Understand the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) build Toolchain

Are you a traditional SharePoint developer used to working in Visual Studio on Windows building solutions or add-ins? In 2016 Microsoft announced a new direction for SharePoint customizations: the SharePoint Framework. This development model is the recommended approach to customizing & extending SharePoint. That’s a big change from the old ways that primarily favored the server side approach!

But that’s not the only big change!

New development process & tools

Microsoft also elected to make a big change in the development toolchain. Visual Studio is no longer the first, or only, choice if you follow Microsoft’s guidance. For the SharePoint Framework, Microsoft elected to go with the popular modern web development toolchain.