Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Specifying the web part you need to your developers

Hi All As a part of a SharePoint solution analysis and specifications work, a system analysts has to specify various web parts that need to be developed. When specifying a web part, we should keep in mind some important features that should be clearly defined to the implementing developer:
web part properties - A web part may have a set of dynamic properties that can be configured in run-time by a site administrator. When you specify a web part's requirements you must not forget to define its dynamic behavior - all properties that you wish that a site admin will be able to configure (this actually what makes the web part dynamic).
web part connections - SharePoint (WSS/MOSS) provides a framework which enables web parts to communicate and pass values from one to another in run-time. This framework is called "web part connection framework". This framework defined a standard for any web part to send/receive values from/to other web parts. This way choosing some value for example in one web part, can filter the displayed values in another web part. When you specify a custom web part, don't forget to define the connections that this web part should support.
Standard GUI - SharePoint has a large set of defined styles. Obviously, if your new web part will be displayed inside some portal, you would like it to have the same styles as all other web part on the page. Further more, if a site administrator changes the site's theme (the overall schema of fonts/ colors etc), you will want it to apply also to your custom web part. This means that the web part should be implemented using these standard SharePoint styles and NOT some propriaty styles.

I have created a short web part specifications document to be used as a basic template for defining a custom developed web part.
Download the web part specifications document:
http://www.kwizcom.com/
Click "Specification documents for SharePoint solutions" item in the "KWizCom News" scroller.

Nimrod
http://www.kwizcom.com/

No comments: