SharePoint Extensibility is Growing Up with the SharePoint Framework

SharePoint has a large user ecosystem that is supported by 200,000 organizations and also more than 1 million developers. To help these groups get the most out of the platform, Microsoft has announced the SharePoint Framework.

This framework is an evolutionary step for extensibility for SharePoint, and it brings new client-side rendering by leveraging open source JavaScript technologies; developers can use JavaScript and web templating frameworks across cloud and on-premises SharePoint. Because the framework utilizes the tools and open source initiatives that developers rely on to build their applications, this naturally extends the scope of solutions that will be built for cloud and on-premises.

The extensibility framework will be rolled-out in stages and will come to Office 365 customers in the First Release group starting this summer and will be made available to existing SharePoint sites at a later date.

The following features will be coming this summer:

• The Files API on Microsoft Graph
• SharePoint Webhooks (preview)
• Client-side web parts for existing pages (preview)

And later this year Microsoft will deliver:

• The Sites API on Microsoft Graph
• SharePoint Webhooks (GA)
• Custom sites on the SharePoint Framework

The company hopes that by providing developers additional tools with the new framework that they can continue to extend the reach of SharePoint and further cement its role as the central hub of all collaboration inside of a company. When you pair this information to the road map that Microsoft released today as well, it’s going to be a busy time for SharePoint teams.