PowerShell ConvertTo-Html Cmdlet
When testing PowerShell’s ConvertTo-Html cmdlet, the best way of making sense of the output is if you employ Invoke-Item to view the resulting web page.
Topics for PowerShell’s ConvertTo-Html
- Introduction to ConvertTo-Html
- Example 1: List Aliases in a Html file
- Example 2: Research Processes and Their Handles
- Example 3: Turning on the Html Style
- Research ConvertTo-Html Parameters
- Members of the ‘Output’ Family
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Introduction to ConvertTo-Html
ConvertTo-Html feeds on input from another PowerShell cmdlet; the output is displayed in a web page. Your alternatives are to save the data in a text file, in which case you would employ Out-File, do nothing and display the data in the PowerShell ISE, or call for ConvertTo-Html.
Example 1: List Aliases in a HTML file
The purpose of this script is to simply list PowerShell’s aliases in a web page.
# PowerShell ConvertTo-Html Example
Clear-Host
Get-Alias | ConvertTo-Html -property Name, Definition |
Out-File aliases.htm
Invoke-Item aliases.htm
Note 1: I decided to restrict the output columns to just the alias’s name and its definition.
Note 2: ConvertTo-Html needs a file name; I used Out-File, but you could use the greater than arrow > to redirect the results.
Note 3: As I really wanted to view a table of cmdlets with their corresponding alias, I called for Invoke-Item to open the .htm file.
Note 4: There is no need to employ the backtick (`) to word-wrap the instruction to Out-File; if you place a pipe (|) at the very end of the line PowerShell realises that the command continues on the next line.
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Example 2: Research Processes and Their Handles
The key to this example is tracing the processes, see how ConvertTo-Html filters just then name and handles. If you want to research other properties then run this command:
Get-Process | Get-Member.
# PowerShell ConvertTo-Html Cmdlet
Clear-Host
Get-Process | ConvertTo-Html ProcessName, Handles | Out-File handles.htm
Invoke-Item Handles.htm
Note 5: In this ConvertTo-Html example the -property parameter is assumed.
See also PowerShell's Invoke-WebRequest ยป
Example 3: Turning on the Html Style
The purpose of this example is to use html formatting to produce grid lines and even a background color.
Clear-Host
$a = "<style>"
$a = $a + "TABLE{border-width: 1px;border-style: solid;border-color:black;}"
$a = $a + "Table{background-color:#DFFFFF;border-collapse: collapse;}"
$a = $a + "TH{border-width:1px;padding:0px;border-style:solid;border-color:black;}"
$a = $a + "TD{border-width:1px;padding-left:5px;border-style:solid;border-color:black;}"
$a = $a + "</style>"
Get-Process | ConvertTo-Html ProcessName, Handles -head $a | Out-File handles.htm
Invoke-Item Handles.htm
Note 6: Observe how the -head parameter controls the formatting via the $a variable.
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Research ConvertTo-Html Parameters
# Research ConvertTo-Html Parameters
Clear-Host
Get-Help ConvertTo-Html -full
Note 7: PowerShell’s own Get-Help cmdlet reveals useful switches or parameters, for instance you can modify ConvertTo-Html’s default table view with the parameter -as List. While most of the parameters are cosmetic, the -properties performs a useful filtering function.
More Members of the ConvertTo Family
# Research More ConvertTo Verbs
Clear-Host
Get-Command -Verb Convert*
Other useful cmdlets in this family include ConvertFrom-Csv.
See also honorary member Export-CliXml »
Summary of PowerShell’s ConvertTo-Html Cmdlet
Once you have tried ConvertTo-Html you will see if this cmdlet is just what you need, or if Out-File or Out-Grid would be better. In my opinion if you choose ConvertTo-Html then mostly you will need to append the Invoke-Item parameter to display the actual web page.
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See more Microsoft PowerShell output tutorials:
• PShell Home • Out-File • Out-GridView • ConvertTo-Csv • ConvertTo-Html • ConvertFrom-Csv
• Tee-Object • Import-CSV • Format-Table • PowerShell Here-String • ConvertFrom-JSON
• Export-CliXml • Format-List • Read-Host • PowerShell Get-History • -f format • Pipe to file
Please email me if you have a better example script. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.
