Create Site Collections with CSOM in SharePoint Online

With the SharePoint Conference 2014, a lot of code samples and articles where recently released. I was most impressed by the Office App Model Samples found here: http://officeams.codeplex.com/

Within that, there is some really good code of which my favorite is Creating Site Collections in SharePoint Online with CSOM. Previously this was only possible via Powershell and the SharePoint Online (SPO) Commandlets. I have modified the code provided in the samples to make it a bit less complex and you can also use it outside of an app e.g. in console applications.

You will need the following DLLs for this code to work:
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll
Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.Client.Tenant.dll

The first two assemblies can be found in the ISAPI folder of your SharePoint 2013 Server Box. The Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.Client.Tenant.dll is a part of  the SharePoint Server 2013 Client Components SDK which can downloaded from here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=35585

So without much further ado, here is the code:

	using Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.TenantAdministration;
	using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;
	using System;
	using System.Security;
	namespace CreateSiteCollections
	{
	class Program
	{
	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
	//Open the Tenant Administration Context with the Tenant Admin Url
	using (ClientContext tenantContext = new ClientContext("https://yoursite-admin.sharepoint.com/"))
	{
	//Authenticate with a Tenant Administrator
	SecureString passWord = new SecureString();
	foreach (char c in "password".ToCharArray()) passWord.AppendChar(c);
	tenantContext.Credentials = new SharePointOnlineCredentials("admin@yoursite.onmicrosoft.com", passWord);
	var tenant = new Tenant(tenantContext);
	//Properties of the New SiteCollection
	var siteCreationProperties = new SiteCreationProperties();
	//New SiteCollection Url
	siteCreationProperties.Url = "https://yoursite.sharepoint.com/sites/codesite";
	//Title of the Root Site
	siteCreationProperties.Title = "Site Created from Code";
	//Login name of Owner
	siteCreationProperties.Owner = "admin@yoursite.onmicrosoft.com";
	//Template of the Root Site. Using Team Site for now.
	siteCreationProperties.Template = "STS#0";
	//Storage Limit in MB
	siteCreationProperties.StorageMaximumLevel = 100;
	//UserCode Resource Points Allowed
	siteCreationProperties.UserCodeMaximumLevel = 50;
	//Create the SiteCollection
	SpoOperation spo = tenant.CreateSite(siteCreationProperties);
	tenantContext.Load(tenant);
	//We will need the IsComplete property to check if the provisioning of the Site Collection is complete.
	tenantContext.Load(spo, i => i.IsComplete);
	tenantContext.ExecuteQuery();
	//Check if provisioning of the SiteCollection is complete.
	while (!spo.IsComplete)
	{
	//Wait for 30 seconds and then try again
	System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(30000);
	spo.RefreshLoad();
	tenantContext.ExecuteQuery();
	}
	Console.WriteLine("SiteCollection Created.");
	}
	}
	}
	}

view raw createsitecollection.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub