javascript sharepoint sharepoint-2013 sharepoint-apps

SharePoint 2013 - create site collection programmatically

With the introduction of Apps, and solutions going away. What is the best way to create a site collection programmatically? I am on-premise. Can it be done with JavaScript? I can create sub-sites with js, but what about Site Collections?

I have found some c# code to create a site collection, but where do I run it from? In an App?

Solution

I have successfully created a site collection programmatically using an event receiver (c#). Microsoft has confirmed that it is not possible to create a site collection with JavaScript. I thought I would share my total solution since I don't see complete documentation from start to finish.

I followed these steps to setup a proper dev environment for SP2013 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp179923.aspx
I created a new VS2012 empty sharepoint 2013 project, I chose farm solution
Add Web Reference
- Right-click on Service References
- Add Service References
- Advanced Button
- Add Web Reference Button
- http://{SharePointServer}:{Port}/_vti_adm/Admin.asmx
- login with farm account
- name the reference "SPAdminService"
- Add Reference Button
Add Event Receiver
- Right-click on the project
- add
- new item
- event receiver

Here is the code for the eventreceiver.cs file:

using System;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow;


namespace SharePointProject5.EventReceiver1
{
/// <summary>
/// List Item Events
/// </summary>
public class EventReceiver1 : SPItemEventReceiver
{
        /// <summary>
        /// An item is being added.
        /// </summary>
        public override void ItemAdding(SPItemEventProperties properties)
{
    base.ItemAdding(properties);
    //create admin service reference
    SPAdminService.Admin admService = new SPAdminService.Admin();
    //grant proper admin credentials to admin service
    admService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("Farmaccount",         "Password", "Domain");            
    try
    {
        //specify new site collection path
        String SitePath = "http://twv101sp13/pm/new2013";
        //setup properties to create the site, see reference below for more info
        admService.CreateSite(SitePath, "new site", "description", 1033, "STS#1", "bluebunny\\sp13admin", "System Account", "cslee@bluebunny.com", "", "");                           
    }
    catch (System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException ex)
    {
        //I added this section so any errors would be logged in the server application log
        SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(
        delegate()
        {
            System.Diagnostics.EventLog.WriteEntry("Application", "Message:\n" + ex.MRessage + "\nDetail:\n" +
                ex.Detail.InnerText +
                "\nStackTrace:\n" + ex.StackTrace);
        });
    }
 }


 }
}

So you only want this to run when a certain list adds an item so you have to modify the Elements.xml file.
Open the Elements.xml, replace this line <Receivers ListTemplateId="101"> with <Receivers ListUrl="http://{SharepointSite}/{targetListName}"> - this is so we can target only that list and not all lists on the the site
Right-click your project and deploy
You should be able to create a new item and then check for your new site collection.

One issue that I experienced is sites cannot start with a numerical character.

At the bottom of this article it tells how to debug a feature event receiver. Without that I would have been dead in the water: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee231550.aspx

These three articles helped a lot: