Kislay Sinha Microsoft 365, microsoft teams, Office 365, PowerShell, SharePoint, SharePoint Online

Last week in Microsoft 365 – 07 Oct – 14 Oct 2020 – VLog 1

Topics covered in this Vlog

1.Vesa and Waldek’s 100th Episode of PnP Weekly

2.Scottish summit – call for speakers

3.One Admin Center for SharePoint and OneDrive

4.Cross platform PnP PowerShell preview version released by Erwin

5.App capabilities of Teams 6.Project Nucleus teaser

Transcript of the video:

Hello and Welcome everyone to very first Vlog of ”Last week in Microsoft 365”, since this is the first VLog ever I want to tell you what it is? In this series of videos I will be picking some of things I read or liked in Microsoft 365 area during last week and I will be telling you about in brief and if you like it you can find more about in the link pasted in YouTube video or in my blog post. So let’s gets started

1. First up is of course the champions of the community or I should say leaders of the community @vesajuvonen and @waldekm who finished 100th episode of their PnP weekly which was SP Dev Weekly when it started actually, If you would like to know the story of how it started you should listed or view the video (hint it points to one and only Chris Kent). They also discussed what is the purpose of these videos and it is very encouraging to know that they do this for the community to amplify their reach and also develop a bridge between community members and Microsoft. Do listen to this video highly recommended. Here is a link to it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs_8b…

2. Number second is that Scottish Summit has been announced and call for speakers expires on 31st Oct so if you have a nice cool topic please submit it, most amazing thing about this summit is that it will have 250 sessions and that too in different languages such as English, Spanish, German, French, Mandarin and my own Hindi. Plus they also have a program for new speaker like me so if you are going to speak for the first time they will help you out. So what is that you are waiting for either send a session or buy the tickets? Register here: https://sessionize.com/ss2021

https://scottishsummit.com/

3. Next up is the a Twitter announcement which I believe is important that there will be one admin center for SharePoint and OneDrive which of course make sense as both of them are so tied up so get ready for that one. Link: https://twitter.com/SharePoint/status…

4. Next up is announcement by father of PnP PowerShell @erwinvanhunen, that is preview version of cross platform PnP PowerShell has been released. In his blog post he explains why it took so long and what are the key changes coming up. So if you are using PnP PowerShell for your work or you rely it on running scripts this is an important information, please reach out to him on Twitter or read the blog. Blog: https://www.erwinmcm.com/cross-platfo…

5. Next one is something which widened my eyes when I looked into this on my Twitter feed, the picture. It shows all he App Capabilities of Teams which is fascinating as you can see it can do almost everything, right from embedded tabs, Bots, Messaging extensions, WebHooks and connectors as well so if you are planning to create an App for Teams do read this and understand what all can be achieved. All thanks to Bill Bliss (@bill_bliss ) for sharing this. Link to docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/micr… Tweet: https://twitter.com/bill_bliss/status…

6. Ok so the last one, and it is related to one of the big announcements which was mentioned in the Microsoft Ignite this year, that is Project Nucleus , as you are aware we got SharePoint Syntex out of Project Cortex and Nucleus was announced this year. A teaser of this was shown in SharePoint monthly community call – October 2020 at the end so if you would like to see just that part then find the link in YouTube video description or on my blog. So biggest thing you need to know that it allows web apps such as List to be available offline for browsing and editing capabilities. This teaser explains how it works and how they are doing it. It demonstrates a List with 100,000 items and also shows what happens in the backend and also how you can join Project Nucleus.

Video URL: https://youtu.be/-dVZM-UROb0?t=2666

Kislay Sinha Microsoft 365, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint 2019, SharePoint Online, SharePoint SPFX

SharePoint Starter Kit v2 – an overview

If you like my blog post please subscribe to my YouTube Channel “SYNK Ventures – Let’s talk about Microsoft 365” as well https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vLzWN-3aFG8dgTgEOlx5g?sub_confirmation=1

What is SharePoint starter kit V2?

A comprehensive solution showcasing packaging, solution deployment, provisioning and SPFx web parts to inspire and guide developers, business users and SharePoint Admins to create solutions on similar lines.

Why you should have a look at this?

This has been created by best people in this field (SharePoint, Microsoft 365) which means that code, design and relevance of the web parts are extremely good, all the web parts can be used in your tenant as is. You can learn and create your own ways to

  1. Package solutions
  2. Provisioning mechanism
  3. Coding guidelines, standards
  4. Build modern portals

How to get started?

If you want to install everything at one shot the steps are simple. I suggest to have a look first install it on development tenant and not the Production tenant, as it will upload lot of SPFx solutions and make changes so best is that you review it in a developer tenant. Based on your understanding you can plan to deploy it in Production.

  1. Prerequisites: There are some preparation steps which you need to before you install it as follows
  2. How to install?
Github SharePoint Starter Kit V2

Open PowerShell and excute this command 

Connect-PnPOnline https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com

This will ask your User Id and Password, please use tenant administrator for this as it will be used to install the Starter Kit.

Then go to Provisioning folder in the source code you have downloaded from GitHub.

cd <<location>>

Then execute following command in PowerShell

Apply-PnPTenantTemplate -Path .\starterkit.pnp

The command might take 10-15 mins to execute and if all goes well three sites will be created.

You can watch a video to view complete process

Issues you might face

  • Exception while invoking endpoint: I encounter this issue while installing almost half way through the installation. Error message you might get is this Apply-PnPTenantTemplate : Exception while invoking endpoint https://login.microsoftonline.com/fffff-4121-ae51-71e06b5edc04/oauth2/token.
    • If you get this it follow below steps rather than the normal steps
    • Remove earlier version of SharePointPnpPowerShellOnline
    • Install-Module -Name “SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline” -RequiredVersion 3.20.2004.0
    • Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://tenant-admin.sharepoint.com/ -PnPO365ManagementShell , this will open a window in browser for device login in which you should enter a code specified, make it is succcessful.
    • Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://tenant.sharepoint.com, renter tenant admin credentials
    • Then go to provisioning folder and execute Apply-PnPTenantTemplate -Path .\starterkit.pnp
SharePoint Starter Kit

Use provisioning parameters:

You can also provide parameters to achieve some customizations such as below

Apply-PnPTenantTemplate -Path .\starterkit.pnp -Parameters @{"Company"="Your Company Name";"SiteUrlPrefix"="YourCompany";"WeatherCity"="Stockholm"}

More information here https://github.com/pnp/sp-starter-kit/blob/master/provisioning/readme.md#provisioning-parameters

How it looks like after installation?

Three site collections are created

Site collections after Starter Kit

A communication site

SharePoint Starter Kit V2 demo Communication site

A Private Group Team site

SharePoint Starter Kit V2 HR Team Site demo

An another teams site as department site

SharePoint Starter Kit V2 Marketing Site Demo

Below web parts and SPFX web parts are installed, for detail explaination please check on this link https://github.com/pnp/sp-starter-kit#custom-web-parts

SharePoint Starter Kit V2 Apps

How to make it work in SharePoint 2019?

As of 23rd July 2020 the ApplyPnPTemplate command for SharePoint 2019 is not available, you can keep an eye on this URL https://github.com/pnp/sp-starter-kit/blob/master/provisioning/readme-sp2019.md to check if it is available as community members have promised to update it soon.

Till then you can deploy individual apps in SharePoint 2019 farm and use the apps. Following apps will work in SharePoint 2019 as well

  • Banner
  • Followed sites
  • Links
  • People directory
  • Site information
  • Tiles
  • Weather
  • World clock

To deploy the apps you can copy the package from source code you downloaded before from this location “sp-starter-kit-master\source\<<solution-name>>\sharepoint\solution” and upload it to App Catalog of your farm.

There is no need to build the solution and can be directly deployed but in case you face issues you can build it using 

gulp bundle --ship
gulp package-solution --ship
SP Starter Kit v2 SP 2019

Once deployed you can add it on a page, in this case I am showing Tiles app.

Tiles App SharePoint 2019
Tiles App in SharePoint 2019

More information can be found here: https://github.com/pnp/sp-starter-kit/blob/master/documentation/components/wp-tiles.md

So that is all I have for SharePoint Starter Kit V2 , I will write more about this topic as there is lot to explore.

Connect with me on Twitter or Linked In if you need more information.

Special thanks to all community members who work on these and provide great solutions https://github.com/pnp/sp-starter-kit/graphs/contributors

I also did a demo of SharePoint Starter Kit V2 on PnP Community SharePoint Framework and JavaScript Special Interest Group (SIG) – Bi-weekly sync call recorded on September 10, 2020.

Here is a link to the video:

References:

https://github.com/pnp/sp-starter-kit

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/office/blogs/announcing-sharepoint-starter-kit-v2/

Kislay Sinha Microsoft 365, Office 365, SharePoint, Spaces

SharePoint Spaces – my take on practical usage

To be honest when SharePoint Spaces was announced I had thought what can be practical usage of this but now I after using it in preview mode I can understand the usage part of this as well.

I must admit SharePoint Spaces is really cool to use and I have never thought I would see Augmented Reality in SharePoint but like all things nothing is impossible.

There are nice practicle samples provided by Microsoft SharePoint which you can find here https://www.exploresharepointspaces.com/samples but my example is a simple and scale down one.

This based on my experience with a customer I have worked with for many years.

I would like to create “Product Catalog” to display 3D images for the product and display relevant documents related to the Product.

To set some context: Large product / euiqpment manufacturing comapanies such as mining, construction or vechiles upload there marketing material for sales people to be accessed internally and share externally for sales pitch when needed on portal sites.

In general in these portal sites you will find images of the product and documents related to it in OOB user interface or custom user interface.

Companies also have product 3D images but they don’t show on intranet as SharePoint Spaces was not available so not so practical I would say.

Now we have set the context let’s check how easy is to use SharePoint Spaces.

  • First of all you need a SharePoint Site preferably a Communication site as it will give you more space in screen to create SharePoint Spaces.
  • Spaces is not available automatically and feature needs to be enabled in “Manage Site Features” called “Spaces”.
  • Once you have enabled it you will see below option in “New”
SharePoint Spaces new option
  • Select a structure , input a name to create a Space Design page which will look like below depending on which structure you have selected
SharePoint Space Design Page
  • Click on “+” to add 360 degree image, video etc shown as below
Add SharePoint Spaces
  • I will be adding a two Product groups like Trucks and Cars, which will take user to two different Spaces page which will contain different Trucks and Cars, you can imagine this as Product group and when you click you go to different Products available under that group.
  • I will add a 3D Object with Podium , please check below screen shots
  • The properties which I have used are “Podium”, “Link to another space” , “Alternate text” and “Description”.
  • The “Link to another space or link” is great option as you can hierarchy and structure around Spaces.
  • I will be adding another Space which display multiple Products and then each product will also link to another Space which will have a Document Library attached
  • This will complete our Product Catalog so it works like this Product Group –> Products –> Document Library (Space)
  • Now let’s see the whole set up in action
SharePoint Spaces in action
  • During the process of creating this I found some improvement areas or issues
    • If you have only folders in a document library then the SharePoint Spaces cannot load it
    • If you want to connect a object to a folder in library you have to use a “Link” option and the link to Folder will not be recognized which you get from “Copy Link” option so you have to construct on your own which will also be not recognized but it will work
    • If you have done connections using SharePoint Spaces then the page does not reload but Space area reloads which is good but it will be good to have some kind of hirearchy navigation which can help in contructing structures
  • Another thing I would like to add is that it works in Microsoft Teams as well
Teams and SharePoint Spaces

I think SharePoint Space has lot of practical usage you just need to think in different way and visualize.

Let me know what you think and what pratical usages to you can see.

Connect with me on Twitter or Linked In if you need more information.

References and links:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/sharepoint-spaces-7b65edfb-7cc9-42e3-af37-178d79364a5e

https://www.exploresharepointspaces.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danielando_linkedin-sharepointspaces-microsoftteams-activity-6671180202351050752-u6S0

Kislay Sinha Bookings, Microsoft 365, Office 365, Teams

Microsoft 365 App – Bookings – A walkthrough

You must have booked an online appointment on sites for small businesses or salon or some kind of services but did you know that there is an service provided by Microsoft 365 as well for these kind of bookings. Although it has been around since 2016 it was made available for all E3 and E5 licenses recently.

I must say that Bookings App / service is very easy and intuitive to use, let’s have a quick walkthrough first and then we can look into some scenarios where it can be useful.

  • Booking page: Page is configurable in all aspects such as how booking page can be accessed, some text about data usage and control, scheduling policy, how to notify users, color theme of page. Check a screenshot below
  • Customers: You can add customers or import them as well
  • Staff: You can add staff and their availability schedule
  • Services: You can add what kind of services you provide
  • Business information: You can add more than one Business
  • You can create booking page which can be only accessed internally in organization
  • Customize email notifications
  • You can share booking socially and you can also disable the option if you want
  • Reports: You can download data upto 120 days
  • Booking is also available as an App in Microsoft Teams which makes it easy to use for organizations
  • Data can be accessed via Graph API if you want to build applications or further extend functionalities, read more here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/booking-api-overview?view=graph-rest-beta

Overall very rich functionalities and will meet your needs. Ability to access data via Graph API enables lot of possibilities.

Bookings App in Microsoft Teams

In general Microsoft 365 Bookings can be used by enterprise, small companies, shops to enable bookings in their public facing sites but apart from this it can be used internally by enterprises for various purposes.

  • Appointments for Service Desk kiosks
  • Appointments with HR for queries
  • Appointments with finance for resolutions

This was a quick walkthrough of Bookings in Microsoft 365.

If you want to try out Bookings I have created a demo which you can utilize

https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/Test@cgikislay.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/

Connect with me on Twitter or Linked In if you need more information.

Resources and references:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-bookings-blog/you-can-now-do-more-with-microsoft-bookings/ba-p/298461

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-bookings-blog/bg-p/Office365BusinessAppsBlog

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/scheduling-and-booking-app

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/booking-api-overview?view=graph-rest-beta

Kislay Sinha Lists, Microsoft 365, Office 365, Teams

Microsoft 365 Lists – a powerful App, SharePoint lists not needed any more

Microsoft Build 2020 came up with lot of exciting announcements but the most interesting one was Lists as individual app in Microsoft 365.

Lists has been around for many years as part of SharePoint platform , I remember explaining my end users Lists is something like an excel rows or table in database in SharePoint 2010 days and to be frank not a lot has been changed, we have not seen huge improvements except some more templates being introduced. We got conditional formatting recently in SharePoint online, of course you can do more these days due to introduction of Power Platform (Power Apps and Automate).

This is reason I term this annoucement as interesting one as it takes the Lists to another level and put it on same level as other standalone apps.

So let’s look what all we get in Microsoft 365 Lists

  • It can be accessed as a standalone app from waffle of Micorosft 365
  • Various default predefined templates such as issue tracker, asset tracking, blank , contacts, inventory, events, onboarding etc are available
  • Lists has its own home page
  • Available as mobile app
  • Can be added to Microsoft Teams as an App or tab
  • Can have conversation around Lists in Microsoft Teams or can have conversation around each item in a Microsoft Lists
  • Lists will have views calendar, grid, custom, cards etc
  • Conditional formatting is available in Lists
  • Rules: You can set rules to show hide columns based on differen rules, it’s like light weight customizing forms, for definition read below statement
    • Building rules is as easy as writing a sentence. Once you decide on the outcome, click-fill if/then steps to design your rules. Choose people, status, and value changes to send notifications or programmatically update values elsewhere in the list. Finally, use rules to set reminders to keep everyone informed.
  • Lists can be shared with users so you can manage permissions and you can be owner of lists
  • You can boomark Lists using the favorites feature
  • Can create a new list from existing excel data
  • Able to preview a list before it is created
  • You can chose an icon and a color for you lists to make distinctions between different lists
  • Lists can be saved as draft till you are ready to share with others
  • You can comment on individual list items and also mention someone
  • You can design your own card views
  • Data availability and accessibility via Graph API

As you can read it has lots of features and covers a lot of scenarios which were not possible before in SharePoint lists so let’s have a look into them

  • Rule based email sending capabilities, earlier we used to write workflow or event receivers or Flows
  • Grid or card views , earlier we used to customize using JSLink, Jquery, JS etc
  • Earlier a whole site has to be created even though only a list was needed
  • In past following requests had come to be from business users which are avaialble by default now
    • Save as draft before it is ready to be released
    • Different icons to visualize it better
    • Simple form customziations can be done by Rules earlier we had to inject JS in edit, new or view forms

We can clearly infer that Microsoft 365 Lists are smart, powerful and easily replace SharePoint lists so we don’t need them anymore. With ability to add this in Teams we can see it is more flexible and very well integrated in Microsoft 365.

We can also infer that a need of Teams sites in SharePoint is even less now and if you are using Microsoft Teams along with Lists probably you don’t need SharePoint team sites.

As as ending note I am really forward to this new app which will be extremely useful and I would like to move most of SharePoint list to new Microsoft 365 Lists.

Connect with me on Twitter or Linked In if you need more information.

References

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/announcing-microsoft-lists-your-smart-information-tracking-app/ba-p/1372233 https://resources.techcommunity.microsoft.com/microsoft-lists/

Kislay Sinha Hub Sites, MegaMenu, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online Megamenu for modern Hub sites – how it works #megamenu , security trimming in MegaMenu

If you like my blog post please subscribe to my YouTube Channel “SYNK Ventures – Let’s talk about Microsoft 365” as well https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vLzWN-3aFG8dgTgEOlx5g?sub_confirmation=1

Let’s start with a question, can megamenu be enabled on all site templates?

Well answer is No, it is available only on SharePoint Hub sites which are associated with Microsoft teams or on Communication sites.

What is a megamenu in SharePoint Online?

In the traditional navigration structure you could only have two levels of navigation but now in MegaMenu you can have multiple levels spanning horizontally and vertically.

How it works?

You can create MegaMenu from Site Settings –> Change the look –> Navigation. Note that MegaMenu is default type in Communication sites but if you need to change it follow below steps

MegaMenu SharePoint

MegaMenu can be used to create multi-level horizontal and vertical menus as shown below.

Megamenu example

To start with you need to click Edit on right side and Under any heading, when you hover you will see a line with plus symbol to add a menu. Use that to add headers or links depending on what you need.

SharePoint MegaMenu

Once done you can “Make sub link” to make it appear under it

Sample final outcome

MegaMenu example

How about Security trimming and Audience targeting in MegaMenu in Hub Site Navigation?

There is no security trimming in MegaMenu in Hub Site Navigation, I will say that purpose of Hub site really does not make sense to have MegaMenu security trimmed but at same time it can be debatable.

Audience targeting can be a good thing and it is under work as of May 2019, you can refer here

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=34251
Audience targeting MegaMenu

So that’s about MegaMenu in Hub site, if you have any questions or remarks please contact us via our Contact Us page or via our Facebook page or via Twitter

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Kislay Sinha Hub Sites, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint Online, Sub sites, Uncategorized

SharePoint Hub Sites and difference from sub sites

Hello world! A blog post was long due now!

I think I must have missed the Hub Sites in SharePoint buzz but a blog from my side anyhow.

What is a Hub Site?

Firstly, it is not a template like Communication or Team site, you can register an existing team site or communication site as a Hub Site so if you want to create a Hub site from scratch please create a site preferably a modern one and then register it as Hub Site which can only be done SharePoint Admin in Central Admin link.

Hub site is used to facilitate Intranet in organizations which can have other sites as “Association” or “Navigation” links. You can roll up information from associated and linked sites to the main Hub site by using Apps available.

You can think this of a container site but physically it does not contain any sites but can only be associated.

What makes it unique?

Something like this was not available before but I believe everyone wanted something like this as working with Site Collections and the Sub sites structure is rigid and difficult to change later on.

Hub sites introduce us a flat structure which can be moved easily as sites are just associated and not created under them.

So, uniqueness is in the flat structure which can be implemented easily.

Difference between the Hub site-based structure and the traditional structure is as below

Hub sites vs Sub sites

Hub site based Traditional – Site collections – sub sites
Flat structure Hierarchy based structure
Sites are associated and not created under it Sites are created under a main site
Access permissions do not have any impact in Access permissions are inherited by default or needs to be managed separately
Easy to move around sites and change structure or associations No easy ways to change the structure

 

How to utilize or use Hub Sites?

Hub site should be used to bunch sites together, create an intranet or roll up information together. Bunching or associating sites together should be done based on departments, organizations, key features, team or based on keywords or location etc. or if you want to roll up specific information from different sources.

Hub site can only be really useful if you will be rolling up information and two most easy ways to use OOB of Apps called “Highlighted Content” and “Sites” which can fetch different information from associated sites and show them beautifully.

On modern pages just add a section layout and then select add App using “+” symbol and select Highlighted Content or Sites depending on your needs, I would recommend Highlighted Content as it is really powerful and can roll up almost all data. Refer to screenshots below

As you can view you have following options

  • Select a source: can select all hub sites or some or specific one
  • Type of source: can be document, news, lists etc.
  • Filter and sort to organize your content
  • Different options for a Layout to support your needs

 

Other things you should consider while creating and managing Hub sites:

  • Naming convention of Hub sites so that it can be easily recognized
  • Name information which needs to roll up also properly so that easy to roll up later
  • Consider the audience before you start creating hub sites
  • Consider search scopes while deciding on the association of Hub sites
  • Also note that you can put a link to non-associated site

 

How to create Hub sites?

As pointed out earlier there is no template like Hub Site, you have to create a site collection using template either team site or communication. Communication template is recommended one from Microsoft.

Create a site a then select option mark it is a Hub site, you need to SharePoint admin to do all this

CommSiteHRCommSite

After the site is created you can register this as Hub site

Once this is done you can view extra navigation at the top

HubSiteCreated.png

 

So that’s about Hub site, if you have any questions or remarks please contact us via our Contact Us page or via our Facebook page or via Twitter

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Kislay Sinha Micrsoft Flow, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint Online

Microsoft Flow template published #MicrosoftFlow #SharePoint #Office365

So finally my first Microsoft Flow template has been published, I am quite excited about it! It took sometime for Microsoft to add in the list of templates but better late than never.

Template can be used from here

Send email and add item in SharePoint List when WordPress Post is created

Functionality in this template is quite simple, when a WordPress post is made, you can get an email and same information can be added in SharePoint List.

To learn how to publish a template you can read my below blog about it

How to submit a Flow in template Gallery ?

To learn more about Microsoft Flow you can read below blogs

My tryst with Microsoft Flow!

Microsoft Flow – Create from blank

Microsoft Flow – Advanced mode options #SharePoint #MicrosoftFlow

Kislay Sinha eDiscovery, Office 365, SharePoint Online

Checklist for configuring eDiscovery in SharePoint Online #SharePoint #Office365 #eDiscovery

There are multiple steps which needs to be done to configure eDiscovery successfully in SharePoint Online or Office 365. To perform this you need to be Office 365 Tenant Admin.

Here is a checklist to confirm the set up for eDiscovery

  1. Have you created a Site Collection with template as eDiscovery Center?
  2. Have you configured Exchange Online as one of the Result Sources in eDiscovery Center?
  3. Have you created a Security group called eDiscovery Managers in Exchange Admin?
  4. Have you given access to security group eDiscovery Managers to Site Collection as Admin?
  5. Have you given Admin access to all Site Collections to security group eDiscovery Managers?
  6. Have you given read permissions to eDiscovery Managers to Crawl Log permissions in Search settings in SharePoint admin?
  7. Have you given access to Role Discovery Management in Exchange Admin to eDiscovery Managers?

If your answer to all above questions yes then you are ready and your eDiscovery Managers can create cases now.

 

Kislay Sinha Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint Online

Hybrid Architecture Office 365 (SharePoint Online) and SharePoint 2016 On premise #SharePoint2016 #SharePoint #Office365

If you like my blog post please subscribe to my YouTube Channel “SYNK Ventures – Let’s talk about Microsoft 365” as well https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vLzWN-3aFG8dgTgEOlx5g?sub_confirmation=1

Best thing which has happened during the introduction of SharePoint 2016 is that Microsoft is convinced that Hybrid Architecture is the way forward for bigger organizations and all the data cannot be moved to cloud. At least this is the current reality with lot of companies but such fast changing technologies you never know what’s the future

In this post we will review architecture of SharePoint 2016 on-premise and Office 365 (SharePoint Online). Here we are assuming that you already have a SharePoint On-premise set up and you will add SharePoint Online.

Basic architecture looks like below

hybridarchitecture

Image source Download

To start with you need an Office 365 license and Azure subscription as well. To start with we need to set up server to server trust and certificates like STS.

We need Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) which is used to share information securely and seamlessly. SSO (Single Sign on) is also facilitated via this and also makes sure that there no duplication of accounts.

Azure active directory tenant is used to authenticate to Office 365. It’s quiet powerful with variety of features like identity management, multifactor authentication etc. Since authentication occurs via Azure active directory we will have copy of all user account of organization in this as well but we will use Azure Active Directory connect  for directory synchronization so that for end-user it looks like only one account.

More about Azure Active Directory Connect can be read here Azure Active Directory Connect

Azure Access control services is used to provide users authentication and authorization to web application and services. You can read more here Azure Access Control Service

There are multiple steps to do the complete set up, if you need very detailed steps I will recommend below online books from Microsoft press store

Planning and Preparing for SharePoint Hybrid

Configuring SharePoint Hybrid capabilities

Once the set up is done your users will experience various benefits, but you need to be sure what you are getting into and be clear about it

  • Integrated search: You get integrated search so you can search in both SharePoint Online and SharePoint 2016 on-premise. Everything will be indexed in SharePoint online. Note that since index is stored in SharePoint some customers need to be wary of it they might not want part of secret data also in cloud. How to do set up can read here Configure Cloud Hybrid Search
  • Unified user profile where users can see both on-premise and SharePoint online followed sites together
  • Other services like Delve, Video and App launched will now be available on SharePoint on-premise as well
  • You can redirect users to SharePoint Online OneDrive for Business from SharePoint 2016 on-premise OneDrive. Before you do this make sure that all documents are migrated as it’s only a redirect. Steps to redirect are very simple and can be used read here How to redirect users to Office 365 for OneDrive for Business . Best way to migrate data is to write a tool for migration, there are various way to implement this but best is that you can access OneDrive for Business using SharePoint APIs which you might be familiar with else you have to register an App for OneDrive for Business to access data / folders programatically. I am assuming you already know how to access OneDrive in SharePoint on-premise programatically.

To access OneDrive for business SharePoint online via REST API you can below url

https://O365DomainHere-my.sharepoint.com/personal/     UserName_O365DomainHere_onmicrosoft_com/_api/web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl(‘/personal/UserName_O365DomainHere_onmicrosoft_com/Documents’)/folders/

You can read about data operations here REST API Data Operations SharePoint

So this is a basic overview of Hybrid architecture and also my take on the things you need to consider, if you have further questions just leave  a comment

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