Part V: Access and Windows SharePoint Services
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Although workarounds exist for this limitation, it can be difficult to restrict users to only certain
portions of a SharePoint application. In general, after a user is authenticated by SharePoint’s secu-
rity system, the user is able to access the lists, calendars, and other features supported by the
SharePoint site. Restricting users means determining which features should be allowed for which
sets of users, and individually setting permissions for those features throughout the SharePoint site.
Most Web applications, on the other hand, present only the features the developer has specified.SharePoint was never meant to be a general-purpose Web development tool; instead, it was
designed and built primarily as a collaborative platform for sharing data and documents. This
means that SharePoint pages are built from templates, rather than from free-form HTML. As a
result, all SharePoint pages share certain appearance features (see Figure 34.3).FIGURE 34.3A typical SharePoint page
Page tabs “Bread crumbs” Search HelpNavigation Pane Recycle Bin List
In most cases, the similarities between pages hosted on different SharePoint sites are an asset, not a
hindrance. After a user is familiar with SharePoint and SharePoint pages, no further instruction is
needed, so users are productive more quickly than with applications where each page is different.
Common tasks such as adding a new item to a list or editing an existing item are the same in every
SharePoint page.