SharePoint can be automated in several ways, to streamline
workflows and improve efficiency, and the kalmstrom.com
team has created SharePoint automation solutions for companies
and organizations worldwide. It is important to know which
automation method to use in each solution, considering efficiency,
scalability and user friendliness.
In the demo below, Peter Kalmström, CEO and SYstems Designer,
explains which automation types we commononly use for the
kalmstrom.com solutions and discusses their advantages and
drawbacks.
We are happy to teach customers, book readers and website
visitors how to automate SharePoint without writing code,
but when we build solutions for customers, we prefer using
code. Coded automation options are more powerful and give
better control and flexibility. They are also easier to
support and manage.
Coded SharePoint Automation
The SharePoint API (Application Programming Interface)
lets developers interact with SharePoint data and services
programmatically. There are two main branches of the
SharePoint API:
With CSOM (Client-Side Object Model) developers
can interact with SharePoint from client-side applications,
such as web, desktop or mobile apps. It gives a
way to access SharePoint data and services using
.NET, C#, JavaScript and other programming languages.
The SharePoint Server-Side Object Model enables
programmatic access to SharePoint on-premises, if
you can run code on the server. Doing that is however
often less suitable, except for specific requirements.
We use multiple programming languages, among them:
PowerShell scripts running in an Azure function
or on a separate server can be very powerful. For
SharePoint Online we use the PnP.PowerShell module,
which has unique features especially designed for
Microsoft 365.
TypeScript can be considered a powerful extension
of JavaScript, and it is particularly beneficial
for complex projects. The Office Scripts automation
features in Excel are written in TypeScript and
can be run inside Excel.
VBA is mostly used in connection with Microsoft
Access
The demo is not up to date and will be replaced as soon
as Peter has some free time from development tasks!
