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Update host web components in SharePoint

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Important

The SharePoint Add-In model in SharePoint Online has been retired as of November 27th 2023, checkout the full retirement announcement to learn more.

Retirement means that the feature will not get any new investments, but it's still supported. End-of-life means that the feature will be discontinued and is no longer available for use.

Before you begin, be familiar with Update SharePoint Add-ins and the prerequisites and core concepts listed in it.

Your add-in can install two kinds of components on a host web with descriptive markup in the SharePoint Add-in: custom actions and add-in parts. Updating these components is easier in the host web than in the add-in web. You don't need any update semantics. Just add/change the custom actions and add-in parts. When the SharePoint Add-in is updated, SharePoint always applies any new element manifest files and reapplies any changed element manifest files with the most recent version. No harm is done in reapplying; for example, a ribbon button for a custom action will not be added multiple times to the ribbon.

When you update an add-in part, SharePoint replaces the old version with the new version in the Web Part Gallery. Be sure to change the Name property of the ClientWebPart object when you update an add-in part. Doing this ensures that, when the add-in is updated, SharePoint will remove the old version of the add-in part (which is no longer part of the app) from all pages to which it was added. Users will need to re-add the new version to pages.

If you leave the Name property unchanged, the old version remains on pages where it was added, which makes it unlikely that users will be aware that a new version of the add-in part is available. Also, when the add-in part is added to other pages, it is the new version that is added, so the same version of a SharePoint Add-in would have different add-in parts on different pages.

You can deploy other kinds of host web components programmatically by using a remote event receiver that you register in the add-in manifest with an InstalledEventEndpoint element. You should use an UpgradedEventEndpoint receiver to update components that were originally deployed with an InstalledEventEndpoint receiver. UpgradedEventEndpoint receivers are described in Create a handler for the update event in SharePoint Add-ins.

Next steps

Go to Major steps in updating an add-in, or go directly to one of the following articles to learn how to update the next major component of your SharePoint Add-in.

See also