Microsoft 365 Community PnP Webcasts, 29 May 2017

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From YouTube: PnP Webcast - Common (mis)conceptions about SharePoint Framework

Description

PnP Webcast around 3 most common misconceptions around the SharePoint Framework. Common questions and statements which are often said around the SPFx and what they actually mean. More details on the covered topics and content from http://dev.office.com/blogs

A

Welcome everybody: this is SharePoint Patterson practices webcast and this time we're going to talk about the common misconceptions in quotes, so to say about the SharePoint framework, so kind of a let's say, community statements which we're seeing a floating around around the SharePoint framework development, which one one of the cover in the webcast. My name is Sarah when a Senior Program Manager from SharePoint engineering and Whitney at the secondary presenter during also a live demo today is well deck master cards, while they quickly do quick in church as well. Yes,.

B

Hi everybody, my name is Ollie Massa gosh I am officer, government mev, I work, a rancor and today we'll talk about common misconceptions about SharePoint framework in.

A

Dates indeed, so we have three slides where we wanted to kind of cover the most common statements, what we're seeing all around the social media and around the SharePoint framework, and let's talk about those so let's actually get on going on the on the slides right away. So the first, let's say the statement which we're seeing quite often is that I cannot use Visual Studio for my development, which is actually false, and so, let's, let's talk about this one slightly, and it is something the business to do service or something like that. Let's say classic.

A

Microsoft developers especially have been using and as part of the SharePoint development in advance, and we do absolutely understand the value of the Visual Studio development experience, because the IDE is familiar for use as well. Now the SharePoint framework concentrates on the industry standards with web stack and what it means is, as we are aligning the SharePoint framework to the models which are being used in other platforms as well, and that's actually a crazy thing.

A

We understand that this there's a small learning curve for people who are moving into this section or this sign, but after you've done that you actually are not just the SharePoint developer, you can do other stuff as well. You can do development on the other platforms as well. Technically a you can choose what tools you'd like to use. So it's up to you and to choose, which is what is your development environment? It could be this to their code.

A

Technically, it can be visitors today as well and we'll come back on that one slightly more in a second as well, and and also you can use additional third-party extensions which are available for web stack and really. One of the key points here is that the SharePoint development is also now cross-platform, so you can do SharePoint development on a Mac on a Linux on a with Windows.

A

You are not limited on on a certain platform or certain technologies and as part of Visual Studio development explicitly we have released the visual studio extension for SharePoint framework as an open-source community run initiative.

A

This is something what Eric chops and Paul Schieffelin has started doing, but we're looking in extending this group of people working on this extension as well, and that kind of heights, the let's say the in quotes the complexity around the SharePoint framework, templating models, so the yeoman templates and call options and all that so with our studio that Visual Studio extension for SharePoint framework, it's providing you a UI v swords for creating project solutions and and by adding a recording or an extension in to your solution and technically it's still using that web stack standards and and the open-source tooling, but it's kind of being hidden in the sense from the Visual Studio IDE.

A

B

I think that I would say that it does not high complexity, but it brings back the familiarity of the UI that you've used until now for years. Yes, that's.

A

Right, that's true, that's true! Well and I'm! Technically, yes, there's some additional complexity. If you come from a phone solution, development sign I wouldn't still consider this as a massive kind of a oh, my god. This complexity is killing me. Well, not really! It's not that complex and it's relatively straightforward, if you are willing to I, would goes up to the level of saying if you're willing to accept the change- and this is where we're heading with SharePoint development.

A

We would strongly encourage people to look into the SharePoint framework because it provides flexibility for your development in the future as well.

B

um And also the fact that, in order to build web parts, you don't need to know everything about everything you don't need to know the basics. You need to know sharepoint the API, that's it you don't need to know everything about gulp and web pack and typescript the same way. You don't know everything you might not know not know everything about MS build that you've used for years, or that has been there around for years, but that you might have never touched this.

B

There was no need to yes right, so so with that, if you think about it, there is only a small part that that you have to learn in in place to be able to start development, but you definitely don't need to jump in deep at first and know everything about every single tool, you're you're, going to use or is being used in the tool chain. Now.

A

Absolutely true, maybe that's that's actually even a failure within our messaging, because we've been always concentrating on there hey. These are the tools. These are the things which you need to learn well, actually know the Delta. Yes exactly. The only thing which is should learn is the typescript development, which is, if you come from a let's say, C sharp background you can easily adapt an and the typescript itself is bringing a lot of lot of benefits for the development as well.

A

Welcome back on that one after a few slides as well, but let's actually move on to another, let's say a common statement around the SharePoint framework development or the SharePoint framework ecosystem. So to say, with this, you need to admin approval for development. What about these citizen developers I want to have just I just want to embed JavaScript on descriptor the web part I'm, putting on my page. What's with that? Why are you making this so difficult? Well, technically, this request is coming from our customers and- and why is it coming from the customers?

A

Is that if I think about the history of sharepoint online people have been be able to just embed JavaScript there and it might be working awhile properly and then the person who actually embedded the JavaScript has already moved on it's in a different company and suddenly the site actually breaks why it's breaking up? Well, it could be a UI chance. What we're pushing it could be.

A

Some other changes, changes which are being pushed on the site and all of that and I teach IT organizations or people who are supporting the sharepoint online within your company have been then complaining around hey. But this is bad. People are actually causing challenges for us and additional costs, because when you air for our support and maintenance, because we don't actually know what's there, people are just embedding crazy stuff on sharepoint online and and when you learned a different side or another side, you never know what's actually waiting there was it customized using sharepoint designer.

A

Was it customers using a script, editor web board on debates or whatever, and having that control in a tenant level is really what has been what people have been asking and what customers have been asking to avoid those additional costs which are related on this random, rogue or randoms widgets, and things which have been embedded on designs now right now, we are in the situation where the administrator well, the administrator first of all, can delegate the permissions for various people to be able to add and in essentially sharepoint framework solutions to the app catalog so that they are available to be used in a tenant in the future.

A

The bullet point number four. Well. These are not technically bullet points forth anyway, and in future there will be even additional flexibility around this one. So we are working on a site, collection level, app catalog. It's now may May 2017, when we're recording the video slightly depends on the timing when you're watching the video is this already alive or not.

A

But the whole point is that the tenant administrator can, in a tenant level, say that it's fine within our tenant within our deployment that people are able to add SharePoint framework solutions within their sites, and then that means that the site collection, app catalog, will be available for site collection administrators to enable which will provide flexibility, and you would still need to encapsulate your script or the customization to a SharePoint framework wit part, but that prince lot of consistency as well and if we think about let's say the script- editor web parts and content in editing web parts.

A

How do you configure those? How do you modify that modification? If you would have to go to the script level and do modifications client-side waypoints are providing you a nice? You is to do that and it is not difficult to actually take an existing widget JavaScript widget and put it in the client-side web part. It does not require, let's say magical skills or pixie dust to make that happen so design anything but I'm missing here. Welbeck.

B

Not well one detail right, because many folks is saying that the additional level of control is really required to protect companies from malicious developers right, but many would say that that group is really small. I mean you, don't often encounter people who are truly malicious and wanna harm you, but there's also a big group of people who either aren't that skilled in in JavaScript and and code, and they don't really know what they do so so that one and that group is bigger right.

B

So these people do not intentionally want to harm you, but they simply do not know exactly what the code does right. So they they just grab a script or a widget from the internet. Add it with the best site to a page in order to help the business and, unfortunately, what they do is they're they're do more harm with that right.

B

So that's one and two there's also the fact that, even though you might know exactly what the script does and you would apply it securely to the page, if the IT does not know about it being there on a page and you move on you, either change team change company you move on then there's if that script would change or break or, if would anything, break in that site or page there's. Nobody who knows about that particular script, er right, because the IIT did not know about the script being there right.

B

So it also helps everybody, do their job more more efficiently and helps the IDE to keep an overview of what's being run where in what state, what is being done? What library is it supportable all that right, so it it's meant to help IT be more efficient about their work.

A

That's also one of the reasons why, by default in the modern sites in the modern experience is there's no script. Editor web pause, there's no content, editor Wet Ones, because that's reducing the problems. What this has been caused in the past as well and that's by by based on the requests from the customers, so the the SharePoint framework does provide more reliable platform, more consistent platform, more control for the tenon administrator health stuff up being done. So that's really key objective of the ship and favor.

B

Right, I think that that important thing there is that the admin still have the ability to say I'm. Okay, with that, if everybody will be able to change a page or update a web part right.

A

Turn up segment in.

B

Theory they have the power to do that yeah. So it's not like it is either closed or or open. It is up to admin to decide whether it's open or not, but it can be if they.

A

Choose to yes, yes, absolutely and then mine, for somebody might be saying on that particular thing that I know, but our IT admins are so difficult over if ik and I can't justify just a random script on my site. If that's the case, then that's probably the company policy and that's precisely what those admins and if the, if the component policy is that you shouldn't be doing that. Well, then, you probably shouldn't be doing that because that's what your company people have designed it.

A

So it's not well it's not because of about anyway, the shape and framework neck. Getting rambled on my head as well, but just I think we can. But we can kind of a conclude that there's this SharePoint framework does provide more control. It does provide more reliability and still if the tenon administrator or your owners of your tenant are deciding that there has to be flexibility, you can still do that. So that's absolutely suppose. Well now, one more statement before we do a quick demo I need to rewrite everything to fly script. Oh my god!

A

Oh, this is hard because I'm just using widgets and JavaScript, which s and its are so easy and blah blah blah. Well, you can actually use existing JavaScript almost as such in the client-side web parts. The the client-side web part can act only as a shell to host your JavaScript customization, which could be a widget or whatever the customization is doing. So you don't explicitly need to learn pipe script. There is benefits for doing that and transforming your existing code to type screen, but you don't have to do that.

A

If you don't want to do that, the benefits would be dense. You have a type checking. You have intelligence, you have a development time, much more. Let's say reliable way of developing your web part that it will work properly in development time already, rather than doing deployment, testing deployment, testing deployment testing and you can absolutely move to typescript incra incrementally as well. So you don't have to flip everything automatically and everything what I have you can gradually do the transition?

A

If you want to do so, and maybe we should do a better job on on samples and guidance around how to do that in the future and when you're doing the typescript development, when you're doing and the development of Visual Studio code or whatever you said chosen an editor, you can control. Also the native level of strictness with the TS lint rolls. So there are ways to actually adjust the behavior of the default, build experience cute.

A

Anything we want to add here, waldek well,.

B

Not really to add, because you covered already everything but I'd like to show you how you could really easily without much effort, move existing angular app written in the vanilla, js2 SPF x. How about about that? Let's.

A

Quickly have a look on this one as a short demo and, let's then close up the web cast all.

B

Right so, let's have a quick look at how you would migrate or what would be the required at a effort to micro, existing angularjs app build in vanilla, JavaScript to an SPSS lab part. So here you see, first of all, the contents of an HTML page and the component that you're looking at the indie angular app is meant to be used as a script, application that you would and bad in script. Editor web part on your page.

B

So all of this code, or actually big part of it, would be just copy paste and include it in the script editor or web part. That would then load up the angular app and which would show to do items from a list right. So here we have simple app with the module controller of the page load, all the items and then service that actually communicates with rest or through rest with the list API and get the items rights and that's all vanilla, JavaScript the same way you would write.

B

You would write it in a past rightness well.

A

In this case, it's angular JavaScript, but anyway, I know it.

B

Is gelatin so there's no types to ml battle, also of a script right? Yes,.

A

Absolutely so now.

B

Let's have a look at how would exactly the same thing? Look like being SharePoint framework client-side web part. So here we have exactly the same project if I open the source here is the web part and all of the app is included here. So I have exactly the same files that I had here.

B

If you compare that there is the config module service controller and it's exactly the same here, config mul service controller and exactly the same code right, there's one difference and that's made actually to benefit of the fact that now we are in web part, and we have you like to control it, so we no longer need to whenever we wanted to change the URL, the list or the name of the list or the number of items that we wanted to show on a screen in the past in the script editor or web part.

B

The only way for us to do that would be to go to the code edit, the code save it and then imagine that a user would do that.

B

It probably would not, because there's a risk that they might by accident, delete some of the code and the whole thing would break I said it: wasn't there wasn't a user-friendly experience for them now with the web part, they have the property pain that they are used to, if assuming they work with webparts in the past that it's the same UI that they used all over the place right and exactly the same place. The same way.

B

They can now set up the angular app through the UI, and that's that's the only thing that we have to change about the app so actually expand it extended to benefit of that additional UI, you layer that we have in webparts. So here the only thing that we change is in the controller. We subscribe to event that we raised in webparts. So in webpart we raise an event whenever somebody would change settings in a web part.

B

We raise an event and we received it an event in the angular app and here in the web and and here in the web part. You can see that that here is the render method, and here we raised that need that event, but other than that you can see here that all of the files that I had in the past are still JavaScript. So I did not change anything of them. I did not include any Taipings. I did not include I, don't I do not need to rewrite any code.

B

This code is exactly the same way. It was I did not change anything about that. Yes, sorry.

A

And very sure the web part is kind of acting like a shell. Just a shell, yes on getting the page, and it will be then supported in the modern pages and modern experiences and also in a class at.

B

A

Absolutely that's.

B

A

Thing which is kind of off the topic, but it's one of the things what we are seeing that people are not actually even that, where you can absolutely use the same with a web part, then in the both modern and classic. So you can still use this code in the classic experiences as well, but it will be configurable by a content. Editors who have permissions directed page, a big thing, yeah.

B

Yes, well I mean that wraps up the demo. But if you wanted to prove you that you can reuse the code that that you've already had- and if you choose to you can you can choose to benefit of the web part UI and stand the code that you've already had with these additional abilities to actually set up your widget or web part or whatever you have through the UI and no longer need to users to go to the code. Change the code inject the code and then reapply it right. Because.

A

B

Play more risky, as you will.

A

And test and set the conover before we close, the demo can go up and show how this well actually it's to require statements.

A

How did you associate the JavaScript files and the client-side web port and that's the only thing what we've been essentially doing here now this case, the angular application is relatively complex if we compare to some of the widgets, what we're being seeing on the SharePoint betas, but the model would be pretty much the same if it's rendered, which have been jquery react or if it's using whatever libraries or it's not using an electret. It's just a native javascript form yeah.

B

Yeah except I mean often what you have is just a template to which you applied the data and then some other place where you load the data from and apply it to template, and that's exactly what it is. That's, basically, the minimal set up that you would have in angular, but if you would use jQuery knockout view and whatnot set up would be basically exactly the same right.

B

You have template or you have elements on a page in which you inject the data, and then you have another place in your code, where you call out the API load, the data and ingest it to the page.

A

Absolutely absolutely cool: okay, let's split back on the slides and close up the webcast Thank You cute. So that's around this webcast. We want it to be a relatively quick to do a few statements going through which we are seeing floating around on the on the social media.

A

This is more on education and covering and having an open discussion on this topics, and we actually more than love to have these kind of discussions in a tech community as an example and to get that information out there and all those who want to address these kind of questions and concerns also within our document at the depth of comes a SharePoint. So please do let us know, and if there are concerns or things what you want to get validated around the SharePoint framework.

A

Anything else what you want to add on the closing statements: paul deck.

B

Again, not I mean you covered already everything. We definitely encourage you to reach out to us if there are any blockers or any things that you are concerned about or anything that you think would prevent you from doing your your work efficiently, reach out to us. Let us know and let's think together about what we can do about it. Absolutely.

A

Let's rather be open, transparent and reach out the source of the information and let's solve those things together, and that feedback is also super valuable for us in shape and engineering so that we can address that either, for example, even by code changes within a SharePoint Online. So please do keep in becoming, but I think that's it for this one Thank You Wanda for joining me and thank you ball deck for the crate demo as well, and we'll come up with a new webcast sooner or later. Thank you.