Automating Site Provisioning in SharePoint - Presented 7/27/13 at SharePoint Saturday NYC

Automating Site Provisioningfor SharePoint 2010 and 2013

Beatrice Baciu – Sr. SharePoint Software EngineerBob German – SharePoint Principal Architect

SharePoint Principal Architect

@Bob1Germanhttp://blogs.msdn.com/BobGerman/

Meet the Presenters

Developer andAuthor

SharePoint Senior Developer

@BeatriceBaciuhttp://thebookofsharepoint.blogspot.com/

Some of us still miss the site directory, which was removed in SharePoint 2010…

The Challenge

How do you empower end-users to create SharePoint sites while making sites consistent, organized, and discoverable?

@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German

Agenda

Sites and Site Collections

“Out of the Box” Site Creation

Three models of success① Very simple: Client side

② Medium: Sandboxed workflow

③ Full featured: Farm solution

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1

2

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@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German

SharePoint Containers

Site Collection

Site Collection

Site Collection

Site Collection

SharePoint Containers

• Storage Management

• Independent Administration

• Connection to IIS and server URL(s)

• Authentication and high-level policy settings

• Shared Service Connections

Site Collection

Site Collection

Site Collection

Site Collection

• A set of servers in one location

• A common configuration database

Site Collections

SharePoint Groups

Root of permission inheritance

Storage and Sandbox Quotas

Navigation

Rollups with SPQuery or Content Query Web Part

Content Types and Site Columns*

Lookup lists

Galleries (Web parts, Solutions, Master Pages, etc.)

Many things are scoped at the Site Collection

Farm

Web Application

Site Collection Top Level Site

Site Collection Top Level Site

Web Application

Site Collection Top Level Site

Site Collection Top Level Site

Shared Service Provider

Content DB 1

Content DB 2

Content DB 3

A site collection cannot span content DB’s, butA content DB can have many site collections

@Bob1German

SharePoint Site Model

Intranet

Portal

Functional Portals

Groups & Teams

Projects & Workspaces

My Sites

Publishing• Employee Communications• Functional Portals (HR,

Finance, etc.)• Group and Team Portals• Information Repositories• Business Intelligence

Collaboration• Team / project

workspaces• Social

Networking• Personal

publishing

SharedServices• Search• Metadata• User Profile• BCS

@Bob1German

SharePoint Site Model

Intranet

Portal

Functional Portals

Groups & Teams

Projects & Workspaces

My Sites

SharedServices• Search• Metadata• User Profile• BCS • Created by IT

• Content managed by business

• Self-service

Customized

Standardized

@Bob1German

A Place for Everything

SharedServices• Search• Metadata• User Profile• BCS

Portal

PortalPortalPortalPortal

Dashboard

Dashboard

AppAppApp

RepositoryRepositoryRepository

StructuredCollaboratio

n

StructuredCollaboratio

n

StructuredCollaboratio

n

Ad-HocCollaboratio

n

Ad-HocCollaboratio

n

Ad-HocCollaboratio

n

My SiteMy SiteMy SiteMy SiteMy Site

= Site Collection

AppAppApp

Customized

Standardized

• Created by IT• Content

managed by business

• Self-service

@Bob1German

Out of the BoxSelf Service Site Provisioning• In SharePoint 2010 • In SharePoint 2013

demo@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German

Scenario 1: Simple Site Provisioning

• Creates child sites in a site collection

• Runs in Javascript on the browser- Access is via the Client Object Model

- Can run in a Content Editor Web Part inSharePoint 2010 or 2013(user must have permission to create)

- Can run as a SharePoint 2013 app(app must have permission to create)

• Lists sites directly – no separatedirectory

Simple: Client SideClient-side site listing and creation

demo@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German

Scenario 2: SharePoint 2013 Workflow

• Site is created by a SharePoint 2013 Workflow(Runs outside of SharePoint in Workflow Manager)

• In SharePoint 2010, this required a Sandboxed Solution(Reliability challenges on Office 365!)

• Workflow creates a site using RESTful services(No code but non-trivial setup)

• Workflow runs as under app permissions(App Step replaces Impersonation Step in SP2013)

Medium: Site Creation WorkflowWorkflow calls RESTful service

demo@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German

Site Definitions and Web Templates

Site Definitions SharePoint ships with several site definitions – team site, blank site, etc. A developer can build a site definition, but it’s not a good idea

Site Templates Earlier versions of SharePoint supported site templates (.stp files) when you clicked

“Save as a Template” Now you get a declarative web template (.wsp file)

Web Templates Contain the differences between a site definition and the site you want End users can get them with “Save as a Template” (sometimes) Developers can build them from scratch but it’s painful

WARNINGS: Do not fake out “Save as a Template” for publishing sites … it doesn’t work well Beware of the “Import .wsp file” option in Visual Studio to build web templates

Creating a Site Collection froma Custom Web Template

demo@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German

Scenario 3: Advanced Scenario

• Create site collections, not just child sites

• Use web templates to provide tailored and consistent sites

• Maintain metadata and directories for multiple site types

• Work robustly across farms

@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German

APPS FARM

Site DirectorySite Collection

Metadata

Site Collection

Metadata

Site Collection: Request and Creation

RequestList

RequestList

RequestList

WorkflowWorkflowWorkflow

COLLAB FARM

TimerJob

TimerJob

TimerJob

Site Collection

Metadata

Web app 1: Custom AppsWeb app 2: Community SitesWeb app 3: Project Sites

Full Featured: Farm SolutionMulti-farm solution

Uses any approval workflow

Maintains metadata and directory

Could create sites or site collections with this design

demo@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German

Full Featured: Farm SolutionMulti-farm solution

Uses any approval workflow

Maintains metadata and directory

Could create sites or site collections with this design

code@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German

Summary

Automate site creation to- Balance user empowerment with governance- Provision sites consistently- Maintain a directory and site metadata

Choose wisely between sites and site collections

In SharePoint Apps- Elevate privileges with workflow “App Steps”

In SharePoint 2013 apps- Elevate privileges via app identities

@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German

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@BeatriceBaciu – @Bob1German