I’m trying to setup a development project for making a SharePoint solution. We have some Sharepoint certified people, and they tend to work in SharePoint Designer. One issue with SharePoint Designer, is that it’s not possible to take the definition and put it under source control (Team Foundation for example). This is something we want/need, as the solution we’re working on will be deployed to many sites.
One other option I see is to make a solution using Visual Studio. This gives us a perfect way to import a certain set of sharepoint content into a site by uploading the wsp file. However, the way I can see it, this option means handcrafting XML files. Besides this being very complex, it also is error prone (I was able to create a custom list definition, but disabling the feature meant having a cripled site, which I was unable to recover).
What’s Microsoft’s view on development of modules for Sharepoint? Besides MS’ view, I’m also interested in experiences from other people..
With kind regards,
Matthijs ter Woord
I think there are two different approaches to building solutions on the SharePoint platform. One is based on customization meaning using SharePoint Designer and doing all the work ‘in-place’. The second one is development which involves building Solution Packages (WSP). Although Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Developer Tools make working with Solution Packages easier it is still no comparable with using SharePoint Designer. Which approach you choose depends on your requirements. If you’re aiming for a redistributable solution Solution Packages are the way to go. On the other hand if you have a group of power users, providing them with SharePoint Designer should be sufficient.