#Import Viva Engage Communities

You can either manually import existing Viva Engage communities or set up profiles to automatically discover and import them using the following instructions:

#Manually Import Viva Engage Communities

To import existing Viva Engage communities, complete the following steps in order:

#1. Export Community Information to a Template File

Complete the following steps to export a template file that contains community information:

1. In AvePoint Cloud Governance, navigate to Settings > Import Existing Microsoft 365 Objects and configure the following settings in the Export Mode.

2. Name and Description ‒ Enter a name for the export job. Enter an optional description for future reference.

3. Object Type ‒ Select Viva Engage Community.

4. Scope ‒ Select a Viva Engage community network to define the scope for the communities you want to export. Communities within the selected network that are not currently managed by AvePoint Cloud Governance will be exported to the template file.

   NOTE

   To select your network here, make sure a Viva Engage app profile has been created in AvePoint Online Services. For details, refer to Create App Profiles or Microsoft 365 Service Account Profiles.

5. Export Location ‒ Choose to export the template file to a local path or an export location. If Export to an export location is selected, select an export location from the drop-down list or click Add New Location to create a new export location.

6. Click Save and Export on the ribbon to export the template file.

#2. Configure the Template File to Provide Governance Details

To configure an exported Viva Engage community template file, complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to the location where the exported template file is saved.

2. Open the template file to view and configure the following information for each community.

   NOTE

   The template file contains column headings in the first row and these headings are required. The information you enter must be exact, including spaces and capitalization.

   • Viva Engage Community Name ‒ Display the name of the community.

   • Viva Engage CommunityEmail Address‒ Displays the email address of the community.

   • Viva Engage Network Name ‒ Displays the name of the Viva Engage network that the community belongs to.

   • Community Policy ‒ Enter the name of the community policy that will be applied to the community.

   • Expiration Date ‒ Set the expiration date for the lease of the community by one of the following methods:

     • Enter a lease expiration date. You can enter the date in multiple formats, for example, MM/DD/YYYY. Note that the date you enter may be automatically set into Excel’s default date format.

     • Enter a number as the lease period. The unit of time is in days.

   • Primary Community Contact ‒ Enter the email address of a user to assign the user to be the primary community contact.

   • Secondary Community Contact (optional) ‒ Enter the email address of a user to assign the user to be the secondary community contact.

   • Keep Viva Engage Community Site Quota ‒ Choose whether to keep the Viva Engage community site’s original quota during the import process. Select Yes or No from the drop-down list. If you select No, the Viva Engage community site quota will be updated to the quota set in the community policy.

   • AvePoint Cloud Governance App Setting ‒ Choose whether to add the AvePoint Cloud Governance App and Cloud Governance Panel to the Viva Engage community site. Select None, Only App, or App and Cloud Governance Panel from the drop-down list. The app provides Microsoft 365 end users with easier access to AvePoint Cloud Governance without having to leave the Viva Engage community site interface.

   • Metadata ‒ When you have metadata configured in AvePoint Cloud Governance, the metadata is included in the template file. You can remove the metadata that you do not want to apply to any communities.

     Note the following:

     • If you select Show this field as read-only to business users/Hide this field from business users when creating the metadata, here you must enter the default value of the metadata. If you want to set different values for the sites, go to the Cloud Governance admin center > Profiles & templates > Metadata, edit the metadata, and change to Allow business users to configure this field/Require business users to configure this field.

     • If the type of the metadata is Hyperlink, the metadata value must be the desired text and the hyperlink address separated by a semicolon.

     • If the metadata type is Lookup, AvePoint recommends that you do not change the format of the SharePoint library/list column whose value will be retrieved as the metadata value. Make sure the metadata value is in one of the following types: Yes/No, Date and Time, and User or Group.

3. Save the template file after the configuration.

#3. Import the Template File

To import the configured template file, complete the following steps:

1. In Settings > Import Existing Microsoft 365 Objects, click Import Mode on the ribbon.

2. Name and Description ‒ Enter a name for the import job. Enter an optional description for future reference.

3. Object Type ‒ Select Viva Engage Community.

4. Start Time for Object Inactivity Management ‒ Specify the start time to use for calculating the Viva Engage community inactivity time by choosing one of the following two options:

   • Object last active time ‒ The last active time of a community will be the start time for calculating the inactivity time.

   • Object imported time ‒ The time when a community is imported to Cloud Governance will be the start time for calculating the inactivity time.

5. Import Location ‒ Click Browse to locate the configured template file.

6. Click Save and Apply on the ribbon to start the import job and apply the governance details.

#4. View Import Results

After you start the import job, you are brought to the Job Status tab. When the import job status changes to Completed, it indicates that the communities included in the template file have been successfully imported to AvePoint Cloud Governance.

If the import job status changes to Completed with Exception, it indicates that one or more communities are not successfully imported. Follow the steps below to view the import results:

1. Select the import job and click Download on the ribbon.

2. Select a location to save the import result file.

3. Navigate to the location where the import result file is saved and open the file.

4. The Result column shows the import result.

   • Successful indicates the community has been successfully imported.

   • Failed indicates the community is not imported. You can refer to the details in the Comment column for troubleshooting and modify the template file.

     When you modify the template file, remove the rows of the community that have been successfully imported and only keep the failed communities. After modifying the template file, you can import the template file again to re-import those communities.

#Automated Import for Viva Engage Communities

To set up profiles to discover newly created Viva Engage communities that have been created outside of AvePoint Cloud Governance and automatically import the Viva Engage communities, complete the following steps in order:

#1. Create a Scan Profile to Discover Viva Engage Communities

To ensure AvePoint Cloud Governance can automatically import the newly created Viva Engage communities, you must create a scan profile first. Complete the following steps to create a scan profile in AvePoint Online Services:

1. Navigate to AvePoint Online Services > Auto discovery > Scan profiles.

2. Create a scan profile.

   • Select Microsoft 365 > Microsoft 365 Group / Microsoft Team / Viva Engage Community as the object type.

   • If you want to import all communities that will be created in Microsoft 365, you can choose Express mode.

   • If you want to import the communities that meet specific rules, you can choose the Advanced mode.

   • Make sure a scan profile is configured in the scan profile settings.

   For details on creating a scan profile, see Manage Scan Profiles.

#2. Create an Automatic Import Profile

To configure a Viva Engage community automatic import profile in the Cloud Governance admin center, go to Management > Profiles & templates > Automatic import profiles, click Create on the ribbon, and select Viva Engage community automatic import profile from the drop-down list. Then, configure the following settings in the Create Viva Engage community automatic import profile panel:

1. Profile name – Enter a name for the community automatic import profile.

2. Description – Enter an optional description for the community automatic import profile.

3. Automatic import method – Choose a method for confirming imported Viva Engage communities’ governance details:

   • Predefine governance details – If you do not require end users’ confirmation for community governance details and you want to predefine community governance details, you can select this option. The community import process will be fully automated.

   • Require end user confirmation – If you require end users to confirm the governance details for the newly imported communities, you can select this option. A task will be generated and assigned to end users. When end users finish confirming the community governance details, the import process completes.

     When end user confirmation is required, you can choose whether to Show guidance to confirm governance details task assignees respectively in the contact, profiles, and metadata steps of the confirm governance details tasks. If you want to show guidance, select a guidance profile from the drop-down list. You can click View profile details to view the details of the selected guidance profile. You can also click the create button to create a new profile. For more information about how to create a guidance profile, refer to Configure Guidance Profiles. To retrieve the latest guidance profiles that are available, you can click the refresh button.

4. Message to confirm governance details task assignee (This field appears only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method.) – Your message can help the task assignee to decide if they are the correct contact, as well as help them complete the confirm governance details process. To customize the message shown to confirm governance details task assignees for your desired languages, refer to the following steps:

   1. Click the editbutton of your desired languages.

   2. In the Edit message panel, enter your desired message in the text box.

   3. Click Save when you finish the configuration.

   Default language – Select a default language. Note that only the languages that are enabled as available languages can be selected as the default language.

   If a user's Cloud Governance display language is not one of the enabled options, the message will be shown in the default language.

5. Scope – Define the scope for this profile to scan for new communities. Click Add to open the Add containers panel. Then select one or more containers that were configured in AvePoint Online Services.

   Note the following:

   • Make sure Viva Engage communities have already been discovered and added into the appropriate AvePoint Online Services containers.

   • Containers that have been added to other profiles cannot be selected.

6. Automatic import schedule – Specify an interval and a start time for the automatic import process to define the automatic import schedule.

   • Interval – Enter an integer in the text box and select Days, Weeks, or Months as the unit of time to specify the automatic import interval.

   • Start time – Select a date and time as the start time for the automatic import process.

7. Assignment and duration (This field appears only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method.) – Select a stage profile from the drop-down list to define the assignment and duration of different stages that will be applied in the Viva Engage community import process. After the confirmation governance details task is approved by assignees of all stages, the communities can be imported. You can click View profile details to view the details of the selected stage profile. You can also click the create button to create a new profile. For more information about how to create a stage profile, refer to Configure Stage Profiles.

8. Contacts – Configure the primary contact and/or secondary contact for the imported communities.

   If you choose Predefine governance details as the Automatic import method, configure the following settings:

   • Primary contact – Enter the name of a user or enter $ to select the user role $Object admin or $Site property (“Property name”) as the primary contact who will be responsible for the newly imported communities.

     • When you specify the role $Object admin as the primary contact, one of the community admins will be randomly chosen as the primary contact.

     • When you specify the role $Site property (“Property name”), replace Property name with the property name in your site property bag. Note that you must enter the full role name, such as $Site property (“Manager”). Make sure the property value is a user or group.

     Choose whether to Notify the primary contact when Viva Engage communities are imported to Cloud Governance. With the notification email enabled, select an email template from the drop-down list for the notification email.

   • Secondary contact – Enter the name of a user or enter $ to select the user role $Object admin or $Site property (“Property name”) as the secondary contact who will be responsible for the newly imported communities.

     • When you specify the role $Object admin as the secondary contact, one of the community admins will be randomly chosen as the secondary contact.

     • When you specify the role $Site property (“Property name”), replace Property name with the property name in your site property bag. Note that you must enter the full role name, such as $Site property (“Manager”). Make sure the property value is a user or group.

     Choose whether to Notify the secondary contact whenViva Engage communities are imported to Cloud Governance. With the notification email enabled, select an email template from the drop-down list for the notification email.

   If you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method, configure the following settings:

   • People picker filter profile – Select a people picker filter profile from the drop-down list. The filter settings will be applied to the community secondary contact people picker fields in the confirm governance details task. After selecting a people picker filter profile, you can click View profile details to view the details of the profile.

     You can also click the create button or go to Management > Profiles & templates > People picker filter profiles to create a people picker filter profile. For more instructions, refer to Configure People Picker Filter Profiles.

   • Secondary contact – Enter the name of a user or enter $ to select the user role $Object admin or $Site property (“Property name”) as the secondary contact who will be responsible for the newly imported communities.

     • When you specify the role $Object admin as the secondary contact, one of the community admins will be randomly chosen as the secondary contact.

     • When you specify the role $Site property (“Property name”), replace Property name with the property name in your site property bag. Note that you must enter the full role name, such as $Site property (“Manager”). Make sure the property value is a user or group.

     You can choose one of the following options from the drop-down list to determine how to set the secondary contact:

     • Allow business users to configure this field – You can select the secondary community contact. Business users can choose whether to edit, remove, or assign the secondary site collection contact when they confirm governance details of the communities.

     • Require business users to configure this field – Business users are required to select the secondary community contact when they confirm governance details of the communities.

   • Choose whether to Notify the primary contact whenViva Engage communities are imported to Cloud Governance. With the notification email enabled, select an email template from the drop-down list for the notification email.

   • Choose whether to Notify the secondary contact when Viva Engage communities are imported to Cloud Governance. With the notification email enabled, select an email template from the drop-down list for the notification email.

9. Renewal profile – A community renewal profile enables a renewal process for users to periodically review and change community governance details when a community goes through the renewal process.

   • If you choose Predefine governance details as the Automatic import method, select a renewal profile for the newly imported Viva Engage communities from the drop-down list or click the create button to create a new one. For details on how to configure a community renewal profile, refer to Configure Viva Engage Community Renewal Profiles.

   • If you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method, select one or more renewal profiles for the newly imported communities. You can also click Create and create a community renewal profile in the Create Viva Engage community renewal profile panel.

     Default profile – Select a default renewal profile from the drop-down list.

     Choose one of the following options to determine how to set the community renewal profile:

     • Require business users to configure this field – A renewal profile is required to be selected in the confirm governance details task. You can select a renewal profile and business users can change the renewal profile in the confirm governance details task.

     • Show this field as read-only to business users – You select a renewal profile and business users cannot change the renewal profile in the confirm governance details task.

     • Hide this field from business users – You select a renewal profile, and it will not be shown in the confirm governance details task.

10. External sharing profile – A community external sharing profile can be applied to communities to enable external sharing settings for communities.

    • If you choose Predefine governance details as the Automatic import method, select an external sharing profile for the newly imported Viva Engage communities from the drop-down list or click the create button to create a new one. For details on how to configure a community external sharing profile, refer to Configure Viva Engage Community External Sharing Profiles.

    • If you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method, select one or more external sharing profiles for the newly imported communities. You can also click Create and create an external sharing profile in the Create Viva Engage community external sharing profile panel.

      Default profile – Select a default external sharing profile from the drop-down list.

      Choose one of the following options to determine how to set the community external sharing profile:

      • Require business users to configure this field – An external sharing profile is required to be selected in the confirm governance details task. You can select an external sharing profile and business users can change the external sharing profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Show this field as read-only to business users – You select an external sharing profile and business users cannot change the external sharing profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Hide this field from business users – You select an external sharing profile, and it will not be shown in the confirm governance details task.

11. Storage management profile – A storage management profile can be applied to communities to allocate storage as well as set the storage threshold.

    • If you choose Predefine governance details as the Automatic import method, select a storage management profile for the newly imported Viva Engage communities from the drop-down list or click the create button to create a new one. For details on how to configure a community storage management profile, refer to Configure Viva Engage Community Storage Management Profiles.

      Choose whether to Keep existing community site storage limit during the import process. If you do not select the option, the Viva Engage community site storage limit will follow the community site storage limit configured in the applied community policy.

    • If you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method, select one or more storage management profiles for the newly imported communities. You can also click Create and create a storage management profile in the Create Viva Engage community storage management profile panel.

      Default profile – Select a default storage management profile from the drop-down list.

      Choose one of the following options to determine how to set the community storage management profile:

      • Require business users to configure this field – A storage management profile is required to be selected in the confirm governance details task. You can select a storage management profile and business users can change the storage management profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Show this field as read-only to business users – You select a storage management profile and business users cannot change the storage management profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Hide this field from business users – You select a storage management profile, and it will not be shown in the confirm governance details task.

12. Contact election profile – With a contact election profile applied to the communities, an automated contact election process will start when the primary or secondary contact is.

    • If you choose Predefine governance details as the Automatic import method, select a contact election profile for the newly imported Viva Engage communities from the drop-down list or click the create button to create a new one. For details on how to configure a community contact election profile, refer to Configure Viva Engage Community Contact Election Profile.

    • If you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method, select one or more contact election profiles for the newly imported communities. You can also click Create and create a contact election profile in the Create Viva Engage community contact election profile panel.

      Default profile – Select a default contact election profile from the drop-down list.

      Choose one of the following options to determine how to set the community contact election profile:

      • Require business users to configure this field – A contact election profile is required to be selected in the confirm governance details task. You can select a contact election profile and business users can change the contact election profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Show this field as read-only to business users – You select a contact election profile and business users cannot change the contact election profile in the confirm governance details task.

      • Hide this field from business users – You select a contact election profile, and it will not be shown in the confirm governance details task.

13. Metadata – The metadata configurations vary with the selected automatic import method:

    • If Predefine governance details is selected, choose the metadata that you want to apply to the newly imported communities. Click Add to open the Add metadata panel. Then, select available metadata in your tenant and click Add to list.

      If you want to modify the metadata value, click the Edit button and edit the metadata value in the panel.

    • If Require end user confirmation is selected, choose the method to determine what metadata will be applied to the newly imported communities:

      • Manual – With this option selected, you can choose the metadata to apply to the newly imported communities. Click Add to open the Add metadata panel. Then, select available metadata in your tenant and click Add to list.

        If you want to modify the metadata value, click the Edit button and edit the metadata value in the panel.

      • Dynamic – With this option selected, select a dynamic metadata profile from the drop-down list and the metadata to be applied to the newly imported communities will be loaded based on the conditions or branches defined in the profile.

    Choose whether to Synchronize the property value from the site property bag as the metadata value when the property name is the same as the metadata name.

14. AvePoint Cloud Governance App – Choose whether to Automatically enable AvePoint Cloud Governance App. If you select this checkbox, the AvePoint Cloud Governance App will be automatically added to the Viva Engage community sites when the Viva Engage communities are successfully imported to AvePoint Cloud Governance. The app provides Microsoft 365 end users with easier access to AvePoint Cloud Governance without having to leave the Viva Engage community site interface. If you choose Automatically enable AvePoint Cloud Governance App, you can select the Automatically add the Site Information Card into theViva Engage community site checkbox. AvePoint Cloud Governance will automatically add the Site Information Card into the Viva Engage community site.

    For details, refer to Manage Site Information Card.

15. Lifecycle management actions (This section appears only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method.) – Choose whether to Allow the confirm governance details task assignee to delete a Viva Engage community during the automatic import process.

16. Start time for Viva Engage community inactivity management – Specify the start time to use for calculating the community inactivity time by choosing one of the following two options:

    • Community last activity time ‒ The last activity time of a community will be the start time for calculating the inactivity time.

    • Community governance details confirmed time ‒ The time when the community governance details are confirmed will be the start time for calculating the inactivity time.

17. Escalation (This field will appear only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method) – Choose whether to Enable an escalation for an overdue process. With the escalation enabled, choose from the following options to determine how to enable an escalation action:

    • Use the selected escalation profile – With the option selected, select an automated escalation profile for the group from the drop-down list.

      You can click View profile details to view the details of the selected escalation profile for community. You can also click the create button to create a new profile. For more information about how to create an escalation profile for community, refer to Configure Automated Escalation Profiles for Viva Engage Communities.

    • Automatically specify primary and secondary contacts for an overdue import process – With the option selected, the confirm governance details task will be automatically completed using the defined contacts.

      • Primary contact – Enter the name of a user or enter $ to select the user role $Object admin, $Manager of object admin, $Object creator, or $Manager of object creator as the primary contact.

        Choose whether to Notify the primary contact when communities are imported to Cloud Governance. If you enable the notification, select an email template for the notification email from the drop-down list.

      • Secondary contact (Optional) – Enter the name of a user or enter $ to select the user role $Object admin, $Manager of object admin, $Object creator, or $Manager of object creator as the secondary contact.

        Choose whether to Notify the secondary contact whencommunities are imported to Cloud Governance. If you enable the notification, select an email template for the notification email from the drop-down list.

18. Administrator contact – Specify a user or group (Microsoft 365 Group, distribution group, or mail-enabled security group) to be the administrator contact to monitor the automatic import process.

    • Notification email for confirm governance details task assignment (This field will appear only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method.) – Select an email template that will be used to send a notification email to the administrator contact, when the contact has a community assigned for confirming governance details.

    • Notification email template for the completed group import – Select an email template to notify the administrator contact when the community import process is completed.

    • Notification email template for completed governance details confirmation (This field will appear only when you choose Require end user confirmation as the Automatic import method.) – Select an email template to notify the administrator contact when the governance details confirmation is completed.

19. Click Save to save all your configurations.

#3. Monitor Automatic Import Results

In Job monitor in the Cloud Governance admin center, you can monitor the status and results of automatic import jobs. When a job status is shown as Completed, it indicates that the newly discovered Viva Engage communities have been successfully imported to AvePoint Cloud Governance.

If a job status is shown as Exception, it indicates that one or more Viva Engage communities are not successfully imported. Follow the steps below to view the import results:

1. Select the automatic import job and click Download on the ribbon.

2. Open the automatic import result file to see the detailed import result:

3. The Status column shows the import result:

   • Successful indicates that the community has been successfully imported.

   • Failed indicates the community is not imported. You can refer to the details in the Comment column for troubleshooting.