Build your PnP Site Provisioning with PowerShell in Azure Functions and run it from Flow
/What if I tell you - you can build your own Azure Function and use PnP to provision SharePoint Online sites without firing up Visual Studio?
What if I tell you - we will follow the best practices from PnP. And You can do this all within 10 minutes (OK I timed it - if you don't take any breaks it'll be 10 minutes), and we'll do it with PnP PowerShell.
You will think - this is magic. You will probably say, this is all crazy.
What if I tell you - you can connect this to the newly released Microsoft Flow. So you don't even need to learn WebHooks (which is awesome and you should learn it).
What if I tell you - the whole thing will cost you a little bit. It's not totally free. It will cost you may be two cents. ($0.02)
You will say, get out. I need to lie down.
Learning Software pieces like LEGO blocks
I see software pieces as I see LEGO blocks. PnP Provisioning is a block (a .NET library written in C#). PowerShell cmdlets are a block. And Azure Functions is a block. Flow is a block.
What would happen if you connect them together?
Setting up PowerShell from PnP
First, this is how we set up in our local machine:
Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
Why PowerShell?
Why PowerShell, you ask - John you are a developer. You are a .NET developer before you became a JavaScript developer. Why PowerShell suddenly?
The answer is simple. It is because everybody understand this:
# connect to the SPWeb context Connect-SPOnline -url "https://sharepointgurus365.sharepoint.com/sites/projects/template" # export (copy) a template Get-SPOProvisioningTemplate -force -out project-template.xml # connect to new blank SPWeb Connect-SPOnline -url "https://sharepointgurus365.sharepoint.com/sites/projects/tea" # paste the template Apply-SPOProvisioningTemplate -path project-template.xml
Four lines - you have just copied a template from /projects/template and stamp it over to /projects/tea - this is the power and the hardwork of the PnP provisioning team. They make this magic look simple.
PnP was updated about a week after the blogpost and several PnP commands have been renamed to avoid confusion with SharePoint admin commands. See PnP-PowerShell documentations.
Connect-SPOnline is now Connect-PnPOnline Get-SPOProvisioningTemplate is Get-PnPProvisioningTemplate etc
A way to verify the powershell is to run it first on your local machine and make sure it works first, before uploading the same DLL modules and script to Azure Function.
Special thanks to @pskelly
But you can do this in C#
Of course, you can also do this in C#, it looks like this:
This shouldn't be too scary to a developer. But everyone sees the bubbles and the flow chart and just stop trying. It "looks" hard.
Additionally, in CSOM - everything is asynchronous. C# makes this simpler with the await syntax, but in the PowerShell cmdlets, every request is essentially serialized - so they are easy to understand, even if they aren't the fastest way.
If you want to see what this looks like in NodeJS - I have several blogs. It's great to learn. If you don't like JavaScript to begin with - then you'll probably run to PowerShell with open arms.
OK enough chatter - let's go back to the demo.
Setting up Azure Functions
Create a new HTTP Request function - select PowerShell as the language.
It says Experimental - what they really should say is "The World's Not Ready For This".
PowerShell Azure Functions looks like this. The request is passed in as raw JSON content - which is parsed into an object.
Output from the function by writing out to the $res file.
Install-Module
install-module doesn't work. But we still can have modules.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/37724769/how-to-install-a-powershell-module-in-an-azure-function/39985646#39985646 - The steps are explained by Azure Function team's @tohling
Essentially, we can take a PowerShell Module, find all its component script and DLL, and copy them to a modules/ subfolder within the Azure Function. It will be loaded when the function needs to run.
In Functions - go to Kudu
Navigate to your new function's directory, and add a modules subfolder
In your PC:
Navigate to
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline\2.8.1610.1\
(if you don't have this folder - you missed Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline from earlier)
You will also need Microsoft.IdentityModel
C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.IdentityModel
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.IdentityModel.Extensions
Grab all these DLLs and PowerShell script and throw them all inside modules.
Change Azure Function to x64
One more thing. The PowerShell cmdlets prefer x64 architecture. Azure Functions provide 32 bit by default. Switch this in function settings > application settings > Platform
Setup Done!
Now we can write fun functions! Go back to our site provisioning function.
$requestBody = Get-Content $req -Raw | ConvertFrom-Json
# {
# "source": "https://sharepointgurus365.sharepoint.com/sites/demo02/projects/pst",
# "destination": "https://sharepointgurus365.sharepoint.com/sites/demo02/projects/tea"
# }
$source = $requestBody.source
$destination = $requestBody.destination
$secpasswd = ConvertTo-SecureString $env:SPO_P -AsPlainText -Force
$mycreds = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ($env:SPO_U, $secpasswd)
Connect-SPOnline -url $source -Credentials $mycreds
Get-SPOProvisioningTemplate -force -out "D:\home\site\wwwroot\project-template.xml"
Connect-SPOnline -url $destination -Credentials $mycreds
Apply-SPOProvisioningTemplate -path "D:\home\site\wwwroot\project-template.xml"
Out-File -Encoding Ascii -FilePath $res -inputObject "Done $destination"Note: PnP was updated about a week after the blogpost and several PnP commands have been renamed to avoid confusion with SharePoint admin commands. See PnP-PowerShell documentations.
Connect-SPOnline is now Connect-PnPOnline Get-SPOProvisioningTemplate is Get-PnPProvisioningTemplate etc
A way to verify the powershell is to run it first on your local machine and make sure it works first, before uploading the same DLL modules and script to Azure Function.
Special thanks to @pskelly
The script will run unattended. So you will need to provide your username/password stored in Function Settings and read from $env variables.
Run success!
What do we have here?! PowerShell cmdlets that wrapped the PnP C# library and talks to SharePoint Online and everything running inside an Azure Function.
You have a service.
If you are counting lines - there is 10 lines of PowerShell - including the function wrapper.
Flow
Let's top off this demo with a Microsoft Flow - this was GA'ed just this week.
Create a list "Copy-Site" - with two fields "ToSite" and "FromSite"
Have the flow trigger off ItemAdded, and call our Azure Function via the Http Request.
Pass in source and destination.
Test Flow... workflow
Flow tells you what was sent to the HTTP Request, and what Response body it got back. Use this for debugging your functions.
We always talk Costs because Azure Function is cheap
The 11cents total is over several days, and the breakdown shows it's almost entirely bandwidth costs - which doesn't have a free bucket. My AzureFunctions don't exceed the allowed free tier, so I'm not paying for any compute time.
Where do we go from here?
What can you do with PowerShell? Desired State Configuration? Download lists to CSV? Synchronize and fix metadata? Locate orphaned or misplaced documents and fix that? Improve and merge user profile properties? Provision users and sites and what else do you fancy?
Does this give you wild ideas?
Azure Functions is Serverless
When we say Azure Functions is Serverless - it always seems we are saying we don't need servers (and thus don't need IT Pros). This isn't strictly the truth - which is that the server is maintained by professionals, and developers could focus on writing code.
But after working on these PowerShell for the last two weeks - actually, I'm beginning to wonder whether there will be a day we don't need Developers.
An analyst says to a Bot - I want this System A to connect to this System B and put result in this System C. The bot arranges three connections and suggest how the parameters will be connected. Offers to perform a trial run. Analyst checks it and approves it. The code goes into production.
Think about this. Everyone needs to evolve. IT Pros - you have a huge opportunity here to use your PowerShell skills to provide huge business value. Developers - you should use the best tools to enable your users and do more, this is really easy to get into.
Tell me what you think
I really want to know what you think - if you can spend a bit of time and leave a comment below. Where are we going as developers, where are we going as IT Pros? What kind of PowerShell-AzureFunction are you going to build? Does PnP need a repository for PowerShell recipes?
It's so nice to see the pieces fit together well.
