2022 has seen Microsoft SharePoint take giant strides in the right direction. From the on-premise variant of the early 2000s, the platform has expanded to cloud based solutions along with Office 365 and Microsoft 365. Companies in dire need of tailored solutions and collaborations specified for their business needs turn to consultants and professionals like Orion eSolutions.
It is a known fact that developers have to put in some extra effort. Creation of a corporate intranet or a learning hub, or even a document management system demands this extra input. There are numerous challenges associated with this global ecosystem and there are certain trends that have popped up in order to address these challenges. We will be covering 3 of these trends in this piece. But first, let us understand the extent of platform’s capacity through some statistics.
- According to Datanyze, SharePoint currently powers 21,477 websites.
- The ecosystem has a market share of 34%.
- It has been rated #2 in team collaboration software.
- Statista estimates that 86% of all activities are now carried out on the cloud.
With that stats in mind, let us understand the trends that are defining SharePoint development in 2022
SharePoint Development Trends To Follow
-
The End of Farm Solutions
Certain companies that engage in both cloud-based and on-site SharePoint alternatives tend to use similar toolkits and strategies for both. This is counterproductive. The deployment logic is significantly distinguishable in both the cases. Hence farm solutions for both will not work.
This technique was employable earlier when there were 2 types of solution mainly being focused upon: farm solutions and sandboxed solutions. The former affected the entire farm while the latter worked more on a site collection level. In 2022 however, the go to approach is add-ins. Experts can easily create almost each and every custom component through this approach.
-
SPFx and PnP
SPFx or SharePoint Framework was launched by Microsoft to support transition. Organizations could leverage this while shifting from server-based approach to more modern development practices. This approach acts as a fresh alternative to the traditional .NET variant. In 2022, the hype is all about TypeScript. And since SPFx is compatible with the 2016 and 2019 versions of the platform, cloud trends can be indulged in by server-side development as well.
Patterns and Practices or PnP is yet another productive stride. The huge global PnP community keeps optimizing the approach. It encompasses a holistic vision of revamped SharePoint development and is being experimented with by many professional development teams such as Orion eSolutions.
-
Increased Testing
Being a ready-made product from Microsoft, it never projected the need for exhaustive testing. Organizations did not give as much importance to this as they did for custom software testing. 15% of all SharePoint enabled businesses globally have never prioritized testing. And from this collective lack of diligence, three issues emerged: bad performance, inconsistent integrations, and disparity in governance.
The performance issue popped up due to lack of constant testing in spite of persistent and continuous customizations being made to the platform. And each module of customization tended to come from a different developer or team, leading to inconsistencies. Customizations and revamping that happened across components like workflows, sites, and libraries need to be promptly and frequently tested.
Integration issues is a by product of security loopholes left unattended due to a lack of testing. It cannot be categorized as an isolated solution. Various enterprise level solutions are often connected through it, rendering the platform as a hub. Hence untested customizations may be a concern for integrations and third-party solutions as well. This could ease the occurrence of security breaches by letting malicious players into the system.
That brings us to the end of this piece. Let us conclude by taking a peek at what the future holds for Microsoft SharePoint.
Conclusion
Sandboxed and farm solutions are on the verge of elimination. Beyond 2022, these solution categories will not play a big hand in development. SharePoint framework and modern front-end development tools along with enhancement of CSOM and REST API will take center stage. At an API level, the platform will be seeing an increased amount of testing. Continuous integration and deployment will stem from this practice, shielding businesses from security threats and other misalignments that had been left unaddressed so far. Chances are cloud solutions will be the only entity left, and the server-centric versions of the platform will soon be shifted.
If you need a partner to venture confidently into this space, keeping all the trends and recommendations for 2022 intact, contact Orion eSolutions. Visit us at Orion eSolutions to address all your SharePoint related development needs.
