Microsoft Sharepoint: Building Office 2003 Solutions

I was working through the MOC courseware, which is incoherent and riddled with mistakes, and I turned to this book using one of my time-tested methods for determining the merits of a tech book: I looked to see if it addressed the problem I was stuck on, and how skillfully it described the solution. I also look to see how well it attacks the most confusing subject I'm trying to come to grips with. This book succeeded fabulously on both counts. My particular problem had to do with pinpointing an error in which my new Web Part was rendered as an obnoxious and non-specific security error in a Web Part Page. The answer: make sure that your .dwp file has a properly coded 'Assembly' section in it. Scot's explanation illuminated the whole strong-naming and deployment cycle beautifully. As for the confusing subject, the first few chapters build an SPS portal from the ground up, explaining everything along the way. No one paragraph holds the key, but when you're done building this simple portal, you look up and the lights have been turned on. You start being able to successfully distinguish among portal, site collection, top-level site, area, topic (these are all variants of sites, btw), etc. and will know when when one is a better fit than another. The concepts that most experts fail to explain are no longer mystifying. That's a tremendous accomplishment. This book could single-handedly dispel the myth that SharePoint Products and Services require mystic knowledge to operate. Beware that the book's primary focus is development and programming, which it also explains beautifully, but even if you're an administrator, the first few chapters alone will be worth the price of admission.

I wont pretend to write a glowing review, I just want say that this is worth looking at.

I bought Scot's book hot off the presses, since it's the first major SharePoint 2003 book. When I got it, I breezed through it, and I'll be honest - I was unimpressed. Well, I had reason to browse through it again, and this time I just sat down and started reading it. That's when I realized - certain book publishers that use multiple authors had taught me not to bother reading computer books through, as they were so disjointed they worked better as technical manuals. So that's what I'm used to - being able to flip a few pages and find the thing I'm looking for. Scot's book is different. It harkens back to a day where you could actually read through a book and learn a new technology in a structured manner. If you take the time to read the book from start to finish (it doesn't take long - if you skim the tutorials you can probably get through most of it in a single evening) it's a good thorough introduction to SharePoint. And I mean thorough - there are tutorials on building web parts, working with page templates, creating data views in FrontPage, integrating Windows Single Signon... (Incidentally, I'm not trying to cast aspersion on one method of publishing over another - I'm simply trying to indicate the different "reading philosophies" each may require)He also has a nice walkthrough for creating a new portal from the ground up - laying out areas, sites, as well as explaining users and groups.All in all, I give this book a healthy thumb's up for anyone who wants to learn SharePoint admin and development - for the first book out of the gate, it's an excellent reference to have.Philo

Scot shows his obvious depth and breadth of knowledge of SharePoint Portal Server 2003. As someone who is currently in the middle of a SharePoint deployment project, I'm always looking for quality information. This book came through for me. He has some great examples in the book and spends time explaining why things are done the way they are done in SharePoint. (And SharePoint is a religion all its own!) When the SDK bogs me down, I turn to this book for clarity and guidance. I'm glad someone knows this stuff well!

I found this book to be an excellent resource for people looking to do anything with sharepoint, whether it be development or deployment or anything inbetween. This book covers all the bases, and while it isn't as in depth as future sharepoint books will be, the information is timely. For me as a developer and implementer with sharepoint projects stacked on top of one another, i'm scrambling for as much information as i can get. With other sharepoint books still being a month away from being available at the time I write this, I'm glad that I found at least one helpful resource to use in the interim. If you're looking for a super advanced tech manual, this is not the book for you, however for right now it's the closest thing you're gonna find outside of MSDN.