Microsoft Office Live Small Business is built on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 technology. However, Office Live Small Business is a collection of Web services designed to meet the needs of small business customers, while Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is a platform that can be used to build enterprise-level Web solutions. For this reason, there are some differences in terminology and functionality between the two platforms.
The following table provides you with a list of the Office Live Small Business terms you need to understand, and a mapping of how these terms relate to objects in the Windows SharePoint Services object model. If you have a clear vision of the Windows SharePoint Services object model, it will be easier to understand this mapping; a diagram of the model is shown below.
Microsoft Office Live terms in relation to WSS objects
| Office Live Small BusinessTerm | Definition | WSS Object |
|---|
| Subscription | The set of Web sites for the Office Live Small Business services that you have purchased, including your Office Live Small Business Home site, e-mail, and other Office Live Small Business applications and workspaces. All of the sites in your subscription share the same owner and administration settings. | Site collection |
| Office Live Small Business Home | The top-level Web site for your subscription. This is the site from which you can manage subscription-level features. The landing page is default.aspx and contains links to the primary areas of your subscription, including Web Site and E-mail. | Top-level Web site |
| Application | A collection of Web pages for managing customer, employee, project, and critical business information. Each application is a complete Web site stored in a named subdirectory of your Office Live Small Business Home site. | Subsite |
| Workspace | A collection of Web pages for collaborating on documents, projects, and events. Each workspace is a complete Web site stored in a named subdirectory of your Office Live Small Business Home site. | Subsite |
| Dashboard | A Web page containing Web Parts, which consolidate content such as lists, text, and images. You can add Web Parts in designated page areas. Dashboards are the landing pages for Office Live Small Business applications and workspaces. | Web Part page |
The Windows SharePoint Services object model
.gif)
Other terms with definitions specific to Office Live Small Business
Some Office Live Small Business terms are similar to those used in Windows SharePoint Services, but have a more specific meaning when used in the context of Office Live Small Business. The table below describes three of these terms.
| Office Live Small Business Term | Definition |
|---|
| Application or workspace template | A template provided with Office Live Small Business for creating a new application or workspace, or a template that you have added to your subscription. To be certain that the functionality of the template is consistent each time it is used, you must create new Office Live Small Business templates by customizing the ones provided with Office Live Small Business, rather than starting with a Windows SharePoint Services template. |
| Web modules | Web page components that you can add to the pages of your Web site using Web Designer, including maps, slide shows, and stock lists. These are not the Web Parts that appear in Windows SharePoint Services and in Office Live Small Business Applications. |
| Web site | When we refer to your Web site, we are talking about your public Web site on the Internet that anyone can access by typing the correct URL into their browser. For example, you manage your Web site from the WebSite link on your Office Live Small Business Home site landing page. |