Understanding SharePoint site structure what's inside

Understand the structure
of a SharePoint Site

Benjamin Niaulin
Presented at: SharePoint Saturday SharePoint Geek
Ozarks

Description
What’s in the box? How do you use it and why? In this
session, you will go over the objects that make up a
SharePoint Site. When starting in SharePoint, we often
don’t realize the importance of our architecture. Should you
create a Site per Project or a page per Project? These are
questions that will be answered in this session.
The goal of this session is to help you understand the tools
and features available to you when starting a SharePoint
project.

#SPSOZARKS

@bniaulin Share-gate.com

Who is this guy talking?
Benjamin Niaulin
Speaker, Trainer, Consultant, SCRUM Master
Blog
bniaulin.wordpress.com
Website
share-gate.com
Email
benjamin.niaulin@share-gate.com
TWITTER!: @bniaulin


Housekeeping

• Follow SharePoint Saturday
Ozarks on Twitter @SPSOzarks
hashtag #SPSOzarks
• Stop by and thank our sponsors
for making this event possible!
• Fill out and turn in evaluation
forms to be eligible for the end-of-
day raffle. You must be present to
win.
• Don’t miss “This Modern Station”
tonight at Waxy O’Shea’s!

4 | SharePoint Saturday St. Louis 2012

Site Collections
What’s a Site Collection?

Site

Site Site

Site
Site Site
Site

SharePoint Groups | Database | Style Library


Limitations of a Site Collection

Site Collection Site Collection

Site Collection

Site Collection

Site Collection


Know when to create a new SC
Permission Levels
Site Collection Features Configuration
Shared Style Library
Database (Suggested at 200GB)
SharePoint Groups
URL (/Sites/.. Or Explicit)
Recycle Bin
Quotas
Templates, Web Parts, Content Types
Document IDs


What’s a SharePoint Site
If Site Collections are made of Sites. What is a Site?
Think of Sites as boxes, containers

Lists
Libraries


Site Templates
SharePoint Sites are available through different templates

What’s the difference?


Why Create a New Site?
Delegate management to someone else (another team)
Different permissions
Need to isolate available lists and libraries in the same “box”
Some Site Templates come with unique features
(blog, Meeting, etc.)
Site Features (Content Organizer, etc)

Remember, a Site is a container and NOT a web page


What is a List?
Familiar with Excel? Access? Word?
A List is essentially very similar to a worksheet or table

But you can easily control what goes in a column


What is a Document Library
It’s the same as a list but for files (documents)


List and Library Templates
Lists and Libraries also have templates

It DOES matter which one
you pick.

Each Template comes with
it’s little functionality


Need to Know
Try to apply permissions at the List/Library level and not on
every folder or files
Stay away from folders as much as possible, tag!
Watch out with free for all versioning
Metadata Navigation
Save your list/library as template with or without the content


Columns and their types
When you create a column it is stored
in the list/library where you create it
Every type of column has it’s use
Know when to use the right one
Views will be created based on the
columns
Workflows can be created, triggered by
the right column information
SharePoint allows for Column Validation


Reuse your Columns!
If you create columns from your lists/libraries they are
stored in them. And thus, are not reusable.
I recommend using “Site Columns” whenever possible to
be able to reuse them.
Site Columns are available to subsites – best to create at
the root


Columns vs Site Columns – Huh?
List/Library Column Site Column
Fast to create Reusable!
Not reusable Cross-Site lookup column
Does not permit cross site Always available in the
lookup CQWP
Not always available in Can organize them by
CQWP (Content Query WP) “groups”
Easy to use for Power User Very useful to provide
advanced solutions with
SharePoint Foundation


What’s a Content Type?
Reusable set of columns used together that defines a type
of content in your organization
Document Templates to be used with specific metadata
Document Policies (Retention, Audit, Labels, Barcodes)
Document Information Panel (Form in Office Documents
that allows you to enter Column Information)
Helps reunite content spread in multiple libraries together
Helps having different columns in the same list/libraries, so
different content but same list/library features enabled


Should you use Content Types?
Try to use Content Types as much as possible where it
makes sense
Create them at the root of your Site Collection to make
them available in Sub Sites


Content Type Settings


SharePoint Page
What’s the difference between a Site and a Page?
To SharePoint, a page is nothing more than another
document.
Just another file that ends in .aspx instead of .docx
Browser you are in happens to be what shows pages so
you stay in SharePoint to see them
Where do documents go in SharePoint?
Used to show information to the visitor


Different Types of Pages
Wiki Page
“Wiki”= Quick
Used to quickly create and link content
Use [[
Publishing Page
Uses predefined Page Layouts for design
Allows Metadata (Columns) in the layout
Web Part Page
Only allows for Web Parts on the page
Removes the Quicklaunch for a full width page


Use them!
Instead of create a new site, think of pages and views
Helps you stay in the same site, access lists and libraries
but show different perspectives to different visitors
List and Library Views = Pages
Take advantage!


What’s a Web Part?
Familiar with Apple “App Store”?
Think of it the same way, SharePoint has “apps” or web
parts that have a job to do


Understanding Web Parts
They have a job to do, but stay on the page you put them.
It cannot interact with Web Parts on other pages
Can work together as “connections” to get you dynamic
content. Ex: Use one list to filter another list
Can use “Audiences” to set who should see this Web Part
There are many available online or you can develop some
based on your requirements


My Favorite Web Parts
Content Query Web Part!!
Content Editor Web Part
Note Board Web Part
RSS Viewer Web Part
Filter Web Parts
Search - Core Results Web Part
Chart Web Part - Sometimes


THANK YOU!
KEEP IN TOUCH ON TWITTER @BNIAULIN

Benjamin Niaulin


Understanding SharePoint site structure what's inside

Related slideshows

More Related Content

Understanding SharePoint site structure what's inside