NVM

This is the first of 4 articles on using containers for SharePoint Framework (SPFx) development.

Disclaimer

While I have learned a lot about containers over the last 2 years, I do not claim to be the final authority on this topic. My goal over these next 4 articles is share what I have learned and how I use that knowledge in my daily life as a SPFx developer. Containers are not just for SPFx but work on many developer technologies. In fact, I used containers, primarily Codespaces, to write this blog, which uses Hugo/Go. I encourage you to do the research and make your life easier.

DEPRECATED: This article has been updated. Please see the latest version at SharePoint Framework (SPFx) Quick Start (Gulp toolchain for SPFx v1.21.0 and earlier)

This article left in place for historical reference.

BLAH BLAH BLAH! Just take me to the code!

Even though this post is more wordy than I like, this is the Quick Start guide I use when I am setting up a new computer to work with SPFx. Microsoft has a very detailed guide for SPFx setup at Set up your SharePoint Framework development environment. The Microsoft guide is good, but covers a lot of stuff that you might not need. If my guide doesn’t work for you, I would recommend that you go back to the official documentation. When working with SPFx, there are lots of additional tools that can be installed to enhance your development experience. For this Quick Start, I wanted to keep those tools to a minimum. I deviate from the “stock” installation from Microsoft with three tools that I use on a daily basis and feel are critical for developers that will be building many SPFx projects over long periods of time.

DEPRECATED: This article has been updated. Please see the latest version at SharePoint Framework (SPFx) Quick Start (Gulp toolchain for SPFx v1.21.0 and earlier)

This article left in place for historical reference.

For the several years now, I have concentrated on helping developers to get started coding in the SharePoint Framework (SPFx). My primary message has always been that, “despite it being a complete departure from previous coding approaches in the SharePoint, it’s not as difficult as it seems and you should just give it a try.” I am updating that presentation to include recent changes to SPFx as I prepare for upcoming engagements at North American Collaboration Summit (NACS) and ShareCloud Summit and will post it on this site when available.