Simplify SharePoint 2013 REST API Client-Side Apps - Breeze

Learn how to simplify SharePoint 2013 REST API client-side solutions with Breeze JavaScript library through 3 blog posts.

Back in March 2014 I published three posts that showed how you can use the Breeze JavaScript library to make your life as a developer so much easier when creating client-side solutions that leverage the SharePoint 2013 REST API. You can read up on all these posts here:

To make this work we created a custom data service adapter that told Breeze about the oddities with the SharePoint 2013 REST API. Since then I’ve received quite a few questions & comments about some of the limitations and futures related to the library. They also found a few bugs… one I realized pretty quick and haven’t had a chance to fix.

The challenges people asked about fell into two primary buckets:

  • Will this work with SharePoint 2010’s REST API (/_layouts/listdata.svc)?
  • Seems this doesn’t work with SharePoint 2013’s & SharePoint Online’s (Office 365) cross-domain blockers… can you fix this?

Good news folks, I’m not finished. I’ll admit I have neglected this because I’ve been busy with other projects, but there is a good story here. What I’ve done is fork the Breeze labs repository on Github where I can manage updates to submit pull request back to the Breeze repo for a future updates and also to maintain a list of the known bugs, issues and enhancements that need to get fixed.

In addition to the two things above, you’ll also notice a bug, #6, where we made the assumption for the metadata type of an entity that gets returned.

I’m sharing this with you for two reasons. First, I want to make you aware that there’s a place you can follow to stay up to speed on the SharePoint data service adapter for Breeze and second, to get your input on what’s most important to get fixed. I’m considering the milestones for this project and will assign the issues to these milestones with real estimated fix dates. Do you have a preference on what gets fixed or added first? Bugs? SharePoint 2010 support? SharePoint 2013 / SharePoint Online cross-domain support? Make your voice heard!

Oh, and if you want to help, fork the repo, make your edits and submit a pull request back to me. I’ll review your changes and get them incorporated in the next pull request I submit to the Breeze guys so the next time the Breeze.DataService.SharePoint NuGet package gets updated, we’ll get those changes as well!

So… let your voice be heard! Comment on this post or on on my GitHub forked repo !

Andrew Connell
Developer & Chief Course Artisan, Voitanos LLC. | Microsoft MVP
Written by Andrew Connell

Andrew Connell is a web & cloud developer with a focus on Microsoft Azure & Microsoft 365. He’s received Microsoft’s MVP award every year since 2005 and has helped thousands of developers through the various courses he’s authored & taught. Andrew’s the founder of Voitanos and is dedicated to helping you be the best Microsoft 365 web & cloud developer. He lives with his wife & two kids in Florida.

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