Introducing the ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts Framework

ASP.NET Development Center Home: Introducing the ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts Framework

"Summary: Web Parts provide you with the infrastructure for creating customizable Web applications. When you build a Web site with Web Parts, the Web site can be easily customized by either the administrator of the Web site or the individual users of the Web site. Web Parts are all about flexibility. (54 printed pages)

Contents
Introduction
Building Web Parts
Personalizing Web Parts
Creating a Custom Web Part Menu
Communicating Information Between Web Parts
Importing and Exporting Web Part Settings
Conclusion

Introduction
In this article, you are introduced to the Web Part framework. You learn how to create Web Parts and add them to a Web page. This article also discusses several advanced features of Web Parts. For example, you learn how to share Web Part settings across applications by importing and exporting Web parts and you learn how to add custom menu verbs to Web Parts. You also learn how to communicate information between Web Parts by connecting different Web Parts in a Web Page."

I dig the web part concept and it looks like MS is really going to keep them around for a while (you know you never can be sure...). MS is taking Parts out of SharePoint and is making parts available for the masses in ASP 2.0.

Time to start thinking about how they can be used in future apps...