This month, we released the first of our products for SPFx. Responsive Video Web Part was a natural choice to lead the pack on our road to full SPFx readiness. We love the way videos are dramatically displayed in the SharePoint Framework modern UX, with its tiled content areas. You'll really appreciate the ease with which you can upload rich, dynamic video content and then display it for your users.
We know you are anxious to use our products in the new UX. Let's address a few of the questions we've received about our products and SPFx.
Your Top Questions (so far)
Do the SPFx web parts work in SharePoint 2013 and/or 2016?
ur SPFx products are compatible with Office 365, SharePoint Online. Microsoft will not add SPFx to SharePoint 2013 on-prem. As for SharePoint 2016, it supports SPFx but only for Feature Pack 2. Our products are running SPFx 1.4 and SharePoint 2016 runs only SPFx 1.1 (FP2). Our ability to support these versions is dependent upon Microsoft and what is released from Redmond. Hope that clears it up.
Will the pricing remain the same or will there be an additional charge?
Great question. This is where we really see the beauty of a subscription model! As we roll out new products for classic, and now modern SharePoint sites, your price remains the same. You get all of the new features we offer at no additional charge assuming your subscription is active (and yes, you can contact us to make sure you are active!).But wait, here's the really cool thing -- given that Microsoft has committed to support 2013 on-prem for a long time, you will be able to launch and support hybrid environments with both classic and modern environments using the same products, at no additional cost to you.
Do the SPFx web parts support SharePoint Online classic page?
Yes. All SPFx web parts support both modern and the classic sites - you can use them immediately in either version. The only difference you will see, assuming you are an existing BindTuning customer, is that the new web part settings are slightly different, even in the classic environment. BindTuning web parts will use the full SPFx settings available in both environments for consistency.
Our company imposes some restrictions using external sites. Are there any external libraries being used, for example, CDNs?
Well, yes and no. Depending on the type of product you will be using, it might have external calls to our CDN. For instance, our product trials do require external calls to our CDN. But once you activate a subscription, all of the products are hosted inside of your firewall and will not have any external calls outside of your SP environment.
Do you use Office UI Fabric for the responsiveness?
Yes. Microsoft Office UI Fabric is included by default on modern pages and we use it to get responsiveness, but we also use Bootstrap inside modern pages.
How about Themes? Will the current themes be SPFx ready or will there be a new set?
Yes, BindTuning themes will soon be migrated to SPFx. We may retire a few, but we also will release some brand-new themes as well. The same experience will be globally applied across all of your SharePoint sites - users won't notice much difference between classic and modern sites as there will be consistency between SharePoint pages and sites. However, you will need one theme for classic sites and another for modern sites.
What's the approximate timeframe for themes for Modern sites to be available?
We are working on the themes and we have prototypes working in modern environments right now. However, the environment we are using to build themes is not stable and we are on hold until Microsoft releases a stable version of the applications stabilizer across modern sites.
Have more questions about SPFx? We are glad to answer them, leave your questions in the comments section below, or drop us an email to reach our technical and/or sales team.