Adding a SharePoint View to every library

Chitra Dharaiya

March 25, 2013

All Post

How to add a SharePoint View to every library

Sometimes one has to create a custom view and deploy it to every library. This example walks through a set of explicitly named site collections within a given Managed Path, and adds a custom view. To enable running it multiple times, the script first deletes every instance of that named view, if any exist. Otherwise we would have a new duplicate view in each library each time we ran this script. Note both filtering and sort order is specified by a CAML query. This example shows a very simple one (sort by filename) but it’s possible to construct complex queries. The two approaches I like to use is use a tool called CAMLBuilder, or create a test view, and then navigate the object model and extract the CAML query. Lastly I add the fields using the static (internal) name in the preferred sequence.

#adds "Field" to right  in Default View; deletes field first, in case it already exists, so this can be rerun safely
Add-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
 
# Script changes the default View. 
$envrun="Prod"          # selects environment to run in
 
if ($envrun -eq "Dev")
{
}
elseif ($envrun -eq "Prod")
 
{
$siteUrl = "http ://SharePoint/ManagedPath/"
$LoopString = "A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z,09"  #these are the explicitly named Site Collections
$LoopStringArr = $LoopString.Split(“,”)
}
else
{
Write-Host "ENVIRONMENT SETTING NOT VALID: script terminating..."
$siteUrl =  $null;
return;
}
 
Write-Host "script starting"
 
$myheader = "STARTING: $(get-date)"
 
foreach ($letter in $LoopStringArr)
{
$SiteName=$siteurl+$letter
 
$rootSite = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($SiteName)
 
 
 $site=$rootSite  #skipping traversing all sites for now
  write-host $site.Url
 
  if ($true) #this is useful to uncomment as a filter
#  if ($site.Url -like "$siteurl/personal/plau*")  
  {
   Write-Host -foregroundcolor darkblue "$($site.id) - $($site.Url) - $($site.contentdatabase.id) - $($site.contentdatabase.name)"  
 
  
   $rootWeb = $site.RootWeb
   $web=$rootWeb;
    
   $JPLists=$web.Lists;
   $JPListsCount=$JPLists.Count  #it much more efficient to resolve Lists object and count outside the loop
 
   for ($i=0;$i -lt $JPListsCount;$i++)
   { 
   $JPLib=$JPLists[$i];
   $A_Lib_Count++;
   $SkipLib=$true; #true
    
   if ( ($JPlib.BaseType -ne "DocumentLibrary") -or ($JPlib.hidden) )
    {
      # forget the rest and return to top
      Write-Host -foregroundcolor green "fast test skipping Library: $($JPlib)";   
       
    }
    elseif ($JPLib.Title -Match "SitesAssets|Photo|Image|CustomizedsReports|Templates|Pages|Picture|cache|style|Slide")
    {
      # forget the rest and return to top
      Write-Host -foregroundcolor red "fast test skipping Library because it mentions $Matches: $($JPlib)";   
       
    }
    elseif ($JPLib.BaseTemplate -ne "DocumentLibrary")   #alternatively, only skip if -eq XMLForm
    {
      # forget the rest and return to top
      Write-Host -foregroundcolor red "fast skipping Library because it is not of base DocumentLibrary, it is BaseType:$($JPlib.basetemplate): $($JPlib.title)";   
       
    }
    elseif (($JPLib.ThumbnailsEnabled) -or ($JPLib.DefaultView -eq "AllSlides"))
    {
      # forget any library with thumbnails, these are not normal doclibs, and return to top
      Write-Host -foregroundcolor red "fast test skipping Library because it has Thumbnails/Slides $($JPlib)";   
       
    }
    elseif (!$JPLib.ContentTypesEnabled)
    {
      Write-Host -foregroundcolor red "skipping because it does not have CTs enabled: $($JPlib)";   
       
    }
    else
    {  $SkipLib=$false; }
      
    if (!$SkipLib)
    {
      write-Host -foregroundcolor green "Processing Library: $($JPlib)";   
       
 
#hah, don't even delete and add if found, just cycle
$x=$null;
try
{
$x=$JPLib.Views.get_Item("NEW View")
}
catch {$x=$null}
if ($x -ne $null)
{
continue;
}
 
 
try
{
$x=$JPLib.Views.get_Item("NEW View")
if ($x.id -ne $null) #prevents duplicate entries
{
    $JPLib.Views.Delete($x.ID.ToString())
}
}
catch
{}
 
if ($JPLib.Views["NEW View"] -eq $null) #prevents duplicate entries
{
  
     $viewQuery = '<OrderBy><FieldRef Name="FileLeafRef" /></OrderBy>'  #This is any CAML query you construct
      
     #let's add the fields, by internal name, in the preferred sequence
     $viewFields = New-Object System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection
     $viewFields.Add("DocIcon") > $null
     $viewFields.Add("LinkFilename") > $null
     $viewFields.Add("Title") > $null
     $viewFields.Add("Modified") > $null
     $viewFields.Add("Editor") > $null
     $viewFields.Add("ProductCode") > $null
     $viewFields.Add("ProductDescription") > $null
     $viewFields.Add("DocumentType") > $null
     $viewFields.Add("ReportSubType") > $null
       
     #RowLimit property
     $viewRowLimit = 30
     #Paged property
     $viewPaged = $true
     #DefaultView property
     $viewDefaultView = $false
     #$ViewQuery=$null;
     $viewTitle="NEW View"
     $newview = $JPLib.Views.Add($viewTitle, $viewFields, $viewQuery, $viewRowLimit, $viewPaged, $viewDefaultView)
   } #endif view doesn't exist
 
    }
    }
 
try
{
$rootweb.Dispose()
$web.Dispose()
}
catch{}
 
} #if $true/Siteurl is not null, if environment setup is valid
try
{
$rootSite.Dispose()
$site.Dispose()
}
catch{}
} #foreach letter