Creating a development environment for SharePoint

Question

I haven't touched sharepoint in years. If I want to setup a development environment to get up to speed, what options do I have? I don't have an MSDN license, is there anyway I can get up and running for free? (for development only)

Answer 1

You need a Windows 2003 Server (or 2008 Server, but I have no experience with that), no way around that. You can then of course use Visual C# 2005 Express and the SHarepoint Services 3.0 if that's your target.

If you want to do development on Sharepoint 2007, you have to buy a Sharepoint 2007 license, which has a pretty hefty fee attached to it.

As a SQL, SQL 2005 Express works fine for development.

There is a good Article how to set up Sharepoint on a Single Server:

http://blogs.msdn.com/martinkearn/archive/2007/03/28/how-to-install-sharepoint-server-2007-on-a-single-machine.aspx

You CAN use a Trial Version of Windows 2003 and Sharepoint 2007 though if it's only needed for a limited time (i believe the Trials run 180 days).

Answer 2

There is no way you can have a MOSS 2007/WSS 3.0 development for free but a Microsoft Action Pact is so cheap to get. :)

There is a nice blog to read to get the requirements and the steps to get a full MOSS 2007 image up and running here : How to Create a MOSS 2007 VPC Image: The Whole 9 Yards.