Set Page Author Byline

Summary

Modern pages have a field called _AuthorByLine. When we set the value of this field of a page to the login name (or the email address) of a user, we will see the user details appear in the page header byline. However, as soon as we edit the page those details disappear.

So, to fix that, along with the _AuthorByLine field, we also need to set LayoutWebpartsContent field of the page with the details of the user.

This script uses PnP PowerShell to set the Authors and AuthorByline properties of the PageHeader which inturn set the _AuthorByLine field and update LayoutWebpartsContent field of the page.

• PnP PowerShell

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    Param(
        [Parameter(mandatory = $true)]
        [string]$SiteUrl,
        [Parameter(mandatory = $true)]
        [string]$PageName,
        [Parameter(mandatory = $true)]
        [string]$UserEmail
    )

    function Set-PageAuthorByline {

        # Connect to the site
        Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteUrl;

        # If there is an error in the connection then return
        if ($null -eq $(Get-PnPConnection).ConnectionType) {
            return;
        }

        # Get the page object from the specified page name / url 
        $page = Get-PnPPage -Identity $PageName;

        # Return if page is not found
        if ($null -eq $page) {
            Write-Error "Page Name is not valid";
            return;
        }

        # Get the required user from the User Information list
        Write-Host "Getting user information from User Information list..." -ForegroundColor Yellow;
        $user = Get-PnPUser | Where-Object Email -eq $UserEmail;

        if ($null -ne $user) {
            Write-Host "Got user information from User Information list." -ForegroundColor Yellow;
        }
        else {
            # If not user is not present in User Information list then add the user to the list
            # This will not affect any permissions to the site
            Write-Host "User information not present in User Information list, hence adding..." -ForegroundColor Yellow;
            $user = New-PnPUser -LoginName $UserEmail; 

            # Return if the user is not found / email address is incorrect
            if ($null -eq $user) {
                Write-Error "User Name is not valid";
                return;
            }
        }

        Write-Host "Setting page header author..." -ForegroundColor Yellow;

        # Set the Authors and AuthorByLine properties of the PageHeader
        # Both these are string properties
        $page.PageHeader.Authors = "[{`"id`":`"$($user.LoginName)`"}]";
        $page.PageHeader.AuthorByLine = "[`"$($user.Email)`"]";

        # Save the chnages and publish the page
        $page.Save();
        $page.Publish();

        Write-Host "Done." -ForegroundColor Green;
        Disconnect-PnPOnline;
    }

    Set-PageAuthorByline;

    # Set-Page-Author-Byline.ps1 -SiteUrl https://tenantname.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename -PageName Page-1.aspx -UserEmail user@tenantname.onmicrosoft.com

Check out the PnP PowerShell to learn more at: https://aka.ms/pnp/powershell

Contributors

Author(s)
Anoop Tatti

Disclaimer

THESE SAMPLES ARE PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.