10.1. Choosing an ApproachThe 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
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
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. |