Announcing a major update to SPCAF
We are very pleased to announce the next major step in providing the best tooling to help SharePoint and Office 365 developers, architects and administrators with Code Quality, Code Governance and Code Migration of their customizations.
If you can’t wait, then just read the quick rundown in the release notes andeverybody else just read on and learn what is new!
Improved Client UI
We know that our users love the UI of our desktop application. But we hope that you like our improvements even more.
- A new start screen, showing now all relevant information in an overview
- Easier configuration of an analysis on a single screen
- More details in the analysis reports on a smaller screen size
- Better navigation between the screens with a new back button
- Improved reports layout to make it easier to review the results
But see for yourself:
New comparison of analysis results
We all want to improve and get better no matter what we do. Seeing whether you’ve actually improved however can be difficult to gauge. What do you measure it against? Knowledge? Experience? Feedback? Well, our major new update will answer that question and allow you to see just how much better you’ve become! By providing a comprehensive analysis of your results, past and present, you can see a detailed comparison over time.
Has the quality of your code improved, are you using more new artifacts than before, are there more solved issues than new issues, what are the ratios between those old and new issues. Our new comparison feature will provide you with both an overview and application specific view.
For example, as a consultant you may be working with many different apps – such as an Intranet, bespoke business app or Extranet. It will group together these different applications and provide an overview of all. You can then drill down into a specific application, using our new Quality Dashboard, and see peaks in performance, any dips, what’s changed and understand why there was a high or low point.
How are these results displayed?
When running the client application a new window will appear on the start screen. From there you simply go into it and generate or view your results. Much like Facebook, the comparison analysis will show your results in a really clear timeline. When you open a selected analysis report the Quality Dashboard will display your results.
They’ll be some great charts with key metrics showing the number of features, web parts etc which will visualize the changes in code over time.
Use straight away
There’s no installation, no server configurations, no database and no customizations of existing analysis results required. This new feature will be available right away. SPCAF Professional will scan your old folders, meaning you can compare your analysis results immediately and see if the quality is changing.
Client Side Object Model (CSOM) support
As we’ve said this is a major update to our SPCAF tool and we’ve been working on it for over a year. It’s really important to us that we continue to bring transparency to the SharePoint development process. So we’ve developed an entire new analysis engine that enables us to analyze the far more complex code quality challenges that occur with the SharePoint Client Side Object Model (CSOM) used in SharePoint on-prem and online. This new engine will also enable us to expand to JSOM, REST and PowerShell script analysis in upcoming releases.
Some of these new rules are:
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- UpdateAfterModfyingWebObject
We often see examples in real projects where people are debugging frequently, only to then realize they forgot to call the Web.Update() (or list Update() etc) before ExecuteQuery(). This new rule means you need to call the Web.Update in order to persist the changes to the object. - CheckHasWebPermissionsBeforeUpdate
Check permissions of the user before changing or deleting objects to save unneeded server calls. - AvoidBeingThrottledInCSOM
Limit the number of user actions or concurrent calls (by script or code) to prevent overuse of resources.
- UpdateAfterModfyingWebObject
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You can view the full set of new rules here
By providing these new rules we’ve broadened our support in the Add-in and in general client side development which will help to ensure your code is the best it can be.
Now supports Visual Studio 2015 and
Team Foundation Server 2015
Since the beta of SPCAF v6 we have already added support for Visual Studio 2015. Now with this final release we also add support for the new Team Foundation Server 2015 and Visual Studio Online build task.
To integrate SPCAF into the build process the following steps needs to be performed:
- Upload the SPCAF Build Task for TFS 2015 to TFS Server or VSO with our special task uploader
- Add a SPCAF build step to your build definition
- Configure the build step and run it
Compared to the old XML TFS build process templates (that are still supported for all versions) this is such an improvement, that creating builds is now more fun than ever 🙂
Also good to know, there is no installation of SPCAF on the TFS build servers necessary. This means that you can implement a continuous integration code quality gate without requiring server access from the administrators!
You can find the complete how to in our documentation.
The SPCAF Benchmark Program
Imagine being rewarded for simply submitting your code analysis results? Well, that’s exactly what we’ll be giving you the chance to do.
Our Benchmark Program will let users gain an insight into their analysis results, compare them with others within their industry and produce a customized report with tailored results. The process requires three simple steps:
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- Run your analysis
- Produce a report
- Share your results (anonymously)
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The results will show you how you compare with your peers, what you’ve done well, where your errors are and highlight the industry standards. All submitted results are 100% anonymized and anonymous, we do not ask for any personal details. You results will be linked to a unique identification number.
Members of the SPCAF Benchmark Program will receive a number of rewards. From earning points towards one free SPCAF Developer License to a SharePoint customization report.
Improved performance, less memory consumption, better results
If all of the above was not enough already, we have also improved the analysis speed significantly while reducing the memory footprint during the analysis, cut the size of the HTML reports by half to speed up rendering and fixed and improved many small bits and rules based on the awesome feedback we get from our customers.
So what are you waiting for?
Free SPCAF online training
Feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the awesome cool stuff SPCAF can do to help you to improve your SharePoint and Office 365 customizations and secure your environments?
You are not alone!
We are pleased to offer you a free SPCAF online training prepared by our 8year SharePoint MVP Tobias Zimmergren.
