Deprecated Features in SharePoint 2013 From SharePoint 2010

This article describes the features in SharePoint 2010 Products that have been deprecated or removed from SharePoint 2013. Deprecated features are included in SharePoint 2013 for compatibility with previous product versions.

Features deprecated in SharePoint 2013 Preview

The following features and functionality have been deprecated or changed in SharePoint 2013.

Visual upgrade

The visual upgrade feature in SharePoint Server 2010 is not available in SharePoint 2013. 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.

Reasons for removing this feature: The visual upgrade feature is replaced with a 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 do the deferred site collection upgrade, major changes in the architecture were required, including the removal of visual upgrade.

Document Workspace site template

Document Workspace site template is not available.

The reasons for removing this feature is that the scenario of collaborating on a document is now provided by the Team Site site template.

Personalization Site template

Personalization Site template is not available.

Reasons for removing this feature: As per Microsoft study, the Personalization Site template was not a widely used site template.

Meeting Workspace site templates

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.

Reasons for removing this feature: 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.

Group Work site template and Group Work solution

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.

Reasons for removing this feature: As per Microsoft study, this Site template was not a widely used site template.

Imaging Web service

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.

Reasons for removing this feature: 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.

Excel Services: We Can't edit workbooks in the browser that have external data connections.

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..
Reasons for removing this feature: This is a design limitation in SharePoint 2013.

Web Analytics in SharePoint Server 2010

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.

Reasons for removing this feature: 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.

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.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 deprecated search features

The following functionality has changed in SharePoint Foundation search.

Search capabilities

The search capabilities of SharePoint Foundation 2013 have changed, and are now based on the same search implementation as SharePoint Server.

Reasons for removing this feature: Alignment of basic capabilities between SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation.

SharePoint Server 2010 deprecated search features

The following section provides details about the deprecated search features in SharePoint Server.

Modifying the search topology using a web-based interface

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

Reasons for the 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.

Replacement mode within the thesaurus

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.

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

Search Query web service

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.

Reasons for the change: The Search Query web service is deprecated because the client objects model (CSOM) and a new REST-based web service is 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.

Search RSS and search from Windows

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 have 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.

Reasons for the 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.

Custom word breaker dictionaries

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

Configuration of stemming in the registry

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.

Reasons for the change: This feature has limited feature usage.

SharePoint Search SQL syntax

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.

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

Shallow search refiners

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

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