1. Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
BRK3027
Learn best practices for creating and managing SharePoint site templates
Sean Squires
Senior Program Manager
Microsoft SharePoint
Vesa Juvonen
Senior Program Manager
Microsoft SharePoint
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

2. Session Objectives & Takeaways
Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
Session Objectives & Takeaways
Objective(s):
Overview of SharePoint site templates – and what options are available in Office 365
Demonstrate current inbox template customization – and how limitations can be addressed leveraging PnP Partner Pack / Framework for remote provisioning configuration
Share forthcoming self-service site provisioning updates and early thinking for how we’ll enable site configuration in the cloud
Key Takeaways:
There are options available today – but some are not without their challenges
Microsoft is invested in providing a solid foundation to support common site configuration/reuse scenarios
New site provisioning workflow is intended to lay foundation for faster site creation and more flexible configuration model
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

3. Agenda SharePoint site templates today Remote Site Provisioning
Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
Agenda
SharePoint site templates today
Remote Site Provisioning
Customer Case Study: 3M “RAS”
Roadmap of what’s coming
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

4. Site Templates Overview of current options
5/18/ :08 AM
Site Templates Overview of current options
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

5. Site Provisioning Options - Compared
5/18/2018
Site Provisioning Options - Compared
Server side Provisioning
On-prem only
Provision OOB sites, but modify them based on user selection and requirements
Standardization of site creation in code
Site Definition
On-prem only
Long term impact on costs
Blocks transition to cloud
Causes significant issues with future migration and upgrade
Site Templates
No site collection creation story
Negative impact on upgrades
Causes additional maintenance costs with service updates
Doesn’t work w/ publishing features
Web Templates
Poor site collection creation story
Causes maintenance costs with service updates
Remote Provisioning
CSOM supports creation of site collections for on-premises and cloud
Standardization of site creation in code
Can be done from any external system
Good
Fair / Average
Excellent
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries. The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

6. SharePoint Site Templates
Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
SharePoint Site Templates
Pre-built definitions designed around specific business needs & features; less about design
Default templates – such as Team, Project, and Communities – are great to start with, but often need to be customized for one’s business
Custom site templates provide a basic way to package select features & configuration for reuse through the solution gallery
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

7. “Save site as template” Flow
Initial configuration based on the out of the box site.. 1 3
spweb 2
spweb
Assets and configuration
Master Pages
Page Layouts
Site Features
Other Settings
Save Site as Template
Custom tab lists template WSP files saved to local solution gallery. These files includes the details to create a new site
spweb

8. Demo Subsite WSP package
5/18/ :08 AM
Demo Subsite WSP package
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

9. Maintenance challenge with site template
Template onet.xml is created by copying team site onet.xml and by adding stapled features also to onet.xml
Significant differences on the outcome unless template onet.xml has been updated cross site collections with the changes which were also done for out of the box team site.
<xml>
onet.xml
X feature activations
<xml>
onet.xml
X feature activations
<xml>
onet.xml
X feature activations
Custom Web Template
<< Copy >>
Custom Site Template
<< Copy >>
Team Site
Team Site
<xml>
onet.xml
X feature activations
<xml>
onet.xml
X feature activations +2
<xml>
onet.xml
X feature activations +4
Time
Service updates for introducing new capabilities to team sites also using feature stapling

10. Site Template Summary and key limitations to consider
Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
Site Template Summary and key limitations to consider
Admin/Dev
End Users
SharePoint
Quick and easy subsite creation for basic configuration
Reuse requires version, feature and site type parity across plans
No scoping or audience targeting
Doesn’t apply to ODB sites
Restricted feature set (and parity required to deploy in target)
Content reuse permitted w/ 50 MB limit
Design assets managed separately
No easy update path
No Analytics
Monitoring
Version management
Issue resolution plan
Provider hosted add-in infrastructure
High trust / low trust
DR implications
Classification
No support for publishing
Requires root
Scoped to site solution gallery
Unable to delete if solution active
Design support managed separately
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

11. 5/18/ :08 AM
Remote Provisioning a smarter approach for site creation and template reuse
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

12. PnP Provisioning Engine
Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
PnP Provisioning Engine C#
Part of the SharePoint PnP initiative deliverables
Open source, community-driven
Released originally spring 2015
Used in more than 500 tenants in SharePoint online during past 3 months
Can be used using managed code or with PnP PowerShell
Extract templates from existing sites and optional serialization
Available as NuGet package for code and also from PnP PowerShell
Connectors to store templates and potentially assets to file system, SharePoint or Azure storage.
Connectors
You can use code to create and apply templates, but you can also serialize them, if needed
JSON
XML
.pnp
OpenXML based template with configuration and assets, like images or theme definitions
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

13. PnP Provisioning Engine – Export/Import
Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
PnP Provisioning Engine – Export/Import
Template site
OOB site with needed configuration
Empty OOB site
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

14. PnP Partner Pack – Reference solution
Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
PnP Partner Pack – Reference solution
Similar to IT SCM service – permits modeling a site design (a la “canonical site”) and exporting to a persisted provisioning template for reuse.
Provisioning engine used by 500+ tenants in during past 3 months
UI customizations for “save site as a template” with option to save template to tenant level
Admin capabilities to update all existing sites with needed changes – new branding requirements, content types, lists, etc.
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

15. Demo Custom Site Creation & Configuration
5/18/ :08 AM
Demo Custom Site Creation & Configuration
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

16. 5/18/ :08 AM
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

17. 5/18/ :08 AM
Self-Service Site Provisioning …and modern extensibility hooks for site customization
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

18. SharePoint: Mobile and Intelligent Intranet
Native mobile experiences
Team Sites
Portals & Publishing
Business Apps + +
Office 365 Groups
Microsoft Graph
SharePoint Framework
Security & Compliance
Hybrid

19. SharePoint Product Roadmap
Q2/Q3 CALENDAR 2016
SharePoint mobile app (iOS)
SharePoint mobile app preview (Windows, Android)
Modern document libraries
Modern lists with Power Apps & Microsoft Flow
Modern page authoring
SharePoint Framework Preview
Site activity and insights
Office 365 Groups get team sites
SharePoint home on the web
Q4 CALENDAR 2016
SharePoint Framework WW Release
Simple, fast site creation
Team news
Next gen sync of team sites
SharePoint mobile app WW Release (Windows, Android)
Feedback driven updates to doclibs, lists, pages, sites, apps
Live People Cards
H1 CALENDAR 2017
Feedback driven updates to doclibs, lists, pages, sites, apps
More Microsoft Flow and PowerApps integration
Publishing Sites
SharePoint Add-in improvements
Modern team site extensibility
Performance-focused CDN integration with publishing sites
Simple, fast site creation
Publishing Sites
Modern team site extensibility

20. Modern Site Creation addressing today’s challenges
Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
Modern Site Creation addressing today’s challenges
CHALLENGE
APPROACH
Modern: It takes too long to create and configure a site
Reduce default template footprint; infrastructure improvements (incl. asynchronous provisioning)
Tyranny of Choice: deciding between site templates and groups – esp. as site need changes over time
Modern self-site creation experience that defaults w/ a unified group
OOB templates that just work – providing key features users need
Governance: help admins govern and manage what’s created – and by whom
Intelligent: Help me stop the proliferation of similar sites (help users understand what’s available)
Align Office 365 and SharePoint policy settings (site creation, lifecycle, and sharing management)
Extensible: help admins provide the right configurations for their business
Ease: Help users easily re-create from existing sites
Webhooks to facilitate custom solutions (post- creation configuration)
Redesign save site as template model for cloud
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

21. Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
Site Provisioning
Default experience allows users to specify a title, and optionally a secondary owner and policy setting (if configured)
We are amending this experience to provide group-connected modern sites
We are also decoupling this flow from the override – while still providing support for these custom experiences
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

22. Demo Modern Self-Service Site Creation (coming soon!)
5/18/ :08 AM
Demo Modern Self-Service Site Creation (coming soon!)
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

23. Site Creation Options Microsoft Ignite 2016 5/18/2018 11:08 AM
2016 Team collaboration
Give it a name to get a full team site and a group
Add members and set other owners and guest settings
Post-configuration
2017 Publishing
Create a new site
Choose an intent
Give it a name to get a publishing site
Choose a communication style
Add contributors
2017 Smart recommendations & additional extensibility
Choose from recommended sites
Give it a name to get a new site with similar configuration
Confirm membership or other settings
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

24. Logical flow of Site Creation WebHook
Microsoft Ignite 2016
5/18/ :08 AM
Logical flow of Site Creation WebHook
External service initiated by the WebHook call is using remote APIs (CSOM/REST) to gain access to SharePoint and to apply needed customizations
WebAPI which will receive the WebHook notifications is deployed to environment, which SharePoint Online can call
SharePoint Online 3
Provider Hosted add-in
WebAPI 4 2 1
Webhook is associated to the site created event.
WebAPI which will receive the WebHook notifications is deployed to environment, which SharePoint Online can call
© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

25. Deploy, ramp-up on new services and onboard new users with Microsoft FastTrack:

26. Join the Microsoft Tech Community to collaborate, share, and learn from the experts:

27. Please evaluate this session
5/18/ :08 AM
Please evaluate this session
Your feedback is important to us!
From your PC or Tablet visit MyIgnite at
From your phone download and use the Ignite Mobile App by scanning the QR code above or visiting
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

28. 5/18/ :08 AM
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.