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Preparing for SharePoint Hub Sites

Brass Contributor

I feel that in modern SharePoint we are very much been directed towards hub sites; indeed each time a user makes a group we are in a different site collection. I understand all the arguments about simplicity vs hierarchical sites in classic SharePoint. But I think I see a couple of snags in this model. I am interested to know whether I am wrong, have missed a solution or whether this would be something that will be addressed.

I will give a specific example. In one of my tenants I work with a local government organisation (I am the mayor at the moment).

When we started using SharePoint (just before modern) we came up with a hierarchical design that used lookups and site columns to achieve much of what we wanted. [actually we failed because we found that calculated columns using lookups exposed a bug when we tried to reference them as fields in word - they always returned the index number of lookup item rathe than the data [and we were told there be no fix] and once modern UI appeared we found that our documents sets (with no modern support) we too baffling to users (the whole interface changed). We were promised a rapid solution to that but 3 years later we are still waiting - I believe modern document sets are due next month1

 

Anyway we have tow pieces of metadata that apply to virtually everything we do - Committee and meeting date (every document belongs o one of the committees or working groups and usually to a particular meeting date).

 

My issues are that in the new model (and we love groups - they are exactly right to allow staff to spin up an quick environment for a working group when it forms) I don't there is any way to ensure that every site (e.g. group) has the same metadata (columns). What I feel I want is "tenant columns" [that apply to all sites in my tenant) or some way to tell a site to inherit columns from its hub site.

 

Secondly, I wood like the committee column to lookup against a single list library somewhere of all the committees.

In a modern hub enviornemnt I don;t think that's possible. agin i feel tat i want to be able to reference a lsit that exists in the hub site or be able to have some kid of tenant library that was avilable to all sites.

 

Any ways around this? Can I do this already and haven't noticed how? Is this an issue that others can see as problem and are there likley to be any solutions?
If I went back to hierarchical is my feeling that I am swimming against the tide correct i.e. I expect that MS will continue to support hierarchical sites but will I find that more and more new features won't work in my sites?

 

2 Replies
best response confirmed by Ian Cunningham (Brass Contributor)
Solution

I would look into content types and the content type hub - which is an entirely different thing from a hub site. They are designed to tie content to metadata columns across a tenant. I'm not a tenant admin, but I assume you can do some configuring so that when new sites are provisioned, the content types and their columns are included in the new sites. 

 

Make sure that one of the columns you is a Committee List. Theoretically, when you update this list from the central hub, the changes get pushed out across the tenant to all the sites. 

 

Now, once you've created your new site that contains the content types and columns, it will be up to your site owners to apply the content type to the list or library where it will be used. I would be EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS about editing any of the default content types to include your columns. While possible, the downstream effects can be significant and not always obvious.

Preparing for SharePoint Hub Sites involves understanding the structure and purpose of these centralized locations, which unify related sites under common navigation, branding, and search capabilities. Begin by evaluating your current SharePoint environment and determining which sites should be associated with the hub. Ensure proper governance policies are in place and review user permissions to maintain security. Utilize training resources to familiarize users with new navigation and collaboration features. For more guidance, visit https://www.shashel.eu
1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Ian Cunningham (Brass Contributor)
Solution

I would look into content types and the content type hub - which is an entirely different thing from a hub site. They are designed to tie content to metadata columns across a tenant. I'm not a tenant admin, but I assume you can do some configuring so that when new sites are provisioned, the content types and their columns are included in the new sites. 

 

Make sure that one of the columns you is a Committee List. Theoretically, when you update this list from the central hub, the changes get pushed out across the tenant to all the sites. 

 

Now, once you've created your new site that contains the content types and columns, it will be up to your site owners to apply the content type to the list or library where it will be used. I would be EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS about editing any of the default content types to include your columns. While possible, the downstream effects can be significant and not always obvious.

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