The Full Stack Dev's Microsoft 365 Playbook

Recently, one of my newsletter readers, Adrian, posed an interesting question. He asked how to decide between building a SharePoint Framework (SPFx) web part, a full-page web part like a single-page app (SPA), and a tab inside Microsoft Teams. This could be a personal app, a channel app, or a Power App. This is an excellent question to cover in this week’s newsletter! I always start by looking at who the target audience is for the app. Where do they spend their time & what is the vision for...

In this week’s newsletter, I’ll dive into the challenge many SharePoint Framework (SPFx) developers when it comes to code sharing across multiple projects. Duplicating code can lead to maintenance and performance issues, making it crucial to find the right solution. Discover two options for externalizing code and sharing it across projects, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. I provide an in-depth analysis of the unique aspects related to SPFx solutions and explore the challenge...

It’s October and Halloween is just a few weeks away, but why wait to get scared? Are you ready for a spine-chilling tale that will leave you both curious and fearful? I’ve got a story to share about the recent update to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SP SE) in the 23H2 feature update. Brace yourself as I share the scary truths: a downgraded SharePoint Framework (SPFx) version included in this update! 😱 A downgrade??? That's not a good scenario for developers who have already upgraded...

This week's newsletter about the latest SharePoint Framework release is timely. Why? This month marks my 20 year anniversary of being in the SharePoint space. Yup... September 2003 I got put on a project as the lead developer to relaunch our company's intranet. Just think, that path led me to your inbox 20 years later! 🤣 Microsoft released the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) v1.18 on September 12, 2023. This release features one significant change among other updates such as core dependency...

In March of this year, I made a promise to myself to be more deliberate with this newsletter. I wanted it to have a consistent publishing schedule and be a resource, rather than just a way to share news and updates about my course offerings and promotions. So, for the past five months, I have been publishing a new issue of my newsletter with insights and news every other Tuesday like clockwork. This issue marks a milestone for a couple of different reasons. I'm happy with this consistency and...

A few weeks ago, I posted two surveys (on LinkedIn & on Twitter/X), asking Microsoft 365 developers why they don’t implement automated testing in their Microsoft 365 development projects. Survey results on testing Microsoft 365 projects The survey asked developers about their experience and thoughts on incorporating testing in their Microsoft 365 projects, including the SharePoint Framework (SPFx), Microsoft Teams, and building Microsoft 365 apps… and the responses were mostly what I...

Over the past few weeks, I have made several changes and upgrades to a critical project. Thanks to the implementation of automated testing early on, this process has not been as stressful as you might expect. Automated testing allowed me to make changes, quickly identify any issues, and fix them. When I talk about automated testing with friends or at conferences, I find that developers love the promise of it, but many do not implement it for various reasons. It's a lot like exercising 👉 those...

Most React developers use React Hooks to create React apps, as evidenced by documentation, examples, and videos on YouTube. However, this is not the case in the Microsoft 365 development space, where SharePoint Framework (SPFx) developers still primarily use class components. This is likely due to new SPFx projects defaulting to class components, which have been one of the last holdouts. Even new Microsoft Teams projects created with YO Teams in the Visual Studio Teams Toolkit use Hooks....