WebDevNavigator PowerShell Module

WebDevNavigator is a PowerShell module that provides a simple way to manage and navigate between web development projects in Windows. This module allows you to:

• Add new web projects to a list of tracked projects
• Open a project in a code editor or file explorer
• Navigate to a web development project's development or local web directory in PowerShell

Requirements

• Windows PowerShell 5.0 or later
• Administrative privileges to install the module
• IIS
• VS Code
• Nant

Installation

You can install this module from the PowerShell Gallery by running the following command in an elevated PowerShell session:

Install-Module -Name WebDevNavigator

Usage

Adding a New Project

To add a new project to the list of tracked projects, use the Add-WebDevProject command with the project name, local development path, and web path:

Add-WebDevProject -Name "My Project" -DevPath "C:\src\myproject" -WebPath "myproject.local"

Note that the WebPath parameter assumes that the web server is running on the same machine as the local development environment, and that the web server root directory is located at C:\inetpub\wwwroot.

Opening a Project

To open a project in a code editor or file explorer, use the Open-WebDevProject command with the project name and the appropriate switches:

Open-WebDevProject -ProjectName "My Project" -Code -Explore

This will open the project in Visual Studio Code and File Explorer.

Navigating to a Project's Development or Local Web Directory

To navigate to a project's development or local web directory in PowerShell, use the Open-WebDevProject command with the project name.

Open-WebDevProject -ProjectName "My Project"

By default, using Open-WebDevProject -ProjectName "My Project" will Set-Location to the project's development directory.

Using the -Local switch will navigate to the project's IIS directory in PowerShell. You can also include -Code or -Explore when using this switch.

Removing a Project

To remove a project from the list of tracked projects, use the Remove-WebDevProject command with the project name:

Remove-WebDevProject -Name "My Project"

This will remove the project from the list of tracked projects.

If you want to remove all tracked projects without confirmation, use the -Clean switch:

Remove-WebDevProject -Clean

You can also add the -Force flag with -Clean. Note that this will delete the projects file without prompting for confirmation. Use with caution.

Restarting a Local Web Environment

To restart a tracked project site in IIS, use the Restart-WebDevProject command with the project name as a parameter.

Restart-WebDevProject -Name "My Project"

This assumes the website name in IIS and the web path are identical.

Nant For Projects

Using Invoke-NantInit will execute nant init -D:env=local in the root development directory the specified project.

Invoke-NantInit -ProjectName "My Project"

This assumes Nant is being used for your web project and assumes a nant.bat is in the root of your development directory and env=local exists in your build.xml.

Exporting projects

Exporting tracked projects is easy. Simply call Export-WebDevProjects and a .csv will be generated in your ~\Documents\WebDevProjects.

Importing Projects

You can import projects from .csv provided there is a header that includes Name, DevPath, WebPath

Import-WebDevProjects C:\Users\You\Documents\import.csv

Contributions

Contributions are welcome! If you have a feature request, bug report, or would like to contribute code, feel free to create a pull request on GitHub.