Forum Discussion
New Communication Sites
The new Communication Site templates look good. We've created two sites from the SharePoint portal ('create site') based on the two templates:
- Topic ('if you have a lot of information to share such as news, events, and other content')
- Showcase ('to showcase a product, team, or event using photos or images')
The third option is a 'blank' site which you can modify as required.
At first sight the new layouts are engaging and enticing, and don't 'look like SharePoint'. We think we'll use the topic based site to replace the current intranet (the top level site at least, see below). We'll use the showcase based site to promote each of our major organisational divisions. It's very likely we'll have a link from the topic sites to the showcase sites.
A couple of things that seem slightly unexpected:
- These new sites are created under /teams. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to be under /sites? Or was this intentional? (EDIT: See below, /teams or /sites is an option in the SharePoint Admin portal under Settings)
- New subsites (at least the ones we created) are classic team sites with modern libraries and lists. Of course we can 'swap over' the pages to give the sites a modern page, but these modern pages currently appear to have the same limits as other modern team sites. It will be better once the new options are available, including multi-column layouts.
Otherwise, they look great and we're looking forward to building on them.
/sites and /teams depends on your setting the the Sharepoint Online admin UI. You can pick which one self-service sites are created under, and you have set it to /teams in your tenant. But agree, you might want comm sites on /sites. So you would have to switch it to /sites, create the comm sites, and switch it back so that Groups go on /teams.
19 Replies
Hi Andrew warland,
I have created a site collection using the communication site template. As a requirement i have to make some changes using custom scripts for which I am unable to see "Script Editor" webpart . So I went to Admin center to enable the custom script settings , but I am unable to see the created communication site in the admin center site collection list.
Attached the Screenshots below.
Could you please let me know , where are the site collections that are created using "Communication sites" is stored? and also how to enable the custom script settings for the same.
Thanks in advance!
Padmashri Rajnarayanan
Hi Padmashri
The two attachments don't open by the way, they try to divert me to box.com.
There are two answers to your first question about the script editor webpart: (a) they don't exist as web part, so you need to (b) consider using SPFx to achieve the same outcome. We are minimising our use of SPFx as much as possible as we've learned over the years that any form of customisation needs to be maintained and fixed when it breaks.
On the second question, Communication and Group-based sites do not appear in the old SharePoint Admin centre. You'll only see them when the new Admin centre is released.
In the meantime, to get to the communication site settings, go to the site, navigate via the 'cog' or 'gear' icon to Site Information, then on to Site Settings. The URL is:
https://(tenant).sharepoint.com/(sites or teams)/(sitename)/_layouts/15/settings.aspxPadmashri Srinivasalu Rajnarayanan
I have just discovered the "missing Communication Site" issue too. I'd created it for the basis of an new intranet only to realise it's not part of the SharePoint Admin's list of sites. Nor can i find it via O365 Groups in exchange.
What's the thought process behind this? .... Mikael Svenson do you know?
Surely this is opening us up for site sprawl like never before. How can we set policies (Labels) to sites we can't see or even know about?
I've now deleted the Communication site, and will recreated a Team Site and from the Admin Center and add the web parts manually. At least that way i'll have oversight and governance of it. I understand the reasoning behind the new-flatter architecture and haveing fewer sites stacked one below the other, but this is really weird!
Regards
Paul.
I noticed in a presentation about the new SharePoint sites on the Office 365 group that a Communication site had a table. I assume this is done by pasting a table from Word or Excel as there is no table capability in the text web part?
Some great new features coming to pages, including the ability to add tables.
Correct, you can paste directly to the text web part.
- When I create subsites under the communication site it uses the classic template. How do i get the subsites to use the same template?
To get the new look, create a page and then swap them over by making the new one the home page. I usually just rename both (home to homex, home2 to home) then make the new one the home page.
/sites and /teams depends on your setting the the Sharepoint Online admin UI. You can pick which one self-service sites are created under, and you have set it to /teams in your tenant. But agree, you might want comm sites on /sites. So you would have to switch it to /sites, create the comm sites, and switch it back so that Groups go on /teams.
I've often thought about creating Groups and Teams under /teams rather than /sites, as a means of avoiding any potential URL conflicts, but I've been hesitant to make that split. Is doing so a fairly common practice, or have most people been like me and kept everything under /sites?
- Hi,
I've made a practise to have self service under /teams, and more authoritive sites under /sites. Just as a means to separate them somewhat. Would be awesome if we could set up some rules as to where sites go on the managed paths, but for now we set it to /teams with clients, and switch it for the cases where we need to.
Thanks Mikael, yes you are right, you have to change the setting to /sites, then back to /teams (if you want to keep that as the default), so your communication sites are under /sites. Good thing to learn early on.
the comms sites i've created are all under /sites/...
They're all under /sites with our install as well. Hmmm...... I assume you checked the admin config in https://tenant-admin.sharepont.com ?
As far as the subsites, it seems like we're getting gently pushed into just creating a new site on the same level instead of subsites.
- Well, I'm not surprised about new subsites being classic sites...we have the same with the modern SPO sites
