Developing ASP.Net User Control to be imported to SharePoint MOSS 2007
- by Don Kirkham
Apologies if this has been answered, but I could not find a similar question:
I am developing a webpart for MOSS 2007. I am using WSPBuilder to built a visual webpart (ascx) and everything works fine, but the development/debug cycle is just painfully slow, so I'd like to know if it is possible (without being too painful) to develop the user control faster using an .Net Web Application project with all of the nice F5 debugging, then import the final product into my SharePoint visual webpart.
The user control interacts with a LOB system (SQL) and does not reference the SharePoint API at all. (The reason I am building this as a webpart is because I don't need another web app to run this one page, so putting it into a webpart on a new webpart page on my existing site is the best solution IMO.) I would obviously need to import (reference?) my data access classes into my "temp" web app, but think that would not be too much trouble.
I realize this will be extra effort to get this set up, but am thinking the payoff will be reduced development time of the actual user control using a little web application vs having to use the compile/build WSP/deploy WSP/reset ISS/test/make a change/repeat cycle that MOSS requires. (I guess SP2010/VS2010 has spoiled me with the native SharePoint tools available.)