UPDATE: 04/25/08: Is vang op 'n blog en gevind dat 'n skakel na hierdie artikel: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/032608-microsoft-sharepoint.html?page=1. I make note of it because in addition to asking, "how do I learn sharepoint?", some people ask "why should I learn sharepoint?". That article partly answers the later.

In die laaste paar maande, 'n dosyn of meer mense van regoor die planeet is my e-pos en vra die algemene vraag, "How do I learn SharePoint?"

Ek is skaars gesaghebbende, maar ek het 'n paar sukses (en probeer om beter te kry al die tyd) so I thought I’d document my personal road map. Others may find it valuable.

Voordat ek dit doen, Ek wil net om te sien dat dit vir my duidelik, gebaseer op hierdie persoonlike e-pos en die nog groter aantal MSDN / SharePoint Universiteit poste van dieselfde aard, that there is huge developer interest in getting up to speed with WSS/MOSS. I wonder what it’s going to be like a year from now … easier to find good SharePoint talent? The same? Are folks committing themselves to the platform at a rate sufficient to keep up with demand for good resources? How could you even figure something like that out short of a WAG?

Paul’s Roadmap

I was full time employed by the good folk at Conchango while I followed this road map. This means that from a learning perspective, I was actively engaged in projects as I followed the steps I outline below.

Some Basic Terms

For people entering this world, there are two key acronyms:

• WSS: Windows SharePoint Services
• MOSS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

WSS is "free" in that it’s bundled with windows server 2003 (or at least can be downloaded from MS). I put quotes around free because you need a box, a valid O/S license and probably SQL (though there’s a "free" kind of SQL as well).

MOSS is built on top of WSS and extends it. There is no MOSS without WSS. MOSS is not free.

Perhaps not day one, but soon after you’ve got some basic familiarity with the platform, it’s important to learn the differences. Byvoorbeeld, a powerful web part, the Content Query Web Part, is a MOSS feature and not available WSS. People often make the incorrect assumption that CQWP is available in WSS and then end up scrambling for a stop-gap measure when they realize their error.

Hit the Books

I started working with WSS/MOSS on about 01/02/2007. I had a little prior experience with SPS 2003 but very little. To get myself started, I purchased the two books listed here (http://paulgalvin.spaces.live.com/lists/cns!1CC1EDB3DAA9B8AA!203/).

I started with the big blue administration book. Naturally, it covers administration. Op dieselfde tyd, it provides a survey of all MOSS features (and WSS features as well).

Vir my, it’s not so important to remember all the various details (until it’s time to get certified) but it’s good to know the boundaries. (I follow this same approach in 1st person shooters I play on the xbox or PC — I enter a room and tend to make a counter-clockwise loop until I get back where I started. I just feel better knowing the shape of the box I’m in.)

After reading the big blue book, I would read the entire Inside WSS book. It dives deeply into issues that developers care most about.

Create a Virtual Environment

In order to do any development or properly use the environment, you need a full blown windows server operating system with SharePoint Designer, Visual Studio 2005 (2008 works, but some useful tools have yet to be ported as of the writing of this article), Path 2007 and some other stuff. There are many good blog entries describing this process. I’d have a look at these two:

• How to Create a MOSS 2007 VPC Image: The Whole 9 Yards – SharePoint Reporter Blog
• How to build an optimal developer VPC for SharePoint Development – Blog

Daarbenewens, Andrew Connell shared his experiences with VMWare here:

• Microsoft’s virtualization products vs. VMWare’s offerings

Use your favorite search engine to see what other people do. It’s a useful learning exercise in and of itself.

Spend a few minutes angrily denouncing the fact that you need a server environment on which to do development. Maar … don’t bother blogging about it or posting it to MSDN forums. It’s already been done 🙂. In plaas daarvan, embrace it and move on. You’ll be better off for it.

Get Certified

I believe that the MS SharePoint certification path, which consists four exams, is exhaustive. I suggest that you follow their online preparation guide and do your best to understand each of the areas of the test.

Ek do not suggest that you take the exam just to pass it. Ek do not suggest that you use one of the "brain dump" style 3rd party "tools" for passing MS tests. If you can take the test, pass it based on a combination of your own directed study and hands-on experience, you’ll be a stronger developer and job candidate for it.

There are four tests in two "tracks":

Developer:

• TS: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – Application Development
• TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – Application Development

Admin:

• TS: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuring
• TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuring

I recommend that developers study for all of these exams. You’ll be strong for them, though I suppose if you skipped the admin exams, you would get by.

I found the WSS version to be considerably more challenging than the corresponding MOSS versions, much to my surprise. I was in a class recently and several others made the same point.

While I was studying for the 70-542 eksamen (MOSS development) I tracked my study resources. These may be helpful to you as well: http://paulgalvin.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!1CC1EDB3DAA9B8AA!192.entry

Plug Yourself Into the Community

The SharePoint community is vibrant, strong and growing larger all the time.

You want to look at the following to start:

• Blogs
• Forums
• Codeplex
• Twitter

Blogs

If you don’t understand RSS, stop everything and learn it. It will take 10 minutes to learn it, maybe another 10 minutes to find a web based RSS reader (I like google’s reader, www.google.com / reader).

Start by adding this blog to your RSS reader 🙂

Volgende, add www.sharepointblogs.com to your reader. They aggregate many blogs into a single feed.

Over time, you’ll find blogs that are not aggregated that way. Just add them individually.

I subscribe to a few dozen blogs which I’ve accumulate over the last year. As jy wil, I can export my list and email it.

Uiteindelik, you may want to start your own blog. I personally think that a series of blog entries describing a "newbie’s" progress learning WSS/MOSS would be an interesting series. I wish I had done that myself.

Forums

I actively participate in two forum groups: MSDN and SharePoint University.

Forums are excellent places to learn. People ask questions ranging from the very simple ("How do I create a site column") to the panicked ("My server is down!") to more hypothetical design questions.

Once you get a flavor of the environment, venture out and start replying. Short of directly interacting with a customer, niks is beter as dit vir die hande op ervaring.

Codeplex

Gaan na www.codeplex.com.

Check dit uit en soek vir SharePoint projekte.

Skryf in vir die daaglikse opsomming CodePlex voer in jou feed reader.

Voeg 'n nuwe SharePoint projekte aan jou feed reader.

Uiteindelik, na die lees van die forums en die gesig staar af jou eie WSS / MOSS duiwels, oorweeg om saam jou eie CodePlex projek.

Twitter

As ek skryf hierdie blog entry, 'n baie SharePoint folk het begin met Twitter.

It’s hard to characterize Twitter. You’ll just have to check it out yourself.

Slot

That wraps up my roadmap and makes me current. I just started using Twitter two weeks ago.

WSS/MOSS is a very cool platform and the community is growing all the time. Use community resources to improve your skills and enjoy the journey!

</einde>

Skryf in op my blog.