SharePoint Integration with IIS
First we will discuss the architecture of SP from basic level.
The above mentioned diagram representing the architecture of SharePoint. It is divided into two parts. The Left-hand side is representing administrator side and the right hand side is the representing end user side. Every thing in end user side resides in SharePoint content database.
Farm:
A farm is the logical architecture of SharePoint. It can be a single machine or more than one machine.
Configuration Database:
Each farm is associated with a SQL server database called a configuration database.
Site collection and Site:
A site collection is a logical grouping of sites and a site is a container for information. In a site, we can have lists and libraries.
List and Library:
A list is like an Excel worksheet. It looks like just rows and columns of data. A document library is just a special case of a list. We still have rows and columns of data, but each row is associated with a document. So we can store pictures, text files, web pages and all kind of documents.
SharePoint content database:
Everything on the end user part (right-hand side) of the above mentioned architectural diagram is stored in SharePoint content database. So if we create a site within a site collection, we are adding an entry to a table in the database. If we create a list, again, we are adding entries into tables. If we add a document to a document library, that will also include in database.
Deployment mechanism:
A web application is just an extended IIS website, so when we create a web application, SharePoint creates an IIS website but modifies the web config file, global.asax file and creates some virtual directories which points to the SharePoint system folders.
Integration with IIS:
SharePoint integrates with both IIS and ASP.NET. IIS websites are extended through the standard extension mechanisms built into ASP.NET. In SharePoint, integration with IIS is done at web application level. The files used by IIS are stored in \inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\<port> and this port is used by the IIS website and the SharePoint web application.
The WSS part of the path refers to the “Window sharepoint services” The folder of the web application at port 80 just has a global.asax and web.config file. The default installation or the basic installation of SharePoint takes over port 80.
What if you are doing ASP.net and SharePoint Development in Parallel:-
The default installation or the basic installation of SharePoint takes over port 80. So if you want to do SharePoint development as well as ASP.NET development then you will need to have a separate IIS website where you can host your ASP.NET applications. They will host there externally.
SharePoint Central Administration Utility:
When you create new web applications or when you are managing web applications then you are using the SharePoint Central Administration Utility (on browser)/ STS Admin (Old way)/ PowerShell commands instead of using the IIS Manager. Now there are certain cases where you do need to get into the IIS Manager.
The default installation path for SharePoint files used by IIS is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories and folder name here matches the port used by the IIS website.
“12625” is the name of the port assigned to central admin web application. We can change the port of the newly created web application but it will not effect/change the folder name. So the name of the folder will remain unchanged. If we want to change the name of the folder too, then we will need to update is manually.
Screenshot 1:
Screenshot 2:
Screenshot 3:
We can see in pic 1, pic 2 and pic 3 that upon changing ports to the “9999”, it changed the ports on IIS panel and in SharePoint but it did not change folder name (based on the port) in the C drive of local computer where the directory was made. It is the default installation path of the files used by the IIS.
SharePoint files are present in the SP system folders and SP databases.
The below mentioned IIS manager’s screen shot is showing the website of central admin.
We can see the comparison of both folders. The 80 port directory contains files, global.aspx and web.config and we can also store the backups files of web config.
Our web application on the sharepoint website is map on the IIS server.
Now create a new web application using SP central administration, Click “New”, remove GUID from DB Name and specify the port number and click OK. Next step is to create site collection. Our web application is now added to sharepoint central administration. If we return to IIS Manager and click on Application Pools, we can see our new created application pool. We can see our site and virtual directories too.
