03/03/2008, NetworkedPlanet are pleased to annouce the release of the much anticipated TMCore SharePoint Module 3.0.

This release sees a number of bug fixes and performance improvements, but more significantly it includes a large number of features that greatly improve the way information is organised, classified and located with Microsoft SharePoint solutions.

The new key features can be grouped into several different areas:

Ontology Design

Creating a well-designed ontology is the most important first step in designing a complete information architecture that can integrate SharePoint and non-SharePoint content into a cohesive and logical whole.

  • Use the new NetworkedPlanet NPCL Editor plugin for Visual Studio to visually define an ontology for a complete SharePoint solution. Use the integration with SharePoint web services to create SharePoint content types and fields.
  • The NPCL Editor plugin can also generate a SharePoint feature to allow the topic map ontology, any additional taxonomy and the SharePoint content types and field definitions to be reliably deployed in multiple server environments such as Development, QA, and Production.

Content Classification and Organisation

The new release makes it very easy to organise and classify content against taxonomies, controlled vocabularies and in terms of other SharePoint items regardless of which site or list they are in. The TMCore SharePoint Module 3.0 is designed to normalise the information space so that items can be more logically connected.

  • New ways to find and select related topics; Hierarchy Selectors, Query Selectors, and Creators
    • Hierarchy Selectors, allow users to choose related topics from tree structures defined in the topic map. These may be fixed taxonomy trees or user-generated trees that result from the creation of other item to item relationships.
    • Query Selectors, allow developers to define specific, contextual queries that return a candidate list for the user to select from. Query Selectors allow almost any specific business logic about the most appropriate related topics for a given context to be defined.
    • Creators provide a unique way to create a new SharePoint item (even one in another list or on another site) while editing an existing item. This feature removes the need for the user to constantly navigate from one list to another creating items before they can be hooked together.
  • Simple tagging support. Optional support for ad-hoc "tagging" of content is now supported across all SharePoint list and content types. This feature allows users to get started easily tagging and organising content using their own terms and allows a community of users to collaborate on building a folksonomy for the classification of their content.
  • Social Networking Features. A user's ad-hoc tags can be automatically shared with her colleagues and with other trusted users.

Searching and Navigating in SharePoint

Also new with version 3.0 of the TMCore SharePoint Module is the introduction of the Topic Map Index Service. This near-real time, in-memory index of Topic Map information means that complex information queries can be executed with a high throughput to deliver up-to-the-second information from across the portal.

The Topic Map Index Service is used to power a number of search and navigation web parts that make it possible to effectively find your way around a SharePoint portal.

  • One Hop and Two Hop navigtaion controls can be used to show relevant contextual information about any SharePoint item.
  • Advanced Faceted Search. Utilising a combination of hieararchy and topic type pickers this web part can be used to slice and dice through SharePoint content to allow users to find what they are really looking for.
  • Advanced Faceted Search integrated with text search. The Advanced Faceted Search web parts can be used to slice and dice the results of a SharePoint portal text search.

For more information about this or any other NetworkedPlanet product please email contact@networkedplanet.com