Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2003 Solutions (Paperback)

~ Scot P. Hillier (Author)
Key Phrases: terminal services, information worker, interview management, Visual Studio, Select Start, Program Files (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

SharePoint is clearly one of the coolest things to come down the pike in a long time…(and) I don't think you can possibly read <i>Microsoft SharePoint</i> without immediately wanting to build something to address problems that you are already dealing with. </a></p> </blockquote> <p id="quoteAuthor">&#8212; William Ryan, KnowDotNet. If you need a thorough introduction as to what SharePoint Portal Server has to offer to your organization or clients, I'd recommend you pick up a copy of this book.</a></p> </blockquote> <p id="quoteAuthor">&#8212; Lamont Harrington, Lamont Harrington's Blog</p></div>

<p><i>Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2003 Solutions</i> provides you with all the information you need to design and deploy business solutions based on Microsoft SharePoint technologies. Author Scot Hillier defines the business case and scenarios for Microsoft SharePoint technologies, and he also reviews the installation, configuration, and administration of business solutions based on SharePoint technologies. He provides programming instruction, guidance, and examples for custom Web parts and solutions built on SharePoint technologies.</p>

<p>Focused on getting you started quickly with SharePoint products and technologies, each chapter provides hands-on exercises that emphasize basic ideas or demonstrate simple features. Unlike some technical books, this guide isn't intended to be simply a reference that you access primarily through the index, and the material presented in each chapter builds upon that offered in previous chapters.</p>

About the Author

Scot Hillier is an independent consultant focused on SharePoint, the Microsoft Office System, and .NET technologies. Scot has authored eight books on Microsoft technologies over the last ten years, as well as numerous articles appearing in magazines and online. In addition to writing, Scot often presents nationally to analysts, decision makers, and developers. Scot is a former U.S. Navy submarine officer and graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. When not working, Scot can be found at home with his family, playing games and taking walks. Scot can be reached at [e-mail], and more information about his books is available at www.sharepointstuff.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (March 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590593383
• ISBN-13: 978-1590593387
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #672,669 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your traditional computer book, June 5, 2004

By	Philo Janus "stchad" (Woodbridge, VA USA) - See all my reviews

I bought Scot's book hot off the presses, since it's the first major SharePoint 2003 book. When I got it, I breezed through it, and I'll be honest - I was unimpressed.

Well, I had reason to browse through it again, and this time I just sat down and started reading it. That's when I realized - certain book publishers that use multiple authors had taught me not to bother reading computer books through, as they were so disjointed they worked better as technical manuals. So that's what I'm used to - being able to flip a few pages and find the thing I'm looking for.

Scot's book is different. It harkens back to a day where you could actually read through a book and learn a new technology in a structured manner. If you take the time to read the book from start to finish (it doesn't take long - if you skim the tutorials you can probably get through most of it in a single evening) it's a good thorough introduction to SharePoint. And I mean thorough - there are tutorials on building web parts, working with page templates, creating data views in FrontPage, integrating Windows Single Signon...

(Incidentally, I'm not trying to cast aspersion on one method of publishing over another - I'm simply trying to indicate the different "reading philosophies" each may require)

He also has a nice walkthrough for creating a new portal from the ground up - laying out areas, sites, as well as explaining users and groups.

All in all, I give this book a healthy thumb's up for anyone who wants to learn SharePoint admin and development - for the first book out of the gate, it's an excellent reference to have.

Philo

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply terrific, July 31, 2004

By	gottahaveajava (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

I was working through the MOC courseware, which is incoherent and riddled with mistakes, and I turned to this book using one of my time-tested methods for determining the merits of a tech book: I looked to see if it addressed the problem I was stuck on, and how skillfully it described the solution. I also look to see how well it attacks the most confusing subject I'm trying to come to grips with.

This book succeeded fabulously on both counts. My particular problem had to do with pinpointing an error in which my new Web Part was rendered as an obnoxious and non-specific security error in a Web Part Page. The answer: make sure that your .dwp file has a properly coded 'Assembly' section in it. Scot's explanation illuminated the whole strong-naming and deployment cycle beautifully.

As for the confusing subject, the first few chapters build an SPS portal from the ground up, explaining everything along the way. No one paragraph holds the key, but when you're done building this simple portal, you look up and the lights have been turned on. You start being able to successfully distinguish among portal, site collection, top-level site, area, topic (these are all variants of sites, btw), etc. and will know when when one is a better fit than another. The concepts that most experts fail to explain are no longer mystifying. That's a tremendous accomplishment.

This book could single-handedly dispel the myth that SharePoint Products and Services require mystic knowledge to operate.

Beware that the book's primary focus is development and programming, which it also explains beautifully, but even if you're an administrator, the first few chapters alone will be worth the price of admission.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sharepoint Webpart solutions for developers, May 7, 2005

By	SPointE182 "SPE182" (Texas,USA) - See all my reviews

"Microsoft Sharepoint: Building Office 2003 Solutions" by Scott Hiller is a introductory book on Sharepoint technology for developers

Starting 4 chapters are on Introducing Sharepoint Portal server, Installation and on content creation (nothing for developer there). Next 3 chapters provide good understanding of web part development. There is chapter on Integration with office 2003 Smart document stuff. Next Chapter discusses the programming to Sharepoint object model. Next chapter provides some information on the Sharepoint Portal server administration and at the end it discusses the 2 office solution Accelerators (for Proposals and for Recruiting).

This book contains good amount of sample code for the web parts development, and 2 Solution Accelerators chapters. Other chapters are of introductory knowledge on Sharepoint usage and administration. Depending on your need only few chapters might be useful. If you have knowledge of .NET development and want to understand web part development, web part chapters of this book along with the Microsoft Sharepoint SDK might be good place to start.