... A developer's blog: WSS(Sharepoint foundation) from Developers perspective

WSS (Windows Sharepoint Services) is also known as Sharepoint foundation 2010 latest version of WSS. As Sharepoint is the buzz word in technology world so everybody working in Microsoft technology wants to know about it. So here is a little piece of knowledge I'm going to share.

If you are going to install it then below are the system requirements

OS: Windows 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows 7
4 GB Ram, 30-40 GB of HD space
Processor: Core 2 duo intel
For developers: Visual Studio 2010 professional
Application Server: IIS 6.0 or greater

What is WSS?

WSS is a site provisioning engine.
A WSS developer develops components that others will use to create sites and workspaces.
WSS was designed to make the creation of websites faster and most cost effective.
It designed to operate in web farm* environment.
WSS can also use SQL Server express edition so you don't have to purchase a license for SQL Server.

What is Difference between WSS and MOSS(Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007)?

WSS is included as a part of the windows server 2003 OS while MOSS is a separate products with its own SKU.
WSS is the underlying platform and MOSS is a value added set of components and service that has been built on top of this platform.

What is a Farm?

A Farm is a set of one or more server computers working together to provide WSS functionality to client.
Simplest Deployment Scenario of WSS Farm:

How WSS use the database?

WSS sites are tracked in another type of database known as a "Content Database". Every time a new Web Application gets created a new content database is created. Each WSS runs a single SQL Server Database known as the "Configuration Database". It store Farm-wide data and other associated farm info and also the user privileges and permissions info.

In addition, in WSS you are not permitted to directly access the configuration or Content Database. So a developer will not be able to use ADO.NET classes to read/write into Content or Configuration Databases. Instead WSS provides it's own programming APIs that results in WSS running system code that accesses both the databases on your behalf.

Installation of WSS creates and configures a web Application named "WSS 3.0 central Administration". It allows you to convert a standard IIS website into WSS web application. It provides options to create IIS website and automatically convert it into WSS web application.

Web application versus Virtual Server

In WSS the virtual server and web application are often used interchangeably. For e.g., the WSS object model provides the "SPVirtualServer" class to program against web application objects.

What is a WSS Site?

A WSS site is a storage container for content. Site content is primarily stored in form of Lists, Document libraries and Child Sites.

A Site is securable entity whose content is accessible to a configurable set of user or group.

Hierarchy of Child sites: