SQL Server‟s networking and distributed database capabilities to access data stored on remote server with the same ease as if the information was stored on a single local computer. A single SQL statement can access data at multiple sites. You can store data where system requirements such as performance, security or availability dictate.
11.2. Introduction To SharePoint Server 2010
SharePoint is a business collaboration and content management platform used for document collaboration, creating company wikis, blogs, Web sites, Intranet sites, and more. SharePoint also provides additional features like a company portal and centralized content libraries.
SharePoint 2010 has even more capabilities: email and social networking
integration and provides both online and offline content access to remote users.
Companies can use SharePoint to design custom applications with SharePoint Designer 2010 or by using Access 2010. SharePoint integrates with Office 2010 and Office Web Apps to provide the Microsoft Office experience across the web, the desktop, phone and browser.
Of course, not every business environment warrants a collaboration platform.
SharePoint is overkill for a company that does not generate a lot of digital content and does not need robust content collaboration. Organizations, especially those with Windows environments that have a large amassment of documents, images and other types of files residing haphazardly on network drives could benefit from a SharePoint server. This is particularly true, if collaboration is mission-critical and if the infrastructure is already Windows-based. For these businesses, SharePoint 2010 offers granular content
management plus a lot of other features making it an expansive collaboration platform.
11.3. Uses Of SharePoint Server
SharePoint can be used as a web content management system for highly structured and branded corporate intranets or rich internet sites. And it can be used as a flexible solution for quick, ad hoc site creation based on out of the box templates.
SharePoint can be used as a records management system with rigid policies that have to comply with regulations. And it can be used for informal document sharing spaces to put content to be collaborated on in an unstructured manner.
SharePoint can be business intelligence front-end with rich dashboards, charting and graphical capabilities. You can create an interface layer to a data warehouse that stores a wealth of information, surfacing it in a visual way that allows you to interpret and draw insight from your data without being overwhelmed.
SharePoint can be used as a search solution for sites in an intranet, documents within an organization and business data stored in a range of different systems.
You can use SharePoint to search multiple systems, surfacing the results in a single interface that will be familiar and easy to use for anyone who‟s used internet search engines. On top of that, SharePoint‟s people search capabilities can be used to connect to subject matter experts.
SharePoint can be social networking product. If the thought of social networking inside a business scares you, it can be a business networking solution. It allows people to follow the work their colleagues are doing and keep up to speed with activities of shared interest.
SharePoint can be used as a project management foundation, providing task list and organization elements so that people can keep up to speed. It can also be used as a portal for a full-blown project management solution using Microsoft Project. It can be used for formal projects or to allow people to collaborate and interact in a fun and informal manner.
SharePoint can be a framework for building line-of-business applications or for surfacing other applications. It can be used for business process automation and simplifying data entry through the workflow and electronic forms capabilities.
SharePoint can be a portal for surfacing existing applications or allowing employees to access information in a range of sources. It can be a portal for new, highly-interactive Silverlight applications. It can be a portal into the organization for partners and customers.
SharePoint can be a developer platform, supported by Microsoft developer tools and its inbuilt extensibility features. Or it can be used to support no-code
solutions built in SharePoint Designer, Visio or third-party applications.
SharePoint can be used to play rich media over the web. It can be used to store, manage and share rich media content. And it can be used to broadcast
PowerPoint presentations over the intranet.
1. Each SPsiteobject, despite its singular name, represents a set of logically related SP web objects. Such a set is commonly called a "site collection,"
but SP Site is not a standard Microsoft .NET collection class, in contrast to SPWebCollection Rather, it has members that can be used to manage the site collection. The AllWebs property provides access to the
SPWebCollection object that represents the collection of all Web sites within the site collection, including the top-level site. The SPSite, OpenView method of the SPSite class returns a specific Web site.
2. Each site collection includes any number of SPWeb objects, and each object has members that can be used to manage a site, including its template and theme, as well as to access files and folders on the site. The
Webs property returns an SPWebCollection object that represents all the subsites of a specified site, and the Lists property returns an
SPListCollection object that represents all the lists in the site.
3. Each SPList object has members that are used to manage the list or access items in the list. The GetItems method can be used to perform queries that return specific items. The Fields property returns an
SPFieldCollection object that represents all the fields, or columns, in the list, and the Items property returns an SPListItemCollection object that represents all the items, or rows, in the list.
4. Each SPField object has members that contain settings for the field.
5. Each SPListItem object represents a single row in the list.