SharePoint Developer Experience Present & Future

SharePoint Developer Experience
Present & Future
Matt Bremer
Solutions Architect
Covenant Technology Partners

Agenda
SharePoint Development Challenges
SharePoint Designer
VSeWSS1.3 CTP
WSPBuilder
STSDev 1.3
Unit Testing
Future: VisualStudio2010
Review
Questions & Discussion

Challenges
Development environment
Many ways to create a solution and or feature but no “best” way
SharePoint development is not currently a first class citizen in Visual Studio

Pros
No assemblies
Fast
WYSIWYG interface
Cons
Artifacts are not portable
Customized vs. Uncustomized
Limited flexibility
SharePoint Designer

SharePoint Designer
Demo
See how quickly you can create a custom web part connected to a SQL datasource using the data view web part.

Pros
Upgrade path for SharePoint 2010
Provides choice between GAC or Bin for deployment
Installs to 32 & 64 bit environments
Integrated WSP view
Cons
Does not leverage MSBuild actions
Not 12 hive structure based
Generated files stored in bin directory
Requires Central Admin app pool have admin priviliges
Only creates solution/feature manifest when execute deploy but not on build
Abstracts too much
VSeWSS 1.3 CTP

VSeWSS 1.3 CTP
Demo: See how to create a web part project using VSeWSS 1.3 CTP.

Pro
Visual Studio 'New Item' integration
Uses Solution Explorer Project Context Menu for deployment commands
Integrates with SharePoint Installer
Options for deployment
Cons
Uses WSPBuilder.exe to execute deployments in Visual Studio
Cannot extend WSPBuilder actions (e.g. what happens when you Deploy, Upgrade, Uninstall)
Generated files stored in bin directory
No integrated view into wsp
WSPBuilder required to open VS solution
No visibility to status of deployment in IDE
WSPBuilder

WSPBuilder
Demo: See how to create a web part solution with WSPBuilder.

Pros
Wizard based approach
12 hive structure based
Leverages MSBuild actions
Not required to open a VS solution
Generated files stored in DeploymentFiles folder and not bin
Good visibility via output window in IDE on status of deployment
Cons
Solution creation wizard outside of IDE
Projects reliant on VS solution
Not frequently updated
STSDev 1.3

STSDev 1.3
Demo: See how to create a web part solution with STSDev 1.3.

Unit Testing
Difficult to say the least, but doesn’t mean it cannot or should not be done.
Lack of public constructors on key classes makes them unmockable thus developers will need to write integration tests instead of unit tests.
Because end users can change lists in production, you must write more tests to account for your data changing and validate once solid assumptions.
Key classes such as SPList are marked final thus developers cannot create strongly typed entities and therefore must encapsulate them for tests.

What Does the Future Hold?
Will SharePoint development become a first class citizen with the release of SharePoint 2010 and VisualStudio 2010?

Visual Studio 2010
All project templates for SharePoint 2010 in VS 2010

Visual Studio 2010
Creating a new deployment configuration

Visual Studio 2010
Editing a solution manifest

Visual Studio 2010
Solution package designer

Visual Studio 2010
Creating a new deployment configuration

Visual Studio 2010
Authoring support, never leave Visual Studio again!

Visual Studio 2010
Visual web part editor, UI no longer has to be in code behind

Visual Studio 2010
LINQ is native, no more CAML queries!

Visual Studio 2010
The developer dashboard can be enabled on any page

Visual Studio 2010
Developer dashboard provides real time diagnostic information

Resources
SharePoint Developer Introduction for .NET Developers
http://www.microsoft.com/click/SharePointDeveloper
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc537498.aspx
Office Developer Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905504.aspx
SharePoint Designer Development Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb421303.aspx
Tools
WSPBuilder: http://wspbuilder.codeplex.com
STSDev 1.3: http://stsdev.codeplex.com
TypeMock Isolator: http://www.typemock.com/unit-testing-Microsoft-SharePoint.html
SharePoint in VisualStudio 2010
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/Developer-Video.aspx
Shameless Self Promotion
Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/mattbremer
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mattbremer
Email: events@sharepointevilgenius.com
Twitter Hash Tag for Event: #stldodn

Questions & Discussion
It’s now time for “Stump the Presenter”!

Contact Me
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Visit http://www.microsoft.com/tag for more information

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SharePoint Developer Experience Present & Future

by mattbremer on Sep 04, 2009

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SharePoint Developer Experience Present & Future — Presentation Transcript