This article has been prepared to aide with the adoption of SharePoint Online as a file hosting and collaboration platform. The article defines key elements of SharePoint and it's services.
Definitions
| SharePoint A collaborative platform for creating, managing, and sharing resources, documents, and information securely within an organisation. It supports teamwork by providing sites for projects, departments, or teams, and integrates with other Microsoft 365 services.
SharePoint is a content management system (CMS) designed for the web. That means you navigate SharePoint via a web browser, and access information, documents, widgets or other elements via SharePoint “sites”
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| OneDrive A cloud-based storage service that allows users to store, access, and share files online. OneDrive is typically used for personal file storage and integrates with SharePoint for collaborative document management.
OneDrive is built using the same technology as SharePoint and works very similarly. If you know how to share a file, or navigate OneDrive in the web, you’ll be pleased to know that the process is the almost identical in SharePoint!
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| Site SharePoint sites are highly customizable spaces within SharePoint where teams or projects can collaborate. Each site can host resources such as document libraries, lists, pages, and apps, and can be customised to suit specific needs. |
| Hub Site A central SharePoint site that connects and organises related sites together. Hub sites are a type of “home page” that links out to a wide range of resources all from a single page.
Hub Sites provide unified navigation, search, and branding across associated sites, making it easier to manage and discover content across multiple projects or departments. |
| Hub Navigation Hub navigation make is easy to navigate SharePoint Sites associated to the same ‘hub’. The hub navigation can be found stretched along the top of the window.
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| Page A highly customizable container for content within a SharePoint site. Pages display information, documents, lists, and web parts, and can be customised for different audiences. |
| Document Library A specialised storage location within a SharePoint site for organising, storing, and managing documents. Document libraries can be likened to network drives.
Document libraries support version control, metadata, and collaborative editing, making them essential for document management.
Permissions are defined at the document library level and inherited to all the files and folders stored within. |
| List A structured collection of data in SharePoint, like a table or spreadsheet.
Lists can be used to track any type of information such as tasks, contacts, or inventory, and can be customised with columns, views, and workflows to support various business processes (some of our very own in-house apps such as the relief app or PD requests are powered by SharePoint lists!)
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Topology
The below graphic is a generalization of the relationship between SharePoint hub sites, sites, and components of sites.
- In any 'hub' there is only one hub site, but there can be many associated sites.
- In any site, there can be many components (pages, document libraries, lists, web-parts/widgets, etc.)
