Corey Roth [MVP]

I recently spoke about PowerShell at SharePoint Conference 2012 (SPC195).  It turns out PowerShell support slipped into SharePoint Online Preview without a lot of people noticing.  In my session at SPC12, I walked users through a lot of common scenarios of using PowerShell with SPO that I wanted to share with you.  This post will show you how to get connected to your SharePoint Online tenant and how to do work with sites.  In a follow-up post, I’ll show you how to work with users and groups.  Keep in mind this only work with SharePoint Online Preview right now.  When your existing V14 tenants get upgraded to V15, you will be able to use it then.

To get started, you need to install the SharePoint Online Management Shell.  Since this is based on PowerShell 3.0, you need to have that installed.  If you have Windows 8 or you are running this on a machine with SharePoint 2013 already, you’re ready to go.  However, if you are running Windows 7, you’ll need to install Windows Management Framework 3.0.  After you have installed it, simply launch SharePoint Online Management Shell from the start menu.  You shouldn’t need to run it as Administrator.

Connecting to SharePoint Online

Before you connect to SharePoint Online, you’ll need to have the username and password for an account with global administrator permissions.  You’ll also need to know your tenant admin URL (i.e.: https://mytenant-admin.sharepoint.com).   When connecting to SharePoint Online, don’t forget to reference all URLs securely using https.  If you try and use http, you will get an error.

To connect to SharePoint Online, use the Connect-SPOService command.  It takes the URL to your tenant admin and a username.  When you connect, you’ll be prompted for your password.

Connect-SPOService –Url https://mytenant-admin.sharepoint.com –Credential admin@mytenant.onmicrosoft.com

If you connect successfully, you will be returned to the command prompt without error.  To see what commands are available, we can use Get-Command and pass it the module Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell.dll.  You can get the full list on TechNet.

Get-Command –Module Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell

Getting Site Collections

To work with Site Collections, use Get-SPOSite (TechNet).  It can return a single site with the –Identity parameter or it can filter a list of them with the –Filter parameter.  The Filter parameter does server side filtering and can be used with the case sensitive operators (-like, –notlike, –eq, and –ne).  You can also run it without any parameters to return all site collections.

Get-SPOSite

This doesn’t return the data in the greatest format though.  It would be nice to see the full URL and when thinking about upgrades it would nice to see the CompatibilityLevel (either 14 or 15).  We can do this by piping the output to Format-Table (ft) and specifying the desired fields.

Get-SPOSite | ft Url, CompatibilityLevel

You’ll notice that the CompatibilityLevel came back as 0 here.  This is because, Get-SPOSite uses CSOM under the hood and it does not request all values by default.  To get this data, you need to add the –Detailed parameter.

Get-SPOSite –Detailed | ft Url, CompatibilityLevel

The syntax of the server side filtering can be a bit tricky.  The key thing to remember is that the operators are case sensitive so they must be lower-case.  In the example, below I do a server-side filter looking for any site with the word “Contoso” in the URL.  Put the expression you are searching for in braces.

Get-SPOSite –Filter {Url -like “*term*} | Ft Url

One thing you may have noticed is that there are not any commands to create subsites.  Currently only site collections are supported.

Creating Site Collections

Site Collections can be created using the New-SPOSite (TechNet) cmdlet.  This cmdlet takes a heap of parameters.  Note that you still have to use the preset managed paths available to you in SharePoint Online.

• -Url – full URL of the site collection (don’t forget to use https)
• -Owner – full user name of site owner (i.e.: admin@mytenant.onmicrosoft.com)
• -StorageQuota – in MB
• -ResourceQuota – number of resources to allocate
• -Template (Optional) – i.e.: STS#0 – Use Get-SPOWebTemplate to view a list of available templates
• -Title (Optional) – name of site collection
• -NoWait – instructs PowerShell not to wait until the cmdlet is finished

New-SPOSite -Url https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename -Owner "admin@mytenant.onmicrosoft.com" -StorageQuota "500" -NoWait -ResourceQuota "500" -Template "STS#0" -Title "Site Title"

As mentioned above, you can run Get-SPOWebTemplate to return a list of available site templates.

Get-SPOWebTemplate

Deleting Site Collections

To delete a site collection simply, use Remove-SPOSite (TechNet) and pass it the URL in the Identity parameter.  It can also optionally take the –NoWait parameter was well.

Remove-SPOSite –Identity https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename –NoWait

Restoring Site Collections

Deleted site collections get moved to the site collection recycle bin.  To restore a site collection that you have deleted, use Restore-SPODeletedSite (TechNet).  It takes the same parameters as Remove-SPOSite.

Restore-SPODeletedSite –Identity https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename –NoWait

Upgrading Site Collections

SharePoint Online also has the concept of deferred site collection upgrades.  This means you can upgrade the site collections one-by-one or in batch using PowerShell.  To run the Site Collection health check first, use Test-SPOSite (TechNet) and pass it the URL in the identity parameter.  Once you are ready to upgrade use Upgrade-SPOSite (TechNet).  Be sure and pass the –V2VUpgrade parameter or it won’t upgrade it.

Test-SPOSite -Identity http://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename

Upgrade-SPOSite -Identity http://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename -V2VUpgrade

Unfortunately, I don’t have a tenant that can be upgraded yet, so I can’t provide a screenshot of this procedure.

Hopefully, you found these PowerShell cmdlets useful.  I think they will help a lot when it comes to working with SharePoint Online.  In the next post, we’ll cover how to work with users and groups.

In the past, licensing for Extranets proved to be quite confusing.  Many people including myself weren’t always sure what to recommend.  I found this useful information in the slide deck for SPC181 and I thought it was worth sharing since I know not everyone got to attend SPC.  Ultimately in SharePoint 2010, you had two choices:

• Purchase a SharePoint Server license plus one CAL for every user (whether internal or external)
• Purchase a SharePoint for Internet Sites license (FIS)

In SharePoint 2013, this has radically changed.  The FIS license is now gone and you just use a regular SharePoint Server license for Internet (or Extranet sites).  This simplifies things quite a bit.  For extranets, you still need a CAL for each internal user.  The good news is that Client Access Licenses (CALs) are not longer required for external users.  If you have an extranet on SharePoint today this might mean you can save some money.  Now what does external user mean?  Let me quote it exactly so that there is no confusion.

External users means users that are not either your or your affiliates’ employees, or your or your affiliates’ onsite contractors or onsite agents.

My interpretation of this now is that this basically refers to people outside of your company (but not your contractors).  This would be people like vendors and partners.  I guess technically, according to the statement, a contractor who never comes on-site is considered external.  This statement is a bit fuzzy, but I think the gray area is not as big as it was before.

For those running your extranets in the cloud, we also got quite a bit of good news here as well for Office 365 / SharePoint Online.  In the first release of SPO, external users were kind of in a gray area.  Basically, it stated that Microsoft will give you 50 external users for free but they reserve the right to charge you for any additional users you have in the future.  This has now been solidified.  If you are on a SharePoint Online P plan, you get 500 external users free.  For the E plans (or SharePoint Online Plan 1 and 2), you get up to 10,000 external users.  That should last most of you for a while which I think makes SharePoint Online a very viable Extranet solution. 

I think these are some pretty exciting changes for Extranets for both on-premises and with Office 365.  What do you think?

Most people don’t know this yet, but paid apps went live last week and my app, SP2 Feedback, happens to be the only one available for purchase. :)  Since many are curious about the process, I thought I would post some screenshots of the process.  The process varies depending on how you start it.  Let’s take a look at it as if you did it from your own SharePoint 2013 site.  Go to the Add an App link on your site.  You’ll see the Your Apps screen like the one below.

Click SharePoint Store to see apps available for free and purchase.  Find the app you want to purchase.  In this case, mine is listed under Communication.

There you will see SP2 Feedback listed with it’s Per User price of $19.99.  We’ll now click on the link to get more details about the app.  You’ll be able to look at details, reviews, screenshots, and videos of the app.  You can also opt to purchase it.

The More Actions link lets you manage existing licenses if you have them.  Next to the per use price, you’ll see a drop down.  You can opt to but it for yourself, for more people, or the last option allows you to get a site license. 

Choosing, for more people, allows you to enter a quantity and it will update the price.

The developer has the option of allowing you to buy the app for your entire organization once you reach a certain number of users.  In this case, buying the app for 10 users will allow the entire organization access to it.  The prices is the same in this case whether you have 10 or 1000 users.

After you click Buy It, you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Windows Live Id.

You then are prompted to go to the payment screen.  If your Live Id account already has a credit card associated, it will auto-populate it.  Honestly, I have no idea how I have a credit card associated with my account.  Maybe from XBOX Live?

I blanked out portions of the image so you hackers won’t try to steal my identity. :)  The next step confirms your purchase.

Note that tax is added on to the purchase price.  From this step on, the process is complete and it will purchase and install the app for you. I haven’t gone through the whole process yet, but I think it looks similar to when you add a free app.

Now when you start the process from the Office Store site outside of SharePoint, it works a bit differently.

When you click the Buy button, you are taken to a screen that gives you a code to search for when you use the Add an App menu from SharePoint.

You take that code, search for it, and then click on the link and it takes you to the same purchase process as before.  This is an exciting new opportunity for SharePoint app developers.  Tell us about your experiences.

If you’re at #SPC12 this week, be sure and check out my sessions.  For more information on SP2 apps, see our site.

When I first heard about an app store coming to SharePoint, I was excited.  I knew I wanted to be a part of it.  Today, I am excited to announce the release of three new apps for SharePoint 2013.  SP2 apps seek to help increase user adoption by providing engaging functionality to your users.  I have developed a useful free app that will help you test your list queries from Apps.  I’m also proud to say I have the first paid app offering in the Office Store, but there are more to come from developers all over the world.   Apps are a great new way to deploy a ton of functionality in SharePoint and I encourage you to taking a look at the sessions on building apps this week while at SPC.

SP2 CAML Query Tester

I want to tell you about my free app, SP2 CAML Query Tester first.  I built this app while in the process of building one of my other apps for the purpose of debugging CAML queries.  If you have ever messed with CAML, you know it can be picky and the syntax is brutal.  While I was developing the app, every time I wanted to try a new query, I had to stop debugging, change the query, and redeploy the app.  That process takes over a minute or more.  So I thought, what if I just made an app that could do this for me and I could type whatever query I wanted to test right in a textbox.  Then SP2 CAML Query Tester was born.  The app is simple.  You can run it as an app by clicking on the link after you install it or you can add the app to an existing host web site and then use the App Part to test queries against lists on that site.  If you’re interested in developing apps, this utility will definitely help.  I’ll be adding functionality to it from time to time, so if you see bugs or have feature requests, let me know.

SP2 Feedback

The premise behind this web part is simple.  I wanted to provide a way for users to be able to provide feedback on a given page or site.  This allows you to collect feedback from users quickly.  This allows you to correct issues on your site that otherwise you might not know about.  The end user simply fills out their comment in a text box and it the information gets saved to a list for you to review.  It captures the URL of the current page they are on automatically.  All text in the web part is configurable so you can localize it.  Plus the form is collapsible so it takes up less screen real estate if desired.  The web part lets yours users feel engaged.  If users feel they can contribute to the site and that they can make a difference, it leads to better adoption.

SP2 is available in the Office Store for $19.99 per user or $199.90 for a site license.  A single user license is a great way to try it out and see if the app works for you.

SP2 Daily Menu

In my experience building Intranets, I have seen a lot of companies invest time in updating the menu of their corporate cafeteria using SharePoint.  It seems simple, but it is a huge driver of adoption.  Users get hungry.  They want to know what is to eat. They go to the Intranet site to see the menu.  Then while they are there, they click on a few news articles or respond to some discussion boards.  It’s simple, cost effective way to drive adoption and you would be surprised how well it works. 

The app is driven by a custom calendar.  The owner of the app just edits the calendar and specifies breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, and a description.  All fields are optional and you can choose to display only the ones desired.  All of the text is configurable as well so you can localize it if desired.

SP2 is approved but not yet in the Office Store.  Pricing will be announced when it is available but is comparable in pricing to SP2 Feedback.

SP2Apps.com

If I am going to offer apps, I need a site to go with it.  More information about my apps can be found at sp2apps.com powered by Office 365 and SharePoint Online.  This site will have the latest information on my apps and serve as a support portal.

You can also follow @sp2apps on twitter.

I’ve submitted a few apps to the SharePoint App Store now and of course I have screwed it up a few times.  The process has been fairly painless though so I thought I would share some tips from my experience so far.

1. Watch your version numbers – The version number in the app manifest has to match exactly what you enter into the seller dashboard.  Typically, you start with 1.0.0.0 but it can be whatever, just make sure it is consistent
2. Be careful with CDNs – It’s not that you can’t use CDNs but you need to make sure the URL you specify works with both HTTP and HTTPS.  If you don’t, the app will fail when they test it.  Either specify the URL with a // prefix or include the script files locally in your package.
3. Changing anything requires re-approval – Proofread everything whether it is on your account or on the app itself.  If you have to change anything, you will have to go through the approval process.  This includes things like your E-mail address.
4. Read the App Validation Policies – Seriously, read them before you even think about building an app.  It will save you time and submission failures.  Read the Validation Policies as well as the FAQ.
5. Use the Save as Draft feature – The wizard process for app approval is kind of temperamental.  I recommend writing up your description and saving it somewhere (like OneNote) before you paste it into the field on the web page. 
6. Screenshot and Icon images must have exact resolutions – Screenshots are required and they must be a resolution of 512x384.  Icons must be 32x32.  I find this part to the process to be the most painful mainly because I am not great at image editing applications.

I hope these tips will help you in your submission process.  Do you have any tips you want to add?

Follow me on twitter: @coreyroth.

I started doing conference readiness checklists last year at SPC11 and I wanted to continue the tradition with #SPC12.  Mark Freeman (@SPHotShot) has already produced a great guide and I wanted to add my two cents.

What to pack:

• Chargers / Power Supplies – I remember when I went to PDC05, I forgot my laptop charger.  I was quite bummed.  Don’t forget the chargers to your laptop, netbook, iPad, phones, etc. I have gotten a few of these new emergency phone chargers at conferences lately and they are very handy here.  Especially when you have a Nokia Lumia 900 and the battery life is terrible.  Keep in mind your average day can be 16 – 18 hours plus and you don’t want to be left in the dark and miss that big gathering because your phone died.
• Laptop – As a presenter this one is obvious.  However as an attendee, you might not want to lug one around.  It can be worth it though.  You will find that you want some type of computing device so that you can keep up on twitter, follow the latest gossip, and find out about any impromptu #SharePint events that might occur.  Maybe even read a few E-mails.  As a presenter, I get the distinct pleasure of carrying a second laptop as well with my demos loaded on it in the event of an emergency / disaster.  Disasters will happen.  At SPC11, my virtual machine pretty much died on my primary laptop and I had to resort to the backup just twenty minutes before my session.  I was sweating to say the least.
• Tablet – In lieu of carrying around your heavy laptop, I find carrying my netbook at conferences to be quite handy.  I haven’t invested in a Surface yet (mainly because I am not sure which one I want).  I’m not holding my breathe either that they will be handing them out like at Build.  Bring whatever device or combination thereof you prefer, but keeping up on what’s going on at the conference using one of these small devices is much easier than trying to look things up on your phone.  This year, I am foregoing this because of the second laptop and my bag will be heavy enough.  You also can use these to fill out session evaluations.  There are usually incentives for filling out evaluations so I try to complete each evaluation right before the end of the session so I don’t forget.
• AirCard / MiFi  – The wireless networks at conferences are rarely good.  They are jammed with geeks trying to post updates on Twitter and check out what’s happening on Facebook.  If you have access to a wireless AirCard, bring one.  See if your company has any that you can check out temporarily. 
• Cash – Just a little (more if you drink and gamble a lot :) ).  There are a lot of free events but you might go to something before or after the conference and I am not a fan of running tabs at busy restaurants and bars.   Don’t take it all with you every night.  Leave some in the hotel safe.
• Snacks – After a long night, you will want something to eat.  At the minimum, you might want something to eat in the morning.
• Business Cards – Even if you are not in sales, bring twice as many as you think you will need.  You will go through them faster than you think.
• Bail Money – The Houston SharePoint Users Group has a running joke about always keeping a stash of bail money around when attending a #SharePint.  You never know what is going to happen.

Before you go:

• Arrive early – Come in early and have some fun in Vegas before you get into the conference grind.  That means you (@fabianwilliams).  Many of us will be arriving Friday or Saturday. 
• Don’t leave early – After a week of Vegas, I am sick of the place and I am ready to leave.  However, you don’t want to cut the conference short on Thursday by having to leave early.  Plan for an early Friday departure.
• Set your schedule on My SPC  - This will make your SPC organizers happy when it comes to capacity planning.  You aren’t required to go to that session you schedule, but it will help you pick from the 10+ sessions going on at any given time slot.  Go to My SPC and set your schedule now (or at least when it finally comes out).
• Create your Bio on My SPC – Whether you are an end user or a SharePoint rock star, take a few minutes to write about yourself.  Include where you work if you want along with what you typically do with SharePoint and what you want to get out of the conference.  Upload a picture of yourself to make things more personal.  Set your My SPC bio now.
• Create a #SPC12 Search in Twitter – There is no question you want to keep an eye on the activity of the #SPC12 hash tag.  You will find out about sessions, events, and it will generally give you an idea of what is happening at the conference.
• Follow @SPConf on Twitter – This is the official twitter account for SPC.  This account often posts useful stuff about the conference.  I’ve also used it to ask questions or provide general feedback and I’ve had very good luck getting a response.
• Reach out to your local SharePoint User Group – Find out what your local SharePoint User Group is doing while at SPC.  Many of them are having meetings or socials.  For example, H-SPUG (#HSPUG) is having a happy hour on Sunday night.
• Don’t forget to set your user group in your profile  - You can now set your SharePoint user group in your My SPC bio.  Set that to make it easier to find people in your group.
• Register for Pre-conference Sessions – If you think you will be able to get up on Sunday morning, attend one of the pre-conference sessions.  Many of them are free.  Just keep in mind there is a $300 no-show penalty.
• RSVP for Parties – There are a lot of them this year but many of them are not being widely publicized.  Many of them require that you RSVP or stop by a booth so be sure and find out before hand. 
• Arrange for Ground Transportation  - Don’t forget to arrange for ground transportation.  You really don’t need a car in Vegas, but you do need a way to get there.  Taking a Taxi usually isn’t too expensive and there are plenty of shuttle options as well.  This may be less of a concern on arrival but more for your departure.
• Leave space in your bag – Between the conference materials and the vendors you are going to end up with a heap of product information, trinkets, and T-shirts.  Make sure you have room in your bag to bring them home.  Otherwise you’ll be hand carrying them on the plane or leaving things behind.

What to do at the conference:

• What’s in Vegas, will not stay in Vegas – Nerds have gadgets and they like to take pictures.  Do something stupid and you can rest assure it will be on twitter within seconds. :)
• Make a habit of going by EyeCandy – EyeCandy in Mandalay Bay is a defacto SharePint hang out.  Make a habit of cruising by it from time to time on your way to wherever to see if anyone you know might be there.
• Remember to eat - This one sounds obvious but it’s not.  You may be going to lots of parties with nothing but light appetizers.  This does not give you a good base to work upon before embarking on a night of massive consumption.
• Ask Questions  - Don’t be afraid to walk up to the mic and ask a question.  That’s what you’re here for.  If you don’t want to ask it in front of everybody, wait in line and talk to the speaker at the podium just be mindful that the speaker has to clear out in a hurry.  Don’t be afraid to approach speakers outside the room either.  Most of them are friendly and are easily engaged using beer and cocktails. :)
• Don’t worry about writing everything down – Remember the slides and content are all online.  Don’t stress out because you weren’t able to write down a URL or code snippet on a slide.
• Make friends – You may run into lots of people you know, but many people aren’t active on twitter and aren’t familiar with the SharePoint community.  Find a friend if you didn’t come to the conference with any one.  It’s much more fun to go do all of the activities in a group rather than by yourself.
• Visit the Exhibit Hall – The exhibit hall is a lot of fun.  Besides all of the SWAG and drawings, you are likely to find out about evening events that way. Make a point of going there every day.
• Attend the sessions – Don’t skip out on the morning sessions.  If I have to get up early so do you. :)
• Attend the Hands on Labs – If you haven’t had a chance to get your hands on SharePoint 2013, get down to the HOL and check it out.  This is a great way to experience the product without having to take the time to install it.
• Take a test – The certification tests are in beta right now.  I doubt very many of us are prepared to pass them, but sign up for them any ways.  It’s free.  Do keep in mind that beta tests are longer than normal so you’ll have to commit quite a bit of time to them.
• Don’t underestimate travel times – The walk to the convention center from a room at the Mandalay Bay is at least ten minutes.  When I stayed at the Luxor at SPC09, it was a full thirty minute walk.  Even within the convention center, there are long walks between sessions.
• Arrive early to sessions – Many sessions will fill up and entrance will be denied.  Don’t get left out by showing up late.
• Learn hash tags for the sessions you are attending – Every session you are attending has an associated hash tag that you can follow.  For example, my Windows 8 Session is number 025, so the hash tag for it is #SPC025.  You can go ahead and save a search for that one now. :)  I hear #SPC195 is also a good one!
• Don’t wear your badge outside of the convention center – Nothing says you don’t have any game like walking out of the convention center with your badge on.  Take it off as you exit the area.
• Don’t forget your badge (and lanyard) at the attendee party – At SPC09, your badge and the lanyard were required to get in.  I know several people that had to walk all the way back to their room just to get the lanyard.  That was a one hour walk since it was back to the Luxor.  I saw something in an E-mail that seemed to indicate that this might be a wristband this year so don’t forget that (or lose it).
• Keep your phone charged – The battery life on LTE phones is horrible and even worse when you are tweeting non-stop all day.  Keep an eye on your phone’s battery life and charge up throughout the day. 
• Don’t blow all your money – This one goes without saying.  I came to SPC09 on a budget and quickly depleted my designated gambling funds.  It prevented me from doing anything else for the rest of the trip.  If you gamble, keep your gambling money separate and leave some of it in the room early in the week.  This will keep you from losing it all early and you will still have some left should you get mugged. :)
• Don’t be afraid to leave for lunch – I’m not a huge fan of conference food and it rarely gets along with my diet.  Usually by the second or third day I am grabbing anyone I can find and going off-site.  Find me at the conference and you can join me.
• Attend #ShareHofbrau on Thursday – After the conference, unwind with friends at Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas.  It’s an authentic German beer hall and it’s loads of fun.
• Fill out your evaluations – These really are important to the speakers.  Let them know they did a good job and take the time to leave actual text comments in them.
• Establish rendez-vous points – Establish meeting spots in advance with your group and set a time to meet.  Mine will probably be the slot machines immediately outside of EyeCandy. :)
• Have a nice day – Be sure and see Bon Jovi at the attendee party.  If you are expecting to meet people there, do it before you go into the beach club.  The club is huge and they filter traffic to the area they want you in.  If you don’t walk in with the people you want to see, you will likely not see them that night.
• Walk the casino floor – Even if you don’t gamble, make a habit of walking the casino floor.  You never know who you might run into.  An accidental run-in might shape the way the rest of the night goes.

That’s my list.  I’m sure there are other things to remember.  Do you have anything else to add?  Leave a comment.  This probably goes without saying, but if you are not on twitter, now is the time to join.  It’s the best way to keep up with what’s happening at the conference.

I’m also presenting two sessions at this year’s conference and I would love for you to come see them.

• #SPC025 – Bringing SharePoint to the Desktop: Building Windows 8 Apps with SharePoint – This talk titled, Bring SharePoint to the Desktop: Building Windows 8 Metro Style Apps with SharePoint is centered around different ways we can leverage SharePoint data in a rich full-screen interface.  This developer-centric talk will show you the basics of building Windows 8 apps and then take advantage of the new SharePoint 2013 APIs to do data binding and notifications.  If you have an interest in Windows 8 and SharePoint, this talk is for you.
• #SPC195 – PowerShell 3.0 Administration with SharePoint 2013 – In this session, we’ll cover everything from tips and tricks with PowerShell to key new cmdlets you will want to know about.  We’ll talk about installing solution packages, managing upgrades, provisioning the new service applications, and more.  I promise I’ll do my best to make PowerShell an exciting topic.  I know some of you out there love it, so I think it will be a fun talk.

Enough with the shameless plug. :)  Get ready and I’ll see you at the conference.

Follow me on twitter: @coreyroth.