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Develop SharePoint Add-ins

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Important

The SharePoint Add-In model in SharePoint Online has been retired as of November 27th 2023, checkout the full retirement announcement to learn more.

Retirement means that the feature will not get any new investments, but it's still supported. End-of-life means that the feature will be discontinued and is no longer available for use.

Find in-depth articles and resources to help you build advanced capabilities into your SharePoint Add-ins.

Note

This article assumes that you are familiar with the article SharePoint Add-ins and the getting started material that it links to.

Under Develop, we've got the following to help explain all the different things you can do in a SharePoint Add-in:

  • In-depth overviews
  • How-to articles
  • Code snippets

You'll find articles about:

  • Performing create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations on lists
  • How to build REST queries and interact with the new APIs
  • How and when to configure OAuth for security

SharePoint has enterprise social features such as activity feeds and user profiles, along with enterprise content management features, line-of-business (LOB) interoperability features, and website design features that can really make your add-ins stand out. Learn more about them in Add SharePoint capabilities.

And, code is key, so take a look at the "Samples" menu in the Dev Center. It's a direct link to our code samples for add-ins. As soon as you've set up your development environment, you should check out a few of our samples. Take advantage of a community feature that lets you request a code sample if we don't have one you'd like to see. We take those requests, along with other doc feedback and use them in our continuous updates to the content and samples. So please, let us know if you'd like to see something!

Get started with SharePoint Add-ins resources

If you're just getting started with developing SharePoint Add-ins, first take a look at SharePoint Add-ins. That page points you to key articles to get you acquainted quickly with the different kinds of SharePoint Add-ins. Before doing more advanced kinds of development with SharePoint Add-ins, you should start with a good idea of the kinds of add-ins that you want to build, the technologies that you want to include, and the hosting options that you want to use.

Essential tasks and resources for developing SharePoint Add-ins using the client object model, JavaScript object model, and REST endpoints in SharePoint

No matter what kind of SharePoint Add-in you decide to build, your add-in will always interact in some way with a SharePoint site. The articles in Table 1 describe how to do many of the most important kinds of work with SharePoint sites by using three interfaces that are available for you to use in your SharePoint Add-ins: the client object model, the JavaScript object model, and REST endpoints.

Table 1. Basic operations with the SharePoint client object model, JavaScript object model, and REST interface

Topic Description
Complete basic operations using SharePoint client library code Explains how to do common operations by using C# and the client object model.
Complete basic operations using JavaScript library code in SharePoint Explains how to do common operations by using the JavaScript object model.
Complete basic operations using SharePoint REST endpoints Explains how to do common operations by using the REST interface.

Learn the fundamental concepts for development with SharePoint Add-ins

In addition to understanding the basic operations, you should understand the fundamental concepts of the SharePoint add-in development model. Every kind of SharePoint Add-in contains an add-in manifest file and is built into an add-in package that you deploy to a SharePoint site. When you develop any kind of add-in, you must consider a range of issues related to authentication and authorization, data access, and usability. The articles in Table 2 acquaint you with these issues and explain their implications for any kind of add-in that you want to create.

Table 2. Fundamental concepts for working with SharePoint Add-ins

Topic Description
Authorization and authentication of SharePoint Add-ins Guides you through core concepts related to acquiring the necessary privileges for working with SharePoint resources.
Explore the app manifest structure and the package of a SharePoint Add-in Explains how add-in manifests work and how add-in packages are built.
Create UX components in SharePoint Explores the ways in which you can build a rich user experience in SharePoint Add-ins.
Work with external data in SharePoint Explains the data access options and techniques that are available in different kinds of SharePoint Add-ins.
License your Office and SharePoint Add-ins Guides you through the add-in license framework for Office and SharePoint Add-ins.

Put the pieces together: Building advanced SharePoint Add-ins by integrating capabilities

When you are familiar with the capabilities and features of SharePoint Add-ins, you can start building more complex add-ins by putting all of the pieces together in ways that suit your requirements. The articles in Table 3 demonstrate how to integrate capabilities and create more fully featured SharePoint Add-ins.

Table 3. Advanced concepts in SharePoint Add-ins

Topic Description
Create a provider-hosted add-in that includes a custom SharePoint list and content type Explains how to create SharePoint Add-ins that are hosted in the cloud and that include custom SharePoint lists and content types.

See also