SharePoint Solution Hello World Tutorial

By Hristo Yankov

Hi,

In this post, I will explain to you how to create your first SharePoint 2007 ASP.NET application. We will cover what tools you would need and what are the steps to creating a SharePoint Hello World app! I will keep the article short and clear on the necessary steps to be followed.


First, let's start with the tools. You will need Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (preferably) this freely available plugin for it Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. It is a toolset for developing custom SharePoint applications: Visual Studio project templates for Web Parts, site definitions, and list definitions; and a stand-alone utility program, the SharePoint Solution Generator.

We assume that you have setup and you do have available a SharePoint site, on which we will be deploying our solution.

So, start your Visual Studio 2008. From the menu choose to start a new Project.


Visual Studio will show this window. Select GAC and proceed.


Your Solution Explorer would look like this, initially:


We need to create a couple of folders. Recreate the folder structure described in the screenshot below:


Right click on HelloSharePointWorld and select add new item. Select text file, but name it "Hello.aspx"


Put the following content in your newly created ASPX page.

<%@ Page Language="c#"
Inherits="Hello, SharePointHelloWorld, Version=1.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=3cf44204a7ad1f1e"
MasterPageFile="~/_layouts/application.master"
%>

<asp:Content ID="Content1"
ContentPlaceHolderID="PlaceHolderMain"
runat="server">
<asp:Label ID="lblLabel1" runat="server" Text="Hello World!">
</asp:Label>
</asp:Content>

Note the PublicKeyToken value. It will be changed later. Now, create a new class in the App_Code folder. Name it Hello.aspx.cs. Your directory structure should look like:


The content of your Hello.aspx.cs should read:

using System;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;

public partial class Hello : LayoutsPageBase
{
 protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
 {
 }
}

Right click on your project, select Properties from the menu. Go to the Debug tab and set the hostname and port number of the SharePoint site where you want your project to be deployed.


Then save.

Now, right click on your project in Solution Explorer and rebuild it. Then right click on it and Deploy.


Now, open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\WINDOWS\assembly. You should see an assembly called SharePointHelloWorld there. Right click it and select Properties.


Copy the Public Key Token (highlighted, note that it would be different for you) and click Cancel button. Now go back to your ASPX page in the project and replace the incorrect Public Key Token with the one you just copied.

Redeploy your application. Start Internet Explorer and navigate to http://[server name]:[port]/_layouts/HelloSharePointWorld/Hello.aspx

You should see something similar to:


Congratulations, you have created your first SharePoint solution. If you start the Central Admin for SharePoint and go to Operations -> Solution Management you should see a solution named sharepointhelloworld.wsp.

Let's add one more modification. Open the Hello.aspx.cs file and change it to:

using System;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

public partial class Hello : LayoutsPageBase
{
 protected Label lblLabel1;

 protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
 {
     lblLabel1.Text = "Hello world! Time is: " +
     DateTime.Now.ToString();
 }
}

By that, we utilize the code behind to output data on the screen. Rebuild, redeploy and refresh the page.


This is a good starting point for further learning by experimenting and example.

Of course, the full code for this project can be found here.