Restaurant review site in SharePoint

Question

I'm totally new to SharePoint but my company has adopted it for internal use. As a learning exercise I thought it would be fun to create a local restaurant review site. Can anyone point me to an example or tutorial to get me started?

What I have in mind is a simple site where users can enter the restaurant name, cuisine style, address, a simple 5 point rating and price scale, and a short review. Other users could search for restaurants by cuisine and add their own reviews.

We have SharePoint 2007 and MOSS.

Thanks

Answer 1

I don't know of one tutorial which will help you, but I can try to break this down for you and link to tutorials:

• Create a Web Application
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262668.aspx

• Create a Site Collection in that Web Application
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263165.aspx

• Create a Content Type which represents 'a restaurant'
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA100997781033.aspx
  What if a Content Type? In SharePoint, if Pages were object instances, then Content Types would be Class definitions.

  • You might want to create custom fields (or Site Columns) for your Content Type, such as "cuisine style." If the content type is like a Class definition, then these are like instance variables.
    http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/HA101577691033.aspx

• You then need to create a Publishing Page Layout for that Content Type. The Page Layout is a template used to render a list item of a particular Content Type as HTML.
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/ha101741281033.aspx

  • You may need to read some about Master Pages and Content Place Holders to get this.
    http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/ha101651201033.aspx
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa660698.aspx

• You may need to add your Page layout to the Pages library. This should tell SharePoint to make 'Restaurant' Page Layouts available when you're creating a page.
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/sharepointtechnology/HA101106061033.aspx

• Now try creating a page representing a Restaurant!
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa660698.aspx

(sadly as I am a new user I cannot post real links :'( sorry)

Answer 2

You can take a look into this package from Microsoft: Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. It isn't exactly about restaurants, but you can learn what do you need to make one, by studying this templates.

Application templates are out-of-the-box custom scenarios tailored to address the needs and requirements of specific business processes or sets of tasks in organizations of any size. They also provide a starting point for partners and developers looking to build deeper SharePoint-based solutions. The templates make use of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 capabilities and are compatible with Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to help make customization easier.