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SharePoint birthday web part

SPHub's birthdays module is a SharePoint birthday web part that shows the people whose birthday falls in the current week, read from one SharePoint list in your own Microsoft 365 tenant. Setup creates that list, BirthdayList, with three custom fields beside SharePoint's own Title, and a card with a photo, a name and a job title then rotates through this week's birthdays.

The module has no form, no approval step and no email. This page describes what its code does and, where it matters, what it does not do.

The list the setup wizard creates

The setup wizard creates one SharePoint list for birthdays, named BirthdayList, with three custom fields beside SharePoint's own Title field.

Fields in the birthday list

type and rule
  • Job TitleSingle line of text
  • BirthdayRequired. A date without a time; the sample records carry a real birth year
  • PhotoA hyperlink in picture format, shown on the card as a round photo

The Title field holds the person's full name, and the web part shows it as the name on the card. The column names are created in English. On an empty list the wizard adds two sample records whose birthdays fall in the week of installation, so the web part is not blank on day one.

What the web part shows

The web part shows the people whose birthday falls in the current week, Monday to Sunday, under the heading Birthdays This Week in the English interface.

  • This week, not next month

    Each person is matched on month and day, and the year is ignored. The week is the Monday-to-Sunday week by the clock of the viewer's browser, so a birthday earlier in the same week still shows, and one in the following week appears only when that week starts. There is no setting for a longer look-ahead. A person born on 29 February appears only in a week that contains 29 February.

  • One card at a time

    Each card carries a round photo, the name, the job title when there is one, and the date as a month name and a day number, such as May 15. When two or more people qualify, the cards rotate every 4.5 seconds, pause while the pointer is over them, and a row of dots jumps to a person. One person gets a single static card.

  • Photos

    If the Photo field is empty or the picture fails to load, the card shows a default avatar instead.

  • When there is nothing to show

    With no birthdays this week, the card says no one is celebrating a birthday this week. If SharePoint returns an error, such as when the chosen list no longer exists, it shows an error message instead of an empty card.

Where the data comes from and what it reads

Birthdays come from one SharePoint list on the site that hosts the web part, and from no other source; where SPHub stores your data covers the whole product.

  • A list, not Microsoft Graph

    The web part reads the list through the SharePoint REST API of the current site, as the signed-in person. It makes no Microsoft Graph call and reads neither Microsoft 365 profiles nor the employee directory, so none of the three Graph permissions is used by this module. Names and job titles are whatever people typed into the list.

  • Birth years

    The card shows a month and a day, never a year or an age. The list does hold the full date, and the web part asks SharePoint for up to 5,000 items and filters them in the browser, so each viewer who can read the list receives the complete Birthday value of every item, year included. SPHub adds no permission model of its own, so SharePoint's permissions on the list decide who can see the years.

  • Keeping the list current

    Nothing in the module copies birthdays in from elsewhere. A new starter appears when someone adds an item to BirthdayList, and a leaver stays until someone removes the item. The module has no forms, no pages of its own and no recycle bin; items are managed in the list itself.

  • Using another list

    The List dropdown in the web part properties offers every list on the site that is not hidden, and BirthdayList is the default. A list used instead needs columns with the internal names Title, JobTitle, Birthday and Photo, because the request selects those four.

Where it appears

The birthday web part appears on the SPHub home page that setup creates, and you can add it to any modern page, where the web part picker calls it Birthday.

  • On the home page

    The home page the wizard creates, SPHub Home, already includes a Birthday web part. With no list chosen, it reads BirthdayList.

  • Appearance

    The web part properties include an Appearance group with a theme preset, a brand colour and an optional custom stylesheet.

  • Microsoft Teams

    The web part can be added as a Teams tab or as a Teams personal app, as well as to SharePoint pages. It does not run in Outlook.

How you get it

Birthdays ships inside SPHub, and every SPHub plan includes every web part.

  • Created by the setup wizard

    Birthdays is not one of the optional modules the wizard asks you to pick, so there is nothing to switch on. The wizard's list step creates BirthdayList, and the install page has the steps.

  • One licence, every web part

    No plan ships fewer web parts. Pricing is per user and falls with headcount, and the pricing page lists the five bands.

  • The other modules

    Birthdays is one of the 27 web parts; the web parts page names the rest.

Questions about SPHub birthdays

Three details of the birthday web part are answered below: the year, the look-ahead and notifications.

  • Does it show a birth year or an age?

    It shows a month name and a day number only. The year stays in the list, where SharePoint's permissions apply.

  • Can it show next week's birthdays?

    It cannot. The window is the current Monday-to-Sunday week, and no web part property changes it.

  • Does it send greetings or reminders?

    It sends neither. The module sends no email at all, so it does not use the Mail.Send permission.

Other SPHub module pages

Birthdays is not the only SPHub module with a page of its own: annual leave, expenses, travel requests, asset management, issue tracking, announcements and vehicle assignment each have one.

Module pages

what it is
  • Annual leaveLeave requests with their own form and views
  • ExpensesExpense requests with their own form and views
  • Travel requestsTravel requests with their own form and views
  • Asset managementA SharePoint asset management template: a two-step form, Identity & Ownership then Purchase & Media, plus views for all assets, your own, and assets by type
  • Issue trackingLogging and following up problems, with their own forms and views, including tickets by status
  • AnnouncementsThe SharePoint announcements web part: company news posts on the home page
  • Vehicle assignmentWhich vehicle is assigned to whom, with its own forms and views

See birthdays in your own tenant

Run setup on a development site and watch the wizard create the list and the home page that carries the web part.

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