Let's go through the top new features of SharePoint 2013.
Authorization (Claims-based Authentication in SharePoint 2013)
- Classic Based Authentication
- We cannot configure the Forms basedauthentication, if our web application is using Classic Mode Authentication. We can convert a web application from Classic Mode Authentication to Claims-based Authentication. However, that can only be done using PowerShell commands and it's an irreversible process
- Classic authentication supports authentication types like Kerberos, NTLM, anonymous
- Classic is more commonly seen in 2007 environments
- Claim Based Authentication
- It enables authentication from Windows as well as non-Windows based systems. This also provides the capability to have multiple authentications in a single URL
- Claims-based authentication uses claims identities against an against a trusted identity provider
- Claims are the recommended path for new deployments in SharePoint 2010
Search
Continuous crawl (making new content appear in search results that are much faster compared to SharePoint 2010):
- Fast Search: FAST Search has additional cost in SharePoint 2010, it's now integrated into the SharePoint 2013 search service with no extra license, no extra fee. In SharePoint 2010, we also need to take on the more expensive intranet sites license if our server provided any services to internet users. In SharePoint 2013, internet users are included as part of the Standard and Enterprise SharePoint Server licenses. No more license concerns for internet sites.
- Slide Show in Content Search web part: A Content Search Web Part that displays content that was crawled and added to the search index. We can use category pages when we want to aggregate content that meets certain criteria or parameters. For example, in an intranet scenario, all company announcements are maintained in a list that is shared as a catalog. A query is issued from the Content Search Web Part to return all items from the search index that are specified in the query.
SharePoint Store
- This is one of the most different feature changes in SharePoint 2013.
- This is not like a workflow, that already existed and is now made more robust.
- The SharePoint App Store is something completely new, where your organization and even individual users can choose to license, activate, and use software within SharePoint.
Social Integration feature is more advanced compare to SP 2010
- SharePoint 2013 introduces an array of features to allow people to check up to date on what is going on in your organization. Like Hash tagging, micro blogging, and follow concepts come together to provide a great way to check up to date on the most important updates in your intranet.
- Now we can follow people, and even documents. No need for barrages of alerts whenever a document changes. Just keep up with the latest modifications using our newsfeed, which by the way, is a great place to start and join conversations with your colleague's workers, and determine what is trending in the organization using hash tags.
- A great new site template, community sites, allows organizations to drive adoption and encourage knowledge-sharing using reputation scores, best replies and gifted badges. Users can easily join the conversation and share ideas on the category-driven explanation boards.
Full Cross-browser Functionality
- SharePoint 2007 only worked in Internet Explorer.
- SharePoint 2010 tried to work with other browsers, but the differences were apparent and unsatisfying. Working with Chrome or Firefox would work in some parts of SharePoint 2010, but for doing some features you just needed to switch to IE to get things done. This was due to the reliance on ActiveX to perform site administration. Even though some items could be done in other browsers, for anything that required ActiveX you could only perform that in Internet Explorer.
- SharePoint 2013 now works with no ActiveX controls, so we can do everything, working with lists and sites to fully manage your farm through Central Administration through any modern browser like Chrome, Firefox.
Workflow Integration with Workflow Manager
- Visual workflow. Develop workflow visually using Visio 2013 add-in.
- No-code web service calls. A new action enables no-code web service calls from within a workflow.
- Task actions. New actions for creating a task and starting a task process.
- Coordination actions. New coordination actions among workflows built on SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013.
- Stage, Loop, and App Step workflow building blocks.
- New enterprise features in Workflow Manager.
Simplified Document Management
- Drag and drop content directly into your document libraries
- Item menus now contain a live document preview for Office documents with one click editing
- Viewing item properties suggests similar documents in common with the current item with additional functionality
Office Web apps are free (and work on mobile devices)
- Office Web apps are free (no Office client needed) for both internal and external users with the exception that internal users require an Office 2013 license (Standard or Pro) to edit documents.
- Not only do extranet users get free Office web apps, they don't need CALs either (on-premise farms have no limit for external users).
- Also to note, Office Web apps now work on mobile devices like the iPad.
Improved Publishing Capabilities via Cross-Site Publishing
- SharePoint Server 2013 includes cross-site publishing for web content management that enhance the authoring and publishing processes of our organization. Cross-site publishing lets we store and maintain content in one or more authoring site collections, and display this content in one or more publishing site collections. When we change the content in an authoring site collection, those changes are displayed on all site collections that are reusing this content
Offline and Sync of My Site (and other libraries)
- In SharePoint Server 2013 Preview, My Sites include several improvements to save, synchronize, share, and move content. Users have the option to synchronize their My Site document library content with a local drive to enable offline access to documents.
References:
What's new for developers in SharePoint 2013
Summary
In this article, I've explored the SharePoint 2013 new features that I like most.