Professional SharePoint 2013 Development

Chapter 8

Developing Social Applications in SharePoint 2013

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Discovering new APIs for customization and integration
• Accessing the Community template programmatically
• Accessing user data with SharePoint My Sites and the User Profile API
• Enhacing the social feeds from the Social API

WROX.COM CODE DOWNLOADS FOR THIS CHAPTER

The wrox.com code downloads for this chapter are found at www.wrox.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=1118495829 on the Download Code tab. The code is in the chapter 08 download and individually named according to names throughout the chapter.

Many psychological and educational theories attempt to explain how a person’s environment impacts his ability to learn and understand. A person’s social connections form an environment that has become a focus in educational institutions and learning organizations. For example, the developmental theory of social constructivism suggests that a person’s culture and context in social settings allow groups to construct knowledge jointly for the benefit of the group. This concept was further expounded in the IBM Systems Journal article titled “Communities of Practice and Organizational Performance” where the authors identify a community as “a group whose members regularly engage in sharing and learning, based on their common interests,” or a community of practice. The authors conclude that:

. . . communities play a significant role in the development of social capital, which in turn influences organizational outcomes. ...