What we can do to have our root site collection as a communication modern site

[john john]

I want to start a new project for one of our customers, as the first draft we want to create a site collection with these components:-

1. General document library to upload company general documents & guidelines. group of users can upload + all can view.
2. News area to publish news. also group of users can upload + all can view
3. we will be tagging certain news pages with terms , and show them on separate news web parts.

now i want the site collection to be on the root, and we already have the root site collection created for us which is based on the classic team site. so i have these questions:-

1. can we have our root site collection as a modern communication site collection instead of classic team site?
2. if the answer if No. then which appraoch i should follow. 1) to keep the root as-is and create a new communication site collection under "/sites/" ? 2) OR to work on the root and wait till we get the ability to convert it into a modern site collection (for example to migrate the content to a temp site collection >> remove the root >> create a modern communication on the root >> migrate the data from temp to the new root communication site collection)?

Thanks

[#2]

Hello @john john 

I would be inclined to use the root site collection with a redirect page to a communication site in /sites. When the Set "Communication Site" as Root site collection feature is complete I would convert the root site collection to a communication site and then migrate the communication site content (from /sites) to the root.

Make sense?

I hope this helps.

Norm 

[#3]

At Ignite Microsoft announced they will provide a cmdlet to convert the root SPO site of a SPO tenant into a communication site
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-SharePoint-Blog/Build-your-modern-intranet-with-Sha...

This cmdlet is still not there AFAIK, but there are workarounds to get what you need:
- Via SPFx Extension + creating a modern page as home page for your root site collection: http://sharepoint.handsontek.net/2019/02/05/convert-classic-root-sites-to-modern-sharepoint/
- via redirectio: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint-Developer/Convert-Classic-root-site-to-Communicati...

[#4]

---

@Norman Young wrote:

Hello @john john 

I would be inclined to use the root site collection with a redirect page to a communication site in /sites. When the Set "Communication Site" as Root site collection feature is complete I would convert the root site collection to a communication site and then migrate the communication site content (from /sites) to the root.

Make sense?

I hope this helps.

Norm 

---

@Norman Youngthanks a lot for your reply.

So are you trying to say the following:-

1. Keep the root classic team site collection as-is. and then create a communication site under "https://ourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/IntranetABC/" to act as a temp root site? .

2. once the "Set "Communication Site as Root site collection" feature become available.. i can migrate the content from the "https://ourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/IntranetABC/" to the root? not sure when we should expect this feature to be available?

Thanks

[#5]

---

@Juan Carlos González Martín wrote:
At Ignite Microsoft announced they will provide a cmdlet to convert the root SPO site of a SPO tenant into a communication site
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-SharePoint-Blog/Build-your-modern-intranet-with-Sha...

This cmdlet is still not there AFAIK, but there are workarounds to get what you need:
- Via SPFx Extension + creating a modern page as home page for your root site collection: http://sharepoint.handsontek.net/2019/02/05/convert-classic-root-sites-to-modern-sharepoint/
- via redirectio: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint-Developer/Convert-Classic-root-site-to-Communicati...

---

@Juan Carlos González Martín  thanks for the reply. i actully read these links before , but i have these comments:-

for this link https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-SharePoint-Blog/Build-your-modern-intranet-with-Sha... the replies are saying that this approach is not supported

for this link http://sharepoint.handsontek.net/2019/02/05/convert-classic-root-sites-to-modern-sharepoint/ it is saying to add modern pages + "Create a full width landing page" app inside our classic team site. so at the end my site is a classic team site with modern experience. but i want my root site to be an actual communication site ..

can you advice on my above 2 points?

Thanks

[#6]

Hi @john john 

Yes that is what I was getting at. The value to the customer is the root URL and the modern communication site experience. The value to you is developing the communication site once using the modern experience. Migrating the communication site content can happen down the road when Set "Communication Site" as Root site collection is rolled out.

Norm

[#7]

@Mark Kashmannone of your recent RoadMap Pitstop posts have mentioned this long overdue feature. Can you PLEASE provide us a status update. The silence on this much needed feature is frustrating.

[#8]

There is a new method to achieve this supported by Microsoft, I've wrote a blog post explaining how to do it.

https://sharepoint.handsontek.net/2019/08/23/change-the-root-site-collection-of-your-tenant-to-moder...

All you have to do is to execute the site swap cmdlet available on the latest version of the SharePoint Online Management Shell.