Best Practices in SharePoint Development - Just Freakin Work! Overcoming Hurdles and Avoiding Pain in SharePoint Development

Thinking SharePoint? Think Jornata.

Just Freakin’ Work!
Avoiding Common Hurdles in SharePoint
Development

Prepared for
Prepared by
Geoff Varosky
Jornata
61-63 Chatham Street

Jornata
Fourth Floor
Boston, MA 02109
Submitted on December 14, 2011

About Me
• Geoff Varosky
– Jornata – www.jornata.com
• Director, Development & Evangelism
• Blogger, Speaker
• BASPUG Co-Founder
• SPS Boston Co-Organizer
– Blog : www.sharepointyankee.com
– Email: geoff.varosky@jornata.com
– Twitter: @gvaro
– LinkedIn & Facebook
email: geoff.varosky@jornata.com | web: www.jornata.com | blog: www.sharepointyankee.com | twitter: @gvaro
2

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
– STSDEV (2007)
• stsdev.codeplex.com
– WSPBuilder (2007 & 2010)
• wspbuilder.codeplex.com
– CKS:DEV (2010)
• cksdev.codeplex.com
– SharePoint Designer



Introduction
– 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.



Introduction
– Follow the SDK (2010)
• 64 bit
• Desktop
– Windows 7
– Vista (SP1+)
– Http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869.aspx
• Server 2008



Introduction
– Make sure your environment matches deployment
targets!
• In Visual Studio
– CPU
» x86? x64? AnyCPU?
• .NET Framework
• Service Packs
• Same architecture



Introduction
– 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



Development
– 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



Development
– 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


Development
– Use try{} catch{} finally{} blocks
– Check for nulls in finally{} blocks with disposable
objects before disposing
• Change defaults
– Assembly Info
• Name it properly
– Jornata.SharePoint.WebParts.Stuff



Development
– 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!
– 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()
– Do not need to dispose
• 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



Development
• Unmanaged Code
– 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!



Development
• Unmanaged Code
– Ghosted v. Unghosted pages
• Uncustomized v. customized
• Unghosted pages can have issues with upgrades
– i.e. site definitions change with upgrades
• Branding



Development
• User Code Solutions (2010)
– When possible
– Forces better programming practices
– Keeps the farm safe
• Makes admins & managers happy
– Admins can control
• Makes them feel special



Development
• USE SOLUTION PACKAGES!


Resources
– 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 session…



37

Q&A
38

• Meets 2nd Wednesday/Month
• 6P – 8PM
• Microsoft Waltham & Cambridge
• http://www.bostonsharepointug.org
• Twitter: @BASPUG / #BASPUG

39

About Me
• Geoff Varosky
– Jornata – www.jornata.com
• Director, Development & Evangelism
• Blogger, Speaker
• BASPUG Co-Founder
• SPS Boston Co-Organizer
– Blog : www.sharepointyankee.com
– Email: geoff.varosky@jornata.com
– Twitter: @gvaro
– LinkedIn & Facebook
40

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