A share point is a web application platform in the Microsoft office server suite. The market of sharepoint developer jobs is growing rapidly, and this attracted a lot of developers to choose this platform to build their careers. There are some of the points which can help you make a career as a good SharePoint developer. These are as follows:
How to Become a Good SharePoint Developer:
1. First and foremost solve problems easily:
This is the first and foremost step. One has to be skilled at solving all the problems. Whenever developing SharePoint, you will often end up quitting. Although this happens with almost all web developers but more with the share point developers due to some of the reasons. The reasons are as follows:
- There are very few share point developers and more the number of problems, there are less people who are doing similar things
- The size and reach of share point are too large and scope is too wide that there will be lots of unexplored and undocumented territory; consequently every now and then you will find new things to solve with the share point.
- Share point happens to exist in vacuum and there are always some of the points that are unique to every organization deploying any sort of product.
- So above problems may arise, so in order to solve all of them one must have an aptitude to win over them in a very safe and understandable manner.
2. Have an easy access sharepoint environment:
Environment includes having full control of the working of the share point. If you are having your own environment, then it would be easy for you to create number of opportunities like:
- You will be free to make any number of mistakes. You will learn by doing things again and again and then learning from those mistakes, then drawing lessons, finally understanding from them. You will be able to roll back and will be kept going forever.
- Security will be yours. Security is an important aspect of share point and here you will be privileged to create and handle all the accounts, thus alter them as well. By this, one will be able to test the workflow and in case, you are not able to handle the workflow, then it becomes a problem.
3. The real world problems should be brought to the forefront:
Solving all the real life problems on share point will help in a wider sense and it would give more straightforward scenarios, that you will get during the SharePoint training sessions. Getting hands on lab is one of the best ways to introduce yourself with the topic. Once you have done with solving real life problems, you will be able to solve all the workplace issues related to the share point.
4. Know your share point user interface quite well:
One should know very well about how and where to use some of the elements or components like the Ribbon, sharepoint site actions, list views, forms, layout pages, web parts, the ECB and so on. One must know very well where to use these components so that you are able to lend share point a unique combination and aspect of knowing the share point eco system.
For instance, leveraging OOB components will simplify the sharepoint development efforts and finally will result in a more consistent experience of your user. Knowing all the above will only come with practical skills and knowledge.
5. Do the things from the point of view of the share point way:
Sharepoint is a good and very funny platform. When it comes to theory, one can build number of custom web parts, user controls, layout, pages so as to build your own screen exactly the way you want. It also has a number of risks like:
- This way you will be building unnecessary complex solutions that will lead to bugs, maintenance and will place more burden on the sharepoint administrators.
- You will likely to miss the whole functionality of the share point.
- Apart from this, one should also know about how to push back whenever the sharepoint requirements are out of line or control. That time you will have to grab the opportunities to educate and inform the customers on the share point way.
6. Get yourself trained through a mentor:
First try and learn, share point of your own, though it is a difficult task, yet this first step would be more helpful. You will find a number of blogs, but all the time the whole of the content is not useful, so in order to figure out which is right and which is wrong, one must consult his or her mentor or a colleague, or anyone having more knowledge than you.
So asking for a help is not at all bad rather good enough to make you walk on the right path.
7. Know what the internals of share point developer are:
Though the personality traits are essential enough, yet the whole technical knowledge is also must. One must know properly what hive and the location system is of files that where the share point files exist. One can go through the 14 hive in the share point and treasure the worth of the information. Apart from that, one must also go through the following:
- Resource files
- XSLT files
- Images
- Java script files
- Site Definitions and Web Templates
- Layout pages
- Features
- Configuration files
- User controls
- Resource files
- And many more things
Getting a proper understanding of the share point will make you understand that how to expand it and this way it will help you in giving clues of doing the thing in a right manner.
8. Have full information regarding the .Net:
Whatever you do or create in share point will involve some amount of .net integration in it. Having knowledge of .net coding is crucial, but knowing its internals is also of equal importance. Deploying an assembly to share point is an important and very complex process. So one must master various ways to deploy, modify, register and troubleshoot different entries and also some debugging techniques.
9. Learn about the windows infrastructure:
Though share point exists all alone, but still one has to know the whole infrastructure of the windows and its several products. Once you have known share point, means you are becoming cozy with that and its systems that include the following:
- SQL server
- Windows server
- IIS
Apart from this, one may also have to deal with the players that include the exchange, the office client, SQLBI. Also the knowledge of SharePoint workflow foundation will come into the play at some or the other point in life ahead.
10. Do not customize and build solutions:
Most of the people who call themselves as a share point developer are not the ones who launch the visual studios. It is good of you to create big solutions in very short span of time, even without making use of the visual studio. The customization are one of the off solutions and can never be repeated unless the work is redone.
As there is no sharepoint code associated with the above efforts, maintenance of it becomes difficult affair, and moreover, when the solution is broken completely, there is no way left to rebuild it.
11. There are plenty of sources:
There are a number of sources to learn all about share point developer but instead of sticking to one resource, one must go and try many numbers of them. Initially, one must start practicing with the google skills and also search for the resources that make sense for you.
12. Myths of the share point developer:
The moment you enter the field, you will realize that there are a number of things which people speak about like first and foremost is the share point is not harder and easier than any other development platform. The second is a share point developer does not have to engage himself or herself with the compiled code programming. The third myth is becoming a share point developer is not your last resort. There are many numbers of other opportunities too.
The share point developer salary varies according to the post and also as per the organization. Otherwise, sharepoint developers enjoy the best salary package. The career in this field is flourishing and will give a good future, so investing and doing something creative in this field will no doubt be a good choice. Whatever you do, one must have a creative mind, along with hard work and dedication. So, one can go ahead with be a SharePoint developer, so as to create a good career and future ahead for yourself.
