How To Identify Whether A Site Is Based On SharePoint Or Not

Vipul Jain
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We often come across many sites on the internet or intranet, and we always want to know whether the site is based on SharePoint or not. So, in this article, I am going to list all possible ways to identify if a site is based on SharePoint or not.

The simplest way is to check the structure of the site; i.e., folder structure or different pages. This pattern may show you a SharePoint Publishing site (Pages/Pagename.aspx or default.aspx). You can also search for /SitePages library by typing in the URL.
If the site is of high importance or if the site is very famous, then it will definitely be published as Microsoft case study.
As we know, SharePoint On-premise Server is hosted on IIS (Internet Information Server), so we can check using HttpResponse or by some other tools, for which Hosting Server is used for a particular site.
In Chrome or Firefox browsers, open the console and view JavaScript files used on the page. If you see init.js, core.js etc., then it’s definitely a SharePoint site.
Right click on any page and look for “View Source”. Click on that and search for meta tag. If it’s a SharePoint site, then it will definitely have the following.

<head><meta name=”GENERATOR” content=”Microsoft SharePoint” />
src=”/_layouts/1033/init.js”
If it’s a SharePoint site, then it must be calling Web Services in it. You can call any of the SharePoint OOTB Web Services (if it doesn’t open, then you will see the legendary “Error page” or “Something went wrong” page). Just access any of the Web Service present inside the “_layouts” folder.

E.g http://< Site Name >/_layouts/lists.asmx

If you check or test any of the above one or two points, then definitely you can tell whether the site is based on SharePoint or not.

CASE STUDY

Interestingly, while browsing the Indian Income Tax Department website, (http://incometaxindia.gov.in/pages/default.aspx), I found that this site is based on SharePoint….Voila !!

To confirm on this, I tested using the above points and below are my observations.

Clicked on "View Source" on the homepage and searched for meta tag.
Then, I searched for init.js, _layouts based structures and other files related to SharePoint.
Lastly, I checked the internal web service of SharePoint by typing this URL in browser -

http://incometaxindia.gov.in/_layouts/lists.asmx

See below the SharePoint Error page.