SharePoint Development

1
SharePoint Development

• Scratching the Surface with
• Web Parts

2
Agenda

• Who am I?
• SharePoint from a developers perspective
• Web Parts, Zones, and Pages
• Leveraging the ASP.NET Framework
• The SharePoint Object Model
• Deployment Scenarios
• SharePoint Resources

3
Bil Simser

• Independent SharePoint Consultant
• Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for
  SharePoint Portal Server
• http//www.microsoft.com/mvp/
• My SharePoint Blog
• http//weblogs.asp.net/bsimser
• Contact Me
• bsimser_at_shaw.ca

4
A Developers Perspective

• Windows SharePoint Services is great out of the
  box
• No code required for immediate value
• Windows SharePoint Services is (optionally) part
  of the Windows Server 2003 infrastructure (and
  free!)
• Rich extensibility for custom solutions
• Managed server object model
• Remote access through Web Services
• Web Part infrastructure for extending UI
• Leverages ASP.NET platform advancements in the
  future

5
Development Environment

• Can use Windows XP or develop directly on server
• Remote debugging vs. local
• Virtual Machine running Windows 2003 Server with
  SharePoint
• See my blog on setting up a virtual environment
• http//weblogs.asp.net/bsimser/archive/2006/02/09/
  437788.aspx

6
Business Opportunity

• Applications
• News Publishing
• Bug Tracking
• Project Management System
• Expense Reporting
• Blogs
• Tools
• Web Parts
• Usage Reporting
• Connectivity

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Web Parts

• What is a Web Part?
• A unit of portal functionality
• Building Block of SharePoint
• Web Parts are placed in Web Part Zones
• Web Parts can communicate with each other
• Can be personalized by end users (if enabled)

8
Web Part Zones

• Web Part Zones are containers for Web Parts
• Divide a Web Part Page into sections of content
• During Customization and Personalization, Web
  Parts can be dragged from one Zone to another

9
Web Part Pages

• Are the building blocks of a site, providing the
  individual page layouts
• Each page is addressable individually by URL
• There is a .aspx file for each page
• Pages can be customized in Frontpage or by hand
• Pages contain Web Part Zones

10
Demonstration

• Getting to know Web Parts, Zones, and Pages

11
Web Part Infrastructure

• Personalize your page in the browser to simplify
  and focus on the information most relevant to you
• Page and site authors build custom solutions
  using Web Parts in Microsoft Office FrontPage
  2003
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET developers extend
  SharePoint Products and Technologies by
  encapsulating web services and enterprise data in
  ASP.NET server controls

12
Extending UI With Web Parts

• Building blocks for modular web pages
• Provides connection to information apps
• Built by developers
• ASP.NET Server Controls
• Added to pages by site owners
• Easy configuration
• Personalized by end users
• Rich and custom client experience

13
Web Parts And Developers

• ASP.NET Server Control based
• Web Part is a ASP.NET server control
• Leverage Visual Studio
• Project templates on MSDN
• Intelli-sense, debugging, source control, etc.
• Deployed as an assembly
• Reusable across thousands of pages and sites
• Admins control which Web Parts are available
• End Power users decide where Web Parts are used

14
Web Parts and SharePoint

• Built-in Web Parts
• Rich Text Editor
• List Views
• Events/Calendars
• Member Information
• Usage Reports
• Custom Web Parts
• Lots of 3rd party Web Parts
• Build your own!

15
Demonstration

• Hello World Web Part

16
The Pain of Building Web Parts

• Web Parts dont support design view
• Web Parts are Server Controls
• All HTML must be emitted
• All components must be created and placed in code
• Rich design time experience
• Smart Part (uses User Controls)

17
Web Parts and the .NET Framework

• 100 managed code
• Multiple language support (C, VB.NET, etc.)
• Web Services
• Code Access Security
• ASP.NET server controls

18
Control Composition

• Web Parts can be easily built using other
  ASP.NET Controls
• Re-use functionality and services
• No need to write everything from scratch
• Leverage the ASP.NET Framework

19
Demonstration

• Reusing ASP.NET Components

20
.NET Windows SharePoint Services Object Model

• Managed code object model on the server
• Accessible via ASP.NET or any other server
  process
• Implemented in C
• Exposes almost of all of the data stored in
  Windows SharePoint Services

21
Working with the Object Model

• The object model has four top-level objects
• SPWeb (represents an individual site)
• SPSite (represents a site collection, which is a
  set of web sites)
• SPVirtualServer (represents a virtual server)
• SPGlobalAdmin (used for global administration
  settings)
• In order to perform actions on data within a web,
  you must first get an SPWeb object.

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The SPWeb Class

• Starting point to get at the Lists, Items,
  Documents, Users, Alerts, etc. for a web site.
• Example Properties
• Web.Lists (returns a collection of lists)
• Web.Title (returns the title of the site)
• Web.Users (returns the users on the site)

23
Demonstration

• Accessing the Object Model

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What Is A List?

• Virtual table storing item data and metadata
• Building block for collaborative applications
• Scenarios
• Spreadsheet on a Web page
• Community Bulletin Board
• File Folder
• Calendar
• Reports
• Issue Tracking
• Surveys
• Data Table
• Built-in list types are extensible

25
Programming Lists

• Multiple methods of accessibility
• .NET Object Model
• Lists Web Service
• FrontPage RPC
• Extensible functionality
• New list types for deployment
• List templates

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What Is A Document Library?

• Specialized SharePoint List
• 3 Types of Document Libraries
• Document Library
• Form Library
• Picture Library
• Special Features
• Check-In/Check-Out
• Versioning
• WebDAV access
• Event Handlers
• Promotion/Demotion of properties

27
Programming Document Libraries

• Multiple methods of accessibility
• .NET Object Model
• WebDAV
• FrontPage RPC
• Extensible functionality using event handlers
• Custom workflow
• Enforcing business logic

28
Accessing Document Libraries
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Events

• Events are supported on document libraries
• Operations such as add, update, delete, check-in,
  check-out, etc.
• Events are asynchronous!
• Events call a managed interface

30
Performance Tips

• To optimize performance, use foreach() to step
  through collections. Iterating through
  collections by index can result in unnecessary
  database calls
• Calls to collections such as List.Items are
  expensive. Preserve the collection rather than
  requesting it again

31
Deployment And Security

• Administrator has to install the assembly
• Only registered web custom controls will run in
  SharePoint pages
• Inline server script in the page will not
  execute
• Code behind in pages can be made to work
• Utilize ASP.NET Code Access Security (CAS)

32
Demonstration

• Deployment Using CAB Project

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Summary

• SharePoint Products and Technologies is built for
  extensible .NET development
• Lots of opportunity for rich customization
  through Web Parts
• Using the .Net platform allows us to leverage
  rich features
• Infrastructure Scales out and up for large server
  farms
• SDK, white papers and code samples available
  athttp//msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint

34
Resources

• Blogs
• http//blogs.msdn.com
• http//weblogs.asp.net
• Microsoft Newsgroups
• news.microsoft.com
• Forums message boards
• http//asp.net/forums
• Microsoft SharePoint Site
• http//www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/default.mspx

35
Resources

• Elis SharePoint Resources
• http//weblogs.asp.net/erobillard/archive/2004/06/
  17/158311.aspx
• Arpan Shaws List of OnDemand Web Casts
• http//blogs.msdn.com/arpans/archive/2004/10/11/24
  1118.aspx
• Lamont Harrison
• http//blogs.msdn.com/lamonth/articles/368827.aspx

36
Questions?