Case study of building a public facing website on SharePoint 2013 for Roadrunner Transportation. Rick Parham and myself presented this at SharePoint Fest Chicago 2014.
We have a history of building great internet sites on SharePoint
What’s in it for the audience?
Devs?
Admins?
Using sp2013 for internet site?
Public Facing Website on SharePoint?
Truckload, Less-Than-Truckload, Intermodal
2500+ Employees, 15,000+ Contractors
30 Different Acquisitions
Website only talked about one line of business
Existing VB.NET codebase needed to be rewritten due to changes in data access – now a central db.
We wore many hats:
Gather Requirements
Business Process Consulting
Technology Consulting
Management Consulting
We helped the business understand what they needed to communicate and accomplish.
Over 500 pieces of content
Many overlaps
Graphical Menu
Modern and easier to use- pick a valid date in fewer clicks, no popup issues.
BOL is the most important business process.
Has a complex form. Telerik Controls let us provide a better user experience. For example, Contextual Tips and masked fields.
Custom Web Part gives us complete control of the UX.
Navigation to individual companies, three approaches to integrating brands
Three examples of old and new sites side by side, and how the new sites have a consistency that the old ones lack.
SharePoint 2013 for Internet
Web Part Development
Solution Packages
Authentication framework
CMS
Telerik
SQL 2012 / Custom Database
No more Internet license costs vs 2010
Development of Web Parts in parallel with site structure, branding, navigation
Putting each app in its own solution package rather than one giant solution package made maintenance, upgrades easy
Use of Telerik controls ASP.NET Ajax Controls
(details later in the deck) Integrating OOTB FBA user management model with a rich user model
(details later in the deck) Use of a custom SQL database because this is highly relational Line of Business data.
SQL DB vs. Lists
Decided to go with server side development. Made decision in June 2013.
Initially wanted to go App Model
Tried of couple of process / Took 3-4 time as long
App Model is maturing / But not ready when we needed it
Back-End is SQL instead of using Lists
- Integrate with AS/400
Pre-existing web services needed to be maintained.
Active/Passive SQL Cluster had two SQL Instances, one for SP, one for the Roadrunner LOB data.
At PSC, we use an iterative methodology in order to ensure successful delivery of our projects. The following diagram shows how the project scope is encompassed by an emphasis on constant communication relying on our focus on listening to our clients. Our methodology leverages strengths of various other methodologies including Agile and MSF in order to bring a solid foundation and the ability to adapt to client and project requirements as needed.
One Internal, one Client status meeting every week, Mon + Thr
My PSC – SP2013
OneNote: Every Meeting, Every Application
Yammer – helped when team was spread out, WFH/Client/HQ/Loop
% Exits - % of people that leave the site after visiting just the home page. That means 80% of users delve deeper into the site, up from 73%.
Telerik
Makes it easier to add mobile device experience later. Also lets business partners integrate with corporate systems
BrowserStack.com
For relational data, use SQL.
For User Management, FBA
Page Content Management vs Data Content Management