Export version history event log of SharePoint List - sharepoint

Question

I'm looking for an event log or full version history which holds all changes ever made to the items of a SharePoint List.
Version history is enabled. When I right-mouse click on an item and select Version History, it actually shows me all the data I need:
Timestamp of modification
(Column, value) pair of the new modified column and it's new value
Modified by who
Now I "only" need to get this data structured in a table or a file (xlsx, xml, json, csv). And for all the List's items.
I can see that the data is there. But I haven't found a way to export it. So far I've tried customizing an .iqy file, using PowerShell and using Power Automate, without success.
I hope there is some way for me to get the full history. I need it to calculate average run times.

Answer 1

For SharePoint Online:
#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
Function Export-VersionHistory()
{
param
(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $SiteURL,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $ListName,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $CSVFile
)
Try {
#Delete the Output report file if exists
if (Test-Path $CSVFile) { Remove-Item $CSVFile }
#Get Credentials to connect
$Cred= Get-Credential
$Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)
#Setup the context
$Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
$Ctx.Credentials = $Credentials
#Get the List
$List = $Ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle($ListName)
$Ctx.Load($List)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
#Get all items
$Query = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.CamlQuery]::CreateAllItemsQuery()
$ListItems = $List.GetItems($Query)
$Ctx.Load($ListItems)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
#Array to hold result
$VersionHistoryData = #()
#Iterate throgh each item
Foreach ($Item in $ListItems)
{
write-host "Processing Item:" $item.id -f Yellow
#Get all versions of the list item
$Versions = $Item.versions
$ctx.Load($Versions)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
If($Versions.count -gt 0)
{
#Iterate each version
Foreach($Version in $Versions)
{
#Get the Creator object of the version
$CreatedBy = $Version.createdby
$Ctx.Load($CreatedBy)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
#Send Data to object array
$VersionHistoryData += New-Object PSObject -Property #{
'Item ID' = $Item.ID
'Title' = $Version.FieldValues["Title"]
'Version Label' = $Version.VersionLabel
'Version ID' = ($Version.VersionId/512)
'Created On' = (Get-Date ($Version.Created) -Format "yyyy-MM-dd/HH:mm:ss")
'Created By' = $CreatedBy.Email
}
}
}
}
#Export the data to CSV
$VersionHistoryData | Export-Csv $CSVFile -Append -NoTypeInformation
write-host -f Green "Version History Exported Successfully to:" $CSVFile
}
Catch {
write-host -f Red "Error Exporting version History to CSV!" $_.Exception.Message
}
}
#Set parameter values
$SiteURL="https://tenant.sharepoint.com"
$ListName="list name"
$CSVFile="C:\VersionHistory.csv"
#Call the function to generate version History Report
Export-VersionHistory -SiteURL $SiteURL -ListName $ListName -CSVFile $CSVFile
For SharePoint Server:
# ******* Variables Section ******************
#Define these variables
$WebURL="site collection URL"
$ListName ="list name"
$ReportFile = "C:\VersionHistory.csv"
# *********************************************
#delete the file if exists
If (Test-Path $ReportFile)
{
Remove-Item $ReportFile
}
#Get the Web and List
$Web = Get-SPWeb $WebURL
$List = $web.Lists.TryGetList($ListName)
#Check if list exists
if($List -ne $null)
{
#Get all list items
$ItemsColl = $List.Items
#Write Report Header
Add-Content -Path $ReportFile -Value "Item ID, Version Lable, Created by, Created at, Title"
#Loop through each item
foreach ($item in $ItemsColl)
{
#Iterate each version
ForEach($version in $item.Versions)
{
#Get the version content
$VersionData = "$($item.id), $($version.VersionLabel), $($version.CreatedBy.User.DisplayName), $($version.Created), $($version['Title'])"
#Write to report
Add-Content -Path $ReportFile -Value $VersionData
}
}
}
Write-Host "Version history has been exported successfully!"