Introduction

A little over three years ago, when I completed my sixth book entitled Scot Hillier's COM+ Programming with Visual Basic (SAMS, 2000), I thought I was done with technical writing. Since then, I have seen some new technologies emerge, but none that were compelling enough to coax me back to the keyboard. That all changed when I got my hands on the beta of the Microsoft Office System.

Although the Office System certainly has its limitations, several elements really got my attention. The developer in me had a hard time resisting the .NET architecture upon which SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) is based. All true developers love to tinker with products, and the extensive API associated with SPS made development fun again.

From the business perspective, I saw the possibility to create some solutions that would solve real issues that were currently plaguing our business—we needed to organize our file systems and create some light process automation. Both of these tasks are achievable for small and mid-sized organizations using the Office System.

Ultimately, it was the combination of interesting development projects and the promise of improving some business processes that drove me to suggest the book to the Apress staff. In fact, this is really the perspective I tried to bring to the book. I wanted to combine my business needs and programming skills to create a vision of how to use the Office System. You can judge how well that goal was met.

Who This Book Is For

Many years ago, I asked a colleague what professional developers wanted in a book. He responded simply, "Code they can steal." I have never forgotten this advice and it has been the foundation of every book I have written since. This book is therefore targeted squarely at the intermediate to advanced developer in a corporate environment with a pending SPS project. Therefore, readers should be well versed in .NET development with either VB.NET or C# in the Microsoft Visual Studio environment.