PowerShell mapping table in HTML email

Question

Well, this may have been answered, but I'm a beginner and try to study, so I think I don’t “get” it. I have a variable that contains a table of information (I got it from an SQL query). I can display the variable on the screen and look at the table, but when I try to create an HTML letter with it in the body, it becomes distorted.

Here is the code:

# This code sets up the HTML table in a more friendly format $style = "<style>BODY{font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;}" $style = $style + "TABLE{border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;}" $style = $style + "TH{border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px; }" $style = $style + "TD{border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px; }" $style = $style + "</style>" # This code defines the search string in the IssueTrak database tables $SQLServer = "Blah" $SQLDBName = "Blah" $SQLUsername = "Blah" $SQLPassword = "Blah" $SQLQuery = "SELECT u.FirstName,u.LastName,u.EMail,COUNT(UserID) as Count FROM dbo.Issues i with(nolock) JOIN DBO.Users u with(nolock) on u.UserID = i.NextActionBy where i.Status='Open' group by u.FirstName,u.LastName,u.EMail order by Count(*) desc" # This code connects to the SQL server and retrieves the data $SQLConnection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection $SqlConnection.ConnectionString = "Server = $SQLServer; Database = $SQLDBName; uid = $SQLUsername; pwd = $SQLPassword" $SqlCmd = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand $SqlCmd.CommandText = $SqlQuery $SqlCmd.Connection = $SqlConnection $SqlAdapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter $SqlAdapter.SelectCommand = $SqlCmd $DataSet = New-Object System.Data.DataSet $SqlAdapter.Fill($DataSet) $SqlConnection.Close() # This code outputs the retrieved data $DataSet.Tables | Format-Table -Auto # This code emails a report regarding the results of the retrieved data $smtpServer = "Blah" $smtpFrom = "Blah" $smtpTo = "Blah" $messageSubject = "IssueTrak Open Issues By Next Action Report" $message = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage $smtpfrom, $smtpto $message.Subject = $messageSubject $message.IsBodyHTML = $true $message.Body = "Here is a listing of open issues in IssueTrak, sorted by Next Action.<br><br>" $message.Body = $message.Body + $html $smtp = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer) $smtp.Send($message) 

The output on the screen is as follows:

 35 FirstName LastName EMail Count --------- -------- ----- ----- John Doe [e-mail] 51 Jane Doe [e-mail] 20 

... but the body of the email is as follows:

 Here is a listing of open issues in IssueTrak, sorted by Next Action. Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatStartData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.GroupStartData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatEntryData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatEntryData 

... etc. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Here's how I would do it:

 # Create a DataTable $table = New-Object system.Data.DataTable "TestTable" $col1 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn Name,([string]) $col2 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn Dept,([string]) $table.columns.add($col1) $table.columns.add($col2) # Add content to the DataTable $row = $table.NewRow() $row.Name = "John" $row.Dept = "Physics" $table.Rows.Add($row) $row = $table.NewRow() $row.Name = "Susan" $row.Dept = "English" $table.Rows.Add($row) # Create an HTML version of the DataTable $html = "<table><tr><td>Name</td><td>Dept</td></tr>" foreach ($row in $table.Rows) { $html += "<tr><td>" + $row[0] + "</td><td>" + $row[1] + "</td></tr>" } $html += "</table>" # Send the email $smtpserver = "smtpserver.domain.com" $from = " [e-mail] " $to = " [e-mail] " $subject = "test" $body = "Hi there,<br />Here is a table:<br /><br />" + $html Send-MailMessage -smtpserver $smtpserver -from $from -to $to -subject $subject -body $body -bodyashtml 

Answer 2

I think this is the best solution (see link 1)

 $DataSet.Tables[0] |select * -ExcludeProperty RowError, RowState, HasErrors, Name, Table, ItemArray | ConvertTo-Html 

With ExcludeProperty, we can all exclude noisy columns from our table without specifying which columns we want.

(1) http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jonathan_kehayias/archive/2010/05/25/reinventing-the-wheel-automating-data-consistency-checks-with-powershell.aspx

Answer 3

You can try (not tested):

 $message.Body = $message.Body + ($DataSet.Tables | format-Table -auto | convertto-html) 

Answer 4

generalized answer:

$body+=($variable|Select-Object property1,property2|ConvertTo-Html)