Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)

Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) version 3.0 (WSS v3) offers developers an immense set of features that can be leveraged to customize and extend its out-of-the-box functionality.
Windows SharePoint Services is a versatile technology in Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 that organizations and business units of all sizes can use to help increase the efficiency of business processes and improve team productivity. With tools for collaboration that help people stay connected across organizational and geographic boundaries, Windows SharePoint Services gives people access to the information they need.

Built on Windows Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services also provides a foundation platform for building Web-based business applications that can flex and scale easily to meet the changing and growing needs of your business. Robust administrative controls for managing storage and Web infrastructure give IT departments a cost-effective way to implement and manage a high-performance collaboration environment. With a familiar, Web-based interface and with the ability to work smoothly with everyday tools including those available in the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows SharePoint Server is easy to use and can be deployed rapidly.

WSS pages are ASP.NET applications, and SharePoint web parts use the ASP.NET web parts infrastructure, and using the ASP.NET APIs, web parts can be written to extend the functionality of WSS. In terms of programmability, WSS exposes an API and object model to programmatically create and manage portals, workspaces and users. In contrast, the MOSS API is more geared towards automation of tasks and integration with other applications.

Both Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) can use the web parts API to enhance the end user functionality. In addition, WSS document libraries can be exposed over ADO.NET connections to programmatically access the files and revisions in them.