Feature Comparison Between SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 for Farm Administrators (part 3)

Site Collection Options in SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010

A basic decision that all farm administrators must make at least once is which type of site collection template to use when configuring a new site collection. SharePoint Foundation 2010 provides a number of different templates for creating new site collections that are listed in Table 4. Team Site is typically the most widely used, but SharePoint Server 2010 Standard and Enterprise provide a number of other options, including the popular Publishing Portal, Document Center, and Records Center options.

It is worth mentioning that site collections can be nested; so, for example, a SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise farm administrator can create a top-level site collection using the Team Site template, and then create nested site collections using a Records Center, Social Meeting Workspace, and Business Intelligence Center if needed. Some additional configuration is needed to “tell” SharePoint that site collections are nested using the managed path tool.

Site Settings Compared in SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010

After a site collection has been created by the farm administrator, the site administrator will then have a selection of tools at his disposal. Table 5 shows the site collection administration tools available to site admins of SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 Standard and Enterprise site collections.

From a complexity standpoint, SharePoint Foundation 2010 can be seen as a better choice for organizations that don’t have experienced SharePoint administrators on staff, or where staff members are overwhelmed with daily activities and pursuing training is not a viable option. It can also be noted that a number of the tools not available in SharePoint Foundation 2010 could be very valuable for SharePoint administrators, such as Audit Log Reports and Site Collection Policies.

Figure 10 shows the AuditSettings.aspx page available to site administrators in SharePoint Server 2010 Standard or Enterprise. The audit log can audit events such as opening or downloading documents, viewing items, editing items, deleting items, searching site content, or editing users and permissions. This is a more complete list of activities that can be audited than the basic tools available in SharePoint Foundation 2010, which provides access to just the very limited Web Analytics tools found on the Site Settings page. Note that a SharePoint Foundation 2010 farm administrator can access more complete reports from the Central Administration site (discussed previously in the “Comparing the Monitoring Tools in SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise” section), but in most organizations, the number of users allowed to access the farm-level management tools is very limited.

Figure 10. Configure Audit Settings page in SharePoint Server 2010 Standard.

Site collection policies can be created by a site administrator in SharePoint Server 2010 Standard or Enterprise and can include retention policies, auditing, use of barcodes, and use of labels. These are powerful tools that can be very valuable or even essential to more complex document management solutions. For example, a retention policy created in a site collection policy causes a stage to activate a certain amount of time after the created date, last modified, or declared record date of an item, and allows the site administrator to determine what action is triggered at that stage, with the following options: move to recycling bin, permanently delete, transfer to another location, start a workflow, skip to next stage, declare record, delete previous drafts, and delete all previous versions. A site collection policy can be a handy house-cleaning tool, enabling all earlier versions of a document to be deleted after a period of time since the last modification (for example, one year).

Additional tools available within a publishing site in SharePoint Server 2010 Standard or Enterprise include the following:

• Site Collection Cache Profiles

• Site Collection Output Cache

• Site Collection Object Cache

• Content Type Service Application Error Log (Enterprise only)

• Variations

• Variation Labels

• Translatable Columns

• Variation Logs

• Suggested Content Browser Locations

Document Library and List Options in SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010

The next topic to review is the differences in list, library, and page options between the products. It is important to mention that the base functionality in document libraries is similar between SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 with the same basic tools available in the different versions. These include the following:

• New Document/Upload Document

• New Folder

• Edit Document

• Check Out/Check In/Discard Check Out

• View Properties/Edit Properties

• Version History

• Document Permissions

• Delete Document

• Email a Link

• Download a Copy/Send To/Manage Copies/Go To Source

• Workflows

• Publish/Unpublish/Approve/Reject/Cancel Approval

However, SharePoint Server 2010 Standard and Enterprise add the I Like It and the Tags and Notes options, which can be valuable to collect social information and metadata.

Within the document library settings for SharePoint Foundation 2010, you have a more limited selection of tools to work with, as shown in Table 6.

Table 7 continues the comparison between SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 capabilities by covering the different library and list options available from the create.aspx page on a site. As expected, some additional lists and libraries can be created if SharePoint Server 2010 Standard or Enterprise are installed, but these are limited and only include the Asset Library, Slide Library, Data Connection Library, Report Library, and Status List, as shown in the table.

Web Parts Available in SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010

The final comparison for this article covers web parts available in the different versions of SharePoint 2010 products. Web parts are the modules of code that can be added to a page to provide views of data contained within lists or libraries on the site or to perform other tasks such as filter data or display a video on a page. Essentially, web parts are the units of construction the page designer has at his disposal to present text, data, and graphics to site visitors, so the more web parts available, the more flexibility the designer has in creating pages and sites.

It stands to reason that SharePoint Foundation 2010 would provide a smaller selection of web parts for use by site administrators after a site has been created. Table 8 lists the web parts available in SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 Standard and Enterprise when viewing the Web Part Gallery from a site created using the Team Site site collection template. Although this is a daunting list, and the average site administrator won’t need to know what each and every web part does, the list is helpful from a design standpoint, especially if an organization is trying to decide between SharePoint Foundation 2010 and the SharePoint Server 2010 products and whether SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise is needed.

For example, the Business Data web parts can be found only in SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise, along with the KPI web part, again clarifying that adding that functionality to a web part page or dashboard page requires SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise. Likewise, the People web parts, Search web parts, and OWA web parts are not included in SharePoint Foundation 2010. So, if that level of functionality is desired, the SharePoint Server 2010 products are needed.