SharePoint Development Tools

Geek — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:50:45 +0000

The following is the list of tools that I happen to use during Sharepoint Development. These tools help the SharePoint developers to do their work efficiently.

Visual Studio Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools	Tools for developing custom SharePoint applications: Visual Studio project templates for Web Parts, site definitions, and list definitions; and a stand-alone utility program, the SharePoint Solution Generator. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
SharePoint SDK	The Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK contains conceptual overviews, “How Do I…?” programming tasks, developer tools, code samples, references, and an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) starter kit to guide you in developing solutions based on MOSS 2007. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Software Development Kit (SDK) SharePoint Server 2007 SDK: Software Development Kit
Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for WSS 3.0	The Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System creates detailed reports to help administrators achieve greater performance, scalability, and uptime.
SPDisposeCheck	SPDisposeCheck is a tool to help you to check your assemblies that use the SharePoint API so that you can build better code. It provides assistance in correctly disposing of certain SharePoint objects to help you follow published best practice. This tool may not show all memory leaks in your code. Further investigation is advised if you continue to experience issues.
U2U CAML Query Builder	The tool will help you build, test and execute your CAML Queries. Download U2U CAML Query Builder
SPCamlViewer	This SPCamlViewer tool will help you in viewing/writing CAML Queries.
Imtech Fields Explorer	Imtech Fields Explorer for auto generating content type-based Page Layouts and features.
SharePoint Search Service Tool	The SharePoint Search Service Tool is a rich web service client that allows a developer to explore the scopes and managed properties of a given SharePoint Search SSP, build queries in either Keyword or SQL Syntax, submit those queries and examine the raw web service results. http://www.codeplex.com/SharePointSearchServ
Search Community Toolkit	The Search Community Toolkit is comprised of a number of tools and code samples that have been contributed to enhance the Microsoft search experience. http://www.codeplex.com/sct
WSPBuilder	WSPBuilder is a SharePoint Solution Package (WSP) creation tool for WSS 3.0 & MOSS 2007.
SharePoint Solution Installer	SharePoint Solution Installer for easy deployment of WSP packages. Download @ http://sharepointinstaller.codeplex.com/
SharePoint 2007 Features	This CodePlex project contains a number of helpful features like Debugger Feature, Log Viewer, Toolbar Manager etc. http://www.codeplex.com/features
SmartPart for SharePoint	The SharePoint web part which can host any ASP.NET web user control. Download @ http://smartpart.codeplex.com/
SPVisualDev – SharePoint Developer Tool	SPVisualDev makes it easier for Sharepoint 2007 developers to develop features and artifacts with Visual Studio 2008. It is written in C# and is implemented as a Visual Studio 2008 Add-in. http://spvisualdev.codeplex.com/
SharePoint Manager 2007	The SharePoint Manager 2007 is a SharePoint object model explorer. It enables you to browse every site on the local farm and view every property. Download SharePoint Manager2007
SmartTools	The SmartTools for SharePoint project is a collection of SharePoint extensions to make your life as a SharePoint user, developer or administrator a little bit easier! http://www.codeplex.com/smarttools
SharePoint SUSHI	SharePoint SUSHI is a powerful, user-friendly utility enabling you to accomplish common administrative tasks. http://www.codeplex.com/sushi
SharePoint Portal Server Support Report Tool (SPSReport)	The SPS Reporting Tool is utilized to gather detailed information regarding a systems current configuration. The data collected will assist the Microsoft Support Professional with fault isolation. Download @ http://www.codeplex.com/spsreport
BDC Meta Man	http://www.lightningtools.com/bdc-meta-man/default.aspx
SharePoint 2007 Test Data Population Tool	The SharePoint 2007 Test Data Population Tool (WSSDW.exe) is a capacity planning and performance testing tool that populates data for testing SharePoint deployments. http://www.codeplex.com/sptdatapop
SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard	This tool (beta version) provides a wizard-like approach to deploying content between SharePoint sites. http://www.codeplex.com/SPDeploymentWizard
Reflector	You can find more details about here
Fiddler	Fiddler is a Web Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP(S) traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP(S) traffic, set breakpoints, and “fiddle” with incoming or outgoing data.
Firebug	Firebug integrates with Firefox. Using firebug you can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page
Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar	The IE Developer Toolbar provides a variety of tools for quickly creating, understanding, and troubleshooting Web pages
DebugView for Windows	DebugView is an application that lets you monitor debug output on your local system, or any computer on the network that you can reach via TCP/IP. Download DebugView

Disclaimer: All information in this article is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights and on a “use at your own risk” basis.

Understand Sharepoint using Dot Net Reflector

Geek — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:57:37 +0000

Using .NET Reflector, you can browse the classes and methods of an assembly, you can examine the Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) generated by these classes and methods, and you can decompile the classes and methods and see the equivalent in C# or Visual Basic .NET.

Dot Net Reflector Can be used for the following in SharePoint Scenario, :

Understand on how SharePoint is doing something, to find what elements can be customized.
Understand what members to override in classes you create that inherit from SharePoint classes
.NET Reflector is also an excellent way to know the best practices. Because you get to see how the team at Microsoft actually implemented functionalities. And also you have lots of examples at your fingers tips.

Example Usage of Dot Net Reflector to Under Stand SharePoint Source Code:

· If you want to know on what is happening on load of OOTB Search Results Page then open Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages.dll and navigate to SearchResultsPage class and click on OnLoad method.

SharePoint DLLS:

You can find all the SharePoint dlls under C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\ISAPI

Some SharePoint assemblies(Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages.dll) are stored in the _app_bin directory of the web application instead of the ISAPI directory in the 12-hive.

Obfuscation:

Sometimes, not too often, when Reflector is disassembling source code for you, it will show “This item is obfuscated and can not be translated” instead of code. This is done for some of the more “sensitive” areas of the code

Downloads:

.Net Reflector: http://www.red-gate.com/products/reflector/

Add-ins: http://www.codeplex.com/reflectoraddins

Note: Review the end user license agreement (EULA) for the relevant Microsoft products before using this tool.

Disposing Sharepoint Objects– SPDisposeCheck tool

Geek — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:57:34 +0000

In sharepoint, you should explicitly dispose SharePoint objects that implement IDisposable when you are finished using them.

The SPDisposeCheck tool will aid in inspecting the disposing of certain Sharepoint objects. This is a must have tool for SharePoint developer to check disposing of SharePoint objects in there custom codes

Download - http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SPDisposeCheck

Best practices for disposing windows share point objects http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa973248.aspx

Life inside MOSS » Tools

SharePoint Development Tools

Understand Sharepoint using Dot Net Reflector

Disposing Sharepoint Objects– SPDisposeCheck tool