News
SharePoint Developers Get Scoped Capability for Custom Solutions
Microsoft added the ability for developers to scope their packaged SharePoint solutions across an Office 365 tenancy.
This capability is a new SharePoint Framework option for developers that's now generally available for all Office 365 tenancies, Microsoft announced this week. Turning on this option permits developers to create customized WebParts or extensions and then have them become "immediately available across all site collections in a tenant."
This tenant-scoped SharePoint Framework package deployment option "complements the existing site-collection targeted deployment option," explained Stefan Gossner, a senior escalation engineer for SharePoint products and technologies, in a blog post.
IT pros don't necessarily have to panic about developers spinning up customized WebParts or extensions across SharePoint sites as there are approval controls. Developers have to add a "skipFeatureDeployment" attribute to their packaged files, and that attribute gives administrators the "option to enable the solution to be available automatically cross all site collections and sites in tenant," according to an Office Dev Center description. Administrators see a dialog-box notice with a checkbox. If the box gets checked, it will scope the solution across the Office 356 tenancy.
The feature permits a customized WebPart to show up "immediately" in the WebPart picker user interface, making it available for use. Extensions also show up immediately. This scoping feature works the same for both "classic" and "modern" SharePoint pages.
The packaging and approval process associated with this new SharePoint Framework feature are demonstrated in this Microsoft video.
In other SharePoint news, Microsoft this week announced plans to start delivering a new "site theming" capability this month for Office 365 tenancies. This capability will let site owners change the appearance of sites via "six default themes that can be applied to all pages of the site -- both within team sites and communication sites," explained Mark Kashman, a senior product manager on the SharePoint team, in a Microsoft Tech Community post.
The site theming capability is coming to "first release" Office 356 users, starting on Aug. 21, so it's apparently at the test level. The instructions for making site theming changes vary a bit depending on whether classic or modern SharePoint pages are used, according to this Microsoft support document.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.