When navigating the Sitecore ecosystem effectively, PowerShell extensions aren't just a helpful tool; they're practically a prerequisite. As someone who has spent a substantial amount of time in this space, I have distilled a set of functions that I've found myself using time and time again.
Join me as I unpack a curated list of five functions that have become staples in my Sitecore toolkit.
Get-IsPublished
The "Get-IsPublished" function checks if a specific item, identified by its ID, is published on a "web" database. It takes an item as input and queries for it against the "web" database using its ID. If it finds the item in the database, it returns "TRUE," indicating that it is published. If it doesn't find the item (i.e., if the item is null), it returns "FALSE", indicating that it is not published.
This is particularly useful for displaying a column in your SPE report to denote if the item is published to the web database:
Get-ItemSitecoreCELink
The "Get-ItemSitecoreLink" function generates a URL to open a specific item in the Sitecore Content Editor. It takes a Sitecore item as input and uses various properties of that item (like its ID, version number, and language) to construct a URL. This URL, when accessed, will open the Sitecore Content Editor with that specific item loaded, allowing for easy navigation directly to the editing interface for that item.
Please note that the base of the URL ("https://yourcmurl.com/") in this function is a placeholder that you'd replace with your actual Sitecore Content Management URL.
This is useful if the report is exported to Excel or CSV as it provides the direct link to reach the item without manually traversing the tree or searching for the item by GUID.
Get-LinkFieldUrl
The "Get-LinkFieldUrl" function retrieves the URL from a Sitecore item's link field. It takes a Sitecore item as its input and utilizes a regular expression to extract and return the URL stored in a "My Link Field" field. The regular expression is designed to find and capture the URL stored as a value in a link HTML element's URL attribute.
If the "My Link Field" is not empty and matches the pattern specified by the regular expression, the URL is retrieved and returned. If the field is empty or doesn't match the pattern, the function returns nothing, essentially returning a null value.
This function couples well for reports if you need to extract the URL out of a Sitecore Link Field value to display in your report:Assert-HasLayout
The "Assert-HasLayout" function checks if a given Sitecore item has a "final layout" defined. It accepts a Sitecore item as its input and uses the built-in "Get-Layout" function to retrieve the final layout details of the item. If the item has a final layout (meaning the $layout variable is not null or empty), the function returns a "TRUE" string, indicating that a layout is present.
If no layout is found for the item (meaning the $layout variable is null or empty), it returns a "FALSE" string.
Usage example
Get-FormattedDate
The "Get-FormattedDate" function takes a raw date string as its input and attempts to turn it into a more user-friendly date format.
The raw date string is expected to follow a particular "yyyyMMddTHHmmssZ" pattern ("20230908T123456Z" representing September 8, 2023, 12:34:56 PM in Coordinated Universal Time, for example) - which is precisely how Sitecore typically stored DateTime fields in the database.
The function reads this string and converts it to a date format that is more commonly used, which includes the month, day, and year (like "09/08/2023").
If, for any reason, it can't convert the input into a date (maybe because the input doesn't follow the expected pattern), it will simply return an empty string. This way, even if it receives unexpected inputs, it won't crash and will still produce a result, even if that result is just an empty string.
By passing in the raw DateTime field value into the Get-FormattedDate function, the report will convert it to a readable string value when exporting the report to Excel, CSV, or JSON.
Whether you're a seasoned Sitecore developer or just starting out, these 5 functions can become essential tools in your developer toolkit, helping you navigate the complexities of Sitecore with greater ease and efficiency ✌.
