Forum Discussion
Client side development - Where do I begin?
To add to JaredMatfess,
I agree regarding learning JavaScript first. Go that road and build a few customizations using the SEWP or the CEWP...
Then, if you want to get deeper into the SPFx, and want some deeper explaination of the tooling etc Andrew Connell just started creating courses (Voitanos) around this and has a free getting started with SPFx which would get you started with setting up your environment. https://www.voitanos.io/
But havent had time to go any further up. It seems to me that Typescript would be the next logical step.
All the demos and walkthroughs I have attempted, I am just following rote steps, gulping and yo-ing and whatever else.
This has been my knock against SPFX, while its great for developers its rough for people that have been "developing" in this space for a long time (who are typically not developers).
Luckily, I've got a SEWP working in modern UI, so I can delay the inevitable.
Yes, you're exactly right and definitely not alone in your view. If you're at the point of understanding JavaScript and the sewp then your next step is TypeScript and the dev toolchain. To address the latter the free Voitanos video I recommended will help you understand what you need to know vs what you need to understand. Strictly speaking since TypeScript is basically a superscript of JavaScript with a few tricks you can just keep writing JavaScript in SPFx, but honestly its potentially easier to just learn TypeScript. And to your point, you can just utilize a modern version of a sewp. It really just depends what your requirements and personal goals are.