How to Pass User Input to a JSON File using powershell

Question

I am creating a PowerShell script using Convert To-JSON cmd and i achieved that using below

    $body = @{
            devices = @(
                @{ 
                    credentials = @(
                        @{
                            label = 'username'
                            value = 'myname'
                            sensitive = 'false'
                        },
                        @{
                            label = 'Password'
                            value = 'Password@!'
                            sensitive = 'true'
                        }
                    )
                    services = @(
                       @{
                            name = 'RDP'
                            url = "https://$inputIpAddress/?pauth=[proxy_token]&data=[connection:$inputUsername]"
                            instructor = 'false'
                        },
                       @{
                            name = 'HTTPS'
                            url = "https://$inputIpAddress/?pauth=[proxy_token]&data=[connection:$inputUsername]"
                            instructor = 'false'
                        },
                       @{
                            name = 'SSH'
                            url = "https://$inputIpAddress/?pauth=[proxy_token]&data=[connection:$inputUsername]"
                            instructor = 'false'
                         }
                    connections = @(
                        @{
                            id = 'myname-rdp'
                            protocol = 'rdp'
                            hostname = "192.168.1.6"
                            port ='3389'
                        }
                        )
                       Parameters = @( 
                       @{
                            name = 'username'
                            value = 'myname'
                        },
                        @{
                            name = 'password'
                            value = 'Password@!'
                        }
                    )
                }
            )
        }

i am converting the above powershell to JSON File($body | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 4) and i would like to replace pass the arguments for the Username and IP Address and store it with the username.json every time while converting to JSON.

i have tried the Read-host to get the input from the user but i am facing difficulty to pass that input before printing the output.

Answer 1

For the IP address, you can set the new value by defining the parameter using standard dot-notation.

In the case of username, because Parameters is an array with duplicate object names, doing $body.devices.Parameters.name would return both the username and password objects, so you can filter the array to only select the object where the name is username

$inputUsername = Read-Host "Input Username"
$inputIpAddress = Read-Host "Input IP address"

( $body.devices.Parameters | Where-Object { $_.name -eq 'username' } ).value = $inputUsername
$body.devices.connections.hostname = $inputIpAddress

$body | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 4

Answer 2

As an interpreted language, PowerShell allows you to construct literals based on values that are determined at runtime.

Therefore, simply place your hashtable literal (@{ ... }) after your Read-Host calls, and reference the variables in which you store the Read-Host responses in that literal.

A simplified example:

# Simulate two Read-Host calls (hard-code sample values).
$foo = 42
$bar = 'hi'

# Now define the hashtable literal and reference the variables assigned to above.
# Note: An [ordered] hashtable is used in order to retain the entries
#       in definition order.
[ordered] @{
  devices = @{
    foo = $foo
    bar = $bar
  }
}

Piping the above to ConvertTo-Json -Depth 4 yields:

{
  "devices": {
    "foo": 42,
    "bar": "hi"
  }
}

Note how the values of $foo and $bar were incorporated. You could even use the same technique in a loop, provided the hashtable literal is also in the loop body (after setting the variables it references).