The case of Get-SPOSite
If you use both the PnP cmdlets and the Microsoft Office 365 Management cmdlets, you might have noticed that both have an Get-SPOSite cmdlet. And those conflict. There are a few ways around that problem, but they are cumbersome. To resolve this, basically the only way is either them (Microsoft) or us (PnP) rename the Get-SPOSite cmdlet. So we sat down with the PnP Core team, looked at a few scenarios, and we came up with what I describe a bit below in this post.
First a bit more about the problem: The O365 Management Shell Get-SPOSite cmdlet returns a list of all the sites in the tenant, whereas the PnP Get-SPOSite cmdlet returns a CSOM Site object. Very different functionality. So, we have 2 cmdlets, same name, very different functionality. Confusing. What you might not be aware of is that whatever module is loaded first (that usually happens when you execute either Connect-SPOService or Connect-SPOnline) will make the version of Get-SPOSite ‘win’. So if you execute Connect-SPOService before Connect-SPOnline then you will default to the Get-SPOSite cmdlet from the Office 365 Management Shell. And the other way around with PnP; execute Connect-SPOnline before Connect-SPOService and the Get-SPOSite cmdlet will come from that PnP Module. Not very intuitive.
Now, you can force PowerShell to use a specific version of the Get-SPOSite cmdlet in 2 ways:
You can load the module with a -Prefix attribute, alike
Import-Module SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline -Prefix My
From that moment on you have to use all the PnP cmdlets with the My prefix, alike “Get-MySPOSite”, or you specify the full module name in front of the cmdlet. This means:
SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline\Get-SPOSite
to use the PnP version and
Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell\Get-SPOSite
to use the Microsoft version.
Although it works, it is also cumbersome. So we came up with a big change.
A big change
We decided to rename the cmdlets from -SPO to -PnP. So this means for instance that Get-SPOList will now be called Get-PnPList and Get-SPOProvisioningTemplate will be called Get-PnPProvisioningTemplate . To make the process as smooth as possible, we do create aliases when you install the modules for all cmdlets so that the -SPO versions will still work. We plan to deprecate (remove) the aliases sometime next year and we will announce that ahead of time.
This means that starting from the November 2016 release, we urge you to change your scripts to use the cmdlets with the PnP prefix instead of the aliases with the SPO prefix.
The poor Get-SPOSite cmdlet There is one special case: the Get-SPOSite cmdlet. Starting with the November 2016 release, when you use the Get-SPOSite cmdlet from our module you will see a warning, urging you to start using Get-PnPSite. Both will still work, but the Get-SPOSite cmdlet will be deprecated (removed) in the January 2017 release.
For your reference, a list of the renamed cmdlets (all 177 of them)
Get-PnPAppInstance
Uninstall-PnPAppInstance
Import-PnPAppPackage
Set-PnPAppSideLoading
Get-PnPAuditing
Set-PnPAuditing
Get-PnPAuthenticationRealm
Get-PnPAzureADManifestKeyCredentials
Remove-PnPContentType
Get-PnPContentType
Add-PnPContentType
Remove-PnPContentTypeFromDocumentSet
Remove-PnPContentTypeFromList
Add-PnPContentTypeToDocumentSet
Add-PnPContentTypeToList
Get-PnPContext
Set-PnPContext
Remove-PnPCustomAction
Get-PnPCustomAction
Add-PnPCustomAction
Set-PnPDefaultColumnValues
Set-PnPDefaultContentTypeToList
Add-PnPDocumentSet
Set-PnPDocumentSetField
Get-PnPDocumentSetTemplate
Remove-PnPEventReceiver
Add-PnPEventReceiver
Get-PnPEventReceiver
New-PnPExtensbilityHandlerObject
Enable-PnPFeature
Get-PnPFeature
Disable-PnPFeature
Get-PnPField
Remove-PnPField
Add-PnPField
Remove-PnPFieldFromContentType
Add-PnPFieldFromXml
Add-PnPFieldToContentType
Get-PnPFile
Find-PnPFile
Add-PnPFile
Remove-PnPFile
Set-PnPFileCheckedIn
Set-PnPFileCheckedOut
Remove-PnPFileFromProvisioningTemplate
Add-PnPFileToProvisioningTemplate
Add-PnPFolder
Ensure-PnPFolder
Get-PnPFolder
Remove-PnPFolder
Get-PnPFolderItem
Convert-PnPFolderToProvisioningTemplate
Set-PnPGroup
Get-PnPGroup
Remove-PnPGroup
New-PnPGroup
Get-PnPGroupPermissions
Set-PnPGroupPermissions
Get-PnPHealthScore
Get-PnPHomePage
Set-PnPHomePage
Add-PnPHtmlPublishingPageLayout
Set-PnPIndexedProperties
Add-PnPIndexedProperty
Remove-PnPIndexedProperty
Get-PnPIndexedPropertyKeys
Add-PnPJavaScriptBlock
Remove-PnPJavaScriptLink
Get-PnPJavaScriptLink
Add-PnPJavaScriptLink
Get-PnPList
Set-PnPList
Remove-PnPList
New-PnPList
Set-PnPListItem
Remove-PnPListItem
Get-PnPListItem
Add-PnPListItem
Set-PnPListPermission
Send-PnPMail
Set-PnPMasterPage
Add-PnPMasterPage
Get-PnPMasterPage
Connect-PnPMicrosoftGraph
Set-PnPMinimalDownloadStrategy
Remove-PnPNavigationNode
Add-PnPNavigationNode
Connect-PnPOnline
Disconnect-PnPOnline
New-PnPPersonalSite
Get-PnPProperty
Get-PnPPropertyBag
Remove-PnPPropertyBagValue
Set-PnPPropertyBagValue
Load-PnPProvisioningTemplate
New-PnPProvisioningTemplate
Convert-PnPProvisioningTemplate
Get-PnPProvisioningTemplate
Save-PnPProvisioningTemplate
Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate
New-PnPProvisioningTemplateFromFolder
Get-PnPProvisioningTemplateFromGallery
Set-PnPProvisioningTemplateMetadata
Add-PnPPublishingPage
Add-PnPPublishingPageLayout
Execute-PnPQuery
Request-PnPReIndexList
Request-PnPReIndexWeb
Get-PnPRequestAccessEmails
Set-PnPRequestAccessEmails
Enable-PnPResponsiveUI
Disable-PnPResponsiveUI
Set-PnPSearchConfiguration
Get-PnPSearchConfiguration
Get-PnPSite
Set-PnPSitePolicy
Get-PnPSitePolicy
Get-PnPSiteSearchQueryResults
Uninstall-PnPSolution
Install-PnPSolution
Get-PnPStoredCredential
Get-PnPSubWebs
Import-PnPTaxonomy
Export-PnPTaxonomy
Add-PnPTaxonomyField
Set-PnPTaxonomyFieldValue
Get-PnPTaxonomyItem
Remove-PnPTaxonomyItem
Get-PnPTaxonomySession
New-PnPTenantSite
Set-PnPTenantSite
Get-PnPTenantSite
Remove-PnPTenantSite
New-PnPTermGroup
Get-PnPTermGroup
Remove-PnPTermGroup
Import-PnPTermGroupFromXml
Export-PnPTermGroupToXml
Import-PnPTermSet
Get-PnPTheme
Set-PnPTheme
Get-PnPTimeZoneId
Set-PnPTraceLog
New-PnPUser
Remove-PnPUserFromGroup
Set-PnPUserProfileProperty
Get-PnPUserProfileProperty
Add-PnPUserToGroup
Get-PnPView
Remove-PnPView
Add-PnPView
Set-PnPWeb
Remove-PnPWeb
Get-PnPWeb
New-PnPWeb
Invoke-PnPWebAction
Remove-PnPWebPart
Get-PnPWebPart
Get-PnPWebPartProperty
Set-PnPWebPartProperty
Add-PnPWebPartToWebPartPage
Add-PnPWebPartToWikiPage
Get-PnPWebPartXml
Get-PnPWebTemplates
Add-PnPWikiPage
Remove-PnPWikiPage
Set-PnPWikiPageContent
Get-PnPWikiPageContent
Get-PnPWorkflowDefinition
Remove-PnPWorkflowDefinition
Add-PnPWorkflowDefinition
Stop-PnPWorkflowInstance
Resume-PnPWorkflowInstance
Remove-PnPWorkflowSubscription
Add-PnPWorkflowSubscription
Get-PnPWorkflowSubscription
Get-SPOSite