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Sites

Create, read, update, and delete SharePoint sites (site collections).

Prerequisites

Requirement Description Reference
SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator role Required to create, update, and delete sites. SharePoint admin roles

Classic vs modern sites

SharePoint has two site models:

Type Template Group-connected Use case
Modern Team site GROUP#0 Yes (M365 group) Team collaboration, document sharing
Modern Communication site SITEPAGEPUBLISHING#0 No Intranet, news, broad announcements
Classic site Various (STS#0, etc.) No Legacy workflows, on-prem migration

Modern sites are the default for new provisioning. Classic sites are still supported but Microsoft recommends modern for new work.

Examples

Create

Operation File Required role
Create a modern Team site create_team_site.py SharePoint Admin
Create a modern Communication site create_comm_site.py SharePoint Admin
Create a classic site create_classic_site.py SharePoint Admin

Read, update, manage

Operation File Required role
Get site properties get_site_props.py Read access
Set site properties update_site.py Site Owner
List site admins get_site_admins.py SharePoint Admin
Get personal site (OneDrive) get_my_site.py User context
Delete a site delete_site.py SharePoint Admin
Full lifecycle (create → update → delete) site_lifecycle.py SharePoint Admin + Sites.FullControl.All

Note: the SDK supports listing site collection administrators but not the add/remove write operations — grant owner access via the Members group or the SharePoint admin center.

Site lifecycle & compliance

Operation File Required role
Find inactive/obsolete sites find_inactive_sites.py SharePoint Admin + Sites.Read.All
Assign a sensitivity label to a site assign_sensitivity_label.py SharePoint Admin + Purview read
Check retention policy coverage check_retention_policy.py SharePoint Admin + RecordsManagement.Read.All

Quick start

from office365.sharepoint.client_context import ClientContext

ctx = ClientContext("https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/team").with_client_certificate(
    "contoso.onmicrosoft.com", client_id="client_id", thumbprint="thumbprint", cert_path="./cert.pem"
)

# Get site properties
web = ctx.web.get().execute_query()
print(f"{web.title}  {web.url}  ({web.web_template})")

API reference