Powershell procedures/cmdlets - MS Project client/Project Server

Powershell is becoming part of any IT-Administrator inventory. If you worked with Project Server 2013 or SharePoint 2013 you are properly avare of many of the many cmdlets available.

Project Server - Powershell cmdlets

For a list of the Project Server cmdlets see this Technet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee890097(v=office.15).aspx

MS Project - Powershell cmdlets

Untill recently I was not aware you can access the MS Project client though Powershell. There is actally quite a big API available as you are simply attaching into the VBA/VSTO API.
To connect to the MS Project client simply start up the Powershell ISE and use the following command.

 $Project = New-Object -ComObject msproject.application  

After you are connected the commands are very similar to the VBA counterpart, if you for example want to find the name of all the tasks.

 $Project.Visible = $True  
 $tsks = $Project.ActiveProject.Tasks  
 Foreach ($tsk in $tsks)  
 {  
   Write-Host $tsk.Name  
 }  

Or if you want to open and edit the enterprise calendar.

 $cal_guid = [GUID]"32E5163F-8F5C-472E-9497-F905B3A81E2D"  
 $Project.EditEnterpriseCalendar($cal_guid)  

Basically any VBA call can be migrated into Powershell, see this site for great VBA axamples.

General Powershell Problems

If you get the following error:

 file.ps1 cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system  

Use the following command to allow the execution policy:

 set-executionpolicy unrestricted  

Note: the above command migth result in the following error:

 set-executionpolicy : Access to the registry key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell' is denied. To chang  
 e the execution policy for the default (LocalMachine) scope, start Windows PowerShell with the "Run as administrator" option. To change the execution p  
 olicy for the current user, run "Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser".  
 At line:1 char:1  
 + set-executionpolicy unrestricted  
 + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
   + CategoryInfo     : PermissionDenied: (:) [Set-ExecutionPolicy], UnauthorizedAccessException  
   + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.UnauthorizedAccessException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetExecutionPolicyCommand  

In this case it can be resolved by adding you account to the permission in a regestry key.

- Click start and run: regedt32

- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell

- Right-Click the key and select Permissions 

- Select, and add your account, 

- Grant it "Full Control" privileges