Otdfbt

Is it possible to use a configuration file with a PowerShell script?

For example, the configuration file:

#links
link1=http://www.google.com
link2=http://www.apple.com
link3=http://www.microsoft.com

And then call this information in the PS1 script:

start-process iexplore.exe $Link1

Thanks a lot for your help Dennis and Tim! Your answers put me on the good track and I found this

SETTINGS.TXT

#from http://tlingenf.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B1B09F516B5BAEBF!213.entry
#
[General]
MySetting1=value

[Locations]
InputFile="C:Users.txt"
OutputFile="C:output.log"

[Other]
WaitForTime=20
VerboseLogging=True

POWERSHELL COMMAND

#from http://tlingenf.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B1B09F516B5BAEBF!213.entry
#
Get-Content "C:settings.txt" | foreach-object -begin $h=@ -process $k = [regex]::split($_,'='); if(($k[0].CompareTo("") -ne 0) -and ($k[0].StartsWith("[") -ne $True)) $h.Add($k[0], $k[1]) 

then

After executing the code snippet, a variable ($h) will contain the values in a HashTable.

Name Value
---- -----
MySetting1 value
VerboseLogging True
WaitForTime 20
OutputFile "C:output.log"
InputFile "C:Users.txt"

*To retrieve an item from the table, use the command $h.Get_Item("MySetting1").*

There's a good thread here which shows this code (quoting from the linked thread):

# from http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/30358576/powershell-and-ini-files.aspx
param ($file)

$ini = @
switch -regex -file $file

 "^[(.+)]$" 
 $section = $matches[1]
 $ini[$section] = @
 
 "(.+)=(.+)" 
 $name,$value = $matches[1..2]
 $ini[$section][$name] = $value
 

$ini

Then you can do:

PS> $links = import-ini links.ini
PS> $links["search-engines"]["link1"]
http://www.google.com
PS> $links["vendors"]["link1"]
http://www.apple.com

Assuming an INI file that looks like this:

[vendors]
link1=http://www.apple.com
[search-engines]
link1=http://www.google.com

Unfortunately the regexes are missing from the code at the link so you'll have to reproduce them, but there's a version that handles files without section headers and lines that are comments.

yes, the cmdlets you're looking for are get-content and select-string.

$content=get-content C:links.txt
start-process iexplore.exe $content[0]

For a more comprehensive approach, consider https://github.com/alekdavis/ConfigFile . This module supports config files in JSON format, as well as INI. It allows expanding variables and does a few neat tricks. The thing to remember is that the names of the key-value pairs in the INI file must match the names of the script parameters or variables.