A new REST endpoint will be coming to SharePoint Online soon. This end point will allow you to fire a “setup script” that will execute all kinds of actions upon a new or existing site. You can get a feel for how it works from this slide:
As you can see, it is targeted at site creation and templating, but it can happen at any time. The site script itself will be json based and allow you to define “actions”. These actions have a “verb” and then all the properties that support that verb:
Actions that will be supported when its released include the following (notice the “more to come” comment:
One of the more exciting features of the site script is the ability to call “Flows” or even send messages to queues which could then fire Azure Functions!
This really starts to make things interesting in that your imagination is now the limit as to what you can do. 3rd party vendors reactions will be on both sides of the fence with this (“ah crap, now they can do it”, or, “ohh, what can we do with that?”).
I think is it one of the biggest game changers to come along in SharePoint Online and SharePoint land in a long time. Kudos to Sean Squires (@iamseansquires)
Chris
Architecting Connected Systems Blog