Active Directory

Active Directory a directory service created by Microsoft for Windows domain networks to gives you out-of-the-box functionality needed to centrally configure and administer user accounts, computer accounts, groups, and all related credential information used by windows and SharePoint.For details: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa772217(v=vs.85).aspx 

Server Farm

Server farm is group of computers working as a unit also known as server cluster .A Web server farm can be either (1) a Web site that has more than one server, or (2) an Internet service provider (ISP) that provides Web hosting services using multiple servers.

 To scale out SharePoint can be installing on a single-server or multiple servers.A SharePoint server farm is a set of one or more web servers and a database server known as a Configuration Database. The name of the configuration database is held in the Registry on the local server at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\ Web Server Extensions\12.0\Secure\ConfigDB.

Web Application

A SharePoint Web Application is an IIS website that has been configured to run a SharePoint site. When you create a new Web Application with SharePoint, it creates a new database named a Content Database.

Site

Site is a collection of pages that is used to store list of documents, discussion, events, task and many other types of information. Site provides controlled access to share information among user and only Authorize users are allowed to access shared information.

Site Collection 

Site Collection is collection site which is logical grouping of multiple sharepoint site.

List

Lists SharePoint store data is in some form of a list. They are similar to tables in a database; they can contain a variety of content, and also provide Views of information stored in them.

Libraries

Document Libraries are document storage, but they also store the document's metadata and version history.

Site Column

Site Column is a reusable column of a list or document library that can be used across the multiple list or document libraries where it is created. After updating Site Column in a single place and impact will be visible on each point where Site Column has been used.

Content types

Content types are reusable type definition that define the item template in SharePoint list and libraries .Using it we can define items or document type or documents template and workflows. Content types enable you to manage the settings for a category of information in a centralized, reusable way.

Web Part and Web Part Page

Like ASP.NET controls Web Part are interface element in SharePoint. Web Part Pages are extensible HTML-based pages that are containers of Web Parts. Users can able to customize or personalize the pages.

Workflow

WF workflow is basically consisting of set of activities which are executed which built on the Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) that is part of the .NET Framework.

In the flow of Sequential and State Machine Sequential has start, end and moves forward but no backward is supported. whether  in State Machine it has start, end not necessary, can move backward. Workflow is running in a sharepoint  site can programmatically get access to it by the property workflow.

CAML

Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML) is a language based on XML to define the fields and views that are used in sites and lists and helps in creating and customizing sites.

Details in:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms426449.aspx

Example:

   

       

           

            List

       

   

   

       

   

BDC and BCS

Business Connectivity Services is a new set of technologies for retrieving, editing, updating, and deleting data from external systems (for e.g. third party system ERP or CRM database). BCS enhances SharePoint platform’s capabilities with out-of-box features, services and tools that streamline development of solutions with deep integration of external data and services.

Different Between BCS and BDC

Even though the BDC made it relatively easy to create read-only solutions that display data in the Business Data List Web Part, it was not so simple to create a solution that enabled users to make changes and write that data back to the external store.

BCS on the other hand, provides you with Read-Write capable connectivity from Client and Server to Database, WCF/Web Services and .Net Sources.You SharePoint Designer 2010 and VS 2010 rapid development tools to access external data. For e.g. you can now create read-write connections to external database from SharePoint designer and then can create webpart\other solutions to surface that data.

The BCS data can further be used in other SharePoint Fetaures such as Business Intelligence,Collaboration and in Enterprise Search.

Windows SharePoint Services (wss)
This is a free product from microsoft (comes with windows server). it gives you all the basic functionality of sharepoint including document libraries, lists, even things like email integration.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS )
This is an add-on to wss which gives some very cool additional features. some examples are excel services, infopath forms server, ecm (enterprise content management) and moss enterprise search. this is not free.