WSS/MOSS Book

Question

I have been using Inside MS Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by Ted Pattison to help me crack into WSS Development. It has been an excellent developer start, but now that I'm moving beyond I need some more referencey type of information.

I would normally just use MSDN, but I find it severely lacking in some of the examples, for instance specifically describing the practical differences between Lookup and LookupMulti fields. Does anyone know of a a good WSS/MOSS reference book? Would the Wrox book Professional SharePoint Development qualify?

Answer 1

I would recommend these books as based on Andrew Connell list:

• Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
• Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2007 Solutions in C# 2005
• Workflow in the 2007 Microsoft Office System
• Professional SharePoint 2007 Development
• Real World SharePoint 2007: Indispensable Experiences From 16 MOSS and WSS MVPs

If you (Like me) prefer blogs I found this little jewel in the WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007 blogging world an OPML of the majors blogs.

Answer 2

I've used Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2007 Solutions in C# 2005. It's not too bad and it does walk you through how to do the various key tasks with plenty of examples, but I did find it a bit lacking in terms of explaining why you are doing what you are doing -- essential if you are to avoid ending up in cargo cult programming.

Having said that, SharePoint development does involve getting your head round a lot of fairly complex concepts, so it's probably unfair to expect an author to do it more justice than that in only 300 pages when he's trying to give a broad overview. So you'll likely need to pick up some more specialised books along the way too. In particular, you will certainly need something such as Workflow in the 2007 Microsoft Office System if you want to start developing custom workflows.

Answer 3

I've taken a WSS DEV class with Todd Bleeker, and her really knows his stuff. I'd suggest the Developers Guide to Windows SharePoint Services v3 Platform. It's WSS only (not MOSS), but I found it rather helpful.

Answer 4

If you're working with MOSS Publishing (or WCM), I highly recommend Andrew Connell's own book on the topic: Professional SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007.

As far as I know, it is the only book that focuses exclusively on the MOSS Publishing infrastructure.

Answer 5

To dig deeper into SharePoint Search I highly recommend Inside the Index and Search Engines: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Answer 6

My experience is that there aren't any books that provide the kind of in-depth reference a SharePoint developer needs, like you find for more basic .Net technologies. So my advise is:

• Buy all the books (if possible), and use them as introductions. There is also a few "real world" books that are good - if your task is specifically covered by them.
• Search the web for specific details and real-world examples. Often MSDN really is the best you'll find.
• If really stuck, use .Net Reflector to look directly at the SharePoint code.

The sad truth is that there's a lot in SharePoint that isn't documented well enough. It's a large product, you can do anything. That doesn't mean books are worthless, but don't expect too much.

Answer 7

Early 2008 I bought the book SharePoint Server 2007 Bible from Wiley (without opening it first, yikes, not very wily of me).

It turned out to be filled with screen-shots or step-throughs of basic tasks like creating a workflow etc. that I would have expected in a book for end users of SharePoint. (read: Dummies Guide to SharePoint Administration)

It might be useful for you to give it to a "power" end user who is interested in a thorough look at getting more out of SharePoint. Or if you yourself want an overview of the out of the box capabilities of MOSS.

Guess I should have known by the label "Reader level: Beginner to Advanced" that it wouldn't be what I was hoping for; I am the Dummy!

Hopefully this answer is useful in the sense of it being a non-recommendation :-)