Using Scripting in Powershell

[RalphS]

Hi Guys,

I'm pretty new to scripting with Beyond Compare and Power shell (only done about 4 hours of work!) and I've come across an issue.

I want to be able to run Beyond compare commands directly within power shell. From what I can see, this can only be done via external scripts. Is it not possible to run all my commands directly within Powershell?

In this case, I'm trying to do a BC on two folders and like to have the result displayed in a nicely formatted HTML page.

Running this on Powershell works for which it compares in BC:
& "C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4\BCompare.exe" "$folder1" "$folder2"

But if I then try and view it as HTML, I do the following:
& "C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4\BCompare.exe" "$folder1" "$folder2" "criteria rules-based" "load" "$folder1" "$folder2" "expand all" "select all.files" "folder-report layout:side-by-side options:include-file-links" "output-to:\ output-options:html-color"

This doesn't work.

So am I right in assuming, I'll have to generate an external script and link it to my powershell file or is it possible to run these commands within Powershell directly?

Thank you!

[Aaron]

Hello,

BC4's scripting support loads a specific script file (c:\bcscript.txt) which then contains a series of script commands separated by newlines. It's a specific syntax, and executing script mode requires the "@" parameter in front of the file.

bcompare.exe "@c:\bcscript.txt"

You might be able to create a single line that generates and then calls to this script file, but it would probably be easier to create the script file separately. It can also accept parameter text, such as:

bcompare.exe "@c:\bcscript.txt" "c:\folder1" "c:\folder2" "c:\reports\bcreport.html"

where this text can be loaded in bcscript.txt with $1 and $2 etc

criteria rules-based
load" "%1" "%2"
expand all
folder-report layout:side-by-side options:include-file-links output-to:"%3" output-options:html-color

[RalphS]

Thanks Aaron.
After taking on your changes I had to make one final update to the script you provided by replacing the $ with %

All is working as expected!

[Aaron]

Ah, you're right. Whoops! I used the wrong character, and it should indeed be %1, %2, %3, %4, etc, for each parameter.

[rmcmillin]

i am trying to write a similar script and keep getting errors here is what i have :

this is my compare.txt


criteria binary

load "%1" "%2"

expand all

select all

folder-report layout:side-by-side output-to:c:\temp\report.html output-options:html-color


here is the command i am trying to run:


"C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4\Bcompare.exe" "@c:\temp\compare.txt" "\\ordwebfe10\E$\application_code\production_fe\pr oduction_session" "\\ordwebfe02\E$\application_code\production_fe\pr oduction_session" "C:\temp\FolderReport.txt"


am i missing something?


here are the errors i am getting:"

At line:4 char:50
+ ... m Files\Beyond Compare 4\Bcompare.exe" "@c:\temp\compare.txt" "\\ordw ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unexpected token '"@c:\temp\compare.txt"' in expression or statement.
At line:4 char:73
+ ... ompare.txt" "\\ordwebfe10\E$\application_code\production_fe\pr oductio ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Unexpected token '"\\ordwebfe10\E$\application_code\production_fe\p roduction_session"' in expression or statement.
At line:4 char:141
+ ... on_session" "\\ordwebfe02\E$\application_code\production_fe\pr oductio ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Unexpected token '"\\ordwebfe02\E$\application_code\production_fe\p roduction_session"' in expression or statement.
At line:4 char:209
+ ... ion_code\production_fe\production_session" "C:\temp\FolderReport.txt"
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unexpected token '"C:\temp\FolderReport.txt"' in expression or statement.
+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: ( [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnexpectedToken

thanks for any assitance

[rmcmillin]

also is there a way to use one location as the main source and compare multiple folders on multiple servers?

[Aaron]

It looks like from the logs you have a space between p and r in production. If that is a forum issue, you can use the CODE tags around it to capture exact text, or email [email protected] with a link back to this forum thread and the actual .txt files and .txt log files as attachments.

You can also replace the output-to:"%3" or remove the 3rd variable from the command line. You currently have it in the command line but then don't use it in the script.

Lastly, as a folder-report, you don't need to select all, so you can delete that line, too, although it is not causing any of the errors.

We don't support a one to many comparison, but you can sequentially call a the script with each pair:
bcompare @script.txt c:\main c:\folder1
bcompare @script.txt c:\main c:\folder2
bcompare @script.txt c:\main c:\folder3
etc