Step 13: Creating a MOSS Document Library

To create a document library or repository site within MOSS, we need to customize the site’s directory name, and under that directory create a link to our SharePoint site. Here’s how we did that:

• From the Start Menu, go to Start > Programs > Microsoft Office Server > SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.
• The following window opens. Select Application Management:
  
• Here we want to define a customized path by giving it a name, for example, associating it with the organization’s name or any other name that makes sense. To do so, first click on Define managed paths:
  
• The Defined Managed Paths page should now display. On that same page, you will notice that all our managed paths are showing up on a list the right-hand side of the window. (In this example, you can see (root), sites, mysite, personal and lsnc listed.) On the right, where there is a “Web Application” field, you need to make sure that the correct web application under which you create a managed path is selected. In this example, we have entered http://gsa.tfplocal.net. And for purposes of this example, we will just use “xyz” as the custom path. On the right, under Type, accept the default “Wildcard inclusion”. Click OK:
  
• Once we validate the new managed path name of “xyz”", it too shows up, at the bottom of the list:
  
• Having created our customized path, we now want to create our SharePoint site underneath it, so that users can have shared access to the site. To do that, click on the Application Management tab at the top of the page, and then under “SharePoint Site Management” click on Create site collection:
  
• On the Create Site Collection screen, make sure that the correct web application is selected. In the Title field, enter “Documents”. Below that, enter an appropriate description into the Description field. In selecting the URL for this example, we want to use the new path that we just created {in this example, “xyz”). To the immediate right of the URL field, there is a box for entering the actual directory where your documents will reside; here, we call it “docs” but you could use any name that makes sense for your installation. Below that, you will see a list of template options, based on four basic site-function purposes — collaboration, meetings, enterprise and publishing. Select accordingly. In this example, we click on the Enterprise tab and select “Document Center”, to create an enterprise-level document center:
  
• On the same page, we enter the user name for use by the “Primary Site Collection Administrator”. Here we use “administrator”. (You can also enter a user name for a “Secondary Site Collection Administrator”, as well as a “Quota Template”, but neither is required.) Click OK to validate your selections:
  
• Once OK is clicked, a screen appears displaying Operation in Progress:
  
• Once that process is complete, you will be prompted by Top-Level Site Successfully Created screen. The URL of the “new, empty top-level site” displays as a live link below the title of the page. As you can see in this example, it is displayed as http://gsa.tfplocal.net/xyx/docs -
  
• To go to the newly created site, simply click on that same link to take you to the site. As illustrated here, when the site home page opens, the fully resolved site home page URL displays, i.e., http://gsa.tfplocal.net/xyz/docs/default.aspx, which is to say that the URL http://gsa.tfplocal.net/xyz/docs/ created earlier simply opens the default page for the particular base directory, in the case of a SharePoint site that being default.aspx as illustrated:
  

Next » Step 14: Adding Documents to the MOSS Document Library

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