How to: Set up an environment for developing apps for SharePoint on Office 365
Published: July 16, 2012
Learn about getting started with apps for SharePoint development on an Office 365 Developer Site.
Applies to: apps for SharePoint | Office 365 | SharePoint Foundation 2013 | SharePoint Server 2013
Before you begin creating and publishing apps for SharePoint, think about the best place to develop them—on an Office 365 Developer Site or on a local computer where you have SharePoint 2013 installed. Consider how you want to use the apps, the time and money you have for development, and the permissions you want for the apps.
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Before setting up your developer computer, you should sign up for an Office 365 Developer Site. See Getting started with app development on an Office 365 Developer Site for instructions about using the Developer Site and a basic sample app. |
An Office 365 Developer Site is preconfigured for app isolation and OAuth, so this option saves you the most time and expense, and enables you to develop and test apps for SharePoint on any computer and operating system on which you can install Visual Studio 2012. An Office 365 Developer Site is also the best option if you want to deploy directly from Visual Studio 2012 when you are developing and testing your apps for SharePoint, because it's not possible to deploy from Visual Studio 2012 to any site other than a Developer Site. We'll focus on how to set up an Office 365 Developer Site and start developing and testing apps for SharePoint on it. See Get started developing apps for SharePoint if you are not sure what sort of environment you will need or what kinds of apps for SharePoint you will want to create.
See Installing Visual Studio for instructions about installing Visual Studio 2012. After you install Visual Studio 2012, download and install Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2012 and the SharePoint Client Components. You can install the tools and client components by going to the Downloads page of the Apps for Office and SharePoint Developer Center and choosing the link for the web-based platform installer (WebPI) that installs the tools and assemblies that you will need to develop apps for SharePoint.
When you install Visual Studio 2012, Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2012, and the SharePoint Client Components you get all of templates and tools that you need, and the following resources that enable you to develop apps for SharePoint on your developer computer without installing SharePoint 2013.
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Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2012
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SharePoint Client Components (containing the client assemblies)
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Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) SDK
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Workflow Tools SDK and Workflow Client SDK
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Windows Identity Foundation SDK and Windows Identity Foundation Extensions.
When you have created your new Office 365 Developer site, you can use the "Napa" Office 365 Development Tools tools to start developing apps for Office and SharePoint quickly and easily by creating a sample "Hello World" app. See Getting started with app development on an Office 365 Developer Site for instructions about using the Developer Site and a basic sample app. See How to: Create a basic provider-hosted app for SharePoint and How to: Create a basic SharePoint-hosted app for "Hello World" samples that you can build by using Visual Studio 2012.
