Article
15. October 2018
0 comment
by Stefan Bauer

PnP/SPFx Version 1.3.0 released – Check your project version on the fly

Right before the launch of the first version of PnP/SPFx I had a longer chat with a friend of mine Thomas Goelles, and he pointed out that it is great to be able to re-run the generator to add more web parts using a specific version of a framework. There was one fact that we haven’t thought about or maybe overlooked. What happens when the current project setup does not support the required version yet?

Evergreen SPFx project - Version 1.3.0 relased

The previous version had merely a blocking mechanism implemented that checked if the current project was created using version 1.6.

[Read more]

Article
3. October 2018
0 comment
by Stefan Bauer

How to copy files from src to lib folder in SPFx?

Sometimes there is the requirement to move files from your source code directory to the lib folder. These files can be images, JSON files or any imaginable asset that is not recognised by the build chain of SPFx.

There are two ways to achieve this one. One used gulp the other gets accomplished through the configuration of a copy-static-assets.json. Let me explain these to methods what scenarios suites best in which case.

[Read more]

Article
1. October 2018
0 comment
by Stefan Bauer

New extension to SPFx for VueJS: PnP/SPFx generator v1.2.0

I firmly believe that the Yeoman generator provided by Microsoft is a great tool. It serves all the capabilities to create new web parts, extensions and customisations in the future. With the current support of ReactJS, Knockout and bare-bone HTML version, you have three great possibilities.

This PnP/SPFx generator project goes beyond these possibilities and supports enhanced functionalities. A way to add additional capabilities in the future not even for new frameworks and libraries on the market. It also helps organisations to defined their development standards.

[Read more]

Article
17. September 2018
0 comment
by Stefan Bauer

The Community SPFx generator – The ideas, the patterns and possibilities

I am pretty excited that finally the first version of the open source community driven SPFx generator has been released last Thursday and publicly announced and is part of the SharePoint / Office 365 Pattern and Practices Personally, for me, it was a great journey to bring this to life in collaboration with Microsoft engineering.

It was a longer journey than expected but there were some considerations and decisions to make to have a solid fundament for future improvements and to allow fast and easy integrations.

[Read more]

Article
23. May 2018
0 comment
by Stefan Bauer

A smart stupid web part consumes a third party API through Azure Functions – Part 3

The second blog post in this series was pretty long. This time I keep it way shorter. This time I focus more on the user experience and the ideas behind the final web part that consumes the third party API. Like I promised the web part code itself contains only a single REST query against my Azure Function and that’s it.

Let’s first take at the typical behaviour of the first party video web part available on Office 365.

[Read more]

Article
16. May 2018
0 comment
by Stefan Bauer

An Azure Function for an smart stupid web part – Part 2

In my first blog post of this series, I discussed how many intelligence you need in your web part when it comes to third-party API. Sometimes it makes more sense to remove the business logic out of the web part and use web parts just as the presentation layer. In the previous post, I also mentioned that might Azure Functions can be beneficial.

Text written on white background saying Azure Function for an Smart Stupid Web Part

The Azure Portal is capable of implementing any Azure Function directly on their user interface, but there is also another option. It is possible to write Azure Functions nowadays locally and deploy them later to the cloud. This approach is in most cases more convenient, less error-prone and more comfortable to debug directly from Visual Studio Code for example.

[Read more]

Article
15. May 2018
0 comment
by Stefan Bauer

Smart stupid web parts with SharePoint Framework – Part 1

When you write a new web part with the SharePoint Framework you might create a genius web part, where all the business logic is compiled into your web part. This approach makes sense when the web part is an isolated piece of work.

Image with text saying Smart stupid web parts with SharePoint Framework

Sometimes you like to write pretty simple web parts that only access a backend or third-party API from somewhere on the Interweb. In this case, you can write all the data access inside your web part. Give the user the option to store APP Key, APP Secret and particular access token directly in the web part. Might pre-populate some of those properties of with your company-wide secrets and API keys too.

[Read more]