Chapter 2. A deeper dive into SharePoint capabilities

Before you read the other chapters or sections of this book, you need to understand what SharePoint is. In this chapter we’ll briefly touch on the major components of building SharePoint sites. Once you’ve completed this chapter, you should have a broad overview of what SharePoint is and what out-of-the-box components it offers you for building sites.

Let’s go ahead and begin looking at what the SharePoint 2010 capabilities are, along with a summary of the functionality associated with the different releases. After that I’ll explain/review the terms that you’ll continue to see throughout this book.

2.1. Introducing SharePoint 2010

For us to be on the same page and to move forward in the book, I need to define some key terminology. Some people refer to the technology as SharePoint, SharePoint Server, MOSS, SharePoint Foundation, and Office Portal Server. So let’s start up front and get the terms straight. To begin, look at table 2.1 to see the product terminology defined. In section 2.1.5 of this chapter I’ll provide additional tables that define terminology regarding SharePoint sites, the components within a site, and permissions. Let’s get started with the product terms that have been used over the years.

2.2. Summary