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Businesses have advanced rapidly from industrial to internet eras due to technological advancements. Every organization is growing more quickly than before, and software development firms, in particular, are creating revolutionary technical solutions at an increasing pace. SharePoint solutions from Microsoft offer tools and services designed to increase productivity and agility within business; custom application developers can take advantage of custom development functionalities available within SharePoint On-premise or Online (Microsoft Office 365) solutions by taking advantage of custom development functionalities while expanding features within applications using custom development features available from these solutions.
SharePoint developers gain access to many development options and new functionality thanks to SharePoint designers and development tools, like site templates, workflows, lists and other features that enable them to craft unique solutions for end users. Companies can meet their objectives more efficiently when developing solutions with SharePoint; multiple people collaborate in its creation; therefore, SharePoint developers must possess expertise across various development techniques for optimal success in this endeavor.
Sharepoint Development Techniques
Our Sharepoint Development Team will offer informative articles about different development techniques and approaches through this blog. So, let's embark upon our quest to master Sharepoint development methodologies. There are four distinct Sharepoint development techniques.
Farm Solution
Microsoft first presented this approach through SharePoint and then, has introduced technological enhancements such as MOSS 2007's Farm Solution customization feature as an example of technological development.
Farm Solutions consists of specially managed code installed onto SharePoint farm servers that utilizes a server-side object model to interact with SharePoint developers. All this code resides within one file called a Solution package, composed of assemblies, XML documents and files with extension.wsp/.cab for quick deployment on different servers containing components related to specific SharePoint features.
Uploading and installing solution packages into their farm's solution store is limited to farm administrators only, while Farm Solutions have features including site collections, web apps and overall farm development scope that may help customize SharePoint administrative features like event receivers, custom Windows PowerShell cmdlets, timer jobs and Central Administration extensions to personalize SharePoint administrative features further.
Though multiple assemblies deployed under one CAS policy can operate with reduced trust, bodies within a farm solution always work authentically, and resource usage remains unlimited.
W3WP.exe IIS worker process hosts farm solution code; when deployed or modified features are deployed or changed on SharePoint Online (Office 365), recycling occurs and occurs automatically via the IIS application pool system recycling system. Unfortunately, this farm solution cannot be distributed via the Office Store installation/distribution method.
Pros
- The farm is the ideal SharePoint on-premise solution for any SharePoint development company looking to access server-side API in SharePoint Server.
- Assembly is installed with trust at farm levels to increase accessibility for complex business requirements. Since only farm administrators can install this solution on their farms, implementation will always maintain security.
- Highly dependent upon the .Net framework, it provides users with more customization options.
Cons
- SharePoint on-premise servers are the only ones that use Farm Solution.
- Application pool recycling begins when a farm solution is deployed.
- During the deployment process, the SharePoint site experiences an outage.
- Any flaw or error in the code will impact the entire SharePoint farm.
Sandbox Solution
Microsoft unveiled sandbox solutions with SharePoint.
Similar to Farm solutions, Sandbox solutions consist of packaged solutions (.wsp files). However, unlike Farm solutions, Sandbox solutions allow for custom installations without intervention from higher-level administrators; such customization cannot occur through Farm solutions.
Sandbox Solutions stores all data within a SharePoint site collection in their solution gallery for safekeeping, while their parts work within certain restrictions due to resource access restrictions and code access security (CAS) policies. Code that interacts with SharePoint client-side object model forms part of a Sandbox solution and is hosted within SharePoint user code solution worker processes like SPUCWorkerProcess.exe.
Sandbox solutions don't rely on the IIS worker process for operation; therefore, when Sharepoint Consultants deploy or deactivate this feature on an application pool system, it doesn't recycle as with an ordinary solution. Furthermore, packaged files for Sandbox solutions only operate within their specific site collection rather than across an entire farm.
SharePoint Development Company can deploy No Code Sandbox solutions per site collection using both on-premises and online versions of SharePoint; only their site collection administrator has permission to do this installation process, and it does not support cross-domain websites.
Pros
- SharePoint Online (Microsoft Office 365) and On-premises utilize sandbox solutions; only no-code sandbox solutions are currently accepted by SharePoint Online.
- Should a mistake or vulnerability exist within the code, it will only impact a specific group of SharePoint sites rather than all areas across an entire SharePoint farm.
- An administrator of a SharePoint site collection possesses specific authorizations to implement solutions within that collection.
Cons
- It won't work with websites that are cross-domain.
- Using resource files for the multilingual approach could be more effective.
- Using a sandbox solution to deploy a custom workflow created in Visual Studio is impossible.
Also Read: Welcome Sharepoint This Year: What Will It Cost You? $10,000? $50,000? More?
SharePoint Hosted Add-ins:
This article focuses on lists, pages, Web Parts, workflows and other SharePoint components such as lists and pages; no server-side code will be written as JavaScript will either directly run in custom SharePoint pages or from files referenced from custom SharePoint pages as part of business logic. To simplify things, the SharePoint Object Model (JSOM) in JavaScript can simplify this task, and CRUD operations can also be performed using this add-in. SharePoint developers can also customize controls with custom JavaScript and client-side rendering options. At the same time, SharePoint's host web is used as the location where add-ins are installed and launched. They are launching add-ins from here. Additionally, SharePoint plug-ins must also be installed on this host web.
Add-ins hosted on SharePoint can access external data and resources using JavaScript's add-in functionality, with two secure workarounds to get around the browser's same origin policy that allows access: using either a specific JavaScript Web Proxy class or cross-domain library from JavaScript Web Proxy class or particular cross-domain library as secure workarounds to reach this information from other locations like host website subscription or anywhere on Internet by way of these two methods. A SharePoint-hosted add-in may access data locally on web page subscription level subscription levels or anywhere on the Internet using these two techniques.
Pros
- New features can now be added to both the SharePoint server and SharePoint Online with ease by SharePoint consultants.
- Applications are run independently of the environment and are free of bugs or errors in the code that could impact other SharePoint sites or site collections.
- In comparison to farm solutions, the installation steps are straightforward.
- The apps are watchable by administrators.
- Several development platforms are supported to create apps.
- The SharePoint store offers a variety of apps that users can easily download.
- For the app store, Microsoft also provides a revenue-sharing model.
Cons
- REST API calls and JavaScript play a significant role in the app model.
- SharePoint Site Theming: The user interface and performance of the site are affected by numerous cross-server communications for the SharePoint client context and app components that are loaded in IFRAME on SharePoint site pages.
- It is not possible to make any changes to the master page.
SharePoint Framework
With the launch of SharePoint Framework, users have an exciting new way to access cutting-edge web technologies and tools in their preferred development environment, giving them access to creating compelling experiences and mobile-ready apps out of the box.
The SharePoint Framework (SPFx) is an all-inclusive page and web part model providing comprehensive support for client-side SharePoint development, easy data integration and open-source tooling support. This model works similarly whether working online with SharePoint on-premises (Feature Pack 2 included).
Critical Features for SharePoint Developers:
- These controls are responsive and easily accessible by default, arranged within the standard page DOM structure.
- Reliable performance can always be expected from our products.
- Add SPFx web parts to both traditional and contemporary pages for optimal results.
- SharePoint developers can use its lifecycle capabilities for rendering, loading, serialization and deserialization, configuration changes and other features.
- Operates within your current connection and user context of the browser.
- Development doesn't depend on any particular framework; React, Angular and Knockout may be employed without loading into IFRAMEs; all operations occur directly within user browser contexts.
- SPFx includes several client-side JavaScript libraries and open-source tools and libraries (node, gulp, npm and yeoman, among them) for use when developing web part models.
In the SharePoint Framework, two methods are introduced:
- Client-side JavaScript Injection
- SharePoint Add-in
Conclusion
This blog's goal was to inform companies on the approaches and techniques for SharePoint development that should be employed when undertaking their own SharePoint development projects. When working with either SharePoint On-premises or Online, depending on your business objectives, you may select between multiple models of the SharePoint Development Framework for Solution Development based upon which one should choose their development models. Before reaching an informed decision, this blog also provides all essential details related to such decisions, such as benefits/drawbacks, etc.
