SharePoint® 2007 and Office Development Expert Solutions

Chapter 3. Programming SharePoint Lists and Libraries

SharePoint technologies are designed for users, applications, and systems to create, store, and track data related to various teams, projects, and other business processes or activities. Similarly, there are libraries in SharePoint that are a specialized type of list that enable users or applications to manage files. These are the foundational features of a SharePoint site.

The core functionality in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) are based on these list and library functions and most out-of-the-box user features are based on or rely upon the use of lists and libraries. As you might expect, the programmability of lists and libraries in SharePoint is a key part of the functionality that developers need to learn in order to build applications that integrate effectively with SharePoint.

This chapter covers the programmability features of lists and libraries within SharePoint so that as a developer you better understand these features and what is supported for programmatic interaction with SharePoint data. In addition, we'll review some practical examples regarding how to build end-to-end solutions based on list and library data in SharePoint.

To understand SharePoint lists and libraries from a developer's perspective, we'll dive into the following topics:

• Understanding SharePoint lists and libraries

• Programming SharePoint lists

• Programming SharePoint libraries

• Examining web services for ...