How to add Application Insights to SharePoint without modifying the master page

Google analytics articles are among the most popular articles in this blog and inclusive they got featured on SharePoint Dev Weekly episodes.

On episode #27 Vesa and Waldek discussed the advantages and disadvantages of having internal and potentially confidential data sent from SharePoint to Google servers.

Google Analytics is not the only monitoring tool you can add to SharePoint, Microsoft has Application Insights that provides a similar functionality with the advantage of keeping your data in the same ecosystem.

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By João Ferreira Feb 19, 2019 Development, SharePoint 1 Comment

2018 Resume – What an incredible year!

2018 was an amazing year for me and for this blog – I met fantastic people throughout the year that supported and motivated me to continue with this project and to do more every day.

Before starting to produce new content in 2019, I would like to share with all of you guys some of my achievements last year.

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By João Ferreira Jan 6, 2019 Office 365, SharePoint 2 Comments

Enable custom script on modern SharePoint sites to recover your favourite functionalities

Let me start with a HUGE disclaimer: even though it is possible to enable custom scripts on modern SharePoint, you should only consider using it when there is no other alternative.

Having custom script disabled by default on SharePoint removes functionalities that old school users miss, such as list templates and the solution gallery,among several others. Most of the features removed by custom scripts can be achieved using PnP and SharePoint Online Cmdlets.

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By João Ferreira Oct 28, 2018 Office 365, SharePoint 8 Comments

Celebrate work anniversaries on your SharePoint Intranet

User adoption is fundamental for the success of Intranet projects and you might find yourself thinking about new ways to engage your users with the internal portals.

Useful information for the daily work is fundamental but sometimes is not enough, social content can play a big role on the success of your intranet.

In this article you will find instructions to create a webpart to celebrate work anniversaries with your employees, showing appreciation for their hard work may result in higher user adoption rates.

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By João Ferreira Oct 6, 2018 Office 365, SharePoint 2 Comments

How to get SharePoint profile picture

Profile pictures allow you to easily identify users and on SharePoint there are a couple different ways to get it.

If you are developing SharePoint solutions and need to display profile pictures you can use one of the methods described below.

These methods are target for SharePoint online and they will not work for external users and for accounts without Exchange.

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By João Ferreira Oct 5, 2018 Development, Office 365, SharePoint 15 Comments

SharePoint branding in 2018 – What are the available options?

SharePoint branding is one of the most controversial subjects on SharePoint world. There are pros and cons of doing it and there are several different ways to apply your brand to SharePoint as explained in this article.

Branding is often used to change the way SharePoint looks like and to make it aligned with the corporate visual identity. Doing this type of customizations can bring extra functionalities to the product and most importantly can increase the user adoption of SharePoint.

Besides all the positive aspects it can also have a negative impact on SharePoint if not done correctly depending on the branding method used you can easily loose default functionalities or even worse break the entire site.

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By João Ferreira Sep 9, 2018 Branding, Office 365, SharePoint 4 Comments

Create internal newsletters using SharePoint News

Communication is the key to build a successful team, and the SharePoint folks responsible for the modern sites know it well, month after month we continue to be presented with new features to enrich the communication and collaboration between teams.

Today I bring you the instructions on how to create an Internal newsletter without effort using only what SharePoint provides by default.

The SharePoint News web part provides an easy way to quickly create eye catching content that you can use to engage your audience and keep everyone in the loop.

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By João Ferreira Sep 2, 2018 News, Office 365, SharePoint 16 Comments

What’s new for SharePoint before Microsoft Ignite 2018

I usually write this type of articles after major SharePoint events but there are a couple new features being released on SharePoint Online that caught my eye during the Summer.

Because of that I’ve decided to do this one when we are one month away from Microsoft Ignite where a lot of new features are expected to be announced.

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By João Ferreira Aug 26, 2018 Office 365, SharePoint 4 Comments

HANDS ON SharePoint YouTube channel

After a few months planning it today I’ve finally got the first video ready to be released on the latest HANDS ON SharePoint project.

The YouTube channel will be a complement to the articles and projects posted in the blog and every now and then you might see me in a vlog style talking about the latest SharePoint news/features.

You are invited to watch the first video where the Page Comment Notifications for modern SharePoint is explained in detail, and to subscribe to be aware of future updates

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By João Ferreira Aug 26, 2018 News, Office 365, SharePoint 2 Comments

Download ICS files from SharePoint calendars

The other day while playing with SharePoint modern Events web part with my colleague Francisca Peixoto we realized that it includes a feature to download an ICS file to then be added to an Outlook calendar.

This discovery also reminded me that I once started a project to provide this exact same functionality on classic SharePoint calendars but never finished it.

After spending a while searching for the code I finally found it, finished the project and I’m sharing it with all of you guys in this article.

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By João Ferreira Aug 16, 2018 Office 365, SharePoint 8 Comments