Introduction
Welcome to Exploring Microsoft SharePoint 2013. The purpose of this book is to point out both the new and improved capabilities of SharePoint 2013. As with previous versions of SharePoint, SharePoint 2013 contains many features with which you will be familiar; some features might not have changed at all; others will have changed, but at a high level will provide similar functionality that will not be new to you; and then there will be components that you will need time to fully understand before you can decide how they can benefit you and your organization.
With this version of SharePoint, Microsoft focuses on what a user can do, and therefore the focus of the improvements with SharePoint 2013 places users at the center of the SharePoint installation. In the coming months, as you learn more about SharePoint 2013, no longer will Microsoft talk about what SharePoint can do by using the six-segment SharePoint 2010 circle that consisted of the Sites, Communities, Content, Search, Insights, and Composites. You will hear that SharePoint 2013 provides a new way to work together and is the new collaboration platform. It will talk about how users can Share, Organize, Discover, Build, and Manage ideas and content in a SharePoint environment. Following is a description of each of these concepts:
Share. You can share when talking about your content and information, spreading it socially, spreading it online, spreading it easily across multiple places and devices where you might need to interconnect, whether it is on-premises, mobile, on a tablet in a cloud, or at a client site.
Organize. This is how you structure and categorize the information, whether it is a project, team, or information held in documents using SharePoint Office 2013 applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Project, and syncing your content in SharePoint to your desktop with Microsoft SkyDrive Pro.
Discover. This concept includes connecting people across your organization, the discovery of insights and answers through the use of Business Intelligence, and finding what you’re looking for by using enterprise search. In this version of SharePoint, Microsoft has invested a great deal of effort into the integration of enterprise search.
Build. SharePoint 2013 has undergone major changes to the application model for how to build applications that are hosted on systems that are maintained by organizations on-premises, or when the systems are maintained outside of the control of an organization, in the cloud; how to publish these applications internally through a corporate catalog; and publishing them outside an organization as well as sharing them across on-premises farms and cloud-based farms through a public store. The new application mode also makes it possible for applications to be shared within office applications by using the new Windows 8 interface-based computers, laptops, ultrabooks, tablets, and Windows Phone. These are now introduced to the Microsoft Office 2013 applications.
Manage. SharePoint 2013 provides better support for managing SharePoint as a platform. It can be run in the cloud with Microsoft Office 365. It contains new archiving, eDiscovery, and case management capabilities that include SharePoint 2013, Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, and Microsoft Lync 2013.
Microsoft’s aim is still for SharePoint to be a self-service product; that is, providing users with the ability to complete their tasks using no-code solutions by using the browser and Microsoft Office applications.
SharePoint 2013 consists of two products: SharePoint Foundation 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013. The exposure of two sets of functionality still exists in SharePoint Server, but is implemented using standard and enterprise client access licenses with a new licensing model. There is no longer a separate Microsoft FAST Search Server for SharePoint. You will find much of the functionality that was included in that product now incorporated as part of SharePoint 2013. Another change is that Microsoft Office Web Apps is a separate product and should be installed on servers on which SharePoint is not installed. Also, if your organization is a heavy user of SharePoint to automate business processes, there are changes with which you can distribute the workflow business logic onto servers where SharePoint is not installed.
As usual, the user interface has changed, but only slightly, as detailed in the following list (see also Figure 1):
The ribbon is still there but not automatically visible when the Browse tab is active.
Some of the components have moved. For example, the Site Actions tab has been replaced by a Settings icon that is now in the upper-right corner of the page.
Some components are no longer displayed. For example, the navigation up icon and the portal connection link are still placed on the master page, but the default CSS rules prevent them from being shown.
Hopefully, you will consider that these changes are minor, and as you pilot your upgrade to SharePoint 2013, the user feedback will confirm that it will not be necessary to formally retrain your users when you do upgrade.
Who this book is for
Although this book offers an overview of the new features of SharePoint 2013 from the perspective of an IT professional, it also introduces features that are important to the end user and business user. This should foster a solid understanding of why your organization might want to install or upgrade to SharePoint 2013 and help in the conversations you might have with these users.
This book does not provide step-by-step instructions on how to install or complete tasks by using SharePoint 2013 or provide an in-depth coverage or analysis of the new functions. Those details you can find in the following Microsoft Press books:
Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Plain & Simple by Johnathan Lightfoot, Michelle Lopez, and Scott Metker, which is aimed at end users who are new to SharePoint.
Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Step by Step by Olga Londer and Penelope Coventry, which is aimed at new and intermediate end users.
Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Inside Out by Darvish Shadravan, Penelope Coventry, Tom Resing, and Christine Wheeler, which is aimed at intermediate and advanced power end users (who are also referred to as citizen or consumer developers). This book is also aimed at project managers, business analysts, and small business technicians.
Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Administrator’s Companion by Brain Alderman, which is aimed at IT Professionals.
Microsoft SharePoint 2013 App Development by Scot Hillier, Ted Pattison, and Mirjam van Olst, which is aimed at professional developers.
Microsoft SharePoint 2013: Designing and Architecting Solutions by Shannon Bray, Miguel Wood, and Patrick Curran, which is aimed at IT Architects.
Regardless of your role, I hope this book helps you to discover the features in SharePoint 2013 that are most beneficial for you.
Assumptions about you
This book is designed for readers who have experience installing Microsoft products. In a book of this size, it cannot cover every feature; therefore, it is assumed that you have some familiarity with SharePoint already. The focus is on the new functionality incorporated in SharePoint 2013 and is likely to appeal to readers who have knowledge of installing SharePoint 2010 and the functionality it provides.
Organization of this book
This book provides a high-level preview of the various new or changed features you might want to use in SharePoint 2013. This book is structured so that you as an IT professional understand the architectural changes before detailing features that the business might need you to install.
Chapter 1, discusses the critical infrastructure and service application improvements, including support for mobile devices, SharePoint development and changes, and Identity Management.
Chapter 2, deals with the new search user interfaces. Relevancy, search architecture, and topology are introduced.
Chapter 3, covers records management and compliance, web content management, including the new Web Designer, and developer enhancements.
Chapter 4, discusses the user interface improvements to My Site, microblogging, activity feeds, Community Sites, and the User Profile Service Application process.
Chapter 5, explores the improvements in Business Connectivity Services (BCS), Access Services Application, Workflow, and changes to Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2013.
Chapter 6, examines the enhancements in Microsoft Excel 2013 SharePoint integration, including PowerPivot and Power View, Excel Services, Performance Point Services, and Visio Services.
Acknowledgments
It is never easy to write a book, especially one that covers such a vast subject area. Although I have been working with SharePoint for more than a decade—and with SharePoint 2013 for more than a year—it is still true to say that this book, as every other technical book, contains a snapshot of what the author knows at this particular moment. I’m happy to have the opportunity to share the knowledge I have gained so far with you. And, I’m also happy to pass along my thanks and appreciation to everyone in the SharePoint community who helped to bring this all about.
First, I’d like to include special thanks to Kenyon Brown, Microsoft Press Senior Editor, who offered me the opportunity to write this book and yet again kept me on track, and to Steve Smith of Combined Knowledge and Brian Alderman of MicroTechPoint for their assistance. Also, I would particularly like to thank Neil Hodgkinson (Technical Reviewer), for his invaluable insights and guidance. Knowing that he was reviewing the content was a great comfort and his contributions have made this a better book.
Huge thanks go out to the following people for contributing to the production of this project: Rachel Steely (O’Reilly Media Production Editor), Bob Russell of Octal Publishing, Inc. (Copyeditor), and all of the other people at O’Reilly Media who helped with the production of this book.
Last but certainly not least, my biggest thank you goes to my husband Peter Coventry for his continued support while I wrote this book. For his love, support, and understanding, I am forever grateful.
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