SharePoint Framework v1.4.1 release notes

Released: February 15, 2018

Important

This page addresses details related to a specific SPFx release version. This page doesn't include additional SPFx prerequisites that must be installed in order to develop SPFx solutions, including Node.js, Yeoman, and other tools.

To learn more about these prerequisites, see Set up your SharePoint Framework development environment.

Upgrading projects from v1.4 to v1.4.1

In the project's package.json file, identify all SPFx v1.4 packages. For each SPFx package:

  1. Uninstall the existing v1.4 package:

    npm uninstall @microsoft/{spfx-package-name}@1.4
    
  2. Install the refreshed v1.4.1 package:

    npm install @microsoft/{spfx-package-name}@1.4.1.0 --save --save-exact
    

Tip

The CLI for Microsoft 365 provides an easy step-by-step guidance to upgrade your solutions to latest SharePoint Framework version.

New features and capabilities

Node v8 (LTS) and NPM v5 Support

Support of Node.js v8 (LTS) and NPM v5 is now available in SPFx.

Issue reported here: https://github.com/SharePoint/sp-dev-docs/issues/1002

We've also updated the Set up your SharePoint Framework development environment article.

New APIs (developer preview)

Following are new APIs available for preview usage within SharePoint Online. These are not meant to be used in production yet.

@microsoft/sp-http

  • Initial beta release of AadHttpClient class
  • Initial beta release of AadTokenProvider class

@microsoft/sp-client-preview

  • Initial beta release of MSGraphClient class

You can find a tutorial for these new APIs from the Office SharePoint Development documentation.

AadHttpClient (developer preview)

AadHttpClient is used to do REST calls against an Azure AD Application, for example third-party WebAPI hosted in Azure.

  • For communicating with SharePoint, use the SPHttpClient class instead.
  • For communicating with Microsoft Graph, use the MSGraphClient class.

You can find more information on this new API from the Office SharePoint Development documentation:

MSGraphClient (developer preview)

MSGraphClient is used to do REST calls against Microsoft Graph. The Microsoft Graph JavaScript client library is a lightweight wrapper around the Microsoft Graph API. This class allows developers to start making REST calls to MSGraph without needing to initialize the MSGraph client library.

If a custom configuration is wanted, the MSGraphClient API function needs to be provided with that custom configuration for every request.

Important

Notice that this API is replacing the previously released GraphHttpClient, which is now considered to be deprecated.

AadTokenProvider

This class is an internal class used by AadHttpClient and MSGraphClient to obtain OAuth2 tokens from Azure AD. Although the class is currently marked as public, we're planning to change it as internal. For that reasons solutions should only rely on AadHttpClient and MSGraphClient classes.

Changes in this release

  • Fixed an issue in the generator that prevented activation of new versions of SPFx packages.
  • Symptoms - You deploy a new version of SharePoint Framework packages and you no longer see your web parts in web part picker.
    • #775

    • Fix: To fully successfully fix this issue, you'll need to do following steps in your SharePoint Online tenants.

      1. Remove all instances of existing SharePoint Framework solutions from site level
      2. Remove SharePoint Framework solution from app catalog
      3. Upload new SharePoint Framework solution built with 1.4.1 version to your app catalog
      4. Install SharePoint Framework solutions back to sites.

      Note

      This issue is not happening for tenant-scoped SharePoint Framework solutions and it's not happening for SharePoint add-ins.

      Tip

      You might potentially take advantage of the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) APIs to automate this needed process.

Deprecations and removed items in this release

  • The GraphHttpClient API has been deprecated in favor of the new MSGraphClient introduced in this release. The GraphHttpClient will be removed in a future release.