If you’re interested in providing a secure, on-premise collaboration platform that is mobile-ready for today’s modern work experience, look no further. In SharePoint 2019, Microsoft has expanded its modern experience to include more intuitive features that align with Office 365.
What’s New in SharePoint 2019
Here are some highlights of what has been updated in SharePoint 2019:
SharePoint Home Page
The home page is now aligned with Office 365 functionality, which means it will display all relevant sites in one convenient location. This includes news from any sites the user follows and from suggested sites.
Assuming the user has the appropriate permissions, they will also be able to create new sites directly from the home page.
Lists and Libraries
Lists have also been given an upgrade to align with SharePoint Online: SharePoint 2019 simplifies how users create and interact with information through a more intuitive user interface. Common tasks such as copying or moving files, pinning documents, and filtering and sorting columns, or adding files as links can now be done using the command bar rather than the ribbon. Creating new folders, saving documents, and uploading files can now be done from any device, enhancing the experience for mobile users.
File storage has been increased to 15GB, matching the capacity of SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. File and folder names now support all special characters, including # and %, and the URL path limit has been increased to 400 characters.
Team Sites and Communication Sites
Team sites are now pre-populated with a section for news, quick links, site activity, and a document library. They designed to keep the most relevant news front and center, with a new Hero web part that displays up to five items including images, text, and links. Team sites now allow faster site provisioning and in-line editing of the quick start menu.
Communication sites present news, reports, status, and other information in an appealing format that is also mobile-ready. These are similar to the classic publishing sites but are simpler to create and don’t rely on publishing site infrastructure.
Users can create communication sites, using one of three templates:
- Topic is designed to share news and events with default hero, news, events and documents web parts.
- Showcase is intended as a showcase of a product, team or event, with an image-centric design. It includes the hero and image web parts by default.
- Blank provides a clean slate to create your own design.
New pages
The new modern pages are less structured than the classic pages and are easier to create and customize. Unlike a classic page, the layout is flexible and can be changed at any time. All modern pages provide responsive design that is optimized for mobile use.
Search
In the modern search experience, users are given suggested content even before they start typing. As a user types into the search, results are updated dynamically and grouped by type.
What’s Deprecated in SharePoint 2019?
There can be confusion about what exactly is meant by deprecated and removed features. A deprecated feature is no longer being invested in by Microsoft. They are still supported by Microsoft for customers who are already using this feature in previous releases and need the feature for backward compatibility, however deprecated features may be removed in future major releases of SharePoint Server with no additional notice.
Deprecated features include:
Aggregated Newsfeed
The aggerated newsfeed (newsfeed.aspx) will still be available, however it is now read-only. If you currently use the aggregated newsfeed, Microsoft recommends replacing it with Team News, Communication Sites, Yammer and/or Teams.
InfoPath and SharePoint Designer
Though support for InfoPath and SharePoint Designer does not officially end until 2026, it is time to start considering alternatives to these such as Power Apps and Microsoft Flow.
Custom Help
The new help engine is now rendered in the cloud and will be updated to synchronize with Office 365.
What’s Removed in SharePoint 2019?
A removed feature is no longer supported by Microsoft in SharePoint Server 2019. In many cases the feature is actually removed from the product, but in some cases it may still be present. A feature labeled as “removed” is unsupported even if the feature is still present in the product.
The following are removed from SharePoint 2019:
Code-Based Sandbox Solutions
Code-based sandbox solutions are customization packages that can be used to deploy customizations to SharePoint on the site collection level. These solutions were deprecated in the previous two on-premise versions of SharePoint, and are now officially removed. Microsoft suggests users look at SharePoint add-ins as an alternative.
Visio Rendering with Silverlight
In previous on-premise versions, Visio diagrams were rendered with either Microsoft Silverlight or PNG-based technology. Silverlight-based rendering for Visio diagrams is no longer supported.
Multi-Tenancy
As Microsoft continues to innovate in SharePoint Online, an increasing amount of SharePoint multi-tenancy capabilities are taking dependencies on cloud technologies that aren’t available in on-premises environments. If you depend on multi-tenancy, Microsoft recommends considering migration to SharePoint Online or migrating to a non-multi-tenancy farm configuration.
Preparing for your SharePoint 2019 Migration
Migrations quickly become complex due to unsupported customizations or unexpected dependencies on deprecated or removed features. In advance of a migration, a thorough assessment of your environment with a focus on these aspects is critical.
Elantis is ready to help you, with a fix priced migration readiness assessment, the critical first steps to get prepare for a move to SharePoint 2019 or SharePoint Online. Contact us today for details.
