FormatPx

Overview

FormatPx separates the formatting layer from the data layer in PowerShell. By default, PowerShell's native Format-* cmdlets convert data objects into format objects when are then rendered in the console. This reduces the usefulness of the Format-* cmdlets, making it harder to work with formatting in PowerShell. FormatPx fixes this problem by attaching format data to objects rather than replacing objects with format data. This allows for data processing to continue beyond Format-* cmdlets, without losing any of the capabilities of the formatting engine in PowerShell.

Minimum requirements

• PowerShell 3.0
• SnippetPx module

License and Copyright

Copyright 2016 Kirk Munro

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Installing the FormatPx module

FormatPx is dependent on the SnippetPx module. You can download and install the latest versions of FormatPx and SnippetPx using any of the following methods:

PowerShellGet

If you don't know what PowerShellGet is, it's the way of the future for PowerShell package management. If you're curious to find out more, you should read this: Package Management for PowerShell Modules with PowerShellGet

Note that these commands require that you have the PowerShellGet module installed on the system where they are invoked.

# If you don’t have FormatPx installed already and you want to install it for all
# all users (recommended, requires elevation)
Install-Module FormatPx,SnippetPx

# If you don't have FormatPx installed already and you want to install it for the
# current user only
Install-Module FormatPx,SnippetPx -Scope CurrentUser

# If you have FormatPx installed and you want to update it
Update-Module

PowerShell 3.0 or Later

To install from PowerShell 3.0 or later, open a native PowerShell console (not ISE, unless you want it to take longer), and invoke one of the following commands:

# If you want to install FormatPx for all users or update a version already installed
# (recommended, requires elevation for new install for all users)
& ([scriptblock]::Create((iwr -uri http://tinyurl.com/Install-GitHubHostedModule).Content)) -ModuleName FormatPx,SnippetPx

# If you want to install FormatPx for the current user
& ([scriptblock]::Create((iwr -uri http://tinyurl.com/Install-GitHubHostedModule).Content)) -ModuleName FormatPx,SnippetPx -Scope CurrentUser

Loading the FormatPx module

When it comes to module auto-loading, FormatPx does not function the same way that other modules do, because the proxy commands it includes are part of core PowerShell modules that take priority during command lookup. As a result, you should manually load FormatPx in order to take advantage of the improvements it makes to the PowerShell formatting engine by invoking the following command:

Import-Module FormatPx

If you use FormatPx on a regular basis, you can add that to your profile script so that it is automatically loaded in every session.

Note that if you also use the HistoryPx module, FormatPx should be imported before HistoryPx so that HistoryPx works directly with object data instead of format data both in the extended history table and in the automatic output capture feature.

Using the FormatPx module

The FormatPx module is designed to work transparently within PowerShell. Once the module is loaded in PowerShell, you can continue using Format-Table, Format-List, Format-Wide and Format-Custom as normally would have before. What you can also do though that you could not do before is pipe the objects that were passed into one of the core Format-* cmdlets into other cmdlets after the Format-* cmdlet. For example, consider the following command and its output:

PS C:\> Get-Service c* | Format-Table Name,Status -AutoSize

Name              Status
----              ------
c2wts            Stopped
CertPropSvc      Running
COMSysApp        Stopped
cphs             Stopped
CrmSqlStartupSvc Running
CryptSvc         Running
CscService       Running

Normally after running such a command, you wouldn't be able to pipe any further because by default, Format-Table converts object data into format data. FormatPx changes that, such that the format data is added to the object data instead. This allows you to then take further action beyond a call to a core Format-* cmdlet, like this:

PS C:\> Get-Service c* | Format-Table Name,Status -AutoSize | Stop-Service -WhatIf
What if: Performing the operation "Stop-Service" on target "Claims to Windows Token Service (c2wts)".
What if: Performing the operation "Stop-Service" on target "Certificate Propagation (CertPropSvc)".
What if: Performing the operation "Stop-Service" on target "COM+ System Application (COMSysApp)".
What if: Performing the operation "Stop-Service" on target "Intel(R) Content Protection HECI Service (cphs)".
What if: Performing the operation "Stop-Service" on target "SQL Server (CRM) On-Demand Shutdown (CrmSqlStartupSvc)".
What if: Performing the operation "Stop-Service" on target "Cryptographic Services (CryptSvc)".
What if: Performing the operation "Stop-Service" on target "Offline Files (CscService)".

This separation of the formatting layer from the data processing layer in PowerShell allows you to use Format-Table, Format-List, Format-Wide, or Format-Custom inside of a function to define a rich format layout for the data returned by your function without compromising the ability to work with the object data in PowerShell. For example, consider this function:

PS C:\> function Get-SystemInfo {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    [OutputType('System.Info')]
    param()
    $computerSystem = Get-CimInstance Win32_ComputerSystem
    $operatingSystem = Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem
    $systemInfo = [pscustomobject]@{
        PSTypeName = 'System.Info'
        ComputerName = $computerSystem.Name
        DomainName = $computerSystem.Domain
        Manufacturer = $computerSystem.Manufacturer
        Model = $computerSystem.Model
        NumProcessors = $computerSystem.NumberOfProcessors
        OperatingSystem = $operatingSystem.Caption 
    }
    $systemInfo | Format-Table ComputerName,OperatingSystem -AutoSize -PersistWhenOutput
}

If you run that function, you will get back a custom object of type System.Info along with a well defined default format for that custom object type. This sort of thing would have required using complicated format ps1xml files in the past, but now you can apply custom formatting much easier by simply using Format-* cmdlets!

In addition to the separation of format data from object data, FormatPx also modifies the default PowerShell behaviour that would prevent certain types of objects from being displayed in the format that you desired without using the -Force parameter. For example, consider this snippet:

PS C:\> $sb = {'Script block'}
PS C:\> $sb | Format-List

Without FormatPx, you would simply see this displayed to your console:

'ScriptBlock'

With FormatPx, however, you now see the format that you asked for, without having to be redundant about how you request it by using -Force. It would look like this:

Attributes      : {}
File            :
IsFilter        : False
IsConfiguration : False
Module          :
StartPosition   : System.Management.Automation.PSToken
DebuggerHidden  : False
Ast             : {'ScriptBlock'}

This trick also works for errors in the $error variable, exceptions in the Exception property on ErrorRecord objects, and other object types that are configured by default to hide details that really are important enough to be able to see without using -Force.

There are a few technical details that you should know about if you want to give this module a spin in your environment.

First, when you are defining a default format, whether it be a table, list, wide table, or a custom format, you should use the new -PersistWhenOutput switch parameter. That parameter instructs PowerShell to keep the format data attached to the objects that are output even after the format data has been rendered in the current console. By default, format data is removed after it is rendered to the console, allowing you to continue using Format-* cmdlets as you would have in the past.

Second, you can define (or override) the default format for any object by simply passing it to the format cmdlet of your choice and applying the -PersistWhenOutput switch.

Third, since format data is now simply added to an object, you can apply multiple format cmdlets to a single set of data in one pipeline. You would likely only do this if the format defined inside of a function was not what you wanted, but you can mix and match format calls however you choose. For example:

PS C:\> Get-Service c* | ft | fw | fc | fl

Lastly, there is a new format cmdlet in this module called Format-Default. The Format-Default cmdlet allows you to take anything that has format data associated with it and instruct PowerShell to render it using the default format instead, whatever that may be. You can also invoke Format-Default using the convenient fd alias as well.

Here's a short video demonstrating the FormatPx module in action:

That should give you a good idea of what is included in this module. If you have ideas on what else you might like to see related to formatting in PowerShell, please let me know on the GitHub page.