Use script variable inside textbox form - powershell

Question

I’m trying to create a form which contains a message where I want to use some data imported from a CSV file.
The script will read the CSV rows and print a message that will contain data from it.
The issue is that the variables inside message textbox is not used instead a plain text is filled.
I think that this is related to System.Windows.Forms.TextBox but I can't figure it out
Any idea how I can resolve this?
Regards,
Adrian
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Drawing
Add-Type -AssemblyName PresentationFramework
function show_menu {
[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
$form = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form
$form.Text = 'menu'
$form.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(630,370)
$form.StartPosition = 'CenterScreen'
$form.FormBorderStyle = 'FixedSingle'
#$form.Icon = [System.Drawing.Icon]::FromHandle((New-Object System.Drawing.Bitmap -Argument $stream).GetHIcon())
$okButton = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$okButton.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(200,295)
$okButton.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75,23)
$okButton.Text = 'OK'
$okButton.DialogResult = [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::OK
$okButton.Add_Click({
$form.Tag = $textBox_recipient.Text;
$form.Tag = $textBox_message.Text;
$form.Close()
})
$form.AcceptButton = $okButton
$form.Controls.Add($okButton)
$cancelButton = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$cancelButton.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(355,295)
$cancelButton.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75,23)
$cancelButton.Text = 'Cancel'
$cancelButton.DialogResult = [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::Cancel
$form.CancelButton = $cancelButton
$form.Controls.Add($cancelButton)
$textBox_recipient = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$textBox_recipient.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(210,70)
$textBox_recipient.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(245, 20)
$textBox_recipient.ReadOnly = $true
$form.Controls.Add($textBox_recipient)
##
$textBox_recipient_select = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$textBox_recipient_select.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(460, 70)
$textBox_recipient_select.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(100, 20)
$textBox_recipient_select.Text = "Select CSV file"
$textBox_recipient_select.add_Click({
$ofd = New-Object system.windows.forms.Openfiledialog
#$ofd.Filter = 'Supported file types (*.csv,*.xlsx)|*.csv,*.xlsx'
$ofd.Filter = 'Supported file types (*.csv, *.xlsx)|*.csv; *.xlsx| All (*.*)|*.*'
$script:recipient_filename = 'Not found'
if ($ofd.ShowDialog() -eq 'Ok') {
$script:recipient_filename = $textbox_recipient.Text = $ofd.FileName
}
})
#$textBox_recipient.Text = "C:\Users\Ady\Desktop\test.csv"
$form.Controls.Add($textBox_recipient_select)
$label_message = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label
$label_message.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(10,150)
$label_message.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(200,20)
$label_message.BackColor = [System.Drawing.Color]::FromName("Transparent")
$label_message.Font = [System.Drawing.Font]::new("Microsoft Sans Serif", 10, [System.Drawing.FontStyle]::Bold)
$label_message.Text = 'Message:'
$form.Controls.Add($label_message)
$textBox_message = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$textBox_message.Multiline = $True
$textBox_message.Scrollbars = "Vertical"
$textBox_message.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(210,150)
$textBox_message.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(350, 135)
$textBox_message.Text = "Insert your text here. HTML format supported"
$form.Controls.Add($textBox_message)
$form.Topmost = $true
$form.Add_Shown({ $textBox_recipient.Select(),$textBox_message.Select() })
$result = $form.ShowDialog()
if ($result -eq [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::OK) {
$script:filename = "$(($textBox_recipient).Text)"
$recipients = Import-csv -Path "$filename"
$total_recipient_nr = get-content "$filename" | select-string "#" | measure-object -line
$recipient_nr = 0
foreach ($recipient in $recipients) {
if (++$recipient_nr % 31 -eq 0)
{
Start-Sleep -Seconds 30
echo "waiting 1 minute"
}
$script:user_email = $recipient.email
$script:user_firstname = $recipient.firstname
$script:user_lastname = $recipient.lastname
$script:user_code = $recipient.code
$script:message = $textBox_message.Text
Write-Host $message
}
}
}
show_menu
For example, the following csv:
firstname, lastname, email, code ---- header of csv file
firstname1, lastname1, email1#domain, code1
firstname2, lastname2, email2#domain, code2
What I want to do is to use variables like $user_email, $user_code inside "$textBox_message.Text" field of the form and for each line of the CSV file, the message to use the value of those variables. (recipient is a row from the csv file that contains different values at each foreach run)
$script:user_firstname = $recipient.firstname
$script:user_code = $recipient.code
$script:message = $textBox_message.Text
I run the script, the form appears and I replace the default text "Insert your text here. HTML format supported" of $textBox_message.Text with the following:
Hi $user_firstname. This is your code: $user_code
The result (value of $message var) by executing line 96, should be:
Hi firstname1. This is your code: code1 - at first run of foreach loop
and
Hi firstname2. This is your code: code2 - at second run of foreach loop
Instead, the result is:
Hi $user_firstname. This is your code: $user_code --- plain text (the value) of $message

Answer 1

This is from what I have observed from Powershell when trying to writing a simple string with variables:
if you use single quotes i.e.
$firstName = "John"
write-host 'First name is $firstName'
The output is going to be:
First name is $firstName
However if you use double quotes, you should get the variable value instead of variable being displayed as plain text. i.e.
$firstName = "John"
write-host "First name is $firstName" or write-host "First name is $($firstName)"
you should get the desired output:
First name is John