SharePoint Embedded: Full Featured SharePoint In a Custom App

SharePoint Embedded: Full Featured SharePoint Inside a Custom Application

March 28, 2024

Custom applications that require a lot of document management have always been a challenge to build. Historically, we would build an ASP.NET application and then pass content back and forth to Azure blog storage or make the document available for immediate download (but not store the document in the application after the download is complete). Microsoft has released SharePoint Embedded, a new way to store and manage content in custom applications. SharePoint Embedded offers a headless, API-only pattern to build content apps that integrate management capabilities like collaboration, security, and compliance into any app by storing content inside an enterprise’s existing Microsoft 365 tenant.

Enterprises can use SharePoint Embedded to power line of business apps, creating a unified and familiar experience for both app users and system administrators charged with managing these new apps.

How it works

When you install/register a SharePoint Embedded application in their Microsoft 365 tenant, SharePoint Embedded creates another SharePoint partition within your tenant. This storage partition doesn’t have a user interface but instead, the documents in the partition are only accessible via APIs. Meaning all documents will be accessible to the developer’s application, but the documents will only reside in the consumer’s Microsoft 365 tenant. Within this new storage partition inside of a Microsoft 365 tenant, a SharePoint Embedded application can create many “File Storage Containers” for storing content. Built on the same stack as SharePoint and OneDrive, SharePoint Embedded is highly scalable and performant, and designed for hyperscale use cases.

SharePoint Embedded Architecture

SharePoint Embedded accelerates your content management roadmap by enabling new capabilities for custom content apps:

• Extend advanced Microsoft 365 security and compliance to your app, such as audit, eDiscovery, Bring Your Own Key, and more.
• Leverage Microsoft 365 business continuity capabilities such as autoscaling, high availability, Microsoft 365 Backup, Microsoft 365 Archive, and disaster recovery.
• Deliver Microsoft 365 collaboration to your users and guest users as part of your app, such as coauthoring in Word or PowerPoint.
• Embed Microsoft’s trusted content management capabilities in your app, such as search, content preview, and version tracking.
• Craft a custom user experience that puts your app in complete control of security, lifecycle, and management.
• Harness the power of SharePoint Premium (e.g. document processing, eSignature, content assembly) in your app.
• Add your content to search and the Microsoft 365 semantic index – the technology powering  Copilot for Microsoft 365.

If you are looking to make the most out of your applications or SharePoint fill out the form below and someone will get in touch with you. Make sure you follow our blog, so you don’t miss out on other helpful tips and tricks.

Kyle Thorburn

Kyle Thorburn has been helping organizations implement Microsoft cloud solutions for the past 10 years. As Business Development Manager at Imaginet, he helps clients further adopt Office 365 and Azure across the enterprise.

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