Contributing your Scripts or Modules to the PowerShell Gallery

PowerShell is a powerful automation tool and scripting language developed by Microsoft. The PowerShell Gallery is an online repository that hosts a vast collection of community-contributed scripts, modules, and other resources. It serves as a centralized hub for sharing and discovering PowerShell solutions. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the process of contributing your own script or module to the PowerShell Gallery and how others can utilize your creations to enhance their PowerShell experience.

What is the PowerShell Gallery?

The PowerShell Gallery is a public, community-driven platform where PowerShell enthusiasts can share and find reusable scripts, modules, and other resources. It plays a crucial role in simplifying the process of code distribution and collaboration within the PowerShell community.

Benefits of Contributing to the PowerShell Gallery

• Sharing Knowledge: By contributing your scripts or modules to the Gallery, you are sharing your expertise with a wider audience, helping others tackle similar challenges and promoting best practices.
• Collaboration: The Gallery fosters a collaborative environment where other developers can build upon your work, leading to further improvements and innovations.
• Visibility: Your contributions gain visibility within the PowerShell community, enhancing your reputation as a skilled PowerShell developer.
• Version Control: The Gallery maintains versioning for scripts and modules, allowing users to select the appropriate version for their needs.

Contributing Your Script or Module

Prerequisites:

• Create a Microsoft account:

You’ll need a Microsoft account to publish your content on the Gallery.

• Package your script/module:

Ensure your script or module is packaged correctly as a PowerShell module (.psm1) or script (.ps1) file. To create a script module, save a valid PowerShell script to a .psm1 file. The script and the directory where it’s stored must use the same name. For example, a script named MyPsScript.psm1 is stored in a directory named MyPsScript. The module’s directory needs to be in a path specified in $env:PSModulePath. The module’s directory can contain any resources that are needed to run the script, and a module manifest file that describes to PowerShell how your module works.

Publishing Process:

Visit the PowerShell Gallery and sign in with your Microsoft account. In this example I am going to show how you can publish a script but you can also publish modules to the PowerShell Gallery.

Click on Publish to create your NuGet API Keys.

Click on „Click here“ to create or get existing API Keys from your account.

Next you need to define the Key values. Set a Name, Expiration Time, Scope and as Package Global Pattern set „*“.

Once you have created the Key you need to Copy it. this can only be done once and right after the creation.

Prepare your script/module:

Make sure your script or module is well-documented and includes appropriate metadata (e.g., Author, Description, Version). First of all we need to create a new Script Info File:

New-ScriptFileInfo -Path .\Path-To-Store-File.ps1 -Version 1.0.0 -Author "Your Name" -Description "Describe the usage of the script"

This will create a new .PS1 file containing the Script Information.

Now append your script content to this file. Then save it.

Publish your Script/Module:

Use the Publish-Module or Publish-Script cmdlets to package your content. Ensure you adhere to the best practices for module creation.

Publish-Script -Path .\Path-To-InfoFile.ps1 -NuGetApiKey YOUR-API-KEY -Repository PSGallery

Now you should see your published Script in your PS Gallery account:

Using Scripts or Modules from the PowerShell Gallery

• Search the Gallery

Visit the PowerShell Gallery website and browse or search for the scripts or modules you need. Alternatively, you can use the Find-Module and Find-Script cmdlets in PowerShell.

• Install a Script/Module

Install a module:

Use the Install-Module or Install-Script cmdlet, followed by the module name, to download and install it on your system.

Install-Module MyModule
Install-Script MyScript

Run a script:

Download the script (.ps1) file from the Gallery, and then execute it using the PowerShell console or Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE).

Dependencies

Ensure that you have all the required dependencies installed for the script or module to function correctly.

Conclusion

The PowerShell Gallery is a fantastic platform that empowers developers to share, collaborate, and benefit from the collective knowledge of the PowerShell community. By contributing your own scripts or modules, you contribute to the growth of this vibrant ecosystem while helping others simplify their daily automation tasks. Conversely, by utilizing the diverse range of scripts and modules available on the Gallery, you can streamline your PowerShell development and take your automation skills to new heights. Happy scripting!

If you have issues with publishing scripts or modules from PowerShell 5 you can install .NET Core 2.0 SDK and PowerShell 7. Then try it from PowerShell 7 again – it should work there.