Copy Documents from file share to SPO DocLib with versions using PowerShell

Question

In my local file system I have a document with 3 others considering them as major versions of the main copy.

Main.docx
 Ver3_OfMain.docx
 Ver2_OfMain.docx
 Ver1_OfMain.docx

I would want to have a PowerShell script, which creates/copy this Main.docx on SharePoint Online Document Library.

Where Ver3_OfMain.docx, Ver2_OfMain.docx, Ver1_OfMain.docx as the major versions of Main.docx

Answer 1

You cannot randomly access/modify/create versions in SharePoint. So, your only option is to enable (major) versioning on the doc lib, and then upload versions in the correct order (from Ver1_OfMain.docx to Main.docx).
At each upload (even if made by code/PowerShell), SharePoint will automatically increment the version counter for that doc. Obvisouly, you'll have to rename versioned files so the name is always the same (e.g. Main.docx).

+How to upload files into SPO from PowerShell: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fromthefield/archive/2014/02/19/office365-script-to-upload-files-to-a-document-library-using-csom.aspx

Answer 2

From a brilliant answer by @Evariste, I have prepared a PowerShell code to migrate documents from file system to SPO Doc Lib with versions.

Pre requisite:

• The Document library must be enabled with Versioning

Consider following example, where I have a Document with 3 versions. Here we need to come up with a naming convention so that its easy for us to judge which is the latest one.

Main_1.docx
Main_2.docx
Main_3.docx
Main_4.docx

So its clear Main_1.docx was the first version and Main_4.docx is the latest

Note: In file system they have different names, but these must be saved with similar name then and only then versions will be created.

Below is the PowerShell script I have used to create documents with its versions on SPO Document library.

#Specify tenant admin and site URL
$User = "[email protected]"
$SiteURL = "https://tenant.sharepoint.com"
$Folder = "D:\Version"
$DocLibName = "VersionCheck"

#Add references to SharePoint client assemblies and authenticate to Office 365 site - required for CSOM
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
$Password = Read-Host -Prompt "Please enter your password" -AsSecureString

#Bind to site collection
$Context = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
$Creds = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($User,$Password)
$Context.Credentials = $Creds

#Retrieve list
$List = $Context.Web.Lists.GetByTitle($DocLibName)
$Context.Load($List)
$Context.ExecuteQuery()

#Upload file
Foreach ($File in (dir $Folder -File))
{
    # Generate file's name.
    #
    $TempFileName = $File.BaseName.Split("_")


    $FileStream = New-Object IO.FileStream($File.FullName,[System.IO.FileMode]::Open)
    $FileCreationInfo = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FileCreationInformation
    $FileCreationInfo.Overwrite = $true
    $FileCreationInfo.ContentStream = $FileStream
    #$FileCreationInfo.URL = $File

    # Here we replace different names by one single. i.e. in each iteration file name is Main_1, Main_2 etc.. $TempFileName[0] will give us common name which is Main
    #
    $FileCreationInfo.URL = $TempFileName[0] + $File.Extension
    $Upload = $List.RootFolder.Files.Add($FileCreationInfo)
    $Context.Load($Upload)
    $Context.ExecuteQuery()

}