Export Certificate

This is a part of the article-series:

http://www.jeanpaulva.com/index.php/2015/04/25/app-development-pre-requisites/

Export Certificate

Now we need to Export the Certificate in a particular format to use with the PHA Servers.

Open IIS Manager.

Note

We should not use the Export option available in the Certificate window. This will include the private key and not compatible with PHA deployment.

For exporting, double click the Certificate.

In the appearing window choose the Details tab.

Click the Copy to File button.  You will get the following wizard.

In the next page choose not to include the private key.

Leave the other page values as default.

Enter the file name for the Certificate.

Click the Finish button to complete export.

Now you need to copy the exported certificate file in further steps.

SharePoint 2016 Durable Links

Durable Links is a great feature introduced to SharePoint 2016.

The Problem

Once we create a document, share the document url, move the document to another location, the links become invalid!

This is a common problem across IT as there will be bunch of document links created over the years & becoming invalid.

Note: Dropbox too had the problem earlier

The Solution

SharePoint 2016 solves the problem using Durable Links. 

Durable Links are created based on the Unique Document Id.

Durable Links helps Document Renaming, Document Relocating easier without breaking links.

Example

https://myserver/Shared%20Documents/Test.docx?d=a8143f2e64bb87439aef201322dadd985

(You can see the Document Id as the last parameter)

Advantages

Broken Links never happens on Document moving

Library Restructuring is easier

Can rename files without worrying

Document ID Service

We need to activate Document ID Service from Site Collection Features to make Durable Links work.

Manage App Catalog

This is a part of the article-series:

http://www.jeanpaulva.com/index.php/2015/04/25/app-development-pre-requisites/

App Catalog

App Catalog is a special Site Collection where we can Manage Apps:

• View Apps for SharePoint
• View Apps for Office
• Manage App Requests

Configuration

We need to start configuring App Catalog before users can use it.

Open Central Administration > Apps > Manage App Catalog page

You will get the following page.

We need to create a new App Catalog.  Click the OK button to continue.

In the appearing page enter the Administrator info & Click OK.  Your new App Catalog site will be created.

Now you can try opening the App Catalog by clicking the URL.  You will see the following page.

SharePoint Framework – New SharePoint 2016 Development Model

SharePoint Framework (SPFx) was introduced in early 2017 and it is the Preferred Development Method for SharePoint 2016 and SharePoint Online.

Advantages of SPFx

• Page and Web Part Model – No IFrame so increased performance
• Runs in context of Current User – better context permission accessibility
• Responsive Controls – easier rendering in mobile & tablet devices
• Full-fledged JS support – easier integration of React, Angular frameworks
• Free web parts – faster development on common scenarios

History of SharePoint Development Models

As an early starter with SharePoint, I would like to list down the SharePoint Development models from my mind.

Farm Solutions

This was the Initial development world.  It consisted of C# code in DLLs running in the server-side.  Later this led to issue of Full Trust and Poor code affecting whole server.

SharePoint 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 had full support for Farm Solutions.

Sandboxed Solutions

Then came the Sandboxed Solutions which tried to resolve some of the Farm Solution issues.  Sandboxed Solutions set Trust configuration, Restricted Code, Quota Limit there by preventing a Poor Code from hampering server.  Still the code runs in Server-side leading to performance issues when a large number of users using a Dashboard web part for example.

Here the C# code will be executed on SharePoint server.

SharePoint 2007, 2010, 2013 had support for Sandboxed Solutions.

CSOM

Client-Side Object Model (CSOM) was developed to address few of the Sandboxed Solution issues.  CSOM still uses C# code but can be executed outside the SharePoint server.  This freed up the SharePoint Server from unwanted loads and also relaxed on the Deployment overheads with just referring to Client Side DLLs.

SharePoint 2010, 2013 supported CSOM.

JSOM

JavaScript Object Model (JSOM) bought the Client Side Object Model advantage to the SharePoint pages.  Here the JavaScript code will be executed in the Client browser there by Freeing up Server Performance cycles. 

JSOM also supported Batching which was earlier boon to reduce server roundtrips.

The initial way of executing JavaScript was attaching code file with a Script Editor web part.  Later JSOM usage evolved as Solid Client Side Applications through usage of Angular, React and other JavaScript frameworks.

SharePoint 2010, 2013 supported JSOM.

Apps

Apps (Now Add-ins) was introduced in SharePoint 2013 to package & publish complete applications to Corporate or Office 365 store.  In this way the client side support was extended to business level.   Apps came with SharePoint Hosted Apps (SHA) initially.

Apps also provided PHA (Provided Hosted Apps) which allow running C# code in outside servers.

Apps were using IFrame and thus cause redirection & page load delays.

SharePoint 2013, 2016 supported Apps.

SPFx

SharePoint Framework (SPFx) was introduced in SharePoint 2016 to address the problems with Apps.  There are No IFraames thus increasing the Page Performance.  SPFx also comes with ready made reusable web parts for common functionalities.

SharePoint 2016 supports SPFx.

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/spfx/sharepoint-framework-overview

Webhooks in SharePoint 2016

SharePoint 2016 introduced Webhooks for List Event Handling.  Webhooks are much better than Remote Event Receivers.

Webhook

Webhooks are enabled on SharePoint list items

Webhooks allow developers to Subscribe list item changes

Webhooks support only Asynchronous events

Webhooks requires a Target URL

Subscription

You need an Office 365 Subscription to test Webhooks.

You need to create a List Event subscription on the required List

You need to setup a Server URL to host the Webhook URL

Subscription can be enabled with an Expiration Date

Code

The class need to be inherited from SPWebhookNotification class.

The class should implement properties for SubscriptonId, ClientState etc.

Http Post attribute should be used for the receiver method.

Configure App URLs

This is a part of the article-series:

http://www.jeanpaulva.com/index.php/2015/04/25/app-development-pre-requisites/

Configure App URLs

After the Zone Configuration, We need to Configure App URLs.  Follow the steps below.

Open Central Administration > Apps > Configure App URLs link

You will get the following page.

Enter the Zone Names here.

Please note that my case is:

• Machine name is sharepoint
• Domain name is windows.net
• FQDN is sharepoint.windows.net
• App Domain name is sharepointapps.net

Save changes. Now you can proceed with next steps.

Sandboxed Solution & SharePoint Online Compatibility

In this article we can explore Compatibility of Sandboxed Solution with SharePoint Online.

Scenario

I am seeing that many developers are recommending Sandboxed Solutions for On-Premise and Online deployments.

But, the Twist is that SharePoint Online does not support all sandboxed solutions. So if your solution has a Strategy Architecture comprising of SharePoint Online, you need to be really careful recommending Sandboxed Solutions.

Recommendation

Sandboxed Solution is of two types:

1. No-Code Sandboxed Solution (NCSS)

2. Code Sandboxed Solution

NCSS contains only HTML & CSS markups. No code will be there.

Recommendation

NCSS is the recommended & only allowed one in SharePoint Online.

Testing

Create a new Sandboxed Solution.

Add a Visual Web Part. Do not add any code. Build the project.

Now Upload the NCSS and we get the Activate button enabled. This proves No-Code Sandboxed Solutions can be activated in SharePoint Online. (as of today)

Now come back to Visual Studio & Add place a button on the Visual Web Part.

Add code to the click event handler.

Build the project.

Now upload the Coded Sandboxed Solution to SharePoint Online. You can see the Activate button is disabled.

So this demonstrates that SharePoint Online does not support Coded Sandboxed Solutions.

Sandboxed Solutions were the Solutions of the past and now being deprecated. In the modern SharePoint development world REST, CSOM, Apps are the recommended approaches. Plus, there is a risk that Sandboxed Solution can get disabled in future versions of SharePoint/Online.

References

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sharepointdev/2014/01/14/deprecation-of-custom-code-in-sandboxed-solutions/

Summary

In this article we have explored Compatibility of Sandboxed Solution with SharePoint Online.

Playing Video in Restricted SharePoint Environments

Few months back I came across a scenario where User wanted to play Video in SharePoint Pages. But the Environment restricts usage of Video Streaming.

Solution

In this case we can use HTML5 Video Tags.

HTML5 Video

HTML5 included the Video & Audio tags which allows playing multimedia without any extra plugin requirement.

Previous to HTML5, Flash Or Media Player was required to play video Or audio files. Now all HTML5 compatible browsers support the Video tag by incorporating necessary multimedia infrastructure within them.

Following are the Browsers & Versions supporting HTML5 Video & Audio tags.

Reference: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_video.asp

SharePoint & Video Tag

Coming back to our problem, Perform the following activities for testing the Video tag.

Open SharePoint Designer. Go to Site Pages.

Choose the new HTML or ASPX option. Edit the file. Add the following code inside body tag.

<video width=”300″ height=”250″ controls>
<source src=”/siteassets/video.mp4″ type=”video/mp4″>
  Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>

The code performs the following:

· Set the Video tag with wdith & height

· Specify the source as mp4 file

· Set the Error text if browser does not support video tag

Your code in HTML file looks like below.

Video File

Now we need to create a video file. You can download the Video file from link below.

http://techslides.com/sample-webm-ogg-and-mp4-video-files-for-html5

Choose the MP4 file, download, rename & upload to Site Assets library.

Testing

Now open the HTML file in a Video supported browser. You will get the video played as shown below.

Now open the HTML file in a non-supported browser. You will see the following error message.

You can also set a Preview Image for the Video tag. This image will be displayed in the non-play state.

Restricted Scenarios

The video restricted scenarios can be:

1. SharePoint Restricted Content Types

2. SharePoint Restricted File Extensions

3. IIS Video Streaming Restrictions

References

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_video.asp

Summary

In this article we have explored using Video Tag for a restricted SharePoint environment scenario.

Claims Viewer Web Part – Installation

In this article we can explore how to Download & Install the claims viewer web part for SharePoint 2013.

Download

You can go the following location to get the web part:

https://sharepoint2013claimsviewer.codeplex.com/

From there choose the Downloads page:

You will get the WSP file.

The web part is Free for development & commercial use.

Installation

Once you have downloaded the WSP file, you need to install it. This is a Farm Solution so you require PowerShell.

Go to your SharePoint Server & Open the PowerShell window in Administrator mode.

You will get the following command window.

Run the following command to add the WSP package to Farm Solutions.

· Add-SPSolution “full path”

· Eg: Add-SPSolution “c:shared ClaimsViewerWebPart2013.wsp”

If things went well, you will get the following message.

Now run the following command to install the WSP package.

· Install-SPSoluiton ClaimsViewerWebPart2013.wsp –gacdeployment –webapplication http://yourserver

If things went well, you will the following output with no error messages.

Now you can come to your SharePoint site > Go to Site Collection features > Activate the following feature.

Once you have activated the feature, you can add the Web Part to a page.

Create a new page & choose the Insert web part option. You should be able to see the Claims web part as shown below.

Insert the web part & Save the page. You are ready to use the Claims Viewer web part.

Your claims may be different from the items shown above.

References

https://sharepoint2013claimsviewer.codeplex.com/

Summary

In this article we have explored how to install the Claims Viewer web part.

Claims Viewer Web Part

In this article we can explore the Claims Viewer Web Part.

About Web Part

I was working in a Claims enabled SharePoint Web Application where I felt the need of a Claims Viewer component which could display the current claims of the logged-in user.

Download

You can go the following location to get the web part:

https://sharepoint2013claimsviewer.codeplex.com/

Example

An example is displayed below.

Web Part

The above component is developed as a Web Part and requires Farm Solution for deployment. The C# code runs in the server-side and renders the claims values to the output.

Code

Following is the code which retrieves the claims.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

IClaimsPrincipal principal = Thread.CurrentPrincipal as IClaimsPrincipal;

IClaimsIdentity identity = principal.Identity as IClaimsIdentity;

IList<ClaimEntity> list = new List<ClaimEntity>();

foreach (Claim claim in identity.Claims)

list.Add(new ClaimEntity()

{

ClaimType = claim.ClaimType,

Value = claim.Value,

ValueType = claim.ValueType

});

RefreshGrid(list);

}

Once the user is logged in, the thread will contain the Claims Principal object. We can get the Claims from this object.

Each claim will have the following:

· Claim Type which is the pre-defined URL eg: http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/nameidentifier

· Claim Value which is the actual claim value eg: windowsadministrator

You can use the References for articles on Installation of the Claims Viewer web part.

References

https://sharepoint2013claimsviewer.codeplex.com/

Summary

In this article we have explored the usage of Claims Viewer web part.