When I first started working on SharePoint (SP) technologies, on a Beta version of MOSS 2007 (this is around November of 2006), for an inhouse Microsoft project at Redmond, I can’t tell you how much I hated myself having to work on it. I felt that it is possibly the greatest punishment for a developer; to put him/her on a SharePoint project where he/she cannot develop anything and has to struggle in finding simplest of things to configure. (Mind you, this is the time when there were no books on MOSS, no documentation or help available, and all that were available were 4-5 different blogs on this technology from Microsoft SharePoint development team). All those configurations seem so trivial from a development stand point but sometimes possible OOB and sometimes not.
I was new to the SP terminologies used and had my good share of sleepless nights to get things working as I wanted and meet the deadlines/expectations of my client. Thinking about those days now, I realize how stupid and wrong my perceptions were. WSS V3 being a technology completely built on .Net 2.0 and 3.0 framework, the level of customization and development has no limits and can be extended to any level; the challenges invloved in making those customizations, integrating them with the other/new technologies like Flash, Silverlight, WCF, and enabling Ajax on some controls, building web parts and pages that can do anything that can be done or is possible in ASP.net, etc. takes it to the next level from the regular development.
I recently was chatting with a few of my friends at work who were picking this technology and realized that they were all passing through that same phase (probably not as bas as I was 
). I felt that there is a need for some basic understanding at the root level that is required. So I started sharing my experiences and gave them a quick presentation on the few little things I have learned over the last few years. I could see a significant change and felt that I made their life easier. Giving them a quick overview of this mighty SharePoint, the scope for development that this can provide and some guidance on how/what to look for not only changed their opinion about the techonlogy but also generated interest to explore it in depth.
Seeing this, I felt that there are many many more out there trying to learn and understand what this SharePoint is and Googling for information which is out there but scattered across many blogs, technet and MSDN sites, forums, etc.
Here I am, trying to make an effort in sharing my knowledge and understanding and some of the resources that I had gathered, to help makes some lives easier/happier and to make them realize how amazing and interesting SharePoint Development can be. I will over the next couple of posts, discuss about the basic concepts in SharePoint and then go in-depth into branding, security, branding sites, customizing a site, building custom web parts, development using SharePoint as a platform, etc.
Hope these will be helpful… Cheers!
. We want to use a 3 column layout instead of a 2 column page layout or even a custom built layout. {I will discuss in my later blogs on some easier approaches to create a page layout.}