Defaulting WebParts on a Users MySite in Sharepoint

Question

I am working on a project that is replacing an old portal system (Plumtree) with sharepoint and we want to make the transition as smooth as possible.

One thing we are look at currently is taking all the gadgets (Plumtree term for WebParts) and making sure they appear in the same place on the users new MySite.

Plumtree holds this information in a simple table containing the user, page, gadget and position information. I want to find a way to automate reading this table and putting the new WebParts on the users MySite and not have to manually set it up for hundreds of users.

I'm told modifying Sharepoint tables in SQL Server directly is not a good option as it may affect our support arrangements, but if it saves doing this by hand then I would concider it.

Other options that spring to mind are creating a equivalent table and using API calls to load the WebParts the first time the user accesses their MySite.

Any better suggestions?

Answer 1

You are right, messing directly with databases are not supported nor recommended.

Unfortunately, there are not much ways to modify MySites, the best way I know come from the MOSS Team Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/22/customizing-moss-2007-my-sites-within-the-enterprise.aspx

Answer 2

The way we did it was pretty much what is described in the link above (http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/22/customizing-moss-2007-my-sites-within-the-enterprise.aspx).

Your best bet is probably to staple a Feature to MySite creation and have it poll the plumtree database, find the gadgets for that user, and add a 'Page Viewer' web part for each, pointing to the gadget's location. That said, you may want to reconsider blindly migrating all your plumtree gadgets into SharePoint. There may be much better 'SharePointy' ways to provide the functionality that your gadgets are currently providing.