I’ve recently created a handy PowerShell script to create publishing pages for my SharePoint sites. During every project, there comes the time when having a decent sized set of randomized page data will help for various lifecycle phases. I created the script when my team realized a load test of pages was required. We weren’t talking about a couple pages, either. This load test needed to handle up to 1,000 pages in order to collect the data we needed to make educated decisions on particular functionality.
The automatic page builder was created on the simplicity principle. You feed it a publishing web and a page layout, and the script will try its best to do the rest for you. From the page layout the script determines the content type. The script iterates through each column (or field) in the defined content type and attempts to add data to that column on a new page based on its column type. In many cases this data is random.
The auto page builder supports single and multi-select taxonomy fields types. It will select an random value for these fields. I left some script lines commented out in the managed metadata field propagation function that can add every possible value to a multi-select taxonomy field, in case you want that type of data.
The auto page builder can find an select a single random user account from SharePoint user profile manager. This code is commented out by default in favor of a single guaranteed good account: "SharePoint\System”. (The auto page builder does not yet support groups assigned to a People and Groups field.)
The auto page builder can attempt to add a random rating record for each page built. This rating will come from the administrative local account running the script. Warning! Ratings are not immediately available and depend on the social rating synchronization timer job which runs every 60 minutes.
Line 52: The script really begins here. The first block is a function to handle data for taxonomy fields.
Line 56: The “iterations” variable. How many iterations, or pages do you wish to create?
Line 58: The “siteurl” variable. This is the path to the root web.
Line 59: The “pagelayoutname” variable. This is the Title of the page layout you want to use to create pages. From the page layout, the script determines the Content Type and therefore the subset of columns to try to fill with data.
Lines 14 – 20: This is a commented out piece of example code that will add each piece of available managed metadata to a field.
Line 136: There is a reference to “demohtml.txt” which is a text file with HTML markup to insert into an HTML field type. An example of this file is pasted below.
Lines 156-161: This is a commented out piece of example code that will drop a random SPUser object into a “User” field.
1: function GetRandomMetadata ($item, $site, $taxString)
2: {
3: # 1) Set a taxonomy field to the Title of a taxonomy field in the list
4: $taxField = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.TaxonomyField]$item.Fields[$taxString];
5:
6: # 2) From properties of the taxField determine the term store and term set from the site
7: $taxSession = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.TaxonomySession($site);
8: $termStore = $taxSession.TermStores[$taxField.SspId];
9: $termSet = $termStore.GetTermSet($taxField.TermSetId);
10:
11: # 3) Set a taxonomy field collection to collect values
12: $taxCollection = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.TaxonomyFieldValueCollection($taxField);
13:
14: # 4) Add all values to the collection (Commented out)
15: #$termSet.GetAllTerms() | ForEach-Object {
16: # $taxonomyFieldValue = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.TaxonomyFieldValue($taxField);
17: # $taxonomyFieldValue.TermGuid = $_.Id;
18: # $taxonomyFieldValue.Label = $_.Name;
19: # $taxCollection.Add($taxonomyFieldValue);
20: #}
21:
22: # 4 Alt) Pick a random term to set.
23: $allTerms = $termSet.GetAllTerms();
24:
25: # Gets random term in the termset collection. (Cool factor 10!)
26: $thisTerm = $allterms | Get-Random;
27:
28: $taxonomyFieldValue = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.TaxonomyFieldValue($taxField);
29: $taxonomyFieldValue.TermGuid = $thisTerm.Id;
30: $taxonomyFieldValue.Label = $thisTerm.Name;
31: $taxCollection.Add($taxonomyFieldValue);
32:
33: $thisName = $thisTerm.Name;
34:
35: #Write-Host "Metadata for field '$taxString' set to $thisName ..."
36:
37: # 5) Set the value of the field in SharePoint
38: # Note: this handles two types of MMD fields, the single and the multiselect
39: if ($taxField.TypeAsString -eq "TaxonomyFieldType")
40: {
41: #Write-Host "Taxonomy Singleton Type Found!";
42: $taxField.SetFieldValue($item, $taxonomyFieldValue);
43: }
44: else
45: {
46: $taxField.SetFieldValue($item, $taxCollection);
47: }
48: }
49: # END *Get Random Metadata* #
50:
51:
52: # MAIN ##################################################
53:
54: # Set VARS
55:
56: $iterations = 1
57: $weburl = “http://wef.local/pubtest2/” #ensure trailing "/"
58: $siteurl = “http://wef.local/”
59: $pagelayoutname = "Resource"
60:
61:
62: # Constants: don't change
63: $loremText = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.";
64:
65: #ensure sharepoint
66: Write-Host("Loading SharePoint...");
67: if((Get-PSSnapin Microsoft.Sharepoint.Powershell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null)
68: {
69: #load snapin
70: Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell;
71: }
72:
73: # Get publishing web
74: $SPWeb = Get-SPWeb -Identity $weburl
75: $site = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteurl)
76: $web = $site.rootweb
77: $pSite = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PublishingSite($site)
78: $pWeb = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PublishingWeb]::GetPublishingWeb($SPWeb)
79: $serviceContext = Get-SPServiceContext $site
80: $pages = $pWeb.GetPublishingPages($pWeb)
81:
82: # Determine Content Type and Page Layout
83: $pl = $pSite.GetPageLayouts($false) | Where { $_.Title -eq $pagelayoutname }
84: if (-not($pl)) { throw "Page Layout not found!" }
85: $plName = $pl.Name;
86: Write-Host "Page Layout defined as $plName";
87:
88: $contentType = $pl.AssociatedContentType
89:
90: $i = 1
91:
92: while ($i -le $iterations) {
93:
94: Write-Host "Iteration $i of $iterations"
95:
96: #Set URL of new page to UNIX time var with concat
97: $startTime = Get-Date -Uformat %s
98: $uTime = $startTime.ToString().Replace(".","-");
99: $PageUrl = "RandomPage-" + $uTime + ".aspx";
100: $PageUrl = $PageUrl.Replace("/", "-");
101:
102: $page = $pages.Add($PageUrl, $pl) #URL plus Page Layout
103: $page.Update();
104:
105: $item = $page.ListItem;
106:
107: # iterate through each content type field
108: $contentType.Fields | ForEach-Object {
109:
110: # ignore read-only and hidden fields
111: if ($_.ReadOnlyField -eq "True" -or $_.Hidden -eq "True") { return; }
112:
113: #Set Title because it is special...
114: if ($_.StaticName -eq "Title")
115: {
116: $item[$_.StaticName] = $PageUrl;
117: return;
118: }
119:
120: #Determine the field type to set appropriate data.
121: if ($_.TypeAsString -eq "Text" -and $_.StaticName -ne "Title")
122: {
123: #Set to Lorem based on $_.MaxLength variable
124: $item[$_.StaticName] = $loremText.Substring(0,($_.MaxLength - 1));
125: return;
126: }
127:
128: if ($_.TypeAsString -eq "Note")
129: {
130: $item[$_.StaticName] = $loremText;
131: return;
132: }
133:
134: if ($_.TypeAsString -eq "HTML")
135: {
136: $item[$_.StaticName] = Get-Content demohtml.txt | out-string;
137: return;
138: }
139:
140: if ($_.TypeAsString -eq "TaxonomyFieldTypeMulti" -or $_.TypeAsString -eq "TaxonomyFieldType")
141: {
142: GetRandomMetadata $item $site $_.Title;
143: return;
144: }
145:
146: if ($_.TypeAsString -eq "DateTime")
147: {
148: #$thisTime = Get-Date -format s
149: #$item[$_.StaticName] = $thisTime;
150: $item[$_.StaticName] = [DateTime]::Today.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ")
151: return;
152: }
153:
154: if ($_.TypeAsString -eq "User")
155: {
156: # Set a random user field
157: #$profileManager = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileManager($serviceContext)
158: #$userProfiles = $profileManager.GetEnumerator();
159: #$thisProfile = $userProfiles | Get-Random;
160: #$userName = $thisProfile.DisplayName;
161: #[Microsoft.SharePoint.SPUser]$spuser = $web.EnsureUser($userName);
162:
163: # Or set a static user
164: [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPUser]$spuser = $web.EnsureUser("SharePoint\System");
165: $item[$_.StaticName] = $spuser;
166: return;
167: }
168:
169: if ($_.TypeAsString -eq "URL")
170: {
171: $urlField = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldURLValue
172: $urlField.Description = "Rightpoint"
173: $urlField.URL = "http://www.rightpoint.com"
174: $item[$_.StaticName] = $urlField;
175: return;
176: }
177:
178: if ($_.TypeAsString -eq "SummaryLinks")
179: {
180: $linkField = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Fields.SummaryLinkFieldValue
181:
182: $sumLink = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.SummaryLink Rightpoint
183: $sumLink.LinkURL = "http://www.rightpoint.com"
184: $linkField.SummaryLinks.Add($sumLink)
185:
186: $sumLink2 = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.SummaryLink Google
187: $sumLink2.LinkURL = "http://www.google.com"
188: $linkField.SummaryLinks.Add($sumLink2)
189:
190: $item[$_.StaticName] = $linkField;
191: return;
192: }
193:
194: if ($_.TypeAsString -eq "RatingCount")
195: {
196: # We have a social rating enabled list. Let's give the item some ratings to help display stars
197: $SocialRatingManager = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.SocialData.SocialRatingManager($serviceContext);
198: [Object]$random = New-Object System.Random
199: $rating = $random.Next(1,6);
200: $itemURI = $weburl + $item.URL;
201: [void]$SocialRatingManager.SetRating($itemURI, $rating)
202: }
203: }
204:
205: $item.Update();
206: Write-Host "Created $($PageUrl)"
207:
208: # Check-in and publish page
209: $item.File.CheckIn("");
210: $item.File.Publish("");
211: if ($item.ListItems.List.EnableModeration) { $item.File.Approve(""); }
212:
213: $endTime = Get-Date -Uformat %s
214: $timings = $endTime - $startTime;
215: Write-Host "Page $i of $iterations created in $timings seconds"
216:
217: $i++
218: } # end iterations
No Thanks. I'll take my chances.