1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

absolute URL: The full Internet address of a page or other World Wide Web resource. The absolute URL includes a protocol, such as "http," a network location, and an optional path and file name — for example, http://www.treyresearch.net/.

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

authentication: The act of proving an identity to a server while providing key material that binds the identity to subsequent communications.

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

bucket web: A site that is used to store content for a specific category.

complex type: An element that can contain other elements or attributes and appears as <complexType> in an XML document. See also simple type.

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.

context: A collection of context properties that describe an execution environment.

context site: A site that corresponds to the context of the current request.

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.

data source: A database, web service, disk, file, or other collection of information from which data is queried or submitted. Supported data sources vary based on application and data provider.

datetime: A data type that represents the date and time when a document can be normalized and indexed as a numeric value by a search application. The range and degree of granularity varies according to search application and implementation.

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

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.

document: An object in a content database such as a file, folder, list, or site. Each object is identified by a URI.

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

endpoint: A communication port that is exposed by an application server for a specific shared service and to which messages can be addressed.

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

file: A single, discrete unit of content.

flags: A set of values used to configure or report options or settings.

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.

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).

group: A named collection of users who share similar access permissions or roles.

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.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS): An extension of HTTP that securely encrypts and decrypts web page requests. In some older protocols, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Sockets Layer" is still used (Secure Sockets Layer has been deprecated). For more information, see [SSL3] and [RFC5246].

index server: A server that is assigned the task of crawling.

item: A unit of content that can be indexed and searched by a search application.

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 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 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.

localization: The process of adapting an application or documentation, including text and non-text elements, to meet the language, cultural, and political expectations and requirements of a specific geographic country or region.

parent site: The site that is above the current site in the hierarchy of the site collection.

permission: A rule that is associated with an object and that regulates which users can gain access to the object and in what manner. See also rights.

personal site: A type of SharePoint site that is used by an individual user for personal productivity. The site appears to the user as My Site.

picture library: A type of document library that is optimized for storing digital pictures or graphics.

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

root folder: The folder at the top of a hierarchy of folders in a list.

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].

simple type: An element that can contain only text and appears as <simpleType> in an XML document or any attribute of an element. Attributes are considered simple types because they contain only text. See also complex type.

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 membership: The status of being a member of a site and having a defined set of user rights for accessing or managing content on that site.

SOAP: A lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP uses XML technologies to define an extensible messaging framework, which provides a message construct that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols. The framework has been designed to be independent of any particular programming model and other implementation-specific semantics. SOAP 1.2 supersedes SOAP 1.1. See [SOAP1.2-1/2003].

SOAP action: The HTTP request header field used to indicate the intent of the SOAP request, using a URI value. See [SOAP1.1] section 6.1.1 for more information.

SOAP body: A container for the payload data being delivered by a SOAP message to its recipient. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.3 for more information.

SOAP envelope: A container for SOAP message information and the root element of a SOAP document. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.1 for more information.

SOAP fault: A container for error and status information within a SOAP message. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.4 for more information.

SOAP message: An XML document consisting of a mandatory SOAP envelope, an optional SOAP header, and a mandatory SOAP body. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5 for more information.

SOAP operation: An action that can be performed by a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) service, as described in [SOAP1.1].

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.

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].

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

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 Services Description Language (WSDL): An XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints that operate on messages that contain either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. The operations and messages are described abstractly and are bound to a concrete network protocol and message format in order to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into abstract endpoints, which describe a network service. WSDL is extensible, which allows the description of endpoints and their messages regardless of the message formats or network protocols that are used.

website: 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 site.

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].

XML namespace prefix: An abbreviated form of an XML namespace, as described in [XML].

XML node: The smallest unit of a valid, complete structure in an XML document. For example, a node can represent an element, an attribute, or a text string.

XML schema definition (XSD): The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard language that is used in defining XML schemas. Schemas are useful for enforcing structure and constraining the types of data that can be used validly within other XML documents. XML schema definition refers to the fully specified and currently recommended standard for use in authoring XML schemas.

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.