During my Sitecore PowerShell Extensions presentation at the Sitecore User Group Conference 2014, I showcased a custom report I had scripted using the Sitecore PowerShell Extensions module, and thought I would jot down what I had shown coupled with some steps on how you could go about creating your own custom report.

I had shown the audience the following PowerShell script:

<#
    .SYNOPSIS
        Lists all images with an empty Alt field.
    
    .NOTES
        Mike Reynolds
#>

function Get-ImageItemNoAltText {    
    $items = Get-ChildItem -Path "master:\sitecore\media library\images" -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.Fields["Alt"] -ne $null }
    
    foreach($item in $items) {
        if($item."Alt" -eq '') {
            $item
        }
    }
}

$items = Get-ImageItemNoAltText

if($items.Count -eq 0) {
    Show-Alert "There are no images with an empty Alt field."
} else {
    $props = @{
        InfoTitle = "Images with an empty Alt field"
        InfoDescription = "Lists all images with an empty Alt field."
        PageSize = 25
    }
    
    $items |
        Show-ListView @props -Property @{Label="Name"; Expression={$_.DisplayName} },
            @{Label="Updated"; Expression={$_.__Updated} },
            @{Label="Updated by"; Expression={$_."__Updated by"} },
            @{Label="Created"; Expression={$_.__Created} },
            @{Label="Created by"; Expression={$_."__Created by"} },
            @{Label="Path"; Expression={$_.ItemPath} }
}
Close-Window

I modeled the above script after the “out of the box” ‘Unused media items’ report but made some changes: it grabs all media library items recursively under /sitecore/Media Library/Images — you could definitely change this to /sitecore/Media Library to get all images outside of the Images folder — in Sitecore that have an Alt field, and that Alt field’s value is equal to the empty string.

I then tested — yes, I do test my code, don’t you 😉 — and saved my report using the PowerShell ISE:

The report was saved in this Item created just for it:

Let’s see this in action!

I went to Sitecore –> Reporting Tools –> PowerShell Reports –> Mikes Media Audit, and clicked on the new report:

After running the report, I was presented with this dialog containing the results:

I then clicked on the first row of the report, and was brought to an image with an empty Alt field:

If you have any thoughts on this, or would like to see additional reports in Sitecore PowerShell Extensions, please share in a comment.