Welcome. If you’re here for the download, it’s toward the bottom of this post.
Today’s post goes hand in hand with a session I gave at the Arizona PowerShell Saturday event on Saturday, October 14, 2017. I didn’t do it previously, but this year especially, it made sense to have a post at tommymaynard.com, as a part of my session at the event. I wanted a place to offer my advanced function template for download, and so this, is it. If you couldn’t attend the event and be a part of the session yourself, then this may be the next best alternative. Well, for my session anyway. This event included sessions from Jason Yoder, Will Anderson, and Jason Helmick. While we’re at it — naming names — many thanks to Thom Schumacher for his role in organizing this event.
Toward the end of 2016, I spent some nights and weekends, and moments in the office too, writing a PowerShell advanced function template. Its main purpose was to include built-in function logging. You see, I wanted logging, but I didn’t want an external logging function to do it, and so I decided that every one of my functions would use the same template, and therefore, I could offer consistent logging capabilities across all my functions. These include my own functions, and even those written and put in place for my coworkers. At last check, I’ve snuck 40 plus tools into production. These include PowerShell functions for Active Directory, Group Policy, Exchange, SharePoint, Office 365, Amazon Web Services, VMware, and general operating system and management needs. There’s always something to automate, and now, when they do get automated, each includes the same base functionality.
I liked it, I use it, and I even made my advanced function template available for download on its original post. After some use, I came to realize that it could’ve been better. If you’ve been at this scripting and automation game for awhile, then you understand that automation, even when it’s done, is never really done. There’s always room for improvement, even if there isn’t always time to execute that mental list of changes, fixes, and increased functionality you want to add to already written automation.
The first thing I needed, which I didn’t even know I needed at first, was a function, and I’m not talking about the template code. I’m talking about a way to demonstrate both advanced function template versions (1.0 and 2.0), using the same non-template code. At first, I thought I’d just walk though the code in my 2.0 version of my advanced function template, but really, it made sense to use an easy to understand previously written function as an example, running in both the 1.0 and 2.0 versions of my advanced function template. At nearly the same time I was prepping for PowerShell Saturday, I had written a function that created random passwords — I know, I know… there’s a bunch of these already. I took that function’s code and wrapped it in my 2.0 version, as it had already been written with my 1.0 version, for use in my session at the PowerShell Saturday event.
All the files I used, are included in the below, free from viruses, zip file. This includes the ArizonaPowerShellSaturday.ps1 file that I used to run all the various commands, the New-RandomPassword1.0.ps1 file (uses the 1.0 version of advanced function template), and New-RandomPassword2.0.ps1 file (uses the 2.0 version of advanced function template), and the blank AdvancedFunctionTemplate2.0.ps1 — this is the one you’re likely after. If you attempt to use the first file mentioned, ArizonaPowerShellSaturday.ps1, then you’ll need to modify the first region, where the variables are assigned, so that they point to the other three files, wherever you decided to save them. Also, there’s a couple references to an alias I use, called code. I don’t believe this is a built-in alias, so the line won’t work as expected on other people’s systems. Know that the idea behind those lines is to open the referenced file inside of Visual Studio Code.
Update: I was asked at the PowerShell Saturday event, what kind of license I had. Ugh, none. But, for the sake of those that need it, let’s distribute this under the MIT License further below.
Update: The built-in ability to do logging that’s in my Advanced Function template writes all parameter names and associated values to the screen, file, or to both the screen and file. This means that if you’re passing secure data as a parameter value, that it needs to be done in a secure manner, or it’s going to appear in the logs. I intend to put in a stopgap for this, but it may not be perfect. You can read more here: http://tommymaynard.com/potentially-avoid-logging-plain-text-passwords-2017. Watch for a link on this post, and that one, to the newest post that’ll include the 2.1 versions!
Update: And, here’s the link!
Copyright 2017
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.