Monday 23 May 2016

How the Recycle bin works


Problem:  A common misunderstanding with technical and business folks is the details of how the recycle bin works.  I missed some of the finer points so I thought I'd record my note.

First stage recycle Bin - User deletes a document and the document goes to the user's recycle bin/1st stage recycle bin.  The 1st stage recycle bin retention period is 30 days by default.  Items in the first stage recycle bin are moved to the second stage recycle bin after the retention period is over or the user chooses to delete the item from their 1st stage recycle bin.

Second stage recycle bin or Site Collection recycle bin - where documents go after they are removed from the 1st stage recycle bin.  SCA can restore or permanently delete the documents from the 2nd stage recycle bin.

Recycle bin explained for Office 365 - as of May 2016
Note:  The views change between the SharePoint versions but the functionality remains the same.
Note:  An item that I have not understood for multiple years is that the retention period for recycle bins applies to both the 1st and 2nd stage recycle bin.  If the recycle bin retain content for 30 days and the user deletes a document, then 22 days later they delete the document from their own 1st stage recycle bin.  The document only stays in the 2nd stage/site collection recycle bin for 8 days.  From Nik Patel's site "In other words, total time spent by the item in both recycle bins".
Note:  If you do not have access to the farm settings, you can see how long the retention period for the recycle bin is by deleting a document/item from the 2nd stage recycle bin, you get a confirmation box that let's you know the setting.   This approach allows me to see that Office365 SharePoint sites hold recycle bin items for 93 days.
In the Site Collection Admin (2nd Stage) recycle bin delete an item to see how long the retention period is set to.
To Access the Recycle bins: Site Collection administrators page > Site Settings > Site Collection Admin > Site Collection

More Info:
Basics of Recycle bins from Microsoft
Nik Patel has a good article on how the recycle bin works

Wednesday 18 May 2016

Microsoft Graph Simplified

Overview: Microsoft Graph provides an API to allow search to bring back data stored in Office 365 (email/Exchange Online, SharePoint, and others).  The centralized search provides the data source to query and adds a ranking engine on top to allow for easy access to data.

Overview of Office Graph
A more formal description: "The Office Graph is a collection of content and activity and links the relationships between people and this active content.  Any activity in the entire Office suite online is pushed into Office Graph such as e-mail including attachments, conversations, to documents in SharePoint and OneDrive.  The Office Graph maps the relationships among people and information, and acts as the foundation for Office experiences that are more relevant and personalized to each individual."

The Microsoft Graph is a single queryable API endpoint for accessing data, intelligence and insights coming from the Microsoft Cloud. 

More Info:
A great article on Graph is here.  NB!

Screenshot from my iPhone 6 using the Microsoft's Delve iOS app with my own Office 365 E3 tenant.


Update Mar 2023 - Video (2 min) where MS Graph helped my find a value I needed for a DevOps pieline