• SharePoint

[via John Holliday]

Are you a SharePoint developer? Then you know how you’ve got to deal with CAML (Collaborative Application Markup Language) to issue queries against a SharePoint implementation: they are clumsy, error prone, and frustrating. If you don’t know what I’m talking about (you non SharePoint developers or those just getting into the platform), think of CAML as your TSQL when working against a MS SQL Server database.

I don’t really have a problem with CAML, it’s just a bit tedious to write & debug. Today I usually pop open U2U’s CAML Query Builder, build my query, copy the XML into Notepad++, do my string replacements, then copy it into my code file in VIsual Studio assigning it to a string variable. Yikes, that’s tedious (and not to mention too many hoops).

Enter CAML.NET: SharePoint ninja John Holliday (MVP MOSS) has built this slick little assembly that lets you build your CAML string queries in a pure object oriented sense. VERY slick… VERY VERY SLICK! Check the announcement post on his blog and then rush to get the assembly from CodePlex. His post does a fantastic job of selling the idea.

» John Holliday: Write Your CAML Queries in C# using CAML.NET