UncommonSense.PowerShell.TypeData

PowerShell module to help build PowerShell type extension files

Installation

1. Build the project
2. From the build output folder (depends on your build configuration; typically bin/Debug or bin/Release), copy the following items to a folder called UncommonSense.PowerShell.TypeData anywhere in your PowerShell module path. To find your module path, type $env:PSModulePath -split ';' in a PowerShell console.

• UncommonSense.PowerShell.TypeData.dll
• UncommonSense.PowerShell.TypeData.psd1
• UncommonSense.PowerShell.TypeData.psm1

Alternatively, you could leave the files where they are, and call Import-Module {Full/Path/To/UncommonSense.PowerShell.TypeData.psd1}

Usage

If you're not familiar with the PowerShell type extension file format, please run Get-Help about_Types.ps1xml in your PowerShell console to find additional information.

In an attempt to simplify and shorten the syntax:

• all the cmdlets in the module have aliases (see below);
• most (if not all) cmdlet parameters are positional;
• each parent node has a script block parameter for easily adding child nodes.

Aliases

The following aliases are defined automatically.

Set-Alias -Name Types -Value New-TypeData
Set-Alias -Name _Type -Value New-Type
Set-Alias -Name AliasProperty -Value New-AliasProperty
Set-Alias -Name CodeMethod -Value New-CodeMethod
Set-Alias -Name CodeProperty -Value New-CodeProperty
Set-Alias -name CodeReference -Value New-CodeReference
Set-Alias -Name MemberSet -Value New-MemberSet
Set-Alias -Name NoteProperty -Value New-NoteProperty
Set-Alias -Name PropertySet -Value New-PropertySet
Set-Alias -Name ScriptMethod -Value New-ScriptMethod
Set-Alias -Name ScriptProperty -Value New-ScriptProperty
Set-Alias -Name TypeConverter -Value New-TypeConverter

Note: The alias for New-Type is _Type instead of Type, because PowerShell installs Type at a higher scope level as an alias for Get-Content.

Scenario

A possible usage scenario might look like this (using the cmdlet aliases and leaving out parameter names as much as possible):

Types {
    _Type Foo {
        NoteProperty Baz Bar
        ScriptProperty Qux 'Get-Quux'
        MemberSet Quux {
            NoteProperty Quuux Boink
        }
    }
}

The resulting XML looks like this:

<Types>
  <Type>
    <Name>Foo</Name>
    <Members>
      <NoteProperty>
        <Name>Baz</Name>
        <Value>Bar</Value>
      </NoteProperty>
      <ScriptProperty>
        <Name>Qux</Name>
        <GetScriptBlock>Get-Quux</GetScriptBlock>
      </ScriptProperty>
      <MemberSet>
        <Name>Quux</Name>
        <Members>
            <NoteProperty>
                <Name>Quuux</Name>
                <Value>Boink</Value>
            </NoteProperty>
        <Members />
      </MemberSet>
    </Members>
  </Type>
</Types>

You could then use redirection, Out-File or Set-Content to send the XML to type extension file, which can be loaded into your PowerShell session using Update-TypeData, or can be made part of your own PowerShell module.

Encoding

Additional text, such as an XML declaration specifying the encoding, can be specified in New-TypeData's -PreContent parameter. This text will be emitted before the actual type data.

New-TypeData -PreContent '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>' { ... }

When specifying an encoding in -PreContent, make sure you use the same encoding when sending the cmdlet's output to a file or stream.

New-TypeData -PreContent '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>' { ... } | Out-File -Encoding Utf8 -FilePath '...'