The Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies protocol documentation provides detailed technical specifications for Microsoft proprietary protocols (including extensions to industry-standard or other published protocols) that are used by SharePoint Products and Technologies software (namely Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with Service Pack 1 applied and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Service Pack 1 applied) to communicate with other Microsoft products.

The documentation includes a set of companion overview and reference documents that supplement the technical specifications with conceptual background, overviews of inter-protocol relationships and interactions, and technical reference information.

Audience

The Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies protocol documentation is intended for use in conjunction with publicly available standard specifications, and network programming art. It assumes that the reader either is familiar with this material or has immediate access to it.

The technical documentation provides the following levels of audience support:

• Implementer: Sufficient conceptual and reference information for a successful implementation of one or more protocol specifications for a given task or scenario.

• Reviewer: A definitive resource for readers who want to evaluate or understand one or more protocols.

About the Protocols

• SharePoint Front-End Protocols. View for more information about protocols where SharePoint Products and Technologies implement only one of the protocol endpoints. These protocols are intended for interoperability between SharePoint Products and Technologies and external applications.

• SharePoint Back-End Protocols. View for more information about protocols where SharePoint Products and Technologies implement both endpoints. These protocols are intended for interoperability between components of SharePoint Products and Technologies, or third party components implementing some or all of the functionality of a SharePoint component.