13
Template Reference for Apps, Pages, and Sites
HOW TO…
Choose the right app Differentiate between types of SharePoint pages Learn about SharePoint site templatesAs you’ve learned in this book, the end-user functionality within SharePoint is largely determined by the apps, site templates, app parts, and web parts that are provided out of the box. This chapter is a reference for the apps, pages, and sites that are available in SharePoint Server 2013.
Remember that some of the types of apps or sites listed here may not be available on your server. Your options will depend on the version of SharePoint you are using, the features that are installed, the site template for the current site, and your permissions within the system. For example, if you’re using SharePoint Server 2013 with the enterprise features enabled, you will see most, if not all, of the items listed in this chapter. If you’re using SharePoint Online within Office 365 or SharePoint Foundation, you may not see all of the apps and sites listed in this chapter.
Many of the templates that fit into this chapter have already been discussed in other parts of this book; in those cases, you can follow the reference to the relevant chapter. Conversely, some of the important templates that didn’t fit nicely into the other chapter topics will be covered here. For your convenience, the description of each template is included from the SharePoint UI.
 | While it’s true that you can get the descriptions from the UI, to do that takes some time. Hopefully, by providing that information in a more accessible format, this chapter will save you some time and effort. |
Apps
If you polled SharePoint end users, many would identify apps as the fundamental pieces of a SharePoint server. Apps add functionality, and they are the containers for items—what type of item is determined by the app template.
In SharePoint 2013, lists and libraries have been renamed to “apps.” Why did Microsoft change the terminology? The answer seems to be that they are simply using language that people foreign to SharePoint will understand. In this way, SharePoint is more accessible to an end user. Thanks to the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets, the average person on the street has heard of apps, and many have a good understanding of how apps are used to add functionality.
| At the back end of every SharePoint server is a set of databases, and among those databases, the most heavily used is the content database. App items are rows in that database, and their associated metadata is stored in the columns. |
Libraries are actually lists—lists with attachments. Whether you need to manage documents, images, or forms, SharePoint can help make the task easier. Libraries combine the benefits of SharePoint lists with features specific to the type of content being stored.
Access App
Access Web App
This app allows you to use Access 2013 web apps in SharePoint. Some configuration is required to get this type of app to work. To read more about Access web apps, refer to the Access blog (http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-access/archive/2012/07/20/introducing-access-2013-.aspx).
Announcements
A list of news items, statuses and other short bits of information.
Announcements help you get out news and updates within your organization. Announcement lists were covered in Chapter 4. Announcement lists are among the handful of list types that can be e-mail–enabled. In other words, you can send an e-mail to the announcement list and have it appear in announcement form. The subject line will become the title, and the body will become the announcement text.
Asset Library
A place to share, browse and manage rich media assets, like image, audio and video files.
If you’re looking for a central place to store image, audio, and video files, an asset library might be the right choice for you. One advantage of using an asset library is the various metadata that’s made available as part of the list template. For example, you can specify whether the file is an image file, an audio file, or a video (see Figure 13-1). If you were working on a presentation that required various types of media, this library would allow you to store them in one location, and then filter by the metadata, such as the media type.
FIGURE 13-1 Asset library item options
The asset library in SharePoint 2013 features a new video control that allows you to easily share video within SharePoint. Upload a WMV video file, and you can play it directly from SharePoint.
Calendar
A calendar of upcoming meetings, deadlines, or other events. Calendar information can be synchronized with Microsoft Outlook or other compatible programs.
Calendar lists provide the functionality that you would expect from a calendar—and probably a little bit more. Calendars are discussed in Chapter 4.
| Calendars can be connected to Microsoft Outlook so that you can share and overlay SharePoint calendars with your own. As well, calendars are another list type that can be e-mail–enabled, which means that you can “invite” a SharePoint calendar to your meetings. |
Contacts
A list of people your team works with, like customers or partners. Contacts lists can synchronize with Microsoft Outlook or other compatible programs.
If you need to store a list of contacts in a location that is accessible through a web browser, the SharePoint contacts list can address your needs. When you add a new contact, you’ll be asked for all sorts of information, such as names, address, e-mail address, and more (see Figure 13-2).
FIGURE 13-2 The new contact dialog
| Contacts lists can be linked to Microsoft Outlook, and then shared among your team as a global or team contacts list. |
Custom List
A blank list to which you can add your own columns and views. Use this if none of the built-in list types are similar to the list you want to make.
With so many different sites, pages, and lists, people may be led to believe that SharePoint is an application that comes with the functionality they want right out of the box. However, as any large enterprise is already aware, it’s simply not possible to develop a one-size-fits-all information management system. Microsoft is keenly aware of this fact, and thus has developed SharePoint as a platform; if there is something you need, you can add it. This is where custom lists fit into the picture. If you need to build your own list from scratch, you can still use the functionality that comes with a list, but you can define your own custom type.
A custom list allows you to start creating your own list with the standard item view as the default. When you create a new custom list, only one column is visible: Title (see Figure 13-3). It is up to you to add the rest of the functionality you need.
FIGURE 13-3 The custom list add new item dialog
Custom List in Datasheet View
A blank list which is displayed as a spreadsheet in order to allow easy data entry. You can add your own columns and views. This list type requires a compatible list datasheet ActiveX control, such as the one provided in Microsoft Office.
This type of list also allows you to start with just a Title column, but the default view is a datasheet (see Figure 13-4). As the description states, the datasheet view requires additional software, but it does have its benefits. The datasheet view allows users to quickly make edits to the list data—simply click in a field and start editing.
FIGURE 13-4 A custom list in datasheet view
Data Connection Library
A place where you can easily share files that contain information about external data connections.
Data connection libraries are used to store files that define data connections. This includes Office Data Connection (ODC) files and Universal Data Connection (UDC) files. These files can define connections to databases, web services, or even SharePoint libraries and lists.
By storing these connection files in SharePoint, you can use them when creating Microsoft InfoPath forms. For example, if I know that my team will be using a web service to gather data that will be used in our InfoPath forms, I can create a data connection file in InfoPath and store that file in a data connection library, thereby making it easier for anyone who wants to use that connection in their InfoPath forms to do so.
Discussion Board
A place to have newsgroup-style discussions. Discussion boards make it easy to manage discussion threads and can be configured to require approval for all posts.
Discussion boards enable a back-and-forth conversation among people in different locations. This type of list is discussed in Chapter 4.
| Discussion boards can be connected to Microsoft Outlook so that you can carry on a SharePoint conversation using Outlook as your conversation tool. |
Document Library
A place for storing documents or other files that you want to share. Document libraries allow folders, versioning, and check out.
Document libraries are the backbone of document management in SharePoint. They are covered extensively in Chapter 2.
| Document libraries and certain types of lists can be e-mail–enabled to allow you to simply e-mail a document to the library or list instead of uploading the files through the SharePoint web UI. |
External List
Create an external list to view the data in an External Content Type.
This list will show data from an external content type, but you will need to first have an external type created by a SharePoint administrator. These lists are used by SharePoint’s Business Connectivity Services (BCS). You can define a connection in BCS (often in SharePoint Designer) to an external Microsoft SQL Server database, a Microsoft Access database, or some other type of data source. SharePoint will then present the data as though it were a list in SharePoint.
Form Library
A place to manage business forms like status reports or purchase orders. Form libraries require a compatible XML editor, such as Microsoft InfoPath.
Form libraries can be used with Microsoft InfoPath to create custom electronic forms for your organization. Creating forms is covered in Chapter 9.
Import Spreadsheet
Create a list which duplicates the columns and data of an existing spreadsheet. Importing a spreadsheet requires Microsoft Excel or another compatible program.
If you have Microsoft Excel, you’ll have the option of importing data quickly from one of your spreadsheets. The import spreadsheet list allows you to import data from a spreadsheet as part of the list-creation process. When you choose to create the list, you’ll be asked to specify which spreadsheet file contains the data you would like to import. When you click the Import button, the file will open in Excel, and you can choose which cells to import (see Figure 13-5).
FIGURE 13-5 Choosing a range of cells to import
After you import the spreadsheet, your data will be imported into the list (see Figure 13-6). Once the import has been completed, there is no connection between the original spreadsheet file and the import spreadsheet list.
FIGURE 13-6 After importing an Excel spreadsheet
Issue Tracking
A list of issues or problems associated with a project or item. You can assign, prioritize, and track issue status.
An issue racking list is similar to a tasks list in that you can assign ownership of each item and then track its progress to completion. However, there are a few differences that make tracking issues easier using this type of list. One example is the fact that each issue item is assigned an issue ID, which is visible in the default view of the list. These unique IDs ensure that there is no confusion as to which issues are being discussed.
Links
A list of web pages or other resources.
A links list allows you to store URLs with a description and associated notes. The information that you add to each links list item offers benefits beyond storing the links in a browser’s favorites.
Picture Library
A place to upload and share pictures.
The description from Microsoft for the Picture Library template doesn’t really provide a full explanation of what these libraries can do. Picture libraries allow you to associate metadata with images, view images in a slide show, convert images to web format, add version control, and use metadata-based filtering. You can even add validation settings to allow you to specify parameters, such as height, that determine whether images can be added to the library. As with many types of lists, you can add optional folders for organization.
To start adding pictures to your picture library, simply drag your images to the area of the page that reads “drag files here” (see Figure 13-7). Of course, you could also browse for your images using the new picture option, but that’s not as impressive.
FIGURE 13-7 Choosing to upload multiple images
After you upload the images, you can select the link to return to the library, where you’ll see your images in the picture library (see Figure 13-8). Once the images have been loaded, you can start using features such as the slide show view.
FIGURE 13-8 The picture library after uploading images
As you learned in Chapter 3, you may not get the same upload options in all browsers. For example, mobile browsers generally don’t have as many features as PC browsers. One of the useful features of the picture library is the ability to view the files in a slide show view. Simply choose the Slides option (see Figure 13-9).
FIGURE 13-9 Selecting the slide show view
Promoted Links
Using the Promoted Links app, you can create a list of links and specify how they will behave.
Report Library
A place where you can easily create and manage web pages and documents to track metrics, goals and business intelligence information.
Report libraries provide columns for useful report data, such as the owner, status, and report category. All of this data is meant to save you the trouble of adding these columns to a standard document library.
Survey
A list of questions which you would like to have people answer. Surveys allow you to quickly create questions and view graphical summaries of the responses.
Surveys allow you to poll other SharePoint users for their answers to questions you create. Survey lists are discussed in Chapter 4.
Tasks
A place for team or personal tasks.
Tasks lists are the workhorse of many types of sites in SharePoint. Whether you’re creating a meeting workspace or a team site, you’ll find that you’ll automatically get a tasks list.
You don’t need to be a proponent of Peter Drucker’s management by objectives to understand the importance of tracking granular tasks. SharePoint tasks lists give you the ability to track who owns each task, view what the current priority and status are for each one, and even specify that one or more tasks are predecessors of other tasks (see Figure 13-10).
FIGURE 13-10 Creating a new task
| Tasks lists, unlike issues lists, can be connected to Microsoft Outlook, so that they can be managed from within the Outlook client. |
Wiki Page Library
An interconnected set of easily editable web pages, which can contain text, images, and web parts.
Wikis have become mainstream over the past few years. They provide a frictionless, community-authoring environment. Wiki libraries are discussed in Chapter 4.
Pages
There will be times when you don’t need a whole site and a list isn’t the right choice. You might want what some people refer to as a “landing page.” Pages allow you to post content in a free-form manner. Pages are also the “items” you’ll find under some apps. For example, wiki page libraries and publishing sites contain pages.
Page
A page which can be easily edited in the web browser using Web Edit. Pages can contain text, images, and wiki links, as well as lists and other web parts. Pages are useful for collaborating on small projects.
Obviously, formatted text is available when you create your page content, but you’ll also be able to import media such as images, tables, audio, and video. You can even import web parts or SharePoint lists. Pages are created in the site pages library, which also supports the use of the wiki page format (see Figure 13-11).
FIGURE 13-11 A page in edit mode
 | Remember that the wiki functionality of adding page links also works on pages. |
Web Part Page
A page which can display an aggregation of information from other sources. Web part pages can display many types of data, including lists, other web pages, search results, or data retrieved from other servers.
The first versions of SharePoint were called SharePoint Portal Server. The term portal is no longer in vogue, but the utility remains. Web part pages embody the idea that SharePoint can be used as a portal into diverse sources of information.
Web part pages contain zones, which can contain web parts. When you choose to create a web part page, you’ll be asked to choose from a number of different layouts. Each layout contains a different organization option for your page (see Figure 13-12), or as the Create page dialog explains:
FIGURE 13-12 Choosing a web part page layout
“Select a layout template to arrange Web Parts in zones on the page. Multiple Web Parts can be added to each zone. Specific zones allow Web Parts to be stacked in a horizontal or vertical direction, which is illustrated by differently colored Web Parts. If you do not add a Web Part to a zone, the zone collapses (unless it has a fixed width) and the other zones expand to fill unused space when you browse the Web Part Page.”
Numerous web parts come with SharePoint 2013. They are discussed in Chapters 8 and 12.
Sites
When it comes to information architecture, sites are arguably the most important container in SharePoint planning. Site templates determine the features, apps, and pages that can be created in each area of your SharePoint server. In fact, when people talk about the problem of “SharePoint sprawl,” they are generally referring to the creation of too many sites. If your sites are well planned, your users may not feel the need to keep creating more and more.
Remember that the site template is just a starting point. The idea is to choose the one that is closest to the final result you need for your project. However, you’ll almost always need to add—or even remove—functionality to tweak the site to match your needs.
Collaboration
The Collaboration category contains site templates that are designed to enable teamwork.
Team Site
A site for teams to quickly organize, author, and share information. It provides a document library, and lists for managing announcements, calendar items, tasks, and discussions.
Team sites might be the most popular type of site in SharePoint. In fact, when people describe SharePoint, they are often describing the functionality found within a team site. When you create a team site, you’ll find elements such as a document library, named shared documents, and a tasks list added for you.
Blog
A site for a person or team to post ideas, observations, and expertise that site visitors can comment on.
Blogs have become very popular over the past few years. They are discussed in Chapter 4.
Project Site
A site for managing and collaborating on a project.
This site template brings all status, communication, and artifacts relevant to the project into one place.
Community Site
A place where community members discuss topics of common interest.
Members can browse and discover relevant content by exploring categories, sorting discussions by popularity, and viewing only posts that have a best reply. Members gain reputation points by participating in the community, such as starting discussions and replying to them, liking posts, and specifying best replies.
Enterprise
The Enterprise category is not going to be used often by the average user. Generally, these sites are used for specific purposes and are added as part of a SharePoint governance plan that spans the entire organization.
Document Center
A site to centrally manage documents in your enterprise.
The best features of SharePoint document management can be found in the Document Center site template. As the home page explains, “Use this site to create, work on, and store documents. This site can become a collaborative repository for authoring documents within a team, or a knowledge base for documents across multiple teams.”
Records Center
This template creates a site designed for records management. Records managers can configure the routing table to direct incoming files to specific locations. The site also lets you manage whether records can be deleted or modified after they are added to the repository.
The default content on the home page of a new Records Center site, listed next, encourages you to use the page to educate your colleagues about the records-compliance policies of your organization:
Add links to other organizational compliance sites, such as the following:
• The definition of a record in your organization
• What happens to a record after it is submitted to the Records Center
• Steps users can take to comply with organizational policy
Add information about records management topics, such as the following:
• Your organization’s compliance training site
• A site about organizational retention policies
• A list of records management contacts for each department
Business Intelligence Center
A site for presenting business intelligence content in SharePoint.
If you’re interested in the business intelligence site, refer to the article “SharePoint 2013 - The New Business Intelligence Center” on NothingButSharePoint .com (www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/itpro/Pages/SharePoint-2013-The-New-Business-Intelligence-Center.aspx), or you can refer to the Microsoft TechNet page “What’s new in business intelligence in SharePoint Server 2013” (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj542395.aspx).
Enterprise Search Center
A site for delivering the search experience. The welcome page includes a search box with two tabs: one for general searches, and another for searches for information about people. You can add and customize tabs to focus on other search scopes or result types.
As the description mentions, when you create a new Enterprise Search Center site, you’ll get a general search box and another for a people search. However, you can add your own custom tabs and use the advanced options to filter your result sets (see Figure 13-13).
FIGURE 13-13 The search center page in edit mode
Basic Search Center
A site for delivering the search experience. The site includes pages for search results and advanced searches.
If you don’t need the customization options in the Enterprise Search Center site, you might find that the Basic Search Center site template suits your needs.
Visio Process Repository
A site for teams to quickly view, share, and store Visio process diagrams. It provides a versioned document library for storing process diagrams, and lists for managing announcements, tasks, and review discussions.
This site template is reminiscent of the Document Center, but it is tailored to groups that work with Visio Process diagrams.
Publishing
The publishing category will be available only on sites where the publishing infrastructure feature has been enabled both at the site-collection level and at the site level. To activate the feature at the site-collection level, you will need to have site collection administrator rights. Activating the publishing feature is covered in chapter 11.
Publishing Site
A blank site for expanding your website and quickly publishing web pages. Contributors can work on draft versions of pages and publish them to make them visible to readers. The site includes document and image libraries for storing Web publishing assets.
Publishing site templates are discussed in Chapter 6.
Publishing Site with Workflow
A site for publishing web pages on a schedule by using approval workflows. It includes document and image libraries for storing Web publishing assets. By default, only sites with this template can be created under this site.
If you would like to add some more structure to your publishing experience, you might want to create a publishing site with workflow instead of a regular publishing site. As the name implies, edits under this type of site will need to be approved by a user who has sufficient rights.
If you created your initial site collection using the Publishing Site with Workflow template or the Collaboration Portal template, you will get these options. This template is often used for public-facing websites. It’s discussed in Chapter 6.
Enterprise Wiki
A site for publishing knowledge that you capture and want to share across the enterprise. It provides an easy content editing experience in a single location for co-authoring content, discussions, and project management.
When you create an Enterprise Wiki site, the default home page content tells you everything you need to know about the site template:
“Use the Enterprise Wiki to create a single, go-to place for knowledge sharing and project management across the enterprise. Enterprise Wikis are simple to use, flexible, and lightweight in features. They are quick and easy to create, and you can easily add links to other information systems, corporate directories, or applications.…
Working with content—text, graphics, or video—is as easy as working in any word processing application, such as Microsoft Word.…”
The following are some other things you can do when working with Enterprise Wiki sites:
• Collaborate on wiki pages with other users
• Comment on a wiki page to enable discussion about the contents of the page
• Rate a wiki page to share your opinion about its content
• Categorize wiki pages to enable users to quickly find information and share it with others
Summary
This chapter provided an overview of pages, apps, and sites. It’s unlikely that you’ll need to use all of them, but it’s best to know what your choices are when you plan and build out your SharePoint sites.
That’s the end of the list of lists. (Yes, I know, they’re now called “apps” but there’s no pun in a list of apps). It’s also the end of this book. I hope you found it useful. If you’d like to continue learning about SharePoint, the Appendix includes my list of favorite SharePoint learning sites and blogs.
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