How to create SiteColumns and Add them to Content Types Using PowerShell in SharePoint 2013

In Many situations, we would have faced this problem. i.e., the Schema definition for our Project. The SiteColumns and the Content Types. If we freeze these two things, then our project execution will become smooth. The struggle people face on this is like, we will be creating the site columns and the content types through Element.xml and on the Feature activation, and we will provision these site columns and the content types. Later when we need to add some more columns or modifying any existing columns, the Feature which we already created may not be helpful, as it will not retract all the site columns already created unless we had a separate feature receiver for this cleanup activity. And moreover when we do a cleanup, the data loss would happen.

To avoid this, and make this process a little bit easier, creating the PowerShell can be done using PowerShell. In this article, let us how to do that.

In this demo, let me create 3 site columns. One with the Taxonomy field, because this column requires a Mapping of term, second one is a simple Text field and a choice field. As these are the columns which we will using frequently, I am taking this.

Let us have these things as a CSV.

Please refer the attached CSV.

The Script is self-explanatory

 $LogTime = Get-Date -Format yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm
 
 $LogFile = ".CreateSiteColumnReferencePatch-$LogTime.rtf"
 
 cls
 
 #start-transcript $logfile
 
 ######################### Add SharePoint PowerShell Snapin ###############################################
 
 if ( (Get-PSSnapin -Name Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null ) 
 
 {
 
 Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell
 
 }
 
 ########################### End of Add SharePoint PowerShell Snapin ##################################
 
 ######################## Set Execution Path ################################################
 
 $scriptBase = split-path $SCRIPT:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path -parent
 
 Set-Location $scriptBase
 
 ################################# End of Set Execution Path #################################
 
 ################################# Functions #####################################################
 
 Function CreateField ([string]$siteUrl, [string]$fieldXML, [string] $centralADminURL,[string] $TermStoreName, [string] $TermGroupName, [string] $TermSetName,[string] $FieldinternalName,[string] $Type) 
 
 {
 
 $site = Get-SPSite -Identity $siteUrl
 
 $web = $site.RootWeb 
 
 write-host "Creting Site Column with following details " $fieldXML -fore yellow
 
 $web.Fields.AddFieldAsXml($fieldXML) 
 
 write-host "Site Column with details " $fieldXML " created successfully ........... Done !" -fore green
 
 if($Type -eq "TaxonomyFieldType")
 
 {
 
 [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy")
 
 $site = Get-SPSite $centralADminURL
 
 $session = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.TaxonomySession($site)
 
 $termStore = $session.TermStores[$TermStoreName]
 
 $group = $termStore.Groups[$TermGroupName]
 
 $termSet = $group.TermSets[$TermSetName]
 
 $column = $web.fields.getfieldbyinternalname($FieldinternalName)
 
 if($Column)
 
 {
 
 $column.sspid = $termstore.id
 
 $column.termsetid = $termSet.id
 
 $column.update($true);
 
 }
 
 }
 
 $web.Dispose()
 
 $site.Dispose()
 
 }
 
 function AddSiteColumnsToContentTypes([string]$siteUrl, [string]$fieldName, [string]$contentTypeName) 
 
 {
 
 $site = Get-SPSite $siteUrl
 
 $web = $site.RootWeb
 
 $field = $web.Fields.getfieldbyinternalname($fieldName)
 
 $ct = $web.ContentTypes[$contentTypeName]
 
 $link = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldLink $field
 
 write-host "Adding site column " $fieldName " to content type " $ct.name -fore yellow
 
 $ct.FieldLinks.Add($link)
 
 write-host "Site column " $fieldName " is added to content type " $ct.name " Successfully ...... Done !"-fore green
 
 $ct.Update($true)
 
 }
 
 ################### End of Functions ###############################################
 
 #################Creating Site columns##########################################################
 
 $SiteColumnCreationDetailsCSV = $scriptBase + "" + "05.SiteColumnCreationDetails.csv"
 
 import-csv $SiteColumnCreationDetailsCSV | where {
 
 CreateField $_.siteurl $_.FieldXML $_.centralADminURL $_.TermStoreName $_.TermGroupName $_.TermSetName $_.FieldinternalName $_.Type
 
 }
 
 #################Adding site column to content type#############################################
 
 $SiteColumnReferencedContentTypesCSV = $scriptBase + "" + "06.SiteColumnReferencedContentTypes.csv"
 
 import-csv $SiteColumnReferencedContentTypesCSV | where {
 
 AddSiteColumnsToContentTypes $_.SiteURL $_.FieldName $_.ContentTypeName
 
 }
 
 #stop-transcript 
 

On the CSV File, we have a column called FieldXML. People may think, how to get that XML. Even that also made easy, if we use the SharePoint Manager.

The simple idea is, create a test column on the Site Manually. Using the SharePoint Manager, get the Schea XML. Replace on the CSV file. Execute the PS1. Very simple right. Hope this will be helpful for many developers, admins to eliminate the problems with the Schema.

Download Script HERE

Happy Coding.

Sathish Nadarajan.