Defining Terminology

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To understa* the relationships between the different artifacts that comprise a Windows SharePoint Services application,* it is important to be clear about terminology. The following definitions are based on those from the online* book,*Design and build sites for Office SharePoint Server 2007, on TechNet. They have been tailored to suit this guidance.

Figure 1 illustrates the relationships between the artifacts that comprise a SharePoint application and where each artifact is stored.

Figure 1
SharePoint artifacts

The artifacts that comprise a SharePoint application include the following:

• Solution artifacts. Solution artifacts are created by developers or designers as files and are packaged into a SharePoint solution. After the solution deploys, its artifacts apply across all sites within the deployed scope. The deployed scope can either be within a SharePoint farm or a SharePoint Web application, depending on the option that is chosen at deployment. A subset of the solution artifacts is customizable at the site or site collection level using the browser or SharePoint Designer. An uncustomized solution artifact is often referred to as ghosted, and a customized solution artifact is often referred to as *unghosted.*Although the terms "ghosted" and "unghosted" have been used in SharePoint documentation and blogs, this documentation uses the terms customized and uncustomized because the terms are clearer and consistent with current versions of the SharePoint documentation.
• Authored artifacts. Authored artifacts are either customizations of solution artifacts or new artifacts that are created using SharePoint Designer or the Web browser after a solution is deployed. Typically, authored artifacts are created by designers or site administrators. Authored artifacts affect the look, feel, and structure of an application. Authored artifacts reside in the content database. Customizations are scoped at the site collection or site level, depending on the type of authored artifact.
• Web content. Web content is content such as text and images that is created by content authors. Typically, Web content is created using an application such as Microsoft Word or with the Web browser. It is either added directly to the site or deployed through a Web content management system.

When deciding on a deployment strategy, it is important to understand the scope of the different artifacts, where they are stored, and the artifacts that can be customized.

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This content is outdated and is no longer being maintained. It is provided as a courtesy for individuals who are still using these technologies. This page may contain URLs that were valid when originally published, but now link to sites or pages that no longer exist.

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