Review

Target Audience: Developers
Difficulty: Beginner - Intermediate

Who should buy this book?
Buy this book, if you know a little bit about using SharePoint 2003, are using .NET and are interested in developing custom web parts for SharePoint 2003. If you already know the basics about developing web parts but are not very comfortable with it, this book does have some good tips and pointers to get you up to speed with all the necessary aspects of web part development.

Review Summary:
I would like to call this book an accelerated guide to developing web parts. The author Darrin Bishop does not waste time going thru the usual SharePoint administration stuff which you find in all SharePoint books. Instead, he focuses on just one thing - Web Part Development. What I liked about this book is the size and the breadth of content. It does not repeat the same stuff which you find in the SDK and neither provides unnecessary listing of methods and properties etc. which fills pages but is of no practical use. It compliments the SDK with quick examples, good advice and tips to speed up your learning curve.
This book is filled with invaluable advice which would save a lot of your precious time as compared to figuring out the solution yourself. I wish I had this book when I first started figuring how to develop Web Parts for SharePoint. Would have saved the endless hours of midnight oil I burnt racking my brain to understand Web Part Development from the beta SDK. Definitely a must buy for anyone wanting to master the ins and outs of Web Part Development.

Pros:

  • Very concise and to the point presentation
  • Lots of tips and useful advice
  • Covers a lot of topics in Web Part Development
  • Covers setup of your development environment and necessary things to start development

Cons:

  • A chapter on SmartPart would have been nice

Tip: Do register the book to avail the invaluable bonus chapters covering WPPackager Application, using external resources thru Web Parts and some other good stuff.

TOC at Glance

Chapter 1 - Introduction to Web Parts
Chapter 2 - Using Web Parts
Chapter 3 - Web Part Infrastructure
Chapter 4 - Using the Web Control Library Template
Chapter 5 - Using Visual Studio.NET
Chapter 6 - Code Access Security
Chapter 7 - Debugging Web Parts
Chapter 8 - Using Web Parts to Create HTML
Chapter 9 - Personalization and Web Parts
Chapter 10 - Connectable Web Parts
Chapter 11 - Deploying Web Part Assemblies
Appendix A - Web Part Life Cycle
Appendix B - Using ViewState

Bonus Online Chapters ( available on registration ):
1. Extra Chapter - Using the WPPackager
2. Extra Chapter - Using External Resources
3. Code examples in C# and VB .NET
4. Sample Web Parts and Policy File