Creating SharePoint 2010 site structure automatically with PowerShell

Just came back from a usergroup meeting where Charles Cote was talking about PowerShell and got inspired to share a piece of script that does site auto provisioning in SharePoint 2010.

Whether you have a complex site hierarchy or just want to automate simple deployment having an automated script that reads from configuration file and creates a site structure and activates relevant features is a real time saver.

Here is a simple XML file I created to define my site structure and any other relevant info (FYI: it`s really up to you how you want this structure to look like – I just created it from the top of my head)

<Setup WebAppUrl=”http://mywebappurl”>

<SiteCollection Name=”Site Collection Name” Url=”/sites/mysitecollection” OwnerAlias=”my_install_username” Template=”STS#0″>

<Site Name=”MySite” Url=”MySite” Template=”STS#0″>

<Feature>FeatureName</Feature>

</Site>

<Site Name=”MySite1″ Url=”MySite1″ Template=”STS#0″>

</Site>

</SiteCollection>

</Setup>

Now, in the script below, assuming you have a basic PowerShell 2.0 knowledge, I will read the XML and run through the loop of defined structure elements to create a new site based on parameters provided in the XML (SiteStructure.xml):

[xml]$SiteStructure = get-content SiteStructure.xml

$WebAppUrl = $SiteStructure.Setup.Attributes.Item(0).Value

$SiteCollectionUrl = $SiteStructure.Setup.SiteCollection.Attributes.Item(1).Value

$SiteUrl = $WebAppUrl + $SiteCollectionUrl

for ($i=0; $i -lt $SiteStructure.Setup.SiteCollection.ChildNodes.Count; $i++ )

{

$childsite = $SiteStructure.Setup.SiteCollection.ChildNodes.Item($i);

$WebName = $childsite.Attributes.Item(0).Value

$WebUrl = $childsite.Attributes.Item(1).Value

$WebTemplate = $childsite.Attributes.Item(2).Value

Write-Host “Creating new web at” $SiteUrl/$WebUrl

$NewWeb = New-SPWeb $SiteUrl/$WebUrl -Template $WebTemplate -Addtotopnav -Useparenttopnav -Name $WebName

Write-Host “Web created successfully”

Write-Host “Title:” $NewWeb.Title -foregroundcolor Green

Write-Host “URL:” $NewWeb.Url -foregroundcolor Green

$features = $SiteStructure.Setup.SiteCollection.ChildNodes.Item($i)

if($features.Feature.Length -gt 0)

{

foreach ($WebFeature in $features.Feature)

{

$ActivatedFeature = Enable-SPFeature $WebFeature -url $NewWeb.Url

Write-Host “Enabled Feature:” $WebFeature -foregroundcolor Green

}

}

Write-Host “…”

}

In here I showed how you can create webs, but hey, you can really create site collections too following the same pattern. Hope this will help you to streamline your deployments!