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(AB#330346) Add doc for output accessibility (#270)
* (AB#330346) Add doc for output accessibility * Apply suggestions from code review --------- Co-authored-by: Sean Wheeler <sean.wheeler@microsoft.com>
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dsc/docs-conceptual/dsc-3.0/concepts/output-accessibility.md
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--- | ||
description: This article aims to guide you through methods to output from PowerShell in formats that are friendly for screen readers, enhancing the accessibility of your scripts. | ||
ms.custom: experience | ||
ms.date: 09/12/2024 | ||
title: Improve the accessibility of DSC output in PowerShell | ||
--- | ||
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# Improve the accessibility of DSC output in PowerShell | ||
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Most terminal environments only display raw text. Users that rely on screen readers are faced with | ||
tedious narration when consuming large amounts of raw text because the raw output doesn't have the | ||
accessibility metadata to characterize the format of the content. | ||
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There are two ways to improve the accessibility of the output in PowerShell: | ||
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- Output the data in a way that it can be viewed in another tool that supports screen reading | ||
technologies. | ||
- Reduce the amount of output displayed in the terminal by filtering and selecting the data you | ||
want and output the text in a more readable format. | ||
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## Display the data in a tool outside of the terminal | ||
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For large amounts of data, rather than output to the host, consider writing output in a format that | ||
can be viewed in another tool that supports screen reading technologies. You might need to save the | ||
data to a file in a format that can be opened in another application. | ||
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### Out-GridView command on Windows | ||
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For small to moderate size output, use the `Out-GridView` command. The output is rendered using | ||
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) in tabular form, much like a spreadsheet. The GridView | ||
control allows you to sort, filter, and search the data, which reduces the amount of data that | ||
needs to be read. The GridView control is also accessible to screen readers. The **Narrator** tool | ||
built into Windows is able to read the GridView details, including column names and row count. | ||
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The following example shows how to display a list of DSC resources in a GridView control. | ||
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```powershell | ||
dsc resource list | ConvertFrom-Json | Out-GridView | ||
``` | ||
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The following example shows how to display a list of DSC adapted resources in a GridView control. | ||
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```powershell | ||
dsc resource list -a Microsoft.Windows/WindowsPowerShell | | ||
ConvertFrom-Json | | ||
Out-GridView | ||
``` | ||
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The `Out-GridView` command is only available in PowerShell on Windows. | ||
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### Character Separated Value (CSV) format | ||
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Spreadsheet applications such as **Microsoft Excel** support CSV files. The following example shows | ||
how to save the output of a command to a CSV file. | ||
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```powershell | ||
dsc resource list | ConvertFrom-Json | Export-Csv -Path .\myFile.csv | ||
Invoke-Item .\myFile.csv | ||
``` | ||
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The `Invoke-Item` command opens the file in the default application for CSV files. | ||
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### HyperText Markup Language (HTML) format | ||
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HTML files can be viewed by web browsers such as **Microsoft Edge**. The following example shows | ||
how to save the output of a command to an HTML file. | ||
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```powershell | ||
dsc resource list | ConvertFrom-Json | ConvertTo-HTML | Out-File .\myFile.html | ||
Invoke-Item .\myFile.html | ||
``` | ||
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The `Invoke-Item` command opens the file in your default web browser. | ||
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## Reduce the amount of output | ||
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One way to improve the accessibility of the output is to reduce the amount of output displayed in | ||
the terminal. PowerShell has several commands that can help you filter and select the data you | ||
want. | ||
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### Select and filter data | ||
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Rather than returning a large mount of data, use commands such as `Select-Object`, `Sort-Object`, | ||
and `Where-Object` to reduce the amount of output. The following example gets the list of Windows | ||
PowerShell DSC resources that manage processes on the computer. | ||
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Each of the following commands improves the output in a different way: | ||
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- The `Where-Object` command reduces the number of items returned by filtering the list to only | ||
show resources that have the word `process` in their type name. | ||
- The `Select-Object` command selects only the resource type name, kind, and version. | ||
- The `Format-List` command displays the output in list format, which provides a better narration | ||
experience for screen readers. | ||
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```powershell | ||
dsc resource list -a Microsoft.Windows/WindowsPowerShell | | ||
ConvertFrom-Json | | ||
Where-Object {$_.type -like "*process*" } | | ||
Select-Object -Property Type, Kind, Version | | ||
Format-List | ||
``` | ||
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## Additional reading | ||
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- [Improve the accessibility of output in PowerShell](/powershell/scripting/learn/shell/output-for-screen-reader) | ||
- [Out-GridView](xref:Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility.Out-GridView) | ||
- [Export-Csv](xref:Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility.Export-Csv) | ||
- [ConvertTo-Html](xref:Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility.ConvertTo-Html) | ||
- [about_Calculated_Properties](/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_calculated_properties) |
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