Permissions to Claims using PowerShell

After developing and configuring SharePoint to make use of claims-based authentication, you may get involved in deployment of the solution which can involve assignment of permissions to claims. This is easily achieved using the SharePoint people-picker control however doing so using a PowerShell script can be hair-scratching. Here is a sample to save your scalp :-)

$webSiteURL = "<web address>"

$provider = Get-SPClaimProvider -Identity "<provider name>"

$claim = New-SPClaimsPrincipal

  -ClaimValue "<claim value>"

  -ClaimType "http://<cliam type>"

  -ClaimProvider $provider.ClaimProvider

$user = New-SPUser

  -UserAlias $claim.ToEncodedString()

  -Web $webSiteURL

Set-SPUser

  -Identity $user

  -Web $webSiteURL

  –AddPermissionLevel "Read"

You may need to perform a further step on or after the last step such as adding the user to a role-assignments collection.

Notice that the parameters are placed on new lines for clarity.

You'll have to ensure that the PowerShell instance has the SharePoint plugins enabled.