| Web Parts are new to FrontPage and are a dramatically enhanced method of providing interactivity to your Web site. Many of the data sources you've already seen are composed of Web Parts SharePoint Lists, SharePoint Libraries, XML files, and XML Web services are all Web Parts. Although Web Parts can be inserted into a SharePoint site using the SharePoint Web interface, inserting them in FrontPage offers additional functionality. You can configure Web Parts in FrontPage so that they share information and feed off each other. For example, you can configure a Web Part that returns a list of cities and ZIP Codes from an XML file. You can then configure the site so that when a ZIP Code is clicked, a Web service automatically pulls weather information for the ZIP Code. That kind of power has never before been available to FrontPage developers.  For more information about inserting and configuring communication between Web Parts, see "Connecting Web Parts," p. 754.
Server Extensions and SharePoint FrontPage users are accustomed to using the Database Results Wizard and the Database Interface Wizard to connect to databases. Those tools are still available, but only if your Web site is not hosted on a Windows SharePoint Services site. If you are using SharePoint Services, the only database that you can use for a data source is SQL Server. SharePoint Services does add considerable functionality to your Web site, but if you require a connection to a database type other than SQL Server, you will want to make sure that you don't use SharePoint on your site. If you are using the Database Results Wizard or the Database Interface Wizard to connect to a database, you do not need FrontPage Server Extensions on the server when the pages are browsed. You must have Server Extensions on the Web server if you want to be able to open the Web site in FrontPage and reconfigure the database access, but when the pages are browsed, the Server Extensions are not used in any way. |
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