Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS3) is Microsoft's core technology in providing the next generation of collaboration and communication tools for enterprises. WSS3 provides a set of core components that provide capability for enterprises to deploy, manage and extend their portals, enhance productivity and put knowledge access in the hands of the employees.

Architecture

WSS3 leverages on some of the core .NET Framework architecture as established in ASP.NET. This includes Master Pages, Templates, Web Controls and other technologies such as ADO and XML. Also, built into WSS3 are core services developed by Microsoft such as Microsoft Workflow Foundation, Search Services and Database Services.

A combination of these technologies provides WSS3 with tools such as Blogs, Wiki, Document Management, Lists, Content Management as well as Integration with Outlook and Reporting. WSS3 also provides integration with third-party applications through its Business Data Catalog services. The power of WSS3 lies in its ability to provide a personalized set of pages as well as team based pages where users can collaborate with each other using the web browser as the working interface.

Deployment Methodologies

WSS3 can be deployed in different scenarios. There is a stand-alone method of deployment where all the services provides by WSS3 are installed within the same machine. This provides enterprises with the ability to quickly deploy WSS3 for evaluation and development activities.

For a more complex deployment over server-farms, WSS3 can be installed on each machine in the environment and the individual services can be enabled in specific machines to provide a means of distributing the workload while increasing the scalability of the deployment.

Administration

WSS3 provides a Central Administrative Panel that can be used by the administrator to configure the WSS3 according to the needs of the enterprise. This includes creating new sites, deploying solutions, administering the services as well as other comprehensive set of configuration.

Development

Since WSS3 is built on .NET framework and extends the capabilities of ASP.NET based technologies, it has become easy for existing .NET developers to create compelling applications in WSS3. The central concept of WSS3 is the user of componentized development capability using Web Parts. Web Parts are WebControls with additional capabilities built into the control that is available for all Web Parts in WSS3. Web Parts provide the basic foundation for presentation, personalization and content management for WSS3. Using Web Parts, developers can create custom applications to run within WSS3. More information on creating, deploying and customizing Web Parts are available in other articles in the site.

Conclusion

In this article we have provided a very high level, partially technical discussion of Web Parts. More information on the different aspects, technologies and development methodologies will be available in subsequent articles on this site.