7. General Application Settings
The General Application Settings section
provides configuration of InfoPath services, SharePoint Designer,
Content Deployment, External Service Connections, and Search. Links to
search administration and crawler impact rules are identical to those
when managing the settings for a SharePoint Search Service Application
in Application Management.
Microsoft introduced InfoPath services in
SharePoint Server 2007 as an enterprise feature and allows SharePoint
to host custom-developed InfoPath forms. InfoPath forms are Microsoft’s
answer to hosting dynamic forms, which business users otherwise would
accomplish with third-party or custom-developed ASP.NET forms, PDF
forms, or Word forms. Since SharePoint 2010, InfoPath fully integrates
into the platform, rather than being an add-on service like that of
SharePoint 2007. Using SharePoint Designer, developers can convert
regular list edit forms into InfoPath forms for custom data input and
form design for users. This subsection of the General Application
Settings section allows you to upload form templates, for use across
the farm, manage data connections—in the case where forms call out to
SharePoint or external data sources to show data in forms—and configure
InfoPath services to use web services.
Figure 9 shows the section for General Application Settings in Central Administration.
8. Apps
The Apps section in Central Administration is
new to SharePoint 2013. Microsoft has introduced the concept of the
Apps, App Store, and Marketplace to Office and SharePoint. The idea is
that developers will now develop small applications that integrate with
any Office application and SharePoint, and authenticate users through a
common OAUTH protocol.
This section in Central Administration provides
configuration with a Microsoft App Store, integrated apps in the farm,
and permission of apps. Monitoring of apps and configuration of app
licenses is also possible from this section.
Figure 10 shows the Apps section in Central Administration.
Note At
the time of this writing, SharePoint 2013 is still in beta—notice the
icons for the App settings are generic icons, used by Microsoft as
placeholders in beta versions of SharePoint.
Other Noteworthy Areas of Central Administration
Before we move on to the next section in this
document, I would like to highlight some other noteworthy areas in
Central Administration that you should be aware but that do not warrant
a section of their own in this chapter.
10. Navigation
SharePoint 2010 introduced the ribbon to
users of SharePoint. Prior to SharePoint 2010, navigation consisted of
page links, the site actions menu, and tabs. Introducing the ribbon
into SharePoint followed Microsoft’s strategy of enhancing navigation
and control in Office applications. Anyone who has used SharePoint 2010
or Office 2010 applications is likely very familiar with how the ribbon
works, with icons appearing on the ribbon bar, based on current context.
As you would expect, Microsoft continued the use of the ribbon in SharePoint 2013. Figure 11 shows an example of the ribbon in SharePoint 2013 within the Application Management section of Central Administration.
A New Look
Since the release of Windows 8 tablets and
upcoming release of Windows 8 for the desktop, Microsoft has adopted a
new look for the development of the user interface in their
applications. At present the name of this new look is being debated
because Microsoft gave it the name “Metro,” which has recently come
under fire because of a copyright issue, so for now the new look goes
by the name “Windows 8 UI.”
The new look is crisp and clean. Personally, it
took me a little while to get used to the plainness of the UI, but once
I embraced the clean, no-cluttered, and rapid rendering user
experience, I soon learned to appreciate it. SharePoint 2013 now
includes the Windows 8 UI look. I shall not belabor this point, as you
can see it for yourself by looking back at the various screenshots in
this chapter and by installing SharePoint 2013 and immerse yourself in
the experience.
