CLI script samples

[Adam-it]

🤔 What do I mean?

Ok so this is not a suggestion for an improvement itself but maybe some kind of method to find potential improvements to the CLI and a way to make the CLI more popular tool at the same time. The idea is to challenge all script samples done in PnP PowerShell or SPO (... or any other ) and try to do the same (or almost the same) using m365 CLI 🧑‍💻.

🙄 Why?

👉 First of all it's actually sometimes hard to find what is missing in m365 CLI just by looking at the command list and clicking through the tenant 😋. The functionalities needed are found on real case scenarios (so the time when the customer/domain/whatever comes to the dev/po/consultant/whatever and says: "hey, you know what, we have a great idea for you to do this magical thing for us in the tenant") 😉 . https://pnp.github.io/script-samples is a place where a majority of samples were added based on this kind of experience, and is a great place to start looking for inspiration 👍 Trying to do something in m365 CLI which was already done using some different method => that's a potential way to find a point where you say "hmm... we don't have a command/parameter that supports it.. strange... we should add one 😅". Real life case: I tried to do this -> pnp/script-samples#108 I couldn't do all so I reached out to you and with you we added this new command -> #2777

👉 Second of all is popularity. I remember when I started a first task as and SP dev and first thing I did was research, especially finding samples for something similar what I am trying to achieve (.. now after couple of years I am doing the exact same thing 😅). So even if someone has typed the keyword "PnP PowerShell" in the browser it is still possible he or she will find a page in the script sample were also an CLI equivalent is present 😍. Finding more and more ready to use solutions (not single command but ready scenarios) in this tool may be a game changer if someone will want to use it.

🤨 What are the benefits?

TBH I think it is finding what is lacking and increasing potential popularity 👍. What's important is not to show that some tool is better or worser, I think using both or more approaches is best and allows to find the best tool for dev needs.

😏 How? What should be done? Where is the help?

So I am not asking for any code or functionality support ... I know, strange... I would like to discuss with you:

• do you think it is a good approach?
• and if yes how this kind of initiative should be best handled?

What I tried till now is to check the script sample matrix https://pnp.github.io/script-samples/matrix.html (BTW CLI already has most samples 🤩) then pick some which have PnP PowerShell but no CLI, and open a issue with the list of what I would like to do pnp/script-samples#104, agree with repo owner that it is ok, and then go issue by issue and PR by PR etc. (also got a lot of help from @ValerasNarbutas .. thanks a lot 👍). This process is in progress but as I got a tip today that maybe this is also not the best way, maybe there should be an issue also in CLI repo for each sample (like an sample request).
Also maybe there are other ways this might be handled? Like not only script sample repo but maybe some existing articles which used PnP PowerShell or some other places 🤔. I am open for any suggestion/opinion 😊

[waldekmastykarz]

This is definitely a great idea and looking at scripts is a great way to see what's needed. What's more, when looking at scripts, we can discover scenarios and usage patterns that we could implement in commands to simplify building scripts. I think it's hard to find which scripts are popular and the script gallery could help us with understanding it. Combined with the feedback from the community, we should have a solid base to understand what's needed and where we could improve.

[Adam-it]

@waldekmastykarz were do you think I/we could check for more code samples/inspiration for research 🤔? script-sample repo is a good starting point for sure. I was thinking that also reviewing some articles from the PnP blog might be a good source of scripts 🤔

[waldekmastykarz]

Yes, the PnP blog is also a good place. There is a lot of articles with sample scripts scattered all over the internet so perhaps internet search is the way to go.

[ValerasNarbutas]

I personally look at the scripts and use them almost always combined with multiple parts from separate scripts in daily life, also would be hard to pick the most popular ones.
But sometimes i feel auto-generated script tool would be easy to build especially when converting existing scripts to from pnp to CLI to SPO or vice versa. Especially when i got my hand on Copilot.. wich still blows my mind.