Tag Archives: PnP

PNP Document Library provisioning – “Failed! Specified method is not supported”

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Please note: This appears to be fixed in the latest version of PNP 3.6.1902.2.

I’m using PNP templates to create lists on my client site. These templates haven’t changed in months, but suddenly yesterday these templates kept failing with the error message “Specified method is not supported.”

<pnp:ListInstance Title="Templates" Description="" DocumentTemplate="{site}/Templates/Forms/template.dotx" TemplateType="101" Url="Templates" EnableVersioning="true" EnableMinorVersions="true" MinorVersionLimit="0" MaxVersionLimit="0" DraftVersionVisibility="0" TemplateFeatureID="00bfea71-e717-4e80-aa17-d0c71b360101" EnableAttachments="false" ForceCheckout="false">
<pnp:ContentTypeBindings>
<pnp:ContentTypeBindingContentTypeID="0x0101" Default="true"/>
<pnp:ContentTypeBindingContentTypeID="0x0120"/>
</pnp:ContentTypeBindings>
<pnp:Views>
<ViewName="{guid}" DefaultView="TRUE" MobileView="TRUE" MobileDefaultView="TRUE" Type="HTML" DisplayName="All Documents" Url="{site}/Templates/Forms/AllItems.aspx" Level="1" BaseViewID="1" ContentTypeID="0x" ImageUrl="/_layouts/15/images/dlicon.png?rev=44">
<Query>
<OrderBy>
<FieldRefName="FileLeafRef"/>
</OrderBy>
</Query>
<ViewFields>
<FieldRefName="DocIcon"/>
<FieldRefName="LinkFilename"/>
<FieldRefName="Modified"/>
<FieldRefName="Editor"/>
<FieldRefName="_UIVersionString"/>
</ViewFields>
<RowLimitPaged="TRUE">30</RowLimit>
<JSLink>clienttemplates.js</JSLink>
</View>
</pnp:Views>
</pnp:ListInstance>

It turns out the problem was that I was setting the MinorVersionLimit and MaxVersionLimit to 0.

When set to 0, it allowed there to be no limit.

It seems that Microsoft has removed the ability to set this to 0. When trying to set the value through the browser I get a message saying the value needs to be between 1 – 50000.

If I change my template to set MinorVersionLimit and MaxVersionLimit to 50000 it works without any issues.


<pnp:ListInstance Title="Templates" Description="" DocumentTemplate="{site}/Templates/Forms/template.dotx" TemplateType="101" Url="Templates" EnableVersioning="true" EnableMinorVersions="true" MinorVersionLimit="50000" MaxVersionLimit="50000" DraftVersionVisibility="0" TemplateFeatureID="00bfea71-e717-4e80-aa17-d0c71b360101" EnableAttachments="false" ForceCheckout="false">

I’m not sure if this is all related to Microsoft announcement MC138148 that stated that versioning would change, so that it would be on by default for all document libraries and users wouldn’t be able to turn it off. It did state that if you were OK with this change, then there is nothing you need to do, and that the roll out would happen on the 30th September 2018. It’s not quite that date yet, but I’m wondering if that’s the complete date for all tenants that Microsoft puts.

View Trace Logs with PnP Provisioning Templates using PowerShell

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When running the Get-PnPProvisioningTemplate and the Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate it is sometime necessary to see what is going on while the call is processing.

Just run the following command first before calling your Get/Apply -PNPProvisioningTemplate command.

Set-PnPTraceLog -On -Level:Debug

If you need to turn it off again

Set-PnPTraceLog -Off

PnP Provisioning Templates Adding – Everyone except external users

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On a recent project of mine, I’ve been working with the PnP Provisioning engine using PowerShell. It’s really the first time I’ve really worked with it, and I must say I’m impressed at how easy it is to use.

If you have never used it before I recommend you checking out the following articles on MSDN.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/pnp_powershell/pnp-powershell-overview

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/pnp_articles/pnp-provisioning-framework

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/pnp_articles/pnp-remote-provisioning

Basic installation setup

If you have a Windows 10 device or have installed PowerShellGet, to check if you have the latest version installed in your PowerShell environment, run the following below

Get-Module SharePointPnPPowerShell* -ListAvailable | Select-Object Name, Version | Sort-Object Version -Descending

I already have the latest version at the time of writing this 2.17.1708.1.

You can install or Upgrade the SharePointPNPPowerShell with the following commands.

To Install

#SharePoint Online
Install-Module SharePointPnpPowerShellOnline

#SharePoint 2016
Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShell2016

#SharePoint 2013
Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShell2013

To Upgrade

Update-Module SharePointPnPPowerShell*

Everyone and Everyone Except External Users

The quickest way to create a PnP Provisioning template ready to use again, is to create your site within SharePoint using point and click.

I’ve created my site with Members set up to “Everyone except external users” and Visitors set up to “Everyone”.

After you have created your site, you use the following commands to connect and export the template.

Connect-PnpOnline -Url:https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/pnpexamples -Credentials: (Get-Credential)
Get-PnPProvisioningTemplate -Out 'pnpExample.xml'

If you open the XML file, and look in the <pnp:Security> section, you will see that Additional Members has c:0-.f|rolemanager|spo-grid-all-users/{GUID} and Additional Visitors has c:0(.s|true. These represent Everyone except external users and Visitors respectively.

If you are only using this template to create more sites in the same tenant that you exported it from, then you are good. The GUID after ‘spo-grid-all-users’ will always be that GUID in your tenant. However, when you want to use this template in other tenants – for example you have a staging and production environment – then this GUID will not work and the importing of the template will not add Everyone except external users to your members group.

What is the GUID after spo-grid-all-users?

It turns out that the GUID relates to the Authentication Realm ID of your tenant, and luckily PnP have a PowerShell command

Get-PnPAuthenticationRealm

How does that help us?

You can pass parameters into the Apply-PnPTemplate. First we need to change the XML inside <pnp:AdditionalMembers>

From:

<pnp:User Name="c:0-.f|rolemanager|spo-grid-all-users/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx" />

To:

<pnp:User Name="c:0-.f|rolemanager|spo-grid-all-users/{parameter:AuthenticationRealm}" />

Save the XML template and now you can run the following commands to apply the template to a new site in a different tenant. (Please note my team site I’m applying this to has already been created)

Connect-PnpOnline -Url:https://myOtherTenant.sharepoint.com/sites/pnpexamples -Credentials: (Get-Credential)
$AuthenticationRealm = Get-PnPAuthenticationRealm
Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate -Path:'pnpExample.xml' -Parameters:@{"AuthenticationRealm"=$AuthenticationRealm}

After applying the template to another tenant, you will see your “Everyone except external users” inserted correctly.

Using the Windows Credentials Manager with PnP PowerShell

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Do you get fed up keep typing in your username and password when you are connection to SharePoint via PowerShell? Or you have to keep changing between multiple tenants and get fed up keep typing in the username and password? Did you know you could use the built-in Windows Credential Manager to help ease your pain?

  • Open your Credential Manager

  • Under the Generic Credentials, click ‘Add a generic credential‘

  • For each tenant/user account you need, create a Generic Credential.
    • Put a label name to indicate what the permissions are for (e.g DevAdmin, TestAdmin, TestUser etc)
    • Put the username of the account
    • Put the password of the account

  • After you have created your Generic Credential(s), when you try to Connect to SharePoint using PNP, you can pass your Label to the credentials. 
    Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://mydevtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/pnpexamples" -Credentials:devAdmin

    In the screenshot below, I’m connecting to my tenant using a label I created called CFAdmin1

Using the above technique of Credential Manager labels, you can make your PowerShell scripts easier by creating a string variable called label and pass it in. This will make running the same script for multiple environments easier.

[CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess)]
param(
    # The environment label to use for connection
    [Parameter(Mandatory)]
    [string]
    $Label,

    # The URL of the tenancy to create the site collections in, do not include the -admin
    [Parameter(Mandatory)]
    [string]
    $URL,
)
if ($VerbosePreference) {
    Set-PnPTraceLog -On -Level:Debug
}
else {
    Set-PnPTraceLog -Off
}
Connect-PnPOnline -Url:$URL -Credentials:$Label
…
… #Additional code to update Web
…

If the above file was called UpdateWebSite.ps1 I would type in the following:


.\UpdateWebSite.ps1 -Url:'https://mydevtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/pnpexamples' -Label:devAdmin