PowerShell ConvertTo-Html

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

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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.