Retrieving "p:after" in layout via Sitecore Powershell Extentions

Question

I am trying to retrieve these values found in the "final renderings" field: p:after and p:before.

But I can't seem to find them anywhere. Is there a way to get them out?

The reason I need those, is I am taking some renderings, that are nested inside another "columns" rendering and pulling them out. Unfortunately this means they are getting placed differently than before, as the "columns" rendering has the p:after placement set. I would like to transfer this from the "columns" rendering to the first nested rendering.

Simplified PowerShell script I am testing:

$rootItem = Get-Item master:"/content";

$renderings = @('{521F66ED-76BC-4C40-9D8D-9FC23145FC80}', # Container deck 3 column
            '{8278046D-8762-4F1F-916C-07ECEC2EE9C7}') # Virksom 3 column deck

$defaultLayout = Get-LayoutDevice "Default"

foreach($renderingId in $renderings) {

$oldRendering = Get-Item -Path "master:" -ID $renderingId

Get-ChildItem $rootItem.FullPath -recurse -Language "da" | ForEach-Object {
    $itemPath = $_.Paths.ContentPath
    $sourceRenderings = Get-Rendering -Item $_ -Device $defaultLayout -FinalLayout | Where-Object { $_.ItemID -eq $renderingId -And -Not([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($_.Datasource))  }
    
    if ($sourceRenderings -ne $null) {

        foreach($sourceRendering in $sourceRenderings) {
            $column1 = Get-Rendering -Item $_ -Device $defaultLayout -FinalLayout | Where-Object { $_.Placeholder -eq "/main/virksom-content/deck-column-1-$($sourceRendering.UniqueID)-0"  }
            foreach($col in $column1)
            {
                #tried to find it here
                #Write-Host ($col| Format-List | Out-String)
                
                #tried to find it here, probably the same as before
                $finalLayoutField = $_.Fields[[Sitecore.FieldIDs]::FinalLayoutField]
                $finalLayoutXml = [Sitecore.Data.Fields.LayoutField]::GetFieldValue($finalLayoutField)
                $finalLayout = [Sitecore.Layouts.LayoutDefinition]::Parse($finalLayoutXml)
                $renderings = $finalLayout.Devices[0].Renderings
                Write-Host ($renderings| Format-List | Out-String)
                
                #nothing in Dynamic Properties
                #foreach($dynamicProperty in $col.DynamicProperties)
                #{
                    #$propertyName = $dynamicProperty.ToString()
                    #$text = $dynamicProperty.Value
                    #Write-Host("$($propertyName) - $($text))");
                #}
                
                # new placeholder, that is no the old dynamic placeholder
                $placeholder = $col.Placeholder
                $placeholderLength = $placeholder.Length
                $placeholderLastIndexOfSlash = $placeholder.LastIndexOf('/')
                $placeholderAncestorPath = $placeholder.SubString(0, $placeholderLastIndexOfSlash)
                
                #save the new placeholder
                #but we need the p:after on the old "columns" component
                # $col.Placeholder = $placeholderAncestorPath;
                # Set-Rendering -Item $_ -Instance $col -FinalLayout;
                
                #delete old rendering
                #missing
            }                
        }
    }
}
}

Answer 1

What you can update in your code is to first get the value of the Final Rendering Field (That you are already doing). Here is an example.

$rootItem = Get-Item -Path "master:" -ID "{B485F716-9E95-42E8-8DE0-844E988A1BDF}"
$layoutfield = $rootItem.Fields["__Final Renderings"].value

And then cast this value into XML.

$xmlData =  [xml]($layoutfield)

So your XML will become like this. (I used an online tool to convert string raw value into HTML to see how it looks)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<r xmlns:p="p" xmlns:s="s" p:p="1">
    <d id="{FE5D7FDF-89C0-4D99-9AA3-B5FBD009C9F3}">
        <r uid="{67FD787F-0E4F-4F59-9EC9-67AC9A5F588D}" p:before="*" s:ds="{C0B095E6-4F35-4208-8209-AAB9446A7BD7}" s:id="{3972C278-7E7A-4C2B-A293-66AF860F5C3A}" s:par="Reset Caching Options&amp;GridParameters=%7B908E2BC6-C110-4ED7-AF39-7EEACBB31A34%7D&amp;FieldNames=%7B4D608918-2AB2-48BC-AE4E-A8886991E6E3%7D&amp;Styles&amp;CacheClearingBehavior=Clear%20on%20publish&amp;RenderingIdentifier&amp;DynamicPlaceholderId=2" s:ph="footer" />
        <r uid="{9D547A21-EE39-4A78-9652-84CF9DB532E9}" p:after="r[@uid='{67FD787F-0E4F-4F59-9EC9-67AC9A5F588D}']" s:ds="local:/Data/carousel" s:id="{5A21C781-8E74-4DD0-8261-8CCDA1BF0454}" s:par="Navigation=%7B848DFE42-2B13-430E-A0B9-89CE25730A06%7D&amp;Transition=%7BD4B706CC-7EEC-4DB9-A87D-123B29803490%7D&amp;Timeout=2000&amp;PauseOnHover=1&amp;Reset Caching Options&amp;GridParameters=%7B908E2BC6-C110-4ED7-AF39-7EEACBB31A34%7D&amp;Styles&amp;CacheClearingBehavior=Clear%20on%20publish&amp;RenderingIdentifier&amp;DynamicPlaceholderId=1" s:ph="main" />
        <r uid="{83732FD0-718A-4637-AC13-84940164A9C9}" s:ds="" />
    </d>
</r>

Loop through your XML like this and update the value of p:after and p:before with your value using SetAttribute function.

foreach($node in $nodes) {
   $node.SetAttribute("p:after", "your-id")
}

Finally using this command you will get back your updated XML into a string.

$xmlData.OuterXml

Update this string raw value into your Final Rendering Field.

And That's it.

Hope this will help you.