Microsoft rolled out Modern UI for SharePoint sites in Office 365 and have made significant changes how SharePoint developers and users interact with the sites. We can simply call these sites as “Modern SharePoint sites”.
Recently, Microsoft has released hub sites for the Modern sites, which helps to roll up the content from multiple modern sites in SharePoint. In this article, we will have a close look at the Hub sites in Modern UI.
What is Modern UI
Modern UI is developed using HTML and JavaScript. As a result, the page loads faster without making a round trip to the server. It offers responsive UI. Microsoft is slowly pushing the Modern UI to the classic sites.
As an example, the classic team site looks like below
![SharePoint]()
As we move to site contents (Settings > Site contents), we observe an entirely new look and feel – The Modern UI.
![SharePoint]()
SharePoint does offer an option to switch back to classic SharePoint experience. Observe the “Return to classic SharePoint” link in the left bottom corner of the page.
The classic SharePoint sites can be created from SharePoint Online admin center. However, the Modern SharePoint site can be created from new SharePoint app launcher https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/sharepoint.aspx
The Modern sites do not appear under the SharePoint Online admin center. The new SharePoint admin center is in the preview to resolve this.
SharePoint Hub Site overview
Based on business requirements we keep on creating the Modern sites. These Modern sites may be related or serve an individual purpose. The Modern sites are created as an individual site collection usually with no subsites. As a result, the Modern sites looks scattered. We have to visit the individual Modern site to see the content. This pain area has been solved by SharePoint Hub site.
The hub sites bring together related sites to roll up the activities and news. It simplifies search and provides shared navigation and look-and-feel. The hub site helps you to connect to your ever-changing sites with intelligent content management.
As we keep creating sites, we have multiple team sites and communication sites. We can associate multiple team and communication sites together under one hub site. Hub site will provide common navigation structure, look and feel, and search within associated sites. Hub site will also help to aggregate activities and news from associated sites and display them as a roll up on hub site’s home page.
We can create multiple hub sites and associate team, collaboration sites to it. Hub sites will provide new capabilities:
- Cross-site navigation
Provides consistent navigation across the associated team, collaboration sites
- Scoped search
Helps to find content within the associated team, collaboration sites
- Consistent look and feel
Provides consistent theme on the associated team, collaboration sites
- Content rollup
Aggregates news and activities from the associated team, collaboration sites
How to create Hub Site
SharePoint administrator can create a hub site. Any modern team or communication site can be converted to the hub site.
SharePoint Online Management Shell
- Connect-SPOnline https:
- Register-SPOHubSite https:
SharePoint PnP PowerShell
- Connect-PnPOnline -url https:
- Register-PnPHubSite -Site https:
Associate Modern Team or Communication site to the hub
- Open Modern Team or Communication site
- Click Settings > Site Information
- In the Edit site information dialog, select the created hub site from the drop-down to associate this site with the hub site.
- Click Save.
Few points to consider for hub site,
- Associated sites do not inherit the permissions of the hub site.
- The associated site can be disassociated from the hub by selecting “None” in the Hub site association drop down or assigning any other hub site.
- At a given time any site will be associated with a single hub site.
- SharePoint mobile app can display responsive hub site.
Summary
Team sites, communication sites are the building blocks of SharePoint portal. Hub sites are a new addition to these building blocks. Hub sites will help you to modernize and extend the SharePoint portal to support more collaboration and communication.