CHAPTER 1

Introduction and Site Information

We are living in a revolutionary digital world that is booming unimaginably very fast, and content plays a primary role in it. The use of electronic equipment like computer, mobile, tablet, to access digital content anywhere, anytime, is a part of life now. So, it’s essential to manage content effectively, smartly, securely, and make it available at any time, anywhere to the right people. The content management tool comes into the picture as a solution for this. User needs exciting new features and best way to manage content in day to day life with increased speed and quality that can save cost and time. Microsoft SharePoint is the solution for all problems which provide a collaborative platform for content management as well as security of content to make avail content to the right people.

Structure

In this chapter, you will understand:

Objective

During the end of the chapter, you will get a clear understanding of:

Rewind SharePoint Content Concept

Let’s rewind very basics about SharePoint, sounds easy, but it’s challenging to understand the concept accurately. SharePoint is dealing with all about content. What is the content? Content is all about information. Whatever information we are getting in the form of text, audio, video, or any other format through any medium is called content. What is information? Information is all about data we have. Information or content is vast; how can we organize to make it easy for use? We have to identify and categorize different types of content or information and put a similar type of content into one content type. So, the content type is the actual container of content or information of a similar type. So, we can categorize different types of content into different content types. Then what is site? The site carries all content or information in the form of a content type. We will discuss more about content types in Chapter 2, Library, and List Smart Management.

Scope of power user role

Every SharePoint site is owned by a specific group of people, which we call as a site owner. The site owner is the primary person responsible for managing site and has full control, the authority to do all actions at the SharePoint site level. There is another group of people that we call as a site collection administrator. Then it comes into mind who is a site collection administrator. Site collection administrator is responsible for managing the site collection and has full control, the authority to do all actions at the site collection level, and that includes all sites present under that site collection as well. Then you must be thinking, what is the difference between site collection and site? To understand this, you need to understand the hierarchy of the SharePoint site.

SharePoint is based on sites only. For the on-premises environment, when administrators install SharePoint, the first root level site created is the central admin. In central admin, few more sites are created at the next level called Web Application. Under each web application administrator, create specific sites which are called Site Collections. Under each site collection, we create several sites that we can call as a Subsite. Under each subsite, we can create more sites that are subsite of their respective one level higher site. So, the site collection is the top-level site, and rest all sites exist under that site collection. A site itself a subsite of another site, it’s just for understanding the level of the hierarchy, but every site maintains its individual set of features and functionalities. Now you must have got a clear understanding of site collection, sites, and subsites.

In SharePoint online, when the administrator creates a site under the SharePoint Admin Center, it’s a site collection, and we call as the top-level site in SharePoint. This top-level site is owned by site owner/owners who is/are responsible for managing this site collection only. There must be site collection administrator/administrators who has/have full control, authority, in all sites, subsites under that site collection, to manage advanced features apart from the common site management features and functionalities. Normally IT administrators from the technical support operation team are given such site collection administrator permission but for large portals, power users can be assigned such permission to maintain such specific advanced features and functionalities as per business requirements, which we will discuss later. It means Power User has a specific set of permission to act and manage a specific set of advanced tasks similar to an administrator. So, SharePoint administrator will create a site collection and handover to the site collection owner or power user to manage. We will discuss in detail about permission level for each group of people in Chapter 8, Manage Permission.

Templates revised

As per the process, the user should request a new site with a detailed business requirement. As an owner, you are the only authorized person to create subsites under site collection, using any one of the site templates, as per your business requirement. How can you decide what type of site is suitable for user requirements? For this, you need to understand what is a template, and what are the different types of site templates available, which you need to select during the process of subsite creation? The template is a schema, or we can say skeleton, which provides a basic structure of site or content type. Template related to the site is called a site template, similarly, for a list, library, and other content type called a list template, library template like this. There are predefined templates by Microsoft, based on business requirements, present in SharePoint. You need to understand every site template and its use before creating a site.

Site templates out of box

Here we will discuss different types of site templates available as out of the box, which you need to select during new site creation. The different template has a different layout, features, and purpose of the requirement is different. Let us perform the following steps to create a new site:

  1. When users want to create a new site, the user will get an option to select either Modern Team site or Communicate site or can choose other templates following option Other options. Modern Team site and Communication site are the new site templates introduced to collaborate and communicate better. The following image is a screenshot of default site template options:

    Figure 1.1: Default site template options

  2. Proceeding further, click on Other Options. You see templates like Document Center, Enterprise Wiki, Publishing Portal and option More templates to check more default templates available as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 1.2: Default site template options

  3. Click on More templates; you see additional templates in the form of categories like Collaboration, Enterprise, Publishing, Custom.
  4. Click on category Collaboration under the option Create Site Collection | Template Selection; you see Team Site (classic experience), Blog, Developer Site, Project Site, Community Site templates, which are called Collaboration Templates.
  5. Click on category Enterprise; you see Document Center, eDiscovery Center, Records Center, Team Site – SharePoint Online configuration, Business Intelligence Center, Compliance Policy Center, Enterprise Search Center, My Site Host, Community Portal, Basic Search Center, Visio Process Repository templates which are called Enterprise Templates.
  6. Click on category Publishing; you see Publishing Portal, Enterprise Wiki templates, which are called Publishing Templates.
  7. Click on Custom, where you can find customized templates implemented by developers. All site templates could be seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 1.3: Default site template options0

Now you got an idea about default site templates available in SharePoint, out of which you need to select anyone while creating a site. We will discuss the application of site template latter in Chapter 12, Site Designing and Enhancement.

Content templates

Inside the site, you will find different contents like List, Document library, Page, App, Subsite, which also can be considered as content types. When you create any content, you have options to select a template related to a particular content or content type. Selecting from the drop-down option, New will show drop-down option to create a list, library, page, or subsite from respective content type templates available, which can be modified later. The following figure helps in understanding it:

Figure 1.4: Default Content Templates

We know, the app model is introduced from the SharePoint 2013 version. So, you see the option App while creating content. Click on App. You will find a lot of predefined apps based on the type of site templates you selected during site creation. There will be a difference in contents available based on the type of site template selected. Some contents are available after enabling certain site collection features or site features. You should notice these points while creating a site. The following screenshot displays various apps available in SharePoint:

Figure 1.5: Apps in SharePoint

Creating sites and subsites using a site template

Now you got a basic idea about the content, content type, site, template, app. Now let’s create new modern sites and subsite. As per process, after business approval, a user needs to create a request for site collection with Name of Site Collection and Type of Site and Site Owner. SharePoint administrators are responsible for creating top-level site collection and handover to the site owner, and there will be site collection administrators as well. For large portals, site collection administrator level permission can be given to power users. It all depends on the business requirement. From here, your role comes into the picture. Let’s discuss step by step process to create a new modern site. Then we will create subsite using one type of site template available as default.

Modern communication site

My intension is to describe what the newly introduced sites are in SharePoint online and how to create. What is this site for and when to create this type of site is described in the later section Selecting Right Template. So, follow the step by step procedure below to create a newly introduced communication site:

  1. Sign in to Office 365 portal http://office365.com, the user can see all apps present in Office 365, as per the type of subscription you have taken, including SharePoint. Click on the SharePoint app, as shown in the following screenshot. You will be redirected to the default root site:

    Figure 1.6: Apps Launched after sign in Office 365 Portal

  2. Click on Create site from the top left corner of the site and select Communication site template to create a new communication site shown as follows:

    Figure 1.7: Communication site template

  3. The site creation wizard will open. Select one design from the Choose a design option. There are three default designs like Topic, Showcase, Blank available shown as follows: Each design provides a different user interface:

    Figure 1.8: Communication site designs and fills up all fields during site creation

  4. Enter Site name as BPB-ModernCommunication, enter user id under Site owner who is going to own and manage the site and select the language of the site.
  5. Click on Advanced settings; you will get additional options like Time zone and Site description. Enter those details and click on Finish. Communication site will be created as per the screenshot below:

    Figure 1.9: Communication site home page of design topic

  6. You will find images at the top and News, Events, Documents below as other contents on the site:

    Figure 1.10: News webparts in communication site home page of design topic

Modern team site

A modern team site is also newly introduced in SharePoint online. We will discuss its application in the later section Selecting Right Template. Currently, just follow the step by step process below to create a Modern Team Site:

  1. Log in to Office 365; the user can see all apps, including SharePoint. Click on SharePoint, as shown in the following screenshot. You will be redirected to the default root site.

    Figure 1.11: Apps Launched after sign in Office 365 Portal

  2. Click on Create site from the top left corner of the site and select the Team site template to create a new modern team site shown in the following screenshot:

    Figure 1.12: Team Site Template

  3. The site creation wizard will open. Enter Site name as BPB-ModernTeamSite, enter Site description, select Privacy settings as Private – only members can access this site. One Office 365 group will be created, and the group email address will be the same as the Site name (BPB-ModernTeamSite) by default, but you can change during the site creation by entering a new email address. Then click Next as shown in the following screenshot:

    Figure 1.13: Fill up all fields to create a team site

  4. Enter additional owner ID, if you want to keep more than one site owner.
  5. Add group members under the Add members field. It will add members into the Office 365 group and click Finish as shown in the following screenshot:

    Figure 1.14: Fill up fields to create a team site

  6. New modern site collection BPB-ModernTeamSite is created, and the URL will be https://spmcse.sharepoint.com/sites/BPB-ModernTeamSite.
  7. You will notice, Create a Team in the Microsoft Teams option there at the bottom left corner of the site. Click on Create a Team, one group in Microsoft Teams, with the same name as site collection BPB-ModernTeamSite, will be created.
  8. Log in to Microsoft Teams; you will notice the group BPB-ModernTeamSite as seen in the following screenshot. Expand that group; you will notice one folder General. The actual location of this folder is inside of the site collection document library Documents:

    Figure 1.15: Private Group for Team Site Created in Microsoft Teams

  9. In Site collection Home Page, under left navigation, you will notice one more quick launch Teams is added. General folder under the document library Documents, as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 1.16: Modern team site home page and folder for storing files by a private group created in Microsoft Teams

SharePoint administrator should create a site collection and provide this to you, but I intend to show you how to create a new modern team site and how it is different from the classic team site. When you create a subsite of template Team Site (no Office 365 group), it will be a new team site only, but no Office 365 group is created.

Now let’s create a subsite that can be under your role as per business requirement.

Team site as subsite

In this section, we will discuss how to create subsite under one site collection. Follow the step by step process as below to create a subsite:

  1. SharePoint Administrator handover the site collection to the owner. The site collection URL is https://spmcse.sharepoint.com/sites/BPB-ModernTeamSite.
  2. Access the site collection. Click on Site contents from the left navigation menu or the drop-down option after clicking the Gear button present at the top right corner, as seen in the following screenshot. All site contents will open:

    Figure 1.17: Navigate to all site contents in SharePoint site

  3. Click on the option New from newly introduced command bar and select Subsite from drop-down options, as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 1.18: Navigate to Subsite from drop-down option New

  4. Enter Title and Description, URL name, Select a language, choose one template, for example, Team Site (no Office 365 group) keep rest options as default and click on the button Create as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 1.19: Fill up all fields and select the type of subsite template

  5. New subsite BPB-TeamSubSite of type modern team site with no office 365 group created. Site URL will be https://spmcse.sharepoint.com/sites/BPB-ModernTeamSite/BPB-TeamSubSite, as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 1.20: Modern Team site with no Office 365 group

  6. If you compare this subsite with top-level site collection, you notice both have the same look and feel except two quick launch options under left navigation Conversations and Teams, which are not present here.

Start page

After sign in to Office365.com, users can see all apps, including SharePoint. Click on SharePoint will redirect to a newly introduced SharePoint modern communication site landing page called Start Page. It captures all activity in Sites, News, Events, Documents in SharePoint. Which are the sites you frequently visit, sites that you follow, recently visited sites are captured under the category Frequent, Following, Recent respectively under section Site as seen in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.21: Start Page in SharePoint with sections News, Frequent sites visited, sites Following, Recent visited site

There is a section Featured links that give an option to add links that you frequently use Recent documents that capture the files, documents that you visited.

Hub Site

Hub Site is newly introduced in SharePoint by which multiple site collections are associated with one site collection to maintain branding, secure and faster access of site collection for intranet users at any time. Traditionally, the organization creates multiple site collections, subsites, multiple site owners, maintaining branding for site collection was difficult. Also, the organization had to manage at each site collection level. In SharePoint online, thousands of site collections are created. Introduction of hub site feature associates other site collections to the hub site. Let’s say one organization BPB Publication has multiple site collections like BPB-ModernTeamSite, Marketing, HR, Author, Social, Career, News. So, in total, seven site collections with different URL. Now we can register the BPB-ModernTeamSite site collection as a hub site, and then we can associate the rest six site collections to the hub site BPB-ModernTeamSite as seen in the following screenshot. Whenever a user accesses any of these six sites, the hub site link will appear at the top of the site collection for quick redirection. Similarly, one organization can create multiple hub sites when the number of a site collection are huge in number and want to collaborate group of site collection for a common purpose. We will discuss more on this in Chapter 12, Site Designing and Enhancement:

Figure 1.22: Hub site

Getting started with Site settings

The site is created. Now we need to understand how to manage the site. What are the options available to manage the site? Every site has an option called Site settings, where you can control site actions, administer, change the look and feel of the site, manage permission for users and groups, control the site features.

You can open Site settings in multiple ways as below:

Whether it’s site collection or site or any subsite under that hierarchy, the Site Settings option and user interface are similar for all. For the new team site, under Site Settings, you will find options like Look and Feel, Web Designer Galleries, Site Administration, Site Actions, Search. For top-level site collection only, there is an extra option named Site collection administration; otherwise, rest all site, subsite has the same options in site setting, as seen in Figure 1.24. Except for the new modern team site, rest all site, you will notice an additional option Users and Permissions under Site Settings:

Figure 1.24: Comparing default site settings options between site collection and subsite

Basic modification in Site

Site settings or site page editing are the advanced modes of editing sites. But SharePoint Online provides an option to make some basic changes like theme, layout, background, and logo to maintain branding. Let’s discuss how to make some basic changes in the site as per our requirement.

Change the look

In this section, we will discuss how to change basic look and feel and a few site information. Let us perform the following steps to change the look of the site:

  1. Click on the Gear button from the top right corner of the page.
  2. Select Change the look option from the drop-down, as shown in Figure 1.25.
  3. You will get another dialog box with options Theme and Header.
  4. Click on Theme. You will see another dialog box showing the current theme applied on the homepage. Select any other theme and click on Save. You will see the color of the homepage background, button, text changed:

    Figure 1.25: All option in Change the look

  5. Click on Header. You will get additional options like Layout, Site logo, Background. Selecting the option Compact from Layout will make some space arrangements in the header. You can change the logo of the site following the button Change under the Site logo. Selecting one option from the next Background will change the header background color. After that, you can see the look of the site changed, as shown in Figure 1.26:

    Figure 1.26: Modern Team site after modifying Theme and Header from Change the look option

  6. Once links are there in the Header, you will see one more option apart from Theme, Header is Navigation. Click on Navigation; you will get options to 2select one Menu Style out of the Mega menu and Cascading. Selecting any one of the options will change the menu option, as shown in the figure below. Mega menu is new to SharePoint online that gives a different impression to the site:

    Figure 1.27: Navigation header

Modify Site Information

SharePoint online provides options like Site information that allows modifying Site name, Site description, Privacy settings, Delete site. Follow the step by step process to see how to modify site information:

  1. Click on the Gear button from the top right corner, select the Site information option from the drop-down, as shown in Figure 1.28.
  2. You will get the option to change the Logo, Site name, Site description. You can change the Privacy settings from Private - only members can access the site to Public - anyone in the organization can access the site and click on Save.
  3. One more option, Hub site association, used to associate team site to Hub Site. Hub Site needs to be configured separately, which we will discuss later:

    Figure 1.28: Edit Site Information

Selecting the Right Template

You must have understood what site template is and how to create a site using the site template. We already created a new modern team site, communication site, subsite. Similarly, you can create different sites as per the template available and project requirements. Reminding again, different site templates just provide predefined schema or skeleton for a different site, having specific default content types for each template. Remember, we can edit the site and add apps during need as per our requirement at any time. Now you need to identify the right template which is suitable for user requirements.

Modern Team Site

This site provides a collaborative platform with a brand new template, where users can share documents within team members, organize their activities in the list, share news within a team by creating news post, share news links, create a plan for the team, assign tasks and check the progress of tasks. Integration with OneNote by which users can keep critical notes in the notebook. If the user requirement is limited to this, then you should suggest users for a new modern team site.

Communication site

You can create a communication site with the same step as we did for modern team site creation. You just need to select the Communication site template. It is a new template introduced that focus more on representing content with the visually stunning format, widescreen without any left navigational element. Users can create and share news, events, reports, and showcase products with Images. Mainly contents are consumed by and targeted for a large audience but contributed by very few and selected people. This site comes with three design, named Topic, Showcase, Blank. Topic design mostly used for visual contents related to the news, events, reports. Showcase design mostly used to showcase your product during launch and marketing related content that are visually stunning. What are the actions we are taking on this site? We will discuss more on this in a later chapter.

Blog Site (Collaboration)

Blog site allows users to share ideas, experience, observation, announcements in the form of a post. Relate post to any event, ideas, or opinion during the creation of the post. User put their comment, share knowledge and opinion on the post. It is mostly useful for creating knowledge base articles related to company operational support. This classic blog site will be retired soon by the year 2020, and users can create a great blog by using communication sites and news posts further. The following image is a screenshot of the blog site:

Figure 1.29: Default Blog Site template

Developer Site (Collaboration)

If a user is doing development in SharePoint Online, this site provides a platform where user can build their apps, do testing, and finally publish. It is used by developers. The following image is a screenshot of the developer site:

Figure 1.30: Default Developer site template

Project Site (Collaboration)

For a project, we are adding resources to the project, assigning tasks, tracking the progress of tasks assigned to resources. Sharing project documents, news internal to project members. Provide default web part related to the project, which would be helpful for project management. Users can create individual project sites for individual projects. Project Site provides secure integration options to project management tool, Microsoft Project Professional, Microsoft Project Server Application to manage the project to a larger extend, and secure management. The following image is a screenshot of the project site:

Figure 1.31: Default Project Site template

Community Site (Collaboration)

Community site provides a platform where community members can share their ideas and discuss ideas in common to them. Group of people shares their ideas on a common platform, a kind of social features it provides. The following image is a screenshot of a Community site:

Figure 1.32: Default Community site template

Document Center Site (Enterprise)

Document Center template mostly acts as a dedicated central repository for the documents. When the volume of documents is very high, and user frequently views, contribute or modify the document, this template provides a platform dedicated to documents only with all additional features like metadata navigation, Document ID, Versions, Content types, Content Organizer at one place. It makes better document management. You will find more information related to this site in Chapter 5, Configure Document ID Service. The following image is a screenshot of the document center site:

Figure 1.33: Default Document Center Site template

eDiscovery center site (Enterprise)

Process of identifying electronic information like legal documents, financial, litigation, documents related to the investigation, sensitive data across different sources like an exchange, file server, Skype for Business, Teams sites, and delivering information that can act as evidence. eDiscovery Center portal provides a platform to manage the eDiscovery cases, apply the hold, search information by applying query, review information, release the hold, and finally export the information. The following image is a screenshot of the eDiscovery center site:

Figure 1.34: Default eDiscovery Site template

Records Center Site (Enterprise)

Record center provides a collaborative platform dedicated to records like company financial document, legal documents and provides specific features related to recording management like security, auditing, policy to information a few more, which we will discuss separately later chapter. If the user requirement is to maintain a record, then this would be the best template. You will find more information related to this in Chapter 7, Content Organizer Feature. The following image is a screenshot of the records center site:

Figure 1.35: Default Record center site template

Business Intelligence Center Site (Enterprise)

Business intelligence Center template mostly used for storing content related to BI like data connection, scorecards, reports, dashboard as well. Facilitates specific contents dedicated to these BI contents, which we will be discussed in the next chapter. The following image is a screenshot of Business intelligence center site:

Figure 1.36: Default Business Intelligence Site template

Compliance Policy Center Site (Enterprise)

Using this site can create Policies for content, rules set for document management. You will find more information related to this in Chapter 4, Configure Information Management Policy. The following image is a screenshot of the compliance policy center site:

Figure 1.37: Default Compliance Policy Center Site template

Community Portal Site (Enterprise)

Community Portal site acts as a central directory that holds information regarding all community sites present across your organization. It helps users to search and discover topics they are interested in, can follow other community sites, visit topics, and can take active participation in the discussion, which leads to collaborate with your enterprise employees in one place. The following image is a screenshot of the community portal site:

Figure 1.38: Default Community Portal Site template

Visio Process Repository Site (Enterprise)

If a user wants to store, view, share and manage Visio diagrams, this template is the perfect place. The following image is a screenshot of the Visio process repository site:

Figure 1.39: Default Visio Process Repository Site template

Publishing Site (Publishing)

Publishing site provides rich features like additional page layout options as welcome page, customized options available to make your branding site, dynamic sites creation option. Manage workflows and approval centrally, the option to publish content across multiple sites, the option to refine permission and security for content by providing special SharePoint groups and new permission levels. Much more features we will discuss separately in the later Chapter 10, SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure Feature. It is useful for the sites rich in dynamic content, changing content at one place, and publishing to multiple sites like news, product catalog sites that need a frequent change in content at multiple pages at the same time. The following image is a screenshot of the publishing site:

Figure 1.40: Default Publishing Site template

Enterprise Wiki Site (Publishing)

Enterprise wiki is a dedicated site for storing, sharing large volumes of information across the world for an enterprise. It provides an easy way to edit information, add tags and notes, links to make it searchable and quickly find the right information during need. The following image is a screenshot of Enterprise Wiki Site:

Figure 1.41: Default Enterprise Wiki Site template

Default SharePoint Online Templates

If we want to get all default SharePoint online templates with id, then PowerShell command can help to get this and output will display template Name, Title, LocaleId, CompatibilityLevel as seen in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.42: Default SharePoint Online templates with ID

Conclusion

In this chapter, we discussed the contents, information, sites. You learned what the default site templates that are available to create sites. We created newly introduced team site, subsites, communication sites, and classic sites as well. We understood the scope of Power-user. We shared information about basic site settings and step by step information to change some basic site information. We also discussed the application of every SharePoint site that we can create. Next chapter, Chapter 2, Library and List Smart Management, we will discuss default site contents and app available, smart features introduced to manage content, information about apps. Then we will discuss list and library settings, share a glance on site collection features, site features, and its impact on-site content.

Points to remember