Proccessing hashtable values correctly inside a ForEach-Object - powershell

Question

I have a .xml file that I want to use to create windows .url files out of:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" ?>
<items_list>
<item>
<title>About topics - PowerShell | Microsoft Learn</title>
<url>https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about?view=powershell-7.3</url>
</item>
<item>
<title>PowerShell HashTable - Everything you need to know — LazyAdmin</title>
<url>https://lazyadmin.nl/powershell/powershell-hashtable/</url>
</item>
<item>
<title>How a Regex Engine Works Internally</title>
<url>https://www.regular-expressions.info/engine.html</url>
</item>
</items_list>
I placed the Titles and URLs into a Hashtable:
$InXML = [XML](Get-Content .\test.xml)
$BookMarks = [ordered]#{
Title = (Select-Xml -xml $InXML -XPath "//title" | % {$_.Node.InnerXml}) -replace '\?|\\|/|:'
URL = Select-Xml -xml $InXML -XPath "//url" | % {$_.Node.InnerXml}
}
Everything good so far, then I start running into problems when I try to loop through the Titles and URLs:
$wshshell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
$BookMarks | ForEach-Object {
$Title = $_.Title
$Url = $_.Url
Write-Output $shortcutFilePath
# $shortcutFilePath = Join-Path -path "c:\temp" -ChildPath "$Title.Url"
# $shortcut = $shell.CreateShortcut($shortcutFilePath)
# $shortcut.TargetPath = "$Url"
# $shortcut.Save()
}
I commented out my actuall code in the Loop to see whats actually happening with Write-Output. All the key values get concatenated into one long title or one long .url
What I am expecting is to get a single pair of a Url and Title at a time, so that I can create the .url file in the loop.
Reading the documentations and articles on how to do this. I tried variations of:
$BookMarks.Values | ForEach-Object {
$Title = $_.Title
$Url = $_.Url
Write-Output $Title
Write-Output $Url
}
I keep getting null variables.
Any help or ideas would be really appreciated.

Answer 1

I suggest simplifying and streamlining your code as follows, which bypasses your problem:
[xml] $inXML = Get-Content -Raw .\test.xml
$inXml.items_list.item | ForEach-Object {
$title = $_.Title
$url = $_.Url
"[$title] [$url]" # sample output.
# ... work with $title and $url here
# $wshshell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
# ...
}
The above uses PowerShell's adaptation of the XML DOM, which allows you to access elements and attributes as if they were properties.