SharePoint 2016 For Dummies

Chapter 7

Getting Familiar with Apps

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding the concept of a SharePoint app

Adding apps to your site

Configuring a List app

Figuring out how apps fit in with the rest of SharePoint

The concept of an app is relatively new in SharePoint. An app is Microsoft’s attempt to help stem confusion because getting your head around lists and libraries is difficult, especially when you start customizing them. For example, say you start with a custom list and then add columns to make it specific to customers. Is it still just a custom list or is it a Customers list or what? Microsoft posed this question to a number of focus groups and found that people were more comfortable with the concept of an app than a list or library. The result is that every list and library is now called an app.

Apps don’t end at lists and libraries, though. Web developers can create apps that do all sorts of cool things. Because SharePoint 2016 is built using HTML standards, a web developer can take any web functionality and roll it into a SharePoint app. Third parties can put up their apps for sale on the online SharePoint App Store, which you access from within SharePoint.

In this chapter, you delve into apps. You find out how to add apps to your site and how to configure apps. You find out that most apps are based on lists. And finally, you see how to configure these list-based apps.

Introducing SharePoint Apps

The concept of an app in general is nothing new. If you use a smartphone, ...