Create a Custom Business Application

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You, as a solution developer, can build a custom business application and package it as a solution. There are several ways that you can create a custom business application.

Create an Application by Building on an Existing Application

The easiest method to create a custom business application is to edit an existing Office Live Small Business application. If you want to maintain the original version of the application, you can add a copy of the application to edit.

You can edit business applications by using the tools provided with Office Live Small Business, or by using Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007. For more information, see Customize an Application with SharePoint Designer.

To add a copy of an application to an account

  1. On the left navigation bar, click Business Applications.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click Add Application.

  3. Under Select a Category, select the category of the application that you want to add a new version of.

  4. Under Select an Application, click the application that you want to add.

  5. Click OK.

  6. Follow the instructions on the screen to create the application.

Create an Application from a SharePoint template

We recommend that you start with a business application when creating a custom application. You can, however, choose to build your application using a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 template. If you do this, there are some limitations on the use of these templates that you should be aware of.

In Windows SharePoint Services you can define a site by using a template or a site definition. Templates are created through the user interface or through the object model, and are stored in the database. Site definitions consist of multiple files on a front-end Web server that contain XML tags that define a template for a site. Site definitions and the object model are not accessible to Office Live Small Business developers.

You can create a custom application in your Office Live Small Business account by uploading SharePoint Services templates (.stp files). However, the following SharePoint templates are not supported by Office Live Small Business:

  • Templates created for the beta version of Office Live Small Business.

  • Templates created using Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0.

  • Templates with regional settings of one locale cannot be added to an application with a different locale setting.

Additionally, sites that you create and save as a template by using the Windows SharePoint Services interface may encounter problems when they are uploaded to Office Live Small Business, because these sites do not support Office Live Small Business navigation features.

Server-side programs that use the Windows SharePoint Services object model will not work when uploaded to an Office Live Small Business account. However, you can use Windows SharePoint Services Web services and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) methods to work with them remotely. To learn more about how you can use RPC calls with Web services, see the code sample titled Property Value Estimator Code Sample.

To upload a SharePoint template

  1. On the left navigation bar, click Business Applications.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click Add application.

  3. Under Select a Category, click Add or find custom applications.

  4. Under Select an Application, click Upload template.

  5. In the Upload Template dialog box, click Browse, find the SharePoint template file (.stp) on your computer, and then click Open.

  6. Click OK.

See also

Working with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web Services
Windows SharePoint Services RPC Protocol
Windows SharePoint Services Web Services