Office 365: Attack of the Clones! Building Site Templates with the Office 365 PnP Framework

Agenda• Introduction• The case for site templates• Old way• New way• Introducing Office Dev PnP• Demos (3)• Getting started - PnP resources• Questions

Chris Johnson@cjohnsonO365• Microsoft MVP – Office Development• Director, PSC Group (Schaumburg, IL)• 7+ years developing for SharePoint• Document Management• Branding• Managed Metadata• Provisioning and Governance• Office 365• Nintex Forms & Workflow

• Current focus: app modernization & cloud readiness

1. SharePoint Developer Office 365 Developer

2. This is an amazing time to be an Office 365 developer!

Hey, listen!• Some images used on these slides have been borrowed from the

Office Dev PnP site. These– especially the artsy ones– are not my creation!• A lot of the code you see during this presentation was written by me,

but it’s built on frameworks and sample code from the PnP community• I will tweet out links after the presentation so you can:

• Go to the Office Dev PnP site• Connect to the GitHub repo• Download code from demos• View this slide deck, etc.

@cjohnsonO365

Raise your hand if:• You’re an end user,

power user or BA• You’re an administrator• You’re a developer /

architect / consultant / etc.• You use SharePoint 2013 on-premise• You use Office 365• You use a hybrid farm

• You’ve ever tried to provision custom sites in SharePoint• You’ve heard of the

OfficeDev Patterns and Practices community• You’ve use a PnP

framework, solution or sample project

WARNING:

CODE </>

Community: Current SharePoint Initiatives

Application Modernization “Get me to the

cloud!”• Re-write server-side

LOB applications to use “App Model” CSOM

• Decrease dependencies on feature.xml

• Eliminate custom master pages

• Increase OOB feature usage

Take advantage of NEW Office 365

features• Unified Experience

Unified Endpoint• New APIs for Office

Graph, Delve, etc.• Consistency across

Add-Ins: Office, SharePoint, etc.

Build a better user experience

• Modern web applications over “SharePoint-y” UI

• New mobile experiences• Office mobile apps• PowerApps• Next-generation

portals• Lean on provider-

hosted apps

The case for site templatesWHY• Easily reproduce common

business customizations• Enforce governance • Provide consistent user

experience

WHAT• Fields• Content types• Lists and libraries• Groups• Permissions• Pages• Web parts• Navigation• Look and feel• Custom actions

The old way• Site Settings Save as template

• Sometimes worked• Import to Visual Studio (disaster)

• Site Definitions• onet.xml (kinda hairy)• Publishing? Good luck!

• Custom subclass of SPWebProvisioningProvider• Create site, then apply changes (this is good!)• Requires full-trust code deployed as solution in Central

Administration• Great on-prem solution, but very advanced

Limitations in Office 365

• No full-trust code No custom SPWebProvisioningProvider• “Save as template” still unreliable• Use of sandbox solutions and

Feature.xml discouraged

Why are these limitations in place?• Ensure forwards

compatibility• Provide flexibility

for:• Developers• Administrators• Users

Client-side development in Office 365BENEFITS• Streamlined deployment• Use the framework of your

choice• Safe

LIMITATIONS• Asynchronous• More complicated

programming• Less documentation• API is less complete

Introducing: Office Dev PnP• More than just a provisioning

framework• Several core frameworks –

Provisioning is just one of them• Also a thriving community• Fills gaps in client-side

development paradigm

• Guidance & best practices for:• Add-ins• Branding• Event receivers• Timer jobs• Workflow• Managed Metadata• Provisioning• More

from the Office Dev PnP site

Introducing: Office Dev PnP• Solutions• Samples• Frameworks…that constitute best practices for administration and development on Office 365

...ALL open source in GitHub!…ALL documented!...Frequently updated: monthly releases with open conference call

QUICK DEMOOffice Dev PnP guidance and documentationGitHub

Wish list: Cloud-ready provisioning solution• Ability to provision:• Look and feel• Fields• Content types• Lists and libraries• Groups• Permissions• Pages• Web parts

• Client-side object model• Scriptable OR deployable

as an app• Declarative OR

compiled/managed code• Documented

SharePoint

PnP Provisioning: Basic Implementation

Console app-OR-

PowerShell script

C# > APPLY TEMPLAT

E EXTRACT

TEMPLATE

PnP Provisioning

SchemaXML</>

PnP Core Framework

C# >

DEMOPowerShell: extract & apply template

PnP Provisioning: Advanced Implementation SOLUTION COMPONENTS• Provider-hosted SharePoint Add-In• ASP.NET MVC web site hosted in

Azure• AppInstalled and AppUninstalled

event receivers (Azure service bus) that create artifacts on host web

• Timer Job (Azure Web Job) w/logging• User-managed custom Site

Templates based on PnP Provisioning Schema

• Common library + PnP extensions

HOST WEB ARTIFACTS• SharePoint Lists for site requests (on host

web to allow integration with other applications, e.g. Nintex)

• SharePoint Library for templates (associate with base template, e.g. Team Site-- allow site requests to choose template)

• Custom ribbon actions to request and cancel provisioning• Ribbon control w/ScriptEnabled methods• JavaScript ScriptLink custom action to

override "New Site" link on provisioned sites

• Branding assets

DEMOProvider-hosted provisioning app (UI)

New SharePoint Site Collection

ASP.NET MVC Provider-Hosted App

C#

Service BusC#

PnP Core Framework +

Helper Classes C#

Azure Web Job (Console App)

C#

App

Host Web

Library: Site

Templates

List: Request

s

INSTALLED ON1

PROVIDES APP-ONLY SECURITY TOKEN TO HOST

WEB2

APPINSTALLING EVENT CREATES LIST, LIBRARY,

CUSTOM ACTIONS + UPLOADS ASSETS ON HOST

WEB

3

UPLOADS TEMPLAT

E4

CREATES

REQUEST

5RETRIEVES SITE COLLECTION REQUESTS

FROM LIST6RETRIEVES USER-MANAGED TEMPLATE FROM LIBRARY7

CREATES SITE COLLECTION + APPLIES TEMPLATE

+ APPLIES ADD’L CONFIGURATION

8

XML</>

DEMOProvider-hosted provisioning app

This is an amazing time to be an Office 365 developer!

Where to find Office Dev PnPOffice Dev Center http://dev.office.com/patterns-and-practices

GitHub https://github.com/OfficeDev/PnP

Twitter @OfficeDevPnP@ErwinVanHunen@VesaJuvonen@PaoloPia

from the Office Dev PnP site

@cjohnsonO365

Questions?