Extending SharePoint is not trivial. Customizations offer big business benefits but when done incorrectly they can cause harm. SPCAF helps organizations ensure that all customizations in use will deliver on their promise of added value.
Consequently, we are happy to announce that SPCAF version 7.5 is now available! Beyond improving existing analysis we added support for new technologies. We are confident that it will help you get more value out of your customization investments.
The Patterns and Practices (PnP) community have been significant in the role of helping people apply best practices when working with SharePoint. Building SharePoint customizations is not trivial, and by using the SharePoint Patterns and Practices Core component, you will not only save time, but also ensure that whatever you build is done in a future-proof way. SharePoint PnP is used by thousands of developers all over the world. Many SharePoint subject matter experts contribute to the PnP initiative, translating their experience into components that you can use in your solutions.
The SharePoint Patterns and Practices Core component is an invaluable building block of every SharePoint customization. Still, our research shows that many organizations don’t use it. To help you get started we are proud to ship a first set of rules that suggest how you could improve your solutions with SharePoint PnP. If we detect any code that could be simplified, we will let you know about it and show you how to do it.
For years, SPCAF was exclusive to SharePoint-specific customizations. At the same time, client-side development has been evolving and organizations started using more and more JavaScript for building business-critical applications. Our research showed that many large organizations use AngularJS for their applications.
After reviewing a number of developers working with AngularJS we realized that we could help them get more out of their AngularJS applications using SPCAF.
We are thrilled to offer you the first release of AngularJS analysis and there are many recommendations for building AngularJS applications in the community. In this release, we decided to focus on the most important settings in AngularJS that will help you get the most benefits out of your applications both short- and long-term.
Last year Microsoft released the SharePoint Framework – a new model for extending SharePoint. It was initially available exclusively in SharePoint Online. However, recently the SharePoint Framework became available to organizations using SharePoint 2016 on-premises. While the model is still relatively new and many organizations are yet to start using it in their projects, it proves Microsoft’s commitment towards client-side development.
When building JavaScript solutions developers use existing libraries. These libraries help them build a richer solution faster and focus on the added value for the organization instead of reinventing the wheel. There are literally hundreds of libraries available on the market and new ones appear every day. Deciding on which libraries you want to use in your organization will help you decrease the support complexity and lower the maintenance cost.
JavaScript libraries change frequently and sometimes it’s as often as every other week. Each version contains important bug and security fixes, and it’s crucial that you keep the libraries you use in your solutions up-to-date. Unfortunately, our research shows the contrary. Many organizations build a solution once and as long as it works they never consider to update it. This, however, exposes them to severe risk.
To help you mitigate these risks, we released a set of rules in this version of SPCAF that will notify you of any outdated references to JavaScript libraries in your customizations.
Building SharePoint customizations is not trivial. There are many intricacies you have to be aware of to avoid risks. SPCAF helps you mitigate these risks by continuously analyzing your customizations. Start using SPCAF in your organization today and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Furthermore, if you’re considering the possibility of moving to the cloud, but worry about existing customization investments built for SharePoint on-premises, we would encourage you to run a pre-assessment using our second one-of-a-kind product SPTransformator. SPTransformator will easily show you the effort required to benefit from the cloud-ready development models and help you to automatically transform your full-trust code to CSOM, JSOM, REST, PowerShell, Patterns & Practices and of course the new SharePoint Framework.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below and contact us.
