Customer Reviews

Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Pro Developer)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The SharePoint book that I have been waiting for the most has finally arrived. Back when I first heard that Ted Pattision and Daniel Larson were teaming up to write a SharePoint book, I got pretty excited. I knew these guys would have a knock-out book for SharePoint developers, and I'm happy to say I was right.

With this book, you will learn how to:

* Build application pages and site pages
* Develop and deploy reusable Web parts to enable customization and personalization
* Exploit Windows SharePoint APIs to deploy Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX components
* Use XML and Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML) to create provisioning components
* Design and implement custom document libraries
* Use Windows Workflow Foundation to create applications that automate business process
* Create Site Definitions to aggregate components and package them for deployment
* Implement Code Access Security, Trust Levels, authentication, and authorization

Do yourself a huge favor, and spend five minutes ordering yourself a copy. It will save you hours down the road.

I love everything about this book when it comes to WSS. It is well written, follows a great path and has a whole lot of information.

The only down side its it is hard to tell by looking at the book that this is a developers book. This is not for admins but for developers. 100% development and offers nothing to admins.Admins go here Beginning SharePoint 2007 Administration: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

So unless you know all the MS Press color schemes, stay away unless you are a developer,

Few books focus just on the core foundation of SharePoint, WSS v3. In this book, Ted and Dan did a fantastic job of covering all the bases necessary. Even though I've been in the SharePoint world for years, and the betas for this current version for over 1.5 years, I was amazed how much stuff I picked up that I wasn't aware of. This is THE DEFINITITE GUIDE TO WSS v3 FOR DEVELOPERS! It should be on ~everyone~ desk if you're doing SharePoint development.

I was tasked with writing a connector to SharePoint for a third-party database. I didn't even know SharePoint existed before I was assigned this project. Of all the books I looked at, Pattison's book stood out as the most useful introduction to SharePoint development. This book provided helpful examples for my project and answered about 80% of my questions. A second edition could easily cover the rest along with some of the gotchas.

One burning question the book answered was whether one needed MOSS to do development. The answer was that WSS (included with Windows Server 2003) is sufficient.

Since I wasn't a Microsoft .NET developer some of the companion books I recommend for SharePoint development are Scribner's book for workflows, Liberty (et al)'s, and Hilyard (et al)'s books on C#. I'm still looking for a good book for ASP development. It was a bit of a struggle using both Walther's and MacDonald (et al)'s books.

This is a pretty good book for someone learning Sharepoint Services 3.0. Unlike a lot of other similarly named books, this one is focused on developing basic sharepoint programming techniques, as opposed to configuration. I bought this book, since it is recommended by Microsoft for the 70-541 certification exam. However, this book does not specifically point out which areas of the book are needed for the cert and which isn't. For example: if you are prepping for the cert, skip the Ajax section - it is worthless. Other areas are good, though.

One improvement that could be made - a DVD (or an FTP link) for a Virtual Machine that has a properly configured Sharepoint setup. Alternatively, a step-by-step appendix which shows how to configure and install all the needed tools, similar to the beginning of Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Mastering).

Overall, it's a good book for learning how to program against Sharepoint... IF you know how to set up your dev environment. Do NOT use it as your sole information source, if you are prepping for the 70-541 exam.

Hope this helps!

I had a chance to take Ted's class on the subject matter of this book and found him to be extremely knowledgeable, insightful and practical with regard to developing for Sharepoint. Taking the class and having his book really took me to the next level understanding how WSS 3.0 work and can be extended. This book is a must read from cover to cover if you are new or want to get more acquainted with Sharepoint Services development.

This is a great book for beginners who are looking to ramp up on Sharepoint technologies and specifically WSS 3.0. Please note that this book is for developers and will not guide you through WSS administration options. So if you are looking for administration guide, look somewhere else. This book tells you about the WSS architecture, how it integrates with asp.net, features, how to deploy a feature, how to modify site templates and so on.

I bought this book to prepare for the 70-542 certification for WSS 3.0 developer and this book saw me through.

In what I think of as my "pre-Pattison" era I was beating my head against SharePoint. The projects I'd inherited seemed unmanageable and deployment was a nightmare. For the project I was going to be starting from scratch, I was frantically coming up with excuses to not use SharePoint, although there was external pressure to use it.

Ted's book explains the key difference between SharePoint customization and SharePoint development, and focuses on best practices for the later. After reading it, I had a game plan for future development using SharePoint and also for bringing my two legacy apps under control.

Windows SharePoint Services is huge and it can be daunting to know where to start. This is the book to start with. You will learn ALL the basics and be off to a great foundation, which will put you ahead of most other MOSS/WSS developers. The book is very well written and has enough hands-on exercises to practice what you are learning. Exceptional!

This book covers all the basics and inner working you need to know about WSS. The code examples are also good. Great book if you are preparing for 70-541