I've been trying to readup on SharePoint's API and I can see where you can pull Document lists, but what I want to know is..

Can I develop an external applicaiton that uses the SharePoint API or someway to create my own document management interface built ontop of SharePoint?  Meaning I want my own "WebPart" sort of speaking on my own web application that has the look and feel that I want but the underlaying code is using SharePoint installed locally to manage the check-in/out, versioning etc of the documents.

I'm curious as to if Records Center Web Service is the answer but it not sure if you check in/out, keep history or not. Seems it's meant to be sent to a thirdparty location.

Hi, 

I was able to create a custom .NET web service that manipulate sharepoint objects such as site collection and site creation, file upload, metadata update and many other. The key is to set web.allowUnsafeUpdates = ture if you are invoking an update on a sharepoint object from an external app. I think you can create your own external web app to access and manipulate sharepoint data but you still need the sharepoint sites to be created.

Records center is not was your looking for if your aim is at document management. You should go for a document center site.

if you need any further info let me know

regards,

Raji