Development
for SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010 requires the developer to
take caution and adhere to more stringent standards for the project to
be a success. Although an aggressive approach may allow the developer to
make great strides in a short period of time, .NET and SharePoint 2010
development is both a science and an art. Code can still cause memory
leaks, applications can enter near endless loops, and simple mistakes
may drastically affect SharePoint 2010’s performance. However, the
resulting applications can meet a great range of business requirements,
making Visual Studio 2010 the choice of many developers.
Now in its fourth
generation, Visual Studio 2010 is the de facto standard for development
on the Windows platforms. Although developers can take advantage of
Visual Studio 2010 to develop C++ applications and other applications
that are compiled down to machine code, the typical developer creates
applications on top of the .NET Framework, the same framework that
SharePoint is built upon. SharePoint’s use of the .NET Framework is
apparent in the ASP.NET controls, layout pages, master pages, ascx
controls, and aspx pages visible throughout the system’s C:\Program
Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14 directory.
When developing
applications for SharePoint 2010, developers typically code using
familiar languages such as VB.Net or C#. Although the syntax of these
two languages is different, Visual Studio 2010 compiles the code down to
an intermediate language called MSIL where the code, regardless of the
originating syntax, behaves roughly the same. Furthermore, code
developed in different .NET projects using different languages can
reference code developed in another .NET language. For more information
about the .NET Framework, see http://www.microsoft.com/net/.
Visual Studio 2010 has
now standardized and streamlined packaging and deployment of solution
packages (WSP), an area in which the preceding versions of Visual Studio
fell short. A solution package is a cabinet file with a .wsp extension
that contains the application code, a manifest, and one or more
directories containing application specific files. Visual Studio 2010
can deploy, activate, deactivate, and un-deploy solution packages
without requiring the developer to open a command prompt or PowerShell.
Note
Before starting development
in SharePoint 2010 with Visual Studio 2010, a developer should have
familiarity with the Microsoft.NET Framework and familiarity with VB or
C# because most code samples available on the web are provided in one or
both of these common languages.
Getting Started with Visual Studio 2010
This
section introduces some basics in getting Visual Studio installed and
the basics of creating a new project. Experienced users may want to skip
this section and move to the next section, which covers creating a web
part.
If needed, Visual Studio Professional or Ultimate can be downloaded from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/
for a 60-day trial. The Professional, Premium, and Ultimate versions of
Visual Studio 2010 all contain the SharePoint add-in that makes it
possible to develop for SharePoint 2010. Although Visual Studio 2010
supports development and deployment of SharePoint components on a remote
server, most templates cannot be developed or deployed unless
SharePoint is installed on the same system as Visual Studio 2010.
Downloading and Installing Visual Studio 2010
Follow these steps to
download and install Visual Studio Professional. These steps may vary
slightly on different system configurations. Note that the full
installation requires ~7GB of space:
1. | Access the Microsoft Downloads site (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=26bae65f-b0df-4081-ae6e-1d828993d4d0&displaylang=en
or search on “Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional Trial - Web
Installer” on Microsoft’s website) and click the Download button.
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2. | Click Run to run the downloader application vs_proweb.exe.
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3. | Click Run when this application downloads.
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4. | The
Installation Wizard opens and starts. If desired, uncheck the box next
to Yes, Send Information About My Setup Experiences to Microsoft
Corporation, and then click Next.
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5. | The
wizard then informs that it will install: Microsoft Application Error
Reporting, VC 9.0 Runtime (x86), VC 10.0 Runtime (x86), VC 10.0 Runtime
(x64), Microsoft .Net Framework 4, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 64-bit
Prerequisites, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional. Click the box
next to I Have Read and Accept the License Terms, and click Next.
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6. | Leave the Full option selected and click Install.
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7. | The
items mentioned in step 5 will then download and install. This process
takes a while, but the wizard lists which step it is on and the download
speed, which is more helpful than the average progress bar.
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8. | When the installation is complete, a reboot is required, so click Restart Now.
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9. | Upon reboot the installation process completes, which again takes a while.
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10. | After
the setup completes, the option is provided to Install Documentation
that is recommended for less-experienced users of Visual Studio. Click
Install Documentation to start the process.
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11. | Accept the default Library location or enter a new one. Click OK.
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12. | The
Help Library Manager window then provides a directory of content to
choose from. For example, click Add next to SharePoint Development in
the Visual Studio 2010 section, and click on Update.
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13. | Click Finish; then click Exit to exit the Help Library Manager.
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14. | Finally, click Finish to close the Visual Studio installation wizard.
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