Return to Newsletter Contents...

Understanding Microsoft SharePoint

by: Michael Mullin, Consultant , MCAD

There is a lot of confusion among general users about SharePoint.  Since SharePoint is a key item in Microsoft’s BI product stack and is also tightly integrated with the Office System, it is best that the user have a familiarity with it.  You will be hearing more about it.  This article will give a very brief introduction.

First, you need to understand that the term ‘SharePoint’ is used to refer to multiple products.  The basic product is called Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). Note the word ‘Service’.  A service is a program without a user interface that usually runs constantly on the computer it is installed on.  I can guarantee that your desktop computer runs several services.  You aren’t aware of them since they startup automatically and don’t have a user interface that you can use.

Its big brother is now called Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS).  Two points to note about this name are ‘Office’ and ‘2007’.  This version was the first to carry the Office brand, previously it had been known as SharePoint Portal Server.  It was released with Office 2007, and many of its features require Office 2007.

There is also Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Search and Microsoft Office Forms Server; (someone forgot the word ‘SharePoint’) which are essentially single function versions of MOSS.

Finally, there is SharePoint Designer which can be thought of as a new specialized, version of FrontPage.

Of these products the most important, and the one you want to understand first, is Windows SharePoint Services.  The current version is 3.0 and you will frequently see it referred to as WSS 3.0 because there were some major changes from the previous versions.  Surprisingly this very powerful software is free.  If you own Windows Server 2003, you are entitled to run WSS.  It is not installed by default, and unless you have a new copy of Server 2003, it will not be included on your CD.  However, it is available for download from the Microsoft web site.

The purpose of WSS is to facilitate collaboration, which really does not describe what it does from a technical viewpoint.  WSS can be thought of as a web site generation tool.  It allows a non-technical person to create a customized web site by simply making choices from menus and performing a few drag-n-drop operations.  WSS web sites use software components described called Web Parts.  Web Parts are objects which appear on the web page.  They contain all the code necessary for the object to work and for the object to embed itself into the web page.

A good example of a web part is a document library web part.  On the screen the library will appear as a list of documents.  Columns of descriptive data can also be included in the list.  So the list may contain the ‘Chapter 1.doc’ document, along with some columns containing information such as author, date, etc.  If a visitor to the web site clicks on the document it could be downloaded to his/her computer.  Or, the visitor could click on a button on the library’s menu bar and upload a new document into the library, which others could then view.

There is a whole lot more that can be said for WSS 3.0.  It allows for very specific security permissions and segregated administrative rights.  So the user can control who can see the site, what a visitor is allowed to do at the web site, who can change the web site and how they can change it.

A major feature of WSS is its reliance on SQL Server.  That web page described above is not saved as a file on the computer.  Most web sites are contained in directories on the server and each page is stored in its own file.  With WSS, all the information normally stored in a web page file is stored in SQL Server in what is called the content database.

If there are no web site directories, where did the documents in the web part library go?  They are stored in SQL Server too!  In fact a major advantage of SharePoint is it creates a single point of storage for the organization.  Furthermore, WSS provides versioning services so not only is the current version of a document saved, but previous versions are tracked automatically.  All that and more, and remember it's free!

Now that we have a basic understanding of WSS, we can look at Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.  Installation of WSS is a prerequisite of MOSS.  MOSS is not a replacement for WSS but is built on top of WSS.  MOSS provides functionality not found in WSS or enhances existing functionality.  The Search feature of MOSS can search more than just the SharePoint sites; it can be set up as an enterprise wide search tool.  Excel Services and Form Services allow the user to view and use Excel worksheets and InfoPath forms without having either program on their computer.  MOSS is powerful and it is not free.

Finally, there is SharePoint Designer.  I described it above as a specialized version of FrontPage.  FrontPage was Microsoft’s web page designer.  It was used to create web pages, which were saved as separate files on a web site.  SharePoint Designer can be used to edit pages created by WSS and stored in the content database.  It is also used to attach workflows to SharePoint documents.  What is a workflow? Ah, if I told you that I wouldn’t have anything to write about next month.

Go to Top  |  Return to Newsletter Contents