Introduction

This book is the culmination of two years of work while I was waiting for Microsoft Outlook 2003 and Microsoft Exchange 2003 to be released to the public. You will find in-depth information on how to build collaborative applications on the Microsoft platform using technologies such as Outlook, Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint, smart documents, smart tags, and Microsoft Office Live Communications Server. All of the relevant content could not fit into a single printed book, however, so you will find chapters on some of the technologies available for download from the Microsoft Press Web site. The Web site also includes all the book's sample applications and sample files, including SharePoint 2.0 Web parts and Outlook and Exchange samples. (See "Installing and Using the Sample Files and Supplemental Chapters" for the location of this matetrial.)

Who This Book Is For

This book is targeted at all levels of developers. I've tried to make the book approachable for beginners while also providing the in-depth information and advanced tips and tricks that readers of the previous two editions have come to expect. Many of the samples are written both for native code and Microsoft .NET. Users of native code will find samples that show how to build collaborative applications with tools they are used to, such as Microsoft Visual Basic 6 and Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP). You will even learn how to build Exchange Web services with Visual Basic 6 and the SOAP Toolkit. Most samples have a .NET version as well. They show how to use Microsoft's collaborative technologies in the .NET environment. I have also tried to provide the code in more than one language throughout the book so that Visual Basic and Visual C# developers can benefit from the samples.