SharePoint - Quick Guide

SharePoint - Overview

This tutorial will give you an idea of how to get started with SharePoint development. Microsoft SharePoint is a browser-based collaboration, document management platform and content management system. After completing this tutorial, you will have a better understating of what SharePoint is and what are the high-level feature areas and functionalities of SharePoint.

What is SharePoint

SharePoint is a platform to support collaboration and content management system. It is a central web-based portal. Using SharePoint, you can manage your colleague’s and your own documents, social activities, data, and information.

It allows groups to set up a centralized, password-protected space for document sharing.
Documents can be stored, downloaded and edited, then uploaded for continued sharing.
SharePoint offers such a wide array of features that it is very challenging for any one person to be an expert across all the workloads.

Let us understand what all can we do with SharePoint. It is divided into three separate areas −

Collaboration

The term collaboration contains a very strong theme for SharePoint. It means bringing people together through different types of collaboration, such as enterprise content management, Web content management, social computing, discoverability of people and their skills.

In SharePoint 2013, collaboration is managed through Apps.
Developers can extend, customize, or build their own Apps for SharePoint as well manage collaboration on SharePoint.

Interoperability

SharePoint is also about bringing this collaboration together through interoperability such as −

Office and web-based document integration.
Capability to build and deploy secure and custom solutions that integrate line-ofbusiness data with SharePoint and Office.
Integrating with wider web technologies, or deploying applications to the cloud.

Platform

SharePoint is also a platform that supports not only interoperability and collaboration but also extensibility, through a rich object model, a solid set of developer tools, and a growing developer community.

One of the key paradigm shifts is the notion of the cloud in SharePoint.
The cloud introduces new App models such as −
- New ways of developing, deploying, and hosting SharePoint applications.
- New forms of authentication through OAuth.
- New ways of data interoperability using OData and REST.

SharePoint - Types

In this chapter, we will be covering the different types and versions to start working on SharePoint.

There are three main ways to install and use SharePoint −

SharePoint Foundation
SharePoint Server
Office 365

The first two options are SharePoint on-premise, while Office 365 has emerged as a third, fully cloud-hosted model for SharePoint.

SharePoint Foundation

SharePoint Foundation is the essential solution for organizations that need a secure, manageable, web-based collaboration platform. SharePoint Foundation provides you with the basic collaboration features that are included within SharePoint.

SharePoint Foundation ships as a free, downloadable install and represents the foundational parts of SharePoint.
It includes a number of features such as security and administration, user and Team site collaboration, and a number of Apps (such as document libraries and lists).
In essence, it provides a baseline set of features that enable you to get started with both using and developing for SharePoint.

SharePoint Foundation requires some features to build standard collaboration and communication solutions within your organization. The primary features of SharePoint Foundation revolve around document management and collaboration.

Key Features of SharePoint Foundation

Following are some of the major features, which are responsible for its wide adoption in businesses.

Effective document and task collaboration − Team websites offer access to information in a central location.
Reduced implementation and deployment resources − SharePoint Foundation is available to Windows Server customers as a free download, with the help of which implementation time and cost are greatly reduced.
Better control of your organization’s important business data − SharePoint Foundation also offers features for data and information management and security.
Embrace the web for collaboration − By extending and customizing SharePoint Foundation

In short, SharePoint Foundation represents the core content storage and collaboration features of SharePoint. It is the ideal edition for teams and small organizations looking to improve on their ability to work with one another in a secure, easy-to-use, collaborative workspace.

SharePoint Server

SharePoint Server offers a wealth of features that extend upon those offered in SharePoint Foundation. It provide a richer, more advanced collection of features that you can utilize in your organization’s solutions.

Key Features of SharePoint Server

Some of these additional features are described in the following list −

Advanced Search − The search features and functionality features available within the Server versions offer more flexibility. They allow customized Search Results pages that you can configure with customized search Web Parts.
Web Content Management − SharePoint Server supports web content creation and publishing for the internet.
Enterprise Services − These services provide ways for you to build custom solutions quickly and easily using tools that are available to you within the Office product family.
Business Connectivity Services − Business Connectivity Services (BCS) enables you to connect to these external data sources and display business data via Web Parts, user profiles, or SharePoint lists.
Social Networking and Computing − Social networking is everywhere and has become an expected feature set of many solutions.
Records management − SharePoint Server provides excellent support for the management of content throughout its entire life cycle.

Office 365

Office 365 has emerged as a third, fully cloud-hosted model for SharePoint. It is the alternate option to hosting your own farm in your own on-premises Data Center.

Key Features of Office 365

The options for licensing SharePoint Online through Office 365 are based on factors such as the number of users you want to add, the amount of data you need to store, and the features you need to be available.
It has also become a great place where you can develop rich applications (both as SharePoint-hosted and cloud-hosted apps) and scale without the cost of managing the on-premises infrastructure.
It does not have all the same services and features as SharePoint Server, but does carry with it some great development capabilities.
There are .NET applications that you build using C# or Visual Basic and then deploy into SharePoint as .WSPs or .APPs. There are lighter-weight apps such as HTML5 and JavaScript apps that you can also deploy.
As a developer, you have the capability to customize any of the SharePoint editions, whether it is SharePoint Foundation, Server, or Office 365.

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

SharePoint - Setup Environment

In this chapter, we will setup the development environment for SharePoint. As you already know that there are three different options of SharePoint. They are −

SharePoint Foundation
SharePoint Server
Office 365

In this chapter, we will be using the Office 365, which is cloud-based version.

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

Step 2 − Click the Free trial option. A new page will open.

Step 3 − Enter the required information and click Next and you will see the following page.

Step 4 − Enter the username, company name and password and click Next. It will send you a verification code. Once the verification is completed then it will start creating the account.

Step 5 − Once your account is created, you will see the following page.

Step 6 − Click You’re ready to go and you will see the following page −

Now your environment is ready and you can start share point development but you will also need to install visual studio.

Microsoft provides a free version of visual studio, which also contains SQL Server and it can be downloaded from https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs.aspx.

Installation

Following steps will guide you to install SharePoint.

Step 1 − Once downloading is complete, run the installer. The following dialog will be displayed.

Step 2 − Click Install and it will start the installation process.

Step 3 − Once the installation process is completed successfully, you will see the following message −

Step 4 − Restart your computer if required. Now open Visual studio from the Start Menu. It will open the following dialog box and it will take some time for preparation.

Step 5 − Once all is done, you will see the main window of Visual studio.

You are now ready to start your application.

Step 6 − Select File → New → Project menu option.

Step 7 − Select Office/SharePoint in the left pane under Templates → Visual C#. Doubleclick Install Office Developer Tools.

Step 8 − Click Install and close all Visual Studio instances. A new page will open. Click Next.

Step 9 − A message box will appear. Click Update.

Step 10 − Once it is updated, you will see the message as follows −

SharePoint - Create Site Collection

The site is the core thing to SharePoint and represents the starting point for developers, and without site collection, you cannot start SharePoint development. A Microsoft SharePoint online site collection is a top-level site that contains subsites.

A number of site templates are available which you can use. The subsites share administration settings, navigation, and permissions each of which can be changed for individual subsites as needed.

Create Site Collection

When learning an application such as SharePoint, it is a good idea to create an area where you can perform exercises without affecting the existing environments or users.

Step 1 − To create a new site collection let us go to the site https://portal.office.com/

Step 2 − Select Admin icon and you will see the following page −

Step 3 − Select Resources → Sites, in the left pane. In the right pane, click Add a site.

Step 4 − Following page will open. Enter the required information and click OK.

You can see that the site collection is added in your admin center URL list. The URL is the site collection location at which the administrator can start to create and manage sites.

Step 5 − Click the link and you will see the detailed information regarding that site collection.

SharePoint - APIs

In this chapter, we will be covering the several sets of APIs to access the SharePoint platform.

The selection of APIs depend upon the following different factors −

Application type
Developer existing skills
Device on which the code runs

Application Type

There are different types of applications such as −

SharePoint Add-in
Web Part on a SharePoint page
Silverlight application running on either a client computer or a client mobile device
ASP.NET application exposed in SharePoint
JavaScript running in a SharePoint site page
SharePoint application page
Microsoft .NET Framework application running on a client computer
Windows PowerShell script
Timer job running on a SharePoint server

Developer Existing Skills

You can easily create applications in SharePoint if you already have experience in any of the following programming models without needing to learn a lot about SharePoint programming −

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

Device on Which the Code Runs

The device on which the code runs can be any of the following −

Server in the SharePoint farm.
An external server such as a server in the cloud.
A client computer and a mobile device.

The following table provides guidance for different set of APIs, which can be used for a selected list of common SharePoint extensibility projects.

S.No.	API & Usage
1	.NET Framework client object model, Silverlight client object model, REST/OData endpoints Create an ASP.NET web application that performs CRUD operations on SharePoint data or external data that is surfaced in SharePoint by a BCS external content type, but does not have to call SharePoint across a firewall.
2	REST/OData endpoints Create a LAMP web application that performs CRUD operations on SharePoint data or external data that is surfaced in SharePoint by a BCS external content type. Create an iOS or Android app that performs CRUD operations on SharePoint data.
3	Mobile client object model Create a Windows Phone app that performs CRUD operations on SharePoint data.
4	Mobile client object model and the server object model Create a Windows Phone app that uses the Microsoft Push Notification Service to alert the mobile device of events in SharePoint.
5	.NET Framework client object model Create a .NET Framework application that performs CRUD operations on SharePoint data.
6	Silverlight client object model Create a Silverlight application that performs CRUD operations on SharePoint data.
7	JavaScript client object model Create an HTML/JavaScript application that performs CRUD operations on SharePoint data. Create an Office Add-in that works with SharePoint
8	Server object model Create a custom Windows PowerShell command. Create a timer job. Create an extension of Central Administration. Create consistent branding across an entire SharePoint farm. Create a custom Web Part, application page, or ASP.NET user control.

SharePoint - Central Administration

In this chapter, we will be covering the high-level introduction of SharePoint Central Administration. Central Administration is the place where you can perform administration tasks from a central location. As we have already signed up for an Office 365, so we also have an administration site.

Open the URL https://portal.office.com/ in the browser.

Step 1 − Select the Admin icon.

Step 2 − Now select Admin centers → SharePoint in the left pane.

The following page will open.

You can see a variety of site collection administration features and manage the following activities −

Application management
Monitoring
Security
General application settings
System settings
Backup and restore
Upgrade and migration
Configuration wizard
Apps

Application Management

In Application Management, you can perform tasks like creating new web applications and site collections. You can manage the services that are installed on your SharePoint site such as Word, Excel or BCS and manage your content database.

You can also perform tasks like modifying the properties of the content database, activating features, and creating new site collections etc.

Monitoring

Monitoring is the central place wherein you can manage reporting, monitoring, and the status of your SharePoint site. The Monitoring site is divided into three areas, which are as follows −

Health Status − You can see the status of different services on your SharePoint Server.
Timer Jobs − You can define the specific jobs and decide when to run them.
Reporting − A set of tools that enables you to create and manage reports, run diagnostic logging, and view reports on various server-side activities.

Security

Security settings is all about the security in the main browser UI, where the users and the site administrators can assess specific permissions that relate to users for their sites. Security covers many areas such as −

Management of administrator accounts
Configuration and management of service accounts.
Management of password change settings and policies.
Specifications of authentication providers, trusted identity providers.
Antivirus settings.
Blocked file types.
Self-service security.
Secure token services.

General Application Settings

In General Application Settings, you can configure a number of general options for your SharePoint site collections and sites such as send mail to users.

You can also manage a number of deployment and approval options such as content deployment location and approvers of that content. In general, think of this site as the generic settings for your SharePoint sites.

System Settings

You can configure server-centric settings such as farm-level or access features, or even manage the services like Excel and Word Services, which are available to the users of the site collection. You manage these types of settings from within the System Settings site.

Backup and Restore

Sometimes, you might need to backup and restore your SharePoint site. The backup and restore feature enables you to create and schedule regular backups for your SharePoint, perform ad hoc backups, restore from a previously backed-up SharePoint site etc.

Upgrade and Migration

Sometimes, you might want to upgrade from one version of SharePoint to another version such as moving from SharePoint Standard to SharePoint Enterprise. This requires a license and some facility to upgrade the server.

This type of activity can be done in the Upgrade and Migration section of the Central Administration site. You can also install service patches, check on installation, and upgrade progress from within this part of the administration toolset.

Configuration wizard

It is simply a step-by-step wizard that configures SharePoint Server for you.

You should have seen this wizard when you first installed SharePoint. However, you can run it again after installation to change some of the configurations on your SharePoint server.

Apps

Apps is a new category within the Central Administration site that enables you to manage different facets of the apps that are installed on your SharePoint instance.

For example, you can use Apps to manage the licenses, ensure that apps are running and performing in an error-free way, and also manage the App Catalog.

SharePoint - App Model

In this chapter, we will be covering the SharePoint deployment App models. Since, SharePoint is moving towards the cloud, the following deployment models are available to use Apps for SharePoint −

SharePoint-hosted
Autohosted

SharePoint-hosted App

The SharePoint-hosted deployment type represents a way to deploy client-side, lightweight apps to SharePoint. The easiest way to think about the SharePoint-hosted App as an application that has no server-side code.

The key features of SharePoint-hosted App are −

It is an application made up of static application files or pages that reside on your SharePoint like HTML and JavaScript files that enable client-side coding.
When users access the SharePoint-hosted App, they are redirected to the page that contains your application.
The SharePoint-hosted deployment type is good for lighter-weight Apps such as branded list views, media apps, or weather apps.
If you decide to leverage the SharePoint-hosted deployment model, then you are limited to the code that does not run on the server.
You can use Silverlight with SharePoint and take advantage of HTML along with JavaScript.

Let us have a look at a simple example of SharePoint-hosted application.

Step 1 − Open Visual Studio and select the File → New → Project menu.

Step 2 − In the left pane select Templates → Visual C# → Office/SharePoint and then in the middle pane select App for SharePoint.

Enter the Name in the Name field, Click OK and you will see the following dialog box.

In the New App for SharePoint, we need to add the SharePoint site URL that we want to debug and then select the SharePoint-hosted model as the way you want to host your app for SharePoint.

Step 3 − Go to the SharePoint admin center and copy the SharePoint URL.

Step 4 − Paste the URL in the New App for SharePoint dialog box as shown below.

Step 5 − Click Next and it will open the Connect to SharePoint dialog box where we need to login.

Step 6 − Enter your credentials and click the Sign in button. Once you are successfully logged in to the SharePoint site, you will see the following dialog box −

Step 7 − Click Finish. Once the project is created, click the AppMenifest.xml file in the Solution Explorer.

Step 8 − Click the Permissions tab. A Scope dropdown list will open.

Step 9 − In the Scope dropdown list, select Web, which is the scope of permissions that you are configuring. In the Permission drop-down list, select Read, which is the type of permission you are configuring.

Step 10 − Open the Default.aspx file and replace it 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 − Go to the Solution explorer, right-click the project and select Publish. Click the Package the app button. This builds your SharePoint-hosted app and prepares it for you for deployment to your SharePoint site.

You will see the following folder, which contains the *.app file.

Step 12 − Navigate to your SharePoint online site.

Step 13 − Click Apps for SharePoint in the left pane. A new page will open.

Step 14 − Drag your files here to upload.

Once the file is uploaded, you will see the following page −

Step 15 − Click the option - Site Contents in the left pane. Click the add an app icon as shown in the following screen shot −

A new page will open.

Step 16 − Select Your Apps → From Your Organization in the left pane and you will see that the app is available for installation. Click the app.

Step 17 − When you click the app, a dialog box opens as shown in the following screen shot. Click Trust it.

Step 18 − You will see that the app is installed. Once the installation is complete, you can click the app.

You will see the following page, which contains one button −

When you click the Push me button, it will display the current date.

Autohosted

The Autohosted deployment model is a significant departure from previous SharePoint applications. In this model, you build Apps for SharePoint, but the code is seamlessly deployed to Windows Azure in the background, so SharePoint automatically creates the cloud-hosted app for you.

The important features are −

It looks like it is running on SharePoint, but in the background it is actually deployed to a special Office 365 Windows Azure instance and registered as an authenticated and authorized App with SharePoint.
You do not have complete access to the entire platform capabilities of the Windows Azure platform with the Autohosted deployment model, but you do have enough of the platform to build some interesting applications.

Let us have a look at a simple example of Autohosted by creating a new project.

Step 1 − Select App for SharePoint 2013 and click OK.

A new dialog box opens.

Step 2 − Select Autohosted and click Next.

Step 3 − A new dialog box will open. Select ASP.NET MVC Web Application and click Finish.

Once the project is created, publish your app. The rest of the steps are the same as given for the SharePoint-hosted option.

SharePoint - Integration Options

In this chapter, we will be covering the integration options. The new application model in SharePoint 2013 offers a number of options for your application to integrate deeply with SharePoint, other systems, and data. These options are as follows −

User interface integration
Events and logic integration
Data integration

User Interface Integration

In user interface integration, three main integration points are available to you as a part of the SharePoint application model, which are as follows −

App Parts and Pages
Ribbon and Action menus
Navigation

App Parts and Pages

App Parts and Pages offer you the ability to surface your applications’ user interface to your users. For people familiar with SharePoint 2010, App Parts are similar to Web Parts.

App Parts are reusable and configurable windows into your application.
Pages are much like an App Part except that they are viewed in a larger, fuller window style.

Ribbon and Action Menus

The ribbon was first introduced in SharePoint 2010. It provides a central location for all actions that a user may want to take on documents and other data.

In SharePoint 2010, developers could include custom actions for their applications in the ribbon; SharePoint applications also allow this customization. This enables you to include actions where users expect them, alongside all the other standard actions SharePoint provides.

The Action menu is a context-aware menu on items in a SharePoint list or library. For example, in a SharePoint document library the Action menu exposes common functions such as Check In and Check.

Another term commonly used for this menu is Edit Control Block.

SharePoint applications allow you to include additional actions on this menu. For example, it is a great location to display your application’s functions, which apply to a single list item.

Navigation

Navigation lets users find your application, and integrating with the Ribbon and Action menus lets your users take actions in the same familiar location that they do elsewhere in SharePoint.

Using one or more of these building blocks enables you to integrate your application’s user interface with that of SharePoint’s and expose your app to its users.

Events and Logic Integration

Providing a UI for users is usually the most prominent aspect of any application. On the other hand, responding to the actions users take- either within an application, or to interact with an application, is also extremely important.

The key features are −

SharePoint applications provide the ability to both respond to activities within your application such as a button click and respond to activities within SharePoint such as a document being checked out etc.
Responding to activities within your application is very straightforward. Your application’s UI and code run remotely from SharePoint and are simply surfaced via App Parts and Pages. For this reason, responding to an event such as a button being clicked in your application is entirely tied to your application’s programming framework. For example, if your app is built with ASP.NET then you simply catch the OnClick event for an ASP.NET button.
SharePoint does not get in your way for these types of events. For responding to events that occur inside SharePoint, such as a document being saved or updated, SharePoint provides event receivers.
SharePoint 2013 also provides event receivers that allow applications to respond to events occurring within a SharePoint site.

Data Integration

Data is the heart of every application, which is typically, what users want to work with within your application. SharePoint provides a number of out-of-the-box options for storing and working with data. These options are as follows −

Storing and manipulating data within SharePoint.
Working with data that lives external to SharePoint.

From the very first version of SharePoint, the goal has been to make working with data simple and straightforward for users.

The simplest example of this is the concept of list data. Users are able to store and work with tabular style data via a common web interface.

Many see using lists analogous to using a table of data in a database. SharePoint applications can also take advantage of these same data storage capabilities natively by using lists, SharePoint offers developers the ability to take advantage of many of the data storage capabilities that SharePoint provides without having to reinvent the wheel.

If used properly, SharePoint can save time and effort and potentially reduce the management and support costs of your operation.

The following are the core data-storage capabilities −

Lists − For storing structured data, much like in a table.
Libraries − For storing unstructured data, such as in a document or file.

SharePoint provides a comprehensive set of APIs for developers to use within the applications to interact with and manipulate data that resides in SharePoint. For SharePoint applications, those APIs are exposed in the Client-Side Object Model (CSOM).

You will see many of these options in the forthcoming chapters.

SharePoint - Development Tools

In this chapter, we will be covering the different levels of “development” concerning SharePoint. Each level serves the end user of the SharePoint site in some way. You can divide this spectrum into the following −

End users − who use the platform as an application platform.
Power users − who create and administer (and maybe brand) sites.
Designers − who brand the site and build the user experience.
Developers − who build and deploy apps.

A range of people interacts with SharePoint from the developers to the end users. It is represented in the following figure

Site Settings

Site Settings is one of the main parts of SharePoint. It is very important that we need to be familiar with it.

Step 1 − To access the Site Settings page, click User Profile in SharePoint Admin center. Click the option Setup My Site under My Site Settings.

The following page will open.

You will find most of the configurations for your site on this page such as −

Change the theme of your site.
Activate features.
Manage permissions.

Step 2 − Some settings options are also available in the Settings. So click the Settings in the left pane.

Note that the core features of the Site Settings page are split into major categories. For example, most of your security settings are available to you in the Users and Permissions category, theming in Web Designer Galleries, and so on.

Add HTML page

The editing experience ranges from formatting text to adding images or multimedia. You can get a little more into the code by embedding HTML directly within your SharePoint site.

This task feels a little more like development, so let us have a look at a simple example by adding an HTML page.

Step 1 − Open your SharePoint site and navigate to the home page of the site. On the Page tab, click the Edit menu option.

Step 2 − On the INSERT tab, click the Embed Code option.

The following dialog box will open −

Step 3 − Add some HTML code into the code field as shown below −

Step 4 − Click Insert and you will see that the HTML snippet is inserted.

Step 5 − Click Save.

You can see that the HTML code is inserted in your SharePoint site.

Add Media file

To add a Media Player app to your SharePoint site, open your SharePoint site and navigate to the home page of the site.

Step 1 − On the Page tab, click the Edit menu option.

Step 2 − Select the Web Part option.

Step 3 − Select the Media and Content from Categories and select the Media with Parts from the Parts section. Click Add.

Step 4 − Save the page and you will see the following page, which contains the Media file.

SharePoint Designer

Many developers prefer not to use SharePoint Designer as a tool for developing SharePoint site. However, the point is that the SharePoint Designer tool can make some development tasks easier.

The important features are −

SharePoint Designer can be used for a variety of designer functions for SharePoint, including creating and editing sites, pages, lists, and content types.
SharePoint Designer is also useful for creating rules-based, declarative workflow that can then be imported in Visual Studio for deeper-level customization.
It can be downloaded and installed from https://www.microsoft.com/en-pk/download/details.aspx?id=35491
When you first open SharePoint Designer, you need to provide it with the URL for your SharePoint site and authenticate as an elevated user.
SharePoint Designer inherits standard SharePoint permissions.
After you open your site in SharePoint Designer, a number of navigable options and some information about your site appear, such as site metadata, permissions, subsites etc.

So let us use the SharePoint Designer, but first we need to setup SharePoint Designer using the Office 365 by opening your SharePoint site.

Step 1 − Open the SharePoint site.

Step 2 − Select Office 365 Settings menu option. Select Settings in the left pane and then select the software in the middle pane.

Step 3 − Select Tools & add-ins in the left pane and you will see the different options. In the end you will see SharePoint Designer Option, click the link.

Step 4 − Open the SharePoint Designer after installation. Click the Open Site option.

Step 5 − Specify the URL for your SharePoint site and click Open.

Step 6 − Once the SharePoint Designer site is open, you will see that different options are available.

Step 7 − Click SharePoint Lists on the Ribbon and select Tasks from the menu.

Step 8 − A new dialog box opens. Specify the name and description and click OK.

Step 9 − Let us go the same site, using the portal and you will see the To Do list in your site.

Visual Studio and Expression Blend

You can also use Visual Studio and Blend to add some content to your SharePoint site. Visual Studio offers many features to help develop applications in SharePoint; it is helpful to familiarize yourself with them in detail.

Let us have a look at a simple example of SharePoint-hosted application by opening Visual Studio. Select File → New → Project option.