Foreword

Now is an exciting time to be a developer for the Microsoft platform. Cloud-based technologies such as Office 365 offer businesses a way to contain their IT costs and focus on what they do best. That means there will be more opportunities to develop targeted solutions for those businesses that help them to be more effective and more competitive. And with the rapid adoption of mobile devices and an invitation to a broader developer base by emphasizing client-side technologies such as HTML and jQuery, it’s now easier than ever to develop solutions at a relatively low cost that can be marketed to a broader range of customers than in the past. That’s exciting!

With that said, an important aspect of developing for the cloud is gaining a firm understanding of this new environment. The cloud represents a new environment with new boundaries that many developers of traditional on-premise applications are just beginning to grasp. The primary goal of this book is to get readers up to speed as quickly as possible on what the boundaries are in SharePoint Online and what’s possible in the realm of customization and development. We also tried to cover best practices and potential pitfalls as much as possible. After all, that’s one of the biggest reasons for buying a book like this, in our opinion.

We wish you the best in your endeavors with SharePoint Online and hope you’ll find this book to be a valuable resource on your journey!

Bart McDonough