SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: April 2019
Published Apr 30 2019 09:01 AM 25.8K Views
Microsoft

SharePoint is off and running into the second quarter of calendar year 2019 - so hang on! This is the comprehensive recap for all things SharePoint and related technology, plus the Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop: April 2019 episode – a bonus monthly audible companion to help answer, "What's rolling out now for SharePoint and related technologies into Microsoft 365?" Our goal is to provide change management excellence, with clear, concise and timely resources.

 

Listen and scroll below (info, links and screenshots) to stay informed on what features and updates arrived this past month - plus a few teasers of what's to come:

 

 

In this podcast episode, I, too, talk with Marc Windle (LinkedIn), senior program manager on the SharePoint engineering team who has focused on all things Files Restore (SharePoint and OneDrive); you’ll hear how he and the team approach the design, development and deployment of this critical recovery tool.

 

Marc Windle – senior program manager (SharePoint/Microsoft) [Intrazone guest].Marc Windle – senior program manager (SharePoint/Microsoft) [Intrazone guest].

All the features listed below began rolling out to Targeted Release customers in Office 365 as of April 2019 (possibly early May 2019). “We'll keep you informed, current, and ahead of the ever-curving Microsoft 365 Road'map." – Me. ;) And off we go…

 

Inform and engage with dynamic employee experiences

Build your modern intranet on SharePoint in Office 365 and get the benefits of investing in business outcomes – reducing IT and development costs, increasing business speed and agility, and up-leveling the dynamic and welcoming nature of your intranet.

 

Yammer Conversations Web Part (general availability)

Invigorate your intranet by integrating Yammer conversations from topics, groups, or users in SharePoint with the Yammer conversations web part for SharePoint. This combines the social nature of learning across organizations with the content and knowledge management powers of SharePoint.

 

Use this when you want users to participate in Yammer conversations without leaving your SharePoint page. Alongside this new web part is the Yammer Highlights web part; Use this web part to provide a quick overview of active conversations and a targeted portal to specific groups or conversations in Yammer.

 

Add a fully interactive Yammer conversations web part to any SharePoint page, news article or site.Add a fully interactive Yammer conversations web part to any SharePoint page, news article or site.

 

News audience targeting

Audience targeting for the News and Highlighted Content web parts allow news authors and site owners to tag news articles with Azure Active Directory (AAD) groups, and filter content within these web parts to people within those groups. Now, when people go to the page or site where the web parts have been placed and configured, they will get a unique experience based on who they are and what groups they belong to – and will or won’t see certain content. Clean, simple – targeted.

 

You will be able to control how pages and parts of pages appear to different people ad groups. This example shows a web part with tailor content by group permissions.You will be able to control how pages and parts of pages appear to different people ad groups. This example shows a web part with tailor content by group permissions.

Teamwork updates across SharePoint team sites, OneDrive and Yammer

Microsoft 365 is designed to be a universal toolkit for teamwork – to give you the right tools for the right task, along with common services to help you seamlessly work across applications. SharePoint powers teamwork – to better collaborate on proposals, projects, and campaigns throughout your organization – and is integrated with Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Yammer, Stream, Planner and much more.

 

Files restore for SharePoint and Microsoft Teams

Files restore for SharePoint and Microsoft Teams is a complete self-service recovery solution that allows administrators and site owners to restore files from any point in time during the last 30 days. Site owners will see a new "Restore this library" option within the library settings panel. This can be used as a self-service to restore the files and folders in the library you suspect have been compromised by end-user deletion, file corruption, or malware infection – to any point in the past 30 days.

 

If something went wrong, you can restore a SharePoint document library (the same storage mechanism behind the Files tab in Microsoft Teams) to a previous time. Select a date preset or use the slider to find a date within unusual activity in the chart. Then select the changes that you want to undo.If something went wrong, you can restore a SharePoint document library (the same storage mechanism behind the Files tab in Microsoft Teams) to a previous time. Select a date preset or use the slider to find a date within unusual activity in the chart. Then select the changes that you want to undo.

 

Modern Document Sets

Modern document sets group related documents together with shared metadata integrated with the modern SharePoint user interface. Document sets now look and feel like ordinary folders in modern libraries, and benefit from all the cool new features. This means that users can drag and drop content to upload to document sets, link to content that lives outside the document set, pin files to the top of the document set, start flows on document set items, and define conditional formatting on document set items.

 

Create a modern document set and group related documents together with shared metadata integrated with the modern SharePoint user interface.Create a modern document set and group related documents together with shared metadata integrated with the modern SharePoint user interface.

 

Connected web parts for SharePoint

We’re releasing three new connected web parts for SharePoint Online that allow you to display data from list and library web parts. With the List Properties, File Viewer and Embed web parts you can now connect to a data source and interact with lists and libraries in new ways.

 

You can browse through a library of campaign documents, click on files, and see the content in a selected file without leaving the page, and without having to open each file.You can browse through a library of campaign documents, click on files, and see the content in a selected file without leaving the page, and without having to open each file.

Note: for developers, this capability shipped in SharePoint Framework (SPFx) v1.7 to be able to build into custom web parts and solutions.

 

 

New integrations with Autodesk AutoCAD for Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint

These new integrations with Autodesk connect OneDrive and SharePoint to the drafting tools available through AutoCAD. As you work with DWG files across these applications, you can open and edit them in the AutoCAD desktop application, the AutoCAD mobile app, and the new AutoCAD web app—in just a few clicks.

 

The DWG file opens from SharePoint or OneDrive into the AutoCAD web app (web.autocad.com).The DWG file opens from SharePoint or OneDrive into the AutoCAD web app (web.autocad.com).

The AutoCAD web app lets you design and draft in AutoCAD on any computer. It gives you quick, anytime access to the latest drawings from anywhere without having AutoCAD installed on your machine. View, edit, and create CAD drawings in a simplified interface that runs in your local web browser.

 

 

Office 365 Group card enhancements

We've added new functionality to the Office 365 group “hover cards” (when you hover over the title of a SharePoint group-connected team site) – so that you can act on the group in context of what you're doing, rather than going to a separate page. You can search through all group members, renew the group per any set expiry, and approve pending members. Users will no longer need to leave the page that they were working in to do these tasks.

 

When you expand into the Office 365 group card (on-hover), you'll see more information about the group, and have the ability to search for member, renew the group, and approve pending members.When you expand into the Office 365 group card (on-hover), you'll see more information about the group, and have the ability to search for member, renew the group, and approve pending members.

Important, related technology

Per-Machine OneDrive sync client is now available for Windows | By default, the OneDrive sync client installs per user on Windows. With the new per-machine installation option, you can install OneDrive and all profiles on the computer will use the same OneDrive.exe binary. Migrating to the per-machine client is optional. The per-machine sync client supports syncing OneDrive and SharePoint files in Microsoft 365 and in SharePoint Server 2019.

 

 

Additional OneDrive sync client innovation shipped in April 2019:

  • Self-help option: “Illegal files names not syncing” | a new in-app resolution to sync errors – like when using an Asterix “*” symbol or any file name starting with “~$” – to help avert and solve naming blockers, to then rename the file and continue with upload. [Roadmap ID: 49314. Learn more]
  • Request assistance
    Look for a new "Get Help" option in the OneDrive activity center on your desktop. This enables people to initiate a support ticket. Note: Office 365 admins can turn off this setting if required. [Roadmap ID: 49313. Learn more]
  • Prompt for pending uploads
    And one last “wait, before you go” feature… the OneDrive sync client will also notify users when they have pending uploads when the computer is shutting down or going into standby. [Roadmap ID: 50729. Learn more]

 

Microsoft Search in Bing Preview includes Yammer conversations ​

Find your Yammer conversations or conversations between co-workers in Microsoft Search in Bing. Microsoft Search will only return information and files that you have permission to see.

 

When signed into Bing with your work or school account, you’ll now see Yammer results in line with other content types – like documents, sites, people and more.When signed into Bing with your work or school account, you’ll now see Yammer results in line with other content types – like documents, sites, people and more.

 

SharePoint Online Provisioning Service (Public Preview with SharePoint Look Book sample designs)

We’ve started building a specific service to enable you to easily provision sample content and scenarios to any SharePoint tenant in Office 365. You will need to be a tenant administrator to be able to use the service. We do recommend testing the templates in a test environment to ensure that you are aware of how they work. This service is in public preview. We’ll keep improving the experience and the provided templates – and we are actively seeking your feedback.

 

Visit the SharePoint Online Provisioning Site (Public Preview) today and try out one of the SharePoint Look Book samples in your own Office 365 tenant (https://provisioning.sharepointpnp.com).Visit the SharePoint Online Provisioning Site (Public Preview) today and try out one of the SharePoint Look Book samples in your own Office 365 tenant (https://provisioning.sharepointpnp.com).

 

Now use larger, more flexible image types to upload your company logo in the Office 365 navigation bar

We are modernizing our navigation bar customization to help you represent your brand across Office 365. Now, you’ll be able to upload your custom logo of any file size and of any format via a URL in order to improve the clarity of the logo image that your users see in their Office 365 navigation bar across their Office applications, like SharePoint Online and Office.com. After setting your custom logo you can configure it to point to your company or intranet portal, enabling easy access to your users.

 

April 2019 teasers

  • Thing 1 - Full-fidelity shared libraries in OneDrive
  • Thing 2 - Expanding sharing link types that can block downloads for Office files

 

Helpful, ongoing change management resources

 

Thanks for tuning in and/or reading this episode/blog of the Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop – April 2019 (blog/podcast). We’re open to your feedback in comments below to hear how both the Roadmap Pitstop podcast episodes and blogs can be improved over time.

 

Engage with us. Ask questions. Push us where you want and need to get the best information and insights. We're here to put both our and your best change management foot forward.

 

Stay safe out there on the roadmap -- and thanks for listening and reading.

 

Happy now and future trails,

Mark

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