It looks like the SharePoint team is slowly catching up to what the community has had for years in various guises on CodePlex, but I’ve a good feeling that sometime in the future, the community will finally be able to relax and get back to real work as official support will surpass even the best of the open source offerings (optimistic? we’ll see). Here’s the feature set for the current CTP:

(These are features added in v1.3 which were not available in v1.2 or v1.1)

· Support for developing and deploying on 64 bit (x64).

• New menu commands within Visual Studio
  • Package - package the solution but does not deploy.
  • Retract - retracts and deletes the active solution from SharePoint.
  • Quick Deploy
    • Copy to 12 - copies template files, modules to the 12 Hive.
    • Copy Binarie(s) - deploys only the assemblies.
    • Copy Both
    • Recycle Application Pool
    • Attach to IIS Worker Processes

• WSP View Improvements (Create New Feature)
  • Allows specify feature scope (Web, Site, Web Application, Farm)
  • Allows creation of a feature receiver
  • Option to automatically create elements.xml with new feature
  • Elements can be dragged from one feature to another
• Build Commands Updates
  • Package command added to Visual Studio IDE and command line.
  • Retract command added to Visual Studio IDE and command line.

1) Command line operation is as follows:
devenv.exe <Project.csproj or Solution.sln and other usual flags> /deploy Debug
devenv.exe <Project.csproj or Solution.sln and other usual flags> /deploy Debug /package
devenv.exe <Project.csproj or Solution.sln and other usual flags> /deploy Debug /retract
Note that with the /package and /retract flags the /deploy flag is required.  

• CTRL-F5 no longer launches the debugger. Use F5 to launch the debugger. CTRL-F5 will just launch the web browser and show the SharePoint site.
• SharePoint Solution Generator Enhancements
  • Export from publishing sites. Note that round tripping of generated sites is not supported for anything but the simplest of sites. Instead some editing may be required.
• Correct VB and C# Inconsistency Correction
  • VB VSeWSS projects no longer use VSeWSS as the root namespace
• New Item Templates for RootFiles
  • Create a <RootFiles> item from template.
• Web Part Item Template Improvements
  • Allows selection of deployment model to the global assembly cache (GAC) or to the \BIN directory. For /BIN deployment a simple Code Access Security permissions set is provided.
• Easier Web Part Project Item Rename
  • Detect web part rename and modify dependent files
• Support for deploying dependant assemblies added as a reference with CopyLocal=true.
  • VSeWSS now checks for any "CopyLocal=true" reference and incorporates this binary in the manifest.  The binary is added to the manifest with a DeploymentTarget matching the first binary found in the manifest, usually the project target binary.  Subsequent changes to "CopyLocal", or removing a binary altogether will correctly be cleaned up when rebuilding the manifest (either through WSP view or through a deployment command).  Changes to the DeploymentTarget can be made by editing the manifest.
• Improved solution validation during full deployment
• Validation Logging
  • Adding the element <add key="IfLog" value="true" /> to the <appSettings> node of your web.config will turn on validation logging. Logging occurs during a full deployment from a VSeWSS project and can be used for diagnostic purposes. Note: The log location will be noted on the build output window."
• Conflict resolution dialog when deploying from within Visual Studio
  • Duplicate Features: If a feature with the same name as a feature you are trying to deploy is already on the server a dialog will give you the choice of uninstalling the existing feature first. If the feature was deployed via WSP the entire solution is retracted. If the feature was manually installed it will be deactivated then uninstalled.
  • Duplicate Site Definition Folders: Site definition folder is the same as 12/Templates/SiteTemplates or the WebTemp folder already exists. The option to delete the deployed folder is available.
  • RootFiles and Templates: If there is a RootFile or Template with the same name the option to delete the files first is given.
  • Solutions: If a solution with the same name exists on the server (possibly unique solution IDs) the option is given to retract and delete the existing solution.
• The List Definition from Content Type template now allows for the creation of a List Definition Event Receiver.

Grab it from the Microsoft Download Center.

UPDATED 2009-03-11: BUGFIXES FOR CTP3! PLEASE RE-DOWNLOAD v0.2.1

One of the things I hear now and then is that while PowerShell the language can be mastered with the requisite effort, the .NET namespace is considerable harder to get a handle on. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could type things like:

PS> get-help -object [string]::format

Since Functions take precedence over native Cmdlets in the command search order, the first thing you might think is to create a function with the same name, get-help, that can do this. The function itself would have the same parameters as the native Cmdlet, and add one of its own: -object. If the arguments do not belong to the “object” ParameterSet, then the function would splat (using the @ operator) the original arguments to the native Cmdlet transparently and transfer control. The user is none the wiser we had a quick peek at the arguments. So, before we run off duplicating a Cmdlet’s surface through script, first stop, Command Proxies!

Command Proxies

First off, required reading: Extending and/or Modifying Commands with Proxies. Ok, now that you’ve got read that entirely and gotten it  out of the way, you understand that the [ProxyCommand]::Create(…) method lets you automatically generate a function that delegates to a steppable pipeline wrapping the original Cmdlet, right? What I did then is to pack all of these functions into a psm1 module, create a nice psd1 module manifest and away we go.

The ObjectHelp Get-Help Extension Module

So here’s a quick look at the help for my module, in friendly, easy to read Cmdlet help style. The code for the PSM1 module file is way too large to dump here on my blog like I would usually do, so it’s available at as an attachment at the foot of the page. This help below is in a comment in the psm1 file itself.

    NAME
   
        ObjectHelp Extensions Module 0.2 for PowerShell 2.0 CTP3
    
    SYNOPSIS
   
         Get-Help -Object allows you to display usage and summary help for .NET Types and Members.
        
    DETAILED DESCRIPTION
   
        Get-Help -Object allows you to display usage and summary help for .NET Types and Members.
   
        If local documentation is not found and the object vendor is Microsoft, you will be directed
        to MSDN online to the correct page. If the vendor is not Microsoft and vendor information
        exists on the owning assembly, you will be prompted to search for information using Microsoft
        Live Search.
    
    TODO
    
         * localize strings into PSD1 file
         * Implement caching in hashtables. XMLDocuments are fat pigs.
         * Support getting property/field help
         * PowerTab integration
         * Test with Strict Parser
            
    EXAMPLES

        # get help on a type
        PS> get-help -obj [int]

        # get help against live instances
        PS> $obj = new-object system.xml.xmldocument
        PS> get-help -obj $obj

        or even:
       
        PS> get-help -obj 42
       
        # get help against methods
        PS> get-help -obj $obj.Load

        # explictly try msdn
        PS> get-help -obj [regex] -online

        # go to msdn for regex's members
        PS> get-help -obj [regex] -online -members

    CREDITS
   
        Author: Oisin Grehan (MVP)
        Blog  : http://www.nivot.org/
   
        Have fun! 

Usage Examples

So what does it actually look like when you call help? If the help is available locally, it is displayed inline in the console (or ISE). Help for all types in MSCorlib and System is pre-cached. Any other help for types in assemblies belonging to the BCL (Base Class Libraries – effectively the stock .NET assemblies) will be loaded on-demand. This typically takes just a few seconds and will cached for the rest of your session.

TODO and BUGS

Right now, it cannot deal with properties. That is to say, trying:

PS> get-help –object $s.length

where $s is a string, will get help on the property _type_, not the property itself. I have some ideas to get around this, so if you can wait for 0.3, I’d be happy. Of course you can wait. You have no choice. :D

Download

The two files come in a zip file. Unzip this file to ~\documents\windowspowershell\modules\objecthelp\ where ~ is your home directory. On vista/win7 this would be c:\users\username. On XP, it would be c:\documents and settings\username. To load it, just execute:

PS> import-module objecthelp

That’s it! Have fun!

A couple of months ago I had a brief Q&A with the cdndevs guys over on blogs.msdn.com. It looks like it went live recently because I’ve been getting stopped in the streets and harassed for a photo etc. No, not really. But if you want to read, take a look over at http://blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs/archive/2009/02/12/mvp-insider-q-a-with-oisin-grehan.aspx

Some of you may have heard that CTP3 has support for transferring files from remote servers using BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) and quite possibly had a little dig around for it. It’s not easy to find as using “get-help BITS” will not return any help unless you’ve already loaded the module. Not a great win for discoverability, but hey, sometimes you just have to read the manual, expletive deleted. So, lets have a quick look at how this works.

So, ok, we can see we’ve got a module for FileTransfer (BITS), but where did this come from? Take a peek into $pshome\Modules to find out. This is the location for system-wide (global) modules. It rests under $PSHome, which is the home for PowerShell, in $env:systemroot\windowspowershell\v1.0.

Yes, even PowerShell v2 lives there. This is one of those unfortunate things whereby the team decided early on that they would support side-by-side versions of PowerShell, implying that v2 might not be backwards compatible with v1. This is reflected also in the choice of file extension: ps1. The extension ps2 would have been used for v2. This was probably a poor show of faith in their own abilities to design such a great version one product, because as it turns out, v1.0 was such an excellent release that they were able to build on it for v2 without compromising, or breaking backwards compatibility (apart from a couple of minor edge cases, mainly bugfixes). So, the end result is that future versions of PowerShell will inherit the $pshome, pay a little inheritance tax and hopefully avoid foreclosure :).

The files in the FileTransfer module directory are laid out as follows:

(Hey look! another built-in module – PSDiagnostics - I’ll leave that one for you guys to explore).

So, there are four files there. A ps1xml Format file, which tells PowerShell how to textually render the .NET objects returned by the Cmdlets. A psd1 Module Manifest file, which tells PowerShell what files comprise the Module and a binary DLL which in this case does NOT contain the Cmdlets, but instead is what’s called an “Interop Assembly.”  (sometimes known as Primary Interop Assemblies or PIAs, read about them here: Primary Interop Assemblies – there are subtle differences between IAs and PIAs, but not enough to warrant discussion here). Essentially this DLL lets .NET, and by extension, PowerShell, talk to the native COM APIs that wrap the BITS services on XP,Vista,Win7,Win 2003 and Win 2008. Lets take a peek into the Module Manifest:

If it looks like I just dumped a Hashtable out, you’re right. That’s all a manifest is: a Hashtable. Of course, the key names are important and in this case, lets take a look at two in particular, NestedModules and RequiredAssemblies.

The RequiredAssemblies key is responsible for actively loading .NET assemblies containing standard .NET types. It does not extract Providers and Cmdlets and add them to the runspace; this is what the other key, NestedModules, does. Like I said already, this DLL is the interop assembly. So where is the NestedModules loading that other module from? I don’t see any other DLLs in the directory, and I know there are no Cmdlets in that interop assembly. Lets take a peek at one of the Cmdlets itself and find out:

Aha, it’s reading it from the GAC. When PowerShell was installed, it must have installed this DLL there. This is the DLL that contains our Cmdlets. I know this is true because I used one of the Cmdlets to tell me where it lives. “GCM” is the alias for Get-Command which will get us metadata about any given command in PowerShell (including functions – new to v2).

So, lets use a one-liner to get the names of all the Cmdlets in this module, and the synopsis summary for the help:

This yields the following:

I guess this covers it for the moment. Going into a full discussion about how BITS actually works is worth another post in itself. Suffice it to say, there are plenty of examples in the help itself. Just run:

get-help add-filetransfer –example | more

To see an example on how to use the Cmdlet (or any of the others). The team have done a good job here.

Have fun!

It’s been quite a few years -- November 14, 2006 to be exact -- since the final release of PowerShell 1.0. Let’s see what the lazy buggers have been up to since then. Only kidding, they’re far from lazy; we’ve gained an extra one hundred and six new cmdlets, moving from 131 to 237. We’ve also gained another provider, WSManProvider which lets you explore and manipulate the WS-Man configuration. Finally, the number of public Types (.NET classes usable by 3rd parties to extend PowerShell) has increased from 447 to 749. So how do I know all this? Well, some months ago I wrote a suite of build analysis Cmdlets for examining the assemblies that comprise PowerShell. In its current form it’s of very little use to 3rd parties, but I’ve had some requests to open it up and allow it to analyze any binary modules and snap-ins, which is a good idea I think. Watch this space. Anyway, I’m going to dump out some interest information on the differences between v1.0 and v2.0 CTP3, along with the one-liners I’m using to generate the information.

update feb 5: added breaking changes

Breaking Changes to Windows PowerShell 1.0

The following changes in Windows PowerShell V2.0 CTP3 might prevent features designed for Windows PowerShell 1.0 from working correctly.

• The value of the PowerShellVersion registry entry in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\PowerShellEngine has been changed to 2.0.
• New cmdlets and variables have been added. These are listed below. These new elements might conflict with variables and functions in profiles and scripts.
• -IEQ operator does a case insensitive comparison on characters.
• Get-Command gets functions along with cmdlets by default.
• Any native command that generates a user interface blocks if it is pipelined to the Out-Host cmdlet.
• Added new language keywords: Begin, Process, and End. Any commands called begin, process or end are interpreted as language keywords and might result in parsing errors.
• Cmdlet name resolution has changed. In Windows PowerShell 1.0, a runtime error was generated when two Windows PowerShell snap-ins exported cmdlets with the same name. In Windows PowerShell V2, the last cmdlet loaded is the one that is executed if the cmdlet name is not qualified by a snap-in name.
• Terminating errors that are thrown in a pipeline do not terminate the pipeline. Instead, they are written to the host.
• A function called with '-?' parameter gets the help topic for the function, if one is included in the function.

There are no changes to Cmdlets other than Get-Command’s –PSSnapin parameter is now an alias to a –Module parameter. This reflects the move away from administrator-installed snap-ins, and towards the friendlier Module system. For all intents and purposes, you can treat v1 snapins as modules as load them as such with the Import-Module Cmdlet.

New Cmdlets

Here are the new Cmdlets, sorted by noun and alongside the textual synopsis is one is present in the CTP3 help, or the syntax if there is no help. The command I ran to generate this was:

Whew, that’s quite a few. Now, onto the API.

.NET API Differences

This time, I’m just dumping out the namespaces and Types per namespace. It would be a bit much to dump out all the Types themselves. The one-liner:

Here are the namspaces and respective public Type count for v1.0:

v2.0 CTP3 API

Here are the namspaces and respective public Type count for v2.0 CTP3:

As you can see, there has been a nice expansion of namespaces and Types to work with, mostly coming from the sterling work being done to generalize the “Jobs” infrastructure. Also, a fair chunk is tied up with the refactoring and reorganizing of Runspaces to allow for jobs (which also covers eventing), remoting and background pipelines. This is something I will cover in more detail in a future post.

Have fun!