| name | pswritehtml-reporting |
| compatibility | Requires the PSWriteHTML PowerShell module. Cross-platform on Windows PowerShell 5.1+ and PowerShell 7+. |
| description | Generate polished, interactive HTML reports, dashboards, tables, charts, and network diagrams from PowerShell objects with the PSWriteHTML module — no HTML, CSS, or JavaScript required. Covers New-HTML, New-HTMLTable (DataTables: filtering, paging, conditional formatting), New-HTMLChart, Section/Panel/Tab layout, New-HTMLDiagram, Out-HtmlView, large-dataset tuning, and HTML email bodies. Cross-platform, dependency-free. USE FOR: PSWriteHTML, New-HTML, New-HTMLTable, New-HTMLChart, New-HTMLDiagram, Out-HtmlView, HTML report from PowerShell, PowerShell dashboard, interactive HTML table, DataTables report, AD/DSC/inventory HTML report, conditional formatting table, HTML email body, Save-HTML, Dashimo, Emailimo. DO NOT USE FOR: sending email (use send-outlook-email), Markdown-to-Outlook drafts (use create-outlook-draft), slide decks (use marp-slide-overflow), Word/PDF export (use pandoc-docx-export), reading xlsx/pdf/docx (use the *-to-markdown skills). |
PSWriteHTML Reporting
Turn PowerShell objects into interactive, self-contained HTML reports, dashboards, and email bodies with PSWriteHTML (MIT). Everything nests inside a single New-HTML { } scriptblock; no hand-written HTML/CSS/JS.
When to Use
- Turn
Get-* output (AD users, services, DSC compliance, inventory, inspection findings) into a browsable report instead of a CSV.
- Build an ops dashboard with sections, panels, tabs, tables, and charts from one script.
- Produce an ad-hoc interactive grid with
Out-HtmlView (a richer Out-GridView that also works cross-platform and headless).
- Draw a network/topology diagram from node/edge data.
- Generate a styled HTML email body to hand to a mail sender.
Install and load
Install-Module PSWriteHTML -Scope CurrentUser -Force # from PowerShell Gallery
Import-Module PSWriteHTML
- The Gallery build is dependency-free and minified. Treat the GitHub sources as a dev build only.
- Cross-platform: works on Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7+ (Linux/macOS included) — unlike the Outlook-COM skills, which are Windows-only.
- Offline by default.
New-HTML inlines all CSS/JS so the file opens with no internet. Add -Online to link CDN assets instead (smaller file, needs internet to view).
Container model
New-HTML is the root. Omit -FilePath and it returns the HTML as a string; pass -FilePath to write a file, -ShowHTML to open it in the browser.
$data = Get-Service | Select-Object Name, Status, StartType, DisplayName
New-HTML -TitleText 'Service report' -FilePath .\services.html -ShowHTML {
New-HTMLTable -DataTable $data -Filtering -PagingLength 25
}
New-HTMLTable -DataTable accepts any object array — no pre-formatting needed. -Filtering adds per-column search; -PagingLength sets rows per page; -Buttons excelHtml5, searchPanes adds export/filter buttons; -SearchBuilder adds a multi-condition query UI.
Recipe: conditional formatting
Nest New-HTMLTableCondition inside the table's scriptblock. -Row styles the whole row; omit it to style just the cell.
New-HTML -FilePath .\services.html -ShowHTML {
New-HTMLTable -DataTable $data {
New-HTMLTableCondition -Name 'Status' -ComparisonType string `
-Operator eq -Value 'Stopped' -BackgroundColor Salmon -Color Black -Row
}
}
-ComparisonType is string, number, or date; -Operator includes eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le, between. For emails (no JavaScript), add -Inline so the styling is baked in at generation time.
Recipe: dashboard layout
New-HTMLSection is a titled, collapsible card; New-HTMLPanel places children side by side; New-HTMLTab creates tabbed views.
New-HTML -TitleText 'Ops dashboard' -FilePath .\dashboard.html -ShowHTML {
New-HTMLSection -HeaderText 'Services' -CanCollapse {
New-HTMLPanel { New-HTMLTable -DataTable $data -HideFooter }
New-HTMLPanel {
New-HTMLChart -Title 'Status split' {
New-ChartPie -Name 'Running' -Value 42
New-ChartPie -Name 'Stopped' -Value 8
}
}
}
New-HTMLTab -Name 'Raw data' { New-HTMLTable -DataTable $data }
}
Recipe: charts
New-HTMLChart wraps ApexCharts. Add New-ChartBar, New-ChartLine, New-ChartPie, or New-ChartDonut inside it — usually in a foreach over your data.
$errors = Get-WinEvent -LogName System -MaxEvents 200 |
Group-Object { $_.TimeCreated.DayOfWeek } |
Select-Object Name, Count
New-HTML -FilePath .\errors.html -ShowHTML {
New-HTMLChart -Title 'Events by weekday' {
foreach ($row in $errors) {
New-ChartBar -Name $row.Name -Value $row.Count
}
}
}
Recipe: network diagram
New-HTMLDiagram wraps vis-network. New-DiagramNode -Label -To defines a node and its links in one call; New-DiagramLink adds styled/labelled edges separately.
New-HTML -TitleText 'Network' -FilePath .\net.html -ShowHTML {
New-HTMLDiagram -Height '600px' {
New-DiagramNode -Label 'Firewall' -To 'Core switch' -ColorBackground Bisque
New-DiagramNode -Label 'Core switch' -To 'Server 1', 'Server 2'
New-DiagramNode -Label 'Server 1'
New-DiagramNode -Label 'Server 2'
New-DiagramLink -From 'Server 1' -To 'Server 2' -Label 'replication' -Dashes $true
}
}
Nodes take -Shape (box, circle, diamond, hexagon, …), -IconSolid / -IconBrands / -IconRegular (Font Awesome), -Image, and -ID (use -ID when two nodes share a -Label). New-DiagramOptionsPhysics -Enabled $false freezes auto-layout.
Recipe: ad-hoc grid (Out-HtmlView)
A drop-in Out-GridView alternative that renders an interactive DataTable and works headless / cross-platform.
Get-Process | Select-Object -First 20 Name, Id, CPU, WS |
Out-HtmlView -Filtering -SearchBuilder
Recipe: HTML email body
PSWriteHTML generates the body; a separate skill sends it. Write the report to a file and read it back as a string:
$tmp = Join-Path ([IO.Path]::GetTempPath()) 'report.html'
New-HTML -FilePath $tmp {
New-HTMLText -Text "Backup summary — $(Get-Date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd')" -FontSize 18 -FontWeight bold
New-HTMLTable -DataTable $data -HideFooter
}
$htmlBody = Get-Content $tmp -Raw
# Hand $htmlBody to the Outlook COM sender — see the send-outlook-email skill.
Email clients ignore JavaScript, so interactive DataTable features degrade to a static styled table — expected. For fully email-optimised (inline-CSS) output, PSWriteHTML also ships the Emailimo command set (Email, EmailHeader, EmailBody, EmailText, EmailTable, EmailList).
[!WARNING]
The Email command can also send over SMTP directly. Do not use its plaintext -Password ... -PasswordFromFile pattern. Pass a [PSCredential], or send with Mailozaurr Send-EmailMessage using OAuth2 — basic-auth SMTP is disabled on Exchange Online and most modern tenants.
Large datasets
For tables above a few thousand rows, switch the data store to JavaScript so the browser stays responsive, and control how dates/arrays serialise:
New-HTML -FilePath .\big.html -ShowHTML {
New-HTMLTableOption -DataStore JavaScript -DateTimeFormat 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm' -ArrayJoin -ArrayJoinString ', '
New-HTMLTable -DataTable $huge -SearchBuilder -PagingLength 50
}
-DataStore AjaxJSON writes data to side-car JSON files (needs a web server; not portable). Default HTML store is fine for small reports and required for email.
Gotchas
- Nothing renders — every builder must be inside the
New-HTML { } block. A New-HTMLTable called on its own emits nothing useful.
- File didn't open —
-ShowHTML opens the browser; without it the file is written silently. -FilePath is required to write to disk.
- Duplicate diagram nodes merge — nodes with the same
-Label overwrite each other; give each a unique -ID.
- Date sorting looks wrong — the JavaScript (DataTables) date tokens differ from .NET tokens. Set
-DateTimeSortingFormat on the table (moment.js tokens like DD.MM.YYYY), or use -Inline conditions for email.
- Huge offline files — inlined assets plus
-BundleImages on diagrams can produce multi-MB files. Use -Online when the report will be viewed with internet access.
Verify the output
The output is a real file — check it, don't assume:
Test-Path .\services.html # file was written
(Get-Item .\services.html).Length -gt 0 # non-empty
Select-String -Path .\services.html -Pattern '<table' -Quiet # table rendered
Open it in a browser (or -ShowHTML) and confirm the table/chart/diagram is present and interactive.
See also
