Components of Office Live Small Business

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This topic provides an overview of the components that make up the Microsoft Office Live Small Business application platform and the components that interact with the platform.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Office Live Small Business is built with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 technology, which offers many advanced features to assist in application development. Office Live Small Business incorporates many, but not all of these features. For more information, see About Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Features Used in Office Live Small Business.

Applications, workspaces, lists, and libraries

Applications in Office Live Small Business are primarily used to manage and share information, while workspaces are used to collaborate with a group on documents, projects, and events. Both have a dashboard as their default page, default Web Parts for the dashboard, and selected lists and/or libraries.

A list is a Web site component that stores and displays information that has been added to it. Office Live Small Business lists are customizations of lists found in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Office Live Small Business list templates are templates that define the schema and layout of a list. Document and picture libraries assist you in authoring and managing documents, and help you to ensure the integrity of those documents with enhanced features, including the following:

  • The option to require document checkout before editing
  • The ability to view past revisions
  • The ability to restore to previous versions
  • The ability to set document-specific security

For more information about the applications, workspaces, lists and libraries that are included with Office Live Small Business, see About Office Live Small Business Applications.

Dashboards and Web Parts

A dashboard is the landing page for applications and workspaces. Dashboards provide a comprehensive look at the information inside an application or workspace by consolidating lists, libraries, text, images and other data into a dynamic information portal. The page is customizable, so that you can include and quickly access the information that's most relevant to your work and interests.

A Web Part is a Web page component that appears as a panel of information on dashboards. A Web Part contains data from lists, libraries, or other features within an application or workspace. You can add as many Web Parts as you want to a dashboard. The Web Parts provide the information from an application or workspace that is most important to you in a consolidated information portal.

Alerts and workflows

An alert is an e-mail notification generated by Office Live Small Business, when there is a change to a document, list, or document library.

A workflow is the automated movement of documents or library items through a specific sequence of actions or tasks related to a business process. You can use workflows to consistently manage common business processes, such as document approval or review. For more information about workflows, see How to: Configure a Workflow with Office Live Small Business.

Authentication Using Windows Live ID

Office Live Small Business performs authentication through Microsoft Windows Live ID (formerly called Microsoft Passport), which requires only a single sign in for member sites. After a user is signed in, Office Live Small Business manages permissions to resources based on the user’s identity.

Data sharing

Data in a business application or workspace can be shared with a Office Live Small Business public Web site, either by displaying the data on the Web site or by collecting information from site visitors and then adding that information into a business application or workspace. For more information, see How to: Collect Data from Visitors to a Public Web Site and How to: Display Data on a Public Web Site.

In addition, data from a variety of external data sources, including RSS feeds and Web services, can be displayed on a dashboard, and data in a business application or workspace can be sent to an external source. For information about displaying external data on a dashboard, see How to: Display Data or RSS Feeds from an External Source in a Dashboard.

Public Web site

You can customize the public Web site with the following Office Live Small Business tools:

  • Site Designer — Use to choose themes, colors, and other customizations
  • Page Editor — Use to customize zones by changing the text and inserting available custom items
  • Web modules — Use to add customizations such as a contact form, HTML code, current weather conditions in a location that you specify, or a stock ticker

In addition, you can use Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 to design your own public Web site. For more information, see Office Live Small Business Help.

Customizing with SharePoint Designer 2007

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 provides professional tools for customizing interactive solutions for Office Live Small Business applications and workspaces. By using SharePoint Designer 2007, you can insert and configure workflows, insert and customize Web Parts, a variety of other customizations. For more information, see About Customizing with SharePoint Designer 2007.

The following figure illustrates the components of Office Live Small Business and how they interact with each other.

Office Live Components

Office Live Small Business Components