SharePoint® 2010 Business Intelligence 24-Hour Trainer

9

Creating Your First SharePoint Site for Business Intelligence

A SharePoint site is the principal method for collaboration in any SharePoint setup, whether that is in a standalone server or a farmed server. The SharePoint site is where all users go to find their libraries that contain Excel files, view custom dashboards, or even check on something simple like the status of an item that is part of a task list. All of these different components are essential to the day-to-day operations of many companies, and as such, need to be configured correctly in your site. With the addition of several new site templates in SharePoint 2010 the configuration has become easier than ever. You have a lot of different options to choose from, so this lesson is here to help you make the correct choices.

UNDERSTANDING WEB APPLICATIONS, SITE COLLECTIONS, AND SITES

Before creating a site in SharePoint it is essential you understand the hierarchy of the SharePoint site. What is the difference between a site and a web application? Does a site collection belong to a web application or the other way around? The following list shows an outline of the site hierarchy.

• Web Application
  • Site Collection 1
    • Site 1
    • Site 2
  • Site Collection 2
    • Site 1
• Sub Site 1

At the top of this hierarchy is the web application. In its simplest form this is a website in IIS. You will notice in Figure 9-1 that both Central Administration and the custom application (called SharePoint – 80) are shown as separate entries in the ...