SharePoint Easy Guide for Beginners

This article will show you how to get started with SharePoint. Microsoft SharePoint is a web-based collaboration, content management system, and document management platform. At the end of this article, you'll have a good knowledge of SharePoint and its high-level functionalities.

What is the Target Audience for this Article?

This article is for those who want to understand how to make websites and apps. After finishing this article, you will have moderate-level skills in designing SharePoint websites and apps.

Note: - We're presuming you're already familiar with the fundamentals of Web Development.

 

Table Of Content

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint – Types

SharePoint – Capabilities

SharePoint - Setup Environment

SharePoint - Create Site Collection

SharePoint - APIs

SharePoint - Central Administration

SharePoint – App Model

 

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is a collaboration and content management platform and a web-based central portal. With SharePoint, you can maintain data, social activities, documents, and information for your colleagues and yourself.

• It enables groups to create a centralized, password-protected document-sharing environment.
• Documents can be edited, downloaded, stored, and uploaded for continuous sharing.
• SharePoint has so many features that it's difficult for any person to be an expert in all of them. 

Let's see what we can accomplish with SharePoint. It has three different areas.

Collaboration

The word 'collaboration' has very strongly associated with SharePoint. It entails bringing people together through many forms of collaboration, such as Web Content Management, Enterprise Content Management, Discoverability of people and their abilities, and Social Computing.

• SharePoint 2013 - collaboration is handled through Apps.
• Developers can customize, expand, or create their own SharePoint Apps and manage SharePoint collaboration.

Interoperability

SharePoint is also bringing people together through interoperability, such as:

• Web-based and Office integration.
• The capability of developing and deploying secure and customized solutions that integrate line-of-business data with Office and SharePoint.
• Integrating with more comprehensive web technologies or moving applications to the cloud.

Platform

SharePoint is also a platform that enables collaboration, interoperability, and extensibility via a rich object model, an entire pack of developer tools, and a booming developer community.

• In SharePoint, the concept of the cloud is one of the key paradigm shifts.
• The cloud presents App models:

A new way of deploying, developing, and hosting SharePoint apps.

A new method of authentication via OAuth.

A new form of data interoperability using REST and OData.

SharePoint - Types

This section will go through the types and versions of SharePoint that you can use to get started.

SharePoint can be installed and used in three different ways:

SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server are On-premises, and Office 365 is an entirely cloud-hosted model.

SharePoint Foundation

SharePoint Foundation is a must-have for businesses that require a manageable, secure, and web-based collaboration platform. SharePoint Foundation gives you access to the most basic collaboration features available in SharePoint.

• SharePoint Foundation is a free and downloadable installation that includes the core components of SharePoint.
• It has various features, including user and team site collaboration, security and management, and a variety of Apps (such as document lists and libraries).
• It gives a starting point for both utilizing and developing with SharePoint.

SharePoint Foundation requires some functionalities to establish standard collaboration & communication solutions within your association. SharePoint Foundation's main features concentrate on document collaboration and management.

Features of SharePoint Foundation

The following are some of the key features that have led to widespread acceptance in businesses.

• Effective tasks and document collaboration: Team websites provide centralized access to information.
• Resources for implementation and deployment have been reduced: SharePoint Foundation is a free download for Windows Server customers that significantly reduces the time and cost of setup.
• Improved control over your organization's critical business data:  SharePoint Foundation also includes information and data management and security capabilities.
• Accept web collaboration: SharePoint Foundation can be extended and customized.

In a nutshell, SharePoint Foundation offers the core collaboration and content storage features of SharePoint. It's the perfect solution for teams and small businesses looking to strengthen their ability to collaborate in a safe, simple, and secure environment.

SharePoint Server

SharePoint Server has a number of features that go above what SharePoint Foundation has to offer. It offers a more comprehensive and robust set of features that you can use in your organization.

Features of SharePoint Server

The following is the list of features:

• Advanced Search: The Server versions provide additional flexibility in terms of functionality features and search features. They enable you to create customized Search Results pages using customized search Web Parts.
• Web Content Management: SharePoint Server allows you to create and publish web content over the internet.
• Enterprise Services: These services allow you to create custom solutions utilizing the Office product family tools promptly and effortlessly.
• Business Connectivity Services (BCS): You can use Business Connectivity Services (BCS) to connect to various external/outer data sources and show business data through user profiles, web parts, or SharePoint lists.
• Computing and Social Networking: Social networking is widespread, and many solutions now include it as a standard feature set.
• Records Management: SharePoint Server is an excellent tool for managing material at all stages of its life cycle.

Office 365

Office 365 has appeared as a third, utterly cloud-hosted SharePoint solution. It's a possible alternative to hosting your data in your own on-premises Data Center.

Features of Office 365

• Licensing SharePoint Online via Office 365 is established on some aspects, such as the volumes of information you need to store, the number of users you wish to add, and the required features.
• It's also become an excellent platform for building rich applications (both Cloud-hosted and SharePoint-hosted apps) and expanding without managing on-premises infrastructure.
• It doesn't have all of SharePoint Server's services and functionality, but it does have some remarkable development tools.
• You can create .NET applications using Visual Basic or C# and then deploy them as. WSPs or. Apps into SharePoint. You can also use lighter-weight applications like JavaScript and HTML5 to get the job done.
• As a developer, you can customize any SharePoint edition, whether SharePoint Server, Foundation, or Office 365.

SharePoint - Capabilities

This section will go over the default set of credentials (or features) that come with SharePoint, allowing you to use the platform without doing any development.

• When developing your Apps, you can extend or use these essential capabilities. These features have previously been referred to as workloads by Microsoft.
• These workloads are an excellent approach to discussing how SharePoint's many capabilities operate together. These workloads should be viewed as chances for your application development, not just a core collection of linked apps.

The workloads that were added to SharePoint 2010 are listed below:

Sites: Represent the various kinds of sites that are available for usage, as well as the functionality included within these sites.

Communities: Represent the community as well as social features like wikis and blogs.

Content: Represent the most essential business content management features.

Search: Represent search-driven feature.

Insights: Represent business intelligence features like KPIs.

Composites: Represent the capacity to use Business Connectivity Services, for example, for external interface applications.

Capabilities of SharePoint 2013

Microsoft has improved SharePoint 2013's capabilities by adding new features and tightening connectivity.

The core capabilities of SharePoint 2013 are listed below:

Capability	Native Features	Example Extensibility
Sites	The collaboration features of SharePoint may be found on Sites. Sites have quality features such as creating, retrieving data, storing, tagging, managing, and searching for documents, content, and information. You may easily link to Microsoft Office-2013 customer applications via the document and list library.	Sites, workflow, SharePoint apps, master pages, site templates, site pages
Social	Provides newsfeeds, social network capabilities, tagging, profile searching, locating, and the ability to search and organizational location, interact with people via their skills, rating of content, and relationships.	Customize search, tagging and rating, wikis, blogs, metadata tags
Content	Contains the ability to search, explore, and manage content using web pages, workflows, apps, or content types.	Word or Excel Services, SharePoint apps, workflows
Search	With Office Web Apps, you can explore content outside and inside SharePoint richly and dynamically, with real-time document opinions. Integration of data in traditional database systems and cloud-based LOB systems or on-premises like Microsoft Dynamics, Siebel, SAP.	Customized search, SharePoint search, BDC - Business Data Connectivity
Insights	BI is the main focus, with features such as integrating Microsoft Access into SharePoint, using SQL Server and Excel to display and access data on a Web page, and using key performance indicators (KPIs) and dashboards to turn raw into actionable data.	Dashboards, Excel Services, PerformancePoint Services, Access Services, BDC
Interoperability	From LOB to office integration, custom solution creation, and the Office app norm (imagine JavaScript and HTML-powered customized task panes that interface to cloud-services instead of VSTO-managed code add-ins).	Apps for Office, BDC, custom development
Branding	Changing the feel and look of your site via built-in templets adjustments or more comprehensive, organizationally driven branding.	Out-of-the-box configuration, Customized apps and master pages for SharePoint

 

SharePoint - Setup Environment

Set up the SharePoint development environment in this section. As you may know, SharePoint has three different options, such as

• SharePoint Foundation
• SharePoint Server
• Office 365

And now, we’ll be utilizing Office 365, which is a cloud-based performance of the software.

Step 1: You can normally create a trial account, here https://products.office.com/en/business/office-365-enterprise-e3-business-software.

Step 2: There is a Free trial option; click on that.

Step 3: Enter the necessary details and then click on the 'Next' button.

Step 4: Simply enter your username, password, and organization name; click on 'Next'. Once you do that, it will automatically send you the verification code. When the verification process is completed, then it'll begin creating your account.

Step 5: After completing your account, you'll be taken to the following page.

Step 6: Click on 'You're ready to go..' then, the below page will be displayed.

Now that your environment is set up, you may begin working on SharePoint, but you'll also require to install Visual Studio. Microsoft presents a free-version of Visual Studio, which includes SQL Server and can be downloaded from the Microsoft website.https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs.aspx.

Installation

The below steps will teach you to install SharePoint.

Step 1: When the download is finished, run the installation. The below dialogue will be shown.

Step 2: Click on the install button, and it will begin the installation process.

Step 3: When the installation procedure is completed, you get the below message.

Step 4: If necessary, restart your computer. Now go to the Start Menu and select Visual Studio, and it will open the dialogue box shown below, which will take some time to prepare.

Step 5: When you're finished, you'll see Visual Studio's main window.

You're all set to begin your application.

 

Step 6: Choose File -> New -> Project from the File menu.

Step 7: In the left pane, under Templates Visual C#, select Office/SharePoint. Install Office Developer Tools with a double-click.

Step 8: Click on Installation and close all Visual Studio instances, and then the new-page will open. Then click on the 'Next'.

Step 9: Then, it will display a message box. After that, click Update.

Step 10: You'll get the following message after it's been updated.

 

SharePoint - Create Site Collection

The site is the foundation of SharePoint and represents the beginning point for developers; without it, you can't begin developing SharePoint. A top-level site that contains subsites is referred to as a Microsoft SharePoint online site collection.

You can pick from various website templates. The subsites share administration settings, permissions, and navigation which may all be customized for each subsite individually.

Create Site Collection

When learning a new application like SharePoint, it's good to set up a space where you can practise without disrupting existing systems or users.

Step1: Let's go to the site to make a new site collection. https://portal.office.com/

Step 2: The following page will appear when you select the admin icon.

Step 3: On the left pane, select Resources then Sites. Then select 'Add a site' given on the right pane.

Step 4: The following page will appear. Click OK after entering the requested information.

The site collection has been added to your admin centre URL list, as you can see. The URL is the point in the site collection where the administrator can begin creating and managing sites.

Step 5: When you click the link, you'll be sent to a page with more information about that particular site collection.

 

SharePoint - APIs

In this session will discuss the various APIs for accessing the SharePoint platform.

The following are the several criteria that influence API selection:

• Application type
• Developer existing skills
• A device on which the code runs

Application Type

There are a variety of applications available, including

• SharePoint Add-on
• A SharePoint page with a Web Part
• A Silverlight application can be run on a client's mobile device or a client's computer
• SharePoint exposes an ASP.NET application
• On a SharePoint site page, JavaScript is running
• SharePoint application page
• On a client computer, a Microsoft.NET Framework application is running
• Script for Windows PowerShell
• A SharePoint server timer job is executing

Developer Existing Skills

If you have experience with any of the following programming models, you can develop SharePoint applications without learning much about SharePoint programming.

• ASP.NET
• JavaScript
• .NET Framework
• OData/REST
• Silverlight
• Windows Phone
• Windows-PowerShell

A device on Which the Code-Runs

Any of the following devices may be used to run the code:

• The SharePoint farm's server.
• A third-party server, such as a cloud-based server.
• A client's devices such as computer and mobile.

The table below contains instructions for various APIs that can be used to select popular SharePoint expansion projects.

 

S.No.	API & Usage
1.	OData/REST endpoints, Silverlight client object model, .NET Framework client object model Build an ASP.NET web-application that serves CRUD procedures on SharePoint information/data or external information/data that appeared in SharePoint via a BCS external range type but doesn't require SharePoint to be accessed through a firewall.
2.	OData/REST endpoints Build a LAMP web-application that serves CRUD procedures on SharePoint information/data or external information/data that appeared in SharePoint via a BCS external range type. Create a mobile app for iOS or Android that allows you to execute CRUD procedures on SharePoint data.
3.	Mobile client object model Build a Windows Phone-app that executes SharePoint data CRUD procedures.
4.	Mobile client object model and serve object model Build a Windows Phone app that leverages the Microsoft Push Notification Service to notify users of events in SharePoint on their mobile devices.
5.	.NET Framework client object model Build a.NET Framework application that executes SharePoint data CRUD procedures.
6.	Silverlight client object model Build a Silverlight application that allows you to execute CRUD procedures on SharePoint data.
7.	JavaScript client object model Build a JavaScript/HTML application that executes CRUD procedures on SharePoint data. Build an Office Add-on that operates with SharePoint.
8.	Server object model Build a customize Windows PowerShell command. Build a timer-job. Build an addition of Central-Administration. Build a SharePoint farm's branding consistently. Build an application page and customize Web Part or ASP.NET user control.

 

SharePoint - Central Administration

In this section will go over a high-level overview of SharePoint Central Administration. Central Administration is a place where you can do all your administrative work from one place. We already have an account for Office 365, which means we have an administration site.

Open this URL in a browser - 

Step 1: Select the Admin-Icon.

Step 2: Now, on the left pane, select the Admin-Centers and then click on SharePoint.

The following will be displayed.

You can control the following activities and explore many site collection administration capabilities:

• Security
• Monitoring
• Application Management
• System settings
• General application settings
• Upgrade and Migration
• Backup and restore
• Configuration wizard
• Apps

Security

Security settings are where users and site administrators can review certain rights that pertain to users for their sites in the main browser UI. Security covers the following areas:

• Self service security
• Blocked file types
• Secure token services
• Antivirus settings
• Managing policies and password changing settings
• Managing administrator accounts
• Manage and configure service accounts
• Specifications of trusted identity providers and authentication providers

Monitoring

Monitoring is a centralized place where you can manage your SharePoint site's reports, monitoring, and status. The monitoring site has three areas, as shown below:

• Timer-Jobs: You can specify which jobs to run and when they should be run.
• Health Status: On your SharePoint Server, you can check the status of many services.
• Reporting: A package of tools for creating and managing reports, doing diagnostic logging, and viewing reports on different server-side processes.

Application Management

You can utilize Application Management to create web applications and site collections, among other things. You can operate the services established on your SharePoint sites, such as Excel, Word, or BCS & handle your content database.

You can also execute tasks like activating features, content database properties, designing new site collections, etc.

System Settings

You can also configure the server-centric settings, such as access features or farm-level, or handle the services like Word or Excel Services available to site collection users.

These types of settings are managed through the System Settings webpage.

General Application Settings

You can specify the number of standard options for your SharePoint site collections and sites, such as sending mail to users.

You may also control various deployment and approval settings, such as the location of content distribution and the content approvers. Consider this site to be the default settings for your SharePoint sites.

Upgrade and Migration

Upgrades from one version of SharePoint to another, such as from SharePoint Standard to SharePoint Enterprise, are sometimes necessary. This required the license as well as some server-upgrading facilities.

This activity can be performed in the Central Administration site's Upgrade and Migration area. You can also check on installation, install service patches, and upgrade progress from the administration toolsets. 

Back up and Restore

You may need to back up and restore your SharePoint site from time to time. You can use the backup and restore tool to create and schedule regular SharePoint backups, execute ad hoc backups, and recover from an earlier backed-up SharePoint site, among other things.

Configuration Wizard

It's mainly a wizard that guides you through configuring the SharePoint Server. When you previously installed SharePoint, you should have viewed this wizard. However, after installation, you can rerun it to adjust specific SharePoint server options.

Apps

Apps is a new category in the Central-Administration site that allows you to manage various aspects of your SharePoint instance's installed apps.

For Eg: You can utilize Apps to manage licenses, ensure that apps are operating and working correctly, and manage the App Catalog.

SharePoint - App Model

In this section, we will be discussing SharePoint deployment and App models. Since SharePoint is migrating to the cloud; the below deployment types are known for SharePoint Apps:

• SharePoint-hosted 
• Auto hosted

SharePoint-hosted App

Client-side, lightweight apps can be deployed to SharePoint using the SharePoint-hosted deployment type. The easiest way to think of a SharePoint-hosted App is as a server-side-code-free application.

The following are the crucial elements of a SharePoint-hosted App:

• It's a client-side coding application composed of static application pages or files that live on your SharePoint servers, such as HTML and JavaScript files.
• Users who access the SharePoint-hosted App are redirected to the page where your application is located.
• Client-side, lightweight apps can be deployed to SharePoint using the SharePoint-hosted deployment type.
• You're limited to code that doesn't run on the server if you use the SharePoint-hosted deployment model.
• Silverlight can be used with SharePoint to take advantage of HTML as well as JavaScript.

Let's look at a simple SharePoint-hosted application as an example.

Step 1: Select Files -> New -> Project from the Files menu in Visual Studio.

Step 2: Go to the left pane, then select Templates -> Visual C# -> Office/SharePoint, and then go to the middle pane and choose App for SharePoint.

Now, In the 'Name Field,' enter your name. Then click OK, and The following dialog window will appear.

We must add the SharePoint site URL that we like to debug to the New App for SharePoint and then choose the SharePoint-hosted model as the way we want to host our SharePoint app.

Step 3: Copy the SharePoint URL from the SharePoint admin center.

Step 4: As seen below, paste the URL into the New App for SharePoint dialog box.

Step 5: When you click on Next - it'll show you Connect to SharePoint dialog box, and then we log in.

Step 6: Sign in with your credentials. You will get the following dialogue box once you have successfully authenticated into the SharePoint site.

Step 7: Hit the Finish button. When the project is created, then in the Solution Explorer - click the AppMenifest.xml file.

Step 8: Open the Permission tab.

Step 9: On that scope down list, click on the Web, which is the scope of the permission you're configuring. Select Read as the type of permission from the Permission drop-down list.

Step 10: Replace the code in the Default.aspx file with the following code.

 

<%-- The following 4 lines are ASP.NET directives needed when    using SharePoint components --%>   <%@ Page Inherits = "Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPartPage,    Microsoft.SharePoint, Version = 15.0.0.0, Culture = neutral,    PublicKeyToken = 71e9bce111e9429c" MasterPageFile = "~masterurl/default.master"    Language = "C#" %>   <%@ Register TagPrefix = "Utilities" Namespace = "Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities"    Assembly = "Microsoft.SharePoint, Version = 15.0.0.0, Culture = neutral,    PublicKeyToken = 71e9bce111e9429c" %>   <%@ Register TagPrefix = "WebPartPages"    Namespace = "Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages" Assembly = "Microsoft.SharePoint,    Version = 15.0.0.0, Culture = neutral, PublicKeyToken = 71e9bce111e9429c" %>   <%@ Register TagPrefix = "SharePoint"    Namespace = "Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly = "Microsoft.SharePoint,    Version = 15.0.0.0, Culture = neutral, PublicKeyToken = 71e9bce111e9429c" %>   <%-- The markup and script in the following Content element    will be placed in the <head> of the page --%>   <asp:Content ID = "Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID = "PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead"    runat = "server">    <script type = "text/javascript" src = "../Scripts/jquery- 1.6.2.min.js"></script>    <link rel = "Stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "../Content/App.css" />    <script type = "text/javascript" src = "../Scripts/App.js"></script> </asp:Content>   <asp:Content ID = "Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID = "PlaceHolderMain"    runat = "server">    <script type = "text/javascript">       function hello() {          var currentTime = new Date();          $get("timeDiv").innerHTML = currentTime.toDateString();       }    </script>    <div id = "timeDiv"></div>    <input type = "button" value = "Push me!" onclick = "hello();" /> </asp:Content>

 

Step 11: Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and select Publish. Select the Package the app button. This creates and organizes the SharePoint hosted Application for your SharePoint site.

The *.app file is located in the following folder.

Step 12: Go to your SharePoint online site.

Step 13: On the left pane - select the Apps for SharePoint. Then a new page will open.

Step 14: Upload your files here by dragging them.

Once it's uploaded then, you'll see the below page:

Step 15: On the left pane - click the Site Contents. Then click on add an app icon as shown below.

A new page will be open.

Step 16: On the left pane - click on Your Apps -> From Your Organization and see that App is available for installation. Click on that.

Step 17: After clicking on that App, a dialog will appear below. Click the Trust It button.

Step 18: Now, the App is installed. After the installation is completed, click the App.

You'll see the page with one button.

Once you click the Push Me button, it'll show the current date.

Auto hosted

The Auto hosted deployment model differs significantly from prior SharePoint applications. In this approach, you create SharePoint Apps, but the code is automatically sent to Windows Azure in the background, allowing SharePoint to build the cloud-hosted App for you.

The most important characteristics are:

• It appears to be operating on SharePoint, but it is deployed to a specific Office-365 Windows Azure model and recognized with SharePoint as an authenticated and permitted App.
• With the Auto hosted deployment model, you don't have total access to the Windows Azure platform's features, but you have enough to create some exciting apps.

Let's look at a simple Auto hosted example by creating a new project.

Step 1: Click OK after selecting App for SharePoint 2013.

A new dialog window appears.

Step 2: Select the Auto hosted option and then hit Next.

Step 3: A new dialog window appears. Select the ASP.NET MVC Web-Application option and hit Finish.

Publish your App after you've completed the project. The remaining procedures are the same as shown in the SharePoint-hosted option.