As a SharePoint consultant, I work with code in the back-end on a daily basis to customize our client’s user experience. Now that SharePoint 2013 is out, we have been experimenting a lot with what’s new and how we can leverage these features. Particularly as we move forward with our first SharePoint 2013 implementation, one thing I have found to be a real improvement is the ability to create safer code.
This may not sound like a big deal if you’re not a developer, but Microsoft has made a great strides with this addition. As a quick summary, when we create code, it can be done either on the server side or the client side. While the functionality is greatly expanded when writing server-side code, it also carries increased risk to the environment, from memory leaks that degrade server performance, to potentially taking the entire SharePoint farm down.
For this reason, many well-structured SharePoint environments do not grant access to develop from the server. When developing on the client side, all processing is performed in the browser via JavaScript, and access to make high-level changes is limited. You can think of working with client side code as a sort of encapsulation that only allows developers to perform the safest functions.
If you’re wondering how all this applies to your business, the improvements in SharePoint 2013 pay off in terms of increased stability for your SharePoint environment and a greatly reduced chance of downtime due to server code errors.
I’ll cover how the REST model can be used to create SharePoint applications in a future post. If you’d like to find out more about what is new in SharePoint 2013, check out these resources!