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SharePoint 2013 Hosting – HostForLIFE.eu :: Add And Remove Custom Action Using PnP PowerShell
Jul 18th
In this blog article, I am going to add and remove custom action using PnP PowerShell.
Adding a custom action to the SharePoint site
The Add-PnPCustomAction command is used to add a user custom action to a web or site collection.
Example
This example adds a new custom action to the Site Settings and sets the Title, Name and other fields with the specified values.
Add-PnPCustomAction -Name ‘Item Search’ -Title ‘Item Search’ -Description ‘Adds custom action to SiteSettings’ -Group ‘SiteAdministration’ -Location ‘Microsoft.SharePoint.SiteSettings’ -Sequence 1000 -Url ‘https://www.google.com’
Output
Getting the custom action information
The Get-PnPCustomAction command is used to return user custom action(s) of the web or current site collection.
Example 1
This example returns all custom actions of the current site.
Get-PnPCustomAction
Output
Example 2
This example returns the custom action with the id “47eaee71-7aa2-458a-8ca8-cbd48f5e68c3”.
Get-PnPCustomAction -Identity 47eaee71-7aa2-458a-8ca8-cbd48f5e68c3
Removing a custom action from the SharePoint site
The Remove-PnPCustomAction command is used to remove user custom action(s) from the current web or site collection.
Example
This example removes the custom action with the id “47eaee71-7aa2-458a-8ca8-cbd48f5e68c3”.
Remove-PnPCustomAction -Identity 47eaee71-7aa2-458a-8ca8-cbd48f5e68c3
Output
SharePoint 2013 Hosting – HostForLIFE.eu :: Batch Query Using sp-pnp-js
Jul 11th
In general, if we want to send multiple queries to SharePoint, we use a batch statement like below.
Example
If I want to filter multiple lists with the below queries in page load/any other events.
- Loading all lists available in the site.
- Check available of list “XYZ”
- Employee list whose department is “IT”
- Retrieving regional settings information.
Generally, we will follow the following way.
The above code will work and give the expected result, but here, if the number of batch operations increases, the code itself will be odd to read (if we consider reusability of the code as developer’s main goal).
Resolution
Here, we need to think about the usage of For loops in this scenario. So, we require an array/object for looping all the queries, if we consider the below portion of code as an array object.
Code Implementation Process
If I want to retrieve data from a SharePoint list (single query) based on the implemented code, I will follow the below process.
In SP-PnP-JS, web is an object of O365 Web(pnp.sp.web). This object has lists property and it is an object of Lists class(pnp.sp.web.lists). This lists property has a method named getByTitle(pnp.sp.web.lists.getByTitle(“XYZ”)) which accepts list name as a parameter and which will return the slected list as List class Object. This List Class has property named items which will return Items class object(pnp.sp.web.lists.getByTitle(“XYZ”).items) . This Items class is extending SharePointQuerable class (so all methods in this are internally used for our original items class) which has get method which will return our data.
Based on the above process of execution and based on JavaScript object feasibility, I thought if we form these all into one array object, which will have information about our query chaining. So, I have just followed the below way of approach to achieve our requirement.
For getting data in a SharePoint List (single query), we need to follow the below steps for forming input array object for reusable method.
- By default, we need to create SharePoint Web object (for any kind of GET operations we need to have this is a basic object)
1let = pnp.sp.web; - With the help above web object, our next goal to access lists property which will return an object Lists class, so I have used this is my first string in the array.
1let = [“lists"]; - Based on above Lists class, it has method getByTitle() which accepts list name as a parameter and returns selected list, so it needs two parameters under one array index so we can use this as key-value pair and push it to our above batchLoadQueries array and our array will be as below.
1["lists", { "getByTitle": "Employee" }] - Based on the above query, we are navigated up to lists, so we need to retrieve the items of the list. It is the single property that doesn’t need any kind of key-value pair. So array will be like below
1["lists", { "getByTitle": "Employee" },"items"]
Up to the above object, it will return items, If it has any kind query/select and these two are key-value pairs so we need to form array as below
1["lists", { "getByTitle": "Employee" }, "items", { "filter": "Dept eq IT" }]
If we want to send multiple batch statements, we need to form array of array objects.
Eg
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let = [[“lists", { "filter": "Hidden eq false and BaseTemplate 100" }],["lists", { "getByTitle": "XYZ" }], ["lists", { "getByTitle": "Employee" }, "items", { "filter": "Dept eq IT" }], ["regionalSettings", "timeZone"]]; |
Reusable Method(Complete Code please download from attachment)
SharePoint 2013 Hosting – HostForLIFE.eu :: Send Email Using PowerShell
Jul 5th
Windows PowerShell cmdlets have the capability of sending emails. We can craft an email and its various components, such as recipients, email body, email attachments, etc. using PS code. This feature removes manual effort and human intervention of composing and sending emails. This opens various avenues to make your programs more dynamic as well as appealing business-wise.
Use Cases
A few use cases where this capability is instrumental are,
- Send email to target audience at the end of a script, with the result files as attachments
- Send email as a part of monitoring scripts. For instance, a PS script sending out mailers when a SharePoint subsite exceeds a size limit set by administrator
- Send email to administrator when a .NET site is not used frequently, based on site visits thresholds set by administrators
The Script
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$runDateTime = Get- $smtp = "mailservice.redduck.com" $to = "customer1@redduck.com" $cc = "customer2@redduck.com" $from = "guardbot@redduck.com" $subject = "Script Run Completed - $runDateTime" $attachmentLocation = "C:\Users\Jarvis\Desktop\TestFile.txt" $body = "Hello Team, <br><br>" $body += "The program <b>Fantastic Powershell Program</b> has been completed successfully at <i>$runDateTime.</i><br><br>" $body += "Have a great day!<br><br>" $body += "Thank you" Send-MailMessage -SmtpServer $smtp -To $to -Cc $cc -From $from -Subject $subject -Body $body -BodyAsHtml -Attachments $ Write-Host "====== Email sent! ======" |
Explanation
The primary cmdlet responsible for sending the email is Send-MailMessage. It accepts various parameters. Below is a description of the parameters that are primarily used.
| Parameters | Type | Description/Remarks |
| -To | String | The recipient of the email. For multiple recipients separate them as individual strings. For example – “user1@demo.com”, “user2@demo.com” |
| -From | String | The sender of the email |
| -Cc | String | The recipient who will be copied in the email |
| -Bcc | String | The recipient who will be copied but not listed in the email |
| -Subject | String | The subject line of the email body |
| -Body | String | The email body of the message.Multiple lines including variables can also be appended. HTML elements and stylings (bold, italics, etc.) can also be included as shown in the script above. |
| -Attachments | String | The path of the attachment fileIt is worth noting that, for attachments that exceed the limits set by the email service provider, it might fail. Hence, it is recommended to exercise caution for before attaching files in emails. For larger attachments, shared locations can be used. |
| -SmtpServer | String | The SMPT server that is responsible for establishing communication. This is very vital. |
| -BodyAsHtml | String | This parameter specifies that the email body contains HTML and will be rendered as per HTML standards. |
Illustration
Modify the parameters and variables as per your requirements, execute the program, and that’s it!
The email will be delivered to your recipients!
SharePoint 2013 Hosting – HostForLIFE.eu :: Update Taxonomy Or Managed Metadata Field Via SharePoint JSOM
Jun 27th
In this article, I am sharing code snippets to create List items and update items with Taxonomy or Managed Metadata field on a custom list. I have seen some threads on how to update the multi-value taxonomy fields also. The below code demonstrates both single/multi-valued, taxonomy column update snippets via JSOM.
Create List Item
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function CreateItem(isSingleValue){ SP.SOD.executeOrDelayUntilScriptLoaded(() { 'use strict'; var = new SP.ClientContext(_spPageContextInfo.siteAbsoluteUrl); var = context.get_web().get_lists().getByTitle('CustomList'); var = new SP.ListItemCreationInformation(); var = list.addItem(itemCreateInfo); var = list.get_fields().getByInternalNameOrTitle("MyMMDField"); var = context.castTo(field, SP.Taxonomy.TaxonomyField); if(== true){ // this you have to handle manually , use var termValue = new SP.Taxonomy.TaxonomyFieldValue(); termValue.set_label("MyWikiTerm"); termValue.set_termGuid("fb58bc5e-5ce5-41fc-9a90-7431018aa935"); termValue.set_wssId(-1); taxField.setFieldValueByValue(item, termValue); item.set_item("Title", "Created New Item and Set single valued Taxonomy"); } else { // this you have to handle manually item.set_item("Title", "Created New Item and Multi valued Taxonomy"); var pairs = "-1;#MyWikiTerm|fb58bc5e-5ce5-41fc-9a90-7431018aa935;#-1;#MyWikiTerm2|1cee8427-41f1-4a2b-aff3-26c67685988e"; var termValueCollection = new SP.Taxonomy.TaxonomyFieldValueCollection(context,pairs,taxField); taxField.setFieldValueByValueCollection(item, termValueCollection); } item.update(); context.load(item); context.executeQueryAsync( function () { console.log('Item created sucessfully: ' + item.get_id()); }, function (sender, args) { console.log("exception in addItem"); }); }, 'SP.Taxonomy.js'); } |
Let us quickly test this via Chrome Developer Console.
Go to page and view site in the Classic experience.
Press F12. Go to Developer Console and paste the above code in the console.
Press Enter.
We should get an undefined logged-in console. Don’t worry. Ignore this message.
Now let us try this out, call this function in chrome console developer like below
If you get the above message, an item will be created in the list and the Taxonomy field would have been set. Please refer to the below screenshot for reference.
The same way, you can try multi-value also by passing the parameter as false in the CreateItem method.
Update Item
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function UpdateItem(ItemId,isSingleValue){ SP.SOD.executeOrDelayUntilScriptLoaded(() { 'use strict'; var = new SP.ClientContext(_spPageContextInfo.siteAbsoluteUrl); var = context.get_web().get_lists().getByTitle('CustomList'); var = list.getItemById(ItemId); var = list.get_fields().getByInternalNameOrTitle("MyMMDField"); var = context.castTo(field, SP.Taxonomy.TaxonomyField); if(== true){ // this you have to handle manually , use var termValue = new SP.Taxonomy.TaxonomyFieldValue(); termValue.set_label("MyWikiTerm"); termValue.set_termGuid("fb58bc5e-5ce5-41fc-9a90-7431018aa935"); termValue.set_wssId(-1); taxField.setFieldValueByValue(item, termValue); item.set_item("Title", "Updated item and Set single valued Taxonomy"); } else { // this you have to handle manually item.set_item("Title", "Updated Item and Multi valued Taxonomy"); var pairs = "-1;#MyWikiTerm|fb58bc5e-5ce5-41fc-9a90-7431018aa935;#-1;#MyWikiTerm2|1cee8427-41f1-4a2b-aff3-26c67685988e"; var termValueCollection = new SP.Taxonomy.TaxonomyFieldValueCollection(context,pairs,taxField); taxField.setFieldValueByValueCollection(item, termValueCollection); } item.update(); context.load(item); context.executeQueryAsync( function () { console.log('Item updated sucessfully: ' + item.get_id()); }, function (sender, args) { console.log("exception in updating item"); }); }, 'SP.Taxonomy.js'); } |
Use the same Chrome Developer Console technique to quickly test this function. Type ”UpdateItem(8,false)”. Please note that we are updating the same item created using CreateItem method.
Calling update method
Output
Remote PowerShell Execution For SharePoint On-Premises
Jun 20th
We all know PowerShell is mostly used by SharePoint admins to manage their servers in a farm. SharePoint admins perform many activities as part of the SharePoint administration. In this article, we will learn how to execute remote PowerShell commands from one server on a remote server.
Why do we need this remote execution of PowerShell script?
- Managing multiple servers and running a command on every server individually is time-consuming.
- Centralized server (one server) to run a script on all remote servers gives more control over process.
- Prevents uneccessary access to all servers.
- Tighter and secure environment.
- Single script to run on one machine and updating multiple servers at once.
Use case
For the sake of the article, we will take an example on how to deploy WSP from client to SharePoint Server A.
Setup Remote Server
Check if WINRM service is started and running. Go to services.msc and see if Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) service is running.
Enable PowerShell Remoting. Run the below command in PowerShell (as administrator).
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Enable-PSRemoting |
Enable Server as Remote server. Run the below command in PowerShell (as administrator).
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Enable--Role Server |
Run the below 2 commands one after another.
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winrm/config/‘@{MaxShellsPerUser=”}’ winrm/config/‘@{MaxMemoryPerShellMB=”}’ |
Notes
- Firewall rule must be enabled to allow communication with the server.
- Ensure the user has permission to SharePoint content database.
Setup Up Client machine
Enable PowerShell Remoting. Run the below command in PowerShell (as administrator).
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Enable-PSRemoting |
Enable Client. Run the below command in PowerShell (as administrator).
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Enable--"Client" -"server2.contoso.com" -Force |
We have configured the client to run remote commands on any remote server.
Run commands from the client machine.
Get user credentials and store in variables.
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$= ConvertTo-"your password" -- $= New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential("username",$password) |
Enable SSP and Get Session object to enter to remote server.
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$s=new--ComputerName serverA -authentication -$cred |
Run command via -ScriptBlock attributes. Using script block, you can run multiple commands at once on a remote server.
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Invoke--$-{Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell;Update-SPSolution -Identity yourfile.wsp -LiteralPath "C:\Program Files (x86)\(location of your file)...\yourfile.wsp" -GacDeployment} |
Now, enter the session of the remote server.
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Enter--$s |
On successfully running this, it will run all the invoke commands on the remote server. Go to the server and check if WSP is updated.
Using the Invoke-Command method, you can run any command available and it will execute in the remote server.
Examples of other commands.
Summary
In this article, we have learned how to enable remote execution of PowerShell script on SharePoint server and in an example, deployed WSP rom the client to a SharePoint Server.
SharePoint 2013 Hosting – HostForLIFE.eu :: SharePoint Column Formatting: Display A Single line Of Text As Hyperlink
Jun 13th
In this article, we will see how we can make a single line of text column’s values be displayed as a hyperlink with icon and how to create a dynamic href. Suppose you have an email field in your list which is a single line of text. Single line of text values will be displayed as normal text in SharePoint modern views.
Scenario Suppose you have custom list name ‘Xyz’ and it has one column named ‘Email’ which is a single line of text (due to business requirements you have not chosen to use people and group or you are storing some external user’s email id in this column). Now when you see this in Default list view it would be displayed like below.
Now you need to make this Email column values clickable so that on click it opens an email client new mail window with ‘To’ field pre-populated. We will have to just customize this field to display it as anchor tag with href set to mailto:’brucewayne@gmail.com’.
We have 2 options to achieve this:
- Using SPFx extension Field customizer
- Using Column Formatting option
The first one would need you to create a package and write custom code, so here we will use the second option using the Column formatting option.
Microsoft has introduced column and view formatting to let us control how default list views are displayed. We won’t be able to change the value of fields but we will be able to change its formatting. Now let us see how can we achieve this.
Go to List Settings -> Edit Column ‘Email’ – Find option Column formatting,
Add the below Json inside text area.
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{ "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/column-formatting.schema.json", "elmType": "div", "children": [ { "elmType": "a", "style": { "padding-right": "8px" }, "txtContent": "@currentField", "attributes": { "target": "_blank", "href": { "operator": "+", "operands": [ "mailto:", "@currentField", "?subject=Wonder women here&body=Hey ", "[$Title]", "\nJust checking, if you have saved the world?.\r\n---\r\n", "\r\nClick this link for more info. http://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/ConferencePrep/Tasks/Prep/DispForm.aspx?ID=", "[$ID]" ] } } }, { "elmType": "a", "attributes": { "target":"_blank", "iconName": "Mail", "class": "sp-field-quickActions", "href": { "operator": "+", "operands": [ "mailto:", "@currentField", "?subject=Wonder women here&body=Hey ", "[$Title]", "\nJust checking, if you have saved the world?\r\n---\r\n", "\r\nClick this link for more info. http://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/ConferencePrep/Tasks/Prep/DispForm.aspx?ID=", "[$ID]" ] } } } ] } |
Click Ok and go back to view and refresh the page, you should see the below.
On click of link it will open a new mail window (based on your default client configuration) with To, Subject and body field populated.
Below is what we get in anchor tag for the first item
mailto:brucewayne@gmail.com?subject=Wonder women here&body=Hey Batman%0D%0AJust checking, if you have saved the world?.%0D%0A—%0D%0A%0D%0AClick this link for more info. http://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/ConferencePrep/Tasks/Prep/DispForm.aspx?ID=1
If you look closely the Json we have used hass some placeholders to place dynamic values of list item.
brucewayne@gmail.com – comes from @currentField
Batman – comes from [$Title]
1 – comes from [$ID]
In a similar way we can use any column values using the format [$<ColumnName>]
If we know how to format this Json, we can do wonders…there are some great examples on microsoft docs.
I will try to explain some basic structure based on our example for understanding.
- The first – “elmType”: “div” – Here we are saying that we need the element to be rendered as div
- Now within this div, we will create 2 children of type anchor tag (one for email and one for icon) – yes, this could have been done in a single anchor tag but I wanted to understand how it works so I kept 2 childrens both childrens “elmType”: “a” is anchor(a is html tag)
- For the first one we are having attribute “txtContent”: “@currentField” – This tells it to render text inside anchor tag as value of current field.
- Then we have ‘attributes’ – it is Json because we are setting different attributes like target and href.
- Within href we are using again using json object as we need to concate some values, hence ‘operator’ is ‘+’ and operands are array of values with static text and dynamic values(from other columns in list item).
- Values within array are separated by comma, a typical javascript array.
- As explained before some of fields like $Title, $ID are being used to create href link.
- href could have been built by simply using ‘+’ operator like below,
“href”: “=’http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/’ + @currentField”
Summary – This article will give you a basic start on using the column formatting feature. This can be really helpful to style columns values without any customizatoin and it will work for all the OOTB views. If you are really into what operators, expressions and elm and other attributes are supported, refer to the Json schema.
