Developing a custom SharePoint solution

My name is Sigurbjörn Guðjónsson, and I live in Reykjavík, Iceland. I recently started working as a developer for Focal Software & Consulting (www.focal.is). My job description is a .Net developer and I’m currently working in the SharePoint environment.

I was first introduced to SharePoint late last June so I’ve got just about +3 weeks of trial and error (mostly error) under my belt. I’ve read books, blogs and watch quite a few screencasts. So I guess that right now you can consider me to be a beginner in SharePoint development.

This post is an introduction into a series of walk-throughs for developers beginning ( or just interested in) SharePoint development. I’ll try to show you how you can create a custom SharePoint solution from scratch that, as far as I know, uses the most common elements of SharePoint.

We will create a simple feature solution that includes a content-type, custom field type, list template and definition along with workflows and custom .aspx pages that use code-behind like we all love (and hate). I’ll show you how I combine all these elements together into a custom application specially written for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS).

Oh and by-the-way. This is my first time writing a blog so bare with my (I’ll hopefully get better) and keep those comments coming.

Prerequisites

I’ll be using Visual Studio 2008 running on Windows Server 2003 in a virtual machine environment and the STSDEV 1.3 (http://www.codeplex.com/stsdev) plugin to assist me in creating my project.

I strongly recommend that you setup your development environment in a virtual machine, tough it might be slower it beats having to constantly re-install SharePoint on your desktop/laptop and saves you from screw-ups you might get yourself into.

Also I recommend you to visit the STSDEV website at CodePlex on how to install this magnificent application and watch their tutorials.

What’s next

I hope that my effort will help somebody out there starting their journey into SharePoint.

So here is part 1 of my series, enjoy.