Offers a brief overview into the SharePoint Action Framework available here : http://saf.codeplex.com

1. SharePoint Action Framework
http://saf.codeplex.com
By Collaboris
01 March 2010

2. What is SAF?
 SAF is the “SharePoint Action Framework”
 It’s Open Source, hosted on Codeplex
 Automates and repeats configuration changes in
SharePoint via “Macros”
 Easy to run from Msbuild, Stsadm, Feature
receiver (and very soon WIX/MSI)
 It’s an engine written in C#
 It allows 3rd party actions to be written
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3. What Problems does SAF Solve ?
 Replaces manual effort and non-standard scripts
 This can saves months of dev effort!
 Allows you create Macros once, and re-use in the
technology that fits best
 e.g Msbuild, Feature Receiver, Stsadm, WIX
 Allows a common approach to scripting SharePoint
 .net Actions, stsadm, powershell, batch
 Makes SharePoint Deployments standardised and
simpler
 Allows “Environment-aware” scripts through dynamic
property placeholders.
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4. SAF Architecture Diagram
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5. What is a Macro ?
 Is the top-level container in SAF
 A Macro contains one or more Actions
 Examples :
Deploy Solution (Add Solution, Deploy Solution)
Create Farm (Create a SharePoint Farm)
Configure Search (install & configure search service)
 A Macro is authored as XML using Spring.Net
 A Macro can be a template (parameterised) or instance
 Macro can substitute Properties at run time
 Macro’s can easily be reused by sharing XML
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6. What is an Action
 An Action is a unit of work to execute in SharePoint
 Examples :
Add Lookup Column to List
Create Publishing Page
Add Web Parts to Page
 An action is written in managed .Net code
 3rd Party Custom Actions can easily be added to SAF
 An action implements 3 methods
 DoAction()
 UndoAction()
 IsValid()
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7. Properties and Expressions
 A Property passes information to the Action
 e.g. Site Name, Urls, Titles, and so on.
 A Property (for an Action) can be set
 literally:
<property name=“SiteTitle” value=“Accounts”/>
 via a runtime Placeholder:
<property name=“SiteTitle” value=“${SiteName}”/>
 via an expression:
<property name=“Date” expression=“date('1974-08-24') + 5” />
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8. What is a SAF Context?
 A property bag that is passed into every Action
 Contains resolved Properties
 Created by the SAF Engine at start-up
 Contains references to the current SharePoint Context
 e.g Farm, Web Application, SPSite, SPWeb
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9. Do you want to
make your SharePoint deployments
run smoothly?...
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10. ...let’s get started...
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11. Getting Started ?
 Download the latest version from here:
 http://saf.codeplex.com
 Download working samples:
 http://collaboris.co.uk/saf/doc
 Read the WIKI
 http://www.collaboris.co.uk/Projects/SafWiki/SAF_WIKI/Contents_Pa
ge.aspx
 Read the blog
 http://www.collaboris.co.uk/blogs.aspx?CntCatID=dc5a1df9-790f-
43ee-b3e8-c0124927b7af
 Follow me on Twitter
 http://twitter.com/MarkQJones
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12. SAF Road Map 2010
 Version 2.1 (mid March)
 Tight WIX Integration (MSI’s)
 More Actions
 WCF Service beta
 Version 2.5 (end June)
 SAF working in SharePoint 2010
 XML-less configuration
 GUI to create Macros visually
 WCF Service releases
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