SharePoint Hub Site Overview - In 2 steps how to create hub site in SharePoint Online

SharePoint Hub Site Overview: The Ultimate Guide to Create and Manage (2 Ways)

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In the “SharePoint Hub Site Overview (create a hub site in SharePoint Online)” article, we will learn about how to create a hub site in SharePoint Online step by step.

Here we will discuss and learn about hub sites in SharePoint Online modern sites, such as what a hub site is in SharePoint Online, why a hub site is needed in SharePoint Online, how to create a hub site in SharePoint Online, how to add a team site or communication site to a hub site, and a few tips for creating a hub site in SharePoint Online (Office 365).

Key highlights: SharePoint Hub Site Overview

  • Introduction
  • What is the Hub site in SharePoint online?
  • Why Hub Site in SharePoint online?
  • How to create a Hub site in SharePoint online?
  • How to add a Team site or communication site in Hub Site?
  • Some key features or use cases of Hub sites in SharePoint Online.
  • How to create a new hub site using PowerShell?
  • Register a site as a hub site by using the Register-SPOHubSite cmdlet
  • Set permissions for specific users: SPOHubSiteRights
  • Set permissions for specific users: Grant-PnPHubSiteRights
  • Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation: PnP Hub site
  • Associate multiple sites to a hub site: Import-Csv to Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation
  • Summarize – what we had here.
  • Latest update on Hub Site from Microsoft.
  • References

Introduction: SharePoint Hub Site Overview

These days, hub sites, modern sites, and megamenus are buzzwords in the modern SharePoint world, and hub sites are the heart of all of them—or, rather, I would say a hub site is a subset of SharePoint site administration or a mini modern admin center with respect to site administration. So in this article, I’ll focus on what a hub site is, the use cases for hub sites, how they can be configured, etc.

What is a Hub Site in SharePoint online?

In simple words, we can say that the hub site is a collection of sites connected to a master site from which all connected sites can be navigated and managed. It has the following key attributes:

  • Discover related content such as news and other site activities.
  • Apply common navigation, branding, and site structure across associated sites.
  • Search across all associated sites.

Assume you are a project manager in charge of multiple projects in SharePoint, .NET, Java, and so on. And for these different types of projects, you have different site collections. Now, we want to maintain the same look and feel for all the project sites, navigate from one project site to another seamlessly, and share the common news across all departments and project sites. Here, Hub Site is the way to go. We need to connect these site collections to a hub site. In the coming section, we’ll see how a site can be connected to a hub site.

Hub Site architecture in SharePoint online (Hub Site in SharePoint online)

Below is the hub site architecture: 

SharePoint hub site examples - Hub site architecture in SharePoint Online
Hub site architecture in SharePoint Online
SharePoint Hub Site Overview: The Ultimate Guide to Create and Manage (2 Ways) 15
Image Source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/planning-hub-sites

Benefits of using hub sites in SharePoint Online: Why Hub Site in SharePoint Online?

If we want to achieve the same result with our above project sites scenario, we need to have a root site called Projects and under this, various subsites (SharePoint,.NET, Java, etc.), which will form the nested architecture, resulting in a poor user adoption experience when it comes to navigation.

One other really big challenge—let’s say we have 10 subsites, and out of those 10, in one subsite, we need to activate a feature (let’s consider the publishing feature), which has a dependency on the site collection level feature, so first we need to activate the site collection level feature, even though it is irrelevant for the other 9 subsites.

As a result, for a site administrator, it is very difficult to manage. So, Microsoft has recommended using flat architecture, i.e., no subsites. We should adapt to create a new site collection for each requirement. Whether we like it or not, we are bound to adopt this fashion. Let’s say we have created an Office 365 group, and immediately if we come to the active sites pages in the modern admin center, we can see one modern new site has been created automatically with the Office 365 group name.

Note:

  • Having said this, it does not mean that we cannot create a subsite—still, we can, but Microsoft does not recommend it.

How to create a Hub Site in SharePoint online?

Any active site can be designated as a hub site through the modern SharePoint Office 365 admin center or PnP command. Go to the modern SharePoint admin page and, under the site, click on Active Sites.

hub site in SharePoint Online - Active sites report in SharePoint Online Admin Center
Active sites report in SharePoint Online Admin Center

Now, we can see all the available active sites out here. We are now planning to make “TestSite001” a hub site. To do this, let’s follow the below steps:

  • Select the “TestSite001” radio button.
  • Click on the “Hub” drop-down list.
  • Click on “Register as a Hub Site.”
  • Give the display name of the hub site and owner.
  • Then press the Save button. 

This will take some time to complete all the required settings.

How to create hub site in SharePoint online - Register hub site SharePoint online
How to create a hub site in SharePoint online (Register hub site SharePoint online)

SharePoint Online configures hub site:

SharePoint hub site configuration - how to create hub site in SharePoint online
SharePoint hub site configuration

Now, a site has been configured as a “Hub Site”. 

Notes:

  • We can have multiple hub sites in a tenant (up to 2000 sites). 

How to add a Team site or communication site to the Hub Site?

Adding a site to a hub site is like adding a brother and sister to an elder brother (i.e., a hub site). Now, we’ll see how a new or existing site can be connected to a hub site. This is the homepage of the newly created hub site.

Associate a SharePoint site with a hub site
Associate a SharePoint site with a hub site

Click on the “+Create site” button, then give the site a name; for example, “TestTeamSite_Brother” (we can give any name). Then, click the “Save” button.

Get a team site connected to Office 365 Groups
Get a team site connected to Office 365 Groups

Now, we can see the wonder—come to the SharePoint modern admin homepage and go to the Active Sites screen. We can see the newly created team site listed out here, which is connected to the “hub site.”

Create hub site in SharePoint online
Create a hub site in SharePoint online

Another way is to connect any existing site to a hub site. Let’s do that—select the particular existing site radio button and, from the Hub menu, click on the “Associate with a Hub” link.

Associate site collection to a hub site
Associate site collection to a hub site

Notes:

  • There is no limit on the number of sites that can be associated with a hub site. When users associate their sites with a hub, it doesn’t impact the permissions of either the hub site or the associated sites.

Select the hub site from the drop-down list and click on the Save button. This will take some time to complete all the required configurations.

Hub association SharePoint - hub site in SharePoint Online
Hub association in SharePoint Online

Some key features or use cases of Hub Site in SharePoint Online:

  • Shared navigation
  • Search across the hub
  • News roll-up
  • Associated sites
  • Highlighted content
  • Events

Create hub site using PnP PowerShell (How to create a hub site in SharePoint online)

Connect-PnPOnline -SPOManagementShell
New-PnPSite -Type TeamSite 
 -title "Contoso marketing division" 
 -alias "marketing" 
 -Description "Main site for collaboration for marketing teams at Contoso"

Register a site as a hub site by using the Register-SPOHubSite cmdlet: Create hub site using PnP PowerShell

Register-SPOHubSite -Site https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/marketing

Set permissions for specific users: SPOHubSiteRights – Create hub site using PnP PowerShell

Grant-SPOHubSiteRights -Identity https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/marketing -Principals "nestorw@contoso" -Rights Join

Set permissions for specific users: Grant-PnPHubSiteRights (Create hub site using PnP PowerShell)

Grant-PnPHubSiteRights -Identity https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/hubsite -Principals "myuser@mydomain.com","myotheruser@mydomain.com" -Rights Join

Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation: PnP Hub site (Create hub site using PnP PowerShell)

$myHubsite = "https://globalsharepoint2019.sharepoint.com/sites/TestHubSite"
$siteUrl = "https://globalsharepoint2019.sharepoint.com/sites/TestTeamSite"

Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation -Site $SiteUrl  -HubSite $myHubsite

Create hub site using PnP PowerShell – Associate multiple sites to a hub site: Import-Csv to Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation

Using the below PnP PowerShell we can add or register multiple sites to a hub site by importing the site’s CSV file.

$mySitesCSV = Import-Csv -Path "C:\temp\MySitesToAssociate.csv"
$myHubsite = "https://"<tenantname>".sharepoint.com/sites/TestHubSite"

foreach ($oneSite in $mySitesCSV)
 {
    Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation -Site $oneSite.SiteUrl -HubSite $myHubsite
}

Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/features/hub-site/create-hub-site-with-powershell

Summary: What we had here (SharePoint Hub Site Overview: How to Create a Hub Site in SharePoint Online)

As a result, we now understand what a “hub site” is, how to configure or create one, and how to use one, as summarized below: 

  • Understanding the hub sites in SharePoint online
  • SharePoint hub site examples
  • SharePoint hub sites limitations
  • SharePoint hub site navigation
  • SharePoint hub sites vs subsites
  • How to create a hub site
  • create a hub site in SharePoint online
  • create a SharePoint hub site
  • what is a SharePoint hub site
  • SharePoint hub sites new in Office 365
  • How to Create Hub Sites in SharePoint Online – SharePoint Online
  • Overview Of Hub Sites In SharePoint Online
  • How to create a new hub site using PowerShell?
  • Register a site as a hub site by using the Register-SPOHubSite cmdlet
  • Set permissions for specific users: SPOHubSiteRights
  • Set permissions for specific users: Grant-PnPHubSiteRights
  • Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation: PnP Hub site
  • Associate multiple sites to a hub site: Import-Csv to Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation

Latest update on Hub Site from Microsoft

I’ll keep it updated in this section – if any changes come from Microsoft on Hub Site.

See Also: Free online SharePoint training Tutorials

You may also like the below SharePoint Online training tutorials:

References: How to create hub site in SharePoint online

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