Set up Accounts and secure passwords to run automation workloads in Azure Functions

5th of October, 2018 / / No Comments

In some of my previous blogs here, we have seen how we could use Azure Functions to to automate processes and SharePoint workloads.

Most of these jobs run using elevated or stored privileged accounts as the Azure Function is in a different context than the user context. There are various ways we could setup these accounts. Some of these approaches are below:

  1. Azure AD Service Accounts
    • Suitable for all operations
    • Need access to resource
    • Reusable across multiple workloads
  2. Azure AD Apps
    • Suitable for Graph Access
    • Need exact permissions set up
    • Might need Tenant Admin authentication
  3. SharePoint App Accounts
    • Suitable for SharePoint workloads.
… [Keep reading] “Set up Accounts and secure passwords to run automation workloads in Azure Functions”

Provisioning complex Modern Sites with Azure Functions and Flow – Part 3 – Post Provisioning Site Configuration

3rd of October, 2018 / / No Comments

In the previous two blogs part 1 and part 2, we looked at steps to create a Modern team site and apply a custom provisioning template to it. In this blog, we will have a look at the steps for the post provisioning process to implement site specific requirements. Some of them could be:

1. Apply default values to list fields
2. Create a bunch of default folders
3. Manage Security groups (SP level) and permission level.… [Keep reading] “Provisioning complex Modern Sites with Azure Functions and Flow – Part 3 – Post Provisioning Site Configuration”

Deploy and Add SPFx webparts to Modern Pages using OfficeDevPnP CSOM library

20th of September, 2018 / / 1 Comment

In the previous blog here, we looked at how to install apps on a SharePoint site. With SharePoint and Office Dev PnP CSOM, we could also add web parts to Modern Pages, both out of the box (OOB) web parts and custom web parts. For out of box web parts, refer to Chris O’Brien article here , where he has provided steps and also the web part IDs for the OOB webparts which is really helpful.… [Keep reading] “Deploy and Add SPFx webparts to Modern Pages using OfficeDevPnP CSOM library”

Programmatically deploy and add SharePoint Framework Extensions using SharePoint CSOM and PowerShell

18th of September, 2018 / / No Comments

In the previous blog here, we looked at how to deploy and install SharePoint Apps. Now let’s look at installing SharePoint Framework extensions – Listview command sets programmatically.

SharePoint CSOM

SharePoint Framework has three type of extensions that could be created – Application customiser, Listview command sets and Field customisers. In this blog, we will look at adding list view command sets programmatically.

Listview command extensions are actually custom actions installed in a library or list.… [Keep reading] “Programmatically deploy and add SharePoint Framework Extensions using SharePoint CSOM and PowerShell”

Deploy and Install SharePoint Apps using SharePoint CSOM and PnP PowerShell

13th of September, 2018 / / 1 Comment

In this blog, we will look at steps to install and deploy SharePoint apps to Modern Sites using SharePoint ALM CSOM and PnP PowerShell. Using the below steps, it is possible to programmatically deploy and install custom SharePoint Framework apps using an Azure Function or a Local PowerShell script.

Installing SharePoint Apps

SharePoint Apps can be deployed on a site using ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) APIs. After the app is installed in the App catalog, we could add it to a SharePoint site.… [Keep reading] “Deploy and Install SharePoint Apps using SharePoint CSOM and PnP PowerShell”

Provisioning complex Modern Sites with Azure Functions and Flow – Part 2 – Create and Apply Template

14th of August, 2018 / / 1 Comment

In the previous blog here, we got an overview of the high level Architecture of a Complex Modern team site provisioning process. In this blog, we will look at the step 1 of the process – Create and Apply template process, in detail.
Before that, below are few links to earlier blogs, as a refresher, to prerequisties for the blog.

  1. Set up a Graph App to call Graph Service using App ID and Secret – link
  2. Sequencing HTTP Trigger Azure Functions for simultaneous calls – link
  3. Adding and Updating owners using Microsoft Graph Async calls – link

Overview
The Create and Apply Template process aims at the following
1. … [Keep reading] “Provisioning complex Modern Sites with Azure Functions and Flow – Part 2 – Create and Apply Template”

Provisioning complex Modern Sites with Azure Functions and Microsoft Flow – Part 1 – Architecture

10th of August, 2018 / / 3 Comments

In one of my previous blog here,  I have discussed about creating Office 365 groups using Azure Function and Flow. The same process could be used also to provision Modern Team sites in SharePoint Online because Modern Team Sites are Office 365 groups too. However, if you are creating a Complex Modern Team Site with lots of Libraries, Content types, Termstore associated columns etc. it will challenging to do it with a single Azure Function.… [Keep reading] “Provisioning complex Modern Sites with Azure Functions and Microsoft Flow – Part 1 – Architecture”

Planning Site structure and Navigation in SharePoint Modern Experience Communication and Team sites

26th of June, 2018 / / No Comments

If you are planning to implement or implementing Modern team sites or Communication sites, there is change in best practices for planning and managing the Sites structure, Site Hierarchy and Navigation. This is a very common question during my presentations – how do we manage site structures, navigation and content in Modern experiences.
So, in this blog, we will look at few strategies for planning Site structure and Navigation in Modern Experience sites.
1. First and foremost, get rid of nested subsites and Site hierarchy navigation.… [Keep reading] “Planning Site structure and Navigation in SharePoint Modern Experience Communication and Team sites”

Automation and Creation of Office 365 groups using Flow, Microsoft Graph and Azure Function – Part 2

16th of May, 2018 / / No Comments

In the Part 1 blog here, we discussed an approach for the Group creation process and important considerations for provisioning groups. In this blog, we will look at getting a Graph App ID and App secret for invoking the graph service and then implementation of the group provisioning process.
MS Graph App Set up
Before we start creating groups we will need to set up a Graph App that will be used to create the group in the Office 365 tenancy.… [Keep reading] “Automation and Creation of Office 365 groups using Flow, Microsoft Graph and Azure Function – Part 2”

Latest updates to Modern Libraries experience in SharePoint Communication sites (Apr 2018)

11th of May, 2018 / / No Comments

Modern Libraries in Communication Sites have got some welcome facelift during the last few months (Apr 2018) and there have been many great changes. I am going to list of few of these updates here.
Note: Some of these updates might be limited to Targeted release (or First release) versions only. In case these changes are not available then they might be not in Standard release ( or GA release) yet.
1. Full page view of SharePoint libraries
The SharePoint libraries now have a full page view, which provides it to use the full home page layout of Communication sites.… [Keep reading] “Latest updates to Modern Libraries experience in SharePoint Communication sites (Apr 2018)”