CONTINUAL INTEGRATION

Problem Scenario:  You want the rich features provided by PowerShell Community Extensions (also known as PSCX).

Solution:
1.  Download the .msi from this link. 
2,  Double click it. 
3.  Install it by accepting the License Agreement and the defaults. 
4.  Open PowerShell as Administrator. 
5. In PowerShell, Change directories to where it was installed (e.g., C:\Program Files (x86)\PowerShell Community Extensions\Pscx3\Pscx). 
6.  Run this command:  import-module .\Pscx.Core.dll

Problem scenario:  For no apparent reason, Scheduled Tasks are not kicking off PowerShell scripts.  You have configured Scheduled Tasks to launch .ps1 files.The task calls "%windir%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\PowerShell_ISE.exe" (in the Action tab's "Program/Script" field) with an argument like this "C:\Program Files\good script.ps"

You manually run the scheduled task (by right clicking its name and choosing Run) and the Scheduled Task will seem to run.  In reality, the .ps1 file will not execute (despite having the correct Execution Policy).  You allow the time to pass when it is scheduled to run.  Still there is no evidence that the job runs.  When you look at the Scheduled Tasks you see a column for "Last Scan Result."  Underneath it you see things like this for the Scheduled Task that never really runs:  "The operation completed successfully" or "0x1".  There are no other hints in the history of whether or not previous runs were successful or not.

Root Cause:  The argument has spaces in it.  There is a space between "Program" and "Files".  There is a space between "good" and "script".

Solution:  Change the location of the .ps1 file to not be in a "Program Files" subdirectory.  The path must have no spaces in it.  Change the name of the .ps1 file to eliminate the space.  Reconfigure the Scheduled Task to have the Action tab's argument field point to the new name and location of the .ps1 file.

Miscellaneous:  Microsoft should have a special parsing feature in PowerShell when this command and flag are ran "schtasks /tr".  In the GUI for Task Scheduler, the argument field should detect spaces and not allow the administrator to leave a space in there.  Spaces can exist in the "Program/Script" field of the action of the Scheduled Task.  But the argument cannot have spaces.  If the argument is encapsulated in single quotes and there is a space in the file name, the "Last Scan Result" can speciously say "The operation completed successfully."  If the argument has double quotes or not quotes with a space in its name, the "Last Scan Result" will show "0x1" while the history will not clearly explain what is wrong.

Part 1
Problem scenario:  You have a PowerShell function that should add two parameter numbers and display their sum.  It is displaying the input when it should not.  No sum is being displayed.  There are no error messages. What should you do?
Solution:  Your code may look like this:

function contint ($a, $b) {
    $c = $a + $b
    return $c}

$d = contint (5, 2)
echo $d

The solution is to change the "$d = contint" line to be like this:
$d = contint 5 2
#With just spaces between the function name and its positional parameters, the PowerShell function will be invoked properly.

Part 2
Problem scenario:  You have a PowerShell function that is not working.  When you run the script that invokes it, you get an error like this:

"Select-String : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Pattern' because it is null.
At C:\temp\contint1.ps1:2 char:34
+     $ca = cat $a | select-string $b
+                                  ~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [Select-String], ParameterBindingValidationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationErrorNullNotAllowed,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SelectStr
   ingCommand"

Here is the function in the script:
function contint ($a, $b) {
    $ca = cat $a | select-string $b
    return $c}

$d = contint ('C:\temp\foo.txt', 'alphaString')
echo $d

Solution:  The solution is to call the function without parentheses and without the comma like this:
function contint ($a, $b) {
    $ca = cat $a | select-string $b
    return $ca}

$d = contint 'C:\temp\foo.txt' 'alphaString'
echo $d
#  The single quotes on the string arguments are optional. 
# There can be no commas between the arguments when calling the function.