Recently we provided one of our clients an expanded description of how Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 My Sites work. We thought we would post a portion of that information to help others understand what out-of-the-box (OOTB) My Sites are and how they work.
Before we dive in let’s start with some of the common SharePoint terminology and concepts directly associated with My Sites:
Site Collection
A Site Collection is a collection of sites such as a Team Site, Document Workspace, Meeting Workspace, Site Directory, etc. A site collection is a tree of sites with sites nested below other sites.
One important but subtle point about Site Collections is that content within one site collection cannot generally be displayed in another site collection with most of the out-of-the-box SharePoint functionality/web parts. There are a few web parts that allow specific content to cross between site collections but the display of content is very rigid and takes work to customize.
In other words, site collection containers separate content (documents, images, custom lists, announcements, etc.) from other site collections.
Site
A site is a collection of lists such as a Document Library, Picture Library, Contact List, Custom List, Announcements List, etc.
Subsite
A subsite is a site that is nested below another site. There is a parent-child relationship and the subsite is a child site. Note however that a subsite can be a parent to another subsite and so on.
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Alright, now that we’ve covered the basic terminology and concepts we can move on to what My Sites are and how they work in an out-of-the-box MOSS 2007 implementation.
My Sites is *a collection of site collections*
While a collaboration portal is typically a collection of sites (such as department sites) with one root parent site, My Sites is a collection of site collections
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Let’s illustrate the concept by considering how a collaboration portal (a site collection) can be configured or customized. An administrator can change the navigation and site hierarchy, can set permissions as desired, enable or disable features such as workflow or publishing, assign a specific theme (look and feel), etc.
Now consider a second and third collaboration portal each with different navigation, permissions, features, and look and feel. When these three portals (each a site collection) are nested under a single parent you end up with the equivalent of My Sites.
In other words, each user’s My Site (a site collection) can be customized and configured independently of any other user’s My Site (another site collection) as desired by each site collection administrator.
Each My Site is a site collection
Since the My Sites web application is a collection of site collections, this makes each individual My Site a site collection.
This concept is critical because it means that content from one site collection (User A’s My Site, User B’s My Site, or a corporate portal) cannot generally cross (be displayed) in another site collection using most of the out-of-the-box SharePoint web parts.
For example, if you had a series of announcements on a collaboration portal site, the announcements cannot be pushed into a user’s My Site for display. Similarly, if a user has announcements on his/her My Site then he/she cannot push these to a collaboration portal (such as a corporate intranet) for viewing by others. In other words, users need to, in general, go to the site collection that has/owns the content in order to view it (assuming they have permissions).
There are some exceptions to this rule of displaying content between site collections but they are tightly controlled by how specific SharePoint (MOSS specific) web parts work. To go beyond those web part limitations, custom web parts need to be written or purchased from a 3rd party.
Since a My Site is a site collection, it also means that a user’s My Site can be the parent site for other types of sites such as a blog, wiki, document workspace, meeting workspace, etc.
A System Administrator dictates who can have a My Site but cannot create My Sites for users
My Sites are special in that they cannot be created for a user. Although a system administrator can dictate which users have permissions to create a My Site, the system administrator cannot create a My Site for anyone other than him/herself.
Each My Site has a site collection administrator -- the user that created the My Site
Every site collection must have a site collection administrator -- a user that manages the entire site collection (all sites and subsites).
Because as you now know, a My Site cannot be created for someone else, the individual user that creates the My Site becomes both the site collection administrator and the site owner. Individual portal users therefore can do *virtually anything* to their My Site in an out-of-the-box SharePoint deployment. A user can create subsites (blog, wiki, document workspace, meeting workspace), create any list (image library, document library, custom list, contact list), assign or remove permissions for anyone they choose for anything they own (site, subsites, lists), add/remove web parts from their My Site pages.
All My Sites have 2 views
Each My Site has a private view and a public view. The page that is displayed to users, including the creator, is controlled by SharePoint.
The private view (My Home)
The private view, also known as “My Home”, is the My Site creator’s default landing page. This landing page is called default.aspx and is a customizable web part page. The My Site creator can add and remove content via web parts as desired. This default page is not seen by other users expect the creator of the site.
The public view (My Profile)
The public view is a special page shown to all users that are not the creator of the My Site – including system administrators. This page is also a customizable web part page under the control of the My Site creator. The My Site creator can add and remove content via web parts as desired.
From the perspective of virtually all users, the My Profile view is the only view into another person’s My Site.
UPDATE (11/09/2009):Following section has been revised after comments indicated the relationship betwen My Sites, User Profiles and My Links was not clear. Thanks for your comments.
Other MOSS My Site related features
User Profile
In SharePoint (MOSS specific) users can have a user profile. These profiles are generally composed of user information pulled from a company’s Active Directory as set up by a system administrator. In addition, Profiles can be enhanced to include information that is not in the Active Directory.
Once a profile is generated, users are given rights to manage their own information and determine which groups of users get to see individual pieces of information on their My Profile page.
For example, after User A’s profile is created and User A creates his My Site, User A decides he wants to add his cell phone number and birth date to his profile (limited to the predefined profile attributes determined by a system administrator). User A can do this. In addition, User A can dictate that all his colleagues see his birth date but his cell number will only be displayed to his Manager.
My Links and My Links Web Part
Each user can have access to a special feature of SharePoint (MOSS specific) that allows the user to save and manage links to sites. If a user has a My Site, a user can use the My Links Web Part to share links with other users via their My Site. This same web part can be used by the My Links owner to link through to the My Links management page.
This list of links is located in a user’s My Site but can be easily accessed in other site collections on the top of the navigation bar using a menu item called “My Links”.