SharePoint Online: Export Term Set to CSV using PowerShell

Requirement: Had to extract all terms in a term set to CSV format in SharePoint Online.

Unfortunately, there is no way to export SharePoint online export term set from UI. But PowerShell can help!


SharePoint Online PowerShell to Export Term Set
PowerShell to export all terms from a given term set in Term store of 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"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Taxonomy.dll"
  
#Variables for Processing
$AdminURL = "https://crescent-admin.sharepoint.com/"
$TermGroupName = "Regions"
$TermSetName = "East Africa"
$CSVFile="C:\Temp\TermSetData.csv"

Try {
    #Get Credentials to connect
    $Cred = Get-Credential
    $Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)

    #Setup the context
    $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($AdminURL)
    $Ctx.Credentials = $Credentials

    #Get the term store
    $TaxonomySession=[Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Taxonomy.TaxonomySession]::GetTaxonomySession($Ctx) 
    $TermStore =$TaxonomySession.GetDefaultSiteCollectionTermStore()
    $Ctx.Load($TaxonomySession)
    $Ctx.Load($TermStore)
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

    #Get the Term Group
    $TermGroup=$TermStore.Groups.GetByName($TermGroupName)

    #Get the term set
    $TermSet = $TermGroup.TermSets.GetByName($TermSetName)

    #Get all tersm from the term set
    $Terms = $TermSet.Terms
    $Ctx.Load($Terms)
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

    Write-Output $TermsetName > $CSVFile
    #Export Terms to CSV
    Foreach($Term in $Terms)
    {
        Write-Output $Term.Name >> $CSVFile
    }     
    Write-host "Term Set Data Exported Successfully!" -ForegroundColor Green
}
Catch {
    write-host -f Red "Error Exporting Term Set!" $_.Exception.Message
} 

This script extract each term in the given term set into a CSV file. But wait! each term can go up to 7 levels deep! While the above script exports terms at one-single level, Here is my another PowerShell script to export terms and child terms of all levels of a given term set.

Export Term Set in SharePoint Online using PowerShell:

#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"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Taxonomy.dll"
  
#Variables for Processing
$AdminURL = "https://crescent-admin.sharepoint.com/"
$TermGroupName = "Sectors"
$TermSetName = "Political Geography"
$CSVFile="C:\Temp\TermSet.csv"

#Custom Function get child terms of a given term
Function Get-Terms([Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Taxonomy.Term] $Term,[String]$ParentTerm,[int] $Level)
{
  $ChildTerms = $Term.Terms
  $Ctx.Load($ChildTerms)
  $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
  if($ParentTerm)
  {
    $ParentTerm = $ParentTerm + "," + $Term.Name
  }
  else
  {
    $ParentTerm = $Term.Name
  }

  Foreach ($SubTerm in $ChildTerms)
  {
     $Level = $Level + 1
     #Terms may have upto 7 levels
     $NumofCommas =  7 - $Level
     $commas =""
     
     #Append Commas
     For ($j=0; $j -lt $NumofCommas; $j++)  
     {
        $Commas = $Commas + ","
     }
    
    #Append the Output to CSV File
    "," + "," + "," + $Term.IsAvailableForTagging + ",""$($Term.Description)""," + $ParentTerm + "," + $SubTerm.Name + $Commas >> $CSVFile
    
    #Call the function recursively
    Get-Terms -Term $SubTerm -ParentTerm $ParentTerm -Level $Level
  }
}
Try {
    #Get Credentials to connect
    $Cred = Get-Credential
    $Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)

    #Setup the context
    $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($AdminURL)
    $Ctx.Credentials = $Credentials

    #Get the term store
    $TaxonomySession=[Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Taxonomy.TaxonomySession]::GetTaxonomySession($Ctx) 
    $TermStore =$TaxonomySession.GetDefaultSiteCollectionTermStore()
    $Ctx.Load($TaxonomySession)
    $Ctx.Load($TermStore)
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

    #Write Termset CSV Header (As in the standard format)
    "Term Set Name,Term Set Description,LCID,Available for Tagging,Term Description,Level 1 Term,Level 2 Term,Level 3 Term,Level 4 Term,Level 5 Term,Level 6 Term,Level 7 Term" > $CSVFile

    #Get the Term Group
    $TermGroup=$TermStore.Groups.GetByName($TermGroupName)

    #Get the term set
    $TermSet = $TermGroup.TermSets.GetByName($TermSetName)
    $Ctx.Load($Termset)
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

    #Get all tersm from the term set
    $Terms = $TermSet.Terms
    $Ctx.Load($Terms)
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

    #Write 2nd line as Termset properties(As per standard format)
    $TermSet.Name + ",""$($TermSet.Description)""," + $TermStore.DefaultLanguage + "," + $TermSet.IsAvailableForTagging + ",""$($Terms[0].Description)""," + $Terms[0].Name + "," + "," + "," + "," + "," + "," >> $CSVFile
    
    #Process each Term in the termset
    Foreach($Term in $Terms)  
    {
        write-host $Term.Name
        Get-Terms $Term -Level 1 -ParentTerm ""
    }     
    Write-host "Term Set Data Exported Successfully!" -ForegroundColor Green
}
Catch {
    write-host -f Red "Error Exporting Term Set!" $_.Exception.Message
}

SharePoint Online: Export Term Set using PnP PowerShell

#Config Variables
$AdminCenterURL = "https://crescenttech-admin.sharepoint.com"
$TermSetId="286f9c03-193d-4f23-9863-c1b7ccd2c451"
$FilePath="C:\Temp\TermsetData.txt"

#Connect to PnP Online
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $AdminCenterURL -Credentials (Get-Credential)

#Export Term set
Export-PnPTaxonomy -TermSetId $TermsetID -Path $FilePath

My Term set:

and the Result: