Professional SharePoint® 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007

20.1. Each Component Adds More Value

Before jumping into custom application development it helps to take a closer look at all of the components that make up a SharePoint site and how they can be utilized in an application. This also helps when you are deciding whether or not SharePoint is the right platform for building applications on top of the WSS 3.0 platform. As explained in Chapter 2, "Windows SharePoint Services Development Primer," WSS 3.0 is built on top of ASP.NET 2.0, and Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 is built on top of WSS 3.0. Because the SharePoint architecture is additive to the underlying frameworks, every component's features and capabilities are available throughout the stack. This chapter covers the different major aspects of these components and why they are significant when building custom applications within SharePoint sites. The material provided in the following sections is by no means exhaustive, but covers many of the most significant components as they pertain to custom application development.

20.1.1. What ASP.NET 2.0 Brings to the Table

Chapter 2 details the primary components in ASP.NET 2.0 that are heavily leveraged within WSS 3.0. While all the components in ASP.NET 2.0 can be leveraged in SharePoint sites in the same manner, SharePoint provides some added value in certain areas, including the following:

• All pages within a section of the site can be configured to use the same master page, and site administrators are provided with a Web interface ...