SharePoint 2010: First 6 steps to Learning SharePoint 2010

Prerequisites:

Well I see SharePoint 2010 as a very unique mix of all the prior technologies offered by Microsoft, i.e. ASP.Net, WPF i.e silverlight, XAML and co ,  WCP i.e. Web services, windows services and co and so on. The most important is the knowledge of ASP.Net and related web technologies. One better learn these technologies as a first step. If you are .Net Guru and have been playing with these technologies for a long time, then its a high time that you should upgrade yourself to SharePoint.      

Understanding SharePoint 2010 Server and Client Object Model:

Grab a Book or watch some videos pertaining to the SharePoint architecture. In this context my favourite book is Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Developer Reference by Paolo Pialorsi.

Microsoft SharePoint Virtual Labs

 The next step is to Test drive Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010 in a MSDN Virtual Labs. Take part and see how Microsoft Office SharePoint Server supports intranet, extranet, and Web applications across an enterprise within one integrated platform.

Installation of SharePoint 2010

Well to learn developing solution using SharePoint, we don't require to purchase any software. We can simply take advantage of testing the new version of SharePoint by testing in the same time the Windows 2008 Server R2 OS because Microsoft provides n 180 days evaluation version of it. SharePoint 2010 requires a 64 bits OS to run. 

For SharePoint 2010, the first thing I will recommend is to setup virtual machine on windows server 2008 R3 with office 2010, visual studio 2010, SQL Server 2010 and then SharePoint server 2010 installed.
The other way is go for SharePoint Installation on Window 7 and it is slightly tricky process but there number of online tutorials for that. 
  • Therefore, I personally chose to create the Virtual Machine with VMware.  Simply VMware player 5.0 which is totally free available at VMware Site .
  • Next step is to download the trial verison of Windows Server 2008 software  which does not require product activation or entering a product key. Any edition of Windows Server 2008 may be installed without activation and evaluated for an initial 60 days. This evaluation period ccan be reset (or re-armed) three times, extending the original 60 day evaluation period by up to 180 days. Here you will download the iso image the operating system. 
  • Now using this image and the VMware player create an Virtual machines. 
  • Rest is installation of SP2010 on this virtual machines.
The general practice is to do all the development work on the server i.e. you have to do all the development being in the virtual machine. There are number of things to take care while installing SharePoint Serve 2010. Following online resources.

SP 2010 Walkthroughs

After you are done with the server set up, just follow the SP 2010 Walkthroughs from the following link.
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=17215 

Microsoft SharePoint portal is obviously as great source.
Anyways following links are good starting point for learning SharePoint 2010 development.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/sharepoint/ee513147

SP2010 Advance development training
http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/sharepoint/ff420377.aspx

SharePoint 2010 development best practices and guidance (material can be downloaded from the link below)
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=23919

Work on a Real life Project

Nothing beats the experience that one muster by working on a practical projects. For example to master client object model developing you can work on creating an a add-on to Outlook that shows the entire document library in a collapsible panel inside the Outlook window. 

Workflow are also very important.  Develop workflows for real life scenarios. Some of the Keywords are given below: 
SharePoint Object Model (Server and client object models), SharePoint Lists, Document library, Office 2010 integration with SharePoint 2010, Event Listeners and Workflows.

Certification:

There are two certifications programs one for Developers and other for Pros:

 TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development
First, about the 70-573 exam.  Passing this exam will earn you the MCTS: SharePoint 2010, Application Development certification.  The MCTS acronym is for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist.  The exam was pretty straight forward with scenarios and code samples.  At the beginning of the exam you can choose to see code in either VB.Net or C#.

 PRO: Designing and Developing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Applications
The 70-576 exam is the “Pro” level exam.  Passing this exam in addition to the 70-573 exam will earn you the MCPD: SharePoint Developer 2010 certification.  The MCPD acronym is for Microsoft Certified Professional Developer.  I found this exam to be a bit more awkward to classify.  It had elements that are more IT admin based as well as stuff that is developer based.  As with the 70-573 exam you can choose either VB.Net or C# at the beginning but I encountered very little code on my exam.  The questions where more scenario based and had you making decisions on best practices and efficiency.

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