State of SharePoint Client Side Development | February 2021

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.

By Last Updated: December 23, 2024 2 minutes read

Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash

Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash

It’s been a quiet month in the land of client-side updates. Most developers are waiting for the upcoming SharePoint Framework v1.12 release that’s been promised in Q1… so that should come any day now!

Let’s kick off the second update for 2021 by taking a look at 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 February 11, 2021. You can watch the recording of that meeting below:

SharePoint Framework

The current published version of the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) is v1.11, released in July 2020. The next version, v1.12, is slated to be released by the end of March 2021.

In my last update, I covered a bunch of things we were expecting to see in the upcoming release. We’ll have to see what shows up once it ships! Refer to that post if you want to see what we’re expecting.

PnPJS (v2.2.0)

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, v2.2.0 (out on February 12, 2021), consisted a few bug fixes. Since my last update, they also released v2.1.1 (February 1, 2021).

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 my last update.

PnP React Controls (v2.4.0)

This is a community-based suite of reusable controls that you can use in your SPFx React-based solutions. No releases or updates since v1.4 on January 12, 2021 which was covered in my last update.

PnP Property Controls (v2.3.0)

Like it’s sibling project above, these reusable controls can be used in SPFx web part property panes. No releases or updates since v1.3.0 on January 11, 2021 which was covered in my last update.

PnP Modern Search (v4)

This project is a collection of multiple web parts that enable users to implement customizable search-based solutions. No releases or updates since v4.0.0 on January 18, 2021 which was covered in my last update.

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