Include PowerShell Script in Excel

Question

Hoping someone here has a suggestion. I'm a network engineer, who has done a fair amount of programming/scripting over the years, but I'm not a programmer.

My current problem is, I have created a form in Excel to collect data for a particular type of install. I have also used the data entered into the form to create configurations for various network devices involved in this install. These configs are simple text which you can copy and paste, into a telnet or ssh session.

I would like to have a way to click a button in my excel form and push the config to the device automatically, so the user doesn't have to copy and paste it to the device. The sheet already includes a few buttons tied to VBScript macros which perform various functions, including dumping the configs to files. However, as VBScript lacks a native way to open a session (telnet) to a device to send/receive text, I am looking for a way to use a PowerShell script to push the configs.

I have already written a PowerShell Script to push a file containing a text config to a device via telnet, and capture any response to a log file, but I can't find a way to include the PowerShell script as a macro in Excel like you can with a VBScript in MS Visual Basic for Applications.

I've trying to avoid having to create a .MSI or .zip bundle that would include the Excel file and a PowerShell script (or writing something in a compiled .exe). The end goal of this is to have a tool that anyone with Excel running on Windows can fill in, and click a few buttons to send the configurations (text) to a device via telnet, without installing anything on their PC. This tool would be for other network engineers who know far less than me (not that I know much) about scripting or Excel.

Have you tried using Shell() to run the Powerscript file ? — Tim Williams
– Tim Williams, Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 17:47

Hugues Paquet Blanchette · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-19 18:03:22Z

1

Sub RunAndGetCmd()

    strCommand = "Powershell -File ""C:\path\to\My PS File.ps1"""
    Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    Set WshShellExec = WshShell.Exec(strCommand)
    strOutput = WshShellExec.StdOut.ReadAll
    Msgbox strOutput

End Sub

answered Jan 19, 2016 at 18:03

Hugues Paquet Blanchette

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1 Comment

Derek Small Over a year ago

Thanks, but that still requires me to have a file called "My PS File.ps1" saved in a folder that the user has access to (either a shared folder or a local copy of the PowerShell file). I want to embed the PowerShell script into the .xlsx file, like you can with VBScript code in a Macro.

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