List Content Type FieldRef won't be exported in template (e.g. using "Get-PnPSiteTemplate" command),so the provisioning engine won't handle list level contenttype settings

[wuxiaojun514]

Problem

I found that I cannot find "list content type" info (the fieldlinks in list level CT, the order of fields, whether required/optional/hidden) in exported template via Get-PnPSiteTemplate. (I am using the latest version of PnP Powershell
You can see there is only ContentTypeBinding under 'ListInstance` .

In my case, I just have one field "Title" in site level content type, and the rest fields are in the list content type level. (I need create a custom content type for search purpose)
The PnP Provisioning tool would not add those other fields to my list content type. I have to manually add them after deployment.

I read the source code of PnP Powershell, it calls some methods from PnP Framework library to export template, so I want to raise the issue here.

Expectation

It should include list content type with fieldRef info in the exported template, like this sample

 <pnp:ContentType DisplayFormClientSideComponentId="" DisplayFormClientSideComponentProperties="" NewFormClientSideComponentProperties="" EditFormClientSideComponentId="" EditFormClientSideComponentProperties="" ID="0x010080060E093E2F463EBA41A5F044428F32" Name="Search Config Content Type" Description="Designed to facilitate the storage of Search Config information." Group="Search Config" NewFormUrl="" EditFormUrl="" DisplayFormUrl="" UpdateChildren="false">
          <pnp:FieldRefs>
            <pnp:FieldRef ID="c042a256-787d-4a6f-8a8a-cf6ab767f12d" Name="ContentType" UpdateChildren="true" />
            <pnp:FieldRef ID="fa564e0f-0c70-4ab9-b863-0177e6ddd247" Name="Title" Required="true" UpdateChildren="true" />
            <pnp:FieldRef ID="d26b5f0c-27cf-46d0-984c-a0c2ea81cb10" Name="Status" UpdateChildren="true" />
            <pnp:FieldRef ID="f2630201-2b18-4f74-867b-18551759b437" Name="Scope" UpdateChildren="true" />
            <pnp:FieldRef ID="df38fc53-0740-4846-80b2-cd5c4cf6b5d7" Name="ConfigNotes" UpdateChildren="true" />
          </pnp:FieldRefs>
        </pnp:ContentType>

When we run Invoke-PnPSiteTemplate this list content type settings should be applied on the destination site

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I found that ListInstance class in PnP Framework also just have content type binding, no list content type attributes under it.

Probably it may need modify quite a lot code to fix it.
I will do more research on it and see if I can contribuite.

[wuxiaojun514]

Hello，I am trying to raise a PR for this problem.

I plan to add those following properties into ContentTypeBinding class

• FormCustomizer Related Properties

  • DisplayFormClientSideComponentId
  • DisplayFormClientSideComponentProperties
  • NewFormClientSideComponentId
  • NewFormClientSideComponentProperties
  • EditFormClientSideComponentId
  • EditFormClientSideComponentProperties

• FieldRefs Collection for the list level content type (required/hidden of the field link, the sort order in this list content type)

The exported template would looks like this one:

<pnp:ContentTypeBinding ContentTypeID="0x0100DDFC4A1254B2064F92C1B63F8BCF3361" Default="true" DisplayFormClientSideComponentProperties="" NewFormClientSideComponentProperties="" NewFormClientSideComponentId="" DisplayFormClientSideComponentId="" EditFormClientSideComponentProperties="" EditFormClientSideComponentId="">
              <pnp:FieldRefs>
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="fa564e0f-0c70-4ab9-b863-0177e6ddd247" Required="true" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="186ded6c-06bf-4b6f-bec3-5b1c1ea3f376" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="c8607eca-67bd-4e27-93fa-6698b22d7b7b" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="4a883751-4fcc-445e-a207-4cc09e5ddf60" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="813a56bf-4a89-4b7b-9fcb-2bb5a89eec56" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="61b240e9-4544-4a7b-b86b-d5f1c6c5f772" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="50e30439-74bf-47f9-8b6a-eb5adf43f7ed" Required="true" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="ca3e0c67-ccb6-4a0b-92db-28aae02b1740" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="d8333869-70cf-4796-b8e0-1692ebb75613" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="b7386a62-508b-48de-a08a-85724252a02d" Hidden="true"  UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="3c3c455b-2fe1-4d88-913d-0ddd0ccf7748" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="7b420a20-474d-4264-941f-d44e7863e181" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="692f66fe-9c9c-469d-a6a1-0cf8cfed27cd" UpdateChildren="false" />
                <pnp:FieldRef ID="c042a256-787d-4a6f-8a8a-cf6ab767f12d" UpdateChildren="false" />
              </pnp:FieldRefs>
            </pnp:ContentTypeBinding>

PnP Provisioning Engine would read this settings and apply the following settings:

1. Apply List Content Type Level FormCustomizer Settings (EditFormClientSideComponentId/EditFormClientSideComponentProperties...)

2. Add/Update fieldlink and its hidden/required properties on list level content type.
   Previously it would just inherit from site content type. (For example, if site content type only have "Title" field, and list content type has "Price","Category" fields on list level, then it won't add those 2 list level fields on it)

3. Sort the fieldlink order by follow FieldRef Collection order

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Please let me know if I miss something here