Adding webparts to the second column of a page with PnP PowerShell in SharePoint Online

Question

I am using PnP PowerShell to update the home page of a site. I would like two columns, one with a news webpart and the other column with an events webpart and a people webpart.

If I specify -Column 1 for all webparts, I get all webparts added to the page. But if I specify that I want the news webpart in -Column 1 and the other webparts in -Column 2, I will get an error message for the webparts that were supposed to go to the second column:

Add-PnPPageWebPart : Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index
+   Add-PnPPageWebPart -Page $page -Section 1 -Column 2 -Order 1 -Defau ...
+   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : WriteError: (:) [Add-PnPPageWebPart], ArgumentOutOfRangeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : EXCEPTION,PnP.PowerShell.Commands.WebParts.AddWebPart

This is my code. What am I doing wrong?

$page = Get-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "Home"
  $page.ClearPage()

  #Add-PnPPageSection -Page "Home" -SectionTemplate OneColumnVerticalSection
  Add-PnPPageSection -Page "Home" -SectionTemplate TwoColumnLeft -Order 10
  
  Add-PnPPageWebPart -Page $page -Section 1 -Column 1 -Order 1 -DefaultWebPartType “NewsFeed” -WebPartProperties @{layoutId=”FeaturedNews”;title=”News”}
  Add-PnPPageWebPart -Page $page -Section 1 -Column 2 -Order 1 -DefaultWebPartType “Events” -WebPartProperties @{layoutId=”List”;title=”Project Milestones”}
  Add-PnPPageWebPart -Page $page -Section 1 -Column 2 -Order 2 -DefaultWebPartType “People” -WebPartProperties "{`"title`":`"Project Contacts`",`"persons`":[{`"id`":`"$projectManager`"}]}"

Answer 1

The workaround is to get rid of the original home page and start with a fresh page. It is also required to make an extra Get-PnPPage after Add-PnPPageSection, before you start adding webparts to the sections.

Remove-PnPPage -Identity "Home" -Recycle -Force

  $PageLayout = "Home"
  Add-PnPPage -Name "Home"

  $page = Get-PnPPage -Identity "Home.aspx"
 
  Add-PnPPageSection -Page "Home" -SectionTemplate OneColumnVerticalSection
  $page = Get-PnPPage -Identity "Home.aspx"
  
  Add-PnPPageWebPart -Page $page -Section 1 -Column 1 -Order 1 -DefaultWebPartType “NewsFeed” -WebPartProperties @{layoutId=”FeaturedNews”;title=”News”}
  Add-PnPPageWebPart -Page $page -Section 1 -Column 2 -Order 2 -DefaultWebPartType “Events” -WebPartProperties @{layoutId=”List”;title=”Project Milestones”}
  Add-PnPPageWebPart -Page $page -Section 1 -Column 2 -Order 3 -DefaultWebPartType “People” -WebPartProperties "{`"title`":`"Project Contacts`",`"persons`":[{`"id`":`"$projectManager`"}]}"

  Set-PnPPage -Identity "Home" -LayoutType $PageLayout -Publish