What is SharePoint ? Is it a framework or something different ?
In this article I will write about SharePoint. I know many of you guys are aware about SharePoint. But still I am writing this article because I came to know that few guys are still confuse about SharePoint.
So, I am starting this article with question "What is SharePoint?"
Q.)Is it a framework ?
A.)No.
Q.)Is it a programming language ?
A.)No.
Q.)Is it a tool ?
A.)No.Then what is SharePoint exactly?
SharePoint is a document collaboration platform. So, what is mean by "document collaboration platform"? Document collaboration platform means sharing document at a central place which is common to all.
So you may have the next question, is SharePoint only for document sharing.
The answer is absolutely no.
There are numerous task in SharePoint, some of them are: creating team site, developing webparts, working with external data sources, creating wiki and blog sites and many more like this.
In SharePoint you can create a search site in just 2 minutes, and that search site will search all the files and folders from you given location. So now you can think about the importance of SharePoint.
Before proceeding let me tell you one interesting but important fact about SharePoint.
SharePoint is not a single product. SharePoint has two parts one is MOSS and another one is WSS.
Let me start with WSS.
WSS stands for Windows SharePoint Services. It comes with any server edition windows operating system e.g. Windows Server 2003/2008. So, WSS is absolutely free of cost with OS.
MOSS stands for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. You need to pay license fee for MOSS.
And remember WSS and MOSS has their own unique job. MOSS can not work without WSS. It means MOSS works on the top of WSS, actually you can say that WSS is a core framework on top of it MOSS is working.
So now I think you can understand what is SharePoint all about.How can I start working with SharePoint ?
To work with SharePoint you need Windows server edition operating system, SQL server 2008,IIS, ASP.net framework (compatible version), Office package.
Once you will install SharePoint then automatically a default website will be created which is called "SharePoint Central Administration". Through Central Administration you can create other application, you can manage already existing application, you can do application settings, you can perform backup and restore and many more are there to do.
Once you will create a site in SharePoint then a content database will be created in SQL database. While creating the site you can change the name of your content database. That content database will contains all the files, list, library and site page which will be in your respective web application.
So, in next article I will proceed with rest of the things in SharePoint.Don't forget to give your feedback. Nothing will be happen but to see your feedback I will be encouraged and will get energy to write better article in a new and better approach.