Sharepoint Services 3.0

[SinNisTeR]

I've recently setup sharepoint on a server and I'd like to start developing for it, creating web parts, etc. So I download the sharepoint templates for VS2005 and when I got install the templates, it tells me that I need to have sharepoint installed. So.. I try running the sharepoint installer on my machine but it says I need to be running windows 2003 sp1. On my dev box I'm running Vista. So based on that logic, I need to install VS2005 on my sharepoint server in order to develop? How are you guys developing for sharepoint?

Thanks!

 

[Gunslinger08]

I'm running Windows 2003 at work to develop for WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007. Worst case, you could run a virtual machine with Windows 2003 for testing purposes. You don't need the templates (and they're pretty useless anyway). Just swipe the SharePoint assemblies from the GAC on the server (Microsoft.SharePoint is the important one) and reference them in your code. Check out Andrew Connell's blog for a lot of good development information, including links to various templates/tools/etc. http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/

If you PM me on Monday, I can send you a pretty nice web part template that will automatically build a solution file for you, which you can import through stsadm or with a nice double click installer.

 

[RebateMonger]

I've created custom SharePoint sites for clients and for myself. Usually I'm doing so on SBS 2003, which has SharePoint pre-installed configured for an Internal CompanyWeb site.

As noted, a REALLY good way to learn this stuff is with Virtual PC or Virtual Server with free 6-month downloads of the server OS. There's nothing worse than wrecking a good production server when learning something new.