Hour 8. Understanding Client Object Model in SharePoint 2010
What You’ll Learn in This Hour:
• Understanding client object model fundamentals
• Exploring context in client object model
• Exploring the JavaScript client object model
Due to the complexity of the topics discussed, some figures in this book are very detailed and are intended only to provide a high-level view of concepts. Those figures are representational and not intended to be read in detail.
SharePoint has always had a great server side object model. But the server side object model was never adequate to address the needs of the emerging trend of rich Internet applications. Web applications are becoming more and more sophisticated all the time. Each user interaction in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) was followed by a postback, which is really annoying to the end user. Prior to SharePoint 2010, client side functionality was achieved by out of the box web services provided by SharePoint. But these were never complete, and each time a new functionality was needed, developers were required to create custom web services that used server side objects internally. Another concern for SharePoint developers was they had to install SharePoint on a server operating system to start learning or developing applications in SharePoint. Having to get a licensed version of a server operating system such as Win2k3 largely limited the number of people who could play around with SharePoint.
But enough about the limitations of previous versions of SharePoint. This hour delves into what’s available as part of SharePoint 2010 to address the issues just mentioned.