Detailed Step by Step Guide to Create a Web Application in SharePoint 2013

SharePoint is a leading collaboration platform in the world that all organizations are drawn towards. With Microsoft continuously releasing new updates for the On-Premise and Online versions of SharePoint, nothing is stopping you from reaching your organization’s full potential and increase your profitability. Code Creators have created a detailed step by step guide for you to help you create a web application of your liking in SharePoint 2013.

There are five levels in SharePoint, stated as follows;

1. SP Farm
2. SP Web Application
3. SP Site Collection
4. SP Web
5. List, Libraries and More

Under the farm section of SharePoint, you can create as many web applications as you want.

Understanding Web Applications

A web application in SharePoint refers to the parents of site collection which can help you create multiple site collections under one web app. While creating a web application, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

1. Creating an IIS website
2. Port number
3. Host header
4. Path of the web app
5. Authentication category
6. Name of the database

Once you know what you want out of a web application, the process of creating one will begin.

Steps to Create a Web Application

Step One

Click on Start > Search for SharePoint Central Administrator

Step Two

Click on SharePoint Central Administrator > Go to Application Management > Click on Manage Web Application

Step Three

A popup will open that will be labeled as Create a New Web Application > Click on New > Another popup will open that to Create a Web Application

Mandatory Settings for a New Web Page

After following all of the steps until Step Three, things will start to get a bit technical. However, if it gets too much for you, you can always contact one of our expert SharePoint consultants at our helpline.

IIS Web Site Name and Port

In this popup window, you will get a few options to choose settings for your web application. You will start by selecting an IIS web site name as we discussed earlier and then proceed to choose a port for it.

Anonymous and SSL Configuration

Below the settings for creating a new web site name, you will see the options to set security settings such as “Allow Anonymous” and “Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).” If you are choosing to use the SSL feature, you will be prompted to select a certificate for each server using your IIS administrator tools. Until you enable this feature, your web application will not be accessible from this IIS web site. All of this is mandatory information you need to input without which your web site will not be created in SharePoint.

Claims Authentication Types

After bypassing other settings such as Enable Windows Authentication (recommended setting: NTLM), you will need to click on Enable Form Based Authentication (FBA) where you will specify ASP.NET Membership Provider Name and ASP.NET Role Manager Name which is mandatory as well. In this part, enable form-based authentication, and set it to NO.

Public URL

In the section underneath Claims Authentication Types, you will specify what the public URL of your web site will be, and this will act as the domain name for all of the users of the site visit in your SharePoint collaboration. Here, add the URL and set a zone. The zone is always set to default, but you can change it according to what you want.

Application Pool

Here you will be able to create a new application pool name. Choose the one you want and then configure the settings underneath, whether you want it to be predefined or configurable.

Database Name and Authentication

In the Database authentication section, everything will be set to default WSS_Content, but you can customize it.

Service Application Connections

In this section, you can activate your services whenever you wish in your web application. When you enable this feature, you will see the changes inside your web application.

Step Four

When you have completed all the steps, you will be able to scroll down and click on OK to create a web application. It will take some time to load as your use is created by once that is done, a confirmation will appear on your screen with a success message about your application creation. After doing this, you can go to Manage Web Application tab and check the location and settings of your web application. You can repeat this process as many times as you want to create multiple web applications for your organization in SharePoint Online 2013.

We know that when your organization is at stake, something as simple as creating a web application can seem like a daring task. This is why it helps to have a professional SharePoint consulting firm like Code Creators have your back and cover all your IT related needs!