windows-custom-commands

The Windows Custom Commands project aims to provide new commands to be executed in Windows PowerShell.

1. How to Create New Commands in Windows

First of all, it is important to explain how to create new commands in Windows. To do this, you will need to add some things to your $PROFILE file.

1.1 Accessing the Profile

To access $PROFILE, just open your PowerShell and run the following command:

notepad $PROFILE

TIP: if you prefer, open $PROFILE in another app like VSCode or Sublime.

1.2 Adding Commands

This file loads every time you open the terminal in Windows, so everything you put in it becomes the "default terminal settings."

Thus, there are two ways (that I know) to create new commands in our terminal, and both involve modifying our $PROFILE file.

1.2.1 Adding Aliases

The first is by adding new aliases to $PROFILE. You can do this with the following command:

New-Alias -Name my-command -Value Path\To\My\Command.bat

Now, what is happening here?

Action	Definition
New-Alias	Creates aliases that associate commands with specific files, click here for more information
-Name	Defines the name of the command to be executed in PowerShell; in this example, it would be "my-command"
-Value	Defines which file will be called when the command is executed

1.2.2 Creating Functions

The other way you can create new commands is by adding functions to $PROFILE, for example:

Function my-custom-command {
    param (
        [string[]]$ExtraArgs
    )
    $loginCommand = "my-command"
    $loginCommand += " --my-parameter=my-value"
    echo $ExtraArgs
    foreach ($arg in $ExtraArgs) {
        echo $arg
        if ($arg.StartsWith("--")) {
            $loginCommand += " $arg"
        } elseif ($arg.StartsWith("-")) {
            $loginCommand += " $arg"
        } else {
            $loginCommand += " '$arg'"
        }
    }
    Invoke-Expression $loginCommand
}

In this case, we are creating a function called my-custom-command, which calls the previously defined command my-command, passing specific parameters.

2 Installation

Once you clone this repository, run the following command to install the app dependencies:

npm install

3. Available Commands

3.1 login

3.1.1 Specifications

The login command opens a browser and logs in according to the settings. It accepts the following parameters:

Long Parameter	Short Parameter	Required	Description
--action	-a	YES	Indicates the action the login will perform
--verbose	-v	NO	Indicates whether to display logs during execution

3.1.2 Configuration

Before using the login command, you need to configure the desired actions. To do this, you need to create the config.json file in the ./config/ directory. There is an example of how this config should look in the same folder, and it is structured like this:

{
  "browseAndLogin": {
    "[actions]": {
      "url": "",
      "usernameInput": "",
      "usernameValue": "",
      "passwordInput": "",
      "passwordValue": "",
      "loginButton": ""
    }
  }
}

Let's say you want to create a command that logs into your email. To do this, just replace "[action]" with "log-email" and fill in the other fields according to the access form IDs and your data.

TIP: as browseAndLogin is an object of objects, you can have n login actions for different sites, as long as you add them to the config file properly.

Now you need to configure the command in your $PROFILE, as mentioned in step 1.2 of this README.

So, just add the following code to $PROFILE:

New-Alias -Name login -Value Path\To\Your\Cloned\Repo\browse-and-login\browse-and-login.bat

Function log-email {
    param (
        [string[]]$ExtraArgs
    )
    $loginCommand = "login"
    $loginCommand += " --action=log-email"
    echo $ExtraArgs
    foreach ($arg in $ExtraArgs) {
        echo $arg
        if ($arg.StartsWith("--")) {
            $loginCommand += " $arg"
        } elseif ($arg.StartsWith("-")) {
            $loginCommand += " $arg"
        } else {
            $loginCommand += " '$arg'"
        }
    }
    Invoke-Expression $loginCommand
}

What this configuration does is define an alias called login that runs the browse-and-login.bat file in this repository, then creates a function that executes the newly created "login" command, passing by default the argument --action=log-email. So, the following commands are equivalent:

login --action=log-email

&

log-email

3.2 touch

3.2.1 Specifications

The touch command creates a new empty file or updates the modification date of an existing file. It works similarly to the touch command in Unix.

For example, the command touch file.txt creates the file file.txt if it does not exist or updates the modification date to the current time if it already exists.

3.2.2 Configuration

Similarly to the previous command and as mentioned in section 1.2 of this README, you need to configure the command in $PROFILE. Once the profile is open, the command looks like this:

New-Alias -Name touch -Value Path\To\Your\Cloned\Repo\touch\touch.bat

3.3 reinitialize

3.2.1 Specifications

The reinitialize command reinitializes your powershell, loading any new changes done in your $PROFILE without you needing to close the terminal.

3.2.2 Configuration

Similarly to the previous command and as mentioned in section 1.2 of this README, you need to configure the command in $PROFILE. Once the profile is open, the command looks like this:

New-Alias -Name reinitialize -Value Path\To\Your\Cloned\Repo\reinitialize\reinitialize.bat

3.4 scheduler

3.4.1 Specifications

The scheduler command opens a browser and shows the list of scheduled jobs of the computer, it allows the CRUD actions for scheduled jobs. The command saves the scheduled jobs in a temporary file and starts a node server to serve the html files and routes, by default the command starts in a separated

It accepts the following parameters:

Long Parameter	Short Parameter	Required	Description
_start_		NO	Starts the server in the same terminal that ran the command
--verbose	-v	NO	Indicates whether to display logs during execution

3.4.2 Configuration

Before using the scheduler command, you need to configure the server port that should be used (the default is 3002) and to insert the computer user password because this is needed to update scheduled tasks. To do this, you need to create/update the config.json file in the ./config/ directory. There is an example of how this config should look in the same folder, and it is structured like this:

{
  "scheduler": {
    "serverPort": 3002,
    "userPassword": ""
  }
}

Similarly to the previous command and as mentioned in section 1.2 of this README, you need to configure the command in $PROFILE. Once the profile is open, the command looks like this:

New-Alias -Name scheduler -Value Path\To\Your\Cloned\Repo\scheduler\scheduler.bat

Other versions

Readme in Portuguese (PT-BR)