SharePoint Programming

To Open the Windows PowerShell Session :

1. On the Start menu, click All Programs.

2. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

3. Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell

Note : You should have SharePoint_Shell_Access role on the configuration database and you should be a member of the WSS_ADMIN_WPG local group on the computer where SharePoint Server 2010 is installed.


Some of the Common Commands and Operations are:


Create Web Application Variable

$webapp = Get-SPWebApplication "http://WebapplicationUrl"


Create SharePoint Site Variable (Instance of SPSite)

$siteurl = "http://MySharePointSite"

$Oursite=new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteurl)

Here we have created a variable Oursite, which contains an instance of type SPSite. Now you can use it to display all webs in the site collection.

$Oursite.AllWebs more // List all Webs in the Site


Create Service Application Variable

$spapp = Get-SPServiceApplication -Name "ServiceApplicationDisplayName"


Create a Webapplication:

New -SPWebApplication -ApplicationPoolName <Name of the application pool> -Name <Name of the new Web application> [ -Port <Port on which the Web application can be accessed>] [-HostHeader <Valid URL assigned to the Web application that must correlate to the alternate access mapping configuration>] [-URL <Load-balanced URL for the Web application>][ -ApplicationPoolAccount <User account that this application pool will run as>]

Delete WebApplication

Remove-SPWebApplication –identity -URL <http://sitename> -Confirm

Create\Delete a Site Collection:

Create a Site collection:

Get-SPWebTemplate

$template = Get-SPWebTemplate "STS#0"

New-SPSite –Url "<URL for the new site collection>" –OwnerAlias "<domain\user>" –Template $template

Here $template is a Variable to store the type of template we want to use while creating a site collection.

Delete a Site Collection:

Remove-SPSite –Identity <URL> –GradualDelete

Here <URL > is a site Collection Url .



Back\Restore a content database

To Backup :

Backup -SPFarm -Directory <Backup folder> -BackupMethod -Item <Content database name> [-Verbose]

Backup folder - is a folder to save your backup.

BackupMethod – Can Specify between Full or Differential.


To Restore:

Restore -SPFarm -Directory <Backup folder> -RestoreMethod Overwrite -Item <Content database name> [-BackupId] [-Verbose]

If you don’t know the BackupID you can display all the backups using the below command and get the GUID of the Backup.

Get-SPBackupHistory -Directory <Backup folder>

You can check all the Backup-Restore Operations Here


Deploy WebPart Soluiton Package

Install -SPWebPartPack -LiteralPath "PathToCABorwspFile" -Name "NameOFWebPart"

PathToCABorwspFile- is the full path to the CAB file that is being deployed.

NameOFWebPart- is the name of the Web Part that is being deployed.


Install Activate and Deactivate Feature using Windows Powershell

Install Feature :

$MyFeatureId = $(Get -SPFeature -limit all where {$_.displayname -eq "myfeatureName"}).Id

Install -SPFeature $MyFeatureId


Activate\Enable Feature :

$singleSiteCollection = Get -SPSite -Identity http://MySingleSiteCollectionURL

Enable -SPFeature $MyFeatureId -Url $singleSiteCollection.URL


Deactivate\Disable Feature :

$singleSiteCollection = Get-SPSite -Identity http://MySingleSiteCollectionURL

Disable -SPFeature $MyFeatureId -Url $singleSiteCollection.URL


Command TO List all the PowerShell Commands
Get-Command –PSSnapin “Get-Command –PSSnapin “Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell” format-table name > C:\SP2010_PowerShell_Commands.txt

Attach or Detach Content Databases in SharePoint 2010
Adding a content database using PowerShell in SharePoint 2010

Related Posts:

SharePoint 2010 Windows PowerShell Commands - II

Windows Powershell Resources