Читать книгу SharePoint For Dummies - Rosemarie Withee - Страница 47

SharePoint extends the way you think about adding functionality to a site. In previous versions of SharePoint, all containers were considered a type of list. What a list meant was fairly generic. You might have a list that provides calendar functionality, or you might have a list that provides discussion board functionality. The concept of a special list with some functionality was one of the hardest things to get our minds around when we started working with SharePoint. SharePoint now removes the confusion by calling everything an app. Instead of a specialized calendar list, you now have a Calendar app. Need a discussion board? You now add the Discussion Board app.

Microsoft has also expanded the ability to develop custom solutions for SharePoint called add-ins. The result is that third parties or in-house developers can create add-ins for any purpose you can conceive. Imagine you’re in Accounts Payable and you use SharePoint to manage your invoice documents. You might request an add-in from your IT department to route documents through the various approvals before finally being submitted to the payment system.

If you use SharePoint Online, you can browse, purchase, and install apps and add-ins from the SharePoint Store without leaving SharePoint. It’s similar to using the App Store on an iPhone or the Google Play store on an Android phone to buy and download an app.

SharePoint has the ability to use apps on your mobile device as well. Since so many things are called “apps,” this can lead to some confusion. Just remember that an app can live inside a web browser or on your mobile phone. And on your mobile phone you can use the main SharePoint Mobile App or you can create your own SharePoint apps using PowerApps, which we cover in detail in Chapter 16. For example, now you can take your Accounts Payable app that you built using a SharePoint list and turn it into a real live iOS or Android app that people install directly on their devices. The backend is still using SharePoint, but you have expanded your regular SharePoint web-based app into the mobile realm.

Many SharePoint power users are comfortable with the concept of a data container called a list. You can still start with a blank list and add functionality as required. Nothing has changed in this ability. You are now just creating your own custom app by starting with the Custom List app. After you give your new app a name, it appears alongside all the other apps.