Changes from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013 (Preview)

The following and more features from SharePoint 2010 Products have been deprecated or removed from SharePoint 2013. Deprecated features are included in SharePoint 2013 for compatibility with previous product versions. These features will be removed in the next major release of SharePoint.

1. Visual Upgrade

Description: The visual upgrade feature in SharePoint Server 2010 is not available in SharePoint 2013. For the upgrade from Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010, you could choose to use the visual upgrade feature to give site collection owners and site owners the opportunity to preserve the previous user interface temporarily while still upgrading the infrastructure and databases, site collections, and features to the latest version. This allowed site collection owners and site owners to update customizations to work in the new user interface. Once the database and site collection upgrade was complete, the user had the option to upgrade the user interface on a more granular level of the website (SPWeb object).

Reason for change: The visual upgrade feature is replaced with deferred site collection upgrade. The site collection upgrade process is not reversible. The deferred site collection upgrade is a more comprehensive upgrade process than visual upgrade.

Visual upgrade preserved only the old master pages, CSS files, and HTML files. Deferred site collection upgrade preserves much more, including SPFeature functionality. To achieve the deferred site collection upgrade, major changes in the architecture were required, including the removal of visual upgrade.

With deferred site collection upgrade, you can continue to use the UI from the previous version (SharePoint Server 2010) more seamlessly than is possible with visual upgrade. The master page, CSS, JScript, and SPFeatures will remain in SharePoint Server 2010 mode. One key difference is that the granularity of upgrading the user interface is per site collection (SPSite) instead of site (SPWeb). Users can still preview their site in the new SharePoint 2013 user interface before committing. However, this is accomplished by creating and upgrading a temporary copy of their site collection instead of a preview in the existing instance of the site collection. The reason for previewing a copy of the site collection is because of the complexity of what occurs during site collection upgrade. Once a site collection is upgraded, it cannot be rolled back. Therefore, performing a preview would not be possible except in a copy of the site collection.

Migration path: Site collection administrators who are using visual upgrade to continue to use SharePoint Server 2007 must move to the SharePoint Server 2010 user interface before upgrading to SharePoint 2013. After the content database is upgraded, users can use deferred site collection upgrade to continue to use the SharePoint Server 2010 experience for their site collections. Site collection administrators can be notified by their farm administrator when a site collection is ready for upgrade and the site collection administrators can then choose to either perform the upgrade of their site collection or optionally first preview the new functionality in a temporary copy of their site collection.

Any SharePoint user interface might have dependencies on visual upgrade. The main dependency was getting the user interface version and then outputting the correct user interface (new or legacy). The visual upgrade API feature is updated so that the user interface version is remapped to the new site collection compatibility level property. This returns the same information about which version the site uses as before. Therefore, dependent code does not need to change.

2. Document Workspace site template

Description: When you create a site in SharePoint 2013, the Document Workspace site template is not available.

Reason for change: The scenario of collaborating on a document is now provided by the Team Site site template. The Document Workspace site template was removed from SharePoint 2013 to simplify the list of templates that are available when a user creates a new site collection.

Migration path: Existing sites that were created by using the Document Workspace site template will continue to operate in SharePoint 2013. The Document Workspace site template will be removed completely from the next major release of SharePoint and sites that were created by using the Document Workspace site template will not be supported.

3. Personalization Site site template

Description: When you create a site in SharePoint 2013, the Personalization Site site template is not available.

Reason for change: The Personalization Site site template was not a widely used site template. The Personalization Site site template was removed from SharePoint 2013 to simplify the list of templates that are available when a user creates a new site collection.

Migration path: Existing sites that were created by using the Personalization Site site template will continue to operate in SharePoint 2013. The Personalization Site site template will be removed completely from the next major release of SharePoint and sites that were created by using the Personalization Site site template will not be supported.

4. Meeting Workspace site templates

Description: When you create a site in SharePoint 2013, all five of the Meeting Workspace site templates are not available. This includes the Basic Meeting Workspace, Blank Meeting Workspace, Decision Meeting Workspace, Social Meeting Workspace, and Multipage Meeting Workspace.

Reason for change: SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013 provide other features that support meetings and collaboration. For example, you can use Lync to conduct live meetings, OneNote to take notes during meetings, and a SharePoint team site or My Site to store shared meeting notes.

Migration path: Existing sites that were created by using the Meeting Workspace site templates will continue to operate in SharePoint 2013. The Meeting Workspace site templates will be removed completely from the next major release of SharePoint and sites that were created by using the Meeting Workspace site templates will not be supported.

5. Group Work site template and Group Work solution

Description: When you create a site in SharePoint 2013, the Group Work site template is not available. This Group Work site template provides a groupware solution that teams can use to create, organize, and share information. The Group Work site template includes the Group Calendar, Circulation, Phone-Call Memo, document library, and other basic lists. The Group Work site template and the Group Work solution are discontinued and not available in SharePoint 2013.

Reason for change: The Group Work site template was not a widely used site template. The Group Work site template was removed from SharePoint 2013 to simplify the list of templates that are available when a user creates a new site collection.

Migration path: Existing sites that were created by using the Group Work site template will continue to operate in SharePoint 2013. The Group Work site template will be removed completely from the next major release of SharePoint and sites that were created by using the Group Work site template will not be supported.

6. Visio Process Repository site template

Description: When you create a site in SharePoint 2013, the Visio Process Repository site template will continue to be available. However, the Visio Process Repository site template will be removed in the next major release of SharePoint.

Reason for change: The Visio Process Repository site template is not a widely used site template. The Visio Process Repository site template was removed from SharePoint 2013 to simplify the list of templates that are available when a user creates a new site collection.

Migration path: Not required. The Visio Process Repository site template is available in SharePoint 2013.

7. Unghosting and customizing CSS files

Description: The following methods are included in SharePoint 2013, but will be removed from the next major release of SharePoint:

• Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer.Webs.CustomizeCss
• Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer.Webs.RevertCss

The Webs.CustomizeCss method applies style sheet customization to a particular file.

The Webs.RevertCss method reverts style sheet customization of a file to the default style sheet.

These two methods are stored in Webs.asmx.cs and are defined in Webswsdl.asps.

Reason for change: The methods are outdated and are no longer needed.

Migration path: None.

8. Imaging Web service

Description: The Imaging Web service provides functionality for creating and managing picture libraries. The Imaging Web service will be removed from the next major release of SharePoint. The Imaging Web service is included and supported in SharePoint 2013.

Reason for change: The Imaging Web service is not widely used. The only client application for the Imaging Web service, Office Picture Manager, is no longer included with SharePoint 2013. The Imaging Web service is being removed to reduce security vulnerabilities and to simplify the number of ways to connect to SharePoint 2013.

Migration path: All the functionality of the Imaging Web service is available through the client-side object model (CSOM). The CSOM provides client-side applications with access to a subset of the SharePoint Foundation server object model, including core objects such as site collections, sites, lists, and list items. Also, Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) provides clients with key functionality of the Imaging Web service (for example, upload, download, and rename).

9. Excel Services – Can’t edit workbooks in the browser that have external data connections

Description: Workbooks with external data connections that use Windows authentication cannot be refreshed in the browser. Instead, you are prompted to open the workbook in the Excel client program. Workbooks that have database or Windows credentials stored either in the Secure Store Service or in the connection string can still be edited in the browser. This change applies only when Excel Web App in Office Web Apps Server is used to view workbooks, not when Excel Services in SharePoint Server 2013 is used.

Reason for change: This is a design limitation in SharePoint 2013.

Migration path: You can still refresh these workbooks in the Excel client program. Additionally, a service application administrator can configure that workbooks are viewed in SharePoint 2013 instead of Office Web Apps Server.

10. Web Analytics in SharePoint Server 2010

Description: Web Analytics in SharePoint Server 2010 has been discontinued and is not available in SharePoint 2013. Analytics processing for SharePoint 2013 is now a component of the Search service.

Reason for change: A new analytics system was required for SharePoint 2013 that included improvements in scalability and performance, and that had an infrastructure that encompasses SharePoint Online. The Analytics Processing Component in SharePoint 2013 runs analytics jobs to analyze content in the search index and user actions that are performed on SharePoint sites.

SharePoint 2013 still logs every click in SharePoint sites and still provides a count of hits for every document. User data is made anonymous early in the logging process and the Analytics Processing Component is scalable to the service.

This analytics data is used in SharePoint 2013 to provide new item-to-item recommendation features, to show view counts that are embedded in SharePoint 2013 and Search Server user interface, to provide a report of the top items in a site and list, and to influence the relevancy algorithm of search.

What happens to Web Analytics after upgrade: The Web Analytics Service is not upgraded to the Analytics Processing Component in SharePoint 2013. When you upgrade to SharePoint 2013, the databases that contain the data from Web Analytics in SharePoint Server 2010 are not removed. These databases are not used by or maintained by the Analytics Processing Component in SharePoint 2013. This means that documents on sites in SharePoint Server 2010 that are upgraded will show a hit count of 0.

When you upgrade to SharePoint 2013, do not attach and upgrade the databases that contain the data from Web Analytics in SharePoint Server 2010. We recommend that you turn off Web Analytics in the SharePoint Server 2010 environment before you copy the content databases that you want to upgrade to SharePoint 2013.

Reports from Web Analytics for the top items in a site are carried forward. Reports that show browser traffic, top users of a site, and referring URL are not carried forward and are not used by the Analytics Processing Component in SharePoint 2013.

Administrative reports for the quota usage of site collections in the farm are not available in SharePoint 2013.

SharePoint 2013 does not support the Web Analytics Web Part. After a farm is upgraded to SharePoint 2013, all instances of a Web Analytics Web Part will not function. The page that includes the Analytics Web Part will render and a message appears that informs the user that the Web Part is no longer supported.

Migration path: None. Data collection for Analytics Processing in SharePoint 2013 starts immediately for sites, including SharePoint Server 2010 sites.

11. Modifying the search topology using a web-based interface

Description: SharePoint 2013 uses the web-based interface to show the current status of the topology. You change the topology by using Windows PowerShell. SharePoint Server 2010 also included a web-based option for changing the topology.

Reason for change: The core search architecture of SharePoint 2013 has a more complex and flexible topology that can be changed more efficiently by using Windows PowerShell.

Migration path: Use Windows PowerShell to modify the search topology.

12. Diacritic sensitivity element in the thesaurus

Description: In SharePoint Server 2010, thesaurus files contain a <diacritics_sensitive> element. This element determines whether diacritical marks such as accents should be ignored or applied by the search system when expanding a query with terms from the thesaurus. By default, the <diacritics_sensitive> element is set to zero to ignore diacritical marks.

In SharePoint 2013, the <diacritics_sensitive> element is not available. Instead, diacritical marks are always respected when matching query terms with terms in the thesaurus.

Diacritic variants are not automatically matched with query terms. Therefore, fewer query terms might be expanded by synonyms. For example, the thesaurus entry <munchen> is not matched with the query term <münchen>.

Reason for change: The feature has limited usage. The same behavior as in SharePoint Server 2010 can be achieved by adding diacritic variants in the thesaurus.

Migration path: Update the thesaurus dictionaries that are tagged as diacritic insensitive. To update thesaurus dictionaries, add diacritic variations of the relevant terms.

13. Replacement mode within the thesaurus

Description: The thesaurus replacement mode is deprecated in SharePoint 2013.

In SharePoint Server 2010, you can classify entries in the thesaurus as expansions that are added to the query in addition to the original term. Likewise, you can classify entries as replacements of the original term in a query.

In SharePoint 2013, thesaurus replacements are no longer supported. All entries in the thesaurus are expansions, and the original term is not removed from the query. The original query term is always evaluated when you search the index. You cannot remove synonyms or words from the index.

Reason for change: The feature has limited usage, and may also have unwanted side-effects for relevance.

Migration path: No equivalent feature.

14. Search Query web service

Description: The Search Query web service is deprecated in SharePoint 2013.

In SharePoint Server 2010, the Search Query web service exposes the SharePoint Enterprise Search capabilities to client applications. This enables you to access search results from client and web applications outside the context of a SharePoint site.

Reason for change: The Search Query web service is deprecated because the client object model (CSOM) and a new REST-based web service are available for developing Office-wide extensibility scenarios. The CSOM exposes the same functionality as the Search Query web service, and a larger set of functionality for stand-alone client applications.

Migration path: Change custom search solutions to use the CSOM or REST-based web service instead of using the Search Query web service.

15. Search RSS and search from Windows

Description: The search RSS feature is deprecated in SharePoint 2013. The functionality for performing enterprise searches from Windows 7 depends on search RSS and this element has also been deprecated in SharePoint 2013.

The RSS link no longer appears on the results page. This link is replaced by the Search Alerts link.

Before upgrading site collections to SharePoint 2013, you can continue to use RSS in the SharePoint 2010 version of the Search Center. However, after you upgrade the Search Center to SharePoint 2013, the RSS is no longer available. In SharePoint 2013, you can create custom RSS feeds that use the client object model (CSOM), which targets the needs of your particular application and the RSS readers.

Reason for change: Most RSS readers that are available do not support claims authentication. In SharePoint 2013, claims authentication is the default authentication model. By using claims authentication, RSS readers work while the authentication cookie is cached. However, after the cookie expires, RSS readers cannot refresh their authentication, and so they stop working.

Migration path: After migrating a site to SharePoint 2013, you can create search-based alerts to be notified of changes to search results. You can also create a custom RSS feed in SharePoint document libraries, by using the UX extensibility platform.

16. Custom word breaker dictionaries

Description: The format of the custom word breaker dictionaries has changed in SharePoint 2013. In SharePoint 2013, you can only create one language-independent dictionary. In SharePoint Server 2010, you can create language-specific custom dictionaries (one dictionary for each language) to edit the word breaker behavior of enterprise search. The word breaker behavior for East Asian (CJK) languages has not changed in SharePoint 2013.

In SharePoint 2013, custom word breaker dictionaries from earlier versions of SharePoint Server are not supported.

Reason for change: The search processing framework for SharePoint 2013 is new, and the way the word breakers operate has changed.

Migration path: You must combine existing custom dictionaries into one language-independent dictionary.

17. Configuration of stemming in the registry

Description: The configuration of stemming in the registry is no longer supported in SharePoint 2013. Modifying stemming entries in the registry has no effect during search. In SharePoint Server 2010, you can turn stemming on or off, or you can replace it with a third-party stemmer by changing the registry. In SharePoint 2013, you cannot use a third-party stemmer.

Reason for change: This feature has limited feature usage.

Migration path: There is no migration path available for custom stemmers. You can enable or disable stemming in the Search Result Web Part.

18. SharePoint Search SQL syntax

Description: In SharePoint Server 2010, you could construct complex search queries by using SQL syntax.

Search in SharePoint 2013 supports FAST Query Language (FQL) syntax and Keyword Query Language (KQL) syntax for custom search solutions. You cannot use SQL syntax in custom search solutions.

Custom search solutions that use SQL syntax with the Query object model and the Query web service that were created in earlier versions of SharePoint Serverdo not work when you upgrade them to SharePoint 2013. If you submit queries by using these applications, you will receive an error.

Reason for change: The core search architecture has changed in SharePoint 2013, and the SQL syntax is no longer supported.

Migration path: Change current search solutions to use either the KQL syntax or FQL syntax for queries.

19. Shallow Search Refiners

Description: SharePoint Server Search in Office 2010 supported shallow search refiners. FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint supports shallow refiners and deep refiners. InSharePoint 2013, only deep search refiners are supported.

We recommend that you use deep search refiners to refine searches. In SharePoint 2013, deep refiners are an improvement to the existing FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint functionality. For example, the resource usage for each refiner is improved in SharePoint 2013.

In SharePoint 2013, you can view refiners as you did in the earlier version of the product. However, the refiners are now computed differently. They are created based on index structures that are aggregated across the full result set.

Reason for change: The shallow search refiners are replaced with an improved implementation of deep search refiners.

Migration path: No specific migration steps are necessary.

Note:

As of the publishing date of the article, the above list is partial more features might be removed or deprecated from SharePoint 2013 once the RTM Version is released. I will be updating the article as and when the information is available.