Microsoft 365 Community SharePoint, 14 Sep 2021

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: Latest on SharePoint Site Scripts – Intro and Roadmap

Description

In this 18-minute developer-focused demo, Cathy Dew shares updates on Site Templates previously known as Site Designs. Site templates (a packaging of site scripts) are applied via site settings or via PowerShell. Site Templates are available on Teams Channel Sites now as well with several restrictions. In the update, there were some regressions that are now being addressed. Exciting capabilities in the works – feature Roadmap is reviewed and your input is requested. This PnP Community demo is taken from the weekly Microsoft 365 Platform Community call recorded on September 14, 2021.

Demo Presenter: Cathy Dew (Microsoft) | @catpaint1

Supporting materials:
• Issues – sp-dev-docs | https://github.com/SharePoint/sp-dev-docs/issues
• Feedback - Site Script Feedback | http://aka.ms/SiteScriptRequests

Learn more:
• Learn more about the Microsoft 365 Patterns and Practices community at: http://aka.ms/m365pnp
• Visit the Microsoft 365 Patterns and Practices community YouTube channel: https://aka.ms/m365pnp/videos

A

I will apologize starting out. um My demo fell through last minute last night trying to get this through around midnight last night. My time and the code just was not working. We had a bug that we were not able to get resolved so do not, unfortunately, have a demo, but I do have some information to share with everyone and some updates, so we are going to talk about site, scripts and kind of what is the latest with sharepoint site scripts and the updates and a roadmap here.

A

So I'm kathy dew senior pm on the onedrive sharepoint team, um and I will jump in on this so in looking and talking about site scripts, we're still very early in our journey for site scripts. um When you look at this, it may not seem like it's very early in the journey, considering how long site, scripts and site designs have been out in the world, but site scripts are still very early in the journey.

A

If you look at the number of site scripts and the types of actions that are available, there aren't a complete set of site scripts available yet so that is why we still consider this to be very early in the journey. So as we look at, where do we have to go and what has been happening in the last year really in the last few months with site scripts, there's a few notable changes.

A

The biggest of these is that site designs, which is the way that you pull together site scripts into a package to make changes are now called site templates. So site templates is the new way that we are referring to this packaging of the site scripts together. uh So you'll start to see that change be the biggest piece of that puzzle, so referring them to to them throughout the ui as site templates everywhere.

A

So, with this change from site designs to site templates, we do acknowledge that there were some regressions introduced with this change. These are regressions around some pieces being able to see history being able to watch the actions get applied if you're, applying the custom site templates.

A

uh Seeing and being able to apply these from the admin center through a drop down at site creation, the team is actively working on ways to bring these back into these experiences.

A

We did not want to hold up shipping site templates to have all of those available, so you will see active changes coming in to replace those experiences that were regressed over the coming months. The one thing that did not change is that site scripts did remain constant. Those remain the backing components that make up the site templates, so those will always be something that we continue to evolve and add in so when we look at this one of the other things that we have done is.

A

We have now allowed site templates to be run on teams channel sites, so this means previously these were blocked and you weren't able to run these on teams channel sites. So your private channel sites, you weren't, allowed to run site designs on in the past, so we've enabled that now now there is an exception, a caveat here for these. um With these, there are certain site scripts that are restricted for channel sites, so I've listed out what those are. Basically, these actions, if they are included in your site, template will simply fail their site.

A

Template will not fail, but these will not run.

A

The reason for these is these particular actions are actually things that you cannot perform within the sharepoint site itself, due to the special connection for sharepoint and teams for this particular site type of the channel site. So this is being able to manage the permissions by adding users to the different sharepoint groups being able to apply a site theme being able to join a hub site being able to set the external sharing capability and being able to set regional settings.

A

So with these, these actions can be contained in your site, template they simply will not run on these. So you can have one site: template apply it to these site types, but it just will not rhyme, so you don't have to make up multiple ones just to have them something special to run on these channel sites.

A

So we wanted to make sure that we found a great way for these to kind of fail, gracefully and not make these kind of a change, but also to stick to the constructs that are in place and not provide a way for people to continue to try to work around the constraints that have been put in for that particular team's restraint that we have so really exciting to be able to start allowing these, we are working on updating documentation.

A

Currently, um these are new changes that I believe just got checked in and are rolled out now. I just heard that they are fully rolled out starting last week for these restrictions, so we will um start updating this. So, yes, this is for channel sites, so channel sites are the um private channels today and then shared channels as well in the future, which will be the next type of site. That's uh channel, backed for our channels that are site collection, backed um the standard channels, are folders in a group connected team site.

A

So those do not have the same restrictions. Okay, now I'm going to talk about roadmap, and then I'm going to ask for your help. Roadmap is what everyone is interested in when it comes to site scripts and site templates, and where are we going so with site scripts? The the roadmap items? We are working on, adding new components here um for sites groups, actions coming very soon. Is the content type hubsync script action?

A

So this will allow you to reference and add a content type from your hub, and so that will be a great advancement to be able to use that from that hub, and so that has been reviewed so that should be coming very soon and you'll see some documentation and we'll we'll have some updates come out there and then for site templates. These have g8. So we are very excited that everyone has.

A

The availability of these first party sharepoint site templates and we're excited to see people starting to use these and then again being able to apply via powershell was another option that we pulled together and allowed four channel sites as well. That was something that was explicitly blocked before as well, so you can apply those via the ui and you can apply via powershell now as well when it comes to kind of what's coming next future pieces.

A

um So we are working on a set of components here that will allow you to connect templates across teams and sharepoint so being able to have a sharepoint site template that's connected to a teams template so that you can build true scenario based solutions across products, and so that will be something that will be coming soon as well, and then one of our biggest requests admin controls for sharepoint, first party site templates and for site templates, so you'll start to see admin controls starting to come in views.

A

Template history is another big one, that's going to be coming soon and then we'll be shipping, some additional sharepoint, microsoft templates as well, so some great updates that will be coming soon and then kind of top of mind.

A

Now this is this is one of these pieces of where um I am still relatively new into the site: script space, um and so these are some of the pieces that have come over to me of what were being thought of before, but also things that I know that other people have asked for um so in site, templates, they're, working on site, template creation, so nicole woon, who is the pm who's working a lot on site templates?

A

She actually owns a lot of these experiences for site templates themselves, she's working on site, template creation, experiences so great ways to move forward and advance that and then power platform integration, so power, automate flows, power, apps how we would integrate with those now when it comes into site scripts. In particular.

A

We know that we've recently released, I say recently like january- was last week new site, header types, and we have footers and different options that you might not be able to set today via site scripts. So we are working on updates to site script, actions to be able to properly set all of the different branding controls. So to add those support components for all of those different branding options and then looking at pages and web parts. So how will we be able to support pages and web parts and then stream?

A

How would you be able to support video through these site script, actions as well and then another big one that has started to get explored a bit outside of the site script, but in a way part of site scripts, because the site script actions would be the same things that are utilized for this. As document library templates.

A

How would we comprise using site scripts to create document library templates, and what would that mean? And how would you apply those um so that's kind of some top of mind, ideas and areas when we start talking about the site script world and it's it's really hard to separate site scripts from the template world, because site scripts do back templates in many ways. They are that platform component of our templates, whether that be a library template or a site template.

A

So they are that great building block capability that we utilize so trying to complete that building block capability is a big, a long poll that we are trying to get to, but one of the things. This is where I need your help. So, as I said, I'm a bit new into coming in and starting to focus on site scripts.

A

I know that there have been a lot of issues and items raised with sites groups over the years. I acknowledge this and I know that there are a lot of issues that have been shared in the github repository.

A

We are actively working through and triaging that github repository we will be providing updates and working through those items. So please know if you have put stuff in there we will be getting you answers, but I also know that there are other places that people have put in requests features that they would like to see scripts that they would like to see that I may not have seen or heard so.

A

I would like you to if you can, if you would, if you have things that are pressing on you, that you're looking for share issues that you're having in that github repository, if you're still having active issues there, we will go through and continue to triage and monitor that github repository and start getting answers there, but also I've put together just a simple survey form if you have a future request, something that you want to see built, something that needs to be supported, something that you would love to see, get added to our roadmap.

A

Please add it into that aka, ms sitescript request form and share that feedback with me. I would love to start collecting that note that that it is a long list of items that I'm getting and thank you mark for helping to collaborate and pull some of this feedback. For me together as I jump into this space, I want to acknowledge that there has been a lot of this and it has been a bit of a void.

A

We are working on this and trying to put together a roadmap, and that's where I need your help. Is we need to know what people are needing from this space? So we are definitely working through this and I'm kind of asking for your help a bit. So I would love to get some help here. But, yes, github is definitely the place to go to put where you're having issues when it comes to site scripts and site design, site templates, and we will be actively triaging that moving forward.

A

So please note that we acknowledge that it has not been triaged and that we are actively monitoring that now and then again for the requests. Until we have the announced replacement for user voice. I have gone and and looked there previously, um but for a tentative time until we have the replacement there.

A

This forum is kind of that place to have that, and I did acknowledge in there if you have put some of these requests in places like tech, community or any of those other places. You can just send me a link to it so that I know where you've been posting these, so we are looking to evolve this and make sure that we are building a road map that helps you um as well as helps you know the community.

A

So that's kind of what I had today and hopefully um I didn't have a demo, but hopefully this was good.

B

This is really good, so I think everybody just wanted to know where we are and what's the latest and sure demos are always cool, but the key is the the open and honest communications and roadmap and understanding the next steps for sure now kathy. I will put you on a spot and ask a few questions uh and then we can close a few minutes early. So can you clarify a bit site template site design, site script, um terminology confusing? Can you briefly kind of try to explain? What's the difference.

A

Yeah, so site scripts are the backing components, so they are essentially the platform components that make up the site templates. So we read the named site designs to site templates, um so that is kind of the. The big confusing part is site. Designs is now site, templates, um so site scripts are the components that you utilize to build? The templates.

B

Cool now, if I'm an old-school sharepoint person and they used to be safe side as a template, is that related on this? Are we planning to do something like that in the future? Any comments on that.

A

Yeah, so if you see here in my top of mind section here, um one of the things that you may notice is a site template creation experiences. So that is definitely a top of mind area for us, for I know, nicole, is actively thinking about how people will create site templates.

B

Yeah- and I think that's the side note from my side- I think it's actually really good- that there's a separate ownership on the side, script and and the site uh template uh so the ux layer. So this means that just to clarify for everybody in this course, so kathy is kind of thinking through the like, I said the platform level. What does it mean when somebody then selects from the ux a specific template to be applied and what are the actions? What do we support and how do we support them?

B

And then nicole is then really focusing on the on the polished ux experience. So how do we make this look for end users and administrator as efficiently as possible, so two different sides, a bit confusing terminology and the historical reasons. I still remember actually- and maybe I shouldn't be saying this out loud- but whenever we decided to do a site design, we didn't want to use site template because we thought that it would be confusing for those who think site templates are the same old site templates, which we had 20 years ago.

B

So this historical, let's say legacy in sharepoint, is giving us a lot of headache um and that's why we're always trying to avoid this conflict so.

A

Yeah and it was difficult because the you know deciding to move it back to calling it site templates from changing it from site designs. um You know it's a difficult change like mark says the you know. The code still says site designs, um uh but at the same time it aligns us across m365 where everyone else are calling these templates.

B

A

Calls them templates, so it allows us to align across the broader m365, and so that's another reason why we separated out scripts from the us of ux as well, is because from the site script component of it as well. It allows um site scripts from that platform perspective for me to focus and looking at how these can work across different products as well so utilizing across the platform, so how we can connect our sharepoint site scripts and our our templates to teams and to other products across m365.

B

Absolutely absolutely and then the obviously changing names is always there's. There's multiple sites of changing a name. It's not necessarily always a bad thing. There's downsides of changing a name, uh the the reason why it's not necessarily always a bad thing is that when you change the name, then, when you go to the google or bing, you can actually find all of the new stuff when you use the new term.

B

So there are advantages and this advantage is imposed, but anyway, so this is really really hard so from a naming perspective, but I guess anyway, so that's that's it for this section. Thank you kathy.