Key Concepts and Terminology

The dashboard site is part of the total portal solution provided by SharePoint Portal Server. Designed to provide flexibility, the dashboard site provides the primary view of the portal. With SharePoint Portal Server, you create a portal that uses Web Parts and digital dashboards to present content. You can use third-party Web Parts or create your own Web Parts.

SharePoint Portal Server relies on the following:

• Web Storage System. Built-in services for building Web-based collaborative applications.
• Standard Tools. Develop solutions by using familiar tools like Microsoft Visual Studio^®.
• Standard Interfaces. Use common interfaces like Microsoft ActiveX^® Data Objects (ADO), Extensible Markup Language (XML), and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV).

For more information about developing additional solutions for SharePoint Portal Server, see Appendix B, For More Information.

SharePoint Portal Server Terminology

The dashboard site offers a single customizable source for accessing information drawn from a wide variety of content sources while maintaining the security of the documents. External content sources can include other SharePoint Portal Server workspaces, intranet or Internet sites, Microsoft Exchange 2000 and Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 public folder hierarchies, Lotus Notes 4.6a+ and R5 databases, local file systems, and network file servers.

Workspace. The workspace is an organized collection of documents, content sources, management folders, categories, document profiles, subscriptions, and discussions. It provides a central location to organize, manage, and publish content.

Dashboard site. The dashboard site is a specialized Web site that SharePoint Portal Server creates at the same time as the associated workspace. The dashboard site provides a Web view of the workspace and enables users assigned to appropriate roles to search for, view, and manage documents in the workspace and to search for and view content from other sources. The dashboard site contains a number of pages, or dashboards, and includes customization pages and custom Web Part forms.

Dashboard. A dashboard is a Web page on the dashboard site. Each dashboard contains a collection of Web Parts in a modular view that SharePoint Portal Server presents to users in a Web browser.

Web Part. A Web Part is a customizable, reusable component used to display specific information on a dashboard. SharePoint Portal Server uses Web Parts to associate Web-based content (such as XML, HTML, and scripting) with a specific set of properties in an organizational framework.

Folders for Web Parts. Located under the Portal Content folder, SharePoint Portal Server associates these folders with specific default Web Parts on the dashboard site. SharePoint Portal Server applies a specific document profile to documents according to the folder in which it is stored. For example, the Quick Links folder is associated with the Quick Links Web Part and applies the Quick Links document profile to all of the documents it contains.

For more information about Digital Dashboard technology, see Appendix B, For More Information.

Reviewing the Default Dashboard Site

The dashboard site is composed of multiple dashboards. The first default dashboard is called the home page. Figure 4.1 shows the default home page of the dashboard site.

Figure 4.1. The home page of the dashboard site

The home page is the first page you see when browsing the default dashboard site. From this page, you can access all of the other dashboards on the site, and view information in the Web Parts.

The default dashboard contains the following items:

• A customizable site title
• A customizable dashboard site logo
• A Search Web Part containing a search bar with a drop-down menu from which users can select search scopes, and a text box in which users can type search terms
• A set of site navigation buttons that link to other dashboards: Home, Document Library, Categories, Subscriptions, and Help

Depending on your role, other links that allow you to perform management tasks may be available.

The default home page contains four additional default Web Parts—News, Announcements, Quick Links, and Subscriptions Summary:

• The News Web Part. Displays general items of interest, such as company news, departmental news, or stories from news services. For example, the News Web Part on the home page of a sales and marketing group might display quarterly sales figures or press releases.
• The Announcements Web Part. Displays company announcements, departmental events, and so on. For example, the Announcements Web Part in the dashboard site of a sales and marketing group might contain announcements regarding a new employee or a reminder about a department meeting.
• The Quick Links Web Part. Displays links to other information of interest, such as company resources. For example, the Quick Links Web Part in the dashboard site of a human resources group might contain links to job openings or benefits information.
• The Subscriptions Summary Web Part. Provides a summary of the current user's subscription notifications. If you find a document, folder, category, or a set of search results useful, you can subscribe to the content and SharePoint Portal Server notifies you of changes.

You can add value to your dashboard site by adding Web Parts that display business information such as news headlines and stock tickers, collaboration tools such as Microsoft Outlook^®, or general information such as weather or driving directions.

Access the Dashboard Site

Users access the dashboard site through a Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. The user is not required to install the client components to access SharePoint Portal Server through the dashboard site.

For the Microsoft Windows^® operating system, you can use the following browsers:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or later
• Netscape Navigator 4.51 or later (for Italian and Spanish versions of SharePoint Portal Server)
• Netscape Navigator 4.7x or later (for English, French, German, and Japanese versions of SharePoint Portal Server)

No other operating systems or Web browsers are currently supported.

In addition, you must enable Microsoft JScript^® or Netscape JavaScript support in your browser for the dashboard site to function.

To use the dashboard site with Netscape Navigator, you must use Internet Services Manager to enable Basic authentication for the workspace on the default Web site. To enable discussions to work with Netscape Navigator, you must also enable Basic authentication for the MSOffice node.

Find Additional Pages from the Home Page

Navigation links appear at the top of every dashboard page.

All users can access the following sub-dashboards or pages of the default dashboard site:

• Home. Return to the Home page. Because this is a customizable link, the name may change.
• Categories. View a list of categories and subcategories.
• Document Library. View the folders and subfolders containing the contents of the workspace. Users associated with the proper role can manage their documents from the Document Library.
• Search. Conduct simple and advanced search queries.
• Subscriptions. View all of your current subscriptions in detail.
• Help. Access the Dashboard Site Help.

Users assigned to the role of coordinator can access the following additional sub-dashboards or pages.

• Management. Manage another user's subscriptions, manage Web discussions on the workspace, and empty the application cache for the dashboard site.
• Content. Customize and manage the Web Parts that appear on the pages of the dashboard site, and then specify the content that appears in those Web Parts.
• Settings. Customize and manage dashboard settings.
• Layout. Customize dashboard layout.

In addition, if your coordinator has enabled this option, you may also be able to access additional personal dashboards.