SharePoitn Development 2021 - back to school! Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash
As summer 2021 starts to wind down and school starts up again here in the United States, it’s to check in on 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.
Many of the things I’ll cover were recently touched on in the most recent Microsoft PnP SharePoint Framework & Client Side Development Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting, held on August 12, 2021. You can watch the recording of that meeting below:
SharePoint Framework (v1.13.0 beta)
The current published version of the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) is v1.12.1, released back in late April 2021. You can learn more about this release from our blog post SharePoint Framework v1.12.1 - What’s in the latest Update of SPFx?. To get the full details on this release, see SPFx Docs: v1.12.1 Release notes.
The big news related to SPFx since we last updated you in July is the release of the v1.13.0 beta. This release includes support for creating extensions for Viva Connections. You can learn more about this from some tutorials from their documentation site: Overview of Viva Connections Extensibility.
PnPJS (v2.8.0)
This JavaScript library is a popular SDK abstraction layer on top of the SharePoint REST API for server-side & client-side JavaScript based solutions.
In the latest release, v2.8.0 (out August 13, 2021), consisted of a bug fix & added a few features, including:
- Fixed:
- Microsoft Graph: Fixes add in DriveItems
- SharePoint: Removed a call to .clone affecting batches in some cases
- SharePoint: fixes sharing for files, fixes bug in shareObject code path
- SharePoint: ClientSide Pages: Always includes BannerImageUrl in save page payload to avoid null
- Added:
- Microsoft Graph: Adds the $search query param for messages, people and directory objects
- Microsoft Graph: Adds new function to events to get all instances
- Microsoft Graph: Adds addFolder to DriveItems
- SharePopint: Add fields.addImageField, listitem.setImageField, item.getParentInfos returns “ParentList/Title”
PnP SPFx Generator (v1.16.0)
The most current version of the PnP SPFx generator, a replacement for the Microsoft provided Yeoman generator, yo @microsoft/sharepoint. No releases or updates since v1.16 on January 11, 2021 which was covered in the last update.
PnP React Controls (v3.2.1)
This is a community-based suite of reusable controls that you can use in your SPFx React-based solutions.
Nothing new to report on this project since our July update.
PnP Property Controls (v3.2.0)
Like it’s sibling project above, these reusable controls can be used in SPFx web part property panes. And, like it’s sibling, they’ve been quite busy since we last checked in. In addition to adding support for the SharePoint Framework v1.12.1, you’ll find enhancements in the PropertyFieldColumnPicker & PropertyFieldColorPicker controls as well as a bunch of fixes.
Nothing new to report on this project since our July update.
PnP Modern Search (v4.3.0)
This project is a collection of multiple web parts that enable users to implement customizable search-based solutions. In the most recent release, they added Swedish & French language support, and fixed numerous things that you can see from the v4.2.3 release notes.
Microsoft MVP, Full-Stack Developer & Chief Course Artisan - Voitanos LLC.
Andrew Connell is a full stack developer who focuses on Microsoft Azure & Microsoft 365. He’s a 20+ year recipient of Microsoft’s MVP award and has helped thousands of developers through the various courses he’s authored & taught. Whether it’s an introduction to the entire ecosystem, or a deep dive into a specific software, his resources, tools, and support help web developers become experts in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, so they can become irreplaceable in their organization.
