Author: Jorg Krause et al.
Publisher: Apress, 2011
Pages: 1138
ISBN: 978-1430227069
Aimed at: Web developers wanting to learn to develop with SharePoint
Rating: 4.5
Pros: Comprehensive coverage of developer topics with no time wasted on unnecessary basics
Cons:Some topics could still have received more space
Reviewed by: Kay Ewbank

This is a beast of a book, definitely not one you’d want to carry about to read on the train, and as is normal with Apress books, the text is small and the pages are well filled, so the sheer amount of material is impressive. The authors say the book is intended for advanced web developers, and the assumption is that you already have knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript; Visual Studio, C#, ASP.NET, XML and how to use databases. This assumption means the writers don’t waste space going over these aspects of developing with SharePoint, which is just as well or who knows how many pages the book would occupy.

The book kicks off with a good introduction to the different tiers of SharePoint, each described concisely but in enough detail so you understand what they’re used for. Part One of the book then goes over the basics, with chapters on SharePoint’s object model, accessing the API, templates, web parts, and application techniques. There are good chapters on working with internal and external data, including the use of LINQ. Part Two of the book covers the user interface, showing how to use Web controls, program the client model, integrate Silverlight, and use charts and maps.

The final part of the book looks at advanced techniques, and gets pretty technical. There are chapters on form services and InfoPath, including programming InfoPath, Workflows for automating sets of processes, and a good chapter on Enterprise Features such as enterprise search, user profiles, Web content management, and metadata.

The code samples illustrate the material well, and you should be able to understand what’s going on as the code seems well written. Some of the samples are pretty extensive, running over several pages and laid out using the full width of the page. As you’d expect, the code is all available for download.

Overall, I liked this book. The authors don’t waste time and space waffling about topics you should already know, and they use code extensively to illustrate the ideas they’re discussing. My one complaint is that I’d have liked more detail for some areas, because once or twice I got to a point where the authors were explaining something that’s not explained well in the documentation, and it came to a halt when I was still wanting to know more. However, I have sympathy for the fact there’s just too much in SharePoint to delve any deeper while covering everything.

This isn’t a book I could recommend to a programmer who wasn’t already competent and confident in their general programming skills, but there again SharePoint development itself isn’t an area you’d want to work in if you weren’t happy tying together multiple layers and technologies. I can recommend it to you if you are a competent programmer who needs to develop in SharePoint; it’s not perfect, but it’s a good addition to your shelves.