Microsoft 365 Community Community Demos, 21 Aug 2016

Previous Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: PnP Provisioning Engine - Introducing PnP file type for template handling

Description

In this demo video Vesa Juvonen shows how to get started with PnP Provisioning Engine using PnP PowerShell and how to export and use the new PnP file type as the template container. Starting from PnP June 2016 release, you can now export site templates to PnP file type, which is actually an OpenXML document containing template definition and possible additional assets.

Demo uses PnP PowerShell Cmdlets (https://github.com/OfficeDev/PnP-PowerShell) from simplicity perspective, but you can also take advantage of the new PnP file type with managed code in your provider hosted add-ins or from any managed code. Since engine can be used with PowerShell or with code, you can take advantage of this advance template model regardless of your provisioning logic or regardless if you are IT Pro or a developer.

Since both template and possible asset files (like branding files) are bundled to single OpenXML document, you can more easily manage different templates. We are also looking into releasing open source template gallery during autumn 2016, which will allow anyone to share their remote provisioning templates for the community to reuse.

Demo presenter: Vesa Juvonen

PnP Provisioning Engine was originally released with Office 365 Dev Patterns and Practices May 2015 release and we've continued adding new capabilities as part of the monthly releases. You can always find details around newly added capabilities or changes as part of the PnP monthly communications.

Additional Resources:
See following links for additional details around covered topics.

- PnP Webcast - Feature Framework vs. Remote Provisioning - https://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/OfficeDevPnP/PnP-Web-Cast-Feature-framework-vs-Remote-Provisioning
- PnP Webcast - Introduction to Office 365 Dev PnP Provisioning Engine - https://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/OfficeDevPnP/PnP-Web-Cast-Introduction-to-Office-365-Dev-PnP-provisioning-engine
- https://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/OfficeDevPnP/PnP-Web-Cast-Introduction-to-Office-365-PnP-PowerShell
- Deep Dive to PnP Provisioning Engine Schema https://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/OfficeDevPnP/Deep-dive-to-PnP-provisioning-engine-schema
- Getting started with PnP Provisioning Engine https://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/OfficeDevPnP/Getting-Started-with-PnP-Provisioning-Engine
- Introduction to Pnp Site Provisioning Engine - https://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/OfficeDevPnP/Introduction-to-PnP-site-remote-provisioning-engine

If you have any feedback or comments related on this video, please use the Office 365 Developer Patterns and Practices Yammer group to provider your input. Thx for your interest advance.

A

Hello, my name is rocío Bonin and in this video we'll have a look on the new update in the PNP provisioning engine, which was part of the June 2016 release. We cannot use the power shelf this time as the example engine, but obviously the changes are available within the core component, so you can take advantage of this API improvements, also from a provider hosted admin perspective or in a managed code in general.

A

First of all, let's get started within with the power shell site as the power shell, you can get access on the power shell from the BMP powershell actress, so office, github.com office staff, BMP powershell is the easiest way to download the command line set and in here you can actually find the source code. But you don't need to worry about the code itself.

A

If you scroll down, you can actually see that the individual options to get it install the PNP PowerShell, so you can actually download an MSI package or, if you're, using Windows 10, you can just run this install module commands and they will just install the PowerShell for the particular environment. It's really important to notice. There's a a different versions of the BMP powershell for different platforms, so there's a separate version for sharepoint, 2016, 213, ship, 1, 2016 and sharepoint online, and this is because the sharepoint, the PMP powershell, is taking advantage of the season.

A

Client side object model and the client side object. Model is different between the different versions, but anyway, the easiest way to get actually started this to go to the releases or let's go back on the front page and click release is here in the top section, so clicking releases.

A

You can always find the latest release and then install particular version which you want to use within your code today, we'll have a look on the on the provisioning engine and how it has been evolving within the tune, 2016 release, because there's one really really cool an improvement in here. So in my case, we're gonna use my test tenant, which is where such a SharePoint command I do have a template site available within my tenant, and this is my template site.

A

So, as a business end user, you can actually design the site any way you want and what I mean with that one is that let's say that we go to the site contents. This is a relatively simple team site which has a custom branding and it's using the Oslo dot master out of the bus master page. So let's actually create a new library here and let's call that delegate.

A

There's the document library and let's call that a specifications and clicking create that will create the library to the site and slightly modify the front page as well. We can say that there's some custom content within the front page just to demonstrate the functionality and, let's add that specifications library being visible here as well. So let's add that below the documents library. So let's do insert and report and specifications and add- and that's gonna then at the specifications library available within the template.

A

So we're going to use this side as our template site and the key really the key power of the BMP provisioning engine is that you can use an existing site as your template. So we can actually create the site and modification site comes content, original settings, language settings whatever using the processor, and then you can create new sites or new configurations and templates out of this site, using the powershell or using then managed code. So, let's switch to the power side.

A

I've already installed the powershell setup using the MSI package, so the BMP powershell really is a is an msi in my particular case. So I'm can actually move into the eyewear PowerShell ISE, which is available in here so connecting to an existing site. We wanted to connect to that template sign, so let's actually connect there. I think it was called a template site, so let's actually double check that a template is our site name.

A

So, switching back on the powershell I can connect to that site by running the connect SPO online in my case, I'm, using a credentials from a credential manager so actually need to set the credentials in Nicole just as well. I could actually use the credentials or request the credentials from the inducer at the signing against that site and then use those credentials or use current credentials, which does work for on-premises deployments, but not against sharepoint online.

A

So now, if we run get SPO web, we can see that we are in the context of that site, a template site, and then we can either modify that site using PowerShell or small. But in this case what we're interested is is getting the template out of the site. Now, the classic way of getting the template out of the site is by running the get SPO provisioning template and then giving an XML name, XML file name for it and we use a switch called persist.

A

Branding file so we'll make sure that when we're extracting the template, we'll actually get that printing files outside of the site as well, so we're able to apply the needed branding in this case, essentially the that custom theme that the target site as well and right now what the engine does. It actually goes through the individual site or this template site. It compares the template site or at the box team site, and then it creates the template file out of it and it's an xml-based template file which has its own schema.

A

The schema itself is actually defined. So if we go to the BMP provisioning, if you go to the PMP PowerShell I'm going to just use that as my my location, if we go to the provisioning schema, we can actually find details around the provisioning schema itself and the address was github.com office. Def PNP, provisioning schema. The provision is chemists versioned individually, so the provisioning schema is something it has its own schema files, a verification while and it's version it's versioned individually outside of the engine as well.

A

Right now, the latest version of a schema when we are recording this video as an example, is not yet implemented into engine site, but it's already defined as a schema option and it will be implemented in the engine in autumn 2016.

A

So come back on the on the PowerShell site, we can see that the files being output to the to the see temp provisioning demo PNP demo XML folder. What I'm gonna do is that I'm can actually execute the second line, which is exporting the template using the B&B file format, and this is something a new which we introduced in shipment, went into June 2016 release, so I'm going to actually start executing that and while that's being executed, let's go to that folder and have a look.

A

What we have there right now, so we exported the file in an XML format and we set persist printing files, so we actually get the theme files outside of the site as well, and the logo file and the XML file itself. If we have a look on quickly on that one, it actually is based on that provisioning schema, so it contains, for example, definitions around the site logo.

A

What's the Welcome page, what's the original settings what's the support at ul language is what are the auditing settings within the site, so all of that is getting copied as well provisioning back entries security settings. So if you actually want to reapply always a template with the default permissions, all of that is getting exported as well.

A

You can modify this XML so as an example, we can get rid of this BMP security settings and when we are applying the template, then that particular setting obviously wouldn't be applied, and you can combine these templates as well, so you can actually have a one template for lists. One template for branding one template for for other settings as well, so you can apply multiple templates to a target site based on obviously your requirements.

A

One thing to notice also on the template is that when we are exporting the template, you are able to say what kind of items do we want to export, so we can use the handler switch where the default entry is all, but we can actually export templates or only specific, our settings out of the template. So we can. The, for example say that we want to sport, content types and fields or or lists 2a1 template, and then we will have at this kind of a sub template which we can apply to a target site.

A

This case we actually wanted to generate the whole template out of the site. Now we did execute the second line, which was the BMP file and file names, and let's have a look on that.

A

If you have installed the powershell, you will get a file type configuration to your machine as well, so you will get a BMP file which has its own default icon as well, and the BMP file, essentially with what we just exported this just a one file which actually contains all of these items in a single file and the whole point of this one is that it's it's a. It is an open, XML file.

A

So if I actually rename this as a dot, zip file and I open up that one up, we can see that it's an open, XML file, it's a zip file, well open XML is kind of using the zip as the format and it's a structural file which is then having the definition of the file, and it also has individual files inside of it. So now, what we basically have is a one file containing all of the printing files to PNP files, the local file and also the template file inside of it.

A

So what we can do now is essentially copy this one file, the BMP file or send it to any environment or send it to your colleagues in an email or your customer is a as a file and they can reapply that to their environment without any issues or easily that the challenge- and obviously they shouldn't be any sirs on applying that as well.

A

The challenge of the classic approach is that when we are exploding exporting these templates, you might actually get to the situation if you are exporting multiple templates to a one, a folder where the theme files or printing files are overlapping and that might cause a kind of a significant mess within your template, storage location using the BMP file and you're able to then create individual ten plates, which contains all what's needed for that particular site configuration now.

A

Let's actually use that file to apply it at an existing site. So, first of all the BMP provisioning engine does not. The provisioning engine does not explicitly create a target sign, so the provisioning engine applies configuration.

A

So we need to have that targets ID available, so I'm gonna use the BMP powershell commandlets, which is the new SPO tenant site to get my target site available, so I'm, essentially providing its its you new URL or the URL for the target site, a title host owner of the site and then I can apply the time zone setting for it as well.

A

That seems to be a Central European Time, what's being set for that site, we can say that the command has been executed, but, like always within the SharePoint Online, the site, provisioning command is actually a synchronous. So if we go to my admin UI and we refresh the UI, we can say that that's requests for a new site collection is being queued up and right now that site collection is getting created. So we need to Oberst and make sure that the site collection does exist before we can apply the template to that particular URL.

A

Since the site collection creation will take a while, let's actually pause the video for a while until that site collection has been created. So we're able to have a look on what we have as a target site and then how the settings and configurations are being applied to it. You know in a while so I'm going to pause the video and we're gonna continue when the site has been successfully created.

A

Good and now we can say that the site has been created, so our new site is being provisioned site collection is waiting for us, and so let's go and have a look on that site before we apply any settings or configurations on it. So let's switch to a empty tab and switch that site, and we can see that we have a new out-of-the-box at team site which is not having any annihilation, customizations or configurations yet applied. So this is now waiting for us to apply the PMP provisioning engine on top of it.

A

So then that's the following step: we have the provisioning template or the BMP file waiting within a file system, and we want to apply that site or that configuration to that newly created side collection. So let's move back on the PowerShell and make that happen as well. So, first of all, what we need to do is to is connect to that site, so let's actually connect the dot site using the connect, SPO online command and that's a common command in the PNP powershell quickly.

A

Having a look on the context, we can double check that the context is actually my target and the sides on your site. So that's matching with the site collection which we just created. So therefore we can just apply the BMP file template, so the PMPA template on top of it. So let's run to apply SPO provisioning template and that what's now going to happen is that the the PowerShell is going to use the PMP provisioning.

A

Sorry, the PMP core component, which contains the BMP provisioning engine and it's going to start manipulating the source site based on the template. So let's do this side by side, so we can see that list instances are getting created, so it compare compares to the existing lists. It also would ant any columns or side columns or content types to the existing list.

A

We can say that the specification list has been already created so now, if you go to the front page that the front page has not yet been modified, so we're still saying to all 2i, because the list instance is that the views and columns and content types are getting getting, manipulated or double-checked.

A

That those settings are properly applied, the engine itself supports Delta handling and it's really important to understand what it actually means is that you're able to reapply this template to existing sites and then the engine will make sure that whenever you, if you have a template which is having, for example, new configurations or content types in these libraries, those settings would be available within the target site as well.

A

Now we can say that the front page is already getting a point, but we're still using daughter to box office theme within the site and in the PowerShell side we can say that we're applying compost looks compost, looks is a relatively big operation, so that takes some time to actually process. It's going to create at the theming falls dynamically and plop applied them to the site, and then now, if I add the powershell commandlets has been executed.

A

If I refresh the page, we can see the whole site getting and having that custom branding and look and feel applied, including the Welcome page, and now we can also say that the specification library or view to the specification library successfully applied on the front page of the site as well. So now, if we go and have a look on the template site, which is here a template site or the my target site, we can say that the functionality or the the configuration is exactly the same.

A

And if we go to the site content for you, that's not a site content view. Let's go to the site content view, and we can actually say that we have the specification folder created like it was created within the within the template site as well. So there we go quite simple setup from a consume or implementation or from a user perspective over. So there's a lot of logic. Behind of that.

A

This comment: let's order behind of the BMP provisioning engine, but from your perspective, when you're using the engine, it can be as simple as this one, so you're able to actually use an existing site as your template you're able to save the existing site as a BMP file, which you can then share to anybody within your whoever.

A

You want to share that and then you're able to apply the PMPA template file to any of the existing sites, and in this case we created a new sign collection where we applied the template and you will get exactly the same. Configuration to that side as well. Super super simple, but extremely extremely powerful engine, and in this case, like mentioned, we were using the powershell as the demo for making this happen.

A

The same PMP file support is included in the provision in the native quark component as well, so we're able to take advantage of the PMP file handling in a provider hosted add-in implementation or a web application implementation or a managed code implementation. If you rather want to write some code or if you have a self-service site collection creation process implemented within your office, 365 deployment, but that's it and that's all we're going to do within this video.

A

So that was a quick update on the June 2016 changes within the engine and the key chains within the engine or Bursley is the PNP file format, support so you're able to extract existing site to PNP file, format and you're, able to then use that to apply all of the needed configuration to your existing site as well. Thank you for watching and welcome we'll come up with a a new videos sooner or later. Thank you.