MSDN Magazine - October 2008 - (Page 55) VENDOR-SPONSORED CONTENT The ASP.NET page framework provides a set of features that enable you to create and enhance the look and feel of Web applications. Some of these features include the following: • Master pages. Determine overall layout, structure and interface elements with master pages. Use master pages to provide a consistent layout for Web sites you develop. • Styles. Define rich design through CSSs and the style property of standard HTML tags, HTML controls, and Web controls. • Themes. Define the look and feel of Web pages by using a group of files (CSSs and images) that compose a theme. Because SharePoint Products and Technologies use ASP.NET 2.0 as a platform and framework, you can also modify master pages, CSSs, and images of a SharePoint site for branding purposes. In SharePoint Server 2007, master pages are stored in the Master Page Gallery.Windows SharePoint Services exposes the Master Page Gallery as a document library that stores all existing master page definitions of a site collection.You can explore the contents of the Master Page Gallery and modify the builtin templates to create custom master pages as you need. 7. Page Navigation ASP.NET 2.0 provides a site navigation model that includes a site navigation API, a set of navigation providers, and server controls that allow you to control site navigation programmatically. The Site Navigation API has a SiteMapProvider class you can use to store your navigational data.You can then author a custom provider that derives from the SiteMapProvider class to retrieve other data stores that use other formats. Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides the PortalSiteMapProvider class that derives from the ASP.NET SiteMapProvider class. This class, in the Microsoft. SharePoint.Publishing namespace, allows you to retrieve site hierarchy data. Therefore, you get enhanced navigation control on SharePoint sites. ASP.NET also provides a set of navigation controls such as the SiteMapPath, TreeView and Menu controls. These controls allow you to provide graphical site navigation in your Web sites. In the same way, SharePoint Server 2007 uses the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.AspMenu control to provide menu-based navigation. By following the same approach you use for ASP.NET Web sites, you can programmatically customize navigation of SharePoint sites. ASP.NET also provides data source controls that allow you to connect navigation controls with the underlying provider of navigation data. Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides the PortalSiteMapDataSource control that lets you link navigation controls to navigation data via the DataSourceID attribute of navigation controls. You can use a PortalSiteMapDataSource control in the same way you use a SQLDataSource, an XMLDataSource, an AccessDataSource, or an ObjectDataSource Web server control to bind navigation data to server controls such as a TreeView or Menu control. Master pages in SharePoint Products and Technologies, such as the default.master page, are used to store page navigation providers and controls. 8. Web Services Web services allow your Web-based applications to connect to other software applications over a network, and therefore enable you to build distributed, service-oriented systems. As an ASP.NET developer, you may have already connected your Web-based applications to multiple Web services. If that’s the case, you will be pleased to know that both Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server offer a wide variety of Web services that you can use to retrieve and configure information from SharePoint sites. Windows SharePoint Services Web Services Windows SharePoint Services Web services are part of the Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer namespace. These Web services include methods for accessing and customizing SharePoint site content such as lists, site data, forms, meetings, document workspaces and permissions. To add a reference to a Windows SharePoint Services Web service in Visual Studio, add a Web Reference using the path of the SharePoint site for which the Web service is available. For example, to connect to the meetings Web service, you need to add a reference to the following: http://MyServer/[sites/][MySite/][MySu bsite/]_vti_bin/meetings.asmx. Office SharePoint Server 2007 Web Services Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides Web services to expose capabilities such as the Business Data Catalog, document management, Enterprise Search, Excel Services, InfoPath Forms Services, and Web content management (WCM). You can use multiple Web services to retrieve information and configure SharePoint sites. You add a reference to an Office SharePoint Server Web service in Visual Studio by adding a Web Reference that uses the path of the SharePoint site for which the Web service is available. For example, to connect to the Search Web service, you need to add a reference to the following: http://MyServer/[sites/][MySite/][MySu bsite/]_vti_bin/search.asmx.
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