Conditionally specifying switch parameters in PowerShell

Question

I'm writing a PowerShell script that uses the SharePoint 2010 New-SPWeb cmdlet to create sites defined by an Xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<siteStructure>
  <site>
    <url>Corporate</url>
    <name>Corporate</name>
    <language>1033</language>
    <addToQuickLaunch>0</addToQuickLaunch>
    <addToTopNav>0</addToTopNav>
    <useParentTopNav>1</useParentTopNav>
  </site>
</siteStructure>

The New-SPWeb cmdlet has three switch parameters:

AddToQuickLaunch
AddToTopNav
UseParentTopNav

I'm having trouble figuring out how to only set the switch parameter when the matching value in the Xml is 0 or $true.

It's almost like I need some sort of inline-if syntax when calling New-SPWeb to set the three switch parameters.

$siteStructureData = [xml](Get-Content .\Data-SiteStructure.xml)

# find the template to use
$webTemplate = Get-SPWebTemplate | Where {$_.Title -like $templateName } 

if ($webTemplate)
{
    # iterate through and create sites
    foreach ($siteToCreate in $siteStructureData.siteStructure.site)
    {   
        "Creating site $webtitle at $URL/$webUrl"

        # http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607579.aspx
        New-SPWeb `
            -Url "$URL/$siteToCreate.url" `
            -Name $siteToCreate.name `
            -Template $webTemplate `
            -Language $siteToCreate.language 
            # set -AddToQuickLaunch
            # set -AddToTopNav
            # set -UseParentTopNav
    }
}
else
{
    throw ("Could not find template $templateName");
}

Many thanks!

Wow! I am doing exactly the same thing! Only nearly 2 years later — Andez
– Andez, Commented Aug 23, 2013 at 9:20

Roman Kuzmin · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-18 14:00:37Z

28

Calculate the $result ($true or $false) before:

$result = ...

And use it after:

New-SPWeb `
-Url "$URL/$siteToCreate.url" `
-Name $siteToCreate.name `
-Template $webTemplate `
-Language $siteToCreate.language `
-AddToQuickLaunch:$result `
-AddToTopNav:$result `
-UseParentTopNav:$result

answered Oct 18, 2011 at 14:00

Roman Kuzmin

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4 Comments

George Durzi Over a year ago

Thank you, Roman. I wasn't aware of that syntax for switch parameters.

Roman Kuzmin Over a year ago

Yes, it is not easy to discover... Long time ago I had a problem as well.

Andez Over a year ago

Thanks for that... Just discovered in powergui if you put a colon after a parameter, the intellisense lets you know you can specify $true or $false

David Pierson Apr 9 at 0:55

I'd love to understand why the switch or true/false parameters like AddToQuickLaunch need a colon instead of a space between parameter and value. That had me stumped til I saw this.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:47:06Z

26

There is one more way. You can use splatting like this:

$params = @{
            Url = "$URL/$siteToCreate.url"
            Name = $siteToCreate.name
            Template = $webTemplate 
            Language = $siteToCreate.language }
# if needed, add the keys to the hashtable
if ($result) {
    $params.AddToQuickLaunch = $true
    $params.AddToTopNav = $true
    $params.UseParentTopNav = $true
}
# now you just pass the parameters:
New-SPWeb @params

More about splatting:

What does the "@" symbol do in Powershell? http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2009/01/02/how-and-why-to-use-splatting-passing-switch-parameters.aspx

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:47

CommunityBot

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answered Oct 19, 2011 at 17:37

stej

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