SharePoint Version 2 Paradigm

The core of the Microsoft collaboration suite is the SharePoint family, consisting of SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services. These products let you create dynamic workgroup sites and encourage such collaboration as document sharing, discussions, shared calendars, news events, and others.

SharePoint changed dramatically between versions 1 and 2, growing in capability, scalability, and programmability. In version 1, SharePoint Portal Server relied on ActiveX as the underlying technology for its web parts and used the web store as its repository. SharePoint Team Services and SharePoint Portal Server offered distinct technology and development models. As with version 1, SharePoint offers a host of collaboration features. With version 2, however, SharePoint is no longer the stepchild of the Microsoft server family but rather has entered the mainstream of .NET servers.

The other member of the SharePoint product family has changed its name . SharePoint Team Services has been replaced by Windows SharePoint Services. SharePoint Team Services was wildly popular within Microsoft. Microsoft ended up with around 80,000 Team Services sites, meaning an average of 1.6 sites for each of Microsoft's 50,000 employees . It allowed users to create ad hoc web sites with canned functionality for the myriad collaborative efforts under way at the company. In addition to its inherent features and benefits, SharePoint Team Services created consistency among project web sites. Users became familiar with how the sites functioned and where they should go to share documents, post calendars, and other functions.

The technology for both SharePoint products has now been merged, making Windows SharePoint Services the foundation for SharePoint Portal Server, which is now essentially a premium version of Windows SharePoint Services, including the advanced search engine and some other features lacking in Windows SharePoint Services. Windows SharePoint Services is a free component of Windows Server 2003. It is a free download and will be packaged with the server product in future releases.

Under the rubric of SharePoint Products and Technologies, SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services share a paradigm that needs an introduction. Microsoft has taken the web part concept from SharePoint Portal Server and migrated it to the .NET platform. At the same time, the quick and simple site generation of SharePoint Team Services has been extended and enriched. Figure 12.2 provides an architectural overview of the SharePoint platform.

Figure 12.2. SharePoint Architecture

New products need new jargon, and SharePoint is no exception. There are several key terms with special meanings in the context of SharePoint. Some of the terminology is different from that used in SharePoint version 1 and from that used by other Microsoft products.

As you might expect, the main portal is called a site . SharePoint Portal Server lets you create subsites in a hierarchy that exists within the main site. For instance, you might create a site for each department in your company. A site consists of one or more pages . Pages can be content pages, web part pages, or other types of pages such as discussion groups and document libraries.

SharePoint uses the concept of areas , which are used to group content. A page can be associated with one or more areas, and an area in turn can relate to many web pages. Similarly documents can relate to multiple areas. Sites can also be associated with one or more areas. The term "area" replaces what was called a "category" in SharePoint Portal Server version 1. Areas are used as a feature for navigation and also for finding documents with the search engine. Documents related to an area are found even if the word used to describe the area is not in the document itself. Administrators and content managers maintain portal areas. They review content submissions, add and remove areas, and map areas to audiences , which are groups of users with interests in similar content.

SharePoint contains a number of off-the-shelf pages that are automatically generated when you create a new site. The pages that are included in a site are specified in a template . For instance, a meeting site would contain pages such as a list of attendees, a document library, and a discussion board. You can create your own custom templates as well as use the standard templates provided by Microsoft. Finally, pages can consist of one or more web parts . SharePoint offers a special type of page called a web part page that consolidates views into multiple data sources using web parts. The portal home page and MyPage are examples of web part pages. These are rectangular areas on a page that provide a user interface to an application or content. For instance, the News web part displays headlines and dates of news items. A couple of dozen web parts come with SharePoint, and many more can be downloaded from Microsoft. You can create your own web parts as needed.

SharePoint typically uses SQL Server or its variant MSDE as the repository for content, metadata, and site settings. This means that SharePoint is quite scalable to support large numbers of users and high transaction volume.