SharePoint Technologies Overview

Overview

SharePoint Products and Technologies provide an extensible solution platform for the professional Microsoft .NET developer, and offer a wide array of built-in features and application hosting using well-known .NET development tools and technologies. SharePoint Products and Technologies offer a manageable and scalable server platform that employs the benefits of the 2007 Microsoft Office system client for hosting applications on an internal or Internet Web site.

The.NET developer creates Web-based solutions by using the Web development platform of ASP.NET. ASP.NET allows you to build Web-based solutions by using managed code. The ASP.NET page framework also provides new Web platform capabilities, features, and enhancements such as master pages, Web part controls, and data source controls.

Marrying the advantages and power of both platforms, with the release of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Microsoft provides products and technologies such as Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 that are built on top of ASP.NET 2.0. Now you, the professional .NET developer, can use your knowledge of .NET technologies to develop on the SharePoint platform to create a new set of Web solutions.

The goal of this article is to introduce you to some of the most powerful SharePoint development features. This article walks you through key concepts, developer terms, developer components used to build enterprise solutions, and pointers to resources to help you get started learning about SharePoint development. It also explores tools you can use to create solutions by using SharePoint Products and Technologies.

Benefits Offered to .NET Developers

SharePoint Products and Technologies introduce a number of benefits that help not only developers and the solutions they build, but also individual users and organizations of all sizes.

SharePoint Products and Technologies offer additional overall benefits to .NET developers. Highlights of these benefits include the following:

A familiar development environment for .NET developers. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is built entirely on ASP.NET, so you use the same familiar .NET Framework and .NET languages, the same .NET Framework and ASP.NET class libraries, and the same development tools.

Built-in features that developers can extend. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 adds foundational components that are valuable for creating Web-based applications such as a Web Part framework, data lists, document libraries, a workflow engine, and Web site templates. Office SharePoint Server 2007 adds major application features on top of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. These include user site provisioning, business intelligence features, forms services, enterprise content management, integrated search, and social networking features. All of these features can be extended by developers to implement something as simple as a Web dashboard to a complex line-of-business (LOB) application.

The best integrated server for Office applications. If you need to store documents as part of your Web application, Office SharePoint Server 2007 is the answer. Office client applications including Word, Excel, Outlook and InfoPath can be easily used as part of an enterprise solution built on SharePoint.

The foundation for a wide variety of Intranet or Internet applications. For end users, SharePoint Products and Technologies have numerous easy-to-use and desirable features. For developers, SharePoint Products and Technologies is a platform to build on. Because when you develop on the SharePoint platform you are building on the same application foundation that SharePoint uses for end user functionality, the applications that you can create have a consistent common look, and can be managed in a consistent way. If a company already has SharePoint deployed, it is easy to add applications to the existing deployment.

What are SharePoint Products and Technologies?

SharePoint Products and Technologies provide a foundation for collaboration, business intelligence, enterprise content management, people and personalization services, Enterprise Search, integration of LOB data, and processes.

SharePoint Products and Technologies include the following:

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. A set of services for collaboration and a foundation for building Web-based applications on Windows Server. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is included in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows Server 2008, and is also available separately as a download.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. A single, integrated application that provides sites (locations) where employees can efficiently collaborate with team members, find organizational resources, search for experts and corporate information, manage content and workflow, and make use of business insight to reach better-informed decisions. Office SharePoint Server 2007 is part of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. For more information, see the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 frequently asked questions.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007. A designer and developer tool that enables you to quickly build solutions that include both design and workflow.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 are built on top of the ASP.NET 2.0 Framework and the Microsoft .NET 3.0 Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) as shown in Figure.

Source :
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc537498.aspx#MOSSIntroToNet_Overview