This week we’re starting a new series of blog posts called (obviously) ‘What You Missed This Week in PowerShell!’.  Our team of volunteers is scouring the web to find interesting articles, and forum posts related to our favourite topic!  In the meantime, I want to give a ’thank you’ to everyone that pulled together to make this possible.  Many thanks to Greg Tate, Evgeny Fedorov, Patrick Singletary, Brett Bunker, Mark Roloff, and Robin Dadswell for your hard work on getting this started!
-Will

Blogs

Cross-Platform PowerShell, Unit Testing and Automatic Variables

by Andrew Pearce on July 10th, 2018
Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core are two different products. When using continuous integration tooling to write unit tests you will likely encounter an issue when testing for platform-specific logic paths. Understand a limitation with the $PSEdition automatic variable and how to work around this limitation so that you can achieve bliss when writing unit tests for modules that support both Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core.

Generating Random Data with NameIT

by Kevin Marquette on July 10th, 2018
Generate random data for testing and presentations with the NameIT PowerShell module. Scenarios include generating random user names, random computer names, and even random objects with - gasp - random property values! This module was written by Doug Finke and is available in the PowerShell Gallery. Refer to Kevin’s article for a number of useful scenarios.

Returning Rich Objects From Functions (Part 2)

by Idera on July 9th
Control the output of objects so that preferred properties, i.e. first-class citizens, appear at the top of a property list. This is must read for those of you who live in the camp of using PSCustomObject!

Announcing the PowerShell Conference Book

by Mike Robbins on July 6th, 2018
Now available on LeanPub, the “PowerShell Conference Book” presents a series of advanced PowerShell topics where each chapter embodies a session at a PowerShell conference. Targets intermediate and advanced PowerShell users.

The ScriptsToProcess and RequiredModules Order

by Tommy Maynard on July 2nd, 2018
Control the order of sections in the module manifest file. By default the “RequiredModules” section runs before the “ScriptsToProcess” section, and this may not be ideal. By switching this order you gain the ability to properly set up your environment prior to validating module dependencies.

Forum Topics

PowerShell.org Challenge - Unanswered Post

Testing for SRV records - need help pulling data out of a hashtable by Mike Kanakos
Mike needs your help! Please visit the forums and respond to his question on hash table usage.

PowerShell.org - Most Popular Post

“Securing PowerShell On Your Domain” by Allan Williams
For you folks in the security space, a reply on this post contains numerous useful links related to Windows PowerShell and security.

Reddit - Most Popular Post

“PowerShell Koans” by u/Ta11ow on July 12th, 2018
Check out a simple, fun, and interactive way to learn the PowerShell language through Pester unit testing.

Media

DevOps Enterprise Summit - Digitial Transformation - Thriving Through the Transition

by Jeffrey Snover on July 3rd, 2018
Catch Jeff’s session on how digitial transformation provides an opportunity to supercharge your career!