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ConvertTo-Html

  • Reference
Module:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility

Converts Microsoft .NET Framework objects into HTML that can be displayed in a Web browser.

Syntax

ConvertTo-Html
              [-InputObject <PSObject>]
              [[-Property] <Object[]>]
              [[-Body] <String[]>]
              [[-Head] <String[]>]
              [[-Title] <String>]
              [-As <String>]
              [-CssUri <Uri>]
              [-PostContent <String[]>]
              [-PreContent <String[]>]
              [<CommonParameters>]
ConvertTo-Html
              [-InputObject <PSObject>]
              [[-Property] <Object[]>]
              [-As <String>]
              [-Fragment]
              [-PostContent <String[]>]
              [-PreContent <String[]>]
              [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The ConvertTo-Html cmdlet converts .NET Framework objects into HTML that can be displayed in a Web browser. You can use this cmdlet to display the output of a command in a Web page.

You can use the parameters of ConvertTo-Html to select object properties, to specify a table or list format, to specify the HTML page title, to add text before and after the object, and to return only the table or list fragment, instead of a strict DTD page.

When you submit multiple objects to ConvertTo-Html, Windows PowerShell creates the table, or a list, based on the properties of the first object that you submit. If the remaining objects do not have one of the specified properties, the property value of that object is an empty cell. If the remaining objects have additional properties, those property values are not included in the file.

Examples

Example 1: Create a web page to display the date

PS C:\> ConvertTo-Html -InputObject (Get-Date)

This command creates an HTML page that displays the properties of the current date. It uses the InputObject parameter to submit the results of a Get-Date command to the ConvertTo-Html cmdlet.

Example 2: Create a web page to display PowerShell aliases

PS C:\> Get-Alias | ConvertTo-Html | Out-File aliases.htm
PS C:\> Invoke-Item aliases.htm

This command creates an HTML page that lists the Windows PowerShell aliases in the current console.

The command uses the Get-Alias cmdlet to get the aliases. It uses the pipeline operator (|) to send the aliases to the ConvertTo-Html cmdlet, which creates the HTML page. The command also uses the Out-File cmdlet to send the HTML code to the aliases.htm file.

Example 3: Create a web page to display PowerShell events

PS C:\> Get-EventLog -LogName "Windows PowerShell" | ConvertTo-Html | Out-File pslog.htm

This command creates an HTML page called pslog.htm that displays the events in the Windows PowerShell event log on the local computer.

It uses the Get-EventLog cmdlet to get the events in the Windows PowerShell log and then uses the pipeline operator (|) to send the events to the ConvertTo-Html cmdlet.

The command also uses the Out-File cmdlet to send the HTML code to the pslog.htm file.

Example 4: Create a web page to display processes

PS C:\> Get-Process | ConvertTo-Html -Property Name, Path, Company -Title "Process Information" | Out-File proc.htm; ii proc.htm

These commands create and open an HTML page that lists the name, path, and company of the processes on the local computer.

The first command uses the Get-Process cmdlet to get objects that represent the processes running on the computer. The command uses the pipeline operator (|) to send the process objects to the ConvertTo-Html cmdlet.

The command uses the Property parameter to select three properties of the process objects to be included in the table. The command uses the Title parameter to specify a title for the HTML page. The command also uses the Out-File cmdlet to send the resulting HTML to a file named Proc.htm.

The second command uses the Invoke-Item cmdlet (alias = ii) to open the Proc.htm in the default browser. The two commands are separated by a semicolon (;).

Example 5: Create a web page to display service objects

PS> get-service | convertto-html -CssUri "test.css"
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"  "https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>HTML TABLE</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="test.css" />
...

This command creates an HTML page of the service objects that the Get-Service cmdlet returns. The command uses the CssUri parameter to specify a cascading style sheet for the HTML page.

The CssUri parameter adds an additional <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/ href="test.css"> tag to the resulting HTML. The HREF attribute in the tag contains the name of the style sheet.

Example 6: Create a web page to display service objects

PS C:\> Get-Service | ConvertTo-Html -As LIST | Out-File services.htm

This command creates an HTML page of the service objects that the Get-Service cmdlet returns. The command uses the As parameter to specify a list format. The cmdlet Out-File sends the resulting HTML to the Services.htm file.

Example 7: Create a web table for the current date

PS C:\> Get-Date | cth -Fragment
<table>
<colgroup>...</colgroup>
<tr><th>DisplayHint</th><th>DateTime</th><th>Date</th><th>Day</th><th>DayOfWeek</th><th>DayOfYear</th><th>Hour</th>
<th>Kind</th><th>Millisecond</th><th>Minute</th><th>Month</th><th>Second</th><th>Ticks</th><th>TimeOfDay</th><th>Year</th></tr>
<tr><td>DateTime</td><td>Monday, May 05, 2008 10:40:04 AM</td><td>5/5/2008 12:00:00 AM</td><td>5</td><td>Monday</td>
<td>126</td><td>10</td><td>Local</td><td>123</td><td>40</td><td>5</td><td>4</td><td>633455808041237213</td><td>10:40:04.12
37213</td><td>2008</td></tr>
</table>

This command uses ConvertTo-Html to generate an HTML table of the current date. The command uses the Get-Date cmdlet to get the current date. It uses a pipeline operator (|) to send the results to the ConvertTo-Html cmdlet (aliased as cth).

The ConvertTo-Html command includes the Fragment parameter, which limits the output to an HTML table. As a result, the other elements of an HTML page, such as the <HEAD> and <BODY> tags, are omitted.

Example 8: Create a web page to display PowerShell events

PS C:\> Get-EventLog -Log "Windows PowerShell" | ConvertTo-Html -Property id, level, task

This command uses the Get-EventLog cmdlet to get events from the Windows PowerShell event log.

It uses a pipeline operator (|) to send the events to the ConvertTo-Html cmdlet, which converts the events to HTML format.

The ConvertTo-Html command uses the Property parameter to select only the ID, Level, and Task properties of the event.

Example 9: Create a web page to display specified services

PS C:\> Get-Service A* | ConvertTo-Html -Title "Windows Services: Server01" -Body (get-date) -Pre
"<P>Generated by Corporate IT</P>" -Post "For details, contact Corporate IT." | Out-File services.htm; ii services.htm

This command creates and opens a Web page that displays the services on the computer that begin with A. It uses the Title, Body, PreContent, and PostContent parameters of ConvertTo-Html to customize the output.

The first part of the command uses the Get-Service cmdlet to get the services on the computer that begin with A. The command uses a pipeline operator (|) to send the results to the ConvertTo-Html cmdlet. The command also uses the Out-File cmdlet to send the output to the Services.htm file.

A semicolon (;) ends the first command and starts a second command, which uses the Invoke-Item cmdlet (alias = "ii") to open the Services.htm file in the default browser.

Parameters

-As

Specifies whether the object is formatted as a table or a list. The acceptable values for this parameter are: Table and List. The default value is Table.

The Table value generates an HTML table that resembles the Windows PowerShell table format. The header row displays the property names. Each table row represents an object and displays the object's values for each property.

The List value generates a two-column HTML table for each object that resembles the Windows PowerShell list format. The first column displays the property name; the second column displays the property value.

Type:String
Accepted values:Table, List
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Body

Specifies the text, as an array, to add after the opening <BODY> tag. By default, there is no text in that position.

Type:String[]
Position:3
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-CssUri

Specifies the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the cascading style sheet (CSS) that is applied to the HTML file. The URI is included in a style sheet link in the output.

Type:Uri
Aliases:cu, uri
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Fragment

Indicates that this cmdlet generates only an HTML table. The HTML, HEAD, TITLE, and BODY tags are omitted.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Head

Specifies the content of the <HEAD> tag as an array. The default is <title>HTML TABLE</title>. If you use the Head parameter, the Title parameter is ignored.

Type:String[]
Position:1
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-InputObject

Specifies the objects to be represented in HTML. Enter a variable that contains the objects or type a command or expression that gets the objects.

If you use this parameter to submit multiple objects, such as all of the services on a computer, ConvertTo-Html creates a table that displays the properties of a collection or of an array of objects (System.Object[]). To create a table of the individual objects, use the pipeline operator to pipe the objects to ConvertTo-Html.

Type:PSObject
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-PostContent

Specifies text to add after the closing </TABLE> tag. By default, there is no text in that position.

Type:String[]
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-PreContent

Specifies an array of text to add before the opening <TABLE> tag. By default, there is no text in that position.

Type:String[]
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Property

Specifies the properties of the objects in the HTML. The value of the Property parameter can be a new calculated property. To create a calculated property, use a hash table. Valid keys are:

  • Label <string> (unlike with Select-Object or Format-Table, the Name key is not supported)
  • Expression <string> or <script block>
Type:Object[]
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Title

Specifies a title for the HTML file, that is, the text that appears between the <TITLE> tags.

Type:String
Position:2
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

PSObject

You can pipe any .NET object to ConvertTo-Html.

Outputs

System.String or System.Xml.XmlDocument

This cmdlet returns a series of strings that comprise valid HTML.

Notes

  • To use this cmdlet, pipe one or more objects to the cmdlet or use the InputObject parameter to specify the object. When the input consists of multiple objects, the output of these two methods is quite different.

    • When you pipe multiple objects to a cmdlet, Windows PowerShell sends the objects to the cmdlet one at a time. As a result, ConvertTo-Html creates a table that displays the individual objects. For example, if you pipe the processes on a computer to ConvertTo-Html, the resulting table displays all of the processes.

    • When you use the InputObject parameter to submit multiple objects, ConvertTo-Html receives these objects as a collection or as an array. As a result, it creates a table that displays the array and its properties, not the items in the array. For example, if you use InputObject to submit the processes on a computer to ConvertTo-Html, the resulting table displays an object array (System.Object[]) and its properties.

    To comply with the XHTML Strict DTD, the DOCTYPE tag is modified accordingly:

    (<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">)