Splatting Custom Attributes with Active Directory

Using splatted values can help better organize your code for managing AD Objects.

Splatting Basics

Splatting is a method of passing a collection of parameter values to a command as a unit.

They are simply hash tables that contain value pairs consisting of parameter name and value. With the main difference is that when referenced you use @ instead of $.

$splat = @{
	Identity="josh"
}

Get-ADUser @splat

This example probably won’t sell you on splatting so lets look at some slightly longer examples.

Compare these two:

Set-ADUser -Identity Josh -DisplayName "Joshua" -EmailAddress "Josh@Company.com" -Department "IT" -Country "US"

$Arguments = @{
	Identity = "Josh"
	DisplayName = "Joshua"
	EmailAddress = "Josh@company.com"
	Department = "IT"
	Country = "US"
}

Set-ADUser @Arguments

Which values can I splat?

Easiest way to tell is to use Intellisense.

If the parameter is suggested when starting to type it into the console, then it can be splatted.

Can splat Email Address:

$Arguments = @{
	EmailAddress = "Josh@corp.com"
}

Set-ADUser test.josh @Arguments

Can not splat extension attributes:

$Arguments = @{
	ExtensionAttribute1 = "This will not work."
}

Set-ADUser test.josh @Arguments

Ok, So What About the Other Attributes?

How do we splat parameters that cannot be modified using a cmdlet parameter (like -Country for Set-ADUser)? Nested Hash Tables!

-Add and -OtherAttributes are just parameters, so treat them the same. Since they take a hash table as a value just pass them valid parameter/value pairs and you’re good to go.

New-ADUser Example

$OtherAttributes = @{
    Title = "Title";
    Description = "Description"
    Department = "Department"
    C = "US"
    GivenName = "Josh"
    SN = "Nutt"
    extensionAttribute1 = "value"
    myCustomAttribute = "SomeValue"
}

$UserSettings = @{
    Name = "Josh Nutt"
    SamAccountName = "Josh"
    DisplayName = "Joshua Nutt"
    UserPrincipalName = "Josh@corp.com"
    Path   = "OU=People Named Josh,DC=corp,DC=lan"
    Server = "DomainServer02"

    OtherAttributes = $OtherAttributes
}

new-aduser @UserSettings -ErrorAction Stop

$UserSettings contains a value “OtherAttributes” which contains another hashtable of attributes

If you did this without splatting it would get out of hand pretty quickly!

New-ADUser -Name "Josh Nutt" -SamAccountName "Josh" -DisplayName "Joshua Nutt" -OtherAttributes @{Title="Title";Department="Department";C = "US";SN = "Nutt";extensionAttribute1 = "value"}

Set-ADUser Example:

$CustomProperties = @{
	extensionAttribute1  = "Value1"
	extensionAttribute2  = "Value2"
}

$UserSettings = @{
	Identity="Josh"
	DisplayName="Joshua Nutt"

	# Or you can use Replace
	Add=$CustomProperties
}

Set-ADUser @UserSettings

Same concept with New-ADUser except Microsoft chose to use -Add instead of -OtherAttributes.

Conclusion

Using splatting has cleaned up my code and made it easier to maintain, I hope it helps somebody else.

Additional information can be found here:
Set-ADUser Documentation
Splatting Documentation
Microsoft Dev Blog - Splatting