How do i add an unknown number of variables to a command - powershell

Question

I have a script which I'm trying to modify, which adds objects to a firewall via powershell, using Invoke-RestMethod
The current script has the following code;
#Import CSV and set variables
$csv = import-csv C:\Powershell\groups.csv
# RESTful API Call
$csv | ForEach-Object {
$Name = $_.name
$Member1 =$_.member1
$Member2 =$_.member2
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://172.16.16.16:4444/webconsole/APIController?reqxml=<Request><Login><Username>admin</Username><Password>password</Password></Login><Set%20operation=%27add%27><IPHostGroup><Name>$Name</Name><IPFamily>IPv4</IPFamily><HostList><Host>$Member1</Host><Host>$Member2</Host></IPHostGroup></Set></Request>
}
I am wanting to import the hostgroups via groups.csv which (in my test) has 3 columns as follows;
Name,Member1,Member2
TestGroup,TestHost1,TestHost2
TestGroup2,TestHost3,TestHost4
etc.
My problem is that in the real data, there are varying amount of hosts in each group, some have hundreds. I'm not sure how to get these into the command without defining a variable for each possible member. Even then, say I created $Member(s) all the way to 200 (be gentle, I'm not a real coder!) and then imported them in manually one by one in the Invoke-Restmethod command (Might as well do it by hand at that point!) I'm not sure the command would handle the blank inputs in the cases where there were only a few hosts in the group.
(In other words if my csv had the following entries;)
Name,Member1,Member2,Member3,Member4
TestGroup,TestHost1,TestHost2,TestHost3,TestHost4
TestGroup2,TestHost5,TestHost6
TestGroup3,TestHost7
And I did;
# RESTful API Call
$csv | ForEach-Object {
$Name = $_.name
$Member1 =$_.member1
$Member2 =$_.member2
$Member3 =$_.member3
$Member4 =$_.member4
The Rest call for the third group would end up running as;
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://172.16.16.16:4444/webconsole/APIController?reqxml=<Request><Login><Username>admin</Username><Password>password</Password></Login><Set%20operation=%27add%27><IPHostGroup><Name>TestGroup3</Name><IPFamily>IPv4</IPFamily><HostList><Host>TestHost7</Host><Host></Host><Host></Host><Host></Host></IPHostGroup></Set></Request>
Can anyone point me in the direction of a better way of doing this?

Answer 1

You can get all member names using .PSObject.Properties.Name
Example:
$Csv = Import-Csv -Path 'C:\Powershell\groups.csv'
# Request XML template
$RequestTpl = #'
<Request>
<Login>
<Username>admin</Username>
<Password>password</Password>
</Login>
<Set%20operation=%27add%27>
<IPHostGroup>
<Name>{0}</Name>
<IPFamily>IPv4</IPFamily>
<HostList>
{1}
</HostList>
</IPHostGroup>
</Set>
</Request>
'#
# Host list XML template
$RequestHostListTpl = '<Host>{0}</Host>'
$Csv | ForEach-Object {
<#
Get names of all the properties in the current object
Leave only those that don't match '^Name$' regex.
-match, when operates on collections, returns matched items
You can use
$_.PSObject.Properties.Name | Where-Object {$_ -ne 'Name'}
but it's a bit slower.
#>
$Members = #($_.PSObject.Properties.Name) -notmatch '^Name$'
# Build list of hosts
$RequestHostList = foreach ($item in $Members) {
# Only add item if it's not empty
if ($_.$item) {
$RequestHostListTpl -f $_.$item
}
}
# Build request XML
$Request = $RequestTpl -f $_.Name, -join $RequestHostList
# Remove newlines to make it one long string
$Request = $Request -replace '\r|\n'
# Show resulting url
"Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://172.16.16.16:4444/webconsole/APIController?reqxml=$Request"
# Uncomment to actually invoke API call
#Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://172.16.16.16:4444/webconsole/APIController?reqxml=$Request"
}