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Having 12 years experience in Microsoft technologies.Since more than 7 years working in SharePoint technologies. Expert in providing consultation for SharePoint projects. Hands on with development and administration.

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Approaches to integrate ASP.NET web application into SharePoint

There are various approaches to intergrating ASP.NET web application pages into SharePoint.
IFRAME Approach
By far the easiest way to integrate any web application into SharePoint is using an IFRAME which can be added to a SharePoint Page via a Content Editor Web Part.
Pros
Cons
Extremely fast
No SharePoint Context
Web Application doesn't even have to be part of SharePoint IIS
Not easy to have the same look & feel

Can not use out-of-the-box security of SharePoint
SharePoint Application Pages Approach
This approach deploys a standard ASP.NET Web Application into a subfolder of the _layouts directory in the SharePoint Web Application within IIS.
Pros
Cons
Full access to SharePoint Context
Requires deployment to individual IIS Web Applications
Almost exactly the same as ASP.NET Web Development
Can't use Master Page of Site in context as it will use Application.master


User Control Approach

This approach converts each ASP.NET Page into an ASP.NET User Control (USCX) and then deploys a SharePoint Page Layout relating to each control and then a SharePoint Page in the Pages library.
Pros
Cons
Full access to SharePoint Context
Added complexities of having Page Layouts, User Controls and Page Instances for one page
Can develop outside of SharePoint first (if not using SharePoint Context)


  • [Integrating ASP.NET Web Application pages into SharePoint using User Control and Page Layout approach]
ASP.NET Web Part Approach
If you were lucky enough to write your ASP.NET Web Application using ASP.NET Web Parts you can simply import these into SharePoint.
Pros
Cons
Can be added to SharePoint Web Part Zones in Pages
No drag and drop design surface in Visual Studio
Leverage connected web part framework

Reusing same architectural approach as existing app


External References

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