We’re releasing a set of Release Candidates of the SharePoint Framework, which will include some breaking changes developers will need to accommodate. Developers can read more about these changes at https://github.com/SharePoint/sp-dev-docs/wiki/Release-Notes-RC0.
Since August, the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) has been in Developer Preview – meaning that developers have an ability to start working with the framework, and build solutions – but not deploy these solutions to locations where their customers can use them. We’ve already seen an amazing number of code samples, blog posts, and tweets – and just plain energy and enthusiasm – about building great web parts with SPFx.
Our next step is to finish up the General Availability (GA) release of SharePoint Framework. With GA, SPFx as a framework will be supported, and SPFx solutions will be able to be deployed to customers.
One milestone along this path is a set of Release Candidates of the GA release. With Release Candidates, we’re looking to prepare to support General Availability and create a robust and finalized API surface for customers over time. But before we get to this phase, we wanted to make one last set of changes to the APIs based on feedback before we reach GA.
We’re rolling out Release Candidate 0 of SharePoint Framework starting today to a small number of tenancies. This rollout will increase over time to all tenancies, based on feedback, but likely happen over the course of next week. This Release Candidate contains updated – and in some cases, different and breaking – APIs compared to previous releases, so the risk of some breaks to existing SharePoint Framework Developer Preview parts is possible. Developers who have been creating and evaluating the SharePoint Framework should download and start working with the Release Candidate to see how their code is impacted.
We have a set of changed items and potential breaking changes listed on our github at https://github.com/SharePoint/sp-dev-docs/wiki/Release-Notes-RC0. Please read through these documents carefully.
General Availability will follow closely behind these release candidates based on your feedback, so now is a good time to finish up and polish your parts so that they are ready to be deployed to customers at the GA date.
We look forward to getting the SharePoint Framework – and the great set of parts you’re developing – into the hands of every SharePoint customer.
