Apps for SharePoint 2013 code samples

Yesterday Jim Crowley blogged about some of the code samples we have for Apps for SharePoint. But wait a minute; you do know what apps for SharePoint are right? Well, if you don’t, take 5 minutes to watch these videos or read this introductory post and you’ll have a pretty good idea.

I had the privilege to work closely (they might say perhaps too closely) with our user assistance team to create what we call our 0-60 experience for both Office and SharePoint that includes all the resources in https://dev.office.com and, as expected, we have lots of code samples. The approach that we took was simple; start with the basics and grow from there. Accordingly you will notice that we have a lot of “hello worlds” that illustrate fairly basic operations and over time we are going to add more that interweave different SharePoint services. 

Sometimes I’m asked if it wouldn’t have made sense to start the other way around, with just a few big samples illustrating a ton of features. There are certainly pros and cons but we essentially listened to feedback and realized that reverse engineering long samples was not the best way to understand the fundamentals of a new platform. There are significant changes and a fundamental new way to think about extending SharePoint and I think our samples do a good job introducing each piece of the puzzle in a digestible way. Of course once developers are up to speed they will be looking for more “meaty” samples and we will make sure we have those too. We are learning along with all of you, early adopters, and we are open to all your feedback; participate on our blog and forum.

I encourage you to try things out for yourself; it literally takes minutes to have your first app running. You don’t even have to download anything to get started, simply sign-up for a free developer site during the preview and get going!

Happy coding and thank you for kicking the tires with the preview!