C
ontent types are a new feature introduced in
Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0. To leverage
this feature appropriately, users can't just rely on the
basic documentation. What you'll find in the real world is that
companies are implementing the various components of
content types without leveraging the full power of using the
components of content types
together. Once you've been able
to move beyond using folders in
your document libraries and
you've adopted the use of meta-
data (or columns), it's important to
understand how you can leverage
content types to take your
SharePoint Document Libraries
and Lists to the next level.
To bring a real context to con-
tent types, I will be walking
through various real-world
examples. These will allow you
to ultimately apply content
types to your own business
needs.
Before you start with the examples, make sure you
understand what content types are.
Definition of Content Types
A content type represents settings that apply to a cer-
tain kind of content. What makes one piece of content
similar to another? Do they share a common set of
metadata (for example, author, purpose, and so forth)?
Do you perform the same
actions on these documents
after they've been created? Do
these documents have the same
lifespan? If the answer to these
questions is "yes!" you will need
a way to group the information
together. In SharePoint Portal
2003, you achieved this via sep-
arate document libraries for
each "type" of document. But
what if these groups of docu-
ments really should be stored
together with other groups of
documents that live by a differ-
ent set of metadata and rules?
In SharePoint 2007, content
types can be used as the grouping method and pro-
vide a much better answer to using separate document
libraries.
14
Putting SharePoint to Work for You, an Internet.com Developer eBook. Copyright 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
Putting SharePoint to Work for You
[
]
Leveraging Content Types in SharePoint
Document Libraries and Lists
By Daan De Brouckere & Raj Agarwal
Jupiterimages
In SharePoint 2007, content types can be used as the grouping method
and provide a much better answer to using separate document libraries.
"
"