1

Introduction 1

Features 4

Real World Examples 5

For Testers 8

Message for Testers 10

2

Introduction (As commented by the author in PowerShell Pro…)

PowerShell is a new command shell from Microsoft and yes it is a command prompt and

scripting environment, it can even be both at the same time.

For a systems administrator, the benefits in learning PowerShell are mainly pertaining to Active

Directory domains are becoming larger and more complex. For those administrators that are still

chained to GUI tools and the Microsoft Management Console, PowerShell will set you free!!!

Additional Features to MS-DOS Command:

• Variables, Constants, Arrays, and Hash Tables.

• Using Conditional Logic. • Processing data with Loops.

• Modular Scripting Using Functions.

• Scripting using WMI Objects (Computers, Printers, Etc…).

• Scripting using ADSI Objects (Active Directory Management

Concepts:

Object Based Not Command Based – Output can be piped into another input

Commands are customizable – Create own commands, based on aliases

Command Based and Scripting Environment – MS DOS – command and VB Script – runs

Windows Server Host for executing scripts and not MS DOS runs the command. Same applies

for Windows Batch File

3

4

CAFFEINATED ODOR WEBSITE

Features :

Guessing: In powershell, the verb-noun pattern is strictly enforced and the names are

always consistent so that I can write Get-Command *service and be assured that I will

get all the cmdLets related to services and then figure out what they do through the verb

part of their name.

Built-In Help -If you're not sure what a cmdLet does, then use the Get-Help cmdLet to see

the documentation

Trusting Operations -Are you afraid to execute a script because you're not sure what it will

do? Try the -whatif parameter that is ubiquitous to all commands. For example, del

C:\f*.txt -whatif will just tell you which files would have been deleted rather th

an actually deleting them.

Get-Member- add| Get-member to the end of the command and I can see what additional

methods I have to work with or what properties I can perform filtering and assorting on

5

6

7

A simple script for beginners

8

Powershell for Testers:

A dedicated website of use of PowerShell for Testing: http://testfirst.spaces.live.com/blog/

Project CodePlex by the blogger of previous site; Adam Geras :

http://www.codeplex.com/psexpect

Project Description

A PowerShell library for automating tests. You can use this library to test your scripts, but it is really designed to

test things external to PowerShell: your Active Directory configuration, your SharePoint installation, etc.

This project was initially released for PowerShell v1.0 and has

since been revised so that it works for PowerShell v2.0 (CTP

and above) as well. I've not run the full suite of tests on all

OS/version combinations though, so please log an issue if

you find something wonky.

I built this so that it would be easier to employ PowerShell as a means of automating tests. I believe the

language has features that fundamentally make it a wise choice for automating tests, in particular, when the

targets of the tests happens to publish cmdlets. So while you can use it to test your scripts, it really is intended

to provide you with the means of writing tests to support the work that you are already doing, whether that is

writing scripts, configuring commercial-off-the-shelf products, or developing an application.

Note: The decision not to use cmdlets at all in this solution was to avoid the need to install anything on the

machines running the target of the tests. This is also why relying on an existing .NET test framework (such as

NUnit) wasn't considered the optimal solution.

Regards,

A.

“I built this so that it would be easier to

employ PowerShell as a means of

automating tests.”

Scripts of .net

modules works with

powershell

9

10 quick reasons to come up for testing with PowerShell by James Brundage – MSDN

PowerShell Team – Microsoft Functional Tester (MSFT) (Source: PowerShell Blog)

1. Being able to run command line programs easier within PowerShell

2. Dynamically generating code or test data for a test case (fuzzing or data-driven testing get

a lot easier with this)

3. Being able to access COM easier within PowerShell

4. Being able to embed PowerShell in C# (so you can avoid writing a framework and just

embed PowerShell in your infrastructure)

5. Being able to use weakly typed variables within PowerShell 6. Being able to test APIs on the command line, so you test manually and then automate

7. Getting a history of commands, to take what you've explored and turn it into a test case 8. Being able to strongly cast or coerce types when needed

9. Support for verbose, warning, and debug streams to provide additional test information 10. Being able to use PowerShell's systems administration features to help setup or cleanup a

test environment

Use of PowerShell in Unit Testing

is a software verification and validation

method in which a programmer tests if

individual units of source code are fit for

use – In Wiki’s terms

10