Export SharePoint List Data To Xml through PowerShell

Today my colleague Johannes Milling wrote an awesome post:

Export SharePoint List Data To XML Directly from the GUI

He uses the old and forgotten RPC-based web service owssvr.dll (that has existed since SharePoint 2003). This url pattern is used to get the xml-formatted list data for a specific ListView:

http://<site_url>/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=Display&List=<list guid>&View=<view guid>&Query=*&XMLDATA=TRUE

To automate this I have written a PowerShell function. All the details are in the comments:

function Export-OIPSPListDataAsXml {
<#
.Synopsis
   Exports list items as xml
.DESCRIPTION
   This function uses a built-in hidden service owssvr.dll in SharePoint
.PARAMETER Web
   SPWeb or a url for the SPWeb object where the list resides
.PARAMETER ListName
   List Name (List Title)
.PARAMETER ViewName
   Name of the List View to export the data
.EXAMPLE
   Export-OIPSPListView -Web http://myawesomesite -ListName "Teddy Bears" -ViewName "All Items"
.EXAMPLE
   Export-OIPSPListView -Web $webInstance -ListName "Top Links" -ViewName "All Items"
.Notes
    Name: Export-OIPSPListDataAsXml
    Author: Anatoly Mironov
    Last Edit: 2014-09-11
    Keywords: SPList, SPWeb, SPListView, Xml
.Link

http://chuvash.eu

#>
    [CmdLetBinding()]
    param(
	[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPWebPipeBind]$Web,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string]$ListName,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string]$ViewName)

    $spWeb = $Web.Read()
    $list = $spWeb.Lists[$ListName]
    if (!$list) { throw "List $ListName on web $($spWeb.Url) could not be found" }
    $view = $list.Views[$ViewName]
    if (!$view) { throw "View $ViewName on web $ListName could not be found" }
    $url = "{0}/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=Display&List={1}&View={2}&Query=*&XMLDATA=TRUE" `
            -f $spWeb.Url, $list.ID, $view.ID
    $wc = New-Object Net.WebClient
    $wc.UseDefaultCredentials = $true
    $wc.DownloadString($url)
}