| Almost five years ago, when I completed my sixth book, 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 was compelling enough to coax me back to the keyboard. That all changed when I got my hands on the Microsoft Office System beta.
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 a business perspective, I saw the possibility to create some solutions that would solve real issues that were currently plaguing businesses—file system organization and process automation came quickly to mind. Both of these areas are strong suits for 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.
This book is intended to give you all of the business and technical background necessary to get a jump-start deploying solutions based on Microsoft SharePoint products and technologies. I am assuming that you are an intermediate to advanced technical reader who is involved in an effort to roll out a portal solution. I also assume that you have a reasonable level of business experience to provide context for the work.
About the Author
SCOT P. HILLIER is an independent consultant focused on SharePoint, the Microsoft Office System, and .NET technologies. Scot is the author of eight books on Microsoft technologies written over the last ten years as well as numerous articles appearing in magazines and online. In addition to writing, Scot can often be found presenting nationally to analysts, decision makers, and developers. Scot is a former U. S. Navy submarine officer and graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. When not working, Scot can be found at home with his family, playing games and taking walks. Scot can be reached at scot@shillier.com and support for his books may be found at www.sharepointstuff.com. |
