Create a new site collection c#

Question

I'm trying to create a new site collection in Sharepoint Online tenant with Visual Studio.

1) I found http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ms448720(v=office.14).aspx which says that the solution is available for Sharepoint Online

    SPWeb mySite = SPContext.Current.Web;
    SPWebCollection subSites = mySite.Webs;

However SPWeb are not recognized and "using Microsoft.SharePoint.SPContext" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/microsoft.sharepoint.spcontext(v=office.14).aspx) is not recognized.

2) I can create subsites for a given site collection using:

WebCreationInformation creation = new WebCreationInformation();
creation.Url = "Custom1";
creation.Title = "My Custom Site";
creation.WebTemplate = "CustomBlogTemplate";
context.Web.Webs.Add(creation);
context.ExecuteQuery();

but I don't see how I could extrapolate from that.

3) I tried using http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ms462161(v=office.14).aspx and .Add() to the siteCollections

SPWebApplication webApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication;
SPSiteCollection siteCollections = webApplication.Sites;

SPWebApplication and SpSiteCollection are not recognized and I hit a wall so many times that I have to ask is it really available for Sharepoint Online?
I have installed Sharepoint SDK and can list all the added references if needed.

Thank you in advance for help!

Answer 1

You will need the SharePoint Client Components SDK for this:

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("[email protected]", 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";     
                //Email of Owner
                siteCreationProperties.Owner = "[email protected]";                
                //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."); 
            }            
        }
    }
}

Code came from here.

Answer 2

You can create site collections in SharePoint Online with C# using the client side object model. You will need to install the SharePoint client SDK first which includes the CSOM libraries and the all important Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.Client.Tenant.dll.

There is a full walkthrough on how to get the client SDK and use the CSOM libraries with C# to create a new site collection in SharePoint Online here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/24050.perform-basic-admin-operations-using-csom-in-sharepoint-online.aspx