Understanding how SharePoint works: customized vs. uncustomized files

For developers getting into the world of SharePoint development, it can be daunting at first. I've always felt the best way to get around this was to simplify the product; make SharePoint easier to understand and not this big blue monster.

A big piece of this is understanding how the file system works in SharePoint sites. Armed with this knowledge, it makes it much easier to understand errors and issues you may run into with your custom components. To this effect, I have recently had an article published on MSDN that explains the concept of customized and uncustomized files which also covers the virtualized SharePoint file system:

» Understanding and Creating Customized and Uncustomized Files in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

You'll quickly see that working with ASPX files in SharePoint sites is not really all that different than vanilla ASP.NET sites. Yes, there are a few extra steps, but this also implies you are not limited in many of the things you are used to doing in traditional ASP.NET sites such as leveraging code-behind files for ASPX and Master Pages. For info on this, I have an MSDN Visual How To that demonstrates this process as well:

» MSDN Visual How To: Adding Code-Behind Files to Master Pages and Content Pages in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,moss,wss,customized files,uncustomized files

posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008 1:15 PM

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# re: Understanding how SharePoint works: customized vs. uncustomized files 4/14/2008 3:04 AM chris

Much needed information that should have been there in the first place!
I wonder why some of the critical information regarding Share Point is never documented?
Thanks AC for providing it to us!
-Chris

# re: Understanding how SharePoint works: customized vs. uncustomized files 4/14/2008 10:22 AM AC [MVP MOSS]

Chris-
Thanks!

# re: Understanding how SharePoint works: customized vs. uncustomized files 4/14/2008 2:08 PM Brad Cote

Good description - and the first time I have seen (or heard) that the horrible terms 'ghosted' and 'unghosted' have been 'deprecated.'

# re: Understanding how SharePoint works: customized vs. uncustomized files 4/15/2008 2:18 AM AC [MVP MOSS]

Brad-
Thanks. I never kept the ghosted/unghosted terms straight in WSS 2.0. Thankfully the names make more sense now :)

# re: Understanding how SharePoint works: customized vs. uncustomized files 5/6/2008 4:51 AM Sanjay

Thanks AC ..very useful information.

Chapters 2 and 3 of Inside WSS 3.0 book explains these concepts in-depth.

-Sanjay

# re: Understanding how SharePoint works: customized vs. uncustomized files 1/30/2009 5:57 AM Rojon

Great resources, keep it up.

# re: Understanding how SharePoint works: customized vs. uncustomized files 8/1/2009 6:35 AM Nirdesh Kumar

we would like to know that how we can build sharepoint enabled software as a asp.net web developer?
:)

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