Beginning SharePoint 2007: Building Team Solutions with MOSS 2007 (Programmer to Programmer)

Because Web Parts are such an integral part of SharePoint and are used, to some degree, in every chapter in this book, this chapter discusses the various Web Parts that can help your team with any business problem. In this chapter, you learned the following:

• Web Parts are applications that you can only add to a Web Part page that allow users to interact with the site. SharePoint has various Web Parts, which were discussed in detail, and you can create your own using ASP.NET.

• Web Part pages have a Web Part tool pane where you can select and modify Web Part properties. You add Web Parts to zones by dragging and dropping them to different positions within a zone, or by dragging them to completely separate zones on the page. You learned the basics of adding Web Parts, customizing the title and border, and importing or exporting them from one page or site to another.

• Each time you create a list or library, a corresponding Web Part is added to the Web Part Gallery. You can use this gallery later to add content to the page and display the data in the list or library. You can modify the view of a List or Library Web Part to display metadata columns and quickly channel information to your users.

• The Business Data Web Parts let you access important business information from a variety of data sources.

• Content rollup Web Parts gather data from multiple subsites, rolling the results up to a single location, making it easier to consume data from multiple sources.

• Filter Web Parts filter the data displayed in Web Parts based on the properties of the page.

• Search Web Parts aid in quickly searching for information.

• Outlook Web Access Web Parts help you view email while working within your team collaboration sites.

• Dashboard Web Parts display Key Performance Indicators, which visually measure progress toward business goals.

• Miscellaneous Web Parts perform a variety of common tasks.

• Site Directory Web Parts help you organize your team sites in an intuitive hierarchy.

• Default Web Parts are special Web Parts that cover a number of functional areas to display content, aggregate it from other locations, or improve how you can navigate to other areas of the site.

• The Data View Web Part can customize the default XML (CAML) based list data, transforming it into a more customizable friendly XSL format.