Windows SharePoint Services

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), or Windows SharePoint, is a free add-on to Windows Server 2003 made available by Microsoft. It offers basic web portal and intranet functionality, including portal pages called web part pages made up of web parts (developed in ASP.NET), team, document or project sub-sites, version-controlled document storage, and basic search functionality. It is made up of an ASP.NET web site hosted on Internet Information Services 6.0, using a Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE database back-end to store data.

Windows SharePoint Services also forms the basis for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server and Microsoft Office Project Server. Portal Server is the enterprise layer (not free) that is built upon Windows SharePoint Services.

Versions
The first version, called SharePoint Team Services (a.k.a. STS), was released at the same time as Office XP and was available as part of Microsoft FrontPage. STS could run on Windows 2000 Server or Windows XP. The only things it had in common with SharePoint Portal Server 2001 were some common graphical images and styles.

Version 2.0, Windows SharePoint Services, was marketed as an upgrade to Sharepoint Team Services, but was in fact a completely redesigned application. Key differences in document storage facilities differentiate the two products. Sharepoint Team Services stored documents in ordinary file storage, while keeping document metadata in a database. Windows Sharepoint Services stores both the document and the metadata in a database. Document versioning was not supported in Sharepoint Team Services, while Windows Sharepoint Services supports basic document versioning.

Version 3.0 is planned for release in 2007 as part of the upcoming Office 2007 suite and Windows Server "Longhorn". It will include many new features, such as mobility, RSS, wiki, weblog, and much improved navigation.

Web Part Packager
Web part packager (Wppackager) is a tool used to package and deploy web parts for Microsoft SharePoint products and technologies.