Sitecore PowerShell commands – XM Cloud Content Migration

In this post, I’ve listed the most commonly used Sitecore PowerShell commands for content migration. This blog continues from my earlier post: Sitecore XM Cloud Content Migration: Plan and Strategy.

During migration, we created several PowerShell scripts to extract data from the legacy database to CSVs. We then used those CSVs to import content into XM Cloud instances. Based on those scripts, I organized the commands into two groups: Working with Sitecore items and Working with Sitecore renderings. These commands aim to help developers handle similar Sitecore to XM Cloud migrations.

The command snippets are also available as a public GitHub Gist – Most widely used PowerShell SPE commands in Sitecore XM Cloud content migration

Working With Sitecore Items

Create a New Item Using the Template ID

$item = New-Item -Path $path -Name $itemName -ItemType $itemTemplateId -Language "en"

Sometimes, you may need to create an item with the same ID as in the legacy system to avoid numerous reconfigurations. Especially if those items are being used as the data source. In such a use case, we could use CreateItem from Sitecore.Data.Managers.ItemManager. This method takes the item name, parent item, template ID, and item ID. The passed $id will be the ID of the newly created Sitecore Item. 

$item = [Sitecore.Data.Managers.ItemManager]::CreateItem($name, $parentItem, $templateItem.ID, $id)

Also, there is a ForceId param supported by the ‘New Item‘ function

New-Item -Path $path -Name $name -ItemType "Blog Page" -ForceId "3904b0bf-b10b-4fbb-9ced-3de87dfa3d48"

Create a New Item Using the Branch Template

$item = [Sitecore.Data.Managers.ItemManager]::AddFromTemplate($itemName, $branchTemplateId, $parentItem)

Checking if the Path Exists in the Content Tree

In use cases, we need to check whether the path exists before creating an item on that path. 

$pathExists = Test-Path -Path $path
if($pathExists)
{
  //logic
}

Copying Items

Copy-Item -Path $sourcePath -Destination $targetPath

Working with Sitecore Renderings

Get All Renderings for an Item

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This script was used to analyze an item’s legacy renderings, map them with new XM cloud renderings (components), and map fields. 

$item = Get-Item -Path $path -Version "latest"
$resultObj = @()
$defaultLayout = Get-LayoutDevice "Default"
Get-Rendering -Item $item -Device $defaultLayout -FinalLayout | ForEach {
    $renderingItem = Get-Item -Path master: -ID $_.ItemID
    $Obj = @{
        RenderingName =  $renderingItem.Name
        RenderingId =  $_.ItemID
        DataSource = $_.Datasource
        Placeholder = $_.Placeholder
        PageItem = $_.OwnerItemID
}
    $resultObj += New-Object psobject -Property $Obj
}
$resultObj | Format-Table RenderingName, RenderingId, DataSource, Placeholder, PageItem

Create and Set Rendering for an Item

When importing data from CSV, we often need to create and set a data source to render an item.  For this use case, I created a function that takes the rendering ID, the placeholder to add the rendering, and the data source ID. 

function CreateAndSetRendering{
    param([String]$id,[String]$placeholder,[String]$dsid
        )
        
        $renderingId = [Sitecore.Data.ID]::Parse($id)
        $rendering = get-item -path master: -id $renderingId
        $renderinginstance = $rendering | new-rendering -placeholder $placeholder
        if($dsid -ne "")
        {
            $datasourceId = [Sitecore.Data.ID]::Parse($dsid)
            $renderinginstance.datasource = $datasourceId
        }
        add-rendering -item $item -placeholder $placeholder -instance $renderinginstance -finallayout
        $item.editing.beginedit()
        $item.editing.endedit() | out-null
}

Retrieve the Rendering and Remove From the Presentation

{3904b0bf-b10b-4fbb-9ced-3de87dfa3d48} is the Sitecore Item ID of the rendering item we wish to retrieve

$defaultLayout = Get-LayoutDevice "Default"
$rendering = Get-Rendering -Item $item -Device $defaultLayout -FinalLayout | Where-Object { $_.ItemID -eq "{3904b0bf-b10b-4fbb-9ced-3de87dfa3d48}"}
Remove-Rendering -Item $item -Instance $rendering -Device $defaultLayout -FinalLayout

Getting a Specific Rendering Parameter Value

$paraName is the rendering parameter name, for example, “Styles”.

$rendering = Get-Item -Path master: -Id "{3904b0bf-b10b-4fbb-9ced-3de87dfa3d48}"
$renderingItem = Get-Rendering -Item $item -Device $defaultLayout -Rendering $rendering -FinalLayout
$parameterValue = Get-RenderingParameter -Rendering $renderingItem -Name $paramName

Updating Rendering Parameter Value

If there are more than one rendering of the same type, the returned $renderingItem will be an array so you can access the first rendering parameters $renderingItem[0].Parameters: This will return all parameters, and then you will have to check for a specific parameter.

$rendering = Get-Item -Path master: -Id "{3904b0bf-b10b-4fbb-9ced-3de87dfa3d48}"
$renderingItem = Get-Rendering -Item $item -Device $defaultLayout -Rendering $rendering -FinalLayout
$renedringParams = $renderingItem[0].Parameters
$styles = "Styles"
 if ($renedringParams.Contains($styles)) {
      $renedringParams = @{
            Styles = "%7B3904b0bf-b10b-4fbb-9ced-3de87dfa3d48%7D"
    }
    }
Set-RenderingParameter -Instance $renderingItem[0] -Parameter $renedringParams | Out-Null
Set-Rendering -Item $item -Instance $renderingItem[0] -FinalLayout

Note: We must embed Sitecore ID for your required style between %7B and %7D. For multiple values, the separator is %7D%7C%7B. It’s how Sitecore stores params values.

You can store multiple values like this: Styles = “%7B3904b0bf-b10b-4fbb-9ced-3de87dfa3d48%7D%7C%7B936219ee-a03b-49c5-8eff-8b877b5c1319%7D”

Conclusion

So, this is the consolidated list of Sitecore PowerShell commands for content migration. The IDs used in the above snippets were not valid Sitecore item IDs. Replace them with valid Sitecore item IDs based on the Sitecore items used in your project.

Keep learning!