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I am working on a SharePoint extension that does some undocumented operations in SharePoint. This is for a specific version so I am not woried about future changes only about losing support.

What are the guidelines for server-side (WFE server) changes that are allowed without losing support ? If my extension can be easily removed in case of problems (deactivate feature) is that good enough ?

This link only specifies guidelines for allowed database changes, nothing about WFEs.

Undocumented changes are, for example :

  • Writing custom http modules (change incoming/outgoing requests)
  • Changing SharePoint native handlers (e.g. PageHandlerFactory )
  • HttpRequest.Items - Change values that SharePoint stores in the items dictionary.
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'not worried about future changes', so you're not going to patch your environment at all? – James Love Jul 31 '12 at 21:57
I might apply patches and retest my code. What worries me is losing the Microsoft support. My theory is that id the DB doesn't change, it is o.k. – Ami Luttwak Aug 1 '12 at 6:35

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If you follow the framework that should be used in SharePoint (items, features, packages etc) then you should be safe. Of course, using that framework you can replace out-of-the-box files, which is perfectly legit in some cases, but these files might get overwritten/restored by patching or it might cause side effects on other parts of the platform (it's up to you to test).

There are some files you should not modify att all though - these are things like the Site Definition files (this is explicitly documented as a no-go), assemblies (duh!), the OOB features etc.

Oh, and just as you said - DO NOT TOUCH THE DB (I'm not screaming, just using Metro style :-)

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Are there any published guidelines ? For example, I know of 3rd party products that replace .js files (as you also mentioned) is this o.k. ? – Ami Luttwak Aug 1 '12 at 10:25
Definitely not - if you change the JS files they will more than likely be replaced upon next CU or Service Pack update. – James Love Aug 1 '12 at 19:37

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