Question on Sharepoint

[Webskater]

Working on a web application used on an intranet. The next phase includes 'using' Sharepoint so users can access documents. I have never used Sharepoint.

Will I be able to do things like ...

Within the web application present a list of documents to do with a certain project so users can, for example, click on a spreadsheet and it will open - on their computer - in Excel?

When the document is saved - what is the mechanism for it being saved in the same location it was retrieved from?

Is there any sort of source control involved - so that two users don't access the same document at the same time and then one of them overwrites the other's changes etc.

Does the Sharepoint Server have to be the same server that the web app is running on. If not - what authentication issues arise and are they easy to deal with?

Any pointers much appreciated. I have to either own up and say 'I don't know how to do this' - or convince myself I can pick it up somehow.

[gep13]

Hello there,

So the first question would be, what version of SharePoint are you using?

WSS 3.0? MOSS 2007? SharePoint Server 2010?

If you are using SharePoint as it was intended, then a lot of the functionality that you have described, i.e. Version Control of a Document Library ships out of the box, you don't need to do any custom coding.

I am not going to lie to you, SharePoint is a bit of a beast, and if you haven't used it before, and you are expected to do some work on it, then I would bring that to peoples attention ahead of time.

As for this:

Does the Sharepoint Server have to be the same server that the web app is running on. If not - what authentication issues arise and are they easy to deal with?

SharePoint is based on ASP.Net. As soon as you install it, you have an IIS Web Application running, and you will already have a Default Site installed. From there, you get an of the box experience in terms of security, customisation, etc, without the need to even think about creating a custom ASP.Net Application to run within it. I would suggest that you first get to grips with what SharePoint can do for you, without thinking about custom coding anything to start with.

Gary