Simple example of sending SQL query result as HTML formatted table in an email using Powershell

I tried piecing together a couple scripts, one that send a single value to an email address and another that writes a query result to a text file, but I don't know Powershell well enough to get it to work.

I want to send the result of an SQL query of just a few columns as an HTML formatted table in an email message using Send-MailMessage.

Here is what I've got. It prints the table to the console and the output file, but the email fails with an error.

<# connection string and SQL command to execute #>
[String] $now = Get-Date
[String] $to = 'dmegnin@careersourcebroward.com'
[String] $connectionString = 'Server=MSQLServ; Database=ITASync; Integrated Security=SSPI;'
[String] $query = @'
  SELECT Provider, LoginDate, DATEDIFF(day, LoginDate, GetDate()) as Diff
    FROM Logins
    WHERE DATEDIFF(day,LoginDate, GetDate()) IN (37)
'@


$connection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$connection.ConnectionString = $connectionString
$connection.Open()
$command = $connection.CreateCommand()
$command.CommandText = $query

$result = $command.ExecuteReader()

$table = new-object “System.Data.DataTable”
$table.Load($result)

$format = @{Expression={$_.Provider};Label="Provider Name";width=30},@{Expression={$_.LoginDate};Label="Login Date"; width=25},@{Expression={$_.Diff};Label="Days"; width=8}

$table | Where-Object {$_.Provider -like "*PROFESSOR" -and $_.Diff -lt 100} | format-table $format

$table | Where-Object {$_.Provider -like "*PROFESSOR" -and $_.Diff -lt 100} | format-table $format | Out-File C:\Temp\ee\Providers.txt

Send-MailMessage -BodyAsHtml -Body "$table | Where-Object {$_.Provider -like "*PROFESSOR" -and $_.Diff -lt 100} | format-table $format" -SmtpServer mail.careersourcebroward.com -From "Contract Expiration Database <csbd@careersourcebroward.com>" -To $to -Subject "Provider: $($_.Provider) logged in $($_.Diff) days ago."

$connection.Close()

Open in new window

If there's a cleaner or better with to do this, I'd like to learn it. Thank you!

LVL 1

megninAsked: 2016-07-20

Who is Participating?

[Product update] Infrastructure Analysis Tool is now available with Business Accounts.Learn More

Experts Exchange Solution brought to you by

Enjoy your complimentary solution view.

Get every solution instantly with Premium. Start your 7-day free trial.

I wear a lot of hats...

"The solutions and answers provided on Experts Exchange have been extremely helpful to me over the last few years. I wear a lot of hats - Developer, Database Administrator, Help Desk, etc., so I know a lot of things but not a lot about one thing. Experts Exchange gives me answers from people who do know a lot about one thing, in a easy to use platform." -Todd S.

LVL 1

megninAuthor Commented: 2016-07-20

Perhaps... Maybe take something like this and eliminate the unnecessary complications so it simply puts the table result of a query into the body of the email? I'm looking for something that would be easy for me to modify for multiple uses as a general "mail me that report" script. Maybe to schedule as an automated thing. Thanks.

#Get SQL Database objects and places them into array $ServerBook
$ServerBook = New-Object System.Data.DataSet "myDataSet"
	$sqlConn = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection("Data Source=<Database Server>;Initial Catalog=ServerBook;Integrated Security=True")
	$adapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter("SELECT ServerName,Owner,SupportContact,SupportExternal,ServerDescription FROM v_ServerBook_BasicInfo", $sqlConn)
	$adapter.Fill($ServerBook)	


$ServerBook = $ServerBook.Tables[0] | Sort-Object -Property Owner #reorganizes $serverBook by owner
$owners = ($ServerBook.owner | Get-Unique) #stores list of unique owners and eliminates duplicates
$owners = $owners | where{$_ -ne "" -and $_ -ne $null -and $_ -ne [dbnull]::value} #eliminates null values from the list of owners

foreach($owner in $owners){
#Get the servers for the current owner
$servers = $ServerBook | where{$_.owner -eq $owner}

#Add to server list for current owner to an array
$ServerList = $servers | select ServerName, Owner, SupportContact, SupportExternal, ServerDescription

#copies the server owners name to $ownername variable
$ownerName = $owner 

#Changes the format of the name to lastname, firstname is only needed if that is the format of the display name in AD
$Username = "$($Owner.Split(" ")[1]), $($Owner.Split(" ")[0])"

#pulls email address of the $username
$EmailAddress = Get-ADuser -Filter "Name -eq '$Username'" -properties emailaddress -server ads.domain.com | select-object emailaddress

#splits the $emailAddress vaiable to help eliminate extra text
$emailaddress = $emailaddress -split '[=}]' ,0 

#removes extra text at the beginning of the variable
$emailaddress = $emailaddress.TrimStart("@{emailaddress") 

#created CSS for formatting the table in the HTML email body
$style = "<style>BODY{font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;}"
$style = $style + "TABLE{border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;}"
$style = $style + "TH{border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px;}"
$style = $style + "TD{border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;}"
$style = $style + "</style>"

#creates the HTML email body with static text and adds the dynamic table with the formatting to the middle
$message = "<html>
<p>Hello $ownername,</p>
<p></p>                                 
<p>Static Text</p><hr>

<body>$($ServerList | ConvertTo-Html -Head $style | Out-String)</body>
<p></p> 
<hr>
<p></p> 
<p>Thank You,</p>
<p>Signature Block</p>
</html>
"

Send-MailMessage -To "$EmailAddress" -Subject "Bi-Annual Server Review" -Body $message -BodyAsHtml -SmtpServer "smtp1.domain.com" -Priority High -DeliveryNotificationOption OnSuccess -From "email@email.com"
}

Open in new window

LVL 90

David Johnson, CD, MVPOwnerCommented: 2016-07-20

two entirely different questions.

#2:

$serverlist ='server1','server2','server3'
$style = '<style>BODY{font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;}'
$style = $style + 'TABLE{border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;}'
$style = $style + 'TH{border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px;}'
$style = $style + 'TD{border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;}'
$style = $style + '</style>'
$message1 = '<html><p>Hello '+$ownername+',</p><p></p><p>Static Text</p><hr><body>'`
$message2 = $ServerList  | Out-HTML
$message3 ='</body><p></p><hr><p></p><p>Thank You,</p><p>Signature Block</p></html>'
$message = $message1 + $message2 + $message3
$message

Open in new window

lose the "'s around $EmailAddress

Send-MailMessage -To $EmailAddress -Subject "Bi-Annual Server Review" -Body $message -BodyAsHtml -SmtpServer "smtp1.domain.com" -Priority High -DeliveryNotificationOption OnSuccess -From "email@email.com"

Open in new window

LVL 43

footechCommented: 2016-07-21

It looks like you're at least part way on your way to working this out. From your first
-Body "$table | Where-Object {$_.Provider -like "*PROFESSOR" -and $_.Diff -lt 100} | format-table $format"
to the second where you're using
$($ServerList | ConvertTo-Html -Head $style | Out-String)
in a here-string.

If you're using ConvertTo-Html to only provide a part of a complete HTML document, then you need to use the -Fragment parameter so it doesn't generate the surrounding HTML that would make a complete doc. And of course since you're only generating the table with the cmdlet, you have to take more care in supplying the correct surrounding HTML that is well-formed.

Example, assuming data's already been collected into the $table variable.

$head = @"
<style>
TABLE{border-width: 2px;border-style: solid;border-color: black;border-collapse: collapse;}
TH{border-width: 2px;padding: 4px;border-style: solid;border-color: black;background-color:lightblue;text-align:left;font-size:14px}
TD{border-width: 1px;padding: 4px;border-style: solid;border-color: black;font-size:12px}
</style>
"@

$prebody = @"
<H4>SQL query results</H4>
"@

$message =  @"
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
$head
</head>
<body>
$($table | ConvertTo-Html -Fragment -PreContent $prebody -PostContent "<p>footer</p>" | Out-String)
<hr>
<p></p> 
<p>Thank You,</p>
<p>Signature Block</p>
</body>
</html>
"@

Send-MailMessage -BodyAsHtml -Body $message -SmtpServer mail.domain.com -From "someone <someone@domain.com>" -To "other@domain.com" -Subject "neat stuff"

Open in new window

The only thing I can't verify (and haven't actually done) is that $table (which is of type "System.Data.DataTable") can be sent to ConvertTo-HTML and be processed correctly. Seems likely, but I just haven't verified.

Experts Exchange Solution brought to you by

Your issues matter to us.

Facing a tech roadblock? Get the help and guidance you need from experienced professionals who care. Ask your question anytime, anywhere, with no hassle.

Start your 7-day free trial

LVL 1

megninAuthor Commented: 2016-07-21

Hi footech,
Unfortunately, I'm not on my way to working anything out. ;-) I found both of those examples and they just look like they are either close to what I'm looking for or at least contain part of what I need. I only started trying to learn Powershell last week when I was asked to find a way to send email alerts when our companies contracts were nearing their expiration dates.

Anyway, I didn't know a "-Fragment" parameter existed. It makes sense to me though.

David, I don't understand your sentence fragment "two entirely different questions." I'm asking for a simple example of a Powershell script to send the result of a query in an email and I provide what I have so far but that doesn't work.
Then I provide an example that I found, while googling around, that looks like it contains mostly what I want, but also has a bunch of stuff that I don't need, but don't know Powershell well enough (at all, really) to remove what doesn't fit with with I need. Thanks for understanding.

LVL 43

footechCommented: 2016-07-24

If your first does everything you want and you're just concerned about the error you get when you try to send an email, then you should post the error. But just looking at it I would say the below would work. And if so, then other changes as shown previously are just formatting choices.

Send-MailMessage -BodyAsHtml -Body ($table | Where-Object {$_.Provider -like "*PROFESSOR" -and $_.Diff -lt 100} | ConvertTo-HTML | Out-String) -SmtpServer mail.careersourcebroward.com -From "Contract Expiration Database <csbd@careersourcebroward.com>" -To $to -Subject "Provider: $($_.Provider) logged in $($_.Diff) days ago."

Open in new window

LVL 1