3. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
Microsoft’s marketing tagline describes SharePoint 2010 as the ―Business
Collaboration Platform for the Enterprise and the Web‖ and explains
that it will:
Connect and empower people
Cut costs with a unified infrastructure
Rapidly respond to business needs
4. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint as a Web Platform
At its core, SharePoint is a web application- a really large and full -
featured web application, but still a web application. Because of its
broad feature set and flexible implementation options, it can and
should be considered to fulfill several roles in a consolidated web
strategy for any organization.
― sites ‖ are used by SharePoint as containers for ― lists ‖ and ―
libraries, ‖ which in turn contain data and documents.
5. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint as a Web Platform
users may wonder how the storage of documents and files in
SharePoint is any different than what users get out of a file share
today. The differences are in the features built on top of the site, list,
and library concepts and increased availability of content being
stored on a web server over a file server.
8. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint Capabilities Beyond the File Share
For users, this means there is a server somewhere with SharePoint installed on it
and they will be accessing it primarily with a web browser.
For administrators, SharePoint relies on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and IIS
as well as other core technologies on the server. This means administrators will
need to understand concepts of the server OS, of web - based applications,
and of basic networking, as well as how SharePoint uses the database and
more. This is covered in more detail in the next chapter.
Developers and designers need to know that SharePoint is an ASP.NET
application that conforms to many of the web standards in use today.
9. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
Microsoft’s Web Platform
SharePoint as the Collaboration Platform
SharePoint is a platform not only for its own family of products, but for many
other Microsoft and partner products as well. Within the SharePoint family of
products, SharePoint Foundation is the core platform for all the other
SharePoint, Search Server, and FAST server products.
Team Collaboration
A team site is a SharePoint website used by a group of people, sometimes
a department that is aligned with the hierarchy in an organization.
When users create a team site, they have a number of tools available,
including group announcements, a team calendar, useful links, and
containers for documents and files. These are just a few examples
Announcements
For example: ― A new team member is starting today, ‖ ― There is a new policy in place, ‖ or ―
There are donuts in the break room. ‖ These messages were previously distributed by e - mail.
10. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
Microsoft’s Web Platform
Team Collaboration
Team calendars are useful resources even with enterprise - level tools like
Exchange in the same environment. In fact, they actually strengthen each
other.
SharePoint provides yet another option for managing links that fits right into a
site, while also offering advantages of sorting, filtering, and notifications that are
part of the core platform.
11. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
Microsoft’s Web Platform
Document Collaboration
The first topics to consider when discussing collaboration are the
availability of and access to the document or file that is being
worked on. SharePoint sites provide a common repository to access.
SharePoint has the flexibility to implement a wide variety of security
models and schemes, even down to the individual item if needed.
SharePoint has the capability to track document versions, both
major and minor. Libraries can be configured to require users to
check documents in and out when making changes to content in
order to enforce versioning and manage changes cleanly.
12. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
Microsoft’s Web Platform
Document Workspaces
This is a specific type of site where a single document is the center of attention.
Document workspace might be used when a number of users are working on a larger,
more complex document over a span of time. Some examples might include a
technical or operations manual or an employee handbook.
Meeting Collaboration
Meeting workspaces are sites that can be used to coordinate and communicate
meeting details.
When a meeting is created, the list of attendees is determined at the same time.
Invited attendees are automatically granted access to the site, with a link that allows
them to view, add, and edit content.
Users are all granted access to add agenda items or upload documents and materials
that will be used at the meeting.
When the meeting is over, tasks have already been assigned and notes have been
taken that are available for future reference.
13. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint as a Search Provider
Search is all about the ― findability ‖ of content.
On portals and collaboration sites alike,
there is a search control at the top of the
page almost all the time. The scope of the
information being searched may change
depending on where you navigate, but for
the most part search is available throughout
the environment.
14. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint as a Search Provider
Search is all about the ― findability ‖ of content.
Customization is something done using
SharePoint Designer, Visual Studio, or
another tool. Search results can be
modified in all kinds of ways and some of
the configuration can be done right in the
browser using XSLT manipulation. A
number of Web Parts and other ways to
tweak the results to fit an organization’s
needs also exist.
15. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint as a Search Provider
Search is all about the ― findability ‖ of content.
16. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint as a Search Provider
Search is all about the ― findability ‖ of content.
Finally, SharePoint can only read files it can understand. By default this means
any Microsoft - based document or generic document types. Adobe PDFs and
other file types are not supported by default. Additional tools or ― IFilters ‖ can
be installed to give SharePoint the ability to read the additional content. One
last note regarding the reading of content: SharePoint does not have OCR
capabilities at this time. If it reads a PDF image file as opposed to a PDF text -
based document, it will not be able to read the image.
17. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint as a Presentation Layer
External Data
The Business Data Catalog (BDC) can create connections to external data,
for both reading and writing as necessary. External Lists can be used to
display data directly from tables outside SharePoint as if they were lists in
SharePoint.
Internal Data
The presentation of data that exists inside SharePoint is primarily done using
list views and other Web Parts.
Making data inside SharePoint available for systems outside SharePoint is
made possible with SharePoint services.
18. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint as a Presentation Layer
Solutions
Business Intelligence (BI) can mean a lot of different things to
different people, but generally it includes the display of business
information in meaningful ways.
BI tools like connectible controls and key performance indicators (KPIs)
make interpreting large amounts of data much more efficient. With
data surfaced in SharePoint, data sets can be filtered, sorted, and searched
easily. KPIs can be put in place to make data discovery easier. For example,
when looking at something like a table of sales figures by product, visual
cues can be configured to highlight sales numbers: $100,000 of sales for a
product per month might be a favorable figure and be displayed as green;
$80,000 to $99,999 might be at the warning level and be displayed as yellow;
below $80,000 might be cause for concern and be displayed as red.
19. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint as a Development Platform
Out-of-the-box solutions are developed with no code, site, and list templates
and sometimes with a little ingenuity. In many cases, list and library functionality
meets users ’ needs. Many simple CRUD (create, read, update, and delete)
solutions can be built without any code at all.
Finally, when the standard features don’t cut it and SharePoint Designer’s
capabilities still aren't enough, Visual Studio 2010 is available to fill the gap.
Developers are able to extend SharePoint directly with .NET and SharePoint -
specific application programming interfaces (APIs).
20. INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT
SharePoint for Social Networking
Finding and connecting with the people you need when you need them
contributes directly to productivity. If you already know whom you want to
contact, SharePoint’s integration with Office Communication Server (OCS)
shows availability and contact information wherever that person’s name is
displayed in SharePoint. If they ’ re online, they can be contacted via OCS
instant messenger or by calling them right in the SharePoint interface.
New to the SharePoint platform in 2010 is the ability for users to tag, rate, and
comment on content.
21. CORE SHAREPOINT
Sites and Webs
Users commonly use the term ― website ‖ to refer to containers or groups of
content on the Web — either intranets or the Internet. In SharePoint we have a
few terms along those same lines. The highest level object of this type is called
a site collection.
Webs are very similar to site collections, but
are a little less robust. Security groups set up at
a web level are visible and accessible
throughout the parent site collection and other
sibling webs.
22. CORE SHAREPOINT
Lists and Libraries
Lists are the heavy lifters of SharePoint. They contain all sorts of
content and data and are the structure on top of which many of
the features and functionality of SharePoint are built. In many ways
analogous to spreadsheets or database tables, lists contain ― items
‖ where Excel and databases have ― rows. ‖ SharePoint libraries
are specialized lists where the item is a file that has been uploaded
to SharePoint. Lists and libraries both use columns in much the same
way as spreadsheets and tables do, though you will also hear terms
like ―metadata‖, ‖properties‖ and ―fields‖.
SharePoint and Office 2010 gives users the ability to co-author
documents, adding and changing things at the same time.
26. CORE SHAREPOINT
Views
Views are another powerful feature of lists. Views define what information
from the list is displayed, which columns are displayed and in what order,
what items are displayed and in what order, and how a list of items is sorted,
filtered, or grouped together.
Views are important and powerful because of what they offer the user.
When looking at a document library, users may prefer to see a listing of
documents by name in alphabetical order. They may also prefer to see a
listing that shows the most recently updated documents first. Or they may
prefer to look only at documents that they themselves have created or
edited. All of these options and more are available and easy to navigate.
Default views are available for all lists, but users with the appropriate security
level are also able to customize existing views or create new views as
needed.
27. CORE SHAREPOINT
The Ribbon
What you can’t immediately see in Figures are that options in the Ribbon become active and disabled based on the context —
what the users are doing at any given moment as well as by what their security settings allow them to do.
28. CORE SHAREPOINT
Properties and Metadata
Lists and items are the core objects managed inside SharePoint. Much of the
value in these lists is in the additional properties that capture more data
about the item, allow the lists to be sorted and filtered, and enable the item
to be discovered via searches.
With SharePoint 2010 the core fields are filename, created by (user), created
date, modified by (user), and modified date. Users with the appropriate
permissions can add more columns as needed.
A Category field might be added to more easily organize links or
documents. A Review Date might be added to documents in a library.
Content types are a collection of fields and functionality that allows users to
build and manage groups of columns so they can be implemented
consistently as a group of columns.
29. CORE SHAREPOINT
Web Parts
Web Parts are the building blocks of SharePoint pages. They can be
as simple as an image Web Part, or as complex as any custom
application.
Within SharePoint, among the most common examples are list -
view Web Parts. These are exactly what they sound like — views of
SharePoint lists. As soon as a list is created, a list - view Web Part is
available to place on a page and configure to meet the user’s
needs.
30. SHAREPOINT 2010 EDITIONS
SharePoint Foundation 2010
SharePoint Foundation (SPF) is the entry point product for SharePoint and is
available to licensed users of Windows Server 2008 at no additional charge.
Foundation contains the core functionality that is used in all SharePoint
products, including sites, lists and libraries, granular security, metadata, and
alerts.
31. SHAREPOINT 2010 EDITIONS
SharePoint Server 2010: Intranet
When organizations need more advanced features for their internal portal or
collaboration environment, the next step after SharePoint Foundation is
SharePoint Server 2010.
Standard
Enterprise Content Management (ECM): The content management features provide an
industry standard framework for separation of content from branding and the
underlying infrastructure. This allows content managers to provide content in the areas
they are supposed to, while keeping them from working in areas they shouldn’t, all
without having to worry about styles and formatting.
Managed metadata: SharePoint Server 2010 introduces a centrally managed
metadata store and framework that can deploy consistent taxonomy across the farm.
Tags, notes, and ratings: In addition to the organization - defined taxonomy, SharePoint
also introduces tags, notes, and ratings that allow for user - defined ― folksonomy ‖
tags and terminology as well as the ability to collect and act on feedback from users.
32. SHAREPOINT 2010 EDITIONS
SharePoint Server 2010: Intranet
When organizations need more advanced features for their internal portal or
collaboration environment, the next step after SharePoint Foundation is
SharePoint Server 2010.
Standard
Profiles and My Site: SharePoint enables organizations to build user profiles that can
drive personalization features as well as user directory content.
Search: Search capabilities take a big step forward from the basic capabilities of
SharePoint Foundation, allowing for configuration and customization of the search
results as well as surfacing people results based on user profile information. Long
overdue and highly anticipated wildcard search and phonetic search functionality are
also introduced. The search scope is also wider, allowing searches across site
collections.
33. SHAREPOINT 2010 EDITIONS
SharePoint Server 2010: Intranet
Enterprise
The most notable features that the enterprise level provides are these additional
service offerings:
InfoPath Services: These allow digital forms to be created and served up via the server
rather than having to load a client application.
Excel Services and PowerPivot: These publish and manipulate Excel data and make
data available as a source for other applications.
PerformancePoint: This service provides professional business intelligence capabilities,
Web Parts, scorecards, and dashboards.
Access Services: These import and publish Access databases in the SharePoint farm,
bringing data into a centrally managed and supportable environment.
Visio Services: These allow users to view, edit, and embed Visio content in other
SharePoint applications.
FAST search: The additional capabilities of FAST search include thumbnails, previews,
and configurable relevance.
34. SHAREPOINT 2010 EDITIONS
SharePoint Server 2010: Internet/Extranet
Licensing for external - facing solutions is also different than internal - facing
solutions because users can be anonymous; there are no Client Access
Licenses. What is also important to understand is that external - facing licenses
cannot be used for employees.
Standard
SharePoint Server 2010 Standard for the Internet/extranet has the same capabilities as
the Standard CAL for the intranet. Specifically for the external - facing farm, the
Standard license supports only a single domain (for example, www.something.com ) and
related sub - domains (for example, http://my.something.com ).
Enterprise
SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise for the Internet/extranet has the same capabilities as
the Enterprise CAL for the intranet.
35. SHAREPOINT 2010 EDITIONS
Search Server 2010
The only differences between Search Server 2010 and Search Server Express
2010 are the licensing model and scaling limitations.
Microsoft Search Server 2010 Express
The Search Server Express license is free but allows for only a single server, with no
redundancy or scaling capabilities, and it is limited in the content it can crawl:
When using SQL Server Express, search will crawl approximately 300,000 items.
When using SQL Server, search will crawl approximately 10 million items.
Microsoft Search Server 2010
The crawling limitation is raised to approximately 100 million items and multiple servers
can be deployed for both scaling and redundancy. The crawling and query roles can
also be separated to different servers, allowing crawling activities to continue without
affecting the performance of users’ search queries.
36. SHAREPOINT 2010 EDITIONS
Search Server 2010
The only differences between Search Server 2010 and Search Server Express
2010 are the licensing model and scaling limitations.
FAST Search
FAST Search Server 2010 adds new elements and depth to the SharePoint search
capabilities. Where SharePoint Search returns search results based on keyword
searches, FAST does additional processing on the content and allows for more context -
sensitive content. From an end – user perspective, one of the most obvious and exciting
features of FAST is the search results preview feature that displays the actual document
or file right in the search results page.
FAST Search Server for SharePoint (Intranet)
The service also provides a framework for search - based customizations and
functionality.
FAST Search Server for SharePoint Internet Sites (FSIS)
Similar to the intranet functionality, FSIS is licensed for public - facing solutions
based on the SharePoint platform.
37. SHAREPOINT 2010 EDITIONS
SharePoint Designer 2010
It allows for more customization than the user interface of SharePoint alone, but
doesn’t offer as many capabilities as Visual Studio. Likely users of SPD will
include power users, designers (branding), and developers.
SharePoint Workspace 2010
SharePoint Workspace is the latest iteration of the product formerly
known as Microsoft Office Groove. Workspace is both a client and
peer-to-peer application that allows users to take SharePoint site
content offline, make changes while offline, and then synchronize
with the SharePoint server at a later time. Workspace also allows for
sharing of content between Workspace clients.
38. Thanks
Prepared by :
Muhammad Alaa
Eng.Muhammad_alaa@yahoo.com