How do you brand a new users MySite in SharePoint Online / Office 365

We had a good chat around this today around how to brand a MySite at the time it is provisioned in SharePoint Online. The idea is … when the user accesses their MySite for the first time, we wanted to know if you could tap into some vent to swap the Master page to a branded version. Feature Stapling is the obvious option using On-Premise, but this isn’t allows in 365 ..

• Matthias EinigHi guys!
• MeMorning
• Matthias EinigSo out of curiosity if someone has a solution 🙂
• Matthias EinigBranding MySites in SharePoint Online? – Not possible automatically only by manual interaction, right?
• Stefan Baueryou mean the my content section?
• MeNot sure – I only have the cheapo version 🙁
• Matthias EinigI mean applying a masterpage to a newly created MySite in SPO
• what you would to with a feature stapling feature in on-premises
• Mecan you staple in 0365 ?
• Stefan Baueri don’t think so.
• Medoesn’t that usually require a farm level Feature ?
• Matthias Einigas you would have to staple to as webapp feature or farm feature -> no
• Mewhich is a no no
• Matthias Einigsandboxed solutions work only in SC or web
• MeAren’t there some new events now ?
• Matthias Einigso stapling is not an option
• MeCan you hook them from a sandboxed or via remoting ?
• Matthias Einigevents on the self service site creation process?
• Thomy Goelleshave a look athttp://blogs.msdn.com/b/richard_dizeregas_blog/archive/2013/04/04/self-service-site-provisioning-using-apps-for-sharepoint-2013.aspx maybe some of the provisioning here can help
• 08:44
• Matthias EinigInteresting Thomy! Thanks, though this seems to create a self service site creation mechanism and not hook into MySite creation, right?
• have to read through it entirely though first
• Thomy Goellesyeah, it is site provisioning via apps, but maybe the same magic can be applied to mysites
• Matthias EinigIf I look into the O365 support forum I find this and herehttp://community.office365.com/en-us/forums/154/t/58396.aspx
• where support basically says, nope, we have no idea, but there might be a custom solution out there which we are not allowed to tell you 😉
• Hven’t found that one yet unfortunately
• Also when I read through that onhttp://captainofsharepoint.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/sharepoint-online-limitations/ I come to the same conclusion
• There is of course a way to do that manually, i.e. uploading the master page through CSOM and activating it as described here Matthias Einig09:20https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/devwiki/articles/Pages/SharePoint-Online-Changing-Master-Page-through-CSOM.aspx
• oopshttps://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/devwiki/articles/Pages/SharePoint-Online-Changing-Master-Page-through-CSOM.aspx
• Stefan Bauergimme a sec
• Matthias Einigbut that requires to know when a MySite has been created and start the process manually
• 1…2…3… 😉
• 08:49
• Thomy Goellesis a tenant admin SC admin on all mysites?
• Stefan Bauerhttp://www.sharemuch.com/2013/04/09/screencast-on-how-to-make-changes-to-current-sharepoint-masterpage-using-sharepoint-2013-app/
• there is one good article how to change master page using an app.
• Matthias EinigThe last linnk I posted has a code sample how to change the masterpage through CSOM
• and on Chris O’Brians blog there is an article how to provision a masterpage through an app
• still this doesn not solve the problem that when a user is creating his mysite, the branding actions need to be initiated manually
• @thomy: not sure but I don’t think so that the tenant admin is SC admin in the mysites
• Thomy Goellesso you have to get also the rights first
• how do you know a mysite got created?
• is there even a hook?
• Matthias Einigprobably, would make more sense if it runs in the context of the user who is actually creating the mysite and will become SC Admin
• don’t think so
• 08:54
• Thomy Goellessry guys have to split, customer waiting, but I will catch on later! cu
• 08:57
• MeMatt – just googled quite heavily
• i was trying to workout if you could hook up the WebProvisioned event remotely
• in 365
• as you could get the to call back to some service in Azure
• but I can’t find much at all
• custom dev in 365 = ball ache
• Matthias EinigYep, I googled in bing and googled in goolge with no helpful results 😉
• wouldn’t have asked before beeing sure 🙂
• but I am wondering how others are solving that
• there are big SPO tenants who most likely have branding and require to solve that problem…
• Meit seems like a very common question
• that you would have though would have been resolved
• Stefan Bauerthey don’t use it. I mean what you can do is to create a aspx page in the my profile and redirect all links that force the mysite creation the application page.
• Memaybe there aren’t that many using 365!
• As a dirty solution, can you add some code into the Master page preRender and swap it out ?
• Matthias Einig@Mark don’t get what you mean
• SPO is provisioning the MySite with the default site definition
• Meyeah – you can’t add it to all
• Matthias Einigso no custom masterpage or sandboxed solution is yet available
• Methat wont work either
• cripes!
• Matthias Einigand you can’t expect users to upload the branding sanboxed solution manually and activate some features
• very odd… I guess MS just doesn’t want us to brand SPO…
• Stefan BauerI know a solution that might work.
• Matthias Einigon-premises SP? 😉
• Stefan Bauerno on O365
• Matthias Einighaha, was just kidding -> shoot!
• Stefan Bauerin the mysite you have the my.yourdomain.com which is a single site collection and you have the /personal/stefanbauer
• for example
• but the last thing we want to create with a branding
• Matthias Einigexxactly
• the mysite host is branded easily manually by uploading a solution and activating a feature
• Stefan Bauerok now we brand the my.yourdomain.com first with a custom master page.
• 09:12
• Stefan Bauerwe can smuggle in any kind of code in the custom master page.
• MeStefan they are to different site collections though ?
• the host one and the users content site
• Stefan Bauerthey are many different site collection. Every use have one and one i global.
• Matthias Einigexactly, so changed masterpage on the host does not allow us to make changes in the personal site collection
• Stefan Bauerwell you can change it. It is not true that you cannot change to host Master Page
• i did this several time.
• Memmm not sure – they use independent Master pages
• Matthias Einigeach site collection has its own masterpage galleryso the mysiste host has its own master page
• and each personal site collection too
• so I am not getting how I would be able to change the masterpage as soon as any user is creating his personali site colleciton the first time from the my site host
• Stefan Baueryou need always go to the profile first before you can create the mycontent.
• Matthias Einigtrue
• Stefan Bauerso the master page of the profile replaces all links to the mycontent creation to a custom aspx page that is stored in the my profile.
• Matthias Einigah, now I get it!
• so you want to replace the ootb site provisioning mechanism with a custom one
• Stefan Bauerthe aspx page need to make a simple ajax request to the original createion page in context of the user
• you can check and monitor if the creation is done.
• then pull the branding app from the app catalog somehow and activate it
• in the mycontent
• got it
• ?
• Matthias EinigGot it.
• translating a german saying “from the back through the chest into the eye…”
• Stefan Bauerthe normal sp approach
• Matthias Einighehe
• 09:23
• Stefan Baueri think the feature stapling or provisioning handler do nothing different. All you need to do is to replace the creation page with a new custom creation page.
• 09:24
• Stefan Bauerand now there is silent 😉
• Mecan you disable auto provisioning of MySites in SharePoint Online ?
• Stefan Baueryou can disable self site creation but then the user won’t get the mycontent page if he requests it.
• Mewell I was thinking …
• 1.. Disable it
• 2.. Replace it with some kind of “Request your site Page”
• 3.. This calls back to a service outside
• 4.. Then powershell the mysite apply the branding, email the user
• 09:28
• Matthias Einigsorry, was distracted 🙂
• @Mark: I want to avoid a manual process
• esp with a tenant with multiple thousand users…
• 🙂
• Stefan Bauer@mark i think this only gets harder. someone needs to create a site, add the link to the profile, add the branding, make the user as SC admin
• Meit wouldn’t be manual
• you turn it off
• create a page on the “main site”
• which says “Create your MySite”
• this calls out of 365 to your service
• which calls back and creates it
• customizes it
• and then gives them the site
• Matthias EinigReading powershell I thought more of a manual solution
• but then it could run as an app like the provisioning solution mentioned above by Thomy
• MeGreat discussion this Matthias
• when its over we should paste is a discussion
• something that;s highly needed is very tough to do
• 09:34
• Meis it over ?
• Matthias EinigReal world problem provide the best discussion topics right 🙂
• Meyeah
• Stefan Bauerit’s not over yet. might have another idea
• Mehehe
• GO Stefan
• the ideas are flowing
• Matthias Einigso let’s hear it!
• Stefan Bauerisn’t there a way where you can define the template the ssc should use?
• i mean you can use ssc outsite of mycontent too.
• 09:37
• Matthias Einignot that I am aware of
• but in SPO you can not provision a custom site template which can be used for a site colleciton, right?
• so you would need to create the site collection without template
• upload the template with a sanboxed solutoin
• and then create the web.
• Stefan Baueryeah you are right stupid idea. the first one was better
• delete it from the log 😉
• Matthias Einighaha
• no, the internet never forgets! 🙂
• Stefan Baueryeah i know.
• Matthias EinigSo Mark, I would say we stop here for now. I will digg into it more and get back if I find a solution (or not)
• Thanks to you all for your input!!!