At the 2011 New Zealand SharePoint Conference Mark Orange presented his Content Types Model, an approach he has developed to design, document and manage Content Types across a SharePoint platform and the solutions implemented upon it. The Content Types Model illustrates and describes the relationships, context, and purpose of all Content Types through the layers of an Enterprise SharePoint Platform.
Here are the example Visio diagrams, the workflow and the PowerPoint presentation for anyone to review, leverage and hopefully get value from.
5. SharePoint Service Applications SharePoint - Platform SharePoint Server Client Apps Project Server 2010 Browsers (IE, Fire Fox) Search Service Project Web Access PowerPoint Broadcast Service Office Client Excel Calc Service Web Analytics Service OneNote FAST 2010 User Profiles Office Web App Service 3rd Party Services.. FAST Search Service Visio Graphics Service InfoPath Business Connection Service Access Service Project InfoPath Service Managed Metadata Outlook Word Conversion Service PerformancePoint RSS Viewers SharePoint Foundation SharePoint Workspace Sandboxed Code Service Usage & Health Logging Visio SharePoint Designer Content Config Workflow Access
29. Document Library Document Library Document Library Content Type Content Type Content Type Content Types
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31. Content Types apply rules and behaviors based on what an item is Lists and libraries apply rules and behaviors based on where an item is Content Types
33. The Columns in a Content Type define the different content elements and metadata needed to manage that type of information. Columns need a purpose! Columns
34. Column Purposes ContentInformation to be displayed to end users. Metadata RecordInformation captured at a specific point in time that records an important immutable value. Metadata FindabilityInformation to allow the discovery, sorting, filtering, and grouping of items. Metadata ActivityInformation to support an activity, process or function.
35. Columns Content–Information to be displayed to end users.Column contains information such as text and images that is the content or part of the content of the SharePoint item that is to be displayed to end users. Such as the Headline or body of a web page item, the Name or phone number of a Contact item. Metadata Record –Information as captured at a specific point in time and retained as a record.Column contains content or data that relates to a SharePoint item, such as a document or a task, which is an important record of a business transaction, activity or process. The column may contain the content that was published, or provide context about who edited the content and at what time. Metadata Findability – Information to allow the discovery, sorting, filtering, and grouping of items.Column is leveraged by end users for advanced search, content query web parts, data view web parts, or views to create lists of SharePoint items based on the information within the column. For example all SharePoint items that are customer documents created after a certain date by a certain user. Metadata Activity – Information to support an activity, process or function. Column contains information that is used programmatically to support an activity such as a workflow, routing of items, or integration with another business system such as K2 or SAP.
53. Content Types Model PURPOSE: The Content Types Model illustrates and describes the relationships, context, and purpose of all Content Types through the layers of an Enterprise SharePoint Platform.
54. Content Types Model VALUE: The model is an important information asset for the design and the on-going operational management of Content Types, and ultimately all information within a SharePoint platform.
55. The Model: Layers Site Layer Solution Layer Platform Layer System Layer
59. The System Layer Owned and managed by: Microsoft The generic foundation Content Types that are created by the Microsoft development team that builds the SharePoint product. These are the Content Types that are automatically provisioned when SharePoint is installed in any organisation.
60. The Model: Layers Site Layer Solution Layer Platform Layer System Layer
62. The Platform Layer Owned and managed by: Architecture and Governance The global Content Types that are created for the enterprise and are consumed by solutions that are built on the platform. As existing solutions evolve and new solutions are created new global Content Types will be identified as part of the solution design that need to be provisioned and managed as part of the Platform Layer.
63. The Model: Layers Site Layer Solution Layer Platform Layer System Layer
65. The Solution Layer Owned and managed by: Architecture and Governance The Content Types that are created for specific business solutions that are deployed on the platform. These solutions are usually developed by a Project team and then handed over to the operations team on completion.
66. The Solution Layer Owned and managed by: Architecture and Governance A critical part of the solution design process is to identify Content Types within a solution that will: reuse existing Solution Layer Content Types be new solution specific Content Types extend Platform Layer Content Types be new Platform Layer Content Types
70. The Site Layer Owned and managed by: Ops team and Site Owners The Content Types that are provisioned and configured for a specific SharePoint Site Collection and/or SharePoint Site that is being used by business users on the SharePoint platform.
71. The Site Layer Owned and managed by: Ops team and Site Owners Sites are the end user experience of the SharePoint platform and the solutions delivered upon it. A critical part of provisioning a site is understanding, communicating, and managing the type of site it is and the type of Content it manages within the organisation.
72. Content Type Hub The role of the Content Type hub is to provide centralised management of globalContent Types. In particular parent Content Types. Platform Layer
One of the challenges with modern information management systems is the ease at which users can create vast amounts of information.There is no question we are well into the information age with the internet ‘the information black hole’ providing the backbone to this.Like the internet is to society, SharePoint can become an ‘Information Black hole’ within an organisation.SharePoint can be both the solution and the problem.
A Content Type is an Item Template.Like a Site Column it is created independent of a list and can then be used across many lists.Content Types allow us to manage information Assets by What they are rather than Where they are.As an Item Template a Content Type is a collection of properties, rules and behaviours that are enforced for items of that type regardless of the list they are stored in.
All Content Types inherit from a parent Content Type, this can be used to an organisations advantage by creating a parent content type that includes any properties that are required across all items and documents.Over time as the organisation evolves further properties can be added to the parent content type and therefore be added automatically to all the other content types.Click – So if Security Clearance was added as a property to the Parent Type it will also be used for the content types that inherit from it
Column PurposesColumns may have a single purpose or more likely be used for a number of different purposes. The purpose of a Column should be defined and captured in supporting code comments and any supporting documentation. For example the purpose of a Body Content Column on a News Article Content Type is most likely needed for containing the body of the news article and also providing a record of what the body of the news article was at a given time.For example the date and time an item is created useful for finding items within a date range and also as a record of when the item was created.
Column PurposesColumns may have a single purpose or more likely be used for a number of different purposes. The purpose of a Column should be defined and captured in supporting code comments and any supporting documentation. For example the purpose of a Body Content Column on a News Article Content Type is most likely needed for containing the body of the news article and also providing a record of what the body of the news article was at a given time.For example the date and time an item is created useful for finding items within a date range and also as a record of when the item was created.
Example Libraries Content Types – Bring up in Visio and walk through.
Example Lists Content Types – Bring up in Visio and walk through.