Chapter 1: Anatomy of the Microsoft Office System 2003

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Introduction

It s been almost four years since Microsoft announced the .NET strategy. This strategy was centered on a new and innovative platform that would change the way applications and systems were designed and developed. At the announcement, one of the most interesting pieces of the .NET strategy was an almost total reliance on a set of emerging standards. At the time, these standards were becoming increasingly important based on the growing integration needs and platform interoperability issues that businesses were facing . Today, these Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based standards are enterprise proven and the .NET platform is a reality. Both .NET and XML have had a substantial impact on the way applications are designed and implemented. The addition of the Microsoft Office System 2003 changes the landscape and architecture even more.

This chapter provides a basic overview of the .NET Framework, Microsoft Office 2003, and the various technologies used throughout this book. This is an important starting point as we look more deeply at the newest product in the Office family, Microsoft InfoPath 2003. Even if you are an experienced developer, this chapter provides the baseline architectural overview used throughout the rest of the book. It is really important to review the concepts here so that you really understand the rest of the book and can explore the full potential of InfoPath 2003.