SharePoint Programming

To begin with, lets look upon some things that you do need to know before you start with the Microsoft Product called "SharePoint".

1. Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 - An extentions build on Windows Server 2003, which Provides the infrastructure for collaboration and a foundation for building Web-based applications with this versatile technology. In short, it provides the base for SharePoint Server 2007.

2. SharePoint and .Net - SharePoint development stack is build upon .Net Framework 2.0 so, it pretty much uses all the .Net Framework 2.0 classes as its base classes. IT however, has its own SharePoint API model, which is commonly used for development.

3. SharePoint and SQL - SharePoint definitely uses SQL server to store the data which is uploaded into it. So be ready with a big SQl space to accommodate SharePoint data.

Now lets Start with the basic definition of SharePoint Server 2007 - Its a Collaboration software or a Content management Portal which effectively manage and repurpose the content to gain increased business value. In simple words, SharePoint's main purpose is to allow various departments\teams in the company to upload,manage and share documents using SharePoint sites. In addition to Sharing documents,it also allows you to create and manage web sites, use workflows and various other options to implement the business process.For more info see What is SharePoint Used For


SharePoint Administration - As it a server, you would definitely need to learn its administartion. SharePoint has two options avaiable for administration.
1. Central admin - A website available to you immediately after you install SharePoint (and after you ran its Config wizard). This website pretty much allows you to perform and function in SharePoint like Creating\Deleting Websites, Backup\Restore Sites,Set up Users\accounts, Install Custom components and a lot more.

2. Stsadm Tool - This is a command line tool available in SharePoint, which allows you to perform all the administrative tasks that you can do with Central admin site.

12 Hive - SharePoint stores a lot its Pages and resources on the file system itself for fast retrieval. These Pages or Files which make SharePoint Interface, are arranged in a Folder structure which we call as 12 Hive. The 12 hive gets created at location "C:\ProgramFiles\CommonFiles\Web Server Extentions\12" when you install the SharePoint sever initially. To Know more about 12 hive and SharePoint solution structure see 12 hive Folder Structure

SharePoint Development - SharePoint is also looked upon as a development platform, since all the components in SharePoint, right from a small hyperlink to a fancy button is customizable. You can add your links, buttons , pages and even whole asp.net application SharePoint using its deployment architecture.For more details see :Sharepoint 2007 development Tutorial

SharePoint Object Model -
In Sharepoint Object model there are two Important namespaces.
Microsoft.Office.Server - This is a root namespace of all Office Server objects. This means all the components or services available in Offiice SharePoint Server like BDC, enterprise search etc can be accesed programmatically using this namespace.

Microsoft.SharePoint - This is the root namespace for all WSS 3.0 objects. Remember, Wss 3.0 is the base platform used by Office SharePoint server. For all namespaces see SharePoint 2007 Object model

What is SharePoint made of? - SharePoint Portal is a made of Web applications (WebSites in .Net), Site Collections (a top level Site of the Web application) Web Site Pages,Subsites(or child sites of Site collectons),Webparts,features and more ... See the basic defination for all SharePoint Components that you will use during development Important Definations.