Last week I installed my first Sharepoint 2007 server. Just to get up to speed with it. Not farm setup, just the 'single server' installation.

It's wonderfully simple to set up. Install Windows 2003 Server, Install IIS 6.0, Install .NET 3.0. All straight forward installs.

Then put the Sharepoint DVD in the drive, run setup.cmd, pick the kind of installation and grab a cup of coffee. After a short while the installation is done and it asks you if you want to run the configuration wizard. I confirmed that and it will run through several steps (no user input required) to configure your installation.

Again, this takes a few minutes. After that is done it launches the IE and you can continue configuring your server to your likings.

I clicked around for a while, created some sites, added some lists (for Notes people, a list quite nicely maps in our brain as a view) and looked at the integration with Office and Outlook (which is really amazing).

But, the developer I am, I wanted to learn how to create Web parts (the Microsoft equivalent of a portlet). Well, in itself, creating a web part is not that difficult. However, as there is no visual designer for it, it's, well... if feels clumsy to write code to create your UI.

But that's where the Smartpart comes to rescue! A smartpart is a pre-build webpart that you install on your sharepoint server. Then as a developer you can create (in Visual Studio 2005) a so called webcontrol, and have the smartpart host that control. The good thing with webcontrols: there is  visual editor for it. You can use the ASP.NET control in a visual manner and it even has support for Ajax. It made me happy.

As I'm very new to this product, I ordered myself the book called "Microsoft Sharepoint. Building Office 2007 Solution in C# 2005" written by Scott Hillier.

What I like about it (I just started to read it though) is that it starts from scratch: installing the server, configuration, then moves to the fundamentals and the features offered by the product and it ends with development and administration.

At first glance I see a lot of the concepts I was used to in Domino development but with a different name. It seems to be a very very complete product with an incredible potential. I'm looking forward to my trip into Sharepoint 2007!