Ask HN: How scalable is Microsoft SharePoint as a Web application framework?

struppi · on April 7, 2012

I would not do it. The last time I saw/used Sharepoint (I had a 2-day sharepoint user training ~9 months ago) I was really unimpressed.

Don't get me wrong, managing documents with Sharepoint works. Somewhat. But all the web stuff seemed really half assed to me. The Wiki doesn't work, building pages and sites is PITA and search does not work out of the box (and as far as I can remember you need an expensive add on to make it really work).

I think they also told us that developing for/with sharepoint can be quite tricky and upgrades to newer sharepoint versions can cause problems - But I am not sure If I remeber that correctly.

Even if everything above worked find, I don't think it is a good idea to create a MVP with a tool like Sharepoint, which has it's own (quite inflexible) way of doing things and forces you into certain processes. You should really be able to iterate fast and create exactly what you want, and not be constrained by the structure, process and templates of a (huge, hairy) tool when building a MVP.

electrichead · on April 7, 2012

Sharepoint has its uses. I think that unless you're committed to deploying on SP, you are probably better off not using it for a prototype. It takes a lot of configuration just to start out on it, as by default it is hard wired to look like SP. Swapping out the master page to a more useful one and creating a new style sheet with resets takes a lot of work. If you can find someone that has already done it then it might be viable, but IMO unless you are specifically targeting current users of SP (a surprisingly large number of Fortune 500), it is not worth it. The flip side to this is that there are very few products for SP and you would have a large base for each product unit sold. I am a SP developer, so I can help out if you need it.

dwd · on April 7, 2012

Unless you need to leverage SharePoint functionality then I would suggest anything else would be faster and less painful.

In the .Net environment an MVC3 application is the closest you will get to RoR, and if you are looking for a lot of pre-built functionality the Orchard Project will give you a good foundation.

www.orchardproject.net

stephengillie · on April 7, 2012

All Sharepoint Online users have to be authenticated, and using one logon for more than one user isn't allowed. You might have more luck with the free Sharepoint Foundation server.

alexduggleby · on April 7, 2012

I was a SharePoint consultant/developer for quite some time and still do occasional projects.

The current version of SharePoint (2010) is a strong product if you stay with out-of-the-box features. It has all the major features you find in the collaboration-saas-app de jour just geared towards big business and therefore less "sexy". The core is still built around document management (versioning, corporate meta data/tagging and workflows being the major features) and integrates well into a Microsoft infrastructure environment. There are different levels of search, but if used correctly it can become the corporate search center and index pretty much anything you throw at it (Microsfot bought an external SharePoint search product a couple of years ago).

I agree with struppi the wiki (both the old and new versions) don't get close to functionality & usability of modern wikis. But I disagree on page and site creation. The default templates cover most use cases. The page editing functionality is browser-based WYSIWYG that any Office user can figure out without involving the IT department (the big selling point). Sure you're not going to win design awards doing that, but you get the job done.

A lot of Microsoft Access functionality is replicated via lists, linked lists and views but without the concurrency nightmare.

Customizing the SharePoint design always fails from my point of view (apart from basic colors and a logo change). There are great examples but they require a lot of investment and who needs it for intranet sites. SharePoint _can_ be licensed for Internet use, but I have yet to meet someone who has done that - it's really an intranet product.

Development on SharePoint is a PITA. Workflow development is usually the starting point and has improved over the years but getting to version 1 is an uphill battle. Sadly it doesn't end there, the real problem is updating to the next version. Without going too deep into SharePoint terminology let's just say there is not "ALTER TABLE" you can run on SharePoint lists which makes changing data schemas difficult.

Regarding search: it does work out-of-the-box (even in the free foundation version) with one exception. To be able to search PDFs additional steps are required which is indeed a PITA to setup everytime. I'm assuming this has patent reasons. Search in SharePoint was one of my favorite features if you use it to the fullest extent.

Having said all that (and mostly because SharePoint always seems to be the big mystery product) I am NOT building my MVPs on SharePoint. I have built a couple of products on it but due to aforementioned update difficulties on the one hand and fairly easy integration of vanilla ASP.NET web applications into SharePoint environments I mostly choose that route for my products.

To sum up: SharePoint has improved greatly since 2003 and is a good collaboration platform for big (albeit conservative) businesses but cannot be recommended as development platform (for any kind of non trivial project). Since it is based on ASP.NET using that and integrating with SharePoint data via the API libraries is my suggested way to go.

PS: I agree with eletrichead that the market for SharePoint products is large and SharePoint knowledge is a value resource at the moment.

rman666 · on April 7, 2012

Run away, fast.