Preps for v4

[waldekmastykarz]

Since we're roughly 6 months away from a v4 (should we choose to do a major release) it would be good to take a moment and think of any breaking changes that we'd want to introduce to clean things up and improve the UX.

A few things off the top of my mind:

• Remove duplicate ID properties from spo listitem commands: Enhancement: Remove duplicate ID properties in JSON output for spo listitem commands #2024
• Now that we support passing contents from files using @, we should remove options that are explicitly meant for using file paths (deprecation issue is here Deprecate command options that point specifically to file paths #2055, we're yet to create one for removal)

Also a few questions:

• Shall we consolidate spo site and spo site classic commands? Does the separation still makes sense or would having one command be more intuitive?
• Shall we change default output to json? Today, when writing scripts using CLI, you need to explicitly change output of each command to JSON. We could simplify this by allowing users to configure the default output for themselves, but I wonder if we shouldn't take it a step further and change the default output to JSON, similarly to what az cli does.

Is there anything else that we should consider and prioritize to have enough time to pick it up and give our users enough advance notice of the coming changes?

[garrytrinder]

• Shall we consolidate spo site and spo site classic commands? Does the separation still makes sense or would having one command be more intuitive?

Interesting one, as the Classic Site Collections page has now been removed from the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre and even Classic sites are being auto updated to modern experience in some cases the separation is becoming much smaller.

I think it would makes sense to consolidate, however we should ensure that we have commands available for interacting with OneDrive sites which currently use the spo site classic commands after consolidating.

• Shall we change default output to json? Today, when writing scripts using CLI, you need to explicitly change output of each command to JSON. We could simplify this by allowing users to configure the default output for themselves, but I wonder if we shouldn't take it a step further and change the default output to JSON, similarly to what az cli does.

I pretty much always use the JSON output, so I would welcome this change 😁

[waldekmastykarz]

I think it would makes sense to consolidate, however we should ensure that we have commands available for interacting with OneDrive sites which currently use the spo site classic commands after consolidating.

With consolidating, I meant making it opaque to the user. Assuming they think in terms of sites rather than modern and classic sites, we should consider merging the functionality but definitely retaining everything that we have to offer for managing sites.

[arjunumenon]

My opinion for one the questions.

Shall we change default output to json?

Personally, even I use default as JSON for the script execution. Somehow it has gone to the muscle memory 😁.

Can we get an overall telemetry information for the default output so far? If YES -

This is my thought process - may appear bizarre. Please feel free to rebut. 💪
When the overall telemetry for JSON output is very closer to the text or more than text output, then most of the end users needs JSON as the default output. Thinking the scenarios, first time they execute the script, then they realise they need JSON and execute it again. Hence if total number of telemetry gives the JSON output as closer to text, then we can go ahead with JSON. Otherwise if the difference between text and JSON is pretty large number where text is far ahead, then most of the users is ok with text output. Then we can stick on with text.

[waldekmastykarz]

JSON output will always show higher in the telemetry because it's used in automation scenarios which lead to more usage so I don't think it would be a fair comparison. One way to look at it, would be to exclude the high-volume commands and compare the output modes then to see if we could draw objective picture of the usage.

[arjunumenon]

That is good point which I had not considered. So yeah. My approach does not workout. Thanks for that. Then personally my heart says to go with the JSON. ❤

[waldekmastykarz]

Anything else that we should consider?