Managing Quick Launch navigation in SharePoint Foundation using PowerShell

Quick Launch (left-hand navigation) functionality in SharePoint Foundation can be fairly limited if you’re looking to add or standardise links across multiple sites. Unlike SharePoint Server 2010, there are no facilities available to inherit navigation items from parent sites or show items below the current site.

One method of managing navigation items on sites without reverting to code-based solutions would be to use PowerShell. In this article I will run through the basics of moving and creating new Quick Launch headings and links, and at the end provide a couple of scripts that allow you to export Quick Launch items from one site and import them into another site.

Note that these scripts will only work on SharePoint Foundation sites – or sites in SharePoint Server 2010 where the “SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure” site collection feature is not activated. I have covered managing SharePoint Server 2010 Quick Launch navigation on site collections with the Publishing Infrastructure feature activated in this article.

First, we need to get the Web and QuickLaunch objects and assign them to variables. For this example, I am modifying the root site of a site collection created at http://portal/sites/foundation:

$web = Get-SPWeb http://portal/sites/foundation
$qlNav = $web.Navigation.QuickLaunch

If you would like to see a list of headings already created on the site with their node ID’s, type the following:

$qlNav | select Title, ID

To make changes to a heading, we need to assign it to a variable first. There are methods to do this with the ID and link URL, but I prefer to use the heading Title as it’s more user friendly and will be the same across each site. For example, type this command to get the Libraries heading:

$qlHeading = $qlNav | where { $_.Title -eq "Libraries" }

If there is more than one heading with the same name, you will need to type the following command to select the correct one. Changing the number in the square brackets will be how you do this, with 0 being the first heading, 1 the second heading, 2 the third heading, etc.

$qlHeading = (qlNav | where { $_.Title -eq "Libraries" })[0]

If you are looking to move the heading order, then you need to get the heading you wish to move, the heading that you wish it to appear under, and then apply the Move method. For example, to move the Lists heading to appear underneath the Discussions heading, type the following:

$qlHeading = $qlNav | where { $_.Title -eq "Lists" }
$qlNewPreviousSibling = $qlNav | where { $_.Title -eq "Discussions" }
$qlHeading.Move($qlNav, $qlNewPreviousSibling)

To create a new heading, we have to use the SPNavigationNode class, which accepts the following properties:

• Display Name (required) – Will appear in the Quick Launch as the name of the item
• URL (required) – Hyperlink address for the item. You can set this with double-quotes if you do not want to set a URL for the item
• External Link [$true/$false] (optional) – Specifies whether the link is internal (item in SharePoint) or external (another website). As it is set to $false by default, you only need to specify this property if creating a link to an external site.

The following example creates a heading under Libraries called “External Links”, which will appear in the Quick Launch but does not actually link to anywhere:

$qlNewPreviousSibling = $qlNav | where { $_.Title -eq "Libraries" }
$headingNode = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Navigation.SPNavigationNode("External Links", "")
$qlNav.Add($headingNode, $qlNewPreviousSibling)

To add links to a heading, we use the same SPNavigationNode class as before, with the same properties. First, we get the heading that the links will appear under and then add them to the heading as children using the Add, AddAsFirst, or AddAsLast methods. In the example below I add one internal and two external links to our new External Links heading:

$qlHeading = $qlNav | where { $_.Title -eq "External Links" }
$linkNode = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Navigation.SPNavigationNode("Get-SPScripts", "http://get-spscripts.com", $true)
$qlHeading.Children.AddAsLast($linkNode)
$linkNode = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Navigation.SPNavigationNode("Links", "/sites/foundation/Lists/Links/AllItems.aspx")
$qlHeading.Children.AddAsLast($linkNode)
$linkNode = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Navigation.SPNavigationNode("Follow me on Twitter", "http://twitter.com/phillipchilds", $true)
$qlHeading.Children.AddAsLast($linkNode)

To view a list of these links after creation, type the following command:

$qlHeading.Children | select Title, ID

Finally, to move the link order, you need to get the link you wish to move, the link that you wish it to appear under, and then apply the Move method. The link can be assigned to a variable by accessing the Children property of the heading. For example, to move the “Follow me on Twitter” link to appear underneath the “Get-SPScripts” link, type the following:

$qlNewPreviousSibling = $qlHeading.Children | where { $_.Title -eq "Get-SPScripts" }
$qlLink = $qlHeading.Children | where { $_.Title -eq "Follow me on Twitter" }
$qlLink.Move($qlHeading.Children, $qlNewPreviousSibling)

The end result of all this scripting is that we now have a new heading and three links underneath that heading:

Exporting/Importing Quick Launch Navigation Items

As promised, the following scripts will provide the ability for you to export the Quick Launch navigation items from one site and import them into another site. The export script actually creates an XML file on the computer with the items listed hierarchically. The advantage with this approach is that you could create the XML file manually for import into sites as a new structure.

Here is the export script:

#Get Web and Quick Launch objects
$web = Get-SPWeb http://portal/sites/foundation
$qlNav = $web.Navigation.QuickLaunch

#Create Export File
$xmlFilePath = "C:\Install\QuickLaunchNav.xml"
New-Item $xmlFilePath -type file -force

#Export Quick Launch Navigation to XML file
Add-Content $xmlFilePath "<?xml version=`"1.0`" encoding=`"utf-8`"?>"
Add-Content $xmlFilePath "`n<Navigation>"
$webUrlXml = "`n<WebUrl>" + $web.ServerRelativeUrl + "</WebUrl>"
Add-Content $xmlFilePath $WebUrlXml
Add-Content $xmlFilePath "`n<Headings>"
$qlNav | ForEach-Object {
    $headingXML = "`n<Heading Title=`"" + $_.Title.Replace("&","&amp;") + "`" Url=`"" + $_.Url.Replace("&","&amp;") + "`">"
    Add-Content $xmlFilePath $headingXML
    $_.Children | ForEach-Object {
        $navLinkXML = "<NavLink Title=`"" + $_.Title.Replace("&","&amp;") + "`" Url=`"" + $_.Url.Replace("&","&amp;") + "`"/>"
        Add-Content $xmlFilePath $navLinkXML
    }
    Add-Content $xmlFilePath "`n</Heading>"
}
Add-Content $xmlFilePath "`n</Headings>"
Add-Content $xmlFilePath "`n</Navigation>"
$web.Dispose()

This script will look at the site specified and create an XML file similar to the one shown below:

One thing to note here is that we store the URL of the originating site in a <WebUrl> property. We need this when importing navigation items into other sites as we will replace the site path stored in the XML file with the site path of the destination site for any internal links – for example, if the destination site path is /sites/newsite, in the example above we will replace /sites/foundation with /sites/newsite for all internal links.

Now the import script:

#Get Web and Quick Launch objects
$web = Get-SPWeb http://portal/sites/newsite
$qlNav = $web.Navigation.QuickLaunch

#Get XML File
$xmlFilePath = "C:\Install\QuickLaunchNav.xml"
$xmlFile = [xml](Get-Content($xmlFilePath))
$oldWebUrl = $xmlFile.Navigation.WebUrl
$currentLinks = @()

#Clear Quick Launch links
$qlNav | ForEach-Object {
    $currentLinks = $currentLinks + $_.Id
}
$currentLinks | ForEach-Object {
    $currentNode = $web.Navigation.GetNodeById($_)
    write-host "Deleting" $currentNode.Title "and all child navigation links..."
    $qlNav.Delete($currentNode)
}

#Create Quick Launch Links
$xmlFile.Navigation.Headings.Heading | ForEach-Object {
    $headingNode = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Navigation.SPNavigationNode($_.Title, $_.Url.Replace($oldWebUrl, $web.ServerRelativeUrl))
    write-host "Creating Heading:" $_.Title
    $heading = $qlNav.AddAsLast($headingNode)
    $_.NavLink | ForEach-Object {
        $linkNode = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Navigation.SPNavigationNode($_.Title, $_.Url.Replace($oldWebUrl, $web.ServerRelativeUrl))
        write-host "Creating Navigation Link:" $_.Title
        $link = $heading.Children.AddAsLast($linkNode)
    }
}
$web.Dispose()

This script connects to the destination site, reads the XML file, clears the navigation items on the site currently, and creates the Quick Launch navigation items and links as defined in the XML file. Note that the script will wipe any navigation items on the destination site before creating these items – it will not add new items to those already present (although you could alter the script to do so). Therefore, make sure that you test, test and test again before trying this out on a live environment.