In 2 steps convert classic SharePoint page to modern using PnP

In this article, we will learn how to convert classic SharePoint page to modern pages using the PnP Power Shell script. We as SharePoint professionals have long used the SharePoint classic page in both SharePoint on-premise and SharePoint online (classic). But recently, in the last couple of years, Microsoft has been focusing on converting classic SharePoint to modern SharePoint. So, in this article, we’ll see how to use PnP PowerShell to convert a classic SharePoint page to a modern page in two steps.

However, before that, we will learn about what is a classic page in SharePoint Online, what is a modern page in SharePoint Online, what is the difference between classic and modern pages in SharePoint, and finally, we will learn about how to convert the classic SharePoint site to a modern site.

Table of Contents: Convert classic SharePoint page to modern page

• What is a classic page in SharePoint online?
• What is the modern page in SharePoint online?
• Example of SharePoint online classic page
• Example of SharePoint online modern home page
• Convert a classic SharePoint site to a modern page
• Install PnP PowerShell in SharePoint online
• Convert classic SharePoint site page to modern page – PnP script
• ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage command – examples

What is a classic page in SharePoint online?

The traditional way or standard way of working with SharePoint pages is the classic SharePoint page where we will have a web part page – and there easily we can add a new web part to the page, not only web part page, we have many more classic pages as below:

• Wiki page
• Web part page
• Blog page
• Publishing page

These pages have a predefined placeholder to add our own content to SharePoint as per our needs.

Example of SharePoint online classic page:

What is the modern page in SharePoint online?

On the other hand, the modern site pages are a new development from Microsoft, which are very fast and support rich multimedia content. Modern pages look great on any device which gives high portability to the page, In modern site pages, we add a rich multimedia web part such as a video, images, list, and libraries to design a page. In modern pages very easily we connect parent and child web parts to a page that renders dynamically.  The modern pages, also give us the flexibility to add a dynamic layout. We can add as many sections as we need to align our content and web part as per our needs.

Example of SharePoint online modern home page:

Convert a classic SharePoint site to a modern page:

This is my classic site home page, we will convert this page to a modern page in SharePoint online, using the PnP PowerShell in the upcoming steps.

Install PnP PowerShell in SharePoint online (convert classic SharePoint page to modern):

In order to execute the PnP PowerShell in SharePoint online, we need to install the PnP PowerShell in SharePoint Online. For the installation, please refer to my previous article Office 365: Getting started with SharePoint PnP PowerShell – installation

Convert a classic SharePoint site page to a modern page – PnP script(Convert classic SharePoint page to modern page):

Using the below code we can convert the classic SharePoint site page to a modern page:

############################Description#######################################################
#The below script will convert the classic SharePoint page to modern SharePoint page using PnP
##############################################################################################

CLS
$userName = "Global-sharepoint2019@globalsharepoint2019.onmicrosoft.com"
$passWord = "YourSPOPassWord"
$encPassWord = convertto-securestring -String $passWord -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $userName, $encPassWord

Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://globalsharepoint2019.sharepoint.com/sites/SharePointRNDClassic" -Credentials $cred
 
#Using the below command converting the classic "home.aspx" page to modern page and adds the page accept banner web part on top of the page.  
ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity home.aspx -AddPageAcceptBanner  

Note:

• If the banner does not display on the home page – then we need to install this web part (Download Banner Webpart from GitHub ) to the tenant app catalog.

Convert classic SharePoint site page to modern page – execution: (Convert classic SharePoint page to modern page)

In the above PowerShell console, we can see that the “home.aspx” has successfully converted as “Migrated_Home.aspx”

Now, let’s go back to our SharePoint online site. Now we can nothing has been changed to the SharePoint home page – the reason is, still in the URL we can see the “Home.aspx”, we need to change this page to “Migrated_Home.aspx” page in the URL. In the next step, we will see how?

Go to the “Site Pages” library -> select “Migrated_Home.aspx” ->click on “Make homepage”

Now again, let’s navigate to the same SharePoint site home page, now we can see that the home page has been converted to the modern home page as in the URL – we see the new migrated page, i.e “Migrated_Home.aspx”

Using the below PnP PowerShell script, we can convert all classic SharePoint pages to modern pages from the “Site Pages” library.

############################Description#######################################################
#The below script will convert the classic SharePoint page to modern SharePoint page using PnP
##############################################################################################

CLS
$userName = "Global-sharepoint2019@globalsharepoint2019.onmicrosoft.com"
$passWord = "YourSPOPassWord"
$encPassWord = convertto-securestring -String $passWord -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $userName, $encPassWord

Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://globalsharepoint2019.sharepoint.com/sites/SharePointRNDClassic" -Credentials $cred
 
#Using the below command converting the classic "home.aspx" page to modern page and adds the page accept banner web part on top of the page.  
#ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity home.aspx -AddPageAcceptBanner

#########The below code will convert all classic pages from the "Site Pages" libray to modern page#######
# Get all the pages in the site pages library  
$pagesInSitePagesLibrary = Get-PnPListItem -List "sitepages"  
 
#Loop thru the sites pages library.  
foreach($onePage in $pagesInSitePagesLibrary)   
{   
    #Optionally filter the pages you want to modernize
    if ($page.FieldValues["FileLeafRef"].StartsWith(("t")))
    {
       $moderNPage= Get-PnPClientSidePage -Identity $onePage.ID
        #If the page is already modern - no need to convert it.
        if ($onePage.FieldValues["ClientSideApplicationId"] -eq "b6917cb1-93a0-4b97-a84d-7cf49975d4ec")   
        {   
                        
            Write-Host "Page " $onePage.FieldValues["FileLeafRef"] " is already modern, so no need to modernize it again"   
        }   
        else   
        {   
            #Converting to modern page
            Write-Host `Converting to modern page $onePage.FieldValues["FileLeafRef"]..........`  
            $modernConvertedPage = ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity $onePage.FieldValues["FileLeafRef"] -Overwrite 
            Write-Host "Page " $onePage.FieldValues["FileLeafRef"] " has been successfully converted to modern page" -ForegroundColor Green 
        }  

    }
        
}  

#######convert all classic pages from the "Site Pages" libray to modern page - ends here################# 

 

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage command – examples (convert classic SharePoint page to modern page):

Converts wiki page to SharePoint online modern page with the given XML file:

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "somepage.aspx" -Overwrite -WebPartMappingFile "c:\temp\webpartmapping.xml"

The above command converts a wiki page named ‘somepage’ to a client-side page using a custom-provided mapping file. 

Converts wiki page to SharePoint online modern page with the “AddPageAcceptBanner”.

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "somepage.aspx" -Overwrite -AddPageAcceptBanner

The above command converts a wiki page named ‘somepage’ to a client-side page and adds the page accept banner web part on top of the page. This requires that the SPFx solution holding the web part has been installed in the tenant app catalog.

Converts wiki page to SharePoint online modern page along with the page metadata:

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "somepage.aspx" -Overwrite -CopyPageMetadata

The above command converts a wiki page named ‘somepage’ to a client-side page, including the copying of the page metadata (if any).

Converts publishing page to SharePoint online modern page in the specific target site URL:

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "somepage.aspx" -PublishingPage -Overwrite -TargetWebUrl https://globalsharepoint2019.sharepoint.com/sites/targetmodernsite

The above command converts a publishing page named ‘somepage’ to a client-side page in the globalsharepoint2019.sharepoint.com/sites/targetmodernsite site.

Converts publishing page to SharePoint online modern page in the specific “TargetConnection”, from one tenant to another tenant.

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "somepage.aspx" -PublishingPage -Overwrite -TargetConnection $target

The above command converts a publishing page named ‘somepage’ to a client-side page in the site specified by the TargetConnection connection. This allows to read a page in one environment (on-premises, tenant A) and create it in another online location (tenant B)

Converts web part page to SharePoint online modern page in the specific library and folder:

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "somepage.aspx" -Library "SiteAssets" -Folder "Folder1" -Overwrite

The above command converts a web part page named ‘somepage’ living inside the “SiteAssets” library in a folder named “Folder1” into a client-side page.
Converts web part page to SharePoint online modern page – root of the site collection:

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "somepage.aspx" -Folder "<root>" -Overwrite

The above command converts a web part page named ‘somepage’ living inside the root of the site collection (so outside of a library).

Converts wiki page to SharePoint online modern page in the specific target site URL:

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "somepage.aspx" -Overwrite -TargetWebUrl https://globalsharepoint2019.sharepoint.com/sites/targetmodernsite

Converts a wiki page named ‘somepage’ to a client-side page in the below site:

https://globalsharepoint2019.sharepoint.com/sites/targetmodernsite

Convert the web part page to SharePoint online modern page with the log file.

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "somepage.aspx" -LogType File -LogFolder c:\temp -LogVerbose -Overwrite

The above command converts a web part page named ‘somepage’ and creates a log file in “c: \temp” using verbose logging

Convert web part page to SharePoint online modern page with the log file but skip the actual write:

ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage -Identity "somepage.aspx" -LogType SharePoint -LogSkipFlush

Converts a web part page named ‘somepage’ and creates a log file in SharePoint but skips the actual write. Use this option to make multiple ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage invocations and create a single log.

Summary: Convert classic SharePoint page to modern page

Thus, in this article we have learned the below topics with respect to converting the classic SharePoint page to a modern page:

• What is the classic page in SharePoint online?
• What is the modern page in SharePoint online?
• Example of SharePoint online classic page
• Example of SharePoint online modern home page
• Convert classic SharePoint site to modern page
• Install PnP PowerShell in SharePoint online
• Convert classic SharePoint site page to modern page – PnP script
• ConvertTo-PnPClientSidePage command – examples:

See Also: Convert classic SharePoint page to modern page

• Office 365: Getting started with SharePoint PnP PowerShell – installation
• Office 365: Retrieve hub sites and associated sites using PnP Powershell
• In 4 steps access SharePoint online data using postman tool
• SharePoint admin center: Learn SharePoint online administration in an hour – step by step
• SharePoint REST API: GET vs POST vs PUT vs DELETE vs PATCH
• Office 365: Understanding the hub site in SharePoint online

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SP Doctor

I am your SharePoint and Power Platform doctor and guide. Sharing knowledge with my fellow colleagues, friends, and the tech community makes me utmost happy in my job.

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