Maximum PC

Part of my job description is Sharepoint development. For a while, I was developing web parts which is much easier than it sounds. However, I've been tasked with developing workflows for several Infopath forms we have at work. The last 3 days, I've spent doing nothing but implement a Sharepoint development environment. Here are some things that make me want to commit homicide...

1) When installing Sharepoint (be it WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007), you can't install a 32-bit version of Sharepoint on a 64-bit OS.

2) All of the tools for Sharepoint development using Visual Studio (VSTOR 3.0) are all 32-bit. Much to my chagrin, you can't use the 32-bit development environment on a 64-bit install of Sharepoint.

This whole process is completely undocumented, by the way. You have to dig through Google to find caveats and gotcha's. I ran into a lot of gotchas.

This is what frustrates me: the whole point to .NET is to remove/reduce versioning and dependencies. Sharepoint was built using ASP.NET, and the fact that I can't use Sharepoint API's because it's a 32-bit API kind of doens't make sense. Why does it matter if it's 64-bit or not? Why does it have to be this frustrating?

In the end, I'm installing Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate. Yes, you read that right. Release Candidate - all this trouble, I'm hoping that 2010 will solve all of my woes. If this doesn't work, I'm going to point a gun to my head and pull the trigger...I've had enough of Sharepoint.

So lesson learned kids: Sharepoint development is for people with a deathwish.

I would agree with that. My team is currently working on Setting up MS Dynamics GP. We have had to start from scratch 3 times already because the Business Portal module does not work.

The documentation starts off with Step 1., Step2. ... finish. Ok, you are done. That's it. No more, no troubleshooting, nothing. We do get 10 free support cases but what happens when we actually have to import data into this beast?

Sharepoint is not for the weak at heart. It's for those who enjoy torturing themselves.

So I should tell my boss that I should bail from this project? I do have a legitimate heart issue (I get heart palpitations when stress levels get to an unmanageable rate).

You're right, it's definitely not for the faint of heart. Though I have to admit that frustrating this may be, it adds marks to my resume. So who knows, this may be a good thing.

That is about where I am at with it. Once I am done I can add this to a resume. I have to give Sharepoint some props for some of the things like the document center template. That is probably the best thing I have found so far. I only wish it had the capability to parse incoming emails and store the document based on either subject line, file name, or message content.


There may be a way to do it I just have not figured it out yet. I am frustrated by the lack of good documentation out there. Oh well...