I've been asked to create a website in SharePoint within the next couple of weeks or so and I'm entirely new to SharePoint.
Does anyone have any good examples/tutorials on how to do some basic operations such as creating custom forms, using basic CRUD operations, with a custom SQL Server database?
Also is there any way to code in ASP.NET (with code-behind pages), but use the SharePoint look and feel and authentication stuff?
Perhaps the fastest and easiest way to get started is by using the SharePoint Designer application that is part of one of the Microsoft Office versions. If you just need to create simple Forms, Microsoft InfoPath will go along way. I would then go ahead and buy a book on SharePoint development since its a big landscape. Channel 9 is a good resource for SharePoint bits as well.
The first thing to remember is that SharePoint is just an ASP.NET application. It has a ton of framework, and various things like security, etc, built-in. But from your perspective, you can just build a Web Control, and basically deploy it right to the server. Check out this post from MikeG, and especially look at SmartPart on CodePlex. That will help you get up and running without too much fuss. Since you are using standard web controls, you have access to CodeBehind. The one caveat is that your assemblies have to either be deployed to the GAC or granted Full Trust in the config files - something SmartPart will help you through.
SharePoint Designer is just FrontPage, rebranded. It very much could help you with some basic stuff, and might be worth looking into if this is an occasional thing. But if you are going to be doing any kind of long term work, I highly recommend taking a class on developing SharePoint applications. It can be quite a beast, and you may find yourself in quicksand faster than you think.
Technet has a bunch of virtual labs for SharePoint products.
These are some good links:
Hello,
A very good start, to get you rolling in the right direction, is Microsoft site for SharePoint Development, at http://www.mssharepointdeveloper.com/. This will get you a long way towards understanding what you need to prioritize in your learning efforts.
To answer your second question, in short: yes, you can create pages that use code-behind, just like regular ASP.net. The longer answer is a bit beyond the scope here since it requires a better understanding of how SharePoint works with master pages, customized pages, and the layouts or application pages concepts in SharePoint.
Get Ted Pattison's book, Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. It's an absolute must if you are going to do any sharepoint develelopment.
The fastest way to get up to speed is to use smartpart. It allows you to build ASP.NET usercontrols and deploy them in sharepoint.
http://www.codeplex.com/smartpart/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=10697
Sharepoint designer/CAML: - Nice for starter apps.
Visual studio tools:
IMO Microsoft has to come up with something better. Until then, smartpart is great.
SharePoint is not quite like what you're used to. My two main gripes are:
Deployment:
If your requirements are for a single production site (no staging/test/development sites) your best bet is probably to go with the SharePoint Designer and hack stuff together directly on the production site (yes I know it's dirty).
If you need those other environments you should produce deployment packages for everything (no xcopy deployment). Deployment packages are a PITA IMHO and are very easy to get wrong.
IIS
SharePoint basically takes over your IIS installation and introduces a new set of rules for where things are located etc. One gotcha is "ghosted" files. i.e. whenever a file is changed using the SharePoint Designer the file is backed up to a database and from now on IIS will only use the file in the database, so there is no use changing the one in the file system.
To sum up:
In my humble opinion if you are making a site where uptime isn't that important and you can afford to make mistakes in production, SharePoint can be good enough with the designer. If you are making a CMS site where you need the code to go through multiple environments before it reaches production, (with continuous integration), I can think of no other .NET based CMS that does a worse job. You will spend a LOT of time grokking how to get the deployment routines to work for you, and you will spend a LOT of time with issues relating to "ghosted" files
Good luck.
We build our Sharepoint apps through a combination of SmartParts (as mentioned above) for simpler apps and _Layout applications for more complex stuff.
A _layout application lets you build a traditional ASP.NET web app and pretty much plop it right into Sharepoint. Here's a link to get you started.
I just started using SharePoint about 3 months ago. I learned all of the basics and got a good foundation for SharePoint using the Pilothouse Consulting SharePoint training DVD (http://www.pilothouseconsulting.com/dvd/sharepoint-training-dvd-development-benefits.html). It was very helpful and all of the tutorials, demos, and code examples for development are in C#.
Visitors can read the SharePoint Tutorials at: http://www.etechplanet.com/category/SharePoint.aspx