SharePoint Designer vs. InfoPath vs. Visual Studio vs. Excel Services

在 SharePoint 平台上，可以自行做各式各樣的擴充、客製化等，SharePoint Designer 、 InfoPath 、 Visual Studio 及 Excel Services 是大家最常討論及使用的，各自的適用時機、用槍時機為何？請繼續往下讀：

· SharePoint Designer:

you are bound to use it in almost any project to build the design for a SharePoint site. It makes it simple to build a design step-by-step and visualize exactly how it will look like in production. But the most exciting feature of SharePoint Designer is the ability to create workflows in a flexibly, wizard-driven environment. You also have the ability to import custom workflow activities created with Visual Studio for added extensibility

· InfoPath:

the product of choice to create forms and other components of the user interface. If possible, use it purely to build the interface and avoid embedding any business logic in the form. That business logic belongs inside a web service, cleanly designed .NET code, or potentially an Excel Services workbook. Some level of logic will often be required to modify the form layout based on various properties

· Visual Studio:

this still is the tool of choice for heavy-duty customizations. In Visual Studio, you will create web parts, advanced reusable workflows, Excel user-defined functions, custom workflow activities… the list goes on and on. Visual Studio even plays a role in packaging SharePoint themes, to create reusable user interface components that are easy to deploy and manage

· Excel Services:

this is a completely new addition to the SharePoint stack. Excel Services makes it possible to implement business logic such as financial calculations as formulas in an Excel workbook. You can leverage this technology to let business SMEs validate and potentially create themselves business logic, in an environment they are familiar with. Excel Services workbooks can even be exposed as web services for reusability

更多資訊：Developing Custom Applications with SharePoint Server 2007