and help categorize your web parts when designing a page.

Q7. How is security managed in SharePoint?

Ans: Security can be handled at the machine,domain, or sharepoint level.

Q8. How are web parts developed?

Ans: Web parts are developed in Visual Studio .Net. VS.Net offers many web part and page templates and can also be downloaded from the Microsoft Site.

Q9. What is a site definition?

Ans: It’s a methods for providing prepackaged site and list content.

Q 10.What is a template?

A template is a pre-defined set of functions or settings that can be used over time. There are manytemplates within SharePoint,Site Templates, Document Templates, Document Library and ListTemplates.

Q11. How do you install web parts?

Ans: Web Parts should be distributed as a .CAB (cabinet) file using the MSI Installer.

Q 12.What is CAML?

Ans: CAML stands for Collaborative Application Markup Language and is an XML-based languagethat is used in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services to define sites and lists, including, for Eg, fields, views, or forms, but CAML is also used to define tables in the Windows SharePoint Servies database during site provisioning.

Q 13.What is a DWP?

Ans: The file extension of a web part.

Q 14.What is the GAC?

Ans: Global Assembly Cache folder on the server hosting SharePoint. You place your assemblies there for web parts and services to share them.

Q 15.What are the differences between web part page gallery, site gallery,Virtual server galleryand online gallery?

Ans: Web Part Page Gallery is the default gallery that comes installed with SharePoint. Site Gallery isspecific to one site. Virtual Server gallery is specific to that virtual server and online gallery aredownloadable web parts from Microsoft.

Q 16.What is the difference between a site and a web?

Ans: The pages in a web site generally cover one or more topics and are interconnected through hyperlinks. Most Websites have a home page as their starting point. While a Web is simply a blank site with SharePoint functionality built in; meaning you have to create the site from the ground up.

Q17. What is Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services? How is it related to Microsoft OfficeSharePoint Server 2007?

Ans: Windows SharePoint Services is the solution that enables you to create Web site for information sharing and document collaboration. Windows SharePoint Services — a key piece of theinformation worker infrastructure delivered in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 — providesadditional functionality to the Microsoft Office system and other desktop applications, and itserves as a platform for application development.Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds on top of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to provideadditional capabilities including collaboration, portal, search,Enterprise content management,business process and forms, and business intelligence.

Q18. Who is Office SharePoint server 2007 designed for?

Ans: Office SharePoint Server 2007 can be used by information workers, IT administrators, and application developers.

Q19. What are the main benefits of Office SharePoint Server 2007?

Ans: Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides a single integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet,and Internetapplications across the enterprise.

* Business users gain greater control over the storage, security, distribution, and management oftheir electronic content, with tools that are easy to use and tightly integrated into familiar,everyday applications.

* Organizations can accelerate shared business processes with customers and partners acrossorganizational boundaries using InfoPath Forms Services–driven solutions.

* Information workers can find information and people efficiently and easily through thefacilitated information-sharing functionality and simplified content publishing. In addition, accessto back-end data is achieved easily through a browser, and views into this data can bepersonalized.

* Administrators have powerful tools at their fingertips that ease deployment, management, and system administration, so they can spend more time on strategic tasks.

* Developers have a rich platform to build a new class of applications, called Office BusinessApplications, that combine powerful developer functionality with the flexibility and ease ofdeployment of Office SharePoint Server 2007. Through the use of out-of-the-box applicationservices, developers can build richer applications with less code.

Q20. What is the difference between Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?

Ans: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server2007 have identical feature functionality. While the feature functionality is similar, the usagerights are different.If you are creating an Internet, or Extranet, facing website, it is recommended that you useMicrosoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites which does not require the purchase client access licenses. Websites hosted using an “Internet sites” edition can only be used forInternet facing websites and all content, information, and applications must be accessible to nonemployees.Websites hosted using an “Internet sites” edition cannot be accessed by employees creating, sharing, or collaborating on content which is solely for internal use only, such as an Intranet Portal scenario.

Q21.What suites of the 2007 Microsoft Office system work with Office SharePoint Server 2007?

Ans: Office Outlook 2007 provides bidirectional offline Synchronization with SharePoint documentlibraries, discussion groups, contacts, calendars, and tasks.vabnix.page.tlMicrosoft Office Groove 2007, included as part of Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, will enablebidirectional offline synchronization with SharePoint document libraries.Features such as the document panel and the ability to publish to Excel Services will only beenabled when using Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007or Office Enterprise 2007.Excel Services will only work with documents saved in the new Office Excel 2007 file format(XLSX).

Q22. How do I invite users to join a Windows SharePoint Services Site? Is the site secure?

Ans: SharePoint-based Web sites can be password-protected to restrict access to registered users, whoare invited to join via e-mail. In addition, the site administrator can restrict certain members' rolesby assigning different permission levels to view post and edit.

Q23. Can I post any kind of document?

Ans: You can post documents in many formats, including .pdf, .htm and .doc. In addition, if you areusing Microsoft Office XP, you can save documents directly to your Windows SharePointServices site.

Q24. Can I create custom templates?

Ans: Yes you can. You can have templates for business plans, doctor's office, lawyer's office etc.

Q25. How can I make My site public?

Ans: By default, all sites are created private.If you want your site to be a public Web site, enable anonymous access for the entire site. Then you can give out your URL to anybody in yourbusiness card, e-mail or any other marketing material. The URL for your Web site will be:http:// yoursitename.wss.bcentral.comHence, please take special care to name your site.These Web sites are ideal for information and knowledge intensive sites and/or sites where youneed to have shared Web workspace.Remember: Under each parent Web site, you can create up to 10 sub-sites each with uniquepermissions, settings and security rights.

Q26. How do the sub sites work?

Ans: You can create a sub site for various categories.

For example:* Departments - finance, marketing, IT* Products - electrical, mechanical, hydraulics* Projects - Trey Research, Department of Transportation, FDA* Team - Retention team, BPR team* Clients - new clients, old clients* Suppliers - Supplier 1, Supplier 2, Supplier 3* Customers - Customer A, Customer B, Customer C* Real estate - property A, property BThe URLs for each will be, for example:* http://yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com/finance* http://yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com/marketingYou can keep track of permissions for each team separately so that access is restricted whilevabnix.page.tlmaintaining global access to the parent site.

Q27.How do I make my site non-restricted?

Ans: If you want your site to have anonymous access enabled (i.e., you want to treat it like any site onthe Internet that does not ask you to provide a user name and password to see the content of thesite), follow these simple steps:

# Login as an administrator

# Click on site settings

# Click on Go to Site Administration

# Click on Manage anonymous access

# Choose one of the three conditions on what Anonymous users can access:** Entire Web site** Lists and libraries** NothingDefault condition is nothing; your site has restricted access.

The default conditions allow you to create a secure site for your Web site.

Q28. Can I ask users outside of my organization to participate in my Windows SharePointServices site?

Ans: Yes. You can manage this process using the Administration Site Settings. Simply add users via their e-mail alias and assign permissions such as Reader or Contributor.

Q29. Are there any restrictions or requirements for accessing the Windows SharePoint Services?

Ans: No. There are no system or bandwidth limitations for international trial users. Additionallylanguage packs have been installed which allow users to set up sub-webs in languages other thanEnglish. These include: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian,Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish and Swedish.

Q30. Are there any browser recommendations?

Ans: Yes. Microsoft recommends using the following browsers for viewing and editing WindowsSharePoint Services sites: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 with Service Pack 2, MicrosoftInternet Explorer 5.5 with Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer 6, Netscape Navigator

Q31.What security levels are assigned to users?

Ans: Security levels are assigned by the administrator who is adding the user. There are four levels bydefault and additional levels can be composed as necessary.

* Reader - Has read-only access to the Web site.

* Contributor - Can add content to existing document libraries and lists.

* Web Designer - Can create lists and document libraries and customize pages in the Web site.

* Administrator - Has full control of the Web site.

Q32.What is the difference between an Internet and an intranet site?

Ans: An internet site is a normal site that anyone on the internet can access (e.g., www.msn.com, www.microsoft.com, etc.). You can set up a site for your company that can be accessed by anyonewithout any user name and password.An intranet (or internal network), though hosted on the Web, can only be accessed by people whoare members of the network. They need to have a login and password that was assigned to them when they were added to the site by the site administrator.

Q33. What is a workspace?

Ans: A site or workspace is when you want a new place for collaborating on Web pages, lists anddocument libraries. For example, you might create a site to manage a new team or project,collaborate on a document or prepare for a meeting.

Q34.How customizable is the user-to-user access?

Ans: User permissions apply to an entire Web, not to documents themselves. However, you can haveadditional sub webs that can optionally have their own permissions. Each user can be given any offour default roles. Additional roles can be defined by the administrator.

Q35.Can each user have access to their own calendar?

Ans: Yes there are two ways to do this,

* by creating a calendar for each user, or

* by creating a calendar with a view for each user.

Q36. What types of files can I upload / post to the site?

Ans: The only files restricted are those ending with the following extensions: .asa, .asp, .ida, .idc, .idq.Microsoft reserves the right to add additional file types to this listing at any time. Also, no content that violates the terms of service may be uploaded or posted to the site.

Q37.Can SharePoint be linked to an external data source?

Ans: SharePoint data can be opened with Access and Excel as an external data source. Thus, SharePoint can be referenced as an external data source. SharePoint itself cannot reference an external datasource.

Q38. Can SharePoint be linked to a SQL database?

Ans: This is possible via a custom application, but it not natively supported by SharePoint or SQLServer.

Q39.Can I customize my Windows SharePoint Services site?

Ans: YES! Windows SharePoint Services makes updating sites and their content from the browser easier then ever.SharePoint includes tools that let you create custom lists, calendars, page views, etc. You can apply a theme; add List, Survey and Document Library Web Parts to a page; create personalviews; change logos; connect Web Parts and more.To fully customize your site, you can use Microsoft FrontPage 2003. Specifically, you can useFrontPage themes and shared borders, and also use FrontPage to create photo galleries and top tenlists, utilize standard usage reports, and integrate automatic Web content.

Q40. Will Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 run on a 64-bit version of MicrosoftWindows?Ans: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Office SharePoint Server 2007, Office Forms Server 2007, andOffice SharePoint Server 2007 for Search will support 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003.

Q41. What are the features that the portal components of Office SharePoint Server 2007 include?

Ans: The portal components of Office SharePoint Server 2007 include features that are especially useful for designing, deploying, and managing enterprise intranet portals, corporate Internet Websites, and divisional portal sites. The portal components make it easier to connect to people withinthe organization who have the right skills, knowledge, and project experience.

Q42.What are the advanced features of MOSS 2007?

Ans: * User Interface (UI) and navigation enhancements

* Document management enhancements

* The new Workflow engine

* Office 2007 Integration

* New Web Parts

* New Site-type templates

* Enhancements to List technology

* Web Content Management

* Business Data Catalog

* Search enhancements

* Report Center

* Records Management

* Business Intelligence and Excel Server

* Forms Server and InfoPath

* The “Features” feature

* Alternate authentication providers and Forms-based authentication