Optimizing Script for Downloading Files from Library with Folders - list

Question

Due to some extenuating circumstances we had to resort to migrating a teams content from one farm to another via locally downloading the files from their lists and shipping them. Unfortunately, this team used folders in their lists VERY heavily. And they wanted to maintain their folder structure for document organization purposes, so I had to come up with a script that could download the contents of a list, folders and all, while also maintaining that folder structure. I have years of SP admin experience, but my PS scripting has always been very basic to intermediate usage at best so I am reaching out to you all to help me optimize this script.
add-pssnapin microsoft.sharepoint.powershell
$w=get-spweb "http://URL"
$tlfolder=$w.getfolder("Old_Surveys")
$subfold=$tlfolder.subfolders|select *|?{$_.name -match "historical"}
$subfolders=$subfold.subfolders
foreach ($subfolder in $subfolders)
{
new-item -path "D:\backups\Old_Surveys\Historical Company Surveys" -name $subfolder.name -itemtype "directory"
#if the 2 level sub folder exists
if ($subfolder.subfolders -ne $null)
{
$subfoldername=$subfolder.name
$subsubfolders=$subfolder.subfolders
foreach ($subsubfolder in $subsubfolders)
{
new-item -path "D:\backups\Old_Surveys\Historical Company Surveys\$subfoldername" -name $subsubfolder.name -itemtype "directory"
# if the 3 level sub folder exists
if ($subsubfolder.subfolders -ne $null)
{
$subsubfoldername=$subsubfolder.name
$subsubsubfolders=$subsubfolder.subfolders
foreach ($subsubsubfolder in $subsubsubfolders)
{
new-item -path "D:\backups\Old_Surveys\Historical Company Surveys\$subfoldername\$subsubfoldername" -name $subsubsubfolder.name -itemtype "directory"
#if the 3 level sub files exists
if ($subsubsubfolder.files -ne $null)
{
$subsubsubfiles=$subsubsubfolder.files
$subsubsubfoldername=$subsubsubfolder.name
foreach ($subsubsubfile in $subsubsubfiles)
{
write-host $subsubsubfile.name
$b=$subsubsubfile.openbinary()
$fs=new-object system.io.filestream(("d:\backups\Old_Surveys\Historical Company Surveys\$subfoldername\$subsubfoldername\$subsubsubfoldername"+$subsubsubfile.name), [system.io.filemode]::create)
$bw=new-object system.io.binarywriter($fs)
$bw.write($b)
$bw.close()
}
}
}
}
if ($subsubfolder.files -ne $null)
{
$subsubfiles=$subsubfolder.files
$subsubfoldername=$subsubfolder.name
foreach ($subsubfile in $subsubfiles)
{
write-host $subsubfile.name
$b=$subsubfile.openbinary()
$fs=new-object system.io.filestream(("d:\backups\Old_Surveys\Historical Company Surveys\$subfoldername\$subsubfoldername\"+$subsubfile.name), [system.io.filemode]::create)
$bw=new-object system.io.binarywriter($fs)
$bw.write($b)
$bw.close()
}
}
}
if ($subfolder.files -ne $null)
{
$subfiles=$subfolder.files
$subfoldername=$subfolder.name
foreach ($subfile in $subfiles)
{
write-host $subfile.name
$b=$subfile.openbinary()
$fs=new-object system.io.filestream(("d:\backups\Old_Surveys\Historical Company Surveys\$subfoldername\"+$subfile.name), [system.io.filemode]::create)
$bw=new-object system.io.binarywriter($fs)
$bw.write($b)
$bw.close()
}
}
}
}
The objective of the code was to iterate down thru any folders, and subfolders of the folders, and create them on the local drive and download any files that are in them at that level. I did this manually for up to 3-sub levels of folders, but if there are more levels lower than that then I would have had to keep manually adding all the code and going even longer. Surely there has to be a better way of doing this?