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Microsoft warned us! The Document Object Model (DOM) on web pages was a common target in my pre-SPFx solutions, especially the ones that used jQuery. When SPFx came along, Microsoft was very clear that the classes and element ids on the modern page were not an API. By that, they meant that there was no contract with developers that those values would not change in the future. The future is here!

I recently ran into a situation where building and debugging a SPFx web part seemed to go off the rails. Then I figured out that my normal pattern of skipping the ‘gulp clean’ command during project deployment had cause what I thought was bizarre behavior in Site Collection Features and toolbox.

I was working for a client that does not have a dedicated development or QA environment due primarily to political reasons. They also block access to all non-company tenants. Fortunately, I am able to do my development “off network” and once everything is ready, I move the code inside the firewall. Since this was an update to an existing web part, I knew deploying it to the same tenant as the existing web part was going to be tricky. The existing web part is on the company intranet home page, so getting into a site for testing without affecting the original web part meant deploying into a “QA” site app catalog. I thought this would work and there shouldn’t be any conflict. Famous last words …

There were definitely doubters, but the North American Collaboration Summit has successfully executed the first “hybrid model” conference. And the results were better than any of us imagined.

• To read a full summary, including lessons learned, from conference organizer Mark Rackley, click here

The decision to go

Honestly, my beautiful wife, Tracy, and I were excited to just get out of the house and go somewhere. We have tried hard to abide by the recommended protocols of social distancing and protective measures. For months, we have limited contact to just our family and a very small number of selected friends. I was nervous about attending such a public event, but after talking to Mark about the measures that were going to be taken by the hotel where the conference was being held, the “contract” that all attendee and speakers would abide by and the current COVID-19 situation in the Branson, MO, area, we decided the risk was within reason to attend the event in person.

Original post: 2020-01-22

UPDATE-MARCH 30

Due to the global pandemic, NACS has been rescheduled for Sep 28-30, 2020. Click the image above for the latest information

Have you ever found yourself looking for an icon, but not able to quite track down the perfect one? Between SPFx projects and the new modern list formatting capabilities in Microsoft 365, I am often looking for the icon to perfectly represent my idea. Until now, this process involved browsing through the Fluent UI website in hopes that I will stumble across one that works. Now there is a better way: Flicon.io

Original post: 2020-01-22

UPDATE-MARCH 30

Due to the global pandemic, NACS has been rescheduled for Sep 28-30, 2020. Click the image above for the latest information

I was listening to a recording of the bi-weekly “Microsoft 365 Developer SIG community call,” which happens on the 4th Thursday of every month. (The Microsoft 365 Platform community calls are all worth checking out and each of them is recorded and then uploaded to Youtube within 24 hours of the live event. Find out more info here: aka.ms/m365pnp) Part of the call was a demo by MVP Chris Kent on custom formatting in lists and he was showing how to use emojis in the formatting. Again, his demos are “must see TV,” both for content and entertainment value.