What Is a Site?

The structure of SharePoint sites (sometimes referred to as webs) is very different from
the structure of typical Internet sites that contain only pages. In SharePoint, a site can
house more than just pages. It is a container that holds lists and libraries (discussed
later in this chapter), and it can have other sites under it.
For example, a corporate portal might have a home site called SharePoint Intranet that
contains information that people see when they browse to that site. That portal also
might have a subsite called Human Resources that stores forms such as travel requests,
expense claims, and other forms. The two sites are linked because the Human Resources
site is under the SharePoint Intranet site. The two sites may share some attributes, such
as security (who is allowed to do what in the sites) and navigation (so that visitors to the
sites can navigate between the sites), but they have separate contents—for example,
different pages, libraries, and lists
Every SharePoint site is a member of a site collection. As the name implies, a site
collection is a collection of sites. Every site collection has a single site as its root site,
and other sites can be built under the root site. A site collection has some attributes
that are common to all the sites in that collection (for example, some search settings,
a Recycle Bin for deleted items).



What Is a Personal Site?

A personal site is a site that belongs to a specific user and is used to show user information
that belongs, personally, to that user. The user can upload documents to a
personal document library in the personal site, and only that user will be able to see
and manage these documents. The personal site is also a place where users can
manage their personal favorite items and comments that they have tagged throughout
SharePoint or even outside SharePoint


What Is a List?


A SharePoint list is a container for information, similar to a very simple database or
spreadsheet. Using a list is the most common way to manage information in a
SharePoint site.
In a list, data is gathered in rows, and each row is known as a list item. A list can have
multiple columns—also known as properties, fields, or metadata. So a list item is a
row with data in those columns.
For example, a list of contacts  may have the following columns:
. First Name
. Last Name
. Company
. Phone


What Is a Document Library?


A document library a special instance of a list, in which every list item is a file, as
shown in Figure 1.8. Files can be Microsoft Office documents, Adobe Acrobat documents
(PDF files), or any other type of file that the system administrator allows. This
book often refers to document libraries as simply libraries.
Most of the attributes of lists exist in document libraries. In fact, lists and documents
libraries are similar in many ways. However, each item in a document library is a file.
Therefore, when creating a new item in a document library, you need to either upload
a file or create one


What Is a Wiki Page Library?

A wiki page library is a special instance of a document library that is designed to store
web pages. On those web pages, you can display different types of content—text,
images, videos, and web parts.


What Is a Form Library?

A form library is much like a document library, but it is supposed to host only
Microsoft InfoPath forms. Microsoft InfoPath is electronic form-creation software
that integrates with SharePoint. Forms created with InfoPath can be published to
SharePoint form libraries, and users can then fill out these forms.
With SharePoint Server, you can load some InfoPath forms without having Microsoft
InfoPath installed on your machine. In this case, the form opens in a browser, as a web

form. If you have a program that can edit InfoPath forms, such as Microsoft InfoPath
2007 or Microsoft InfoPath Filler 2010, the form opens in that program.


What Is an Asset Library?

An asset library is a special instance of a document library that is specially designed to
store digital assets such as images, audio files, and videos.
This kind of library  can be used as a repository for media files
that will be used throughout the SharePoint environment—for example, corporate
logos, training videos, and podcasts.


What Is a Slide Library?


A slide library is a special type of library that has features not available in other types.
This library type  is designed to help people in an organization
collaborate to create PowerPoint presentations by sharing slides. One user can allow
other users to import those slides into their presentations.


What Is a Picture Library?


A picture library is a special type of a document library that is dedicated to images. A
picture library is useful for sharing photos with other people. For example, you can
have a picture library as your stock photo repository


What Are Web Parts?

Web parts are the building blocks of pages in SharePoint. They are components that
show data, and they can be placed in certain regions of a page—known as web part
zones. A page can hold many web parts, in different zones or in the same zone. They
may be one under another in some zones and side-by-side in other zones.
For example, to show on the home page of a site the contents of a list of links, you can
use a web part that displays the content of a list.


SharePoint developers can develop web parts, and the data and functionality that web
parts offer to visitors of a SharePoint site is limited only by what developers can create.
The following are some other examples of how web parts could be used:
. To show search results
. To show a picture
. To show the users of a site
. To show the content of a site