Trying to delete a column from a sharepoint document library view - SP2010

Question

I'm trying to delete a field (site column bound to managed metadata) in a view with the following powershell script:

$spWeb = Get-SPWeb -identity http://servernamehere/docs/test/sitename
$spView = $spWeb.GetListFromUrl("/EMails/Forms/AllItems.aspx")
$spField = $spView.Fields["Document Author"]
$spView.ViewFields.Delete($spField["Document Author"])
$spView.Update()

I get this error on line2: v Exception calling "GetListFromUrl" with "1" argument(s): "Cannot complete this action.

Please try again." At line:1 char:32 + $spView = $spWeb.GetListFromUrl <<<< ("/EMails/Forms/AllItems.aspx") + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException

What am I doing wrong?
Thanks

Answer 1

You have several mistakes here:

1. As djeeg mentioned, you need to use server relative url when calling GetListFromUrl, or (simplier) do not pass leading slash to GetListFromUrl, i.e. GetListFromUrl("Emails/Forms/AllItems.aspx"), I tested this code and it works for me.
2. You are using GetListFromUrl, which returns SPList, but you assign it to $spView. So probably you have a mistake here.
3. Fields indexer uses field internal name, which cannot contain white spaces, so you need to write smth like Fields["Document_x0020_Author"]
4. You don't need to fetch the SPField, you can use it's name to delete from ViewFields, for example, $spView.ViewFields.Delete("Document_x0020_Author")

Whole script will be:

$spWeb = Get-SPWeb http://servernamehere/docs/test/sitename
$spList = $spWeb.GetListFromUrl("EMails/Forms/AllItems.aspx")
$spView = $spList.DefaultView
$spView.ViewFields.Delete("Document_x0020_Author")
$spView.Update()

This script worked for me without any errors.

Answer 2

A third alternative is to use the new TryGetList() method in SP2010:

$spWeb = Get-SPWeb http://servernamehere/docs/test/sitename$spList = $spWeb.GetListFromUrl("EMails/Forms/AllItems.aspx")
$list = $spWeb.Lists.TryGetList('my list title')
if ( $list )
{
    # do something intelligent here
}

This will get the list from title without any nullreference exceptions if the list isnt there.

More info here.

Answer 3

GetListFromUrl says to use GetListFromWebPartPageUrl

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spweb.getlistfromurl.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spweb.getlistfromwebpartpageurl.aspx

And the url probably needs to be server relative

SPList list = web.GetListFromWebPartPageUrl("/docs/test/sitename/EMails/Forms/AllItems.aspx");

Or have you tried $spWeb.Lists["EMails"]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms443550.aspx

Answer 4

Do you have any other webpart added to the AllItems.aspx page.. if so it will throw this error. can be checked by appending "?contents=1" to the url

btw..

• you can use "/EMails/Forms/AllItems.aspx" or "http://servernamehere/docs/test/sitename/EMails/Forms/AllItems.aspx" as parameter to GetListFromUrl

• you can use "Document Author", because 2010 accepts both displayname as well as internal name.. first it will try to resolve using internal name and then display name