Enhancing Microsoft Content Management Server with ASP.NET 2.0: Use the powerful new features of ASP.NET 2.0 with your MCMS Websites

The release of Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) Service Pack 2 opens up the world of ASP.NET 2.0 to MCMS developers. Written by the masters of MCMS, this book shows you how to use the new features of ASP.NET 2.0 that everyone is talking about in your MCMS development. You will first learn how to install and configure MCMS SP2. There are two approaches to setting up a development environment for SP2: an upgrade from a previous SP1a installation or starting from scratch and building a fresh installation including SP2. Of course, both approaches are covered. You will become familiar with the MCMS Service Pack 2 development environment, and create custom Visual Studio 2005 templates to overcome some of the issues which are present with the templates shipped with MCMS SP2. After that, its time to look at some of the most exciting features of ASP.NET 2.0, and how you can make use of them in MCMS: master pages, site navigation, themes, and the membership provider model. One of the coolest features introduced with ASP.NET 2.0 is master pages, which allow developers to enforce common layout and behaviour across pages within an application. You will learn about the benefits of using master pages and see a step-by-step guide for implementing them in your MCMS applications, where they become master templates! ASP.NET 2.0 introduces a whole new way of implementing site navigation, driven by site maps. By programmatically adding channels and postings to a site map you will see how to smoothly integrate these controls to any MCMS site. To customize the look of your site, we will see how a common look and feel can be applied efficiently to a MCMS site by using ASP.NET 2.0 themes. An essential customization required for themes to work correctly in an MCMS site is a must-read feature of this chapter. MCMS has its own role based authorization and user management system which cannot be extended. However, the new ASP.NET 2.0 Membership Provider Model and the shipped controls can be used within MCMS applications to improve the implementation of Forms Authentication and provide a more elegant solution for authenticating against an external store. A collection of tips and tricks round off the book, including using the Provider Model design pattern to ease migration to Office SharePoint Portal Server.

Lim Mei Ying has extensive experience in designing, implementing and supporting Blue Prism processes as well as setting up a Robotic Operating Model for the enterprise. She has spent many hours figuring out the dos and don'ts of Blue Prism technologies and thrives on the challenge of finding new ways to solve automation problems. Mei Ying lives on the sunny island of Singapore. Spencer, a MCSD for Microsoft .NET, MCSE and MVP for MCMS, has over twelve years commercial experience of architecture, design, development, deployment and operational support of Web based applications and hosting platforms for some of Europe's largest organisations. Spencer maintains

//www.packtpub.com/author_view_profile/id/www.mcmsfaq.com">www.mcmsfaq.com - a MCMS resources portal, and is active in the public newsgroups. His experience of MCMS goes back to the days of NCompass Resolution and he has been involved in many enterprise implementations. Currently working as an independent consultant, Spencer delivers enterprise content management and portal systems architecture, design, development and deployment solutions, application security best practices, threat modeling and the implementation of highly available Windows Server System based hosting platforms. Product expertise includes MCMS, SharePoint Technologies, IIS, SQL Server, Commerce Server and BizTalk Server, Windows Security, PKI and High Availability. Selected clients include Barclays Bank, Scottish Power plc, HBOS, Microsoft, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, Centrica, Clifford Chance, The Automobile Association and BASF Stefan Gossner is a senior escalation engineer at Microsoft. He provides 3rd level support for SharePoint Products and Technologies and Microsoft Content Management Server to customers.