before we dive right in let's ask the question well what is sharepoint framework sharepoint framework or spfx is an open source framework that allows developers to build all sorts of customizations for use in modern sharepoint environments this is an awesome client-side framework that easily integrates with sharepoint office 365 and even outside services and apis sharepoint framework is available in both office 365 sharepoint online as well as the on-premises version of sharepoint 2019 or sharepoint 2016 if you have feature pack 2 installed at the core of sharepoint framework are web parts and extensions web parts are the building blocks of any sharepoint page and custom sharepoint framework webparts allow you to add just about anything that you can imagine to these pages we're going to be working with web parts quite a lot throughout the series and you'll try your hand at creating your very own probably sooner than you think extensions on the other hand allow you to extend the sharepoint user experience and this gives developers the ability to customize interface components like fields list views toolbars and menus with some very cool functionality and we're going to be working with those as well sharepoint framework has been out for some time now but it is constantly being improved with new features and functionality we're going to be updating this course on a regular basis to make sure that all the content you find here stays relevant and up to date so stay tuned for future improvements and now without further ado let's dive into this introduction to sharepoint framework