Integrate SharePoint into an existing website

Question

Wanting to integrate aspects of SharePoint into an existing website - rather than integrating applications into a SharePoint site. Is this actually possible using the SharePoint API's and Web Services?

Is it even possible (without many months of work) to make SharePoint leaner (JavaScript and CSS included) - i.e. less bandwidth hungry. Sharepoint site always seem to be over 400KB - even for a simple site (thanks to loading lots of assets (JS, CSS etc) that are not relevant on every page). Sites can take 40 seconds to load... on a broadband connection.

Are there any MasterPage templates around that use semantic markup rather than tables? Asking as all SharePoint sites I have seen look like SharePoint sites... would like to change it so they don't.

Being a bit vague as my initial impressions of SharePoint don't do it any favours (when it comes to the web development side)... found this Microsoft.SharePoint Namespace and it is a lot to read through from a development standpoint.

Answer 1

Have a look at heather solomon's base master pages, they provide an excellent starting point for creating your own custom master.

As for leaner pages, yes, you can leave out a lot of the sharepoint related CSS / JS if you are using your own master (i.e. for publishing web sites etc.).

As for the first question, yes you can integrate Sharepoint in ASP.NET apps, using either the web services (when the asp.net site is in a different machine than sharepoint) or the SharePoint object model (the link you provided) if both apps are on the same machine (the Sharepoint Object model (microsoft.sharepoint.dll etc.) don't allow you to use them from any other machine / farm than that which the site you are trying to use is on).

P.S. that namespace isn't even the half of it when you run MOSS instead of WSS.. Welcome to SharePoint World :-D.

Answer 2

1) It is possible to use SharePoint in a custom web app. They do have to be on the same machine, but you can do a lot by referencing the SharePoint dll. With the object model you can integrate certain aspects of SP into your app like document libraries for instance.

2) Using a custom MasterPages is very powerful. You can lean your SP site up by removing un-necessary controls. It's possible to get very tricky with the look of SP. Below is an example of a site I was involved with that's completely based on SP:

http://www.cableone.net/Pages/default.aspx