Using Pester to test your Manifest File

In my previous post I got started with Pester and wrote my first test against the Comment Based Help of my module AdsiPS.

Next, I wanted to write a Pester test against the Manifest File of AdsiPS module. I want to make sure all the basic information of the module is referenced in this file. Mike Robbins wrote a great article on Dynamic Unit Tests where he is touching some of the points I want to cover today.


But before I get into the code, a small reminder on the Manifest file's role.

What is a Manifest File ?

A module manifest is a Windows PowerShell data file (.psd1) that describes the contents of a module and determines how a module is processed. The manifest file itself is a text file that contains a hash table of keys and values. You link a manifest file to a module by naming it the same as the module, and placing it in the root of the module directory.

For simple modules that contain only a single .psm1 or binary assembly, a module manifest is optional. However, it is recommended that you use a module manifest whenever possible, as they are useful to help you organize your code and to maintain versioning information. More info.

(You'll find at the end of this article the command that I use to generate my manifest.)

Unit tests for a Manifest file

Goal

As specified above, I want to test the manifest file for the module ADSIPS. I want to make sure all the basic information is present. You might adapt this to your needs.

Tests

• Not empty:
• RootModule: typically should have the psm1 file listed there
• Author, Company, Description, Copyright, License URI, Project URI, Tags (used on PowerShell Gallery)
• Equal number of functions present in the Public folder* vs Those present when you import the module.

*Public Folder: Inside the module folder, I like to organize my module with at least a Public and Private folder. Public is used for Exported functions available to the user, Private are helper functions used only inside the module. This is a model that I adapted from Warren Frame that help to stay organized and also ease the management when you share your module on Version control solutions such as Github.

$ModuleName = "ADSIPS"

# Make sure one or multiple versions of the module are not loaded
Get-Module -Name $ModuleName | remove-module

# Find the Manifest file
$ManifestFile = "$(Split-path (Split-Path -Parent -Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition))\$ModuleName\$ModuleName.psd1"

# Import the module and store the information about the module
$ModuleInformation = Import-module -Name $ManifestFile -PassThru

# Get the functions present in the Manifest
$ExportedFunctions = $ModuleInformation.ExportedFunctions.Values.name

# Get the functions present in the Public folder
$PS1Functions = Get-ChildItem -path "$(Split-path (Split-Path -Parent -Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition))\$ModuleName\public\*.ps1"


Describe "$ModuleName Module - Testing Manifest File (.psd1)"{
    Context "Manifest"{
        It "Should contains RootModule"{
            $ModuleInformation.RootModule | Should not BeNullOrEmpty
        }
        It "Should contains Author"{
            $ModuleInformation.Author | Should not BeNullOrEmpty
        }
        It "Should contains Company Name"{
            $ModuleInformation.CompanyName | Should not BeNullOrEmpty
        }
        It "Should contains Description"{
            $ModuleInformation.Description | Should not BeNullOrEmpty
        }
        It "Should contains Copyright"{
            $ModuleInformation.Copyright | Should not BeNullOrEmpty
        }
        It "Should contains License"{
            $ModuleInformation.LicenseURI | Should not BeNullOrEmpty
        }
        It "Should contains a Project Link"{
            $ModuleInformation.ProjectURI | Should not BeNullOrEmpty
        }
        It "Should contains a Tags (For the PSGallery)"{
            $ModuleInformation.Tags.count | Should not BeNullOrEmpty
        }
        
        It "Compare the count of Function Exported and the PS1 files found"{
            $ExportedFunctions.count -eq $PS1Functions.count |
            Should BeGreaterthan 0
        }
        It "Compare the missing function"{
            if (-not ($ExportedFunctions.count -eq $PS1Functions.count))
            {
                $Compare = Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $ExportedFunctions -DifferenceObject $PS1Functions.basename
                $Compare.inputobject -join ',' | Should BeNullOrEmpty
            }
        }
    }
}

Output of the pester tests against a Manifest File

Extra: Generating a Manifest file

This is the command I'm using to generate my manifest:

# Provide information on the module
$ModuleName = "AdsiPS"
$Author = "Francois-Xavier Cat"
$AuthorCompany = "Lazywinadmin.com"
$Tags = "ADSI", "AdsiPS", "ActiveDirectory"
$ModuleVersion = "1.0.0.0"
$PowerShellVersion = "3.0"
$Description = "AdsiPS is a module to interact with Active Directory without the Microsoft ActiveDirectory module"
$CopyRight = "(c) 2016 Francois-Xavier Cat. All rights reserved. Licensed under The MIT License (MIT)"
$LicenseURI = "https://github.com/lazywinadmin/$ModuleName/blob/master/LICENSE"
$ProjectURI = "https://github.com/lazywinadmin/$ModuleName/"
$RequiredAssemblies = ''

# Generate the manifest
New-ModuleManifest `
   -RootModule "$ModuleName.psm1" `
   -Path .\$ModuleName.psd1 `
   -Guid ([guid]::NewGuid()) `
   -RequiredAssemblies $RequiredAssemblies `
   -Author $Author `
   -CompanyName $AuthorCompany `
   -ModuleVersion $ModuleVersion `
   -Description $Description `
   -Copyright $CopyRight `
   -FunctionsToExport * `
   -Tags $Tags `
   -PowerShellVersion $PowerShellVersion `
   -LicenseUri $LicenseURI `
   -ProjectUri $ProjectURI

Other posts on Pester

• Using Pester to test your Comment Based Help
• Using Pester to test your Manifest File
• Make sure your Comment Based Help is not indented
• Make sure your parameters are separated by an empty line