So we've talked about creating different SharePoint sites, but we haven't really covered how they're organized. We're now going to explore one of the most important concepts in creating a good SharePoint infrastructure. It's something called a site collection. Site collections can make your life easier. They can make the difference between a scalable SharePoint solution and a disaster. They can stop your life becoming a constant stream of requests. They can allow SharePoint to grow and you to minimize your worry about how it's growing. Many people don't even really know what they are.
Even if you have a single SharePoint site, whatever it is, a team site, a Document Workspace, or anything else, you have a site collection. Every SharePoint site is in a site collection. The first site is referred to as the top level site in that site collection. It doesn't mean it's magic, just means it was first. This could have been a team site, this could have been a blank site, could have been a Document Workspace, could have been anything. And from that first site you then create another site, say a Document Workspace, this is called a sub-site.
Again, it doesn't mean it's inferior. It just means it was created in a site collection after the top level site. Create another site, same thing. It's a sub-site. Now, one of the most noticeable effects on this whole site creation issue is the URL. All SharePoint sites need a unique URL. We can't give them all their own .com domain name. We'd run out of money. Instead, we give them longer URLs. Quite commonly, you will see a SharePoint site with this kind of name. Server name/sites/something.
This could be meaningful, Sales, Operations, Eastern, Western, doesn't really matter. But when you create a sub-site, the URL of the sub-site will always be the name of the parent site/something. Now, the thing is you should end up, not just with one, but with multiple site collections, because site collections are a great way to group your SharePoint sites together. Now, I'm a big fan of liberal use of site collections. You should have several, you may have dozens.
If there is one issue that I hear from people again and again, it's that they started off with one site collection and just dumped hundreds or even thousands of SharePoint sites into it, and now it's a real pain to maintain. Navigation is difficult. It's growing too large for the database. Security is too different between parent sites and sub-sites. So why would you split your site collections apart? Well, one of the classic first reasons to do this is that you're splitting by department or organizational unit. Maybe Operations needs their own group of sites, Sales needs a different group of sites, and there is not much crossover in personnel.
They don't really need to know about each other. But what are the benefits of doing this? Well, there is a lot of benefits of creating site collections. You get, for example, lot of dedicated resources, dedicated recycle bins. Site collections can have their own databases. You get dedicated usage reports, dedicated shared libraries. When you're working with security, the idea is that creating security on a top level site will filter down to sub-sites, so it's much easier to set them up that way. One of the best ideas is really this idea of distributed administration.
By creating multiple site collections, we can push out some of the administrative tasks throughout the organization. But here's the problem. Typically, most power users, even if they have a permission to make a site, they cannot create a site collection. It takes high administrative permissions to be able to do it. So while I am going to show you how it's done, you may sometimes have to ask your farm administrator for a new site collection, and they are often reluctant to do it, but do know that it's often because they don't really understand the benefits.
So you may need to educate them.
Author
Released
6/24/2010- Understanding a SharePoint team site
- Navigating lists and libraries
- Creating Document Workspaces
- Using versioning and check-in/check-out
- Integrating with Office 2010 applications
- Adding and deleting users
- Creating workflows
- Working with server site templates
- Creating a wiki and a blog
- Working with rich media
- Managing documents and other content
- Sharing information with charts and status indicators
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: In the "Adding a user to a site" movie, the instructor shows how to add a user to SharePoint and demonstrates by adding a user named “gini.” But gini is already set up and recognized by SharePoint. What if I have no users set yet? How can I add someone?
A: SharePoint doesn't store a separate user database; it wants to be pointed to an existing source of users, like Active Directory. If you don't have that, you need to first add your new users as local accounts on the Windows box you installed SharePoint on. Only then will you be able to give them permission on a SharePoint site.
Related Courses
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Introduction
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Welcome1m 13s
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1. SharePoint 101
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What is SharePoint?8m 9s
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SharePoint roles2m 5s
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Accessing SharePoint4m 48s
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The SharePoint product line1m 32s
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2. Core SharePoint Sites: Team Sites
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What is a team site?2m 43s
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Navigating a team site9m 41s
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Editing the home page9m 31s
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Adding a Web Part6m 19s
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Deleting a Web Part5m 3s
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3. Core SharePoint Sites: Document Workspaces
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4. Core SharePoint Sites: Meeting Workspaces
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Creating a Meeting Workspace2m 40s
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Deleting a Meeting Workspace1m 16s
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5. SharePoint Lists and Libraries
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Creating a custom list8m 44s
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Creating a custom view6m 43s
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Working with libraries6m 18s
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6. SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010
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SharePoint and Word6m 6s
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SharePoint and Outlook7m 38s
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SharePoint and Excel3m 54s
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SharePoint and Access2m 57s
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SharePoint and InfoPath11m 42s
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SharePoint and PowerPoint3m 46s
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SharePoint and Visio6m 20s
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Using SharePoint Workspace3m 31s
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7. SharePoint Sites and Site Collections
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What is a site collection?3m 56s
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Creating a site collection6m 35s
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Creating a new site6m 29s
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Customizing a site7m 47s
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Creating a site template7m 21s
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8. SharePoint 2010 Security
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Understanding permissions3m 33s
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Adding a user to a site5m 14s
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Deleting a user from a site1m 39s
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9. SharePoint Workflows
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10. SharePoint 2010 Server Site Templates
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Using site templates5m 49s
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Using master pages3m 37s
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Creating an Enterprise Wiki7m 14s
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Working with rich media5m 57s
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11. SharePoint Documents and Content
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What are content types?4m 22s
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Creating a content type11m 30s
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What are document sets?2m 12s
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Creating document sets7m 49s
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Creating a Document Center4m 36s
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Creating a Record Center8m 25s
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12. SharePoint Communities
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Creating a SharePoint blog2m 48s
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13. SharePoint Search
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Searching in SharePoint4m 26s
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Creating a Search Center8m 4s
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14. SharePoint Business Intelligence
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Using Excel Services10m 12s
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Using status indicators8m 10s
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Using the Chart Web Parts6m 33s
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Conclusion
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Goodbye1m 3s
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Video: What is a site collection?