Windows PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking

This course is intended for administrators in a Microsoft-centric environment who want to build reusable units of automation, automate business processes, and enable less-technical colleagues to accomplish administrative tasks.

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Describe the correct patterns for building modularized tools in Windows PowerShell
• Build highly modularized functions that comply with native PowerShell patterns
• Build controller scripts that expose user interfaces and automate business processes
• Manage data in a variety of formats
• Write automated tests for tools
• Debug tools

Before attending this course, students must have:

• Experience at basic Windows administration
• Experience using Windows PowerShell to query and modify system information
• Experience using Windows PowerShell to discover commands and their usage
• Experience using WMI and/or CIM to query system information
• 

• Training: English
• Materials: English

1. Module 1: Tool Design
   • Tools do one thing
   • Tools are flexible
   • Tools look native
2. Module 2: Start with a Command
   • Why start with a command?
   • Discovery and experimentation
3. Module 3: Build a Basic Function and Module
   • Start with a basic function
   • Create a script module
   • Check prerequisites
   • Run the new command
4. Module 4: Adding CmdletBinding and Parameterizing
   • About CmdletBinding and common parameters
   • Accepting pipeline input
   • Mandatory-ness
   • Parameter validation
   • Parmeter aliases
5. Module 5: Emitting Objects as Output
   • Assembling information
   • Constructing and emitting output
   • Quick tests
6. Module 6: An Interlude: Changing Your Approach
   • Examining a script
   • Critiquing a script
   • Revising the script
7. Module 7: Using Verbose, Warning, and Informational Output
   • Knowing the six channels
   • Adding verbose and warning output
   • Doing more with verbose output
   • Informational output
8. Module 8: Comment-Based Help
   • Where to put your help
   • Getting started
   • Going further with comment-based help
   • Broken help
9. Module 9: Handling Errors
   • Understanding errors and exceptions
   • Bad handling
   • Two reasons for exception handling
   • Handling exceptions in our tool
   • Capturing the actual exception
   • Handling exceptions for non-commands
   • Going further with exception handling
   • Deprecated exception handling
10. Module 10: Basic Debugging
    • Two kinds of bugs
    • The ultimate goal of debugging
    • Developing assumptions
    • Write-Debug
    • Set-PSBreakpoint
    • The PowerShell ISE
11. Module 11: Going Deeper with Parameters
    • Parameter positions
    • Validation
    • Multiple parameter sets
    • Value from remaining arguments
    • Help messages
    • Aliases
    • More CmdletBinding
12. Module 12: Writing Full Help
    • External help
    • Using PlatyPs
    • Supporting online help
    • “About” topics
    • Making your help updatable
13. Module 13: Unit Testing Your Code
    • Sketching out the test
    • Making something to test
    • Expanding the test
    • Going further with Pester
14. Module 14: Extending Output Types
    • Understanding types
    • The Extensible Type System
    • Extending an object
    • Using Update-TypeData
15. Module 15: Analyzing Your Script
    • Performing a basic analysis
    • Analyzing the analysis
16. Module 16: Publishing Your Tools
    • Begin with a manifest
    • Publishing to PowerShell Gallery
    • Publishing to private repositories
17. Module 17: Basic Controllers: Automation Scripts and Menus
    • Building a menu
    • Using UIChoice
    • Writing a process controller
18. Module 18: Proxy Functions
    • A proxy example
    • Creating the proxy base
    • Modifying the proxy
    • Adding or removing parameters
19. Module 19: Working with XML Data
    • Simple: CliXML
    • Importing native XML
    • ConvertTo-XML
    • Creating native XML from scratch
20. Module 20: Working with JSON Data
    • Converting to JSON
    • Converting from JSON
21. Module 21: Working with SQL Server Data
    • SQL Server terminology and facts
    • Connecting to the server and database
    • Writing a query
    • Running a query
    • Invoke-SqlCmd
    • Thinking about tool design patterns