20.2. Advantages to Using SharePoint As an Application Development Platform
The previous sections covered the many components that SharePoint adds to a developer's toolbox when creating custom applications that either integrate into existing SharePoint sites or utilize SharePoint as the foundation. However, it is not only the components that should be considered when evaluating SharePoint as an application development platform. Other factors should also weigh in to the decision process.
First, SharePoint development is much more along the lines of building many smaller components and integrating them. This is very different from traditional ASP.NET 2.0 development whereby the entire application is typically built from scratch (aside from some store-bought or reusable libraries). Typically, this results in less custom code, which in turn results in less chance for defects and bugs, as well as less code to write and maintain. Instead, more of the code is written and supported by Microsoft. This point cannot be discounted or overlooked, as it is quite significant.
Second, as discussed earlier, many of the things that all custom applications need are provided OOTB by SharePoint, including navigation, search, personalization and customization capabilities, self-service, a security model, and a plug-in framework.
As with any evaluation period when deciding on an application development platform, weighing the advantages against the disadvantages, as well as the capabilities, the next ...
