Tip: Test for Tables Missing from Permission Sets

In PowerShell:

$tablesInPermissionSets = @()

$permissionSets = gci . -Recurse -Filter '*.al' | ? {(gc $_.FullName).Item(0).startsWith('permissionset')}
 $permissionSets | % {
    $content = gc $_.FullName -Raw
    [Regex]::Matches($content, '(?<=tabledata ).*(?= =)') | % {
        $tablesInPermissionSets += $_.Value
    }
 }

$tablesInTables = @()

$tables = gci . -Recurse -Filter '*.al' | Where-Object {(Get-Content $_.FullName).Item(0).StartsWith('table ')}
 $tables | % {
    $content = gc $_.FullName -Raw
    [Regex]::Matches($content, "(?<=table \d+ ).*(?=$([Environment]::NewLine))") | % {
        $tablesInTables += $_.Value
    }
 }

$missingTables = ""

Compare-Object $tablesInTables $tablesInPermissionSets | ? SideIndicator -eq '<=' | % {
    $missingTables += $_.InputObject + [Environment]::NewLine
}

if ('' -ne $missingTables) {
    throw "Missing table permissions: $missingTables"
}

In English:

1. Find all the files in the current folder, and child folders, with a filename ending in .al and which have a first line starting with “permissionset”
2. Build a collection of the tabledata objects that are referenced in those permission sets
3. Find all the files in the current folder, and child folders, with a filename ending in .al and which have a first line starting with “table ” (with a space to avoid matching “tableextension”)
4. Build a collection of the names of the tables
5. Use Compare-Object to compare the collections and find names which appear in the list of tables but not in tabledata permissions
6. Build an error message of missing table permissions
7. Throw the error

PowerShell Profile:

Like most small PowerShell scripts that I write, I’ve just added it to my PowerShell profile. Run code $profile in a PowerShell prompt to open the profile file in VS Code.

function Test-Permissions() {
  #...all of the above code
}

Maybe there is already a VS Code extension that checks for this? It would make sense, but I’m pretty minimalist with the extensions that I have installed anyway. I run it from the terminal in VS Code.