Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2010 Bible

Chapter 5. Using and Customizing Web Parts

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Examining Web Parts

• Using Web Parts

• Understanding Web Part Galleries

• Managing Web Parts

Have you ever been involved in a corporate development project and thought to yourself, "Someone must have created functionality like this before?" Wouldn't it be great if there were a consistent framework that allowed developers to create the features and functionality that users need and then make those developed components available in a catalog that could be used for applications across the entire organization? There is an answer to this question, and it's called the SharePoint Web Part.

Web Parts are beneficial to users, developers, and to IT administrators. In addition, .NET is leveraged to develop Web Part applications, so they can be reused on many Web Part pages and SharePoint sites. The Web Part infrastructure lets developers focus on writing code that delivers business value on a platform that has taken care of most of the deployment and hosting concerns. IT administrators also benefit because they can centrally manage which applications are available from a central location and interface. They can approve Web Parts and install them on a SharePoint Web front end where they are available to users immediately via the Web Part Gallery. From there, users can drag and drop the Web Parts on as many pages as they like and configure them for their particular needs.

This chapter explains what a Web Part is in the context of SharePoint Server ...