powershell-module-starter

Starter template for creating a PowerShell module

Getting Started

While this module will work as-is, you should perform the following simple modifications before diving in too deep:

1. Rename both the .psd1 & .psm1 files in the .\src directory to match your desired module name.
2. Update the $ModuleName variable within Build.ps1 to match this new name.

Convention

This template leverages convention over configuration. This means the module's final manifest is driven off file location and not parameters passed at build time.

The folder structure is broken down as follows:

• .\src
  Path to all the module's source files
  • lib
    Intended to provide a location to include dlls as well as a location to create PowerShell classes that may be used throughout the module.
  • Private
    This should consist only of functions intended to be used by the module itself. Feel free to add subfolders to provide meaningful organization of these functions.
  • Public
    This should consist of functions intended to be included in the manifest's FunctionsToExport list. This list is automatically generated, and, again, subfolders may be used to organize this directory.
• .\test
  Path to store tests written against various functions/classes included in your module. These tests will be ran against a temporarily-imported module, therefore you may write tests against public and private functions alike. Suggestion Apply the lib/Public/Private (and custom hierarchy) structure to this folder to maintain consistency and organization between this and the .\src directory.

Building

The Build.ps1 file (and referenced Build.Util.ps1) are included to do a lot of the heavy lifting. This file includes four basic tasks to help with building and testing the module.

Build.ps1 -Bootstrap

Use this to import the basic requirements necessary to build and test your module. As a baseline, this includes PSScriptAnalyzer and Pester, but can be modified to suite your own needs via TestModule found in the Build.util.ps1 file.

Build.ps1 -Clean

Cleans the environment from previous build artifacts.

Build.ps1 -Test [-ShowDetails]

Run all tests found in the .\test directory against your current module's source files. by default, the test summary will only show a successful summary (or discovered failures). To display a full summary, use the -ShowDetails switch.

Build.ps1 -Build

Performs an implicit -Clean and -Test. Upon successful completion, the module is then built assigning the version found in the module's .psd1 file (but appending a release timestamp of 'YYMMDD')). To modify the major, minor and build version numbers, directly modify the .psd1 file before invoking a build.