Read XML with PowerShell [closed]

Question

Here’s what I am trying to do. There is an XML file in the “forms” folder of each our SharePoint libraries called “client_LocationBasedDefaults.html” The file contains the column defaults that can be set in Library settings. The the XML looks like this

<MetadataDefaults> <a href="/RestoreTest/App"> <DefaultValue FieldName="FunctionalClass">OPERATIONS</DefaultValue> <DefaultValue FieldName="BusinessUnit">Applications</DefaultValue> </a> <a href="/RestoreTest/App/Advance_Retail"> <DefaultValue FieldName="FileNumber">REST10001-000002</DefaultValue> <DefaultValue FieldName="FileLocationName">Restore Test==Restore Apps==Advance Retail</DefaultValue> <DefaultValue FieldName="ITSystem">Point of Sale</DefaultValue> </a> </MetadataDefaults> 

Here is a snippet of PowerShell which I have been experimenting with for a couple of days. I am able to pull out the href information no problem as well as the fieldnames but not the actual defaultvalues for example 'Point of Sale' . I think my knowledge of XML is probably wanting here. Anyway if someone could point me in the right direction I would be really grateful as I have pretty much exhausted my own limited knowledge and examples I have seen on the net don’t seem applicable.

$default = $document.OpenBinary() $encode = New-Object System.Text.ASCIIEncoding [xml]$defaultXML = ($encode.GetString($default)) $content = $defaultXML.metadatadefaults foreach($w in $content.a) { if($w.href){ Write-Host $w.href } } 

Answer 1

If you want to list all values of all DefaultValue tags, you can do something like this:

foreach($w in $content.DefaultValue) { Write-Host $w.InnerXML } 

Saving the array to a file, do this:

$output = @() foreach($w in $content.DefaultValue) { Write-Host $w.InnerXML $output += $w.InnerXML } $output > c:\temp\file.txt 

and you will have a value on each row in the text file.

Reference: Getting XML values in PowerShell

Answer 2

I would recommend querying based on XPath. The following should get you what you want:

[XML]$XMLContent = Get-Content -path "D:\SharePoint_2010\DefaultXML.xml" $XMLContent.SelectNodes('//a//DefaultValue[@FieldName]') 

A breakdown of the XPath: Any 'a' (//a) node that has a 'DefaultValue' (//DefaultValue) child node which has an attribute of 'FieldName' ([@FieldName]).

That statement outputs:

FieldName #text --------- ----- FunctionalClass OPERATIONS BusinessUnit Applications FileNumber REST10001-000002 FileLocationName Restore Test==Restore Apps==Advance Retail ITSystem Point of Sale 

A couple of points to note when working with XML. Your XPath queries ARE case-sensitive. I've burned time in the past having a query fail because it was 'name' instead of 'Name'. Always double check if you think it should be working. Second, the text such as 'Point of Sale' can be accessed by .'#text'. The quotes are necessary otherwise PowerShell will throw an error. Here is an example use:

$content.SelectNodes('//a//DefaultValue[@FieldName]') | ` %{ Write-Host ("Field: {0}`t`tDefaultValue: {1}" -f $_.FieldName,$_.'#text')}