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Getting Started with SharePoint WebParts

By Brice Dunwoodie

Sep 7. 2004

Filed Under:

The jumping off point is made gentle by a great body of information on SharePoint, WebParts and general .NET development. Here are few pointers that might help smooth any remaining wrinkles.

Sniff Out the Microsoft.SharePoint.dll Assembly
This assembly is required for developing WebParts. However, unless you're developing on a Windows 2003 Server machine, you probably don't have it. So find a machine with SharePoint installed and you can copy it from:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions0\ISAPI

Get the WebPart Templates for Visual Studio
Once you've got the required assembly, you're ready to starting building code. What's better than a few references and a wee kick in the arse to get you moving. Download and install the template kit from Microsoft. This will get you off the ground and provide nice reference code.

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Peruse SharePoint 2003 SDK
Now this isn't much of an SDK, but it will prove useful. The SharePoint Products and Technologies 2003 Software Development Kit consists of approximately 5MB of documentation ....and that's it. Download it anyways. Even the proud should RTFM once in a while. It has conceptual overviews and class/namespace references for both Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server. This is good stuff to have on hand.

Start Coding
One great article will lead you through the steps, catch you when you trip, and put you back on the right path. Here it is.