Development

The Problem: SharePoint’s Out-of-the-Box URL Structure SharePoint sites come with default URL structures that are long, convoluted, and not very user or search engine friendly. For example, a typical page URL might look like “http://sharepoint.company.com/sites/division/subsite/Lists/Announcements/AllItems.aspx”. This creates a poor user experience having to navigate and reference long, complex URLs. Additionally, the default URLs do not…

Executing Custom JavaScript Code on Page Load The _spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames array in SharePoint allows developers to execute custom JavaScript code on page load. This array contains function names as strings that are called sequentially when the body of the page finishes loading. Understanding how to properly use this array is key to implementing customizations in SharePoint….

What is Quick Edit and Why Control It The Quick Edit mode in SharePoint allows users to directly edit list item content quickly within the view display without opening the full item details. When enabled, Quick Edit adds [edit] links next to items and toggles the view into an editable grid when clicked. However, unfettered…

Why CSR Overrides Fail When attempting to override SharePoint’s Client-Side Rendering (CSR) files to customize the user interface and functionality, developers often encounter frustrating issues that prevent the overrides from working properly. Some common pitfalls that can cause CSR overrides to fail include: Invalid JSON Syntax SharePoint’s CSR architecture relies heavily on JSON configuration files….

Common Pitfalls When Sending Email from SharePoint Hosted Apps Configuring Incorrect Mail Settings in SharePoint A common pitfall when attempting to send email from SharePoint hosted apps is configuring incorrect mail settings in the SharePoint environment. The mail settings in SharePoint allow the platform to relay messages through an SMTP server. Incorrect configuration of these…

The Problem with the Default View Selector The default out-of-the-box view selector menu in SharePoint 2013 provides limited options for customization to match specific branding or site styles. The available views are predefined and cannot be easily modified without coding solutions. This presents challenges when designing branded SharePoint sites. With only using out-of-the-box features, SharePoint…

Ensuring Tile Consistency Across Browsers Achieving visual consistency of customized SharePoint tiles across diverse web browsers poses complex technical challenges. Varying browser implementations produce inconsistent renderings of style sheets, scripts, and markup. Strategic cross-browser testing uncovers rendering divergences through simulated testing across an array of target browsers. The Challenge of Varying Browser Implementations The major…

The Problem: Images Appearing Stretched or Squished A common issue that SharePoint users face is distorted images when using the Image Viewer web part set to tile view. The images can appear undesirably stretched, squished, pixelated, or out of proportion. This occurs because SharePoint does not automatically scale the images when changing between standard and…

Why SharePoint Restricts Special Characters SharePoint places restrictions on special characters for several important reasons related to functionality, compatibility, and security: Special characters can break functionality or cause unexpected behavior in SharePoint sites, lists, libraries, and other components. For example, the percent (%) sign is used for encoding in URLs, so it can cause issues…

What PreSaveItem and PreSaveAction Do The PreSaveItem and PreSaveAction interfaces in Microsoft Dynamics 365 allow developers to customize business logic that executes prior to saving records in the system. PreSaveItem executes logic before saving individual record updates, while PreSaveAction allows logic to run before bulk save operations. Using these interfaces correctly is critical to avoid…