News

SharePoint Framework Extensions Hit Preview

Microsoft this week released a preview of SharePoint Framework Extensions, enabling developers to make additional customizations to SharePoint Modern Pages and Document Libraries.

Until now, the SharePoint Framework, which Microsoft released back in February, provides only lightweight developer tooling, mostly for client-side WebPart development. The new framework preview lets developers customize SharePoint by adding a banner at the top of the SharePoint Site page that shows notifications for end users, as well as metadata.

Developers also can use the framework preview to add actions and custom fields inside SharePoint Lists. Lastly, the framework preview works with Microsoft Flow to automate business processes or it's possible to tap Microsoft Graph API data (the data that get generated from the use of Office 365 applications). The framework preview also works with other developer tools, such as React, Sass and Gulp, according to a Microsoft video.

The SharePoint Framework currently works with SharePoint Online, but not the server version of SharePoint. However, Microsoft promised during its May SharePoint Virtual Summit event that SharePoint Framework's capabilities would be available for use with SharePoint Server 2016 on-premises, as well. That rollout is planned for later this year when Microsoft will release Feature Pack 2 for SharePoint Server 2016.

It's not clear from Microsoft's video, though, whether or not SharePoint Framework Extensions also will be available for use with SharePoint Server 2016 when Feature Pack 2 gets released.

The SharePoint Framework Extensions preview is just available right now to "developer tenants," according to Microsoft's release notes at GitHub. It won't work on production site collections. Microsoft plans to tweak it some more before "general availability" product release.

Microsoft's release notes advise developer tenants to uninstall the Yeoman generator first, if that's installed, before adding the framework preview. Next, developer tenants should install the latest Yeoman (version 1.1.0).

A free Office 365 Developer Tenant subscription can be obtained to try the preview, according to Microsoft's "Overview of SharePoint Framework Extensions" document. The document also includes a script for updating to the latest Yeoman templates.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

  • Microsoft Appoints Althoff as New CEO for Commercial Business

    Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced the promotion of Judson Althoff to CEO of the company's commercial business, presenting the move as a response to the dramatic industrywide shifts caused by AI.

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.

Most   Popular