SharePoint® 2007 and Office Development Expert Solutions

Chapter 5. User Interface Development in SharePoint and Office 2007

While there is extensive support for programming data sources, lists, and the file formats of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v3, and Office 2007, the user interface (UI) programming features are significant as well. It is important for developers to understand some of the key UI programming elements in Office and SharePoint, because this is how users will ultimately interact with the software and perform or initiate the functions supported by the backend services such as SharePoint or other business systems.

In SharePoint, the underlying technology is based on ASP.NET. This enables a developer to build Web Parts and to publish ASP.NET pages into the SharePoint environment to perform new functions. From a SharePoint perspective, the Web Part provides a small unit of user interface and functionality that can be published to a Web Part gallery and managed to some degree by the end user. With the ASP.NET page model being integrated into SharePoint, master pages can be customized in a site to provide some new functionality, to provide a consistent look and feel, or to ensure that specific content elements are provided in a consistent manner as required on a site.

To gain an understanding of the key user interface development features, we'll examine the following scenarios in Office and SharePoint 2007:

• Developing Web Parts in SharePoint 2007 to display content

• Using master ...