SharePoint 2010 - Web Parts

Definition 1: Widgets added to SP pages @runtime

Definition 2: Web Part is a portion of a Web Page used by a server control that renders dynamic contents.

Technical Definition: Web Part is a specialized ASP.NET server controls that are added or plugged into SharePoint pages dynamically at runtime using browser to render some dynamic contents as part of SharePoint page contents.

Comparison of ASP.NET & Web Parts

ASP.NET server control	Web Parts
Added to pages at design time	@run time
Developer adds controls to page	End users chooses web part
No communication established between controls by default	inter connectible web part
User specific personalization not applicable	User specific personalization supported
SOM by default not supported	SharePoint object model supported
Target audience is not supported	Target audience supported
By default designed support to user controls	Developing web part is as good as developing custom controls. So designer by default is supported.

Features of Web Parts in 2010

1.       ASP.NET portal framework based(more usable and interoperable)                         

2.       Visual web part support(web part that host user controls)

3.       Ease of development and deployment(inherit a class and update some methods)

4.       Sandboxed solution deployment support(only coded web part supports)

5.       WSP packaging support for deployment

6.       Inbuilt support to ASP.NET server side AJAX

7.       Options to hosting Silverlight Packages to enrich web experience

8.       Inter-communication between web parts support using interface support

9.       Media web part support for streaming media contents(by default client side streaming supported- installing IIS media services would provide server side streaming – license free

Download from iis.net.

10.   Charts and graph web part support

11.   XML viewer web part for XSLT transformation

12.   Content query web part for rolling of the contents

13.   Page viewer web  part for integrating existing pages

14.   Content editor web part for inline HTML rendering

15.   Editor part component support for customizing look and feel of web part properties

16.   Verbs support for adding custom commands to web parts

17.   RSS feed/ATOM feeds web part support

18.   SOM support to leverage SharePoint features

19.   Target audience support

20.   HTML form web part