Don’t display Cancel in PowerShell script result - powershell

Question

I have the following PowerShell script which displays file dialog to select a txt file. If user cancels dialog then provide a multiline text box
function GetDetails() {
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms;
$browser = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog;
$browser.Filter = "txt (*.txt)|*.txt";
$browser.InitialDirectory = "E:\";
$browser.Title = "select txt file";
$browserResult = $browser.ShowDialog();
if($browserResult -eq [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::OK) {
$nfoFile = $browser.FileName;
if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($txtFile)) {
return GetFromForm;
}
$txtFile = [System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($nfoFile, ".dac");
$txtFile = $temp + [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($txtFile);
$exeArgs = "-f -S `"$txtFile`" -O `"$txtFile`"";
Start-Process $anExe -ArgumentList $exeArgs -Wait;
$result = Get-Content $txtFile | Out-String;
$browser.Dispose();
return $result;
} else {
return GetFromForm;
}
}
function GetFromForm(){
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms;
$form = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form;
$form.Width = 800;
$form.Height = 600;
$txtBox = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox;
$txtBox.Multiline = $true;
$txtBox.AcceptsReturn = $true;
$txtBox.AcceptsTab = $true;
$txtBox.Visible = $true;
$txtBox.Name = "txtName";
$txtBox.Width = 760;
$txtBox.Height = 660;
$form.Controls.Add($txtBox);
$form.ShowDialog();
 
$form.Dispose();
return $txtBox.Text;
}
$desc = GetDetails;
cls;
Write-Host $desc;
Here I have two issues:
In Write-Host $desc, prints also Cancel hereiswhateverstrimg string if user chose to cancel dialog. How to avoid that?
If I run script in ISE, the generated form (in second function) will be always behind ISE even I call ShowDialog(), I expected to behave as modal dialog. It’s normal or there is a fix for this ?

Answer 1

Ok, there are a few changes that I made for efficiency and a few for functionality. Read the comments in the script for the explanations.
# Just add types once. There is no need to add the types in each function.
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms;
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Drawing
function GetDetails() {
$browser = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog;
$browser.Filter = "txt (*.txt)|*.txt";
$browser.InitialDirectory = "E:\";
$browser.Title = "select txt file";
$browserResult = $browser.ShowDialog();
# Combined the if statements
if($browserResult -eq [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::OK -and [string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($txtFile) -ne $true) {
$nfoFile = $browser.FileName;
$txtFile = [System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($nfoFile, ".dac");
$txtFile = $temp + [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($txtFile);
$exeArgs = "-f -S `"$txtFile`" -O `"$txtFile`"";
Start-Process $anExe -ArgumentList $exeArgs -Wait;
# The Raw flag should return a string
$result = Get-Content $txtFile -Raw;
$browser.Dispose();
return $result;
}
# No need for else since the if statement returns
return GetFromForm;
}
function GetFromForm(){
$form = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form;
$form.Text = 'Adding Arguments'
$form.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(816,600)
$form.StartPosition = 'CenterScreen'
# Added a button
$OKButton = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$OKButton.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(585,523)
$OKButton.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75,23)
$OKButton.Text = 'OK'
$OKButton.DialogResult = [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::OK
$form.AcceptButton = $OKButton
$form.Controls.Add($OKButton)
$txtBox = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox;
$txtBox.Multiline = $true;
$txtBox.AcceptsReturn = $true;
$txtBox.AcceptsTab = $true;
$txtBox.Visible = $true;
$txtBox.Name = "txtName";
$txtBox.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(660,500)
$form.Controls.Add($txtBox);
# Needed to force it to show on top
$form.TopMost = $true
# Select the textbox and activate the form to make it show with focus
$form.Add_Shown({$txtBox.Select(), $form.Activate()})
# Finally show the form and assign the ShowDialog method to a variable (this keeps it from printing out Cancel)
$result = $form.ShowDialog();
# If the user hit the OK button return the text in the textbox
if ($result -eq [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::OK)
{
return $txtBox.Text
}
}
$desc = GetDetails;
cls;
Write-Host $desc;
You can see reference material here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/samples/creating-a-custom-input-box?view=powershell-6

Answer 2

You need to suppress output of $form.ShowDialog() in GetFromForm:
$form.ShowDialog()|out-null
Powershell will add to a return value everything that was outputted to host within a function/commandlet.
Regarding your second issue - see this answer
And please do not use semi-colon at an end of line. This is not C# and will confuse you into thinking that the line is ended here but it's not quite true.