SharePoint Content Services

Microsoft offers Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Services for Office365, OneDrive, and SharePoint.  Content Services manages the entire life cycle from document creation, sharing, consumption, knowledge, repurposing, records management, disposal, and archiving. By holistically embracing the whole document lifecycle from creation to archiving to disposal, content services management has become people-centric. As an integral part of content services management, policy and security is not only intelligent, but is simple and automated.

 

What is Content Services?

An excellent example of explaining Microsoft Content Services is comparing the actions of content management to the lifecycle of money and a bank. Imagine that the files you create (your data) is the money that you are earning. When you bring your files for storage and management with Microsoft Content Services, it is very much like bringing your hard-earned earnings to the bank for depositing into your savings account. When you need to access it, the data is always accessible, just like your money. Once your data is stored, it becomes not only accessible to you, but to those who you allow access to, similar in fashion to the funds that are deposited into the bank. The bank coordinates how the funds are shared and with whom, and Microsoft Content achieves the same goals of coordinating the file sharing amongst authorized users, devices, and features in the organization, and with external providers.  Collaboration and access are targeted to a specific audience (your teams), and to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your files and data, security is put in place to keep your data safe and secure, just like at the bank for your money. Harvesting the files, like a withdrawal, will place the files in either an archive repository or they will be permanently deleted. What we have explained are the four actions of Content Services Management in SharePoint:

1.  Create: create, collect and classify content

2.  Coordinate: enrich libraries with Tenants, Flow and coauthoring

3.  Protect: manage compliance, lifecycle, DLP, encryption and eDiscovery

4.  Harvest: search, manage and dispose of content

 

What Creates Content Storage?

Content creates the need for storage, and the function of the content defines the type of storage required. The function of the content can be categorized as perpetual (always there), policy driven (response to administrative and/or IT behavior), and user-centric (response to user activities like collaboration and sharing). These three categories form the enterprise content services platform.

The platform on its own, is not functional, but by layering applications on top of it, it becomes functional. These applications are not only developed by Microsoft but are also built and developed with Microsoft partners. Through partnering, content can be provided on a range of devices from mobile to desktop, regardless of the operating system. In addition, if the content is stored in the cloud, then users on any device will be able to access this content.

 

Announcements

There are some amazing new features and enhancements with Content Services Management at Microsoft that were announced at Ignite 2018.

Tap: based on Microsoft Graph, and used in Office clients, Tap allows you to “reuse” document sections, that have been indexed, into new documents. In addition, metadata can be inserted as quick parts

Intelligent Search: based on Microsoft Graph, and spanning across Office365, it can be personalized to your work network, harvesting and curating knowledge that is more applicable to your projects for resourcing and collaboration. Fully functional across all devices, it provides knowledge no matter where you are working and no matter which platform you are working off of. Private, compliant and trustworthy

Central Asset Library: a central repository for approved images, such as headers, galleries or webparts, and it allows you to register one or more document libraries that are available in SharePoint

File Card: for every document that is indexed, AI extracts from the document, relevant information and terms. These are then shown on an index card that appears when you hover over the document in the library. The file card provides pertinent information that allows the user to make the decision to open it to read or to continue to the next document. Looking to see what information resides in a document without opening it is one of the best new features for users. Additional flexibility is added as the user can edit and supplement with document metadata plus key points can be edited in SharePoint

Mobile Capture: documents and images can be scanned into SharePoint or OneDrive with the OneDrive mobile app.  Users can add custom metadata when saving the files directly to a SharePoint library, eliminating the need to retag images inside a browser

Document Templates: default templates are always available, but now there is the ability to upload documents and duplicate it with the New menu in document libraries to create new and custom document templates

Predictive Indexing: add indexes to libraries and lists of any size with a maximum of 30 million items

Modern Document Sets: work with document sets in SharePoint with the modern user experience

PowerApps Integration and SharePoint Libraries: use SharePoint libraries as the data source to build apps and forms

Updates to Taxonomy APIs: using REST-based APIs from Managed Metadata Service, develop, design and create solutions that consume content types and terms

Flow for Document Management: in Office 365, move and copy files by leveraging Microsoft Flow including the generation of shareable links while maintaining the integrity of the metadata

Attention Views and Bulk Edit: summarizes the items in a library requiring metadata where the metadata is incomplete or not entered by the user. It also shows the location of the missing metadata, making it easy to add this information. This is time saving as you do not have to review line by line to see what and where the metadata is missing. You can either enter the data, or you can notify the owner to fill in the data  

SharePoint Server 2019: targeted at on-prem clients, modern lists and libraries are deployed with bulk edit, attention views, filter panes and more

File Plans: implementing Excel-based formats, import, manage, and classify multiple retention rules

Label Analytics: for each applied retention rule, analyze usage, trends and content

Metadata-Driven Labels: retention labels can be automatically applied to content with rules based on metadata and content types

Immutable Labels: to meet special regulatory requirements, a document is tagged with an “immutable” mark or label. This marks it as undeletable and irreversibly unchangeable

There are many exciting enhancements and new capabilities rolling out for SharePoint, Office365, and SharePoint Server 2019. From the time saving file card, to the repurposing of document information with Tap, to the retention of metadata and links with file management, SharePoint and Office 365 continue to revolutionize the platforms for office collaboration amongst teams in your organization.

Ignite 2018 Announcements: SharePoint, Office 365, OneDrive, and Microsoft 365

At this year’s Ignite, Microsoft has focused their enhancements on combining the power of SharePoint and Microsoft 365, delivering to employees across the organization targeted digital content that pertains to their needs. Displayed visually, targeted for teams, and easily accessible, files can be accessed for live team collaboration.

Engaging Employees

The purpose of SharePoint is to share digital content across the organization, promoting collaboration amongst team members. SharePoint is already effective for sharing information for collaboration, but with audience targeting, knowledge, news, services, and corporate visions can now be delivered to the appropriate teams and their members. External articles can now be shared as news with news links, another great new feature. Visually, there are new page designs and new, powerful web parts, both which will help create stunning pages. Visual tags can be used to accent and highlight Organizational News.

Video Streaming

What better way than to engage your employees with video? Everyone loves to watch video, and with video becoming the preferred method of creating compelling news that captivates the audience, not only is Microsoft Stream the intelligent video service in Microsoft 365, but it is the driving force for video experiences in SharePoint sites and for live and on-demand events for Yammer, Microsoft Teams, and Stream. The mobile app, Microsoft Stream, features offline viewing when in areas of limited or no internet connection. Videos that you can engage in can be found across the organization on Microsoft Stream mobile.

Modern Portals

The digital experience for your employee can be fast, dynamic, natively mobile sites and pages, personalized, beautiful, social, and most importantly, actionable. There will be over a dozen new features that will give you the tools to make your sites and pages look amazing. The new portal web part will help create these experiences, including the ability to personalize views of recent sites, recent documents, and personalized news. For SharePoint portals, the new mega-menu and site footer are game changers. The new Yammer conversations web part will engage and build a community site that brings conversation and content together, encouraging learning and open sharing amongst your audience.

Hub Sites, Your Intranet, and Modern SharePoint

Hub sites is a great way to organize your intranet. With the roll-up events feed and hub join approvals, not only can you deliver information targeted to each team but managing hub sites can be done effectively and simply through SharePoint Admin Centre. In preparation of transitioning and replacing classic publishing sites and portals, the number of hub sites in a tenant has now been increased to 100. By migrating to modern SharePoint, your teams can now experience the new digital content in SharePoint.

Microsoft Teams and SharePoint

Microsoft Teams will be experiencing a new makeover as it morphs to encompass full capabilities of SharePoint document libraries. Create custom views, gain insights into file activities add and format custom columns, and pin files to the top are all capabilities that will be available. With the familiar files command bar, syncing files from Microsoft Teams to your PC or Mac is another added new experience.
With diverse needs, Teams must be able to create solutions to solve their needs. Building composite apps that can also be surfaced in Teams with modern SharePoint pages part-to-part communications. Data and custom-built SharePoint Framework web parts solutions can be shared by adding a SharePoint list as a tab in Teams. Additionally, one will be able to add Teams apps to SharePoint sites, bringing many more apps to your intranet.
Collaborating in a SharePoint team site, a new visual indicator of channel folders will provide information regarding the folders that are associated with channels in Teams. The new link to Teams in the site navigation will navigate you quickly to Teams.
Connect any SharePoint team site to Teams. With your site connected to an Office 365 group, and from your site, create your team with one additional click.
As you can see Teams and SharePoint are coming closer together, providing a platform where your Microsoft Teams and groups can collaborate without compromise on the intranet.

Collaboration – Office 365

Only with Office 365 and with files in the cloud, collaborators can work together and co-author in real-time across mobile, web, and desktop versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Add Comments – OneDrive
Coming soon will be the ability to add comments with @mentions to all file types, including photos, CAD drawings, PDFs and more, in OneDrive. If permission is required to the document, an email notification with a link to the file to join in will be automatically be sent.

OneDrive – Files On-Demand
OneDrive connects you to all your files (personal and shared) in Office 365 whether you are on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, or web. OneDrive Files-On Demand in Windows 10 allows you to view and open files inside File Explorer, including files from Microsoft Teams and SharePoint. By opening up inside File Explorer, no storage space is used on your device. The files remain in the cloud and can be accessed, edited, and shared as if locally stored. If you choose to download and store locally, the file can be used. Once you connect back to the internet, your edits will be automatically uploaded to OneDrive. The power of OneDrive is enormous, and based on requests from UserVoice, OneDrive has now crossed platforms to Mac. OneDrive Files On-Demand for Mac is now available for consumer and commercial customers.

AI and Content Collaboration
Machine-learning and AI can aid in increasing productivity, making informed decisions, and keeping files more secure, and by combining AI with content stored in SharePoint and OneDrive for Business, these goals are achieved. In addition, video and audio transcription services will be coming soon to SharePoint and OneDrive along with scan and metadata capture with the OneDrive mobile app.

Deployment
The new SharePoint Admin Centre will allow you to manage all sites, including group connected team sites, hub sites, and communication sites. Deploy with confidence.

Recovery
Personal files are protected from malicious attacks and file corruption with Files Restore for OneDrive which provides the capability to move a user’s Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders from their Windows device into OneDrive.
This same protection is now available for shared files in SharePoint. A self-service recovery solution, administrators can restore files from any point in time from the last 30 days with File Restore for SharePoint.

SharePoint On-Prem

For SharePoint On-Prem customers, SharePoint Server 2019 will be available in October this year and will offer modern user experiences, support for SharePoint Framework, OneDrive Files On-Demand, and improved hybrid integration with Office 365. The SharePoint Migration Tool is free and highly recommended for moving complete on-premises SharePoint sites, including data from libraries, lists, and file shares.

New OneDrive for Business capabilities announced SPCNA


You asked. You voted. You shall receive.

Microsoft has offered to listen to your feedback through a public, user driven forum aptly named OneDrive UserVoice (https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/filters/top). If you have a suggestion or have a request for an improvement or feature, this is the place to suggest it. In addition to requesting, you also have the capability to vote on other suggestions that have been submitted. As a collective voice, OneDrive UserVoice became the collaborative, driving force for the new capabilities that were announced at the SharePoint Conference in North America for OneDrive for Business.

Scan and Photos Experiences on Mobile

Scan Experience: a dedicated icon in the tab bar allows easier access to the built-in scan functionality. Annotating, adding multiple pages, and changing the destination folder or file name can now be done in the capture experience.

Camera Upload: photos and videos captured on your local camera roll in iOs and Android platforms are now automatically uploaded.

Sharing and Collaboration Security

Password Protected Links: Sharing a file or folder with your collaborators will have an additional level of security with the ability to not only set a password, but the recipient will also require a password. This will prevent accidental sharing of information if your recipient forwards or shares the link. Password protected links are unnecessary if secure external sharing is applied.     

Block Download: View-only links allow you to share Office documents in the cloud but with block download, users are prevented from downloading files for the purpose of keeping and storing them offline.

Deployment and Onboarding

Known Folder Move: Administrators will have the capability to seamlessly move folders such as Documents, Pictures, and Desktop, from their PC to OneDrive. This is supported during initial account configuration and for post-deployment migration.

Team Site Automount: Administrators can automatically connect and synchronize specific SharePoint Team Sites as part of the process of deployment or upgrading to OneDrive.

Sharing Controls

External Sharing Reports: Site administers will be able to see all the files that are being shared on their site, including files that are being shared through secure external sharing and anonymous links with this report. By setting filters, the data can be further refined for capture and can be exported to Excel or Power BI. This data report can then be used to analyze end user patterns, including sharing usage. These reports can also be imported into third-party management software as well as security software.  

Customization of Sharing Emails: For outbound and emails that are being shared with recipients, Administrators will have the ability to brand these emails with their company logo; however, Azure Active Directory Premium P2 is a requirement for this functionality.

Transfer Ownership for Deleted Users: A user’s ownership of their OneDrive files is currently transferred to their manager when they leave the organization. Soon, Administrators will have the ability to transfer the ownership to any individual in the organization.  

 

When does this all roll out?

These are truly exciting features that have been announced! The various stages of the updates and rollout dates can be found on the Office 365 Roadmap (https://products.office.com/en-US/business/office-365-roadmap?filters=#) and I suggest that you check here often as release dates have not yet been announced.     

SharePoint Online: Managing Access Requests

When a user requires access to a site that they do not have access to, what do they do? This is where the access request feature comes into play as it provides the user the option of requesting access to the site. How will the site owner know that someone is requesting access? As the site owner, one can configure the settings so that an email is sent once someone requests access to a site. Upon receipt of this email, the site owner or the delegate(s) will have the authority to approve or decline the request. In addition to approving the request, the delegate will have the opportunity to assign a specific level of permission for the user.

The access request feature also works with the Share command for sites. If someone who does not have full control for a site (a non-site owner) uses the Share command to invite other users to view the site, then an access request email will be generated and sent to the site owner. As with the access request feature, the site owner will then be able to approve or decline the request. If the site owner is approving the request, then he will have the opportunity to assign a specific level of permission to the user.

How to Change Access Request Settings

As the site owner, you will have to decide whether you would like members of your site groups to have the ability to invite non-members to access the site contents. These features can be enabled or disabled.  If you choose to disable this option of sharing, then an error message will appear if a team member tries to Share the site as the Share option remains available on the menu.

To disable or enable sharing by team members with non-team members, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings;
  2. Choose Site Permission;
  3. Click on Advanced permission settings;
  4. On the Permissions tab, choose Access Request Settings;
  5. The Access Request Settings dialogue box will appear. In this dialogue box, you can either select or de-select Allow members to share the site and individual files or folders.
    The checkbox for Allow members to invite others to the site members group, Team Site Members, must be selected in order to enable members to share the site. Note that this will be automatically selected or deselected depending upon the option you choose; and
  6. Click OK.
Image: Office Support – Office 365
Image: SharePoint.stackexchange.com  

How to Set Up Access Requests

How will a site owner know if a user is requesting access to the site? Managing these requests can be accomplished by configuring the access request feature to send an email to the site owner when an access request is submitted.

It is simple to set this up:

  1. In Settings, choose Site Permissions;
  2. Click Advanced permission settings;
  3. Choose Access Request Settings located on the Permissions Tab;
  4. The Access Request Settings dialogue box will appear. In this box, select the check box for Allow access requests;
  5. There are two different paths here to take and is dependent upon whether you are implementing SharePoint Online or SharePoint Server 2019.

    For SharePoint Online, you can choose access requests sent to either members of the Admin Group, the Owners group, a specific user, or a distribution list. Remember that only members of the Admin Group or Owners group can approve or decline access requests.

    For SharePoint Server 2019, add an email for a specific user or for a distribution list;
  6. For SharePoint Online, an optional custom message can be included to show users on the access request page; and
  7. Click OK.

Approving or Declining Access Requests in SharePoint Online

To approve or decline an access request in SharePoint Online, follow these steps:

  1. Click on Settings;
  2. Choose Site Contents;
  3. Click Access requests;
  4. Find the request you want to update under Pending Requests;
  5. Open the menu by clicking on the three ellipses (…);
  6. If the access request is being approved, assign the permission level for the user. This can be found under Permissions. To document your decision, you have an option to write a message to the person requesting access; and
  7. Depending upon your decision, click either Approve or Decline.

If you want to see past access requests, click Show History.

One advantage of SharePoint Online is the ability to manage invitations to external guests who do not have an Office 365 subscription. As an Office 365 customer using SharePoint Online, the Access Requests page provides the resources to manage guest user invitations to Office 365 non-subscribers.

Managing Invitations to External Guest for SharePoint Online

If an invitation has been sent to an external user, but you would like to withdraw it before their acceptance, then follow these steps:

  1. Click on Settings;
  2. Choose Site Contents;
  3. Click Access requests;  
  4. Find the guest you would like to uninvite;
  5. Open the menu by clicking on the ellipses (…);
  6. The Properties window will now open; and
  7. Click Withdraw to uninvite the guest.

What happens if the guest has already accepted their invitation and you want to uninvite this guest? You will not be able to uninvite them, but you can remove them from the SharePoint permissions group that you assigned them. Another workaround is to request your Office 365 Admin or SharePoint Online Admin to remove the guest from the list of users for your environment.

Resending Invitations

All invitations sent to external users expire in 90 days. Within the 90 days, the invitation can be re-sent but the expiration date is not extended. Once the 90 days have lapsed, the invitation cannot be re-sent. A new invitation will have to be sent.

To resend an invitation, simply:

  1. Choose Settings;
  2. Click Site Contents;
  3. Click Access requests;
  4. Find the invitation that you want to resend under Guest User Invitations;
  5. Open the menu by clicking on the ellipses (…);
  6. Confirm the selected group is the permission group you want to add the guest to under Permission. If it is a different one than from the original invitation, then you have the opportunity to change it at this point; and
  7. Click Resend.

The external invitation has now been re-sent. Managing access requests in SharePoint Online is very straightforward and puts some control in the site user’s hands while providing full control to the site owner. Though site users have the capability to invite internal and external users to collaborate on sites, the site owner continues to maintain full control of who can access the site and at what level of security they are able to access the site at. The added flexibility of Office 365 and SharePoint Online is the capability to withdraw external invitations and to resend them when needed. By combining the features of the Share command and access request features, the process of managing who has access to a site and at what permission level has been greatly simplified for the site owner.

OneDrive and SharePoint Multi-Geo


Office 365 Multi-Geo provides an answer for many multinational companies who must meet local policies regarding local data residency. Or perhaps there are different levels of need, such as one office requiring local data residency while another may not. Multi-Geo enables a single Office 365 tenant to span across multiple Office 365 datacentre geographies (Geos) while addressing the needs of clients who may be required or need to keep data locally. The greater need that is addressed with Office 365 Multi-Geo is the ability for international satellite offices to collaborate with each other on a global scale.

Multi-Geo affects two types of data:  user attached resources, such as user mailboxes and OneDrive; and shared resources, such as SharePoint Team Sites and Office 365 Groups, which includes shared sites and shared mailboxes.

Multi-Geo is available in 3 geographical locations: North America, Europe and Australia. By enabling your tenant to be Multi-Geo, you could extend your tenant into nine potential geos. These nine geos include Asia-Pacific, Australia, Canada, European Union, India, Japan, UK, US, South Korea. Additional geos will be launched in the future, including France. At the time of writing, services available in Multi-Geo include Exchange Online (in preview), OneDrive for Business (in preview), and SharePoint Online (in development).

Because Office 365 Multi-Geo is a single tenant spanning across multiple geos, rolling out globally is very straightforward in the Global Admin Centre. Once your tenant is Multi-Geo enabled, open PowerShell where you will specify the:

ServiceType – which service do you want to extend such as Exchange, SharePoint or Skype For Business

Location – where you want to extend the content to (which geo will you extend to)

InitialDomain – what content do you want to extend to the geo. Because data in SharePoint and OneDrive, as it is provisioned, must be addressable by a URL, the InitialDomain specifies the URL for the content to reach the extended geo.  

Once executed, the system will refresh and update the URL for all affected users in the extended geos.  

Office 365 Multi-Geo: Common Foundations and Concepts

There are 3 basic concepts for the Admin and these are:

AllowedDataLocation: tenant level property that specifies the allowed geos for Office 365 applications. New and additional geos will not show up automatically and this setting will need to be set up initially or when Microsoft releases new locations.  

PreferredDataLocation (PDL): user-level property that specifies the location of Mailbox and OneDrive with one PDL assigned per user. On the user objects, configure PDL in Azure AD. This information will then flow into Exchange and OneDrive resulting in users mailboxes and OneDrives to be placed in their respective locations.

Azure AD Connect Tool: used to configure PDL, for On-prem AD, on synchronized user objects.

Exchange Online Multi-Geo: Mail & Calendar

Multi-Geo for Exchange Online has been in development for many years and had been implemented since it was first developed. Based upon these capabilities in Exchange Online, it is continuing to evolve. In Exchange Online, the global front-end service, single namespace, allowed service access via outlook.office.com and already multi-geo being the point of connection for the client to Exchange Online. With Office 365 Multi-Geo, you can now select where the users’ data is stored in the background.

Auto-discovery of mailbox location was implemented in On-Prem sites whereby Outlook automatically connected a user to their mailbox. In Office 365 Multi-Geo, auto-discovery automatically connects the user’s mailbox when they are moved from one geo location to another. For an end user, this will be like magic as this functionality runs in the background and is invisible to them.

Having a central site with multiple geos requires a standardization such as a single view Exchange Tenant Configuration. Stored in the Exchange Directory, the recipient information and tenant configuration ensure that the view of the tenant configuration is the same regardless of which geo you are accessing it from.

There are several Admin advantages with Multi-Geo when it comes to mailboxes. First, new mailboxes can be provisioned directly into a specified Geo. Second, existing Office 365 mailboxes can be moved into a specific Geo without disrupting the end user. Lastly, existing Exchange On-prem mailboxes can be on-boarded to a specific Geo.

From the end user’s perspective, Office 365 Multi-Geo is mostly invisible for both mail and calendar.  

OneDrive Multi-Geo: Files

OneDrive Multi-Geo

What is a OneDrive Multi-Geo? The central location for the satellites will have SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Exchange Online. The structure for the whole organization includes one global Azure Active Directory. Having a single tenant allows management of all users for the whole organization, regardless of where they are located. For each satellite location that the central location extends to, access to OneDrive for Business Multi-Geo and Exchange Online is given when the user is assigned their mailbox and OneDrive.

OneDrive Multi-Geo: Admin Centre

There is a separate OneDrive Admin Centre for each Geo because OneDrive is URL based. In the OneDrive Admin Centre, you will be able to see whose OneDrive is where, which will streamline the unlocking for the rollout of OneDrive. Another advantage of having separate OneDrives per Geo is the management of OneDrive settings. By having separate Admin Centres, the settings can be specified for each Geo.

In terms of licensing and other aspects of managing user aspects, one can access the Global Office 365 Portal Centre. Here, user-specific aspects such as passwords can be managed.

OneDrive Multi-Geo: Geo Users

The Geo user does not know that they are a Multi-Geo user. Once a user launches their app on the browser, they are automatically redirected to the Geo that they have been assigned to by the Admin. For the mobile client, Office Client, and OneDrive sink client, the user only needs to enter their email address. The Client is Geo-aware and will automatically connect the user to the corresponding OneDrive in the correct Geo.

Office 365 Multi-Geo: Delve, Profile, and Unified Auditing

How does the Delve experience look like when there are multiple users collaborating from different Geos? A user will see all the signals from all the users across the Geos, including their own Geo.

From a security compliance perspective, Unified Auditing allows the Admin to see a single unified view of all the activities that have occurred in your Multi-Geo tenant, regardless of what the user has done or where the content resides. The activities log can be exported or filtered according to the data that you require.

SharePoint Online Multi-Geo: Sites and Groups

The major difference between OneDrive Multi-Geo and SharePoint Online Multi-Geo is that SharePoint Online Multi-Geo satellites will have the full SharePoint Online experience. This includes SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business Multi-Geo, Exchange Online and Skype for Business. Team Sites and Office 365 Groups can be created in the satellite Geos in SharePoint Online Multi-Geo.

SharePoint Online Multi-Geo

SharePoint Online Multi-Geo: Admin Centre

Each Geo will be having its own Admin Centre. In the Admin Centre, you will be able to create Team Sites in that particular Geo. To create a Team Site in a specific Geo, you must first navigate to it and then create the Team Site. Otherwise, it will create that Team Site in whichever location are you currently in.

Another consideration is the sharing policy for data residency. As each Geo location may have its own requirements for data residency, the sharing policy can be configured for each Geo independently of the central location as well as with other satellites. If the same policy is to apply across all Geos, then in PowerShell you have the capability to push this policy across all Geos.

Each Geo is identifiable by a user, an Admin, or a compliance officer, based on its unique URL. Because you will choose the namespace for the URL for your SharePoint Admin Centre, it is important to consider how and what you will name this URL.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies can be created and applied to specific Geos. To These types of policies can be created by going to the Security Compliance Centre. Once created, they can then be applied to a specific Geo’s OneDrive Site, SharePoint Site or mailbox in that site. Each Geo can have its own security compliance policy.

Microsoft has continued to develop and evolve Office 365 Multi-Geo by integrating IT Admin best practices, shared services, and ensuring an invisible and seamless product for end-users. Office 365 Multi-Geo delivers OneDrive as well as SharePoint Online with a single global tenant, which provides centralized control over satellite locations, and each Geo has the capabilities to be customized for its local policies on data residency and policies. Office 365 Multi-Geo is meeting the demands of on the go collaboration across continents and its users.

Microsoft Teams and PowerShell


The PowerShell Module allows the IT professional to control Microsoft Teams by automating the creation of teams, channels, and settings within a team.  Automating, simplifying, and streamlining daily tasks contributes to the success of Microsoft Teams within an organization. 

Installing the Module from the PowerShell Gallery

1.  As an Administrator, type PowerShell in the start menu. Right-click Windows PowerShell, then select Run as Administrator.  Click Yes at the UAC prompt.

PowerShell

2.  Type the following within PowerShell and then press Enter:

     Install-Module MicrosoftTeams

Teams PowerShell

3.  Type Y at the prompt.  Press Enter. 

Teams PowerShell

4.    If you are prompted for an untrusted repository, then type A (Yes to All) and press Enter.  The module will now install. 

Once installed, you can now connect to Microsoft Teams.

Connecting to Microsoft Teams

1. Type the following and press Enter:

Connect-MicrosoftTeams

2.  The Microsoft Teams PowerShell Cmdlets dialog box will now appear.  Type in your Office 365 credentials. When done, press Enter.

3.  The following will display once you are connected to the Microsoft Teams instant in your Office 365 tenant:

With these steps completed, you can now begin to run cmdlets, or scripts, against Microsoft Teams. 

TIP:  To see a full list of commands that are available, type Get-Command-Module MicrosoftTeams

In the following table, currently available commands in PowerShell are described below along with a brief description of what that command performs:

Command

Description

Add-TeamUser

Adds an owner or member to the Team

Connect-MicrosoftTeams

Connect to the Microsoft Team based on the provided credentials

Disconnect-MicrosoftTeams

Disconnect from the Microsoft Team

Get-Team

Returns all the teams that the user belongs to

Get-TeamChannel

Returns all the channels for a Team

Get-TeamFunSettings

Returns a Team’s fun settings

Get-TeamGuestSettings

Returns Team guest settings

Get-TeamHelp

Returns a list of commands for Microsoft Teams

Get-TeamMemberSettings

Returns Team member settings

Get-TeamMessagingSettings

Returns Team messaging settings

Get-TeamUser

Returns all users from the Team

New-Team

Creates a new Team

New-TeamChannel

Add a new channel to the Team

Remove-Team

Deletes a Team

Remove-TeamChannel

Deletes a channel and this will not delete the content from associated tabs

Remove-TeamUser

Remove an owner or member from the Team

Last owner cannot be removed from the Team

Set-Team

Updates Team properties

Set-TeamChannel

Updates Team channel settings

Set-TeamFunSettings

Update GIPHY, Stickers and Memes settings

Set-TeamGuestSettings

Updates Team guest settings

Set-TeamMemberSettings

Updates Team member settings

Set-TeamMessagingSettings

Updates Team messaging settings

Set-TeamPicture

Updates the Team picture

It is important to remember that Teams use the same ID as the Office 365 Groups they are a part of and when creating a Team, a group is automatically created. However, an Office 365 Group does not, by default, create a Team. 

Microsoft Teams and PowerShell provides tools for the IT professional resulting in simpler administration with the flexibility to customize controls accessible to the end-user, control over current and future governance of Microsoft Teams, and creative possibilities of standardizing Team settings, creating a self-service tool on the back-end for end-users to create Teams but with controls for IT and creating a *.csv file when creating large teams and/or adding numerous members to an existing Team.

Microsoft Teams and PowerShell combine to provide a rich and powerful tool for the IT professional. 

SharePoint Online External Sharing


One of my favorite topics in Office 365 is external sharing. Sharing and collaboration not only occur within your corporation, but it also involves external customers, clients, suppliers, or vendors. Sharing and collaboration can be achieved with the use of External Sharing in SharePoint Online.

By default, External Sharing for SharePoint Online is turned “On” for the entire environment, which includes all site collections. It is highly suggested to turn this “Off” globally until you have the permissions plan detailed and site collections organized and before users access the sites.

SharePoint Online has the capability for external sharing tenant-wide (global) and at site collection level. The global setting overrides any setting at the site collection level and affects OneDrive.

Types of External Users

An external user is outside of your corporation’s Office 365 subscription and with whom you are sharing content from one or more sites, files or folders. The two types of external users are:

Authenticated Users: these users have either a Microsoft account or they have a school or work account from another Office 365 subscription. Sites and documents are shared in the same manner as you would with internal users with permissions and groups working in the same manner as they would for internal users. However, collaboration tasks are limited to basic tasks as they do not have a license to your Office 365 subscription. The basic collaboration tasks for an authenticated external user include the performance of tasks on a site consistent with the permission level they are assigned, viewing and editing documents can be done in Office Online, and depending on the permissions they have been given, they will be able to see other types of content on sites. They will be able to navigate to subsites within the site collection and will be able to view site feeds

Anonymous Users: these are recipients who have received a shareable link to a folder or document but not sites. They can view or edit the document, be able to upload the folder (depending upon the type of link), and these are all specific to the link sent. This is done without having to log in with a username or password. The links are valid until they are disabled or have expired based on the expiration date. It is important to note that these links can be freely passed around between users.

Sharing Options

The following basic sharing options for tenant and site collection are:

No External Sharing: users with Office 365 subscription can internally share sites and documents

Sharing Only with External Users in Your Directory:  external users who are already in your Office 365 user directory will have access to sites, folders, and documents that are shared with them. These external users may include those users who have previously accepted an invitation, those who you have imported from another Office 365 subscription or a tenant from the Azure Active Directory

Sharing with Authenticated External Users:  sites can be shared with external users who have either a Microsoft account, a work or school account from another Office 365 subscription or an Azure Active Directory Subscription. A one-time code is sent to the user to verify their identity when folders or documents are shared, and they are not required to log in to a Microsoft, work or school account.

Sharing with Anonymous Users: documents and folders can be shared with an anonymous link. Anyone with the link will be able to view or the document and will be able to upload to the folder. Sites cannot be shared with anonymous users.

These options range from the most restrictive to the least restrictive settings. The restrictive setting can still be applied alongside those with fewer restrictions. For example, you can continue to share with authenticated external users, users already in your directory, and internal users while allowing anonymous sharing.

Managing Security Risks

Most corporations will have confidential information that is not to be externally shared. For this type of information, it should reside in one or two site collections with External Sharing turned “Off”. If additional confidential information site collections are required, then create a new site collection and ensure that External Sharing is turned “Off”.

Sharing a Site or Document – What happens?

What happens is dependent upon what type of External Sharing you are executing. There are three scenarios:

Sharing Sites with Authenticated External Users – an email invitation with a link to the site or document is sent to the external user. Clicking on the link will prompt them to log in to their Microsoft account or their work or school account. Once logged in, they are added to the users list in your Office 365 subscription and then given access to the site or document. In the users list, they are listed with #EXT# in their user name. They can now be granted access to additional sites or documents without being sent additional invitations. To discontinue sharing with this external user, you can either remove their permissions from the site or, you can remove them from the user list in Office 365.

Sharing Files and Folders with Authenticated External Users: an email is sent to the authenticated external user which contains a link to the site or file. Each time the file or site is accessed, they are emailed a time-sensitive code that is used to verify their identity. The code must be entered to gain access to the folder or file. To discontinue sharing with them, simply delete the link that was sent to them.

Sharing with Anonymous Users: anonymous users can be granted permission to edit, view, or upload a document to a folder. Links to view and edit are created separately, and each can be disabled with a time expiration. Anonymous user links can be reused and passed around, allowing anyone with this link access to the document or folder.

External Business Partners – How to Collaborate with Them

A SharePoint Online extranet site is a site that is a dedicated site collection for business to business collaboration with a vendor or partner. This site can be locked down so that only site owners can invite external users and only external users from specific domains can be invited. These are quick to set up and are more cost-efficient than on-prem extranet sites.  

External Sharing with SharePoint Online is not only easy and functional, but the ability to create extranet sites for external partners is a flexibility that provides feasibility with the least impact on budgets while ensuring external users have access to content that they require to fulfill their parts of the project.

OneDrive Part One: Files On-Demand


At Ignite 2017, many exciting and new announcements were shared alongside visuals thrown up on the big screen.  Many of the MS products have been enhanced, and OneDrive is one of them.

These upgraded or new features for OneDrive include Files On-Demand, silent sync auto-account configuration with ADAL, Microsoft 365 powered device with OneDrive, multi-geo, updated OD Admin Center, support for workflows via Microsoft Flow, simple and secure external sharing of documents without a Microsoft account, support for on-prem customers with Windows and Android App, support for NGSC (next generation sync client) in SharePoint 2019.   

OneDrive Files On-Demand

One of the most exciting announcements is the OneDrive Files On-Demand capability.

Turning on Files On-Demand will allow you to see, in File Explorer, thumbnail files without having to download the files.  The ability to access all your files offline is not only convenient, but it also saves storage space on your device.  The creation of new online files, or ones created on another device, will appear as online-only files. Once connected to the internet, these files will be accessible like every other file on your device.

There are additional advantages to Files On-Demand including the flexibility to set files or folders to always be locally available, the ability to see information about files including if it is shared with others, and most importantly, ability to see thumbnails of files even if the required application is not installed to open it (over 270 file types are recognized) are all additional advantages with Files On-Demand. 

A handy visual tag is placed on the bottom left of each thumbnail file which indicates its status of availability in File Explorer. The following chart easily explains each of the scenarios:

Online Only files
  Online-only files

 

Online-only files don’t take up space on your computer. You see a cloud icon for each online-only file in File Explorer, but the file doesn't download to your device until you open it. You can’t open online-only files when your device isn’t connected to the Internet.

Locally available files
  Locally available files

 

When you open an online-only file, it downloads to your device and becomes a locally available file. You can open a locally available file anytime, even without Internet access. If you need more space, you can change the file back to online only. Just right-click the file and select “Free up space.”

Available file
  Always available files

 

Only files that you mark as "Always keep on this device" have the green circle with the white check mark. These always available files download to your device and take up space, but they’re

Using and Turning on Files On-Demand

Files On-Demand works with all files, whether work or personal, that are accessed from either OneDrive or SharePoint Online team sites. Compatible with all current apps, including Windows desktop and Windows Store apps. 

The following steps will turn on Files On-Demand:

  1. Sign into OneDrive on your device;
  2. In the notification area and at the far right of the taskbar, right-click on the white or blue OneDrive cloud icon. Select Settings;

     

     

    OneDrive SyncClient with blue cloud and white cloud icons

Missing the blue or white cloud OneDrive icon in the notification area? Click the caret “^” (show hidden icons icon) to show the OneDrive blue or white cloud icon. If it appears, complete steps 1 and 2.

Still missing the blue or white cloud OneDrive icon in the notification area? OneDrive may not be active on your device.  To run OneDrive on your device, select Start on the bottom left corner of your taskbar. In the search bar, type “OneDrive”.  Select OneDrive from the search results.

  1. Next to Save space and download files as you use them on the Settings Tab, check off the box. This will now enable Files On-Demand.  It is important to note that the settings for Files On-Demand are unique to each device and as such, this process will have to be done on each device that you want to have Files On-Demand activated. 

Marking a Folder or File for Offline Use or as Online-Only

  1. On the selected folder or file, right click; and
  2. Choose either Free Up Space or Always keep on this device. Remember that new files or folders that are created online appear as online-only.  Also, files that were created on another device will appear as online-only.  Appearing online-only ensures maximum space is saved.  It is also important to note that a folder marked as “Always keep on this device” will have all files in that folder download to the device as always-available files.  Note that individual folders within that folder can be marked as available if the folder is online-only.  

Hiding Folders on Your Device

For privacy reasons, such as having personal files on your work computer, you may not want a folder to download to certain devices.  In these instances, you will want to hide a folder on your device.  To hide a folder, follow these steps:

  1. At the bottom right of the taskbar is where the notification area is located.  The OneDrive icon is represented by a blue or white cloud. Double click on this icon to open OneDrive;

A screenshot showing the cursor hovering over the blue OneDrive icon on the taskbar, with text that says OneDrive - Contoso.

Troubleshooting:

  • If the OneDrive icon does not appear in the notification area, then click the caret “^” to expand the hidden icons.
  • If the icon appears, complete steps 1 and 2.
  • If the OneDrive cloud does not appear, then this is an indication that your device is not running OneDrive. To initiate OneDrive on your device, select Start on the bottom left corner of your taskbar. In the search bar, type in “OneDrive”.  From the search results, select OneDrive.  Your device will now run OneDrive.
  1. Select the Settings gear in the Activity Centre;
  2. Choose Folders next to the location where you want to choose the folder; and
  3. Find the folder that you do not want to be downloaded onto this device. Clear the checkbox next to this folder. This folder will no longer be downloaded onto this device. 

You will need to repeat the above steps on each device that you do not want the folder to download to as settings for Files On-Demand are unique to each device.  

Search Web Parts – Collab365 Global Conference

 

Have you heard about the virtual Collab365 Global Conference 2017 that’s streaming online November 1st – 2nd?

Join me and 120 other speakers from around the world who will be bringing you the very latest content around SharePoint, Office 365, Flow, PowerApps, Azure, OneDrive for Business and of course the increasingly popular Microsoft Teams. The event is produced by the Collab365 Community and is entirely free to attend.

Places are limited to 5000 so be quick and register now.

During the conference I'd love you to watch my session which is called : 'Search Web Parts'

Content Search Web Part (CSWP) is one of the great web parts in O365 and on-premises. In this session, Mike will demo how to configure a​nd use the CSWP, and build a dynamic O365 branded portal with CSWP only. In this session, we will review: 1.Creating Queries using Keyword Query Language (KQL) 2.Building dynamic queries 3.Creating and customizing HTML Display Templates​​.​

If you join me, you will learn:

  1. Creating Queries using Keyword Query Language (KQL)
  2. Building dynamic queries
  3. Creating and customizing HTML Display Templates
  4. Building Search Driven Portals

Topic(s):

  1. Office365
  2. SharePoint

Audience :

  1. IT Pro

Time (in UTC) :

  1. Thursday, November 2 2017 5:00 PM

How to attend :

  1. Register here.
  2. At the time listed above go here to watch my session. (you can also add me to your own personal planner from the agenda.
  3. Be ready to take notes!