WorkPoint 365 Version 4.20

To improve performance and scalability, WorkPoint has made a fundamental change in how it binds sites to entities within SharePoint Online. Previously, WorkPoint utilized SharePoint sites’ property bags to write binding information that connected a site to a WorkPoint entity. This approach will now be retired, and WorkPoint will instead leverage our dedicated WorkPoint API to manage this binding information.

Impact on Existing Solutions and Custom Web Parts

This change will affect any custom solutions that currently retrieve WorkPoint binding information directly from SharePoint property bags. In some cases, this binding information has been used to identify or fetch additional entity-specific information when on an entity site—typically within web parts, though this usage may extend to other solutions. Key considerations include:

• For Existing Sites: Sites that already contain WorkPoint binding information in their property bags will continue to function as expected, as we will not clear this data on existing sites. Custom solutions relying on this information can continue to operate without immediate modification.
• For New Sites: New sites will no longer write binding information to property bags. Consequently, web parts or other solutions that attempt to retrieve this data from property bags on these sites will not function properly. Instead, all data related to site-entity binding will be accessible exclusively through the WorkPoint API.

Enhanced Performance and Accessibility with the WorkPoint API

This update introduces several improvements:

• Improved Performance: The WorkPoint API offers fast, reliable access to binding information through optimized caching mechanisms, significantly enhancing data retrieval speed and site performance.
• Consistent Access Across Sites: The API provides a unified and documented method to access binding data, which simplifies development, improves maintenance, and aligns with modern SharePoint Online practices.
• Improved Security and Manageability: The WorkPoint API enables centralized security and validation for binding information, ensuring data is managed consistently and securely.

Partner Action Required

To ensure compatibility and seamless functionality across sites, we recommend that partners take the following actions:

1. Update Custom Web Parts and Solutions:
   • Identify any web parts or other custom solutions that retrieve binding information from SharePoint property bags.
   • Update these solutions to use the WorkPoint API to ensure compatibility with new sites and to leverage improved performance and security.
2. Standardize API-Based Access for Future Development:
   • Use the WorkPoint API for accessing binding information in all future development, to avoid potential issues with unsupported methods and ensure compatibility with future updates.
3. Consider Proactive Migration:
   • While binding data will remain in property bags on existing sites, partners may want to transition solutions to use the WorkPoint API across all sites to ensure long-term compatibility and benefit from performance improvements.

The endpoint used to get the binding information historically saved in SharePoint's property bags is the following:

WorkPoint now provides standard processes for creating and updating relations. Note that relations still needs to be set up in the WorkPoint 365 administration. You can read more about standard WorkPoint Automate processes in this article.