SharePoint Basics - Part 4

In SharePoint by using List we can store the information. List is devided into 2 types, they are
1.Lists
2.Libraries

Lists : A list is a repository where data is stored systematically and displayed in SharePoint. Different types of lists are available in SharePoint 2010. We can see these lists by the following way.

1.Open site collection in a browser.
2.Go to "Site Actions" ---> select "More Options" ---> select "List" in Filter By section 
3.It will show you all the available predefined lists

The predefined lists are :
1. Announcements
2. Calender
3. Contacts
4. Custom list
5. Custom list in Datasheet view
6. Discussion board
7. External list
8. Import Spreadsheet
9. Issue Tracking
10. Links
11. Project Tasks
12. Status list
13. Survey
14. Tasks

Let us start discuss about the purpose of lists and how they are creating in the following.

1) Announcements :
It is a predefined list and is used to create daily announcements, weekly announcements, monthly announcements and yearly announcements.

ex: 1) Yearly announcements like "Please submit your TAX details on or before
         31 march,2013 "
     2) Daily announcements like "Dear team, please attend for project meeting
         today at 5 PM"

How to create Announcements :
1.Open site collection in a browser
2.Go to Site Actions ---> select More Options ---> select "List" in Filter By section (displays all the predefined lists)
3.Select "Announcements" list
4.select More Options on right side and enter the Title and Description
5.Click on Create
6.List will successfully created
7.Click "Add new announcement"
8.Enter the details for announcements

The announcement list looks like 

2) Survey : 
Survey is a predefined list, is used to get feed back from users, employees and customers. In Survey, user  can add n number of questions and the answers as choice, rating and drop down list...

We can see graphical summary of all responses, by default user can respond only once

Steps to create Survey List : 

1.Open site collection in a browser
2.Go to Site Actions ---> select More Options ---> select "List" in Filter By section (displays all the predefined lists)
3.Select "Survey" list
4.select More Options on right side and enter the Title and Description
5.Enter questions and select options as "choice" or "rating" field.
6.After entering all questions, click ok
7.If users want to respond to the survey, just select "Respond to this survey" to submit survey.
8.If you want to see all the responses, just click "show all responses".
9.If you want to see graphical summary, select "show a graphical summary of response"

Note : If you want to hide the user's name in survey results, while creating survey, select "More options" ---> select option "No" for show user names in survey results.

3) Discussion Boards :
This list is used to communicate people with in the organization, one branch people can communicate with  another branch people.

In discussion board, you can place an item for discussion. The discussion board make it easy to manage discussion threads on configure the related users.

Steps to create Discussion Board : 

1.Open site collection in a browser.
2.Go to Site Actions ---> select More Options ---> select "List" in Filter By section (displays all the predefined lists).
3.Select "Discussion Board" list.
4.Enter name, click on  Create
5.Select "Add new subject", write the subject line and body.
6.Press "Save"

The following pic is the example of discussion board

 

4) Issue Tracking :

Using the Issue tracking list, you can post an issue associated with the project or Team. You can assign, priority and track the issue status.

Issue Tracker mainly contains 3 states. They are

     1.Active

     2.Resolved

     3.Close

Steps to create Issue Tracking : 

1.Open site collection in a browser.
2.Go to Site Actions ---> select More Options ---> select "List" in Filter By section (displays all the predefined lists).
3.Select "Issue Tracking" list.
4.Enter name as "Project Issues", click on  Create.
5.Click on "Project Issues", click add new item.
6.Enter title, assigned to, issue status (by default Active), priority, description, category, related issues, comments, due date.
7.Click on save
8.Now your issue is now created successfully.

The target user received the mail and logged into the site with credentials and do the following.

1.Opens the site collection
2.Click on "Project Issues" list
3.Click on Title
4.view the information
5.Fix the issue
6.Update the server
7.Change the issue status as "Resolved"
8.Click on save

Again the tester will logged into the site, based on Issue modification (Resolved) test the functionality, against the issue change its status to closed. Click on Save.

5) Contacts :
Using the contacts list, you can place the details of your team members or customers or partners etc.

Steps to create Contacts list :

1.Open site collection in a browser.
2.Go to Site Actions ---> select More Options ---> select "List" in Filter By section (displays all the predefined lists).
3.Select "Contacts" list.
4.Enter name and click "Create".
5.Click on "Add new Item".
6.Add the related information.
7.Click on "Save"

The item will successfully added to the contacts list. The following is the Contacts list image.

6) Links :
Using the Links list we can provide the link to other pages, website and internal site for the end user resource requirement for sharing.

Steps to create Links list :

1.Open site collection in a browser.
2.Go to Site Actions ---> select More Options ---> select "List" in Filter By section (displays all the predefined lists).
3.Select "Links" list.
4.Enter name and click "Create".
5.Click on "Add new link".
6.Enter the URL, description and notes.
7.Click on Save.


7) Tasks :
Using the Tasks list, you can place a task to a team or personal.

Steps to create Tasks list :
1.Open site collection in a browser.
2.Go to Site Actions ---> select More Options ---> select "List" in Filter By section (displays all the predefined lists).
3.Select "Tasks" list.
4.Enter name and click "Create".
5.Click on "Add new item".
6.Enter the details like title, priority, status, complete, assign to, description, start date and end date.
7.Click on Save button.

The item will be added to the Tasks list. Internally the mail will be fired to the assigned user.

The assigned user logged into the site, click on Tasks list. He will find Tasks and his name. He can do like

1.Click on title
2.Update the task details
3.Click on save.

SharePoint Basics - Part 3

Definitions to be Remembered:

Web Application : A web application is an application that is accessed by users over a network such as the Internet or an intranet.

Portal : A portal is a central place for making all types of information accessible to an audience of varying range.

Site Collection : A site collection is a group of Web sites that have the same owner and share administration settings, for example, permissions. When you create a site collection, a top-level site is automatically created in the site collection. You can then create one or more sub sites below the top-level site.

A site collection must exist within a Web application. You can create a site collection based on an existing Web application, or you can create a Web application and then create a site collection within that application.

Steps to create a Web Application :

Open Central Administration site ---> Application Management --->  select "Manage Web Applications" --->  select "New" in ribbon

Select these options to create a sample web application

1. Authentication : Classic mode authentication
2. IIS Web Site : Select Create a new IIS website
3. Name : MyDemoSite
4. Port : 5555
5. Host Reader
    Path : C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\Virtual Directories\5555
6. Security Configuration
   Authentication Provider : NTLM
   Allow Anonymous :   no
   Use Security Socket Layer : no
   Public URL : http://Server name:5555
7. Application Pool
    1)Create a new application pool 
       Application pool name : MyDemoSitePool
    2)Select a security account for this application pool 
       select "Predefined" radio button and select "Network Service".
8. Database Name and Authentication
    Database Server : Server name\SharePoint
    Database : MyDemoSite_Content_5555
    Database Authentication : Windows Authentication
9. Click on OK

The web application is now created. By default, no new site collections are created in this web application. So to create site collection click on the "Create site collection link"  on the bottom of window which will displayed.
(or)
Go to Central Administration ---> Under Application Management, select "Create Site Collection"

Steps to create Site Collection :  

1. Title : MyDemoSiteCollection
2. Description : 
3. Select the template (example : select TeamSite template )
4. Primary Site Collection Admin : Administrator
5. Secondary Site Collection Admin : Administrator
6. Quota Template : No Quota
7. Click on OK
8. You will get message like Top-level site successfully created & you will find a link (http://servername:<portno>)
9. click on it
10. It opens in the new window & enter the authentication credentials. Now the site will be open.

The following  is the MyDemoSite site collection home page.

(click the image to view in bigger size)

SharePoint Basics - Part 2

SharePoint 2010 Architecture :

Advantages of SharePoint :

1. Rich user interface like easy site editing, branding and ribbon control.
2. Automated E-mails and SMS's.
3. Integration of Microsoft Office products.
4. Reports in pdf, word and other formats.
5. Easy customization
6. Integration of Ajax, WCF, LINQ, Silverlight concepts. 

SharePoint Site Hierarchy : 

SharePoint Basics - Part 1

SharePoint : 
SharePoint is a browser based application platform from Microsoft, to provide secured document management system and collaboration environment.

Secured Document management system :
It enable end users to send documents securely from SharePoint user interface to anyone within the organization or outside of the organization. It means apply persistent protection to documents, restricting, downloading, copying, printing and forwarding.

Collaboration Environment :
It is a term used to combine all the people working together in a single environment.

Another definition for SharePoint : 
SharePoint 2010 is a platform where user can share Data, Collaborate and people can also take this platform and customized platform as per their requirements.

From the below figure, clearly we can understand what is SharePoint.

                 


Versions of SharePoint : 

There are two flavours of SharePoint 2010. They are

1. SharePoint Foundation 2010 and 

2. SharePoint Server 2010.

SharePoint Foundation is a free version, we don't have to pay any money for SharePoint Foundation.  Look at the end user requirements, if SharePoint Foundation is enough to develop those requirements, no need to go to purchase a paid version. SharePoint Foundation  has limited features.

SharePoint Server 2010 is a paid version. The paid version includes all of the free version's features plus things like My Profiles, enterprise search,  and business intelligence features. Again these are just a very few of the many features included.

Here are the differences in features  between a free version and a paid version. 

Service Application SharePoint Foundation 2010 SharePoint Server 2010 Standard SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Access Services No No Yes Application Discovery and Load Balancer Service Yes Yes Yes Business Data Connectivity Service Yes Yes Yes Excel Services No No Yes Managed Metadata Service No Yes Yes Performance Point Service No No Yes Search Service No Yes Yes Secure Store Service No Yes Yes Security Token Service Yes Yes Yes State Service No Yes Yes Usage and Health Data Collection Yes Yes Yes User Profile Service Application (including My Site) No Yes Yes Visio Graphics Service No No Yes Web Analytics Service No Yes Yes Word Automation Services No Yes Yes
SharePoint Foundation 2010 is a core framework on which SharePoint Server 2010 actually stands.
Hardware and Software Requirements : Hardware Requirements : 1.Processor - 64-bit 2.RAM - 4 GB for developer or evaluation use (6 GB is preferred) and             8 GB for production use in a single server or multiple server             farm 3.Hard disk - 80 GB for system drive   (For production use, you need additional free disk space for day-to-day     operations. Maintain twice as much free space as you have RAM for    production environments)
Software Requirements :  1.64-bit Windows Server 2008 or 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 2.64-bit SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005.   * SQL Server 2005 requires Service Pack 3 plus cumulative update     package 3 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3.   * SQL Server 2008 requires Service Pack 1 plus cumulative update     package 2 for SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 (KB970315)   * SQL Server 2008 R2 will be supported at its RTM (Release to     Manufacture) build or later. 3.SharePoint Server 2010 (64-bit only). 4.Windows Vista SP1 and later   * Business edition   * Enterprise edition   * Ultimate edition 5.Windows 7 RTM and later   * Professional edition   * Enterprise edition   * Ultimate edition 6.Other software requirements   * IIS 7.0   * Active Directory Domain Controller   * DNS Server   * SMTP email Server   * .NET 3.5 with SP1 (even if 4.0 is already installed)   * Visual Studio 2010   * SharePoint Designer 2010   * MS-Office 2010   * InfoPath 2010
Supported Web browsers : 1.Internet Explorer 7 or later (32-bit versions of this browser are fully   supported, 64-bit versions have limited support) 2.Firefox 3.6 and higher - limited support. 3.Google Chrome (latest version) - limited support. 4.Safari (latest version) - limited support