My staff has been tasked with taking over my company's sharepoint intranet sites and make them "prettier". We are experts in web technologies like CSS, JavaScript, and HTML but typically build these systems using Java and PHP. Two of our staff members are proficient in .Net, but it is not a strength as a whole for our team. The existing sites make use of common webparts within Sharepoint that were set up by our IT staff (not developers). Complaints that our Sharepoint sites are "ugly" and "not user friendly" along with a company goal of creating more internal resources for our growing company has forced a change to be made.

Do you have any book or resource recommendations for the following topics with Sharepoint?

1. Using HTML/CSS to create Sharepoint pages
2. Applying themes to specific subsites within Sharepoint (we have about 10 different sites under or intranet that would have different themes)
3. Techniques for creating dynamic web content with Sharepoint
4. Setting up a development, test, and production server and migrating content from one server to another (we have had issues with this in the past)

Notes:
- We must use Sharepoint for accessibility by our staff in secure Army/Navy/DOD environments.
- The IT staff will be maintaining and administrating the server, we are only responsible for updating the look & feel and usability of the pages
- I am not against doing a class, but there is an emphasis on getting updates sooner rather than later and I worry that classes may be too expensive without making changes in the next month or so, and it would be great if the staff could share resources
- We are currently using Sharepoint 2010

Google searches and reading through the Oreilly offerings have only reinforced that I don't know much about Sharepoint at all. Any help would be appreciated!

4/14/2014 2:39:02 PM

My very limited experience with doing SharePoint frontend development:

1) Use the SharePoint designer tool and/or Visual Studio 2012+, it's basically impossible without it.
2) SharePoint is a CSS/HTML/JS nightmare.

My end solution was to use a clean, empty master layout with my own clean CSS

4/14/2014 5:56:56 PM

I hate Sharepoint and do everything I can to stay away from it, but apparently there's some good money in it if you gain some proficiency.

It seems some .NET experience can be helpful for building apps/workflows within the system, but I always push to build web apps instead whenever possible [maybe this is a sign of me getting old].

Good luck getting a rope around a Sharepoint infrastructure that's been designed by non-developer/design/Sharepoint type of people. Sharepoint is basically the Myspace of the enterprise application world.

4/14/2014 6:56:43 PM

Sharepoint Designer and a healthy dose of grain alcohol



you'll potentially be able to get over the "ugly" but certainly not the "not user friendly"

[Edited on April 14, 2014 at 8:16 PM. Reason : sharepoint is ass]

4/14/2014 8:15:30 PM

jadn you remember when cliff rolled out that sharepoint and we were like MORE LIKE WHEREPOINT

[Edited on April 14, 2014 at 9:34 PM. Reason : Post #48,880.]

4/14/2014 9:34:07 PM

ahahah yes


ol pirating-software ass Cliff

4/15/2014 7:49:09 AM

Thanks for the input, it seems like we have all had the same experience with Sharepoint. I'll let you know if I find any good solutions.

4/15/2014 10:17:50 AM

I developed a SharePoint site here at work for our NERC Compliance Program. It works great for us and I have demoed it to several other similar companies across the nation that are trying to mimic it (Which we are okay with). That being said, I am not an expert but did come up with a design that works really well with what we are trying to do. I do have an IT guy that helps me update things in SharePoint designer when needed.

I don't know if I can really help you but I wanted to post at least one positive experience regarding SharePoint.

4/23/2014 2:55:39 PM

Groove is the only reason I like Sharepoint. Completely ignoring the web component is the best part of Sharepoint.

4/23/2014 9:19:06 PM

^^ I'd appreciate any help you could offer. Can you give me any info on the design you used? This project isn't going away, so I still need to figure out a way to do it.

4/24/2014 9:19:38 AM

^PM Sent

4/24/2014 10:24:09 AM

i'll be honest, as soon as i hit our company's sharepoint i go right into explorer view and do what i gotta do.

I think internal wiki's add more value.

4/26/2014 6:47:59 AM