Sharepoint Experiences - What's old is new again

 It's hard to believe I haven't posted here since 2012.  

14 years ago.
wow...

In that time, I've seen the peak and ebb of corporate knowledge stores and portals. 
IBM/Lotus Domino.  Sharepoint.  OpenText.  Dropbox. Confluence.  Teams/OneDrive.  Sharepoint.

OneLake Catalog.  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-overview

I've watched the "modern" list of intranet tools and front-line portals grow.

Simpplr, Worvivo, MangoApps, Staffbase, Unily, FirstUp, Igloo, Interact, LumApps, Yoobic, Beekeeper, Blink, Pebb io, eXo Platform, Haystack, Simple, Oak Engage, Axero, Humand.

And now back to Sharepoint, with it's "classic" and "modern" experiences.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepoint-classic-and-modern-experiences-5725c103-505d-4a6e-9350-300d3ec7d73f

SharePoint recently introduced their 'new SharePoint experience (preview)'

Awhile back I learned never to name something "new" as time is relative.

Semantic versioning or code names are better.

Hey Copilot, give me a better name.

A. Conceptual / Vision‑Driven Codenames

These communicate intent, not versioning.

Theme	Codename	Why it works
Discovery & clarity	SharePoint Lumen	Signals illumination, clarity, content discovery.
Publishing & creation	SharePoint Forge	Implies building, crafting, and producing content.
Modern architecture	SharePoint Horizon	Suggests a new frontier without implying finality.
AI‑first workflows	SharePoint Atlas	Conveys intelligence, mapping, and navigation.
Simplicity & focus	SharePoint Nova	Clean, modern, and future‑proof.

Best fit: SharePoint Lumen — aligns with the new Discover/Publish/Build model and the simplified, AI‑supported architecture. It’s aspirational without being tied to a specific release.

A. Naming the Toggle

Avoid “new” (it ages instantly). Use mode‑based or experience‑based naming.

Recommended patterns:

• Classic Mode / Lumen Mode

• Legacy Experience / Modern Experience

• SharePoint Standard / SharePoint Lumen

• SharePoint (Classic) / SharePoint (Modern)

This avoids ambiguity and supports long‑term coexistence.

Copilot didn't take into account that Lumen is already in use.  Naming things is hard!

https://lumendatabase.org/blog_entries/lumen-year-in-review-2025

Speaking of experiences, in 2026 there's a lot more to consider.  From the Lumen traffic reported in the link above.

- Consider how a smart speaker or car browser will interact with your web site.
- Consider how a phablet or dual-screen display can be used.
- Consider glasses, augmented reality, virtual reality.
- Consider agent to agent experiences.

More on the new Sharepoint experience and a demo.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/spblog/introducing-new-agentic-building-in-sharepoint-and-more-updates/4497987

https://demos.microsoft.com/Microsoft/play/5873/sharepoint-at-25

My prediction is the next major web UX experience will be WASM and pixel-driven, targeted at any GPU hardware and using nanites, shaders, filters, immersive audio and generative AI experiences rather than HTML, CSS or JavaScript.

It might allow for styles and perspectives like Roblox, Fortnight, or Minecraft, Atari or Nintendo or Sega or Playstation.  True gamification (or AI slop, take your pick!).

It might include perspectives such as '80s Lotus or '90s Informix.

Lately I've been liking the Commodore / Teletype aesthetic.  Though UX wise that logo is pretty big.

Regardless of the UX, an intranet site of the near future will include safe sandboxes for Agents, Agent to Agent workflows and operators in the loop approvals.   It will morph as needs change, content and knowledge changes, tasks, agents or audience changes.

It could morph in style and features while you're looking at it.  There's no more moving cheese, agents are eating your cheese and spitting it out.

https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/sandboxing-agentic-ai-workflows-with-webassembly/

https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/practical-security-guidance-for-sandboxing-agentic-workflows-and-managing-execution-risk/

There's still some ways to go to get Silverlight and garbage-collected WASM .NET or Go apps into the browser.  I'm sure this will accelerate over the course of 2026.

https://platform.uno/blog/the-state-of-webassembly-2025-2026/

https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/G3FRDA-beyond_javascript_wasm_gc_present_and_future/

https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/94420#issuecomment-3305321393

Why is my transfer rate so slow when using "Open with Explorer"? - SharePoint

 

Always had this problem and now we have a fix…  uncheck Automatically Detect Settings in Internet Options – Lan Settings!

 

I'm logged in on my SharePoint 2010 server machine (running Windows Server 2008 R2) and using the "Open with Explorer" feature in a document library to copy another full directory from a separate server running as a file server into my document library. Our network is full 1Gbps and these two machines are sitting right next to one another separated by less than ten feet of Cat-6 cable, yet my transfer speed starts below 100kbps and slowly degrades over time. How do I fix this?

Why is my transfer rate so slow when using "Open with Explorer"? - SharePoint

Diagnostic logging in Sharepoint

How to turn on diagnostic logging in Sharepoint projects.
http://www.martinhatch.com/2010/05/vs-2010-rtm-and-sp-2010-rtm-deployment.html

Error Occurred in deployment step 'Add Solution': Value cannot be null. Parameter name: s

FAIL

So what on earth could be causing this error? Well, I stumbled across a registry edit that enabled diagnostics logging for SharePoint projects in VS 2010 (thanks to Glyn Clough for letting me know about it).

Enable Diagnostics Logging for SharePoint Projects in Visual Studio 2010
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\SharePointTools] "EnableDiagnostics"=dword:00000001

Warm up your SharePoint Web Applications on Windows 2008 R2 using the IIS 7.5 Application Warm-Up module | SharePoint George

For those requiring application warmups without writing painful scripts:

http://www.harbar.net/articles/apm.aspx – IIS 7 & IIS 7.5 Below.

With the introduction of IIS 7.5 and Windows 2008 R2 however, there is an actual module developed by the IIS team that will integrate directly with IIS allowing you to seamlessly enable your application pools to load your web applications after a recycle occurs.  You can download the extension here; http://www.iis.net/expand/ApplicationWarmUp At the time of this writing, the Application Warm-Up module is still in beta, but I have been using it on our production servers for over a month without any hiccups.

Warm up your SharePoint Web Applications on Windows 2008 R2 using the IIS 7.5 Application Warm-Up module | SharePoint George

SharePoint Reviews: The Power of SharePoint Web Services. Now in the Browser!

SharePoint Reviews: The Power of SharePoint Web Services. Now in the Browser!: "Sliced bread. Pocket on a shirt. Indoor plumbing. A thousand songs in your pocket. Yes, SPServices is that revolutionary.

If you have to use Javascript, you better be using jQuery. If you're using Sharepoint and Javascript, SPServices is another include you'll need.

List of SharePoint App Stores « T3chnicalLead

List of SharePoint App Stores « T3chnicalLead: "Here’s a list of the SharePoint ‘app stores’ I’ve come across in my travels"

Check out T3chnicalLead's list here.

Calculated Field Formulas

Calculated Field Formulas

For SPS Lists, here's the Calculated Field Formulas.

How come External Lists can't do this? Combining SQL tables with Sharepoint business logic could be a powerful tool.

Inspecting The SharePoint Content Database « Ethan's blog

Inspecting The SharePoint Content Database « Ethan's blog

Querying the Sharepoint Database without using the API is a don't - unless you decide to do it so here's the queries you need.

SQL access with integrated security from SharePoint - Code - eCraft Labs

Accessing databases using integrated security from  Sharepoint.

When creating custom webparts or other custom features in SharePoint that retrieves data from a SQL server, there are a few gotchas and pitfalls that you should be aware of. I spent a few hours battling a couple of problems, so I thought I’d document the things I found out here to spread the knowledge.

SQL access with integrated security from SharePoint - Code - eCraft Labs

Delivering Reports to a SharePoint Library

Publishing reports on a daily basis to Reporting Services is trivial with the Sharepoint delivery extension and Reporting Services.

More details:

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Service Pack 2 (SP2) includes a delivery extension that you can use to send a report to a SharePoint library. The delivery extension is installed and configured when you apply SP2.

To use the SharePoint delivery extension, you must create a subscription from an application page on a SharePoint site, and then select SharePoint document library as the delivery type. You cannot use the SharePoint delivery extension for subscriptions that you create in SQL Server Management Studio or Report Manager.

Delivering Reports to a SharePoint Library