Tranistion bat file to powershell script - Invoke-RestMethod - powershell

Question

I have a basic bat script that uses [curl]( https://curl.haxx.se/). The script takes values from a txt document named location_ids.txt (this file is found in the same folder as the script). I have set it up to check the location_id with 3 different urls. It works well. However, it is very slow! since batch files aren't threaded, and each command will block until it completes. I am aware this can be done with more ease and speed using a powershell script (windows environment) using Invoke-RestMethod. How can I replicate the below in ps? I would like to make the curl calls simultaneous.
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set OUTPUT_FILE=%DATE:/=-%#%TIME::=-%
set OUTPUT_FILE=file_%OUTPUT_FILE: =%.html
for /f %%i in (location_ids.txt) do (
set LOCATION_ID=%%i
echo ^<h2 style='color:green;'^>!LOCATION_ID::=!^</h2^> >>%OUTPUT_FILE%
curl -k -H "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -X GET -d "id=!LOCATION_ID::=!" http://localhost:5000/location_site1 >>%OUTPUT_FILE%
curl -k -H "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -X GET -d "id=!LOCATION_ID::=!" http://localhost:5000/location_site2 >>%OUTPUT_FILE%
curl -k -H "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -X GET -d "id=!LOCATION_ID::=!" http://localhost:5000/location_site3 >>%OUTPUT_FILE%
echo ^<br^>^<br^> >>%OUTPUT_FILE%
)
EDIT:
My attempt to run multiple web server calls to http://localhost:5000/location_site1 that run simultaneously using scriptblock. The below is not outputting any results.
$runRoutePost =
{ param([string]$id, [string]$fileLocation)
Write-Host "Accessing site for $id";
$ResponseData = New-Object PSObject;
$webclient = new-object System.Net.WebClient;
$apiParams = "id=$_";
$ResponseData = $webclient.UploadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site1",$apiParams) |Add-Content $fileLocation;
}
Get-Content location_ids.txt | ForEach-Object {
Start-Job -ScriptBlock $runRoutePost -ArgumentList $_, $LOG_FILE
}

Answer 1

To convert your example, you really just need to make a request to the url and specify the location id as a query string parameter. The example below uses string interpolation to set the value of the id parameter. The $_ variable is the current item that is being enumerated within the ForEach-Object script block.
$outputFile = # not sure of your date time format
Get-Content location_ids.txt | ForEach-Object {
Add-Content $outputFile "<h2 style=`"color:green`">$_</h2>"
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://localhost:5000/location_site1?id=$_" | Add-Content $outputFile
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://localhost:5000/location_site2?id=$_" | Add-Content $outputFile
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://localhost:5000/location_site3?id=$_" | Add-Content $outputFile
Add-Content $outputFile "<br><br>"
}
For a GET request you do not need to specify the content-type or method. However, if you need to for other scripts you can use the -ContentType and/or -Method parameters.
Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -ContentType application/x-www-form-urlencoded -Uri "http://localhost:5000/location_site3?id=$_"
More documentation can be found by running this:
get-help Invoke-RestMethod -full
Since you have a restriction of using PowerShell v2, you can use the .NET WebClient type.
$web = new-object System.Net.WebClient
Get-Content location_ids.txt | ForEach-Object {
Add-Content $outputFile "<h2 style=`"color:green`">$_</h2>"
$web.DownloadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site1?id=$_") | Add-Content $outputFile
$web.DownloadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site2?id=$_") | Add-Content $outputFile
$web.DownloadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site3?id=$_") | Add-Content $outputFile
Add-Content $outputFile "<br><br>"
}
If instead you want to send a POST request using WebClient, the UploadString method can be used. However, in this case I'm not sure of how to set the Content-Type header.
$web.UploadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site1","id=$_") | Add-Content $outputFile
Update in response to edit
To run these jobs in parallel and collect the results, you need to wait for all the jobs to complete using Wait-Job and then extract the results using Receive-Job.
$runRoutePost = {
param([string]$id)
Write-Host "Accessing site for $id"
$webclient = new-object System.Net.WebClient
$webclient.UploadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site1","id=$id")
}
$Jobs = Get-Content location_ids.txt | ForEach-Object {
Start-Job -ScriptBlock $runRoutePost -ArgumentList $_
}
Wait-Job -Job $Jobs
Receive-Job -Job $Jobs | Add-Content $LOG_FILE