SharePoint: Book Recommendation

sthompson86

Hello, I was wondering if any of you would recommend a SharePoint 2007 technical book to me.

At my current job we have a SharePoint sever that is just kind of there. We have a few users who access it, but we really do not have an admin who takes ownership of the server or training issues with users.

Nonetheless, I am looking for a book that will help me understand SharePoint (I do not know a thing about it) to where I can eventually help some of our users problems with SP.

Most of the books I saw looked to be just administrative guides in regards to managing the server.

If any of you have any experience with a good SharePoint book please let me know.

- Thank you.

RobertKaucher

Which version? Is this MOSS 2007, WSS 3.0, SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010?

[Deleted User]

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Which version? Is this MOSS 2007, WSS 3.0, SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010?

Just curious RK, is the OP getting himself into something that may be more involved than it appears on the surface? I don't know much about SharePoint but typically you see jobs dedicated to SharePoint administration. I could be totally off base here I am just interested to know more about SharePoint administration in general. Maybe he isn't looking to take this over in that capacity.

RobertKaucher

xmalachi wrote: »

Just curious RK, is the OP getting himself into something that may be more involved than it appears on the surface? I don't know much about SharePoint but typically you see jobs dedicated to SharePoint administration. I could be totally off base here I am just interested to know more about SharePoint administration in general. Maybe he isn't looking to take this over in that capacity.

Of course he is. But this is the kind of thing that could make a career. Most companies who casually use SharePoint do so in such a way that about 5% of its power is being used. Most, I would say, see it as a replacement for file shares. I bet that's how the OP's company is using it. They might use some of the other functionality, like issue lists or caledars. But more than likely that's it.

Taking something like this over when no one else wants to could be an excellent chance to learn and improve the company's productivity. It does not take much to learn the basics of SharePoint administration. But SharePoint is a portal into another universe. It can turn server admins into DBAs and developers and developers into server admins. Right now I spend 2/3 of my work day in Visual Studio 2010 doing integration between SQL Server and SharePoint 2010 to create LOB applications. We use SharePoint because we have employees all over the world and in some cases they have no direct access to our corporate network.

I think it is a very good thing for him to do. But yes - it could be a Pandora's Box.

sthompson86

xmalachi wrote: »

Just curious RK, is the OP getting himself into something that may be more involved than it appears on the surface? I don't know much about SharePoint but typically you see jobs dedicated to SharePoint administration. I could be totally off base here I am just interested to know more about SharePoint administration in general. Maybe he isn't looking to take this over in that capacity.

You are right I do not know what I am getting into lol. I just want to test the waters.

[Deleted User]

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Of course he is. But this is the kind of thing that could make a career. Most companies who casually use SharePoint do so in such a way that about 5% of its power is being used. Most, I would say, see it as a replacement for file shares. I bet that's how the OP's company is using it. They might use some of the other functionality, like issue lists or caledars. But more than likely that's it.

Taking something like this over when no one else wants to could be an excellent chance to learn and improve the company's productivity. It does not take much to learn the basics of SharePoint administration. But SharePoint is a portal into another universe. It can turn server admins into DBAs and developers and developers into server admins. Right now I spend 2/3 of my work day in Visual Studio 2010 doing integration between SQL Server and SharePoint 2010 to create LOB applications. We use SharePoint because we have employees all over the world and in some cases they have no direct access to our corporate network.

I think it is a very good thing for him to do. But yes - it could be a Pandora's Box.

+1 Appreciate the response. I honestly wasn't sure how much involvement there was in SharePoint. All I know is that our company has a DBA and one of his primary duties is everything SharePoint. I definitely agree with you that this may be a great opportunity for the OP to potentially go in a different direction and learn some new stuff that will be valuable.

sthompson86 wrote: »

You are right I do not know what I am getting into lol. I just want to test the waters.

Hey man, there is nothing wrong with that. This could lead to you finding something that you really enjoy and potentially turning it into a career. I'm all for people learning something new, I just wanted to get a little bit of insight. You can't be intimidated by the fact that it is something that can be robust because if you are you will never learn it and just become complacent in what it does right now. Not to mention SP administration could look pretty good on a resume

sthompson86

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Which version? Is this MOSS 2007, WSS 3.0, SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010?

It is Sharepoint 2007 - Thank you.

RobertKaucher

sthompson86 wrote: »

It is Sharepoint 2007 - Thank you.

This is like telling me you drive a 2007 Ford. I still don't know which model.

But in that case I suggest you spend $30 and sign up for Lynda.com and do their SharePoint 2007 introduction videos and then even the branding videos. I am still not sure if you are talking about WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007, so I will make some broad suggestions:

SharePoint 2007 Best Practices - This is essential reading, but is fairly advanced.
Real World SharePoint 2007 - Very high level overview of different SharePoint topics.
Inside SharePoint 2007 Administration - Best admin guide out there.

Read the second two books first and in conjunction. If you need to skip one, skip Real World. It's not the best book, but it does have very good information on a lot of topics.

At least in my area of the country there is a serious lack on people who know SP really well. I don't mean guys who have deployed it at their company and who do basic admin. End users can learn that stuff. I mean people who can tell you the why and how to of configuring your AAMs, can configure Kerberos authentication in their sleep, and can tell you when a proposed solution is going to blow up a SharePoint deployment.