Easing into Powershell with ISE
I’m enrolled in an ambitious program focused on cloud and server administration, and on a daily basis my class is buffeted with new terms, concepts and tutorials designed to acclimate us to the working environment of an IT professional, as quickly as possible.
For me, it’s been love at first byte. I’ve embraced the complete learning immersion with open arms, although I’ve become so preoccupied with the class materials that several times I’ve tried to connect my iPhone to my electric razor charger.
A big component of what we do is work in several different configuration and command environments, which affect networking parameters such as adding users to a group, assigning functions and permissions within the user base, or managing individual computers. One of these environments is called Powershell, a command and scripting tool.
The Powershell Integrated Scripting Environment, known as ISE, (America loves a good acronym!) is a host for the Powershell engine that really enhances and accelerates the command scripting process. Let’s take a look at accessing Powershell ISE and its cool features. If you spend a lot of time in Windows Server 2012, you’re gonna love having ISE in your toolbox.
Let’s Get Started
Powershell ISE is ocean-deep in features, shortcuts and scripts; listing them all would require a book-length post. Let’s look at a few features that helped me get around quickly and made me want to go deeper and get excited about my scripting future.
First, we need to run Powershell ISE:
- In the Windows Start window, type Powershell ISE. After a brief load time, you’ll see the rich blue ISE window with a command prompt, ready to go.
Pin the ISE icon to the task bar; you’ll be returning to it a lot as you play with ISE.
2. To the right of the command entry window is a huge alphabetized directory of commands, many of which are already loaded with their appropriate parameters; click Show Details to access the parameters for those commands that have not yet been loaded with them. They show up almost instantaneously. Click on Refresh and the directory is restored.
3. Type Get-Help at the command prompt. You’ll notice that just a few characters will beckon a pop-up window crammed with pre-typed matching cmdlets (ISE-speak for commands), kinda like macros in reverse. It’s part of a feature called Intellisense.
4. Find the one you’re looking for and hit Enter. It’ll appear in the prompt. There’s a boundless library of these cmdlets available, and believe me, if you’re not a major-league typist, you’ll save loads of time entering information and getting lost in the netherworld of a typo.
5. Hit CTRL-J to enter the amazing continent of Snippets. Snippets are basically preset lines of code, preset scripts if you will, for a variety of cmdlets, and they’re available for your observation, delectation, and if necessary, importation in yet another pop-up window, directory-style.
6. Choose one at random and you’ll be able to preview the script; hit Enter and it shows right up on the screen at the command prompt in lines of glorious code.Very cool, and quite illuminating when you follow the sequence.
7. Use the Up and Left-Right arrows to get back to a string to correct a typo. Powershell isn’t shy about letting you know when your syntax is wrong, (blazing red characters) but ISE seems to be more accurate and precise about describing and locating the offending line and character. The arrows speed up the navigation and correction process (locate-delete-re-enter)quite a bit.
Are You Feeling it Yet?
Powershell ISE is a terrific enhancement of the Powershell environment, and I’ve found that it’s streamlined command entry speeds up the workflow significantly. I’ve also achieved a fresh insight into the logic and sequencing of the scripting process.
We’ve only discussed a few features here, I know, but a nibble gets you ready for a byte, right?( Sorry). Follow the steps above and you’ll discover your own path right away. You’ll have fun finding it, too.
The version described above is Powershell ISE 3.0, and you’ll probably want to explore more of the features and updates built into this deep blue version.
I also found a really interesting article on the invocation and power of the Snippets feature that helped me understand the depth of it’s possibilities.
For the truly captivated, here’s a link to a pdf given to us by our venerable instructor that unlocks the door to Powershell 3 with the gradual, detailed clarity of insight that only an experienced professional can offer.
I know that scripting is going to be a big component of my professional future, and it’s good to know that there’s a cool tool like Powershell ISE to help me get the job done quickly, and most important, properly.
