Build pages in bulk

Question

Hello,
I'm working on a project which requires me to build 100s of pages hence I am using powershell script I came across from this
site . The script I am working with uses the data from a secondary XML document and builds pages with the Name, Title and Contact Person. So far I have only been successfull with building these pages on the root site. For some reason, the
subsite that I have provided isn't being used, any ideas why this isn't happening?. Also I'd like to take this to the next level which is
adding custom text in the pages so I'm wondering what are the changes that need to be made in the powershell and the XML file.
Below is the script and the xml file. As you can see the pages should be built in the site named testsite but for some reason they are being built in the root site itself.
This script is run on powershell as follows
PS c:\scripts> .\page-layout-creator.ps1 “c:\pages.xml”
http://sharepoint.contoso.com/sites/testsite
Thanks in advance for your help!
Script
[xml]$pagesXML = Get-Content $args[0]
$siteUrl = $args[1]
$site = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteUrl)
$web = $site.rootweb
$pub = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PublishingWeb]::GetPublishingWeb($web)
$pagesXML.Pages.Page | ForEach-Object {
  $fileName = $_.FileName
  $title = $_.Title
  $articleType = $_.ArticleType   #Choice fields just need a string value
  $contact = Get-SPUser -Identity $_.Contact -web $web
  $reviewDate = [DateTime]::Now.AddDays($_.ReviewDate)
 #Below I replace a token in the XML to get the absolute url
 #else it will error with subwebs, even if using relative with or without /
  $pubPageLayout = $_.PubPageLayout -replace "{siteUrl}", $siteUrl
  Write-Host "Creating page $fileName"
  $newPage = $pub.AddPublishingPage()
  $newPage.ListItem["BaseName"] = $fileName
  $newPage.ListItem["Title"] = $title
  $newPage.ListItem["PublishingPageLayout"] = $pubPageLayout 
  $newPage.Update() #Must update here so we can access our custom columns
  $newPage.ListItem["Contact"] = $contact  $newPage.Update()
  $newPage.CheckIn("")
  $newPage.ListItem.File.Publish("")
  Write-Host "Published"
Write-Host "Completed!"
# Dispose
$web.Dispose()
$site.Dispose()
XML document.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Pages>
 <Page>
 <FileName>Teampaintballcomp2</FileName>
 <Title>Team paintball comp2</Title>
 <PubPageLayout>{siteUrl}/_catalogs/masterpage/customPage.aspx,
  Custom Page</PubPageLayout>
 <Contact>domain\username</Contact>
 </Page>
 <Page>
 <FileName>Teampaintballcomp3</FileName>
 <Title>Team paintball comp3</Title>
 <PubPageLayout>{siteUrl}/_catalogs/masterpage/customPage.aspx,
  Custom Page</PubPageLayout>
 <Contact>domain/username</Contact>
 </Page>
 <Page>
 <FileName>Teampaintballcomp4</FileName>
 <Title>Team paintball comp4</Title>
 <PubPageLayout>{siteUrl}/_catalogs/masterpage/customPage.aspx,
  Custom Page</PubPageLayout>
 <Contact>domain/username</Contact>
 </Page>
</Pages>

Answer 1

Yup, it's because your code is only meant for site collection root sites
[xml]$pagesXML = Get-Content $args[0]
$siteUrl = $args[1]
$site = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteUrl)
$web = $site.rootweb
$pub = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PublishingWeb]::GetPublishingWeb($web)
$pagesXML.Pages.Page | ForEach-Object {
$fileName = $_.FileName
$title = $_.Title
$articleType = $_.ArticleType #Choice fields just need a string value
$contact = Get-SPUser -Identity $_.Contact -web $web
$reviewDate = [DateTime]::Now.AddDays($_.ReviewDate)
#Below I replace a token in the XML to get the absolute url
#else it will error with subwebs, even if using relative with or without /
$pubPageLayout = $_.PubPageLayout -replace "{siteUrl}", $siteUrl
Write-Host "Creating page $fileName"
$newPage = $pub.AddPublishingPage()
$newPage.ListItem["BaseName"] = $fileName
$newPage.ListItem["Title"] = $title
$newPage.ListItem["PublishingPageLayout"] = $pubPageLayout
$newPage.Update() #Must update here so we can access our custom columns
$newPage.ListItem["Contact"] = $contact $newPage.Update()
$newPage.CheckIn("")
$newPage.ListItem.File.Publish("")
Write-Host "Published"
Write-Host "Completed!"
# Dispose
$web.Dispose()
$site.Dispose()
I have a few pet hates and using New-Object is one of them and it's wrapped up in the error you're getting.
The command there is effectively Get-SPSite, which will return the site collection object at the URL you give it. If you give it a sub site, as you probably are, it will most likely fail.
What you need to do is change the code, there's no reason to get a SPSite object in there, it would work just as well with a Get-SPWeb.
Try swapping out the first bit for this:
$site = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteUrl)
$web = $site.rootweb
$pub = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PublishingWeb]::GetPublishingWeb($web)
#Becomes
$web = Get-SPWeb $siteURL
$pub = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PublishingWeb]::GetPublishingWeb($web)
That should work.