{"id":5331,"date":"2016-12-22T10:28:30","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T15:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jdhitsolutions.com\/blog\/?p=5331"},"modified":"2016-12-22T10:28:30","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T15:28:30","slug":"web-testing-with-powershell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jdhitsolutions.com\/blog\/powershell\/5331\/web-testing-with-powershell\/","title":{"rendered":"Web Testing with PowerShell"},"content":{"rendered":"

I run a self-hosted WordPress blog here as part of a hosted package.\u00a0 I run this on a very tight budget so I'm pretty sure I share resources with other tenants. This means that sometimes the server is unavailable, usually for only a brief period of time. I have the JetPack WordPress plugin configured to monitor when the site is up or down. But I thought I'd add another layer of testing using PowerShell.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fellow MVP Chrissy LeMaire<\/a> sent me a message on Twitter that my blog was down with a link to the web site http:\/\/downforeveryoneorjustme.com<\/a>. What I liked about the site is that it produces a very simple page. Once I saw that I realized I could use Invoke-Webrequest<\/a> and build a simple PowerShell function to scrape the page results.<\/p>\n

It is very easy to get the page.<\/p>\n

$w = Invoke-Webrequest \"http:\/\/downforeveryoneorjustme.com\/blog.jdhitsolutions.com\" -DisableKeepAlive\r\n<\/pre>\n
The resulting object will include the parsedHTML as a property. I knew from looking at the page source in my browser that the information I wanted was in a DIV tag with an ID property called \"container\".<\/p>\n
\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n
With this information I can use the getElementbyID() method to get this item.<\/p>\n
$x = $w.ParsedHtml.getElementById(\"container\")\r\n<\/pre>\n
Fortunately there is only a single result for this ID. If there had been several I would have had to include additional filtering code. All I need to do is look at the InnerText property.<\/p>\n
\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n
I can refine this by getting just the first line.<\/p>\n
\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n
I now have a few commands that work. Time to build a function around them so I have an easy, re-usable tool. I have put the script file as a gist on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n
#requires -version 4.0\r\n\r\n# get most current version at https:\/\/gist.github.com\/jdhitsolutions\/3046b3aafcbd89a6d857f7a7a5586e47\r\n\r\nFunction Test-UporDown {\r\n\r\n<#\r\n.Synopsis\r\nTest if a web site is down or if it is just you.\r\n\r\n.Description\r\nThe function uses the web site DownForEveryoneOrJustme.com to test is a web site or domain is up or down, or if the problem is just you. The command will write a custom object to the pipeline. See examples.\r\n.Parameter Name\r\nThe name of a web site or domain such as google.com or powershell.org.\r\n\r\n.Parameter UseUniversalTime\r\nConvert the tested date value to universal or GMT time.\r\n\r\n.Example\r\nPS C:\\> test-upordown pluralsight.com \r\n\r\nName            IsUp Date                 \r\n----            ---- ----                 \r\npluralsight.com True 12\/22\/2016 9:17:00 AM\r\n\r\n.Example\r\nPS S:\\> test-upordown pluralsight.com -UseUniversalTime\r\n\r\nName            IsUp Date                 \r\n----            ---- ----                 \r\npluralsight.com True 12\/22\/2016 2:17:41 PM\r\n\r\n.Example\r\nPS S:\\> test-upordown foofoo.edu -Verbose\r\nVERBOSE: [BEGIN  ] Starting: Test-UporDown\r\nVERBOSE: [PROCESS] Testing foofoo.edu\r\nVERBOSE: GET http:\/\/downforeveryoneorjustme.com\/foofoo.edu\/ with 0-byte payload\r\nVERBOSE: received 2256-byte response of content type text\/html;charset=utf-8\r\nVERBOSE: [PROCESS] It's not just you! http:\/\/foofoo.edu looks down from here. \r\n\r\nVERBOSE: [END    ] Ending: Test-UporDown\r\nName        IsUp Date                 \r\n----        ---- ----                 \r\nfoofoo.edu False 12\/22\/2016 9:19:13 AM\r\n\r\n.Notes\r\nversion: 1.0\r\n\r\nLearn more about PowerShell:\r\n
Essential PowerShell Learning Resources<\/a><\/blockquote>