Getting started with Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 development with free tools

To get started with Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0) development download:

1. VMware Server
2. A trial of Windows Server 2008 R2
3. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 x64 with Service Pack 2
4. Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express

Then you need to:

1. Install VMware Server on a computer with lots of memory
2. Create a virtual machine for Windows Server 2008 R2
3. Install Windows Server 2008 R2 on the virtual machine
4. Install WSS 3.0 on Windows Server 2008 R2
5. Install Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express on Windows Server 2008 R2

Now that all the software and tools are set up it’s time to create the familiar “Hello world!” application:

1. Start Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express
2. File → New Project… → Console Application → OK
3. File → Save All
4. File → Close Solution
5. Open the file ConsoleApplication1.csproj with notepad
6. Change the two occurences of <PlatformTarget>x86</PlatformTarget> to <PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget>
7. Change <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.0</TargetFrameworkVersion> to <TargetFrameworkVersion>v3.5</TargetFrameworkVersion>
8. Open the project again
9. Project → Add Reference… → Browse → C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.dll → OK
10. Add the code below and hit F5

using System;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var url = string.Format("http://{0}", Environment.MachineName);
            using (var site = new SPSite(url))
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Hello {0}!", site.OpenWeb().Title);
            }
        }
    }
}

Ignore the compiler warnings for now.

This will get you started. More details to come.

A final note. If you don’t set the platform target to x64 you will get a System.IO.FileNotFoundException with the message:

The Web application at http://hostname could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly. If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.

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Tagged: ASP.NET, SharePoint

Posted in: Uncategorized