Get started (SharePoint development in Visual Studio)

This section helps you start working with Visual Studio to develop SharePoint solutions that take advantage of SharePoint Foundation and Microsoft SharePoint Server.

For information about SharePoint add-ins, see Build SharePoint add-ins.

SharePoint offers a Web-based collaboration platform. Visual Studio provides many project templates for creating SharePoint sites and content, including list definitions, workflows, business data connectivity models, and site definitions. In addition, you can create extensions for the SharePoint projects and tools in Visual Studio.

In this section

Topic	Description
Additional information for SharePoint errors	Describes where to find help during SharePoint development and troubleshooting.

Related sections

Topic	Description
Developing SharePoint Solutions	Describes SharePoint development in Visual Studio.
Set up a general development environment for SharePoint	Describes the required installations for creating a SharePoint Solution
Create site columns, content types, and lists for SharePoint	Describes how to create custom site columns, content types, and lists for SharePoint by using the Visual Studio tools for SharePoint development.
Create SharePoint workflow solutions	Describes workflow design and development.
Integrate business data into SharePoint	Describes how to connect to Business Data Connectivity (BDC) models to integrate business data.
Create web parts for SharePoint	Describes Web parts and Web Part Pages, the building blocks of pages on a SharePoint site.
Create application pages for SharePoint	Describes how to design application pages by using a designer.
Create reusable controls for web parts or application pages	Describes how to create custom, reusable controls for application pages and Web Parts in SharePoint.
Browse SharePoint connections using Server Explorer	Describes how to navigate through the components of a SharePoint site in a Visual Studio tool window.
Build and debug SharePoint solutions	Describes how to build and Debug SharePoint solutions.
Package and deploy SharePoint solutions	Describes how to Package and deploy SharePoint solutions.
Extend the SharePoint tools in Visual Studio	Describes how to extend the SharePoint tools to create the features that you need.

See also

• Develop SharePoint solutions
• Browse SharePoint connections using Server Explorer
• Build and debug SharePoint solutions
• Package and deploy SharePoint solutions