1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

access control list (ACL): A list of access control entries (ACEs) that collectively describe the security rules for authorizing access to some resource; for example, an object or set of objects.

Active Directory: The Windows implementation of a general-purpose directory service, which uses LDAP as its primary access protocol. Active Directory stores information about a variety of objects in the network such as user accounts, computer accounts, groups, and all related credential information used by Kerberos [MS-KILE]. Active Directory is either deployed as Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) or Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS), which are both described in [MS-ADOD]: Active Directory Protocols Overview.

alert: An Internet message that is sent to subscribers automatically to notify them when user-defined criteria are met. Alerts are generated automatically when items such as documents, webpages, list items, sites, or other resources on a server are changed.

anonymous user: A user who presents no credentials when identifying himself or herself. The process for determining an anonymous user can differ based on the authentication protocol, and the documentation for the relevant authentication protocol should be consulted.

assembly name: The name of a collection of one or more files that is versioned and deployed as a unit. See also assembly.

attachment: An external file that is included with an Internet message or associated with an item in a SharePoint list.

back-end database server: A server that hosts data, configuration settings, and stored procedures that are associated with one or more applications.

backward link: A hyperlink between a referenced document and a referencing party. For example, if Document A contains a hyperlink to Document B, then Document B has a backward link to Document A.

Boolean: An operation or expression that can be evaluated only as either true or false.

bot: A structured HTML comment that is processed by a front-end web server when the containing document is opened by or saved to the server. Also referred to as web bot.

build dependency set: A serialized .NET Framework object that represents a set of file dependencies.

change log: A log of changes, such as add and delete, that are made to objects that are stored on a back-end database server. Applications can use this information to identify changes that occurred on those objects.

check out: The process of retrieving a writable copy of a file or project from a source repository. This locks the file for editing to prevent other users from overwriting or editing it inadvertently.

checked out: A publishing level that indicates that a document has been created and locked for exclusive editing by a user in a version control system.

Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML): An XML-based language that is used to describe various elements, such as queries and views, in sites that are based on SharePoint Products and Technologies.

collation order: A rule for establishing a sequence for textual information.

Component Object Model (COM): An object-oriented programming model that defines how objects interact within a single process or between processes. In COM, clients have access to an object through interfaces implemented on the object. For more information, see [MS-DCOM].

content database: A database that is stored on a back-end database server and contains stored procedures, site collections, and the contents of those site collections.

content type: A named and uniquely identifiable collection of settings and fields that store metadata for individual items in a SharePoint list. One or more content types can be associated with a list, which restricts the contents to items of those types.

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): A high-precision atomic time standard that approximately tracks Universal Time (UT). It is the basis for legal, civil time all over the Earth. Time zones around the world are expressed as positive and negative offsets from UTC. In this role, it is also referred to as Zulu time (Z) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In these specifications, all references to UTC refer to the time at UTC-0 (or GMT).

current user: The user who is authenticated during processing operations on a front-end web server or a back-end database server.

current version: The latest version of a document that is available to a user, based on the permissions of the user and the publishing level of the document.

default view: The layout and organization of a document or list that appears automatically when users open that document or display that list.

directory name: A segment of a store-relative URL that refers to a directory. A directory name is everything that appears before the last slash in a store-relative form URL.

dirty: The condition of an entity, such as a component or a file, that indicates that the entity or properties of the entity were changed after the entity was last saved.

discussion board: A list in which users can read, post, and reply to messages from other users who are members of the same discussion board.

display name: A text string that is used to identify a principal or other object in the user interface. Also referred to as title.

displayed version: Document version information that is formatted for display in the user interface. The displayed version uses the format MajorVersion.MinorVersion, where MajorVersion is the published version number and MinorVersion is the draft version number, separated by a decimal point. See also major version and minor version.

document identifier: A GUID that identifies a document.

document library: A type of list that is a container for documents and folders.

document property: A name/value pair that serves as metadata for a document.

document stream: A byte stream that is associated with a document, such as the content of a file. Some documents do not have document streams.

domain group: A container for security and distribution groups. A domain group can also contain other domain groups.

draft: A version of a document or list item that does not have a publishing level of "Published" or "Checked Out".

dynamic web template: An HTML-based master copy of a page that contains settings, formatting, and elements such as text, graphics, page layout, styles, and regions of a page that can be modified. Dynamic web templates have a .dwt file name extension.

editor: The user who last modified an item or document in a SharePoint list.

email address: A string that identifies a user and enables the user to receive Internet messages.

event host: A site collection, site, list, list item, workflow, feature, or content type that hosts an event receiver.

event receiver: A structured modular component that enables built-in or user-defined managed code classes to act upon objects, such as list items, lists, or content types, when specific triggering actions occur.

event sink: A structured, modular component that enables built-in or user-defined classes to act on documents in document libraries when specific triggering actions occur. Event sinks are a deprecated, implementation-specific capability of Windows SharePoint Services 2.0. In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, they are replaced by the capabilities of event receivers.

external group: A group whose membership is controlled by an external component, such as an Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain group or a role that is managed by a role provider in ASP.NET.

external security provider: An external object that manages permissions on a site.

feature: A package of SharePoint elements that can be activated or deactivated for a specific feature scope.

field: (1) An element or attribute in a data source that can contain data.

(2) A container for metadata within a SharePoint list and associated list items.

folder: A file system construct. File systems organize a volume's data by providing a hierarchy of objects, which are referred to as folders or directories, that contain files and can also contain other folders.

form: A document with a set of controls into which users can enter information. Controls on a form can be bound to elements in the data source of the form, such as fields and groups. See also bind.

forward link: A hyperlink between a referenced document and a referencing party. For example, if Document A contains a hyperlink to Document B, Document A has a forward link to Document B.

ghosted: A property that is not deleted by the server if the element is not included in a Sync <Change> request message.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

historical version: Any version of a document or list item that is not one of the current versions. Depending on configuration settings, historical versions can be retained in a back-end database server, and might not be visible to specific users.

host header: An Internet host and port number that identifies a network resource.

HTTP GET: An HTTP method for retrieving a resource, as described in [RFC2616].

HTTP HEAD: An HTTP method for retrieving header information for a resource, as described in [RFC2616].

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): An application of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that uses tags to mark elements in a document, as described in [HTML].

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): An application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web.

internal version number: A number that increases monotonically and is used to identify conflicts when saving an item.

language code identifier (LCID): A 32-bit number that identifies the user interface human language dialect or variation that is supported by an application or a client computer.

leaf name: The segment of a URL that follows the last slash. If the resource is a directory, the leaf name can be an empty string.

link: An attribute value that refers to a directory object and whose Attribute-Schema object specifies an even value for the linkId attribute. Also referred to as forward link.

list: A container within a SharePoint site that stores list items. A list has a customizable schema that is composed of one or more fields.

list identifier: A GUID that is used to identify a list in a site collection.

list item: An individual entry within a SharePoint list. Each list item has a schema that maps to fields in the list that contains the item, depending on the content type of the item.

list item identifier: See item identifier.

list template: An XML-based definition of list settings, including fields and views, and optionally list items. List templates are stored in .stp files in the content database.

list view: A named collection of settings for querying and displaying items in a SharePoint list. There are two types of views: Personal, which can be used only by the user who created the view; and Public, which can be used by all users who have permission to access to the site.

locale: A collection of rules and data that are specific to a language and a geographical area. A locale can include information about sorting rules, date and time formatting, numeric and monetary conventions, and character classification.

login name: A string that is used to identify a user or entity to an operating system, directory service, or distributed system. For example, in Windows-integrated authentication, a login name uses the form "DOMAIN\username".

Meeting Workspace site: A SharePoint site that is based on a Meeting Workspace site template and has a template ID value of "2". A Meeting Workspace site is used for planning, posting, and working together on meeting materials.

metadict: A dictionary that has strongly typed values.

minor version: An iteration of a software component, document, or list item that is in progress or has changed only slightly from the previous version. For an item on a SharePoint site, the minor version number is never "0" (zero) and is incremented for each new version of an item, unless a major version is explicitly published. When minor versioning is disabled on a SharePoint site, only major version numbers are incremented, and the minor version is always "0" (zero).

page: A file that consists of HTML and can include references to graphics, scripts, or dynamic content such as Web Parts.

permission level: A set of permissions that can be granted to principals or SharePoint groups on an entity such as a site, list, folder, item, or document.

personal view: A view of a list that is created by a user for personal use. The view is unavailable to other users.

principal: An authenticated entity that initiates a message or channel in a distributed system.

published: A condition of portions of a workbook that are marked as being available to the user when that workbook is processed by a protocol server.

publishing level: An integer that is assigned to a document to indicate the publishing status of that version of the document.

Recycle Bin: The location where deleted files are stored until they are either restored, if they were deleted erroneously, or destroyed permanently.

result set: A list of records that results from running a stored procedure or query, or applying a filter. The structure and content of the data in a result set varies according to the implementation.

return code: A code that is used to report the outcome of a procedure or to influence subsequent events when a routine or process terminates (returns) and passes control of the system to another routine. For example, a return code can indicate whether an operation was successful.

role: A symbolic name that defines a class of users for a set of components. A role defines which users can call interfaces on a component.

role assignment: An association between a principal or a site group and a role definition.

role definition: A named set of permissions for a SharePoint site. See also permission level.

scope identifier: A GUID that uniquely identifies a scope within a site collection.

security principal: An identity that can be used to regulate access to resources. A security principal can be a user, a computer, or a group that represents a set of users.

security provider: A Component Object Model (COM) object that provides methods that return custom information about the security of a site.

Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI): An API that allows connected applications to call one of several security providers to establish authenticated connections and to exchange data securely over those connections. It is equivalent to Generic Security Services (GSS)-API, and the two are on-the-wire compatible.

server-relative URL: A relative URL that does not specify a scheme or host, and assumes a base URI of the root of the host, as described in [RFC3986].

short-term lock: A type of check-out process in Windows SharePoint Services. Short-term checkouts are implicit and are done when a file is opened for editing. A lock is applied to the file while it is being edited in the client application so that other users cannot modify it. After the client application is closed, the lock is released.

site: A group of related pages and data within a SharePoint site collection. The structure and content of a site is based on a site definition. Also referred to as SharePoint site and web site.

site collection: A set of websites that are in the same content database, have the same owner, and share administration settings. A site collection can be identified by a GUID or the URL of the top-level site for the site collection. Each site collection contains a top-level site, can contain one or more subsites, and can have a shared navigational structure.

site collection administrator: A user who has administrative permissions for a site collection.

site collection identifier: A GUID that identifies a site collection. In stored procedures, the identifier is typically "@SiteId" or "@WebSiteId". In databases, the identifier is typically "SiteId/tp_SiteId".

site identifier: A GUID that is used to identify a site in a site collection.

site template: An XML-based definition of site settings, including formatting, lists, views, and elements such as text, graphics, page layout, and styles. Site templates are stored in .stp files in the content database.

stored procedure: A precompiled collection of SQL statements and, optionally, control-of-flow statements that are stored under a name and processed as a unit. They are stored in a SQL database and can be run with one call from an application. Stored procedures return an integer return code and can additionally return one or more result sets. Also referred to as sproc.

store-relative form: See store-relative URL.

Structured Query Language (SQL): A database query and programming language that is widely used for accessing, querying, updating, and managing data in relational database systems.

subsite: A complete website that is stored in a named subdirectory of another website. The parent website can be the top-level site of a site collection or another subsite. Also referred to as subweb.

system alert: An alert notification that is sent by a protocol server to the user to whom a task or issue is assigned.

SystemID: A binary identifier that is used to uniquely identify a security principal. For Windows integrated authentication, it is a security identifier (SID). For an ASP.NET Forms Authentication provider, it is the binary representation that is derived from a combination of the provider name and the user login name.

thicket: A means of storing a complex HTML document with its related files. It consists of a thicket main file and a hidden thicket folder that contains a thicket manifest and a set of thicket supporting files that, together, store the referenced content of the document.

thicket folder: A hidden folder that contains a thicket manifest and a set of thicket supporting files that, together, store the referenced content of a complex HTML document.

thicket main file: The core file of a complex HTML document. It references contained elements such as graphics, pictures, or other media that are stored as thicket supporting files in a thicket folder. The thicket main file is the target that is used by a protocol client to access the content of the document.

thicket supporting file: A file that contains a graphic element, a picture, or other media that is referenced by the thicket main file and is stored in the thicket folder.

Transact-Structured Query Language (T-SQL): A language that contains the commands that are used to manage instances of Microsoft SQL Server, create and manage all objects in an instance of SQL Server, and to insert, retrieve, modify, and delete all data in SQL Server tables. Transact-SQL is an extension of the language that is defined in the SQL standards that are published by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

unghosted: A document, column, or content type whose content is stored in a content database instead of a front-end file system. Also referred to as customized.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL): A string of characters in a standardized format that identifies a document or resource on the World Wide Web. The format is as specified in [RFC1738].

unique identifier (UID): A pair consisting of a GUID and a version sequence number to identify each resource uniquely. The UID is used to track the object for its entire lifetime through any number of times that the object is modified or renamed.

user identifier: An integer that uniquely identifies a security principal as distinct from all other security principals and site groups within the same site collection.

user interface (UI) version: A single 4-byte integer that stores the version number that appears as a document version number in the user interface. The lower 9 bits correspond to the minor version number of the displayed version. The remaining 23 bits correspond to the major version number of the displayed version. See also displayed version.

UTF-8: A byte-oriented standard for encoding Unicode characters, defined in the Unicode standard. Unless specified otherwise, this term refers to the UTF-8 encoding form specified in [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] section 3.9.

version: See displayed version, historical version, major version, and minor version.

view: See form view (Microsoft InfoPath), list view (SharePoint Products and Technologies), or View (Microsoft Business Connectivity Services).

web application: A container in a configuration database that stores administrative settings and entry-point URLs for site collections.

web bot: See bot.

web discussion: A component and add-in that enables users to enter comments about documents and pages without modifying the actual content of those documents or pages.

Web Part: A reusable component that contains or generates web-based content such as XML, HTML, and scripting code. It has a standard property schema and displays that content in a cohesive unit on a webpage. See also Web Parts Page.

Web Part Page: An ASP.NET webpage that includes Web Part controls that enable users to customize the page, such as specifying which information to display. Referred to as Web Parts Page in SharePoint Foundation 2010.

Web Part zone: A structured HTML section of a Web Parts Page that contains zero or more Web Parts and can be configured to control the organization and format of those Web Parts.

Welcome page: A page, such as default.aspx, that can be specified as the default redirect target when users browse to a URL without specifying a leaf name.

Windows code page: A table that relates the character codes (code point values) that are used by an application to keys on a keyboard or to characters on a display. This provides support for character sets and keyboard layouts for different countries or regions. Also referred to as character set or charset.

workflow: A structured modular component that enables the automated movement of documents or items through a specific sequence of actions or tasks that are related to built-in or user-defined business processes.

XML: The Extensible Markup Language, as described in [XML1.0].

XML namespace: A collection of names that is used to identify elements, types, and attributes in XML documents identified in a URI reference [RFC3986]. A combination of XML namespace and local name allows XML documents to use elements, types, and attributes that have the same names but come from different sources. For more information, see [XMLNS-2ED].

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.