Chapter 3. Extending Site Pages

SharePoint Services includes features that allow you to extend the functionality of a basic team site. SharePoint Services implements Web Parts to link to external web sites, system folders, or files, as well as allow users to configure how the content is displayed.

A rich text editor provided by SharePoint Services allows you to create HTML pages without having to write any HTML code. Users with no coding experience can easily add formatted web pages to the team site.

Web Parts in SharePoint Services can also communicate with each other. This powerful feature allows you to create a Web Part that provides the data for another Web Part on your team site without having to write intricate code.

You can also build complex Web Part pages that can display several unrelated pieces of information on one page. By displaying several Web Parts on one page, users no longer have to navigate to multiple pages or web sites to retrieve information.

In this chapter you will learn:

• How to link external content to your team site, including HTML pages, system folders, and files

• How to create static HTML pages without writing cumbersome HTML code

• The benefit of connecting Web Parts to allow your Web Parts to produce or consume information from other Web Parts

• The benefits of creating custom Web Parts that extend the functionality of the standard Web Parts offered by SharePoint Services

By the end of this chapter, you should understand the benefits and methods of linking external content to your SharePoint team sites.