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I would like to present a document library on the home page (default.aspx) of a classic SPO site. What I would do with hand is to edit the page - add web part - apps - select the document library.

I exported this web part, added a few placeholders to the dynamic properties and I am able to add it to a new site, but I have difficulties with one property:

<property name="ListName" type="string">#ListID#</property>

Now, I can query the list id with

$listid = (Get-PnPList | where {$_.Title -eq $listname}).ID

and substitute the #ListID# placeholder in the xml, but isn't there any better way to achieve this, without extra rounds? Can I maybe put this in the provisioning template?

Edit: Site provisioning done like:

New-PnPWeb -Title $Title -Url $SubSiteUrl -Template $Template -InheritNavigation   #default STS#0
Connect-PnPOnline $url -Credentials $credential
Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate -Path $template

The "Document" library is made by the default STS#0 template, I don't see, how I could get the library ID. The PnP template is almost empty.

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  • in provisioning template xml, simply replace the listid with <property name="ListName" type="string">{{listid:Documents}}</property> and it will work, did you try this ? Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 6:34
  • Hm, will check this, thanks. Is this kind of use of the engine documented?
    – vilmarci
    Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 6:36
  • yes, its documented. Here is a full list of supported tokens Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 6:37
  • Hm, can I use the tokens in an exported webpart too? With Add-PnPWebPartToWebPartPage -ServerRelativePageUrl $page -Path $webpart -ZoneId $zone -ZoneIndex $index I get a List does not exist. error.
    – vilmarci
    Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 7:11
  • no, it doesnt work with PnPWebPartToWebPartPage command as it is a standalone commandlet and not part of provisioning engine Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 7:15

2 Answers 2

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You can use the {{listid:ListName}} token instead of hard-coding the GUID.

When you use this token , the provisioning engine will fix the placeholder with the actual value of the List ID.

For example, if your list/document library name is Documents, use {{listid:Documents}}. Put the below line of code in your template xml file and then PnP will fix it for you:

<property name="ListName" type="string">{{listid:Documents}}</property>

Reference - Provisioning Engine tokens

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This is the approach I use. The problem with SP Online and remote APIs is that you have no access to a strongly-typed XsltListView webpart object, so you're stuck importing an XML-based web part and swapping out the placeholders as you've done.

I don't know what your provisioning process is like, but the ones I use are typically fully automated WebJobs and the placeholder approach is pretty solid once the process is set up.

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  • The process is still work in progress. My real problem is not with the placeholders. I know most of these in advance, so I can replace them in the template. But at the time of the provisioning, the list ID is not known, so I cannot fill it before I start the process. Instead, I need to go to the provisioned site, read it the id on the fly, manipulate my local file, and go back to site.
    – vilmarci
    Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 17:01
  • So, if the provisioned site is provisioned via code, you should be able to grab that ID in the same process. Instead of manipulating a local file, read the file along with the tokens into a string, and do the token replacement on the string in memory. Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 19:10
  • I added the way I do the provisioning now to the question.
    – vilmarci
    Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 6:28

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