SharePoint 2010 Publishing Feature

With this page I will briefly introduce you to some key concepts of SharePoint 2010 Publishing Feature. You can find also useful information about how to use the SharePoint 2010 Publishing Feature for developing Internet / Intranet Sites, basically for implementing a Web Content Management (WCM) solution.

Licensing

For SharePoint 2010 there are two licensing options (which can be acquired throughout many licensing agreements):

Server + Client Access License – CAL
This option is used when the client number is known. To have the rights to use the Publishing Feature a Standard Edition of SharePoint 2010 (for both server and CALs) is required and enough.
Server Only
This option is used for a scenario which involves a public web site or an unknown number of extranet users. In this case you have to buy SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites.

Please take into consideration that for each of the options you need to buy Windows 2008 Server and SQL 2008 Server R2 licenses (and even other products – like FAST Search Server) if your architecture requires it.

SharePoint Publishing Feature Basics

From my experience with Publishing Feature and SharePoint (MOSS 2007 and SP 2010), I would like to say that before starting developing different components based on SharePoint we should spend some time in analyzing the standard features already built in the system. So, please take a look at:

Publishing features overview on MSDN.
Mirjam van Olst’s Publishing Feature elements enumeration.

Further more I will try below to write some relevant information from an “Information Worker” approach:

Step by Step: A Simple SharePoint WCM (Web Content Management) How To Guide (from Authoring to Approval and Publishing)

SharePoint Branding Basics

First of all I’m not a specialized designer. What I can recommend you from my experience with SharePoint re-branding is to read and document a lot before doing the project. You might find the following links useful:

Real World Branding with SharePoint 2010 Publishing Sites on MSDN.
Download Randy Drisgill’s Starter Master Pages for SharePoint 2010 from Codeplex.
Bookmark Heather Solomon’s SharePoint 2010 CSS Reference Chart in you browser.

I think this content is a must read, a good place to start from when you want to create a custom branded SharePoint 2010 web site.

Developing on top of the Publishing Feature

Below you can find my thoughts and examples of things which can be developed on top of the Publishing Feature. Please take into a consideration that I will try to present solutions which are using more SharePoint standard features and less C# & Visual Studio development.