Create, Update, Delete or Retrieve SharePoint Sub Sites Using CSOM PowerShell

Introduction

In this article, you will learn how to retrieve, create, update or delete SharePoint sub sites programmatically using CSOM with PowerShell on SharePoint 2013 / SharePoint online.

Steps Involved

The following prerequisites needs to be executed before going for CRUD operations using CSOM PowerShell on SharePoint sites.

Retrieve Sub Sites

• To get all the sites from the root site collection or from particular site collection, web object needs to be accessed using OpenWeb method. If it is a root site, then RootWeb method can also be used.
  
  
• Get all the sub sites using Webs property.
  
  
• Load and execute query using the context to see the final results.
  
  
• The following code snippet shows you the flow.
  
  1. function GetSites()
  2. {
  3. try
  4. {
  5. # Relative Site URL of root site
  6. $rootWeb = $ctx.Site.OpenWeb("/")
  7. $subWebs = $rootWeb.Webs
  8. $ctx.Load($subWebs)
  9. $ctx.ExecuteQuery()
  10. foreach($subWeb in $subWebs)
  11. {
  12. Write - Host "Title : "
  13. $subWeb.Title
  14. Write - Host "Template : "
  15. $subWeb.webTemplate
  16. Write - Host "Description : "
  17. $subWeb.Description
  18. }
  19. }
  20. catch
  21. {
  22. write - host "$($_.Exception.Message)" - foregroundcolor red
  23. }
  24. }

Create Sub Site

The sites can be created under any site collection or sites using web creation object. The necessary parameters for creating site are title, URL, web template, language.

• Initialize the web creation object with necessary parameters.
• Access the root level site where sub site needs to be created.
• Then add the web creation object to the site. Load and execute the query.
  
  1. function CreateSite()
  2. {
  3. try
  4. {#Web Creation object to set new site details
  5. $webInfo = New - Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.WebCreationInformation
  6. $webInfo.Title = "SubSite"
  7. $webInfo.Description = "SubSite using powershell"
  8. $webInfo.Url = "SubSite"
  9. $webInfo.WebTemplate = "Blog"
  10. $webInfo.UseSamePermissionsAsParentSite = $true
  11. $webInfo.Language = 1033
  12. $rootWeb = $ctx.Site.OpenWeb("/")# Relative Site URL
  13. $newSite = $rootWeb.Webs.Add($webInfo)
  14. $ctx.Load($newSite)
  15. $ctx.ExecuteQuery()
  16. }
  17. catch
  18. {
  19. write - host "$($_.Exception.Message)" - foregroundcolor red
  20. }
  21. }

Get Site

• Access the sub site using OpenWeb method with site relative URL.
  
  
• Load and execute the query with content and access the site properties.
  
  1. function GetSite()
  2. {
  3. try
  4. {
  5. $web = $ctx.site.OpenWeb("/SubSite")# Relative Site URL
  6. $ctx.Load($web)
  7. $ctx.ExecuteQuery()
  8. Write - Host "Title : "
  9. $web.Title
  10. Write - Host "Description: "
  11. $web.Description
  12. Write - Host "WebTemplate: "
  13. $web.WebTemplate
  14. }
  15. catch
  16. {
  17. write - host "$($_.Exception.Message)" - foregroundcolor red
  18. }
  19. }

Update Sub Site

• Access the sub site using OpenWeb method with site relative URL.
• Change the necessary properties using web object.
• Load and execute the query with content and access the site properties.
  
  1. function UpdateSite()
  2. {
  3. try
  4. {
  5. $web = $ctx.site.OpenWeb("/SubSite")# Relative Site URL
  6. $web.Title = "SP Sub Site"
  7. $web.Description = "Changed description"
  8. $ctx.Load($web)
  9. $ctx.ExecuteQuery()
  10. Write - Host "Title : "
  11. $web.Title
  12. Write - Host "Description: "
  13. $web.Description
  14. Write - Host "WebTemplate: "
  15. $web.WebTemplate
  16. }
  17. catch
  18. {
  19. write - host "$($_.Exception.Message)" - foregroundcolor red
  20. }
  21. }

Thus you have learned how to get all sub sites within a site collection and also you have seen how to create, retrieve, update or delete sub sites using CSOM with PowerShell on SharePoint 2013 / SharePoint online sites.