A collection of Powershell cmdlets for use with the Commence RM API. Requires Vovin.CmcLibNet. You can think of these as convenience methods, since Vovin.CmcLibNet can also be used directly in PowerShell. It assumes a single running instance of Commence .

The most useful cmdlets are probably Get-CmcData, which allows you to extract fieldvalues without having to create a view in Commence and Export-CmcData, which allows you to export data without having to define an Export Template in Commence. Keep in mind that the Commence API is quite slow.

I botch these together whenever I find I have to do too much work in PS to get what I want. For example, in a project I was working on I needed to retrieve the Name field values for a category repeatedly. Just a few lines of code, but a single cmdLet is even easier.

Every cmdlet is fully documented, using the PlatyPS package. Simply use Get-Help [cmdlet]. All examples that specify a categoryname, fieldname, viewname, etc. are for the Tutorial database present in all Commence installations under Help.

Most parameter values can be tab-completed.

Clear-CmcControlCharacters

Clears control characters in a database. Commence allows for the embedding of control characters in fields where you do not expect them and where they result in flawed exports and other unexoected results. It can be quite a nuisance especially because it can be very hard to find them. Use Get-Help Clear-CmcControlCharacters for details.

Clear-CmcMetadataCache

Clears the auto-complete cache. Useful when switching databases. Use Get-Help Clear-CmcMetadataCache for details.

Export-CmcData

Probably one of the most useful cmdlets in the module. Use it to export Commence data to a variety of formats. Use Get-Help Export-CmcData for details. For advanced exporting see Vovin.CmcLibNet.

Find-CmcDuplicates

Returns if a category contains duplicate values for a given field. Use Get-Help Find-CmcDuplicates for details.

Find-CmcFieldInForms

Returns the Item Detail Forms names where a field is being used on. Use Get-Help Find-CmcFieldInForms for details.

Find-CmcView

Search for Commence views by name, category or viewtype. Use Get-Help Find-CmcView for details.

Get-CmcActiveViewInfo

Get details on the currently showing view (window) in Commence. Use Get-Help Get-CmcActiveViewInfo for details.

Get-CmcCategories

Get all category definitions from a Commence database. Useful for piping. Use Get-Help Get-CmcCategories for details.

Get-CmcConnectedField

Constructs a connected field to retrieve from a Commence category or view. You would use this when defining filters. Use Get-Help Get-CmcConnectedField for details. Also see Get-CmcFilter.

Get-CmcConnectedItemCount

Counts the number connected items for a given item. Useful when you have specified a connection to be 'Allow At Most 1 Connected Item' but the database does not respect that. Use Get-Help Get-CmcConnectedItemCount for details.

Get-CmcConnections

Get the connections to a category. Use Get-Help Get-CmcConnections for details.

Get-CmcData

Probably one of the most useful cmdlets in the module. This elaborate cmdlet allows for retrieval of Commence data. Basically this is the command-line method of obtaining Commence database items. Use Get-Help Get-CmcData for details.

Get-CmcDatabaseDirectory

Returns the directory of the currently active Commence database. Use Get-Help Get-CmcDatabaseDirectory for details.

Get-CmcDatabaseName

Returns the name of the currently active Commence database. Use Get-Help Get-CmcDatabaseName for details.

Get-CmcDbSize

Returns the size in bytes of the currently active Commence database. Use Get-Help Get-CmcDbSize for details.

Get-CmcFields

Returns field information (name, type, etc.)on a category. Use Get-Help Get-CmcFields for details.

Get-CmcFilter

Allows for construction of filters to be applied when reading data. This is quite an complex cmcdlet, be sure to also check out the examples. Use Get-Help Get-CmcFilter for details.

Get-CmcIniFile

Gets a PSObject pointing to the data.ini file (where Commence RM stores some of its settings). Use Get-Help Get-CmcIniFile for details.

Get-CmcLogFile 

Gets a PSObject pointing to the active.log file. Use Get-Help Get-CmcLogFile for details.

Get-CmcPreference 

Gets some preference settings from Commence RM, notably the (-Me-) item the the (-Me-) category and some file locations. Use Get-Help Get-CmcPreference for details.

Open-CmcView

Typically used in conjunction with Find-CmcView. Opens the specified view(s) in Commence RM and puts the window focus on Commence RM. Use Get-Help Open-CmcView for details.

Test-CmcFilter

Used to check if a filter created with Get-CmcFilter is syntactically correct (i.e, no portions were omitted when creating them). Use of this cmdlet in production environments is discouraged because it is a resource intensive operation. Use Get-Help Test-CmcFilter for details.