Section 10.1. Choosing an Approach

10.1. Choosing an Approach

The approach you choose depends mainly on the type of client you want to create. Table 10-1 shows a set of recommendations for programming different types of applications.

Table 10-1. Choosing an approach based on the type of client

Type of client	Use this approach
Office application (or an application that integrates with Office 2003)	Office object model
Windows application	Web services
Non-Windows application	Web services
ASP.NET application	Web services, URL commands, or RPC methods
SharePoint web part page	URL commands or RPC methods

The last item in the table doesn't look like a remote client since the page exists on the SharePoint server. However, URL commands and RPC methods are sent from the client browser via HTTP GET or POST. The commands or methods reside on the client browser and therefore can be considered remote programming. You'll learn more about that later.

There is overlap in each of the remote programming approaches, but only web services and RPC methods offer complete sets of features. To explain the recommendations a bit more, Table 10-2 summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Table 10-2. Comparing remote programming approaches

Approach	Advantage	Disadvantage
Office object model	Built in to Office 2003 Available from VBA or .NET Easy to use	Limited to Office- related objects Requires Office 2003
Web services	Provides complete set of objects Available on many platforms Built-in authentication	More complicated than Office object model Adds overhead
URL commands	Easiest to use Can run from a SharePoint page	Limited to getting data Data returned in XML (sometimes an advantage) Uses GUIDs to identify lists
RPC methods	Provides access to most SharePoint tasks (similar to web services) Lower overhead than web services Can run from a SharePoint page	Difficult to learn Data returned in XML (sometimes an advantage) Uses GUIDs to identify lists Requires FormDigest control for authentication

For most programmers, the decision is simple: use the programming technique you are most familiar with and look at the other approaches when you hit a wall. For instance, Office programmers can do a lot with the Office object model, but will need to add web services in order to add attachments to a list.