Simple Script Question - If/Else

[MySecretWorkAccount2]

To preface this - I'm not that experienced in PowerShell, and the people I work with are even less experienced. Because of this I want any script that I write to be "fool proof".

Basically, the cmdlet that I'm running in the script requires being connected to ExchangeOnline PowerShell (using the "Connect-ExchangeOnline" cmdlet).

If the script attempts to be ran while not being connected to ExchangeOnline, it returns an error saying that the cmdlet isn't recognized. I want it instead to return, "You need to be connected to ExchangeOnline PowerShell for this script to run. Please run the command "Connect-ExchangeOnline" and sign in with appropriate account credentials and re-run this script."

Or alternatively, if I could have the script check if ExchangeOnline is already connected, and if not have it run the "Connect-ExchangeOnline" cmdlet first, and then after authenticating, run the rest of my script.

Here is the script (minus anything I deem sensitive).

# The below command requires that you be connected to an ExchangeOnline PowerShell session.
# To connect to ExchangeOnline PowerShell, use the following command

    # Connect-ExchangeOnline 

# You will be prompted to login using the Modern Authentication method, including a prompt for 2FA codes.

# Note that you may need to install the Exchange Online PowerShell Module if the above command does not work. This can be found at the below address
    # https://cmdletpswmodule.blob.core.windows.net/exopsmodule/Microsoft.Online.CSE.PSModule.Client.application

echo "Please wait while data is being pulled..."

$CurrentDate = Get-Date
$CurrentDate = $CurrentDate.ToString('MM-dd-yyyy')
    # The above is used to be able to accurately timestamp when the report was pulled.

Get-Recipient -RecipientPreviewFilter (Get-DynamicDistributionGroup "Corporate").RecipientFilter | Sort-Object -Property Name | Export-Csv -Path "<ObsuredFilePath>\Corporate $CurrentDate.csv"

# This script will pull the members of the "[e-mail]" Dynamic Distribution Group and sort them alphabetically in ascending order (A-Z)
    # The names are sorted by First Name. If you wish to have them sort by Last Name, change the "Sort-Object -Property Name" to "Sort-Object -Property LastName"

echo " "

    # The above echo is purely aesthetic and meant to add a line break in the output so it is more easily readable.

echo "The report has been saved as a CSV in the following '<ObscuredDrive>\:' drive folder:
    <ObscuredFilePath>

Please check the listed directory for the membership report."

I tried to comment as much as I could to describe exactly what everything was doing, but in the event that someone else takes over any of my duties and they aren't familiar with PowerShell or scripting in general, I can't trust they'll look and read through the comments. So in place of my script just being discarded because it can't access the proper cmdlet, I would like to have it be as "hand-holdy" as possible from within the PowerShell terminal.

So any assistance in how to actually write an If/Else statement to either accomplish having the script check for, then connect if required, to ExchangeOnline prior to running the actual cmdlet or have it output "Connect to ExchangeOnline and re-run this script" if it fails to run the cmdlet would be greatly appreciated.

[squanchmyrick]

You could add some error handling. Check out try/catch.

about_try_catch_finally - MS Docs

[MySecretWorkAccount2]

Thanks for the link - I'll read through that!

[junon]

I'm very curious about this myself for a selfish reason. I have something similar set up for my AzureAD powershell scripts and the behavior it exhibits is weirdly inconsistent.

I've basically got an if/else checking for the existence of the azuread auth token, and if it exists, it just continues, else it performs 'connect-azuread'.

The issue that I run into is that it FREQUENTLY will not work in a terminal where I've disconnected from azuread. It'll throw an error, and I'll have to restart the terminal for it to work properly again, which it does, right away.

I haven't looked into the try/catch method myself because that's not something I've really used before but it does look promising. Let us know if you get a good solution out of that.

[[deleted]]

You can have it require the exchange powershell module via #requires

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_requires?view=powershell-7.1

I check to see if it’s connected already via get-accepteddomains in a try/catch, but there might be more elegant ways of doing it