Exporting item list version history

Question

Okay, here is what I'm able to do:

1. Export a list from SharePoint to excel.

2. View an individual item's version history within the online SharePoint.

What I am trying to do is export this version history along with the list itself. Ideally, the versions would be on adjacent rows like this:

 - Item 1, Version 1.0
 - Item 1, Version 2.0
 - Item 2, Version 1.0

I have not found a straight forward solution to this on stack exchange or by searching Google yet.

Thank you for any assistance in the matter!

Answer 1

Check this workaround

• Use the Export to Excel option in the List section of the ribbon
• Save the owssvr.iqy file and open with notepad
• Copy just the URL from the file and paste it back into your browser,

http://your site/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?XMLDATA=1&List={74672F3E-D0D8-43DD-8CEC-4788C91A5F3F}&View={02455BAA-DC40-49D7-A414-3930B4DD905D}&RowLimit=0&RootFolder=%2fworkflow%2fLists%2ftest

• adding "&IncludeVersions=TRUE" to be like this

http://your site/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?XMLDATA=1&List={74672F3E-D0D8-43DD-8CEC-4788C91A5F3F}&View={02455BAA-DC40-49D7-A414-3930B4DD905D}&RowLimit=0&RootFolder=%2fworkflow%2fLists%2ftest&IncludeVersions=TRUE

• Save the XML file and open in Excel (or your favorite XML viewer), selecting the "As an XML table" open option.
• You'll have to delete the first few columns and rows as they contain the schema data but other than that you should have all the version history (I suggest you add the Version column to the view)

Ref

You can use the following power shell to export version to list

# ******* Variables Section ******************
#Define these variables
$WebURL="http://sharepoint.crescent.com/sites/Sales/"
$ListName ="Invoice"
$ReportFile = "D:\Invoice_VersionHistory.csv"
# *********************************************

#delete file if exists
If (Test-Path $ReportFile)
 {
 Remove-Item $ReportFile
 }

#Get the Web and List
$Web = Get-SPWeb $WebURL
$List = $web.Lists.TryGetList($ListName)

 #Check if list exists
 if($List -ne $null)
 {
  #Get all list items
  $ItemsColl = $List.Items

  #Write Report Header
  Add-Content -Path $ReportFile -Value "Item ID, Version Lable, Created by, Created at, Title"

  #Loop through each item
  foreach ($item in $ItemsColl)
  {
   #Iterate each version
      foreach($version in $item.Versions)
       {
    #Get the version content
    $VersionData = "$($item.id), $($version.VersionLabel), $($version.CreatedBy.User.DisplayName), $($version.Created), $($version['Title'])"
    #Write to report
    Add-Content -Path $ReportFile -Value $VersionData
   }
  }
 }
Write-Host "Version history has been exported successfully!"

Ref

You can also use this solution at code plex

https://exportversionhistorysp2013.codeplex.com/

Answer 2

I want to add idea to the solution from @Mohamed El-Qassas MVP

You can add url to a .iqy file (the same as default "Export to Excel" functionality). File should contain the next data:

WEB
1
http://your site/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?XMLDATA=1&List={74672F3E-D0D8-43DD-8CEC-4788C91A5F3F}&View={02455BAA-DC40-49D7-A414-3930B4DD905D}&RowLimit=0&RootFolder=%2fworkflow%2fLists%2ftest&IncludeVersions=TRUE

It is not formatted, but it is better then XML and works like out of the box button.

Answer 3

You can combine that with XML import:

Sub DownloadVH()
ActiveWorkbook.XmlImport Url:="http://yourSite/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?XMLDATA=1&List={74672F3E-D0D8-43DD-8CEC-4788C91A5F3F}&View={02455BAA-DC40-49D7-A414-3930B4DD905D}&RowLimit=0&RootFolder=%2fworkflow%2fLists%2ftest&IncludeVersions=TRUE", ImportMap:=Nothing, Overwrite:=True, Destination:=Range("Data!A1")

End Sub