SharePoint - Capabilities



In this chapter, we will be covering the default set of capabilities (or features) built into SharePoint that enables you to take advantage of the platform without doing any development.

  • You can use or extend these core capabilities when building your Apps. Microsoft has historically referred to these capabilities as workloads.

  • These workloads provide a way to talk about the different capabilities of SharePoint coming together. You should see these workloads as representing not only a core set of related applications but also as opportunities for your application development.

Following are the workloads, which were added in SharePoint 2010 −

  • Sites − Representing the different types of sites available for use and the features within these sites.

  • Communities − Representing the community and social features such as blogs and wikis.

  • Content − Representing core enterprise content management features.

  • Search − Representing the search-driven features.

  • Insights − Representing business intelligence features such as KPIs.

  • Composites − Representing the ability to integrate external applications by using, for example, Business Connectivity Services.

SharePoint 2013 – Capabilities

In SharePoint 2013, Microsoft has extended the capabilities to add more features and provide tighter integration.

Following are the core capabilities for SharePoint 2013 −

Capability Native Features Example Extensibility
Sites

Sites is where you will find the collaborative aspects of SharePoint. Sites contain an abundance of features, including the capability to create, store, and retrieve data, and manage, tag, and search for content, documents, and information. You also have connectivity into the Microsoft Office 2013 client applications through the list and document library.

Sites, site templates, Apps for SharePoint, workflow, master pages, site pages

Social

Provides social and social networking capabilities, newsfeeds, and profile searching and tagging, along with the capability to search, locate, and interact with people through their skills, organizational location, relationships, and rating of content.

Search customization, rating and tagging capabilities, blogs, wikis, metadata tags

Content

Contains the capability to explore, search, and manage content using Web pages, apps, workflow, or content types.

Apps for SharePoint, workflows, Word or Excel Services

Search

The ability to search content inside and outside of SharePoint in a rich and dynamic way with real-time document views through Office Web Apps. In addition, the integration of information in structured database systems and on-premises or cloud-based LOB systems such as SAP, Siebel, and Microsoft Dynamics.

SharePoint Search, Search customization, Business Data Connectivity (BDC)

Insights

Predominantly about BI and support, for example, the capability to integrate Microsoft Access into SharePoint; leverage Excel and SQL Server to access and display data on a Web page; enable the use of dashboards and key performance indicators (KPIs) to transform raw data into actionable information.

Excel Services, Access Services, dashboards, BDC, PerformancePoint Services

Interoperability

Ranges from LOB integration to Office integration, through the new Apps for Office application model; (think HTML and JavaScript-fueled custom task panes that link to cloud services instead of VSTO managed code add-ins) to custom solution development.

BDC, Apps for Office, custom development

Branding

Changing the look and feel of your site through built-in template changes or more detailed and organizationally driven branding.

Out of the box configuration, master pages and customized Apps for SharePoint

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