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I'm brand new to Sharepoint, so I hope this question isn't too basic for this community.

I've created a team wiki site under my profile (I'm just a user, no admin privs) and have started building a knowledge base with content copied from an older non-SP site. What options are there for changing the landing page (.../SitePages/Home.aspx) to something live, that reflects the changing content of the site? Meaning I don't want to be editing the home page all the time to change the links.

Examples of what I'm thinking of for home page content:

  • a sitemap (hierarchical?)
  • a tag cloud
  • list of 5 most recent additions or edits
  • 5 most viewed pages
  • 5 most edited pages
  • This week's featured page, with intro blurb and jump link
  • etc.

It seems like Web Parts are for this kind of thing, but I don't see anything in there that I recognize as providing these kinds of services.

3 Answers 3

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Tag Cloud - There is one out of the box (see this page). If that does not fit your needs, you could build one purely client-side with a Content Search Web Part, a custom display template, and one of the many available tag cloud JavaScript plug-ins out there.

5 more recent documents - Built-in web part (in group Search-driven content)

Most viewed items - Built-in web part (in group Search-driven content, see Popular Items)

Most edited - Ha! This one is a bit tricky. There is nothing out of the box that tracks the number of edits (audit logs yes, but they are hard to query and not accessible client-side)

Featured item - There are several ways to do this. You can add a "Featured" column to your pages with Start/End dates, and surface the current featured one. Add a custom display template for styling.

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  • The Search Driven content most closely matches what I'm looking for. I was initially excited about tag cloud, but dropped it because it jumps the user out of the site and into their personal profile -- a visually jarring and confusing experience. Thanks for giving me a good starting point. Commented Sep 27, 2013 at 21:56
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Things like Most Viewed Pages and Top Search Queries are available through the Web Analytics Web Part, which is available via Edit page > Editing Tools > Insert > Content Rollup. (You may need to widen browser window to see it. It comes after "Site Aggregator" on my system.). The analytics web part also provides:

Traffic reports: These reports provide metrics such as:

How much traffic your site gets (Number of Page Views);
Who visits your sites (Top Visitors);
How visitors arrive at your site (Top Referrers);
Daily Unique Visitors, Top Destinations, Top Browsers, etc;

Search reports: These reports give you insight into what users are searching for, for example:

How many times users searched (Number of Queries);
What were the most used search terms (Top Queries);
What queries have high failure rates (Failed Queries);
Best Bet Usage, Search keywords, etc;

Inventory reports: These reports display key metrics regarding the inventory of your sites:

What is the total disk drive space user (Storage Usage);
How many sites exist (Number of Sites);
Top Site Product Versions, Top Site Languages, etc;


The Tag cloud web part can be found under Editing Tools > Insert > Web Part > Social Collaboration.

I haven't found the other items yet.

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This question is very much open for interpretation and not really a SharePoint technical question but more about what SharePoint is and how to use it.

I really suggest you start reading some Material from Microsoft or others. Also, it's important to understand what a CMS (Content Management System) is all about.

To answer some of your basic questions, SharePoint pages are ALWAYS dynamic. You should not have to edit the Home page and add links/content every day. You can have a STATIC welcome message, but things like the Tag cloud, Site Hierachy, Web Analytics are all DYNAMIC content, meaning that they will update themselves as the underlying data changes.

Here are some links that you can read to understand more:

SharePoint overview: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/sharepoint-2013-overview-collaboration-software-features-FX103789323.aspx

SharePoint Dynamic content: http://office.microsoft.com/en-za/sharepoint-server-help/add-dynamic-content-to-a-page-HA010154000.aspx

What is a CMS: http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system

I hope this answers some of your questions.

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  • You are correct, I am asking how to use Sharepoint. I know what dynamic pages are, I just haven't been able figure out how to build the kinds I want in SP 2013. I was using the Web Analytics web part, but that has been discontinued so now I'm trying to figure out what to use instead. Commented Sep 25, 2013 at 21:17

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