Well, this post was drafted a while ago (I mean a while) andfinally I got a chance to post this –
SharepointConference 2013 Update -
The biggest change I could see is that MS is trying to get out of sandboxed solutions which they introduced in 2010 and want to emphasize support toHTML5/ JSON/atom standards in 2013 and upcoming releases. Client svc is the key for 2013. Sharepoint 2013 still supports sandboxed solutions as its backward compatible (with both 14 hive and 15 hive folders) though it’s not a recommended approach as the future migration couldbe a daunting task to achieve. Yammer acquisition by MS had played a major rolein the release of 2013. Yammer sits on top of sharepoint to support the social media features which the user base had been asking for a while. Another biggest step MS had taken is the intro and integration of skydrive to sharepoint and azure. If you are not aware of SkyDrive, it is a file hosting service from MS that allow users to share files in the cloud.
I am pretty sure there are ton ofblog posts on the 2013 features. If you are thinking of doing an upgrade, I would suggest reading the post written by samatha on upgrade – FAQ from sharepoint conference 2012. I am in the process of doing an upgrade andwill write a full blog post on the findings/steps shortly. Stay Tuned!
Some of the features that I saw are listed below:
1. In 2013, Everythingis an App… Apppart.
2. Drag anddrop of office documents into the libraries – Both in office 365 and the inprimmodels
3. Yammer Integration
4. Task ListCollaboration – Remember we never had this in MOSS 2007/2010 and we need towrite a separate webpart for this (both for frontline and for LCN)
5. A majoradvancement in workflow – We can use a new workflow service built on theWindows Workflow Foundation components of the .NET Framework 4.5. It’scalled as Workflow Manager and it can play a central role in the enterprise. Alot of enhancements to sharepoint designer workflows. A workflow client will beinstalled as part of the sharepoint to integrate workflow.
6. DocumentLibrary – Search advancement: we now have a search for each doc library.
7. Introductionof Visual designer inside the Sharepoint Designer – This helps developervisualize the workflow that you are designing in the sharepoint designer.
8. OAuth –Integration of OAuth with sharepoint to support authorization of sharingresources. It could be site to site, site to skydrive etc….
9. ClientObject Model - As you all know, sharepoint 2010 started supporting ClientObject Model. 2013 nearly every API in the client object models have acorresponding REST endpoint. Now, you can interact remotely with SharePointobject model by using any technology that supports REST web requests. This is huge.
10. oData - oData is the newprotocol that MS use to transfer data in 2013 if you use client objectmodel…Remember ADO.Net…oData uses REST model for all requests – GET, POST, PUTand DELETE.
11. Workflows - improved stabilityand scalability. Workflows are asynchronous since they are separate service.This makes sharepoint much lighter and increases performance drastically.
12. App – Writing an App can be ofdifferent types. You can write app for an on-prim sharepoint server, or you canwrite an app for a cloud. Or you can write an app for both.
13. Web Content Management (WCM) –There is a huge improvement in WCM. Cross Site publishing is available. You nowhave an Authoring sites and a publishing sites. You should activate ‘Cross-SiteCollection Publishing’ feature in Site Collection Features to enable thisfunctionality.
14. WCM Video Embedding – This isawesome. Unlike in 2010, You can now embed video so easily.
15. Resources Folder - Resourcesfolder is shared between 14/15 (backward compatibility). You have to specificallyoversee 15 over 14.
16. Shredded Storage – Only updatesthe changed content to storage, not everything
17. SQL improvement – Supports SQL2012
18. Cache Service – Distributed cacheacross servers to improve performance
19. Request Management – Redirectrequest to individual server for large farm
20. Themes – Better user interface
21. Sharing – Improve content sharingand access control
22. Web Analytics - is no longer asservice application, it’s part of the search
23. Managed Navigation – Can moveyour nodes without moving the sites or pages,
24. Client-of-choice developmenttools – SP Designer is not the only way to do it. The catalog and pagelibraries are now exposed to WebDAV clients including Windows Explorer. Thismeans it will be a lot easier for you to build custom site layouts and branded masterpages. This is a significant overall change that will enable broaderSharePoint adoption for publishing sites.
25. Content by Search Web Part ismuch more flexible than the Content by Query Web Part – You don’t need XSLTanymore.
26. Clean URLs –you can build brandedname links rather than nested folder urls that we do currently.
27. Search - Personalized searchresults based on search history.
28. MySite Improvements: Newsfeed -You can see the social activities of people and content that you are following,About Me — this screen contains your own familiar newsfeed, with a link toedit your profile, SkyDrive— remember the “Shared Documents” library on your MyContent site in 2010? SkyDrive Pro is that same document library
29. Tasks - All the tasks assigned toyou are rolled up here as I specified before.
30. Office – Web based access tooffice applications
31. Robust integration betweenDesktop and platform (Drag and drop is one the feature)
32. Rollups – Rollups with ContentQuery has improved drastically. We now can rollup based on ‘Recently ChangedItems’, Popular Items, Recommended Items, Items related to current user etc,
33. Simplified sharing – You can nowshare individual documents easily.