Add Placeholder To Presentation Details Using Sitecore Powershell

Question

I'm attempting to use Sitecore Powershell Extensions to automate Step 2 of the following upgrade guide for a Sitecore accelerator known as SCORE:

https://brainjocks.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SDD/pages/390594792/Add+New+Placeholder+Settings

In the step, a variety of new placeholder settings are added to the Presentation Details of each page's __Standard Values on the Sitecore installation. I've found several resources on how to add a rendering definition item to a layout but no resources on how to add a placeholder. Here is a snippet of what I have so far:

#define placeholders to add
$facetPlaceholder = "<p uid=`"{1E5FCA45-4AF1-40AB-9479-FE9AE4172DB5}`" key=`"Facets`" md=`"$tenantCopyPath/Facets`" />"
$searchResultViewsPlaceholder = "<p uid=`"{5137EC9B-4DC0-464B-A522-6FB1EE5362E9}`" key=`"Search Result Views`" md=`"$tenantCopyPath/Search Result Views`" />"
$slickSliderPlaceholder = "<p uid=`"{F2B4B648-5BCF-4556-9630-467F2A710B98}`" key=`"Slick Slider`" md=`"$tenantCopyPath/Slick Slider`" />"

if ($pageTemplatesExist) {
    $children = Get-ChildItem -Path $pageTemplatePath
    foreach ($child in $children) {
        $childPath = $child.Paths.Path
        $standardValues = Get-ChildItem -Path $childPath
        if ($standardValues.length -ne 0) {
            $renderingsField = $standardValues.Fields["__Renderings"].ToString()
            $testXML = [xml]$renderingsField
            if (-not ($renderingsField -contains 'Facets')) {
                $standardValues.Editing.BeginEdit()
                $standardValues.Editing.EndEdit()
            }
            else {
                Write-Host "Placeholder setting already exists for Facets at item: $($standardValues.Paths.Path) "
            }
            if (-not ($renderingsField -contains 'Search Result Views')) {
                $standardValues.Editing.BeginEdit()
                $standardValues.Editing.EndEdit()
            }
            else {
                Write-Host "Placeholder setting already exists for Search Result Views at item: $($standardValues.Paths.Path) "
            }
            if (-not ($renderingsField -contains 'Slick Slider')) {
                $standardValues.Editing.BeginEdit()
                $standardValues.Editing.EndEdit()
            }
            else {
                Write-Host "Placeholder setting already exists for Slick Slider at item: $($standardValues.Paths.Path) "
            }
        }
        else {
            Write-Host "No standard values template for page at path: $childPath"
        }
    }
}
else {
    Write-Host "No page templates found for $tenant found at path: $pageTemplatePath"
}

My current idea is to manually modify the __Renderings standard field. I was going to grab the string version of the __Renderings field, inject my new placeholder markup where needed(possibly first converting this string to XML to make my modifications easier although I was having trouble getting the __Renderings read into an xml variable), then reassigning the original __Renderings field value to my new modified version. Is there a more straightforward way to accomplish this task without manually manipulating the __Renderings field? Thanks for the assistance!

Answer 1

Definitely not the prettiest thing in the world but I came up with a solution using the pull request @Michael West linked to. The big key for me was finding out that you could create a DeviceDefinition item which has an AddPlaceholder method:

if ($pageTemplatesExist) {
    $children = Get-ChildItem -Path $pageTemplatePath
    foreach ($child in $children) {
        $childPath = $child.Paths.Path
        $standardValues = Get-ChildItem -Path $childPath
        if ($standardValues.length -ne 0) {
            $layoutField = [Sitecore.FieldIDs]::LayoutField
            $layout = $standardValues[$layoutField].ToString()
            $layoutDefinition = [Sitecore.Layouts.LayoutDefinition]::Parse($layout);
            $layoutUpdated = $false
            foreach ($device in $layoutDefinition.Devices) {
                $deviceDefinition = [Sitecore.Layouts.DeviceDefinition]$device

                $facetPlaceholderExists = $false
                $searchResultViewsPlaceholderExists = $false
                $slickSliderfacetPlaceholderExists = $false

                foreach ($currPlaceholder in $deviceDefinition.Placeholders) {

                    $currPlaceholderDefinition = [Sitecore.Layouts.PlaceholderDefinition]$currPlaceholder

                    if ($currPlaceholderDefinition.Key -eq $facetPlaceholderKey -and $currPlaceholderDefinition.MetaDataItemId -eq $facetPlaceholderMD) {
                        $facetPlaceholderExists = $true
                    }

                    if ($currPlaceholderDefinition.Key -eq $searchResultViewsPlaceholderKey -and $currPlaceholderDefinition.MetaDataItemId -eq $searchResultViewsPlaceholderMD) {
                        $searchResultViewsPlaceholderExists = $true
                    }

                    if ($currPlaceholderDefinition.Key -eq $slickSliderPlaceholderKey -and $currPlaceholderDefinition.MetaDataItemId -eq $slickSliderPlaceholderMD) {
                        $slickSliderfacetPlaceholderExists = $true
                    }
                }

                #add facet placeholder to all device definitions
                if (-not ($facetPlaceholderExists)) {
                    $placeholder = New-Object Sitecore.Layouts.PlaceholderDefinition
                    $placeholder.UniqueId = $facetPlaceholderUID
                    $placeholder.Key = $facetPlaceholderKey
                    $placeholder.MetaDataItemId = $facetPlaceholderMD
                    $deviceDefinition.AddPlaceholder($placeholder)
                    $layoutUpdated = $true
                }
                else {
                    Write-Host "Placeholder setting already exists for Facets at item: $($standardValues.Paths.Path) "
                }

                #add search result views placeholder to all device definitions
                if (-not ($searchResultViewsPlaceholderExists)) {
                    $placeholder = New-Object Sitecore.Layouts.PlaceholderDefinition
                    $placeholder.UniqueId = $searchResultViewsPlaceholderUID
                    $placeholder.Key = $searchResultViewsPlaceholderKey
                    $placeholder.MetaDataItemId = $searchResultViewsPlaceholderMD
                    $deviceDefinition.AddPlaceholder($placeholder)
                    $layoutUpdated = $true
                }
                else {
                    Write-Host "Placeholder setting already exists for Search Result Views at item: $($standardValues.Paths.Path) "
                }

                #add slick slider placeholder to all device definitions
                if (-not ($slickSliderfacetPlaceholderExists)) {
                    $placeholder = New-Object Sitecore.Layouts.PlaceholderDefinition
                    $placeholder.UniqueId = $slickSliderPlaceholderUID
                    $placeholder.Key = $slickSliderPlaceholderKey
                    $placeholder.MetaDataItemId = $slickSliderPlaceholderMD
                    $deviceDefinition.AddPlaceholder($placeholder)
                    $layoutUpdated = $true
                }
                else {
                    Write-Host "Placeholder setting already exists for Slick Slider at item: $($standardValues.Paths.Path) "
                }
            }

            if($layoutUpdated){
                $standardValues.Editing.BeginEdit()
                $standardValues[$layoutField] = $layoutDefinition.ToXml()
                $standardValues.Editing.EndEdit()
            }

        }
        else {
            Write-Host "No standard values template for page at path: $childPath"
        }
    }
}
else {
    Write-Host "No page templates found for $tenant found at path: $pageTemplatePath"
}

Thanks for the help!