Presentation I did for SharePoint Saturday Cambridge 2018 on modern news publishing in SharePoint Online, Communication Sites, Hub Sites, Site Theming, Site Designs, and the PnP Starter Kit

1. Modern News Publishing with SharePoint
@maarteneekels

2. Thank you to our sponsors!

3. Sponsor Raffle!!!
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• Collect 7 or more sponsor stamps on your Badge to be eligible for the
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• Hand entire Badge/ ribbon back into registration desk at end of day to
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have the pre-requisite stamp/s….. You’ll lose!)

4. Maarten Eekels
Contact
meekels@portiva.nl
www.eekels.net

5. Agenda
• A brief history
• Team sites vs Communication sites vs Hub sites
• News publishing
• Mobile experience
• Branding options
• Site designs
• PnP Starter kit

6. Publishing pages

7. Team sites vs Communication sites
Communication sitesTeam sites
Department
Team
Project
Extranet (Partner, Customer)
Committee (Planning, Executive)
Initiative, campaign or event
Share work with organization
Community of practice or interest
Training and policies
Updates and reports

8. Hub sites
• Brings together related
team sites and
communication sites
• Roll up of news and site
activity
• Search across connected
sites for content
• Cross-site navigation
• Consistent look-and-feel
across sites
• Admins create, site
owners adopt and use

9. DEMO

10. Why is branding of your intranet important?
Consistency in your
company brand –
thoughts and feelings
about company and
culture, sense of
community
01
Represents trust –
gives users
confidence, sense of
solid foundation
02
Define objectives –
colouring and fonts
suggest work style,
sense of expectations
03

11. What makes up an intranet brand?
• Colours / theming
• Content
• Intranet name
• Logos
• Navigation
• Page designs

12. Custom site theming
PowerShell management support
(6906.1200):
https://aka.ms/spsitetheming
Theme builder tool:
https://aka.ms/spthemebuilder

13. DEMO

14. Custom site designs
Site Scripts - Actions
• Create List
• Add Column Formatting
• Apply Theme
• Add to Navigation
• Set Site Logo
• Trigger Flow
• Join Site to Hub
• Create Page
• Enable External Access
Execute Site
Design

15. DEMO

16. Tip #1
When the design execution
panel keeps “Initializing” 
Check if Site Scripts actually
exist
Get-SPOSiteDesign
Get-SPOSiteScript

17. Tip #2
The PowerShell module does NOT
support Update cmdlets
The REST API however DOES
support Update commands:
• UpdateSiteScript
• UpdateSiteDesign
REST API support:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/
declarative-customization/site-design-rest-api
var updated_site_script =
{
"$schema": "schema.json",
"actions": [
{
"verb": "applyTheme",
"themeName": “SharePoint Saturday"
}
],
"bindata": { },
"version": 2
};
RestRequest("/_api/Microsoft.Sharepoint.Utilities.
WebTemplateExtensions.SiteScriptUtility.UpdateSiteScript",
{updateInfo:{
Id:"07702c07-0485-426f-b710-4704241caad9",
Title:"New SharePoint Saturday theme",
Description:"Updated SPS site script",
Version: 2,
Content: JSON.stringify(updated_site_script)}});

18. Tip #3
Apply Site Design to default site
templates  Use the –IsDefault
parameter
PowerShell management support (7206.1200):
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/declarative-customization/site-design-powershell

19. PnP Starter Kit
“The PnP Starter Kit is a solution designed for SharePoint
Online which provides numerous web parts, extensions, and
other components which you can use as an example and
inspiration for your own customisations.”
https://github.com/SharePoint/sp-starter-kit
Official branding guidance: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/sharepoint/dev/scenario-guidance/branding

20. DEMO

21. Thank you!
@maarteneekels