Need my PowerShell logfile in a table format - powershell

Question

I recently finished my script with the help of someone on this site (Matt) Thanks again!
I now need to somehow get the logfile into a tabled format and I'm not sure how to implement that with the current setup of the script, any ideas?
Write-Host Report generated at (Get-date)
write-host("Lower Environments Status Check");
# Preprocessing Items
$msg = ""
$array = get-content C:\LowerEnvChecklist\appurls.txt
$log = "C:\LowerEnvChecklist\lowerenvironmentslog.txt"
$errorTexts = "error has occurred","Oops","Unable to display widget data","unexpected error occurred","temporarily unavailable","there was a problem"
$regex = ($errorTexts | ForEach-Object{[regex]::Escape($_)}) -join "|"
write-host("Checking appurls.txt...One moment please.");
("`n---------------------------------------------------------------------------") | out-file $log -Append
Get-Date | Out-File $log -Append
("`n***Checking Links***") | out-file $log -Append
("`n") | out-file $log -Append
# Loop through each element of the array.
ForEach($target in $array){
# Erase results for the next pass in case of error.
$result, $response, $stream, $page = $null
# Navigate to site urls
$result = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create($target)
$response = $result.GetResponse()
$stream = [System.IO.StreamReader]$response.GetResponseStream()
$page = $stream.ReadToEnd()
# To ensure login/authentication pages that give a 403 response pages still show as online
If($response.StatusCode -eq 403){
$msg = " $target -----> is ONLINE!"}
# Determine if the status code 200 pages are truly up based on the information above.
If($response.StatusCode -eq 200){
# While the page might have rendered need to determine there are no errors present.
If($page -notmatch $regex){
$msg = " $target -----> is ONLINE!"
} else {
$msg = " $target -----> may be DOWN, please check!"
}
} else {
$msg = " $target -----> may be DOWN, please check!"
}
# Log Results.
$msg | Out-File $log -Append -width 120
write-host $msg
# Close the response.
$response.Close()
}
# Write completion to logfile.
("`n") | out-file $log -Append
("`n***Lower Environments Checklist Completed***") | out-file $log -Append
# Write completion to host.
write-host("Lower Environments Checklist Completed");
# Open logfile once script is complete.
Invoke-Item C:\LowerEnvChecklist\lowerenvironmentslog.txt

Answer 1

If you just want to view it in-script you could do Out-GridView on your log file. This will open a new window with a view of the data in the log file that looks like a table. Depending on your formatting you may have to add extra items like headers that are human readable.

Answer 2

To wet your whistle with structured output I opted to show you a CSV based solution. Either way all avenues require objects. What we do here is create a custom object that we populate as the script progresses. Each pass sends the details down the pipe. Using the pipeline we can use Export-CSV to collect all of the data in a nice file. Even filtering is possible now.
write-host("Lower Environments Status Check");
# Preprocessing Items
$array = Get-Content C:\LowerEnvChecklist\appurls.txt
$log = "C:\LowerEnvChecklist\lowerenvironmentslog.csv"
$errorTexts = "error has occurred","Oops","Unable to display widget data","unexpected error occurred","temporarily unavailable","there was a problem"
$regex = ($errorTexts | ForEach-Object{[regex]::Escape($_)}) -join "|"
# Loop through each element of the array. Use the pipeline to make output easier
$array | ForEach-Object{
# Keep the variable $target so it is not lost in scopes. Build the object to be completed as we go.
$target = [pscustomobject][ordered]#{
URL = $_
Status = ""
Detail = "N/A"
Timestamp = Get-Date
}
# Erase results for the next pass in case of error.
$result, $response, $stream, $page = $null
# Navigate to site urls. If we cant access the site set a flag to mark the site as down.
$result = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create($target.URL)
$response = try{$result.GetResponse()}catch{$null}
switch([int]$response.StatusCode){
403{
$target.Status = "OK"
$target.Detail = "403"
}
200{
# Get page content to confirm up status
$stream = [System.IO.StreamReader]$response.GetResponseStream()
$page = $stream.ReadToEnd()
# While the page might have rendered need to determine there are no errors present.
If($page -notmatch $regex){
$target.Status = "OK"
} else {
$target.Status = "DOWN"
$target.Detail = "Pattern"
}
}
default{
$target.Status = "DOWN"
}
}
# Send the object down the pipeline
$target
# Close the response. The object might not exist so check before we call the methods.
if($response){$response.Close()}
if($stream){$stream.Close()}
} | Export-CSV -Path $log -NoTypeInformation
# Write completion to host.
write-host("Lower Environments Checklist Completed");
# Open logfile once script is complete.
Invoke-Item $log
I took the liberty off adding another column to your request called Detail it could add context. Not sure what you wanted from the date but if you have plenty of URLS and processing time then I suppose it could be of use. Also to reduce the if logic I added a switch statement. This would be more useful if you react to other status codes down the road. Still, good thing to know.
Sample Output
URL Status Detail Timestamp
--- ------ ------ ---------
https://7fweb DOWN N/A 1/11/2016 12:18:16 PM
http://www.google.ca OK N/A 1/11/2016 12:18:16 PM
http://www.microsoft.com DOWN Pattern 1/11/2016 12:18:16 PM
I added "windows" to $errorTexts to trigger a pattern match for microsoft.com