<\/p>\n
Summary:<\/strong> Learn how to use a Windows PowerShell function to download lyrics for your favorite songs.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. Well it is New Year’s day in Charlotte<\/a>, North Carolina<\/a>. This year, or perhaps I should say last year, the Scripting Wife<\/a> and I did not do anything for New Year’s Eve. I had spent a few days looking around, and found some pretty cool things going on down in Charleston<\/a>, South Carolina<\/a> that looked promising. However, with my continuing ear problems, we decided that going to listen to a live band is not necessarily the best thing to do. What I really wanted to find was a Windows PowerShell New Year’s Eve gathering. I mean we could arrange for a half dozen speakers and do all PowerShell all night. Now that is something to get excited about! It would be way cooler than the Elvis<\/a> contest we went to a couple of years ago. <\/span><\/p>\n Because we did not do anything last night, I am up bright and early and cooking a pot of steel cut Irish Oats. These dudes take nearly an hour to cook, but it is worth the extra trouble. I like to sprinkle them with fresh ground Cinnamon<\/a>. Anyway, while I wait for the oats to come to a boil, I decided to look around for a web service I could use to retrieve song lyrics for the songs I listen to on my Zune HD<\/a>. This is something I have wanted to do for quite some time, but I have always had more important things to do. <\/span><\/p>\n That is the good thing about scripting on New Year’s Day because one can pretty much spend ones time doing whatever one wishes to do. After all, it is New Year’s Day. Speaking of Elvis, have you ever tried to figure out what he is talking about in some of his songs? Between the “ooh ha ooh ha” and the “thank you, thank you very much” lots of words transpire that are fairly unintelligible. That is the good thing about retrieving song lyrics; I can finally understand the song (in some cases that might not necessarily be such a good thing). The complete Get-Lyrics<\/b> function appears here.<\/span><\/p>\n Get-Lyrics function<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Function Get-Lyrics<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n {<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><#<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>.Synopsis<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>This function returns song lyrics when provided with the name of a song<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>.Description<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>This function uses a web service to retrieve song lyrics<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>.Example<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Get-Lyrics -artist “John Denver” -song “Rocky Mountain High”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Returns the lyrics to John Denver’s song “Rocky Mountain High”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>.Example<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Get-Lyrics -artist elvis -song “hound dog”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Returns the lyrics to Elvis Presley’s song Hound Dog<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>.Parameter artist<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>The artist parameter accepts an artist name as a string<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>.Parameter song<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>The song parameter accepts a song title as a string<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>.Inputs<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>[string]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>.Outputs<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>[string[]]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>.Notes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>NAME: <\/span>Get-Lyrics<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>AUTHOR: ed wilson, msft<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>LASTEDIT: 12\/21\/2010 17:47:31<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>KEYWORDS: Using the Internet, Web Services<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>HSG: 1\/1\/11<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>.Link<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Http:\/\/www.ScriptingGuys.com<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>#Requires -Version 2.0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>#><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Param(<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>[string]$artist,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>[string]$song )<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>$URI = “http:\/\/lyrics.wikia.com\/server.php?wsdl”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>$Proxy = New-WebServiceProxy -uri $URI -namespace WebServiceProxy<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>$details = $Proxy.GetSong($artist,$song)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>“Details”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>$details.Lyrics<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n } #end Get-Lyrics<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Most of the Get-Lyrics<\/b> function is taken up by the comment-based help. I used my Add-Help<\/b> function<\/a> to add most of the help tags<\/a>, and it therefore only took me about five minutes to fill in the blanks. <\/span><\/p>\nRetrieving song lyrics with Windows PowerShell<\/h2>\n
\n