Slides and Demo Files from Dogfood Con 2017

Brian T. Jackett Conference/Tech Event, Power BI, PowerApps, Presentation

   A big thanks to Cassandra, Trey, Danillo, and all of the other organizers of Dogfood Con 2017.  Thanks also to all of the folks who attended my two sessions.  Below are my slides and source code.  Feel free to let me know about any follow up questions or comments.

PowerApps and Microsoft Flow for Developers

GitHub link to demo project files

https://github.com/BrianTJackett/BTJ.PowerApps.AzureDBSample

Slides

Intro to Power BI for Office 365 Developers

Slides

Sample Financial Data file

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=521962

Blog posts on SMAT data report

https://aka.ms/SMAT2013BTJpart1

https://aka.ms/SMAT2013BTJpart2

-Frog Out

SharePoint CSOM to Traverse All Sites in SharePoint Online

Brian T. Jackett Office 365, SharePoint

[Update 2018-07-31] Special thanks for my peer John Ferringer for pointing out an issue with my prior CSOM snippet. Updating CSOM code to handle large number of sites as previous sample would truncate results if large number of sites were traversed.[/Update]

In the past I’ve written posts for “PowerShell to Enumerate SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2013 Permissions” or “PowerShell Script To Traverse All Sites In SharePoint 2010 (or 2007) Farm” to assist with traversing through all sites within a SharePoint on-prem farm.  In this post I’ll share a snippet I recently used for traversing through all site collections and subsites within a SharePoint Online tenant.

 

Background

If you’ve worked with the SharePoint Online Management Shell you may know that originally it was not able to retrieve Personal Sites (also known as My Sites / OneDrive for Business sites) in SharePoint Online.  As far as I’m aware this was primarily a limitation of the underlying client side libraries (Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.*).  Fast forward to a recent release (I don’t have the specific one but I can confirm it is in the 16.1.6621.1200 release of the Microsoft.SharePointOnline.CSOM NuGet package) and now it is supported to retrieve Personal Sites.  In the management shell this is accomplished by calling the following:

 

Note: If you do not see the below Gist please refer to code at this location: PS-Get_All_Sites_SPO.ps1


Connect-SPOService -Url '<tenantAdminUrl>'
Get-SPOSite -Limit all -IncludePersonalSite $true

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PS-Get_All_Sites_SPO.ps1

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

 

The problem is that if you want to traverse all site collections in SharePoint Online in client side object model (CSOM) you would need to know how the SharePoint Online Management Shell implements that inclusion of Personal Sites with the rest of site collections.  In order to find this out I used a disassembler (ILSPY in my case, but there are many alternatives available as well) on the underlying libraries to recreate the process in my own code.

 

Solution

The resulting CSOM that I came up with is below.  Feel free to borrow this and use in your own code but note that it is provided as-is with no warranty.

Note: If you do not see the below Gist please refer to code at this location: CSOM_Traverse_All_Sites_SPO.txt

 


List <SiteProperties> list = new List <SiteProperties>();
SPOSitePropertiesEnumerable ssp = null;
SPOSitePropertiesEnumerableFilter sspFilter = new SPOSitePropertiesEnumerableFilter();
SharePointOnlineCredentials creds = new SharePointOnlineCredentials("myUsernameGoesHere", securePassword);
using (ClientContext cc = new ClientContext("myURLGoesHere"))
{
cc.Credentials = creds;
String nextIndex = null;
Tenant tenant = new Tenant(cc);
//loop through all site collections including personal sites (even though not being used)
//borrowed this code from after decompiling SPO Management Shell assemblies
sspFilter.IncludePersonalSite = PersonalSiteFilter.Include;
sspFilter.IncludeDetail = true;
do
{
sspFilter.StartIndex = nextIndex;
ssp = tenant.GetSitePropertiesFromSharePointByFilters(sspFilter);
cc.Load(ssp);
cc.ExecuteQuery();
list.AddRange(ssp);
nextIndex = ssp.NextStartIndexFromSharePoint;
}while(nextIndex != null);
foreach (SiteProperties sp in list)
{
//DO YOUR WORK HERE FOR EACH SITE COLLECTION, such as looping through subwebs
cc.Load(cc.Web, w => w.NoCrawl,
w => w.Webs,
w => w.Url);
cc.ExecuteQuery();
//check subweb(s)
foreach (var subweb in cc.Web.Webs)
{
cc.Load(subweb, sw => sw.NoCrawl,
sw => sw.Url);
cc.ExecuteQuery();
}
}
}

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CS-CSOM_Traverse_All_Sites_SPO.txt

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Conclusion

In this post I shared a snippet for traversing all site collections in SharePoint Online with C# CSOM code.  In my daily job I’ve been using this in combination with Azure Functions for a number of interesting interactions with a SharePoint Online tenant.  More to come on those scenarios in future weeks.  For now let me know in the comments if you have any questions or issues implementing the above snippet in your own code.  Happy coding!

 

-Frog Out

Slides and Demo Files from CincyDevelop() Conference

Brian T. Jackett Conference/Tech Event, PowerApps, Presentation

   A big thanks to Phil and all of the other organizers of Cincy.Develop() / Day of Agile Conference.  Thanks also to all of the folks who attended my Integrate All the Things: PowerApps and Flow for Developers session.  Below are my slides and source code.  Feel free to let me know about any follow up questions or comments.

PowerApps and Microsoft Flow for Developers

GitHub link to demo project files

https://github.com/BrianTJackett/BTJ.PowerApps.AzureDBSample

Slides

-Frog Out

Upcoming Speaking Events in 2017

Brian T. Jackett Conference/Tech Event, Power BI, PowerApps, Presentation

I’m honored to be accepted to speak at the following upcoming events.  Here are the abstracts for these presentations.  If you are at any of these events feel free to stop by and chat.  Registration is still open as of the time of writing as well.

 

Cincy.Develop()

Website: Cincy Day of Agile and Cincy.Develop()

When: Fri. Jul 28, 2:40pm-3:40pm

Title: Integrate All the Things: PowerApps and Microsoft Flow for Developers

Abstract: Securely start a server farm of Azure dev VMs with the tap of a button on your phone. Update data in an on-prem DB from any device without writing any plumbing code or UI layer. In this session we will overview PowerApps and Microsoft Flow which are low-code / no-code solutions that allow forms and workflow development that integrate to hundreds of services including Twilio, Twitter, Azure, GitHub, and more. We will also talk about the developer story for integrating with Custom Connectors and on-prem data sources such as SQL Server and SharePoint. Lastly we will demo a number of scenarios to show how easily you can create and consume apps across Windows, iOS, Android, and web. Prior experience with PowerApps and Flow is not required.

 

DogFood Conference

Website: DogFoodCon

When: Oct 5-6, timeslots TBA

Title: Integrate All the Things: PowerApps and Microsoft Flow for Developers

Abstract: Securely start a server farm of Azure dev VMs with the tap of a button on your phone. Update data in an on-prem DB from any device without writing any plumbing code or UI layer. In this session we will overview PowerApps and Microsoft Flow which are low-code / no-code solutions that allow forms and workflow development that integrate to hundreds of services including Twilio, Twitter, Azure, GitHub, and more. We will also talk about the developer story for integrating with Custom Connectors and on-prem data sources such as SQL Server and SharePoint. Lastly we will demo a number of scenarios to show how easily you can create and consume apps across Windows, iOS, Android, and web. Prior experience with PowerApps and Flow is not required.

 

Title: Intro to Power BI for Office 365 Developers

Abstract: “Power BI is SSRS in the cloud, right?” “I’ll throw a few pie charts on the screen and call it a dashboard, right?” Wrong. In this session we will introduce Office 365 developers to the Power BI service and Power BI Desktop. We will cover data sources that can be used (Azure SQL, SharePoint, files, etc.), direct query vs. imported dataset, report and dashboard creation, and the on-prem data gateway. We will also break down misconceptions of good dashboard design (hint: pie charts and 3D are almost always a bad design). Prior experience with Power BI or Power BI desktop are not required.

 

SPTechCon DC

Website: SPTechCon DC

When: Nov 12-15, timeslots TBA

Title: Integrate All the Things: PowerApps and Microsoft Flow for Developers

Abstract: Securely start a server farm of Azure dev VMs with the tap of a button on your phone. Update data in an on-prem DB from any device without writing any plumbing code or UI layer. In this session we will overview PowerApps and Microsoft Flow which are low-code / no-code solutions that allow forms and workflow development that integrate to hundreds of services including Twilio, Twitter, Azure, GitHub, and more. We will also talk about the developer story for integrating with Custom Connectors and on-prem data sources such as SQL Server and SharePoint. Lastly we will demo a number of scenarios to show how easily you can create and consume apps across Windows, iOS, Android, and web. Prior experience with PowerApps and Flow is not required.

 

Title: Intro to Power BI for Office 365 Developers

Abstract: “Power BI is SSRS in the cloud, right?” “I’ll throw a few pie charts on the screen and call it a dashboard, right?” Wrong. In this session we will introduce Office 365 developers to the Power BI service and Power BI Desktop. We will cover data sources that can be used (Azure SQL, SharePoint, files, etc.), direct query vs. imported dataset, report and dashboard creation, and the on-prem data gateway. We will also break down misconceptions of good dashboard design (hint: pie charts and 3D are almost always a bad design). Prior experience with Power BI or Power BI desktop are not required.

 

      -Frog Out

Controlling Office 365 Admin Access with Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM)

Brian T. Jackett Active Directory, Azure, Office 365

   Controlling, monitoring, and revoking access to privileged accounts can be a difficult process.  Recently my coworker Ken Kilty shared with me a new service for Azure Active Directory called Privileged Identity Management (Azure AD PIM).  After spending some time with it I wanted to share with a broader audience since I had never heard of it previously.

image

 

Overview

   Please read the What is Azure AD Privileged Identity Management first for a good overview of implementation, example scenario, and additional links to resources.  Note that Azure AD PIM requires Azure AD Premium P2 licenses.  If you would like to test this out there is a free 30 day trial of Azure AD Premium P2 for up to 100 users.

   Granting administrator access, for any application or server, to users should always be done with caution.  Sometimes what starts out as a temporary elevation of permissions turns into a permanent assignment.  Azure AD PIM answers many of the tough questions for Azure AD, Office 365, and related services such as:

  • Who has admin access to <service X>?
  • How do I grant truly temporary access to <service Y>?
  • How can I review all current admins to see if they still need admin access?

   The goal with Azure AD PIM is to allow administrators to define either permanent or “eligible” assignment of specific elevated permissions within Azure and Office 365.  Currently there are 21 roles that can be managed such as Global Administrator, Password Administrator, SharePoint Service Administrator, Exchange Administrator, and more.  See Assigning administrator roles in Azure Active Directory for a more complete listing of roles.  Users who are defined as “eligible” will be able to elevate themselves to roles they have been assigned for a set number of hours (1-72) defined by a Azure AD PIM administrator.  During this role elevation process the “eligible” user will need to verify their identity through a text / call verification or multifactor authentication (MFA) mechanism.  One of the key advantages is that this entire interaction is tracked and auditable.  Administrators can even require an incident or service ticket number prior to elevation and receive alerts when elevation requests are processed.

 

Conclusion

   I have seen privileged role access handled in many different ways at customers over the years.  Having a consistent and auditable process ensures that changes can be tracked and users who no longer need elevated permissions can be removed.  In the time I’ve tested out Azure AD Privileged Identity Management I am very happy with the overall process and review options.  One word of advice for users elevating yourself.  You will need to log out and log back in in order to update your claim token with the new elevated role claims.  Give Azure Active Directory Privileged Identity Management a try and share any feedback in the comments below.

 

      -Frog Out

Guest Blog Post on PowerApps Blog – Social Media Sample

Brian T. Jackett PowerApps

   I wrote a guest blog post Introducing Brian T Jackett: PowerApps and Microsoft Flow Social Media Sample for the official PowerApps blog.  I also provided the social media sample demo code along with a video walkthrough of the demo.  Special thanks to Pratap Ladhani and Audrie Gordon for getting this published.  Please read and leave any feedback or questions in the comments on that post.

 

Introducing Brian T Jackett: PowerApps and Microsoft Flow Social Media Sample

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-brian-t-jackett-powerapps-and-microsoft-flow-social-media-sample/

 

Background

    Over the past 6 months I’ve given a number of external and internal presentations on PowerApps and Flow for developers.  One of the highlights of this presentation was an interactive demo integrating a variety of cloud services such as Twitter, Azure SQL, Azure Web App, Azure API App, Microsoft Flow, PowerApps, and Custom APIs.  Attendees were able to use a hashtag on Twitter that then fed into the demo and we would track the data through multiple platforms to present the data back out.  After giving this presentation internally Pratap Ladhani (Principal Program Manager for PowerApps and Flow teams) asked me to share out this demo.  This guest blog post is the result of that.

 

 

      -Frog Out