New book: Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Developer Reference

We’re excited to announce that Paolo Pialorsi’s new book, Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Developer Reference, is available (ISBN 9780735639034; 784 pages). Sharpen your SharePoint development skills with this complete and concrete reference guide to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. This book shows you how to develop real-world secure solutions with techniques for extending and customizing the SharePoint environment with Visual Studio 2010.

Introduction

Microsoft SharePoint is one of the biggest productivity frameworks released during the last ten years  Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is just the last step of a fabulous journey (that began in 2001) in the world of business productivity, collaboration, knowledge sharing, search technologies, and social networking.

From a developer’s perspective, SharePoint is simply a rich set of tools, classes, libraries, controls, and so on that are useful for building custom solutions focused on making business collaboration possible.

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Developer Reference is an organized reference that provides the support that you need as you develop real and concrete SharePoint solutions, taking advantage of the main libraries and tools offered by the product.  This book covers the key topics in the fields of developing SharePoint solutions, targeting both junior and intermediate programmers who want to improve their knowledge of SharePoint.

Beyond the explanatory content, each chapter includes clear examples and downloadable sample projects that you can explore for yourself.

Who Should Read This Book

This book exists to help existing .NET developers understand the architecture and the core topics of SharePoint 2010 while building Internet, intranet, and extranet sites, as well as developing custom solutions and extensions of the basic platform provided by Microsoft.

Although most readers likely will have no prior experience with SharePoint 2010, the book is also useful for those familiar with earlier versions of SharePoint, and who are interested in getting up to date on the newest features.

Who Should Not Read This Book

This book does not target IT Professionals who are seeking information on how to deploy, configure, and maintain a SharePoint farm.  Similarly, it does not cover marketing topics concerning site branding or public-facing Internet sites.

Assumptions

This book expects that you have at least a minimal understanding of  .NET development and object-oriented programming concepts  Moreover, to develop SharePoint solutions you need to have a solid knowledge of ASP.NET and related technologies such as SOAP and Web Services.  Although you can extend and customize SharePoint with most, if not all, .NET language platforms, this book includes examples in C# only  If you are not familiar with this language, you might consider reading John Sharp’s book, Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Step by Step (Microsoft Press, 2010). With a heavy focus on web development and server-side technologies, this book assumes that you have a basic understanding of web platforms, application servers, and scalable software architectures.  Some of the topics covered in this book require a robust knowledge of .NET Framework 3 x,
and specifically, Windows Communication Foundation.

Organization of This Book

This book is divided into seven sections, each of which focuses on a different aspect or technology within SharePoint 2010. 

Part I, “Getting Started,” provides a quick overview of SharePoint 2010 and its data foundations, with a focus on using the technology as shipped, but not yet extending it with custom code.

Part II, “Programming Microsoft SharePoint 2010,” focuses on the core libraries for developing solutions both on the server side, using the SharePoint Server Object Model or the new LINQ to SharePoint provider, or on the client side, using the various favors of the new SharePoint Client Object Model, the REST API, and SOAP services  This section is full of examples and code excerpts, and you can use it as a concrete reference for everyday solutions.

Part III, “Developing Web Parts,” covers how to develop Web Parts, starting from basic scenarios and moving gradually toward more complex and real-world solutions.

Part IV, “Extending Microsoft SharePoint 2010,” provides deep coverage of the various techniques and extensibility points available for customizing and extending the native SharePoint environment  Eight chapters full of realistic examples will help you master SharePoint as a business productivity framework.

Part V, “Developing Workflows,” delves into workflow development  It starts with a brief introduction of Windows Workflow Foundation and the workflow architecture in SharePoint, moving to workflows designed with Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 or developed with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010  This part ends with more advanced topics, such as workflow forms, custom activities, and workflow communication.

Part VI, “Security Infrastructure,” examines the security infrastructure of SharePoint, both from an architectural viewpoint, covering topics like authentication, authorization, and the new claims-based approach, and delving into Code Access Security and the new Sandboxed Solutions deployment option.

Part VII, “Enterprise Features,” covers a couple of useful capabilities offered by the SharePoint 2010 environment when developing enterprise-level solutions  In particular, it covers programming the Search Engine and consuming external data to make use of the new Business Connectivity Services.