Unknown to most developers because you have to use FrontPage 2003 to create the Data View Web Part, it lets you display data from any SharePoint site to which you can connect, from any database with a functional OLEDB provider; parse and display XML files; and connect to SOAP Web Services. Using Web Part Connections, the Data View can pass parameters to Web sites that return XML, and even pass parameters to SOAP Web Services. All this without writing a single line of code. Find out how to put the Data View Web Part to use.

Do you subscribe to Advisor Guide to Microsoft SharePoint?  If not, you're missing out on the first in a series of articles I'm writing -- each focused on my favorite web part, the XSLT Data View Web Part.  This part is a hacker's dream, and makes it trivial to create high impact (and, if you're the AJAX type, heavily scripted) user experiences on the SharePoint platform.  Get the subscription, go to the Advisor Summit in Phoenix this August, and come to our classes to get all the Data View knowledge you can!