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How to run SharePoint Framework Pattern and Practices Samples through Docker

I planned to write a blog post how to run the SharePoint Framework Workbench in a Docker container on Azure. After I found out this is currently not possible I switched the scope of my trial. Instead, I tried to create Docker container dynamically for projects based on SPFx.


There are two key takeaways explained in this post. You will learn how to build your Docker file specific for your upcoming projects, and you get to know how you can demo and try out all SPFx Pattern and Practices samples regardless the version currently needed by those projects.

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First new SharePoint Framework web parts arrived on Office 365

While I was looking at the new SharePoint site content page I asked myself if more can be found that gives an indication of the upcoming framework and future improvements.
First, I took a look at the source code. Not a big surprise the page was built again using Facebooks ‘React‘ for the user interface and ‘Knockout‘ was used for data binding.
After that I came up with the idea to take a closer look at the web part gallery to see if might some web parts have been deployed to. To my big surprise I found overall five new web parts.

Web Parts of the new SharePoint Framework Extension

Web Parts of the new SharePoint Framework Extension

While some web parts are used to provide tips and trick or how to get started. Two other web parts are more interesting.
The ‘Embed Video Web Part’ and the ‘Embed picture library web part’. I populated them to the gallery and added them to a page in SharePoint. Currently they are deployed, but sadly not working yet. There are no web part specific properties to be configure now and I guess they current won’t load any additional Script or CSS.

New webparts embedded on page

New webparts embedded on page

Embed video web part makes sense to me because this is currently handled by a script embedding web part. A web part that is not responsive without customization.
The embed picture library web part is more interesting because the description states that you can use this to create a fancy new slide show.
In addition to those upcoming web parts it is likely that the new namespace of the additional framework will be ‘Microsoft.SharePoint.SPX‘.

Finally

It is great to see at least a glimpse of the upcoming changes and how the new user interface will be built. Waiting until autumn is still such a long way to go. Especially if you use the same mechanism to customize SharePoint for at least two years now.
Let’s hope it will be released sooner than later. I guess many people love to get their hands on it and provide feedback. Even if it is not rock solid yet.
If you are not so familiar with things like Yeoman, Angular, ReactJS, Handlebars or Knockout, please check out some really great web casts done by the Office PNP team.

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A bash on Windows and the new SharePoint Framework

a-bash-on-windows

You might have heard the Unix Bash Shell is now coming to Windows. To be more specific a whole Linux sub system based on the Ubuntu distribution comes to Windows. This addition to Windows was announce at this years Build Conference and I knew exactly how this would match to my clients and other people in the SharePoint Community. Especially with the new SharePoint Framework you should know this option because it makes many things easier using NodeJS on Windows.

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Web Components: A look into the future of web development and maybe SharePoint

Let’s take a look in the future of web development and the upcoming new web standard called web components. In the future everybody can introduce, enhance the document object model through custom elements or change the behavior of existing HTML elements.
Let me give you a brief overview what the actual ingredients of web components are and how this will improve how you write your code in the future. You will also find some wild guesses on the new SharePoint Framework.
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