Glossary

SharePoint and Microsoft 365 glossary

Plain definitions of the terms that come up when you build internal tools on SharePoint — the ones in the admin centre, in a vendor's manifest and in the quote you were sent. One answer per term, and a link to the guide that goes deeper.

.sppkg file: An .sppkg is the package file that contains a SharePoint Framework solution: its manifests, its API permission requests and its client-side assets. It is a zip file, so you can rename it and open it to inspect exactly what you are about to deploy.
5,000 item list view threshold: The list view threshold is SharePoint's limit of 5,000 items returned by a single view or query. The list itself can hold millions — the limit is on what one view returns at once, not on how much you can store.
Adaptive Card Extension (ACE): An Adaptive Card Extension is the component type behind the cards on a Viva Connections dashboard. It is built with the SharePoint Framework, like a web part, but renders as a small fixed-size card rather than as page content.
Admin consent: Admin consent is an administrator granting an application permission on behalf of the whole organisation, so individual users are never prompted. In Entra ID it requires the Global Administrator or Privileged Role Administrator role.
API access requests: API access is the page in the SharePoint admin center where a deployed package's permission requests wait for approval. Two fields decide how much you are granting: the resource (whose API) and the scope (what it may do there).
App Catalog: The App Catalog is a special SharePoint site collection, one per Microsoft 365 tenant, where custom packages (.sppkg) and add-ins are uploaded before anyone in the organisation can use them. Nothing custom reaches a SharePoint page without passing through it.
Cloud Solution Provider (CSP): A CSP is a Microsoft partner licensed to sell, bill and support Microsoft 365 subscriptions on behalf of its customers, owning the commercial relationship rather than just implementing.
Communication site vs team site: A communication site is for broadcasting to many readers — an intranet home, a policy hub, a department page. A team site is for a group collaborating, and comes connected to a Microsoft 365 group with its Teams, calendar and mailbox.
Content type: A content type is a reusable definition of a kind of item or document — its columns, its template and its policies — that can be applied across many lists and libraries so the same thing is described the same way everywhere.
Dataverse: Dataverse is Microsoft's cloud database for the Power Platform, with enforced relationships, row and field level security, proper data types and auditing. It is licensed per user and is not included with Microsoft 365.
Delegated vs application permission: A delegated permission lets an application act on behalf of the signed-in user, limited by exactly what that user can already do. An application (app-only) permission lets it act as itself, with no user involved and limited only by the scope granted.
Document library: A document library is a SharePoint container for files, with the same column, view and permission machinery as a list plus version history, check-out and retention. Its rows are files, so nothing exists in it until a file does.
Heft: Heft is the build system that SharePoint Framework uses from version 1.22 onwards, replacing gulp. It compiles, bundles and packages an SPFx solution into an .sppkg file.
Indexed column: An indexed column is a SharePoint list column marked so that filtering and sorting on it stays fast and works past the 5,000 item view threshold. Adding one is a list setting, not a migration.
JSON column formatting: Column formatting is a JSON snippet applied to a SharePoint list column that changes how its value is drawn: colours, icons, progress bars, buttons. It is free, needs no deployment and no IT approval, and any site owner can apply or undo it in minutes.
Lookup column: A lookup column shows a value from another SharePoint list, so an order can display its customer's name. It displays a value; it is not a database join and it enforces no referential integrity.
Microsoft AppSource: AppSource is Microsoft's marketplace for business applications, including SharePoint Framework solutions. Publishing there requires passing a free certification review run by Microsoft, which checks that the solution behaves, declares valid publisher metadata and does not let end users inject arbitrary script.
Microsoft Entra ID: Entra ID is Microsoft's identity service, formerly Azure Active Directory. It holds your users, groups and applications, issues the tokens that prove who someone is, and is where application permissions are consented to.
Microsoft Graph: Microsoft Graph is the single API through which applications reach Microsoft 365 data: users, groups, mail, calendars, files and SharePoint sites. Permissions to it are what decide how much of your organisation an application can see.
Microsoft Lists: Microsoft Lists is the app for creating and using SharePoint lists — structured tables of items with typed columns, views, formatting and permissions. It is the same data as a SharePoint list, presented in its own interface.
Power Automate: Power Automate is Microsoft's workflow service: flows that react to an event or a schedule and then do something — send an approval, notify someone, write to a list. It has no user interface of its own, which is the point.
Premium connector: A premium connector is a Power Platform connector that is not included with Microsoft 365 — SQL Server, Dataverse, HTTP and custom connectors among them. Using one requires a separate licence charged per user per month, for everyone who uses the app or flow.
SharePoint Administrator vs Global Administrator: The SharePoint Administrator role can create the App Catalog, upload and deploy packages, and approve their API access requests. Global Administrator is a far broader tenant-wide role that a well-run organisation deliberately restricts to two or three people.
SharePoint Framework (SPFx): SPFx is Microsoft's development model for extending modern SharePoint: a TypeScript and React toolchain that produces web parts and extensions running client-side, inside the page, with the signed-in user's own permissions.
SharePoint theme: A SharePoint theme is the palette applied to a site — its accent colour, its neutrals and its light or dark variant. Well-built web parts read it and adopt it, which is why they look like part of the page instead of something pasted onto it.
skipFeatureDeployment: skipFeatureDeployment is the setting in a SharePoint Framework package manifest that decides whether the solution is deployed once to the whole tenant (true) or has to be added site by site (false). It is the checkbox the App Catalog shows as “make this solution available to all sites”.
Tenant: A tenant is your organisation's isolated instance of Microsoft 365: its users, its data, its settings and its domain. Everything in SharePoint, Teams and Entra ID belongs to exactly one tenant, and nothing crosses between them without an explicit configuration.
View formatting: View formatting is JSON applied to a whole SharePoint list view rather than a single column, letting you style entire rows or switch to a card-based gallery layout. Like column formatting, it is free and needs no deployment.
Viva Connections: Viva Connections surfaces your existing SharePoint intranet inside Microsoft Teams, with a mobile-first dashboard of cards. It is a delivery surface, not a replacement for your intranet pages.
Web part: A web part is a component you place on a SharePoint page: a news feed, a document list, a chart, a form. SharePoint ships dozens of them, and custom ones can be built with the SharePoint Framework.