Remote Server Connection and Webparts in Visual Studio and Sharepoint Designer

0
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I have a customer who is using a custom skinned site developed in Sharepoint 2010.

I am trying to debug a webpart that is not loading on a page.

My Environment: Local Laptop running Win 7 64 Enterprise, Visual Studio 2013, and Sharepoint Designer 2010.

I connect to the customers network via VPN and use RDP to access the server. I have Admin rights to the server.

Everything that I have read indicates that Web Part dev has to be done in VS. When I try to connect using server explorer, VS kicks back a 'Server Can not be found' error.

I have tried using the computer name, the app url listed in SP Central Admin, the IP address of the box, and the actual URL of the site. However, VS can not connect to the server.

I have done some homework on connecting VS to a remote machine (Which included alot more links by SO wont let me post them:

SharePoint -how to connect remotely to production server

SharePoint 2010 Development with Visual Studio

The last connection article is confusing because one of the SO answers indicates that you do not need to have SP2010 installed.

I have been doing lots of reading on SP structure, and it seems to jump all over the place. (Or at least my research does). I have been reading this Ebook:

SharePoint 2010 Development with Visual Studio 2010 by Eric Carter et al.

My questions are: 1) Why cant I connect to the Server if I connected through VPN which would inherently make the server a local network computer?

2) Do I need to have VS installed on the actual server? I read that I can install Sharepoint Foundation locally and this will give me access to the server in VS.

3) Do I need to have the full version of VS installed in order to use Remote Tools?

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sharepointsharepoint-2010visual-studio-2013sharepoint-designerremote-server

1 Answers

1
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  • sharepoint designer should be your tool of choice for any customisation that you can do without server side code. you either make it available or install it in the server should that be an option
  • pretty much everything you want can develop in visual studio requires a local sharepoint farm. at least foundation 2010. no way around it, as far as I know
  • you will want to compile your solutions into wsps after properly tested, and deploy them using powershell while inside the server, or upload them, in case of sandboxed solutions. unless you can install vs in the server which allows direct deployment

more here

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/8871.sharepoint-2010-setup-a-development-environment.aspx