Some PNP PowerShell command are throwing “Input string was not in a correct format” on SharePoint Online

Question

On my SharePoint Online DEV environment, I try to add or read some Fields with PNP PowerShell.

Add-PnPFieldFromXml -FieldXml <Field Type="Boolean" Name="AddedtoSchedule" DisplayName="Added to Schedule" Group="Change Requests" Description="" ID="{5cc7cd51-596c-432d-a15a-34987d597786}"/>

Add-PnPFieldFromXml : Input string was not in a correct format. Get-PnPField : Input string was not in a correct format.

this works on all other environments... but not on this dev site collection... It works also on all subsites

How I build the xml:

$xml = ('<Field Type=' + ""$type"" + ' Name=' + ""$iName"" + ' DisplayName=' + ""$dName"" + ' Group=' + ""$group"" + ' Description=' + ""$description"" + ' ID=' + ""$id"" + '/>')

Working example

Get-PnPWeb

The strange thing is, if I try the same commands on two other environments or on a subsite of the PWA, it works without any problem... I have compared the environments and all of the site collections feature settings and there is no difference...

function AddSiteColumns($sheet, $rowMax) {
try {

    Write-Host "######################"
    Write-Host "#Add new Site Columns#"
    Write-Host "######################"$nl

    for ($i = 2; $i -le $rowMax; $i++) {
        $dName = $sheet.Cells.Item($i, 1).text
        $iName = $sheet.Cells.Item($i, 2).text
        $type = $sheet.Cells.Item($i, 3).text
        $group = $sheet.Cells.Item($i, 4).text
        $choices = $sheet.Cells.Item($i, 5).text
        $choicesArray = $choices -split ","
        $choicesArray = $choicesArray.trim()
        $required = $sheet.Cells.Item($i, 6).text
        $description = $sheet.Cells.Item($i, 7).text
        $new = $sheet.Cells.Item($i, 8).text
        $properties = $sheet.Cells.Item($i, 9).text

        if ($new -eq "new") {


            try { 

                if ($required -eq "TRUE" -and $choices) {
                    #Add-PnPField -DisplayName "$dname" -InternalName "$iName" -Type "$type" -Choice $choicesArray -Required -Group "$group"       
                    $id = createGUID
                    $choices = buildChoiceXML $choicesArray
                    $xml = ('<Field Type=' + "`"$type`"" + ' Name=' + "`"$iName`"" + ' DisplayName=' + "`"$dName`"" + ' Group=' + "`"$group`"" + ' Description=' + "`"$description`"" + ' ID=' + "`"$id`"" + ' Required="TRUE">' + $choices + '</Field>')                        
                    Add-PnPFieldFromXml -Field $xml
                    Write-Host "Added SiteColumn: Name = $dname, Internal Name = $iName, Type = $type, Group = $group"    
                }
                elseif ($choices) {
                    #Add-PnPField -DisplayName "$dname" -InternalName "$iName" -Type "$type" -Choice $choicesArray  -Group "$group" 
                    $id = createGUID
                    $choices = buildChoiceXML $choicesArray
                    $xml = '<Field Type=' + "`"$type`"" + ' Name=' + "`"$iName`"" + ' DisplayName=' + "`"$dName`"" + ' Group=' + "`"$group`"" + ' Description=' + "`"$description`"" + ' ID=' + "`"$id`"" + '>' + $choices + '</Field>'
                    Add-PnPFieldFromXml -Field $xml
                    Write-Host "Added SiteColumn: Name = $dname, Internal Name = $iName, Type = $type, Group = $group"    

                }
                elseif ($type -eq "DateOnly") {
                    $id = createGUID
                    $type = "DateTime"
                    $format = "DateOnly"
                    $xml = ('<Field Type=' + "`"$type`"" + ' Name=' + "`"$iName`"" + ' DisplayName=' + "`"$dName`"" + ' Group=' + "`"$group`"" + ' Description=' + "`"$description`"" + ' ID=' + "`"$id`"" + ' Format=' + "`"$format`"" + '/>')
                    Add-PnPFieldFromXml -Field $xml
                    Write-Host "Added SiteColumn: Name = $dname, Internal Name = $iName, Type = $type, Group = $group"
                }
                elseif ($type -eq "DateOnly" -and $required -eq "TRUE") {
                    $id = createGUID
                    $type = "DateTime"
                    $format = "DateOnly"
                    $xml = ('<Field Type=' + "`"$type`"" + ' Name=' + "`"$iName`"" + ' DisplayName=' + "`"$dName`"" + ' Group=' + "`"$group`"" + ' Description=' + "`"$description`"" + ' ID=' + "`"$id`"" + ' Format=' + "`"$format`"" + ' Required="TRUE"/>')
                    Add-PnPFieldFromXml -Field $xml
                    Write-Host "Added SiteColumn: Name = $dname, Internal Name = $iName, Type = $type, Group = $group"
                }
                elseif ($type -eq "Calculated" -and $required -eq "TRUE") {
                    $id = createGUID
                    $type = "Calculated"
                    if ($properties) {
                        $fieldFormula = "<Formula>" + $properties + "</Formula>"
                    }
                    else {
                        $fieldFormula = ""                            
                    }
                    $xml = ('<Field Type=' + "`"$type`"" + ' Name=' + "`"$iName`"" + ' DisplayName=' + "`"$dName`"" + ' Group=' + "`"$group`"" + ' Description=' + "`"$description`"" + ' ID=' + "`"$id`"" + ' Required="TRUE" >' + $fieldFormula + '</Field>')
                    Add-PnPFieldFromXml -Field $xml
                    Write-Host "Added SiteColumn: Name = $dname, Internal Name = $iName, Type = $type, Group = $group"
                }
                elseif ($type -eq "Calculated") {
                    $id = createGUID
                    $type = "Calculated"
                    if ($properties) {
                        $fieldFormula = "<Formula>" + $properties + "</Formula>"
                    }
                    else {
                        $fieldFormula = ""                            
                    }
                    $xml = ('<Field Type=' + "`"$type`"" + ' Name=' + "`"$iName`"" + ' DisplayName=' + "`"$dName`"" + ' Group=' + "`"$group`"" + ' Description=' + "`"$description`"" + ' ID=' + "`"$id`"" + ' Required="TRUE" >' + $fieldFormula + '</Field>')
                    Add-PnPFieldFromXml -Field $xml
                    Write-Host "Added SiteColumn: Name = $dname, Internal Name = $iName, Type = $type, Group = $group"
                }
                elseif ($type -eq "Lookup") {
                    $id = createGUID
                    $showField = "Title"
                    #get list GUID to connect the lookup table
                    $lid = Get-PnPList -Identity "$properties"
                    $lid = $lid.Id.GUID
                    $lid = "{$lid}"
                    Add-PnPFieldFromXml -FieldXml ('<Field Type=' + "`"$type`"" + ' Name=' + "`"$iName`"" + ' DisplayName=' + "`"$dName`"" + ' EnforceUniqueValues=' + "`"$enforce`"" + ' List=' + "`"$lid`"" + ' ID=' + "`"$id`"" + ' ShowField=' + "`"$showField`"" + '/>')
                    # Add-PnPFieldFromXml -Field $xml
                    Write-Host "Added SiteColumn: Name = $dname, Internal Name = $iName, Type = $type, Group = $group" 
                } 
                elseif ($required -eq "TRUE") {
                    $id = createGUID
                    $xml = ('<Field Type=' + "`"$type`"" + ' Name=' + "`"$iName`"" + ' DisplayName=' + "`"$dName`"" + ' Group=' + "`"$group`"" + ' Description=' + "`"$description`"" + ' ID=' + "`"$id`"" + ' Required="TRUE"/>')
                    Add-PnPFieldFromXml -Field $xml
                    Write-Host "Added SiteColumn: Name = $dname, Internal Name = $iName, Type = $type, Group = $group ListID = $lookupId"
                }                               
                else {
                    $id = createGUID
                    $xml = ('<Field Type=' + "`"$type`"" + ' Name=' + "`"$iName`"" + ' DisplayName=' + "`"$dName`"" + ' Group=' + "`"$group`"" + ' Description=' + "`"$description`"" + ' ID=' + "`"$id`"" + '/>')
                    Add-PnPFieldFromXml -Field $xml
                    Write-Host "Added SiteColumn: Name = $dname, Internal Name = $iName, Type = $type, Group = $group"    
                } 
                Write-Host $xml

            }
            catch [Exception] {
                Write-Error "Error by setting colum" $dName
                continue
            }
        }
    }
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "All fields were succesfully added"$nl
}
catch [Exception] {
    Write-Error  "At least one field was not created"
    break
}

}

Answer 1

I have found a solution.

If I add StaticName as an additional parameter it works.

$xml = ('<Field Type=' + "`"$type`"" + ' StaticName=' + "`"$iName`"" +' Name=' + "`"$iName`"" + ' DisplayName=' + "`"$dName`"" + ' Group=' + "`"$group`"" + ' Description=' + "`"$description`"" + ' ID=' + "`"$id`"" + '/>')