#spstcdc just freakin work! development best practices in sharepoint

Just Freakin’ Work!Avoiding Common Hurdles in SharePoint Development

Geoff Varosky (GraceHunt)Mark Rackley (Juniper Strategy)

Welcome to SharePoint Saturday—The Conference

Welcome to SharePoint Saturday—The Conference Welcome to SharePoint Saturday—The Conference

• Please turn off all electronic devices or set them to vibrate.• If you must take a phone call, please do so in the hall so as not

to disturb others.• Open wireless access is available at SSID: SPSTC2011• Feel free to “tweet and blog” during the session• Thanks to our Diamond and Platinum Sponsors:

Thank you for being a part of the first SharePoint Saturday conference


About the speakers…• The Hillbilly

– Mr. Ackley• Catcher of all things that flow downhill• Solutions Architect for Juniper Strategy, LLC.

– www.juniper-strategy.com• Speaker, Blogger, (soon to be) Author• Blog: www.sharepointhillbilly.com• Twitter: @mrackley• E-mail: [email protected]


About the speakers…• The Yankee

– Geoff Varosky• Director, Development and Evangelism• GraceHunt

– www.gracehunt.com• Speaker, Blogger, (soon to be) Author• Blog: www.sharepointyankee.com• Twitter: @gvaro• E-mail: [email protected]


You might be a SharePoint Developer if…


Agenda• Introduction• Development• Deployment• Resources• Q&A


Introduction• Types of Development• Development Tools• Development Environment• Developing to Deploy


Introduction• Types of Development

– Unmanaged Code– Managed Code– Customization


Introduction• Development Tools

– STSDEV (2007)• stsdev.codeplex.com

– WSPBuilder (2007 & 2010)• wspbuilder.codeplex.com

– CKS:DEV (2010)• cksdev.codeplex.com

– SharePoint Designer– Developer Dashboard (2010)


Introduction• Development Environment

– Physical?– Virtual?– Desktop?– Dusty old PC under the desk?


Introduction• 2007 or 2010

– 64-bit (leaves room for upgrade)– >= 4G of RAM– Choice of Virtual Host

• HyperV, VMWare, VirtualBox• Not much in the way of VirtualPC support

– Create a base virtual image• SQL, Base SP install, Service Packs, Dev Tools• Visual Studio, SPD, etc.



– Follow the SDK (2010)• 64 bit• Desktop

– Windows 7– Vista (SP1+)– Http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869.aspx

• Server 2008

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869.aspx



– Make sure your environment matches deployment targets!

• In Visual Studio– CPU

» x86? x64? AnyCPU?• .NET Framework• Service Packs• Same architecture



– Don’t do everything as local admin!• Follow proper account configuration from the SDK

• Developing to Deploy– Use the least amount of privileges

• This will make admins happy– Web application deployment (/bin)

• CAS policies


Development• General Development Practices• Lists• Event Receivers• Web Parts• Unmanaged Code• Web Services


Development• General Development Practices

– Dispose of Objects!• SPDisposeCheck

– Test with multiple accounts/privileges– Strongly named assemblies– Separate high and low privileged DLLs– Do not mix .NET Framework versions– 64 bit code compatibility



– Stay away from the database• USE THE API!

– Use resource & language files• Do not hard code strings and labels

– Caching when and where possible• msdn.microsoft.com/library/bb687949.aspx

– CAS Policies– Safe Controls



– Use try{} catch{} finally{} blocks– Check for nulls in finally{} blocks with disposable

objects before disposing• Change defaults

– Assembly Info• Name it properly

– GraceHunt.SharePoint.WebParts.Stuff



– Sign Controls• Do not password protect the SNK

– Elevating Privileges• SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges()

– Clean, Validated, Secure data– Runs as System account– Write operations?

» Preceeded by SPUtility|SPWeb.ValidateFormDigest– Must use new SPSite or SPWeb – not SPContext.Current


Development• Lists

– Test queries before deployment!– U2U CAML Query Builder

• Remove the <Query></Query> tags!– http://www.spsprofessional.com/sqlcaml.aspx– LINQ– Batch queries when possible


Development• Lists

– Do not use SPList.Items• Use SPList.GetItems(query)• Paginate (2000 items) – RowLimit

– GetItemByID• Use SPList.GetitemByID• Not SPList.Items.GetItemByID


Development• Event Handlers

– Do not instantiate SPWeb, SPSite, SPList, or SPListItem

– Use what the properties give you• properties.OpenWeb()• properties.ListItem

– Bulk operations will not run event handlers• Ex: New list created – FieldAdding will not run


Development• Event Handlers

– Connections• Make sure you code for external systems not being

available– LOG ERRORS

• Make it known why something went wrong


Development• Web Parts

– Deploy to the Web Part Gallery• Easy to add to a page from there

– AllowClose = false• Closing web parts = bad• X DOES NOT EQUAL DELETE

– Use Properties – avoid hard coded values– HTMLEncode input values


Development• Web Parts – In Code

– EnsureChildControls• Ensure that the controls have been loaded before using

them.


Development• Unmanaged Code

– JavaScript• Will this be used in more than one place?• Central Script repository (easy access)• Deployment to _layouts folder

– More of a “managed” approach, more secure– Less flexible



– Content Editor Web Parts• Awesome, flexible web parts!• Use a library with versioning to link the WP to

– Easier to manage– Versioning of “code”

– Publishing Sites• Use content controls, not CEWPs!



– Ghosted v. UnGhosted pages• Uncustomized v. customized• Unghosted pages can have issues with upgrades

– i.e. site definitions change with upgrades• Branding


Development• SharePoint Web Services

– Provide remote access to a range of object model functionality

– Run on all front-end web servers– Heavily dependent on XML and CAML– Reside in physical file system in the \12\...

Directory and in a virtual file system in /_vti_bin


Development• SharePoint Web Services – What They Do

– Provide programmatic access via .NET and SharePoint Designer

– Deliver relatively robust remote API functionality

– Expose SharePoint data repository to disconnected clients


Development• SharePoint Web Services – What They Do

– Permit inter-farm communication (geographic distribution)

– Integrate well with WinForms, WPF, and SilverLight

– Client Object Model (SP 2010)


Development• SharePoint Web Services – What they DON’T

do– Do not provide access to entire object model– Do not permit manipulation of BLOB objects

(documents)– NTLM and Basic Authentication Only– No SSO integration– No extensibility (sealed classes)– Limited data aggregation (no joins)


Development• SharePoint Web Services – When to use them

– Remote accessibility– Integration with backend or legacy systems– Retrieval of items and content as XML– Perform large batch updates to lists


Development• SPServices – jQuery library utilized SharePoint

Web Services– http://spservices.codeplex.com/


Development• SharePoint Web Services Basics

– Add a Web Reference to any project type– Must specify existing SharePoint site in URL + “/_vti_bin/” +

ServiceName + “.asmx”– Set URL to dynamic


Development• SharePoint Web Services Basics

– All column names are XML encoded and prefixed with “ows_”

<rs:data ItemCount="1" xmlns:rs="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset"> <z:row ows_Title="[email protected]" ows_MetaInfo="4764;#" ows__ModerationStatus="0" ows__Level="1" ows_ID="4764" ows_owshiddenversion="5" ows_UniqueId="4764;#{2272A40C-0DA5-4C0D-938D-BFF3AF9C8ACF}" ows_FSObjType="4764;#0" ows_Created="2009-12-12 12:55:10" ows_FileRef="4764;#sps/Contact/test/Lists/Issues/4764_.000" xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" /></rs:data>


Development• USE SOLUTION PACKAGES!• USE SOLUTION PACKAGES!• USE SOLUTION PACKAGES!• USE SOLUTION PACKAGES!• USE SOLUTION PACKAGES!• USE SOLUTION PACKAGES!• USE SOLUTION PACKAGES!• USE SOLUTION PACKAGES!


Development• User Code Solutions (2010 & Office 365)

– When possible– Forces better programming practices– Keeps the farm safe

• Makes admins & managers happy– Admins can control

• Makes them feel special


Resources• Development Tools

– Codeplex.com• Search SharePoint & Development

– SharePointDevWiki.com• www.sharepointdevwiki.com/display/public/

SharePoint+Development+Tools– SPDisposeCheck

• code.msdn.microsoft.com/SPDisposeCheck


Resources• SDKs

– 2010• Server and Foundation

– http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee557253.aspx

– 2007• WSS

– http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms441339(office.12).aspx

• MOSS 2007– http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/

ms550992(office.12).aspx


Resources• General Development

– Roger Lamb’s Blog• blogs.msdn.com/rogerla/

– Patterns & Practices SharePoint Guidance• msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd203468.aspx

– Using Disposable Objects• msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/

aa973248(v=office.12).aspx


Resources• General Development

– Working with Large Lists• go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkId=95450

– SharePoint 2007 Best Practices Resource Center• technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/

bb736746.aspx


You… BEFORE session…


You… AFTER our session…


Resources

Q&A


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Presenter: Geoff Varosky & Mark Rackley

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