Sites

A site is a collection of lists and libraries typically centered on a similar topic. Like site collections, sites offer many advantages from an ownership and administration perspective. Sites can inherit both their security and navigation from the parent site, or they can break the inheritance and have separate security and navigation. Like site collections, a site owner has access to all of the content within the site and has the ability to customize the site to their needs. The Site Settings page shown in Figure 2.9 illustrates the available settings.

Figure 2.9. Site Settings page.

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Planning the site architecture for a SharePoint solution can be a daunting task. Fortunately, SharePoint provides a set of out-of-the-box templates that can be used when creating a new site collection or site. The next step is choosing the template that will provide the needed structure and functionality for the desired solution. In this section, we will take you through the template options and provide you with some insight on how to select the proper site template for your solution.

Site Templates

Before we can discuss the functionalities of the templates that are available, note that the version of SharePoint determines the set of site templates that are available for use.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS)

As you would expect, WSS comes with the smallest set of site templates. Although few in number, each is a powerful tool that can be leveraged to enhance any environment. If you can’t find a template that fits your need, select the Blank Site, and customize it. Remember, some of the site templates provided by SharePoint are just customizations of the base site template, the Blank Site. However, you don’t always have to start from scratch if a template is not an exact fit for your requirements. In many situations, these templates will serve only as an advanced starting point and may need to be customized further to satisfy your organization’s requirements.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) Standard

With MOSS Standard, we see an increase in site templates that corresponds to the added features that become available when purchasing this version. The added templates are for document management, search, and My Sites, as well as two new templates with publishing features. These templates and their contents are highly specialized and contain more built-in components than the basic Collaboration and Meetings site templates.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) Enterprise

The only difference between the template sets of MOSS Standard and Enterprise is the Report Center, which is located under the Enterprise tab. This corresponds to the added feature that becomes available with the Enterprise version: Excel Services.

Table 2.1 describes each of the templates and provides some insight into why you would select one over another.

Table 2.1. Site Templates
Template GroupTemplate NameDescription
Collaboration. All these sites increase collaborative and cooperative communication between users.Team SiteOne of the most commonly used templates, Team Site, facilitates collaboration and provides users with the necessary tools for team collaboration and information management.
 Blank SiteThe Blank Site is simply a blank site that can be customized to function in a way that meets your organization’s specifications. It is often easiest to start with the blank site and build your desired site rather than using another template and first deleting what you do not need.
 Document WorkspaceThe Document Workspace is designed to enable groups to efficiently and effectively collaborate to create and manage a single document. This site has a document library, task list, and links list created when the site is created.
 Wiki SiteThe Wiki Site is designed to function as a collaborative area to discuss concepts and ideas. A wiki allows for the creation of valuable content without the constraints of approval and requirements. A good example of a wiki site is a knowledge base. The site simplifies page creation and management so that several topics can be discussed.
 BlogA Blog site is used to post ideas and receive feedback regarding the thoughts. This template is configured to provide easy management of not only the posts but the comments as well. It has a built-in category functionality that allows users to categorize postings to allow visitors to easily locate relevant postings.
Meetings. These sites serve as a way to plan meetings, manage the way meetings are organized, record information/ideas discussed during meetings, and record actions and tasks needed post-meeting.Basic Meeting WorkspaceThe Basic Meeting Workspace is a basic site that provides the most commonly used tools for organizing meetings, i.e., attendees list, objectives, document library, and agenda.
Blank Meeting Workspace SiteThe Blank Meeting Workspace site has no components but shares the same structure as the rest of the Meetings sites. The site allows for its own customization to fit the unique needs that are not fulfilled by the other Meetings site templates.
 Decision Meeting WorkspaceThe Decision Meeting Workspace template is used when the meetings are being held to come to a conclusion/decision of some sort and to record and manage those decisions. The site uses SharePoint tools regarding decision making: Decisions task list, Tasks task list, and an Objectives list.
 Social Meeting WorkspaceThe Social Meeting Workspace is designed to manage meetings concerning social events related to your organization. This meeting workspace includes a directions list and picture library.
 Multipage Meeting WorkspaceThe Multipage Meeting Workspace site template contains pages that can be used to manage information and decisions related to meetings. By default, the other Meetings sites have one page but come with the option to create additional pages. This site, by default, comes with two additional pages.
Enterprise. The templates in this group are designed to be used in Collaboration Portals. Do not confuse the name enterprise to mean that these templates are only available with MOSS Enterprise. All of the templates, except the Report Center, are available with MOSS Standard.Document CenterThe Document Center is designed to and contains tools to manage a large volume of documents. The document library created with the template already has the required checkout and versioning enabled.
Records CenterThe Records Center site template contains tools to help manage the retention of files. This site is used to take a copy of the document or item and store it for use later if you need to see how a document was at a certain time. Many companies have retention policies, and this site allows you to comply while allowing the document to still be updated. With the Records Center, records can be controlled based on a status value, and they can be routed and rerouted by leveraging workflows.
 PersonalizationThe Personalization site template allows you to create a targeted experience for your users. There are special Web Parts already on the page to filter lists and libraries to provide users with only information relevant to them. This site is integrated into the My Site.
 Site DirectoryThe Site Directory template serves as an index for the sites contained in your site collection. It can organize the sites based on a categorical value to be specified by the organization after the site is created. You can also flag sites as Top Sites or use the Site Map that organizes the sites and their hierarchy.
 Report CenterLeveraging key performance indicators (KPIs) and dashboards, the Report Center allows for the simple creation of reports and other analytics. This site is highly specialized and allows for a high level of customization to yield an extremely powerful site for business intelligence purposes.
 Search CenterThe Search Center template is used to help users perform searches in SharePoint. This site includes a search page and search results page that can be customized with Search Web Parts to provide a tailored search experience for your users.
 Search Center with TabsIn addition to the capabilities of the Search Center site template, the Search Center with Tabs template provides the ability to display your scopes in a tabbed format.
Publishing. The publishing group our site templates typically used for informative purposes. They will often be used as the basis for Internet sites.Publishing.The Publishing site is for informational purposes when you need to control the content. A pages library is included with page content types that allow your users to make changes to a site, but before the changes are seen, the content must be published.
 Publishing with workflowThis site is a publishing site template with an approval workflow already configured to enhance the publishing process. All pages and images will need to be approved before they are published and visible.
 NewsNews is a site for sharing articles. This site uses the article content type and allows for a central location for news to be stored and shared.

Exercise: Creating a Site

1.
Navigate to the site you want to be the parent. Click Site Actions > Create Site. The New SharePoint Site Creation page is shown in Figure 2.10.

Figure 2.10. New SharePoint Site creation page.

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If you are on a site that does not have the Office SharePoint Server Publishing feature activated, such as a team site, click Site Actions > Create and then select sites and workspaces from under the header Web pages on the right side of the page. The Office SharePoint Server Site feature is activated by default on any of the publishing templates but can be activated on other templates such as the team site template.


2.
Give your site a title and a description. The description will show up at the top of the page and inform visitors of the purpose for this site.

3.
Enter a URL. Remember, it is always better to keep the URLs relevant but short. For example instead of Human Resources, you might use HR.

4.
Select the desired template. For this example, select Team Site under the Collaboration header.

Notice that you have the ability to use unique permissions. This will set up a new set of SharePoint Groups for this site.

5.
Leave the box checked to inherit the top link bar navigation.

6.
List the site in the Site Directory.

7.
Click OK.

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