Problem:
While working with SharePoint Online – sometimes it is
required to take the backup of the site or to export the site to some other
environment, but due to no access to SharePoint server, we end up with writing
huge code to migrate the site contents to another site using any client object
model.
If server side scenario is considered, we have lots of
options to perform a simple site export and import operation , like say – use
stsadm commands , use Central Administration , use powershell scripts but for
SharePoint Online environment what to do? Well here comes web services in
picture , how? We will see in details.
Solution:
SharePoint Web services are already there since MOSS 2007,
but mostly not used. Here we are going to use the sites.asmx web service to
export and import the sites.
Note that before performing these operations using web
services – make sure that you have site collection administrator rights on
source as well as target site.
I created a Team site as source site and added some
sample data to it , say about 4000 documents + 3000 list items with attachments
+ some content types + some site columns + some lookup columns + some list and
content type workflows.
We can use the ExportWeb function given by the
sites.asmx web service which takes some parameters as input – let’s see what those
are.
- 1. jobName: this is the string parameter and can be set to any string , using this name the cmp files will be created. Please make a note that no special characters are allowed here.
- 2. webUrl: url of the site which needs to be exported as cmp files.
- 3. Datapath: path where all cmp files will be stored (typically a path of the document library on source site)
- 4. Includesecurity: as name suggests – Boolean parameter to include security or not
- 5. Overwrite: Boolean parameter to overwrite cmp files on save location
- 6. cabSize: size of each cmp file , can be set to 2GB max.
- Export web function returns an integer after completion , but mostly the description is not available for the return types.
Here it is :
Value
|
Description
|
1
|
Pending:
The operation is in progress.
|
4
|
InvalidExportUrl:
The site specified in the webUrl is not accessible.
|
5
|
ExportFileNoAccess:
The location specified in the dataPath is not accessible.
|
6
|
ExportWebNoAccess:
The user does not have the required permissions to execute this operation
successfully. The user MUST have the ManageLists and AddListItems permissions
in the solution gallery.
|
7
|
ExportError:
An error other than the errors listed in this table occurred during exporting
the site. An example of a condition that would result in this error is if
there was no content on the site to export.
|
8
|
UploadDataError:
The content migration package file is not uploaded to the server
successfully. This can occur if the specified path was invalid, read-only,
the caller is not authorized to access it, or the file is already open.
|
ImportWeb:
While importing the web from cmp files using web
services – we can use ImportWeb function of sites.asmx web service.
Important
part here is – the target site on which import is to be done – should be
created using OOB blank site definition. There can be an error while performing
the import operation like – the source site is created using template STS#0 and
target site is created using STS#1 , - solution to this is – create target site
collection without any template – select the select template later option while
creating target the site collection.
ImportWeb function take some parameters let’s see what
those are
- 1. jobName: string parameter , can be set to anything – but no special characters should be included.
- 2. webUrl: url of target web.
- 3. dataFiles: this is array of string containing url of all cmp files. Example : If there are 10 cmp files in the source location – then dataFiles parameter will be any array having urls of 10 files in ascending order.
- 4. logPath: path where log file can be created. This can be passed as null. (typically a url of any document library)
- 5. includesecurity: to include security or not
- 6. overwrite: overwrite log files.
Similar to ExportWeb function – ImportWeb function
also return an interger on completion.
Here are the details
Value
|
Description
|
1
|
Pending:
The operation is in progress.
|
2
|
GenericError:
An error other than the errors listed in this table occurred importing the
site.
|
4
|
InvalidImportUrl:
The site specified in the webUrl is not accessible.
|
5
|
ImportFileNoAccess:
At least one location specified in dataFiles is not accessible.
|
6
|
ImportWebNoAccess:
The user has insufficient permission to import to the location specified in
webUrl.
|
8
|
mportWebNotEmpty:
The location specified by webUrl corresponds to an existing site that is not
a blank site.
|
11
|
LogFileNoAccess:
The location specified by logPath is not accessible.
|
Ok , so after lots of theory – here is the simple console
application example which I tried on my environment successfully.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string
sourcesiteurl = "http://sourcesitecollection/";
string
targetsiteurl = "http://targetblanksitecollection/";
string svcUrl = "_vti_bin/sites.asmx";
Sites sites = new Sites();
NetworkCredential
credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password",
"domain");
sites.Credentials
= credentials;
sites.Timeout
= 600000;
Console.WriteLine("Choose..1. Export , 2. Import");
string responce = Console.ReadLine();
if (responce.Equals("1"))
{
sites.Url
= string.Format("{0}{1}",
sourcesiteurl, svcUrl);
try
{
int result = sites.ExportWeb("MyExportTest",
sourcesiteurl, "http://sourcesite/Exports",
true, true, true, 1024);
Console.WriteLine("done
with result - " + result.ToString());
}
catch (Exception
ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
}
}
else if
(responce.Equals("2"))
{
sites.Url = string.Format("{0}{1}", targetsiteurl, svcUrl);
string[] dataFiles = new
string[] { "http://sourcesite/Exports/MyExportTest.cmp"
};
try
{
int result = sites.ImportWeb("MyExportTest",
targetsiteurl, dataFiles, null, true, true);
Console.WriteLine("done
with result - " + result.ToString());
}
catch (Exception
ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
}
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
