Latest Development topics
All the latest Development pages on this site.
This category is for general client-side & server-side development topics.
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Course-Learn-M365: Start Learning Microsoft 365 App Development - Free Guides
Learn how to get started learning Microsoft 365 app development on the five (5) most important workloads with Andrew’s free guides!- Published on
Blog: Microsoft Retired the MS-600 Exam & Teams Developer Cert! 😱
Microsoft is retiring the MS-600 exam & Teams Developer Certification on March 31. In this article I’ll share the backstory & plans for my exam prep course.- Published on
Blog: Unboxing the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) v1.16.1 release
In this article, I’ll summarize what I found while time picking apart this latest release of the SharePoint Framework (SPFx): v1.16.1.- Published on
Blog: Join me - 365EduCon Washington DC June - SPFx, React & Azure
Join me, June 12-16 in Washington DC for the 365 EduCon conference! I’m presenting a workshop & sessions on SPFx, React & Azure for developers!- Published on
Blog: Voitanos' Black Friday Promotion Deals are back or 2022!
The first two hours (10am-12pm EST on NOV-25) of the promotion: 45% off all courses - then 30% off all weekend.- Published on
Blog: Register SPFx list form customizers with the SharePoint REST API
In this video, learn how to register SPFx list form customizers with SharePoint’s API. See how you can do this our utility web part you can use in your sites!- Published on
Blog: CloudDev Clarity | Episode 8 - Introducing Browser Native
Episode 8 of CloudDev Clarity introduces Browser Native; a new series co-hosted by Julie Turner & Bob German for developers about native browser features.- Published on
Blog: CloudDev Clarity | Episode 7 - React, Angular, & web frameworks: good, bad, and ugly!
In our 7th episode of CloudDev Clarity, we cover web frameworks & review the results of the 2021 State of JavaScript survey while offering up our opinions.- Published on
Blog: How to register SPFx field customizers with the SharePoint REST API
Learn how to register SPFx field customizers with SharePoint’s REST API. See how you can do this our utility web part you can use in your sites!- Published on
Blog: CloudDev Clarity | Episode 6 - Our favorite Azure resources
In episode 6 of CloudDev Clarity, Julie and Andrew share some of their favorite & most frequently used Azure resources, including why and how they use them.- Published on
Blog: How to set up reusable ESLint configs for SharePoint Framework (SPFx) projects
When Microsoft swapped out TSLint in favor of ESLint in SPFx v1.15, I think they went overboard with their default rules. In this episode, learn how to setup a reusable ESLint configuration & modify your SharePoint Framework projects to use your rules.- Published on
Blog: New show by Julie Turner & Andrew Connell: CloudDev Clarity
Today I’m excited to share a new regular show: CloudDev Clarity. In this show, Julie Turner & Andrew Connell discuss topics for Microsoft 365 & Azure developers.- Published on
Blog: SharePoint Framework (SPFx) v1.15 and the attack of ESlint
I like ESLint & having rules to either enforce coding standards and/or good practices is a good thing. I like that SPFx projects now use ESLint over the long-deprecated TSLint. But vendors telling developers how to write code, especially imposing subjective or obsolete coding styles, isn’t cool.- Published on
Blog: How to: CI/CD/IaC for Azure Function Apps and GitHub Actions
In this article, I show you how to use Github Actions to test an Azure Function App, as well as create all resources & deploy the code in a complete CI/CD process.- Published on
Blog: SPFx Basics: Configure NPM for a corporate web proxy
Learn how to configure your development environment for NPM to work with corporate web proxies to install NPM packages.- Published on
Blog: State of SharePoint Client-Side Dev - Winter 2022
In this post, I’ll give you an update on where we are with popular frameworks and tools developers use in the client-side SharePoint development world.- Published on
Blog: How to set up SPFx development environments for multiple SharePoint Server deployments
In this post, learn how to set up a development development environment to create SPFx projects for all SharePoint deployments.- Published on
Blog: Definitive guide for developers: SharePoint Framework for SharePoint Server 2016
These days, all of Microsoft’s updates about the SPFx, or community content have one thing in common: they ignore SharePoint Server 2016. Not this post!- Published on
Blog: Definitive guide for developers: SharePoint Framework for SharePoint Server SE
These days, all of Microsoft’s updates about the SPFx, or community content have one thing in common: they ignore SharePoint Server SE. Not this post!- Published on
Blog: Definitive guide for developers: SharePoint Framework for SharePoint Server 2019
These days, all of Microsoft’s updates about the SPFx, or community content have one thing in common: they ignore SharePoint Server 2019. Not this post!- Published on
Blog: Fix SharePoint Framework projects to enable the React DevTools profiler
A few years ago, React introduced the React Profiler to React v16.5 in the React DevTools plugin available for Chromium browsers (Chrome & CrEdge) and Firefox. Developers can use the Profiler API to collect timing information about each component that’s rendered in order to identify performance bottlenecks in React applications. You can learn more about the React DevTools profiler from the following deep dive video from the React team: YouTube: Deep dive with the React DevTools profiler For those of us creating React apps in SharePoint Framework (SPFx) solutions, this is a great resource for building well performing apps for your customers!- Published on
Blog: Get answers to your SharePoint Framework questions
You’ve hit a roadblock on your SPFx project & have a question. What options do you have? In this post, I’ll share a few options available to you.- Published on
Blog: Get with the times & ditch TSLint in favor of ESLint in SharePoint Framework projects
The ECMAScript community came to the consensus, initiated by the TypeScript Team in their 2019 Roadmap post, to deprecate TSLint in favor of ESLint over 2.5 years ago. Yet SPFx projects still use TSLint. In this post, learn how to replace it with ESLint, the standard for linting both JavaScript & TypeScript projects.- Published on
Blog: Fix the "can't find custom rule directory: tslint-microsoft-contrib" error in SPFx projects
Ever run into the random error “[tslint] Failed to load ../tslint.json” when you can clearly see it in your project? If so, then this post is for you!- Published on
Blog: hTWOo: A Microsoft Fluent Design pure HTML & CSS Implementation
hTWOo is a pure HTML & CSS implementation of Microsoft’s Fluent Design, without the baggage & headaches of Office UI Fabric or Fluent UI.- Published on
Blog: State of SharePoint Client Side Development | December 2020
As we near the end of 2020, I wanted to take a look at where we are with respect to the State of SharePoint Client-Side Development. In this post, I’ll give you an update on where we are with popular frameworks and tools developers use in the client-side SharePoint development world.- Published on
Blog: Join me at the Microsoft 365 Collaboration Conference - learn the SharePoint Framework in my half-day workshop
Join me for a half-day virtual workshop at the Microsoft 365 Collaboration Conference to get up to speed on the SharePoint Framework.- Published on
Blog: Get Microsoft 365 Developer Certified - FREE webinar series!
On Wednesday, April 22, I presented the webinar Get Certified! Overview of the MS-600 exam & Microsoft 365 Developer Associate Certification with Rencore & Waldek Mastykarz. Rencore has posted the recording of the webinar as well as a link to the slides if you weren’t able to join us live or you want to re-watch it. Click here to access the recording . In that webinar I hinted there was more coming - I’m excited to share with you a new webinar series I hosted in May 2020, and all the recordings are available now!- Published on
Blog: SharePoint 2016, 2019 & SharePoint Online: Which Version of the SharePoint Framework Should You Install?
Customers can leverage the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) in any of the modern or recent SharePoint versions. This includes SharePoint Online & SharePoint on-premises versions SharePoint Server 2016 & SharePoint Server 2019. To build a SPFx project, you use the Yeoman generator for the SharePoint Framework to create your project and get started. But there seems to be some confusion on which version you should install depending on your target SharePoint environment. Let’s clear this up, once and for all.
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Blog: Stop Using Internet Explorer 11
It’s long past time we as an industry stop using Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) and get more aggressive in dropping support for it.- Published on
Blog: Jest Preset Update October 2019
Late last year I published a few Jest presets to simplify adding automated testing to your SharePoint Framework (SPFx) projects. These are complete with example tests including testing the rendering of components, testing async functions using promises or callbacks and even simulating user events. You can learn more about the presets in the original post, Enable Jest testing of SharePoint Framework Projects in One Simple Step . In this post, I want to share some updates to the presets that have been published.
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Blog: Dealing with Undefined 'this' in React Event Handlers in a Performant Way
When I’m teaching React to developers, one thing that comes up often is dealing with a common error. But here’s the interesting thing: it’s not running into the error that comes up all the time, its how to deal with it that surprises them. I’ve always wanted to have something to point to that the scenario & why one option is better than others, even though there are plenty of ways to address the issue. That’s what this post is!
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Blog: Automate Building, Testing and Deploying SharePoint Framework Projects with Azure Pipelines in Four Steps
In just four simple steps, this post will show you how to automate the build, test & deployment to SharePoint Online of any SharePoint Framework project using Azure Pipelines. I guarantee you can have it done before your coffee is ready! Seriously… go get the pot going and come back to this post. DevOps is all the rage these days. Developers throw it in resumes left and right & the recruiters are always searching for someone who can check that box.- Published on
Blog: The Good, Bad & the Ugly: Using Angular Elements with the SharePoint Framework
In this series, I showed you how to build custom elements, a native web technology supported natively by most browsers (except you Edge & IE…) and presented two options for how you can go about it. One option involves using one big project with the SharePoint Framework & Angular in it while the other utilizes two projects to mitigate the downsides of the one-project approach. So, you can now use Angular in SharePoint Framework projects and this is made possible by Angular Elements which was introduced in Angular v6 back in May 2017. Sweet! We’ve got the “can you do it” question answered! But, should you do it? There are always tradeoffs when picking a web framework for your next project and using one with the SharePoint Framework is no different. Let’s take a step back and look at the whole picture. Only then can you decide if it makes sense for you.- Published on
Blog: Using Angular Elements in SharePoint Framework Projects
This has been a long time coming and many of you Angular developers who also work with the SharePoint Framework may have given up by now and switched to React, but for those of you who have been holding out, Angular is finally a viable option for SPFx development even with a few drawbacks.- Published on
Blog: SharePoint Framework v1.8.2 (and v1.8.1) - What's in the latest Update(s) of SPFx?
Earlier this week, on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, Microsoft released v1.8.2 of the SharePoint Framework (SPFx). A little over a month ago, I wrote about the v1.8.0 release . Since then we had another minor release (v1.8.1.md) released on April 16, 2019. In this post, I’ll summarize what you can find, and share some additional details I found after spending some time picking apart the last two minor releases. A new SharePoint Framework Yeoman generator has been published by OfficeDev: 1.- Published on
Blog: Mastering the SharePoint Framework - Sprint 16 adds SPFx with Teams, SPA's and Tons of Updates
I’m excited to share this latest update to my course, Mastering the SharePoint Framework for developers. This update, packaged as sprint 16, includes one new chapter and a LOT of updates. When I originally planned out sprint 16, I intended to record a lot of new content. However when the SPFx v1.8.0 release came out there were enough changes to SPFx that I decided to go back and update the course, including adding some new lessons, completely re-recording existing lessons and updating quite a few lessons (both video & notes).- Published on
Blog: SharePoint Framework v1.8.0 - What's in this SPFx drop?
On Thursday, March 14, 2019, Microsoft released v1.8.0 of the SharePoint Framework (SPFx). This release is packed with many features that were previously in developer preview to the Generally Available (GA) milestone. However, there are some subtle updates that developers have been asking for. In this post, I’ll summarize some of what you can find, but also share some details I found after spending some time with the v1.8.0 release, kicking the tires and finding a few resolutions to issues.- Published on
Blog: Leverage Custom Permissions in Azure AD Applications
In my last post, Securing an Azure Function App with Azure AD - Works with SharePoint Framework!, I showed how you can secure a REST API deployed as an Azure Function App using Azure Active Directory (AzureAD). This comes in quite handy when you want to secure some custom server-side business logic that’’s called from a SharePoint Framework (SPFx) client-side solution. The SPFx docs show how to use APIs with permissions to the Microsoft Graph. This post will explain how to add custom permissions to the AzureAD application that is used to secure your Azure Function.- Published on
Blog: Securing an Azure Function App with Azure AD - Works with SharePoint Framework!
I recently published a new chapter in my Mastering the SharePoint Framework on-demand course for developers that included a section that showed how to call a REST API deployed using an Azure Function App and secured with Azure AD from the SharePoint Framework. When I was working on this chapter, it felt like the process of configuring an Azure Function App to be secured with Azure AD was harder and more complex than it should have been. Specifically, some of the things you do aren’t explained as well… so I decided to blog about it here!- Published on
Blog: Consider Avoiding Declarative Permissions with Azure AD Services in SharePoint Framework Projects
I recommend people avoid this option for granting their SPO tenant permissions to endpoints and services secured with Azure AD.- Published on
Blog: Mastering the SharePoint Framework Sprint 13 Published with over 3hrs of Microsoft Graph & Azure AD Lessons!
I’m excited to share this latest update to my course, Mastering the SharePoint Framework for developers. Today’s update, packaged as sprint 13, includes two new chapters and a few updates… and it’s a huge release… the biggest yet adding over 3 hours of new content! Sprint 13 also marks a milestone: the Fundamentals Bundle of the course is now content complete! This means all planned chapters are now published. I will continue to make edits to existing chapters updating content when circumstances warrant, but at this time no new chapters or lessons are planned.- Published on
Blog: Enable Jest testing of SharePoint Framework projects in one simple step
Setting up projects to use Jest, especially to test the rendering of your ReactJS SharePoint Framework projects & use the popular tool Enzyme for testing rendering, isn’t a trivial task, until now!- Published on
Blog: Testing SPFx Projects Efficiently with Minimal Distractions: Wallaby.js
You know what I don’t like about automated tests? Most of the time, we don’t automate them, we just instrument them. We write our tests and then open a console window to run them periodically. Maybe we set up a watcher to automatically rerun them when either a test or the code file changes, and maybe we use an integrated console window in our editor to monitor when things change.- Published on
Blog: Package Manager Inconsistencies with React & tslint + Workarounds after Updating to SPFx 1.7
The latest version of the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) released a few weeks ago, v1.7.0, uncovered a few issues between how the various Node.js package managers work. These issues appear to be rooted in the package tslint and came about with a change in how Microsoft was using tslint under the covers from SPFx v1.6 to v1.7. A fix has been submitted to tslint, but they appear to be lagging on their release schedule so there’s no ETA on when it will get rolled out.- Published on
Blog: SharePoint Framework v1.7.0 - What''s in the latest update of SPFx?
On November 8, 2018 (last Thursday), Microsoft released v1.7.0 of the SharePoint Framework (SPFx). This release is filled with a lot of new things Microsoft has been talking about for a few months. In this post, I’ll summarize some of what you can find, but also share some disappointments I had after spending some time picking apart v1.7.0. A new @SharePoint Framework Yeoman generator has been published by @OfficeDev: 1.7.0 #SPFx @Office365 !- Published on
Blog: Don't be alarmed by vulnerabilities after running NPM Install
I’ve seen more and more questions since the folks at NPM added an automatic scan for vulnerabilities after every NPM install. What’s going on? The NPM registry runs a security audit on NPM packages. With the release of NPM v6, this command is run automatically when you execute an npm install on your project. You can manually run one of these audits by executing the command npm audit (ref: npm-audit docs ).- Published on
Blog: Mastering the SharePoint Framework - Course Update September 2018 (Sprint-11 complete)
This month’s update on my Mastering the SharePoint Framework course features the transition from one sprint to the next. Sprint 11 Complete Earlier this week, I published the final pieces of Sprint 11. Two new chapters, the first chapters in the Ultimate Bundle! I also hosted the first Facebook Live sprint release party this week… if you missed it, you can get access to the recording here: Voitanos @ Facebook Live Automated Testing of SharePoint Framework Solutions This chapter starts with an overview of automated testing for client-side projects.- Published on
Blog: HowTo: Angular Elements in SharePoint Framework Projects - Two Projects
In my last post, I talked about using Angular Elements in SharePoint Framework projects. That post showed how to do this using a single SharePoint Framework Project. In this post, I show you a much better option that uses two projects.- Published on
Blog: HowTo: Angular Elements in SharePoint Framework Projects - One Big Project
In my last post, I talked about using Angular Elements in SharePoint Framework projects. When doing this, you have two options on how you will implement this and in this post, I will talk about doing it in one big project that includes everything. In tomorrow’s post, I’ll show you a much better option that uses two projects.