Create SPGroup in PowerShell
Thanks to Ryan for sharing powershell functions. I used New-SPGroup which I altered. Now You can define which permissions will be given to the new group. You can even create groups without default users. Here it comes:
function New-SPGroup {
<#
.Synopsis
Use New-SPGroup to create a SharePoint Group.
.Description
This function uses the Add() method of a SharePoint RoleAssignments property in an SPWeb to create a SharePoint Group.
.Example
New-SPGroup -Web http://intranet -GroupName "Test Group" -OwnerName DOMAIN\\User -MemberName DOMAIN\\User2 -Description "My Group" -Role "Read"
This example creates a group called "Test Group" in the http://intranet site, with a description of "My Group". The owner is DOMAIN\\User and the first member of the group is DOMAIN\\User2 and adds "Limited Access".
C:\\PS>New-SPGroup -Web http://intranet -GroupName "Test Group" -OwnerName DOMAIN\\User -MemberName DOMAIN\\User2 -Description "My Group" -Role "Read"
This example creates a group called "Test Group" in the http://intranet site, with a description of "My Group". The owner is DOMAIN\\User and the first member of the group is DOMAIN\\User2 and adds "Read" access.
Pay attention to the role definition names. They must be provided in the language of your site.
.Notes
Name: New-SPGroup
Author: Ryan Dennis, Anatoly Mironov
Last Edit: 2012-11-05
Keywords: New-SPGroup, spgroup, permissions
.Link
http://www.sharepointryan.com
http://twitter.com/SharePointRyan
https://sharepointkunskap.wordpress.com
.Inputs
None
.Outputs
None
#Requires -Version 2.0
#>
\[CmdletBinding()\]
Param(
\[Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPWebPipeBind\]$Web,
\[string\]$GroupName,
\[string\]$OwnerName,
\[string\]$MemberName,
\[string\]$Role,
\[string\]$Description
)
$SPWeb = $Web.Read()
if ($SPWeb.SiteGroups\[$GroupName\] -ne $null){
throw "Group $GroupName already exists!"
}
if ($Role) {
$roleDefinition = $SPWeb.RoleDefinitions\[$Role\]
if (!$roleDefinition) {
throw "Role Definition $Role doesn't exist!"
}
}
if ($SPWeb.Site.WebApplication.UseClaimsAuthentication){
$op = New-SPClaimsPrincipal $OwnerName -IdentityType WindowsSamAccountName
$owner = $SPWeb | Get-SPUser $op
if ($MemberName) {
$mp = New-SPClaimsPrincipal $MemberName -IdentityType WindowsSamAccountName
$member = $SPWeb | Get-SPUser $mp
}
}
else {
$owner = $SPWeb | Get-SPUser $OwnerName
if ($MemberName) {
$member = $SPWeb | Get-SPUser $MemberName
}
}
$SPWeb.SiteGroups.Add($GroupName, $owner, $member, $Description)
$SPGroup = $SPWeb.SiteGroups\[$GroupName\]
$roleAssignment = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPRoleAssignment($SPGroup)
if ($Role) {
$roleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add($roleDefinition)
}
$SPWeb.RoleAssignments.Add($roleAssignment)
$SPWeb.Dispose()
return $SPGroup
}Creating custom powershell cmdlet
Why
I need to to activate a feature in PowerShell and specify some properties. Simple? Yes. Possible? No. In the default Enable-SPFeature cmdlet you can’t specify any properties:
Enable-SPFeature –Identity "b5eef7d1-f46f-44d1-b53e-410f62032846" -URL http://devWe can of course easily add properties when activating features in onet.xml:
<!-- Publishing Resources -->
<Feature ID="AEBC918D-B20F-4a11-A1DB-9ED84D79C87E">
<Properties xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<Property Key="AllowRss" Value="false" />
<Property Key="SimplePublishing" Value="false" />
</Properties>
</Feature>
So I went to SharePoint StackExchange and asked the question. Then I realized: the standard Sharepoin API doesn’t support this neither. The methods of SPFeatureCollection which have SPFeatureProperties as parameter are internal. So the only way is to use Reflection like Hristo Pavlov (2008) and Yaroslav Pentsarsky (2010) suggest. So why not to try to create a cmdlet?
Out-Gridview in PowerShell
Did you know that we can pipe the output from PowerShell into a graphical GridView? I have used PowerShell for one year and only now I discovered this nice feature. You can add filter criteria, you can filter by typing in a textbox: 
Other useful output cmdlets
- out-file
- out-clip
- out-null
Run powershell remotely
To run powershell remotely is really easy. First enable it on the machine which will receive the remote commands:
Enable-PSRemoting
Then go to another machine and connect to your host:
$cred = Get-Credential
Enter-PSSession -Computername dev -Credential $cred
If you want to know more about powershell remoting, I recommend “A layman’s guide…”. See even a detailed example on poshcode.
Access User Profile Properties from Powershell
To use only SPUser objects isn’t always sufficient. To get other properties we have to retrieve user profiles. Giles Hamson gives an example how to get and how to update user profile properties with powershell. Here is an example how to get all work phones:
$url = "http://intranet/"
$site = Get-SPSite $url
$context = Get-SPServiceContext $site
$profileManager = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileManager($context)
$profiles = $profileManager.GetEnumerator()
while ($profiles.MoveNext()) {
$userProfile = $profiles.Current
$name = $userProfile.DisplayName
$phone = $userProfile\["WorkPhone"\]
$line = '{0};{1}' -f $name, $phone
write $line
}If you are not sure what properties are called, see the whole list by typing:
Adding organizational units to AD through powershell
Want to create some organizational structure in AD, I suppose it is specifically useful in a development environment, well the best solution is powershell then. Mastering Powershell by and Powershell.nu by Niklas Goude provide examples how to do this.
$domain = [ADSI]""
$ou = $domain.Create("organizationalUnit", "OU=Administration")
$ou.SetInfo()Be sure you write “organizationalUnit” in lower case. Otherwise you’ll get “Exception calling “SetInfo” with “0” argument(s): “The specified directory service attribute or value does not exist” when you invoke $ou.setinfo(). If you want to create an OU under another OU, just create $domain and specify the location:
Install a custom timer job in Powershell
First we have to create a class for our timer job which inherits SPTimerJobDefinition, build it and deploy it.
public class TakanaTimer : SPJobDefinition
{
public TakanaTimer(){}
public TakanaTimer(string jobName, SPService service,
SPServer server, SPJobLockType targetType)
: base(jobName, service, server, targetType) { }
public TakanaTimer(string jobName, SPWebApplication webapp)
: base(jobName, webapp, null, SPJobLockType.ContentDatabase)
{
Title = jobName;
}
public override void Execute(Guid contentDbId)
{
Log.Info("Running Takana Timer");
}
}There is a powershell example for this, but it has not been updated since MOSS.
SPWebConfigModification
SPWebConfigModification. Some links to start with:
- http://panvega.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/using-spwebconfigmodification-within-a-feature-receiver/
- http://www.onedotnetway.com/get-name-of-current-executing-assembly-in-c/
- http://blogs.devhorizon.com/reza/?p=459 http://ikarstein.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/add-web-config-modification-with-powershell-spwebconfigmodification/
- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb861909.aspx
public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{
var webapp = parent as SPWebApplication;
if (webapp != null)
{
var mod1 = GetWebControlsConfigMod();
webapp.WebConfigModifications.Add(mod1);
var mod2 = GetConStringConfigMod();
webapp.WebConfigModifications.Add(mod2);
SaveChanges(webapp);
}
else
{
Log.Warning("no modifications to webapp are done");
}
}
public override void FeatureDeactivating(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{
var webapp = parent as SPWebApplication;
if (webapp != null)
{
var mod = GetWebControlsConfigMod();
var modsCollection = webapp.WebConfigModifications;
var modToDelete =
(from m in modsCollection
where m.Value.Equals(mod.Value, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)
select m).FirstOrDefault();
if (modToDelete != null)
{
modsCollection.Remove(modToDelete);
SaveChanges(webapp);
}
}
}
private static void SaveChanges(SPPersistedObject webapp)
{
var service = webapp.Farm.Services.GetValue();
service.ApplyWebConfigModifications();
webapp.Update();
}
private static SPWebConfigModification GetWebControlsConfigMod()
{
var assembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(WebControls.OfficeEditor));
var ass = assembly.FullName;
var @namespace = assembly.GetName().Name + ".WebControls";
var value = string.Format("", ass,
@namespace);
const string path = "configuration/SharePoint/SafeControls";
var mod = new SPWebConfigModification
{
Path = path,
Name = "JustaName1",
Sequence = 0,
Owner = @namespace,
Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode,
Value = value
};
return mod;
}
private static SPWebConfigModification GetConStringConfigMod()
{
const string name = "ContosoConString";
const string conString =
"Data Source=db.contoso.com;Initial Catalog=contoso\_db;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=contoso\_Contributor;Password=contoso";
var mod = new SPWebConfigModification
{
Name = "JustaName2",
Path = "configuration/connectionStrings",
Owner = "contoso\_connectionstrings",
Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode,
Value = String.Format("", name, conString)
};
return mod;
}Powershell:
\n and \t in powershell
Want to add some tabs and new lines to your output in Powershell. Well, it works like \n and \t. But there is a little different syntax: `t and `n. Just a tip. An alternative way to add new line is to use [Environment]::NewLine:
$nl = \[Environment\]::NewLine
$var = "hej" + $nl
Write $varAdd Sharepoint Snap-in if needed
Just include it in your script or function:
if(-not(Get-PSSnapin |
Where { $_.Name -eq "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell"})) {
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell}By the way, I found it in PowerShell for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administrators by Niklas Goude and Mattias Karlsson. Powershell for Sharepoint Administrators. UPDATE: I found a better way to check a variable for null: Thomas Maurer. Powershell: check variable for null. It is like in javascript, just put it in the if-statement to test if it exists or not: