Create HTML links from Powershell search

Question

I've created this script to find some files.

$wpath = Get-ChildItem F:\@software\ -recurse
$outp = $wpath | Where-Object {$_.extension -eq ".wav" -and $_.name -like "*hou*"}
$outp = $outp | Select-Object -Property Fullname
$outp | ConvertTo-Html | Out-File f:\@software\htmlout99.html
ii f:\@software\htmlout99.html

This gives the results I'm after, in the correct format eg.

F:\@software\TFTP-Root\14Hours.wav  
F:\@software\TFTP-Root\ddHours.wav

How can I make the results in HTML output clickable links, ie a clickable link to the file?

Frode F. · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-11 18:16:13Z

2

You need to define the links yourself using ex. calculated properties. ConvertTo-HTML will htmlencode some of the characters (like < and >), so we need to decode it before saving. Ex:

#Load System.Web to get HttpUtility
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Web

$html = Get-ChildItem -Path F:\@software\ -Recurse |
Where-Object {$_.extension -eq ".wav" -and $_.name -like "*hou*"} |
Select-Object -Property @{n="Links";e={ "<a href='$(([uri]$_.FullName).AbsoluteUri)'>$($_.FullName)</a>" }} |
ConvertTo-Html -Property "Links"

#Decode special characters like < > etc.
[System.Web.HttpUtility]::HtmlDecode($html) | Set-Content "f:\@software\htmlout99.html"

answered Mar 11, 2016 at 18:16

Frode F.

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1 Comment

Bacon Bits Over a year ago

This is a much better way of doing the same thing I was.

Bacon Bits · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-11 18:11:03Z

1

Well, the brute force method would be to use this:

$wpath = Get-ChildItem F:\@software\ -recurse
$outp = $wpath | Where-Object {$_.extension -eq ".wav" -and $_.name -like "*hou*"}
$outp = $outp | Select-Object -Property @{n='FullName';e={'<a href="file://{0}">{0}</a>' -f $_.FullName}}
$outp | ConvertTo-Html | ForEach-Object { $_.Replace('&quot;','"').Replace('&lt;','<').Replace('&gt;','>') } | Out-File f:\@software\htmlout99.html
ii f:\@software\htmlout99.html

It uses a calculated property to translate the FullName into a link. Then you convert that to HTML. The problem is that ConvertTo-Html escapes control characters because it assumes the contents are not HTML. I'm sure that if your file names actually have control characters in them that you're bound to have some problems.

The real solution would be to ditch ConvertTo-Html altogether and just roll your own.

answered Mar 11, 2016 at 18:11

Bacon Bits

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1 Comment

Paul Over a year ago

Well, brute force or not, that works a treat. Thanks for the very quick response.

ATek · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-11 18:21:19Z

1

Yet another way kind of like @Bacon Bits was mentioning. I use this method often for my sched task notifications.

$htmltop = "<html><head></head><body><ul>"
$htmlbottom = "</ul></body></html>"

$wpath = Get-ChildItem F:\@software\ -recurse
$outp = $wpath | Where-Object {$_.extension -eq ".wav" -and $_.name -like "*hou*"}

$outp = $outp | % { $("<li><a href='file://" + $($_.FullName) + "'>" + $($_.Name) + "</a></li>")}

$htmltop | Out-File F:\@software\htmlout99.html -Append
$outp | Out-File F:\@software\htmlout99.html -Append
$htmlbottom | Out-File F:\@software\htmlout99.html -Append


ii F:\@software\htmlout99.html

answered Mar 11, 2016 at 18:21

ATek

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