Here’s how you can create and delete views in a SharePoint list or library using PowerShell (Is there anything that can’t be done through a PowerShell script?)
The script below creates a view called “TestView”. It expects three command-line arguments: site collection URL, the name of the view to create, and the list GUID. The view that’s created is an exact replica of the “All Items” view (you can certainly modify the code as needed). Here’s how you would call this script from the command line:
powershell CreateView.ps1 "your_site_collection_URL" "TestView" "List GUID 6865306f-60e0-4889-addd-4fb9862e72e0"
Script code (use the button in the top right corner to copy it to the clipboard):
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c") | out-null
# reading command line arguments
$siteURL = $args[0]
$strViewName = $args[1]
$ListGUID = $args[2]
# enter your CAML query for the view here...
$strQuery = "<Where><Gt><FieldRef Name='ID'/><Value Type='Counter'>0</Value></Gt></Where>"
# create a new SPsite object and recursively go through all webs
# until a matching list GUID is found
$site=new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteURL)
foreach ($web in $site.AllWebs)
{
foreach ($list in $web.Lists)
{
$ListTempGUID = $list.ID.ToString()
if ($ListTempGUID.Contains($ListGUID))
{
write-host "**********************************************"
write-host "Match found. Preparing to create a view: ", $strViewName
write-host "List Title: ", $list.Title
write-host "List GUID: ", $list.ID
$fields = $list.Views["All Items"].ViewFields.ToStringCollection()
$result = $list.Views.Add($strViewName, $fields, $strQuery, 100, $True, $False , "HTML", $False)
write-host "View ", $strViewName , " was created successfully."
break
}
}
}
write-host "Done."
$site.Dispose(); ##ENFORCED DISPOSAL!!!
So far, so good? Well, now that you’ve created a view, how do you delete it? Follow the same logic, only instead of using the Add method of SPViewCollection object, we’ll be using the Delete method.
Same command line arguments as before: site collection URL, name of the view, and list GUID.
Calling script from the command line:
powershell DeleteView.ps1 "your_site_collection_URL" "TestView" "List GUID 6865346f-60e0-4889-addd-4fb3862572e0"
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c") | out-null
# reading command line arguments...
$siteURL = $args[0]
$strViewName = $args[1]
$ListGUID = $args[2]
# creating a new site object and recursively searching through its lists
# until a matching list GUID is found
$site=new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteURL)
foreach ($web in $site.AllWebs)
{
foreach ($list in $web.Lists)
{
$ListTempGUID = $list.ID.ToString()
if ($ListTempGUID.Contains($ListGUID))
{
foreach ($view in $list.Views)
{
If ( $view.Title.Contains($strViewName))
{
write-host "**********************************************"
write-host "Match found. Preparing to DELETE a view: ", $view.Title
write-host "List Title: ", $list.Title
write-host "List GUID: ", $list.ID
# you can insert a pause here if you like...
$list.Views.Delete($view.ID)
write-host "View ", $view.Title , " has been deleted successfully."
break
}
}
break
}
}
}
write-host "Done."
$site.Dispose(); ##ENFORCED DISPOSAL!!!
Finally, how do you find out the GUID of your list? It’s fairly straightforward – you just need to access the SPList.ID property of your list. Here’s a simple script that will output the GUIDs of all lists in your site collection:
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c") | out-null
# write column headings
write-host "List URL ; Web URL ; Web Title ; List Title; List GUID ;"
# create a site object and recursively list all of its list objects and their details
$site=new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("http://your_site_collection_URL)
foreach ($web in $site.AllWebs)
{
foreach ($list in $web.Lists)
{
write-host $list.DefaultViewURL, ";", $web.URL , ";", $web.Title , ";" , $list.Title , ";" , $list.ID
}
}
$site.Dispose(); ##ENFORCED DISPOSAL!!!
The SharePoint Nomad 