Using Parameters in Powershell to assign folder locations - excel

Question

I'm new to powershell and I need some help here. Below is a script I wrote to locate an excel file in folder. The files in the excel sheet would be compared to the contents of another folder on the same machine. Locations are : "C:\MKS_DEV\" and The resultant matched files would be zipped and put in another location as shown in the scripts. These scripts would be used by other people on different machines so the locations of both folders could differ on different machines.
I want to write an argument or using parameters for the location of both folders so that I wouldn't have to specify the location all the time I have to run the scripts and cant figure out how to implement this.
The scripts works perfectly but I just need to incorporate arguments/parameters into it. Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks.
Here is the code:
# Creating an object for the Excel COM addin
$ExcelObject = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
# Opening the Workbook
$ExcelWorkbook = $ExcelObject.Workbooks.Open("C:\Eric_Source\Test.xls")
# Opening the Worksheet by using the index (1 for the first worksheet)
$ExcelWorksheet = $ExcelWorkbook.Worksheets.Item(1)
# The folder where the files will be copied/The folder which will be zipped
# later
$a = Get-Date
$targetfolder = "C:\"+$a.Day+$a.Month+$a.Year+$a.Hour+$a.Minute+$a.Second
# Check if the folder already exists. Command Test-Path $targetfolder returns
# true or false.
if(Test-Path $targetfolder)
{
# delete the folder if it already exists. The following command deletes a
# particular directory
Remove-Item $targetfolder -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
# The following command is used to create a particular directory
New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $targetfolder
# Declaration of variables, COlumn value = 6 for Column F
$row = 1
$col = 6
# Read a value from the worksheet with the following command
$filename = $ExcelWorksheet.Cells.Item($row,$col).Value2
$filename
# change the folder value below to specify the folder where the powershell
# needs to search for the filename that it reads from excel file.
$folder = "C:\MKS_DEV\"
$null = ""

Answer 1

You have multiple ways to parameter your script.
The first one is to us $args[n] [automatic variable]1.
If your script is called MyScript.PS1 you can call it with :
MyScript.PS1 "C:\Eric_Source\Test.xls"
Then inside your script use $args[0] for the first argument.
Another way is to use the reserved word Param at the begining of your script:
Param ($MyParam1, $MyParam2)
When you call your script $MyParam1 will contain the first param and so on.

Answer 2

You could create it as a function and load it.
Function Folder-Deletion ($ExcelWorkbook,$targetfolder) {
$ExcelObject = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
$ExcelOpen = $ExcelObject.Workbooks.Open($ExcelWorkbook)
$ExcelWorksheet = $ExcelOpen.Worksheets.Item(1)
$a = Get-Date
if(Test-Path $targetfolder)
{
Remove-Item $targetfolder -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $targetfolder
$row = 1
$col = 6
$filename = $ExcelWorksheet.Cells.Item($row,$col).Value2
$filename
}
Then run the function against the spreadsheet and folder like so:
Folder-Deletion C:\Eric_Source\Test.xls C:\MKS_DEV
Or you could create a PowerShell script file (e.g. FolderDeletion.ps1) with the following contents:
param($ExcelWorkbook,$targetfolder)
$ExcelObject = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
$ExcelOpen = $ExcelObject.Workbooks.Open($ExcelWorkbook)
$ExcelWorksheet = $ExcelOpen.Worksheets.Item(1)
$a = Get-Date
if(Test-Path $targetfolder)
{
Remove-Item $targetfolder -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $targetfolder
$row = 1
$col = 6
$filename = $ExcelWorksheet.Cells.Item($row,$col).Value2
$filename
Then run the script against the spreadsheet and folder like so:
FolderDeletion.ps1 C:\Eric_Source\Test.xls C:\MKS_DEV