Where to start with programming for SharePoint online
“I feel life could be easier if I understood a bit of programming in SharePoint Online, but where do I start? I’m sure there’s a much more to SharePoint than I currently use.“
Before you start learning a new programming language to get more out of SharePoint online, you should consider available no-code or low-code tools. They enable customization and enhancement of your SharePoint without deep coding knowledge.
Microsoft “Power Platform” tools are more intuitive to learn than a new coding language. The results are much faster and you can still develop even complex solutions. I’d recommend to take a look on the ones below, in this order:
Power Automate
Power Automate is Microsoft Tool to automate processes, replacement for the 2010 workflows and 2013 workflows. While 2010 and 2013 workflows used only SharePoint platform, with Power Automate you can integrate all Microsoft services together.
By services I mean you can integrate emails in Outlook, documents in OneDrive, data in SharePoint or tasks in To Do or Planner. Not to mention integration with currently very popular Teams application.
The possibilities are limitless, limited only by your imagination. I think you can save some serious time and work by a bit of automation.
I’d recommend the following learning sources:
- Microsoft Power Automate learning modules
- Reddit Power Automate community “Awesome Microsoft Power Automate Learning Resources”
- local Power Automate category
Power Apps
Power Apps is another Microsoft tool, this one for development of forms and form based applications. If you ever used InfoPath in SharePoint, Power Apps should be (hopefully some day in the future) its full-fledged replacement.
It’s quite easy to start, you don’t need any programming knowledge to begin, but you’ll need to invest a bit of time on your side.
Good learning source to get the basic is Power Apps learning modules by Microsoft.