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Part 3: Create shorter Microsoft Powershell WPF automated clean script

Currently I am working on rewriting all my VBscript and Powershell GUI script using WPF (Windows presentation platform). When building a graphical xaml forms on Visual studio as shown earlier on Part 1: Create WPF XAML powershell GUI form with Visual studio, I had to remove many elements manually by finding them, and every time it is not productive at all, if I missed removing any unwanted element, it was causing errors. To illustrate it, earlier I was removing lots of stuff from XAML form, But in this demo I will remove only 2 Lines 'x:Class="WPFapplication2.MainWindow"' and 'mc:Ignorable="d"'. This is one time process. I will be keeping xmlns namespaces. Alternatively I can also keep this entire code in external file to reduce code on ps1 file.

Microsoft windows Powershell presentation frameworks, wpf visual studio XAML xml code, script for cleaner

Line 24 and 25 are same earlier shown article Part 2: Powershell and WPF: Build GUI applications tutorial, Next line 28 is important one. Once XAML form is parsed by finding nodes and shows the list of allcontrols. Using Foreach-Object I can create a variable for each control so it can be used to perform actions. I don't have to worry about adding new FindName method everytime, it is automated now.

$xaml.SelectNodes("//*[@*[contains(translate(name(.),'n','N'),'Name')]]").Name

Powershell wpf gui tutorial Microsoft Powershell  system.xml.xmlnodereader xaml, windows.markup.xamlreader load file selectnodes from xml new variable name.png

Below is the gif animation of the script, it is working perfectly and my code is very much shorter now, and if I add new control in the XAML 

Microsoft Powershell GUI, graphical user interface windows powershell wpf tutorial, xaml, windows presentation frameworks, logical partitions disk list

Download script here, this is also available on GitHub.com.

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#Load required libraries
Add-Type -AssemblyName PresentationFramework, PresentationCore, WindowsBase, System.Windows.Forms, System.Drawing 

[xml]$xaml = @"
<Window 
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WpfApplication2"

        Title="MainWindow" Height="300" Width="364">
    <Grid>
        <TextBox x:Name="textBox" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="23" Margin="10,41,0,0" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text='$env:ComputerName' VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="225"/>
        <Label x:Name="label" Content="ComputerName or IP" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="10,10,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="175"/>
        <Button x:Name="button" Content="Get-DiskInfo" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="240,41,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="105" Height="24"/>
        <DataGrid x:Name="dataGrid" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="10,69,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="335" Height="141"/>
        <Label x:Name="label1" Content="http://vcloud-lab.com" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="221,215,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="125" Foreground="#FF0000EE"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>
"@

#Read the form
$Reader = (New-Object System.Xml.XmlNodeReader $xaml) 
$Form = [Windows.Markup.XamlReader]::Load($reader) 

#AutoFind all controls
$xaml.SelectNodes("//*[@*[contains(translate(name(.),'n','N'),'Name')]]")  | ForEach-Object { 
  New-Variable  -Name $_.Name -Value $Form.FindName($_.Name) -Force 
}

$textBox.Add_GotFocus({
    if ($textBox.Text -eq '' -or $textBox.Text -match  '\s+') {
        $textBox.Foreground = 'Black'
        $textBox.Text = ''
    }
})
$textBox.Add_LostFocus({
    if ($textBox.Text -eq '' -or $textBox.Text -match '\s+') {
        $textBox.Foreground = 'Black'
        $textBox.Text = 'Type valid computername'
        $textBox.Foreground = 'Darkgray'
    }
})

function Get-DiskInfo {
    if ($textBox.Text -eq '') {
        $textBox.Text = "Type valid computername"
        $dataGrid.ItemsSource = $null
    }
    else {
        try {
            $DiskInfo = Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Logicaldisk -ComputerName $textBox.Text -ErrorAction Stop | Select-Object DeviceID, DriveType, @{N='FreeGB'; E={[Math]::round($_.FreeSpace/1GB)}}, @{N='TotalGB'; E={[Math]::round($_.Size/1GB)}}
        }
        catch {
            $dataGrid.ItemsSource = $null
            $textBox.Text = "Can't Connect server"
            $textBox.Foreground = 'Red'
        }
    }
    $DiskList = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
    if ($DiskInfo -ne $null) {
        $DiskList.AddRange($DiskInfo)
        $dataGrid.ItemsSource = $DiskList
    }
}

#What happens when button is clicked
$button.Add_Click({Get-DiskInfo})

#Link Label
$label1.Add_MouseLeftButtonUp({[system.Diagnostics.Process]::start('http://vcloud-lab.com')})
$label1.Add_MouseEnter({
    $label1.Foreground = 'Purple'
})
$label1.Add_MouseLeave({
    $label1.Foreground = 'Blue'
})

#Mandetory last line of every script to load form
$Form.ShowDialog()

Userful Articles
Part 1: Create WPF XAML powershell GUI form with Visual studio
Part 2: Powershell and WPF: Build GUI applications tutorial
COOL POWERSHELL FREE ONLINE GUI GENERATOR TOOL, POSHGUI
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