Forum Discussion
David Rosenthal
Microsoft
Feb 14, 2017Favorites and Following in Groups, Teams, and SharePoint
I've been doing a lot of investigation and exploration lately of Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Groups, and the SharePoint Modern Team Site you get when you create either one. The trifecta of cool new s...
Brent Ellis
Feb 14, 2017Silver Contributor
We aren't using Teams yet, and probably wont for a good while. Just now rolling out Groups in wider numbers.
The approach we are taking is simply "Favoriting" is ONLY for Outlook/OWA, and "Following" is ONLY for the SharePoint site.
We have a webpart on our Intranet home page that has Sites I'm Following, so it has logically made sense to our users, you hit the follow button it goes in that list (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint-Developer/Following-O365-Sites-API/m-p/45708#M1499)
We also have (will have) a webpart next to the "Sites I'm Following" for My Groups. This wont have anything to do with Favoriting (at least not yet), but eventually we'll probably tie it in (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Groups/quot-My-Groups-quot-list-for-SharePoint-Homepage-Web-Part/m-p/44824#M2015)
I can't see them being unified ever because they do perform different functions, as difficult as it is for a non-tech business user to sometimes grasp.
Counter scenarios:
I can "bookmark" a Group's sharepoint site even if I am not a member.
I can "bookmark" a Group's sharepoint site if I am a member, but it is not one of my featured Groups so I dont want it showing up in favorites because I am a member of 15 groups.
I can "favorite" a Group for conversations/calendar, but not "bookmark" the site because the Group is not using the site and it would just clutter up my "Site's I'm Following" list.
The approach we are taking is simply "Favoriting" is ONLY for Outlook/OWA, and "Following" is ONLY for the SharePoint site.
We have a webpart on our Intranet home page that has Sites I'm Following, so it has logically made sense to our users, you hit the follow button it goes in that list (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint-Developer/Following-O365-Sites-API/m-p/45708#M1499)
We also have (will have) a webpart next to the "Sites I'm Following" for My Groups. This wont have anything to do with Favoriting (at least not yet), but eventually we'll probably tie it in (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Groups/quot-My-Groups-quot-list-for-SharePoint-Homepage-Web-Part/m-p/44824#M2015)
I can't see them being unified ever because they do perform different functions, as difficult as it is for a non-tech business user to sometimes grasp.
Counter scenarios:
I can "bookmark" a Group's sharepoint site even if I am not a member.
I can "bookmark" a Group's sharepoint site if I am a member, but it is not one of my featured Groups so I dont want it showing up in favorites because I am a member of 15 groups.
I can "favorite" a Group for conversations/calendar, but not "bookmark" the site because the Group is not using the site and it would just clutter up my "Site's I'm Following" list.