Development

Maximizing user adoption is key to getting the highest return on investment (ROI) from SharePoint. When employees actively use SharePoint to collaborate, share documents, manage workflows, and more, companies fully realize SharePoint’s benefits around knowledge management, improved productivity, and cost savings. This article outlines key strategies and best practices to drive extensive SharePoint usage across…

The Problem: Retrieving User Profiles SharePoint stores user profile information such as names, contact details, departments, titles, and profile pictures in the User Profile Service application. This service maintains a database of user profiles that can be accessed through the SharePoint REST API. The REST API provides a programmatic way to retrieve user profile data…

The Dilemma of Balancing Access and Security SharePoint sites often need to provide access to anonymous public users to view certain content pages. However, site owners also want to limit what these anonymous users can do for security reasons. A common need is to allow anonymous users to view code samples and interactive demonstrations right…

Generating Certificates to Authenticate with Azure AD To enable certificate-based authentication with Azure Active Directory (AD), a self-signed X.509 v3 certificate needs to be created. This certificate will contain a public and private key that allows Postman to authenticate with Azure AD to acquire access tokens for calling the SharePoint REST API. Creating a Self-Signed…

Customizing SharePoint’s Look and Feel SharePoint’s out-of-the-box user interface provides a clean and functional experience, but often lacks the visual branding required by organizations to align with corporate guidelines. By customizing SharePoint’s master pages and page layouts, developers can dramatically transform the look, feel, and functionality to meet specific business needs. Master pages define foundational…

The Problem of Slow Page Loads in SharePoint SharePoint’s default master pages and page layouts often contain excessive markup, images, and web parts that can negatively impact performance. Each additional HTTP request to load a page component delays page render time. Likewise, unoptimized images drive up page weight. The more page weight, the longer pages…

Understanding SharePoint Security Risks As an expansive collaboration platform, SharePoint offers many benefits for organizations but also comes with certain inherent security risks. Being aware of these vulnerabilities can help SharePoint administrators and developers make informed decisions when securing the environment. Common Vulnerabilities and Threats Some of the most prevalent SharePoint security issues include: Compromised…

Why Updates Are Needed for Custom Master Pages and Page Layouts in SharePoint Over time, many SharePoint sites undergo design changes to keep the look and feel fresh, incorporate new features and functionality that gets rolled out in SharePoint updates, or align to updated brand guidelines from the marketing team. As a result, the custom…

Overview of “Open in Explorer” Capability The “Open in Explorer” feature in SharePoint allows users to access SharePoint libraries and folders directly in Windows File Explorer. This provides a seamless way for users to view, edit, upload, download, and manage files stored in SharePoint using the familiar Windows file system interface. When the “Open in…

Why Validate Phone Numbers? Validating phone number input in SharePoint forms provides multiple important benefits for administrators and users alike. By setting proper phone number validation, form creators can prevent submissions with invalid data, ensure higher quality data capture, and improve overall form completion rates. Prevent Invalid Submissions SharePoint’s integrated input mask capabilities provide real-time…