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What resources would you recommend to someone who would like to learn and possibly become a SharePoint Developer?

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If you don't know C# , Learn C# then Learn ASP.NET before attempting SharePoint development (Well, you could alternately learn VB.net as a language - I sometimes forget it exists) :)

Third : SharePoint programming books - the Todd Bleeker book, Inside WSS, Inside MOSS If you want to focus on Workflow, there is a fantastic starter book by David Mann.

The WSS/MOSS SDK's should always be a click away (either installed on your machine or on MSDN). They are a great resource, not to mention the variety of blogs covering various aspects of SharePoint development.

Hope this helps!

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I'd recommend picking up a copy of the Inside Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 book from Microsoft Press. It walks you through the entire framework, leveraging the API and developing solutions and packaging them for deployment within your farm.

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I just had a case of dejavu with this question, and sure enough I ran across it and answered on StackOverflow here. Anyway though, I think I'd still say the same. Ted Pattison's Inside WSS 3.0 is still the best- but for new SPDev's, I've had the best luck giving my staff Scot Hiller's Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2007 Solutions in C# 2005.

Here's the author's quote about the intended audience:

"..the audience for this book is an intermediate professional developer who was just assigned the project of bringing SharePoint 2007 into the organization."

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The major stumbling block that I fell over when starting SharePoint development was to try a "code" everything. I think this came from reading lots of books and then just wanting to jump in and play with the "cool code".

One of the main benefits of SharePoint is that it has so many pre built "modules" (web parts, site templates, workflows, etc) out of the box. Its often possible to solve business problems without writing a line of code. So make sure you know as much about the OOTB stuff as possible before embarking on coded solutions.

Next, learn about the feature and solution framework before starting your code. EVERY piece of code you write should be built in to a feature and packaged up as a solution. You should think of your coded component as a module which is going to be added to the SharePoint platform.

In terms of books my top 3 list would be exactly the same as Ovidiu Becheş-Puia mentioned:-

  • Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by Ted Pattison and Daniel Larson
  • Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2007 Solutions in C# 2005 by Scot Hillier
  • Professional SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007 by Andrew Connel
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I also highly recommend Todd's book for beginners; it offers a nice introduction and enough hard-core stuff to keep you busy for a while. AC's book is very nice, but suffers slightly from being one of the first books out there and doesn't harness as much of the best practices material and tools that have emerged in the last two years.

In addition, I've learned a lot Woody's SharePoint Designer book, offering a less hard-core approach to creating SharePoint solutions. Solutions as in the lexical sense, not the SharePoint sense :-)

Of course, I'd like to plug my own Beginning SharePoint Development issue of USPJ as well, http://www.beginningsharepointdevelopment.com/. That issue focuses on the core stuff for ASP.NET devs, and while it doesn't target SP2010 specifically, it does target features that are not changing drastically, so it might help new SP2010-people as well.

.b

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This is a great site for learning sharepoint

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My favorite books:

  • Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by Ted Pattison and Daniel Larson
  • Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2007 Solutions in C# 2005 by Scot Hillier
  • Professional SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007 by Andrew Connel
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I would recommend even visiting endusersharepoint.com for great articles

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In addition to ted Pattisons book I found Scot Hilliers videos useful http://www.amazon.co.uk/WSS-MOSS-Development-Video-Training/dp/0672329867/

Also I would suggest thinking about what kind of development is needed - web parts, asp forms, workflows , utilities, use of Web services from remote programs - the more advanced books tend to focus on one of these in more depth.

Even as a developer I find learning Sharepoint Designer useful if for nothing else than to get a better appreciation of why I need to write code rather than customise a site - Penny Coventry and John Jansen have written very useful books about SPD.

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One of the places I recommend SharePoint rookies to head over to is the SharePoint developer introduction for .NET developers that Microsoft is hosting. It contains awesome introductry materials in lots of different forms:

  • WebCasts
  • Videos
  • Virtual Labs - no need to set up a VM to get started
  • Hans on Labs
  • etc

There are a handful of topics covered to get you all ramped up and ready to rock the SharePoint world!

/WW

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I agree with Wictor - some great samples on the MSSharePoint Developer site.

Although Todds book came out earlier I actually found Teds Inside WSS book better to read (sorry Todd).

And as other have said, just get practiced at doing decent .Net development. Understand the basics of of syntax, classes, objects and generally good dev experience.

Also don't forget to check out the SPDisposeCheck tool once you start writing code.

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