2.2. SharePoint Content: Lists, Libraries, and More
At its basic level, virtually everything that is displayed in a SharePoint site comes out of a list. A list is much like a database table, in that it is made up of rows of data, which in turn are composed of fields of different types. There are many types of lists predefined in SharePoint, but they fall into two main categories. One is simply called the list. The rows of a list are called items. The other category is the library. The fundamental difference is that a library's principal row element is a file, or document.
Almost any list can have a file as an attachment, but in those cases, the individual fields of the list are primary, and the attachment is just another piece of data in the list. In the case of the library, however, the file is considered the core element, and the fields are considered properties or metadata for that document.
Although it's convenient to think of lists and libraries as tables, for management and display purposes, their architectures are very different. This is described in more detail in chapter 3.
Depending on the template or site definition used to create a SharePoint site, certain lists are automatically created. The home page displayed in Figure 2-1 shows four lists and libraries in the left navigation bar (also called the Quick Launch bar): Shared Documents, Calendar, Tasks, and Team Discussion. The Announcements and Links lists both have Web Parts placed on the page, as does the Calendar ...
