Powershell and [System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription[]]

darkgen · 17 Jan 2020 at 14:37

I've knock up some code, which creates an array and then presents objects within that array as a choice; however it presents a column name instead of a numbered index:

current output:

Code:

Which session do you wish to kill?
[] Session A  [] Session B  [?] Help (default is "Session A"):

target output:

Code:

Which session do you wish to kill?
[1] Session A  [2] Session B  [?] Help (default is "Session A"):

I'm almost there but not quite. Here is the code which runs and executes successfully but when choosing anything other than the default, the entire session name needs to be typed out.

Code:

if($a.count -gt 1){
        $title = "Session Selection"
        $message = "Which session do you wish to kill?"
        # Build the choices menu
        $choices = @()
        #$choicesarray = @()
        #$i = 0
        For($index = 0; $index -lt $a.Count; $index++){
            $choices += New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription ($a[$index]).DesktopGroupName, ($a[$index]).SessionState
            #$i++
        }
        $options = [System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription[]]($choices)
        $result = $host.ui.PromptForChoice($title, $message, $options, 0)
        $a = $a[$result]
    }

$i is where I've tried to play with creating an index but without success when trying to plug it into System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription

Any pointers, much appreciated.
TIA!

darkgen · 18 Jan 2020 at 07:18

So, the output is exactly the same when you run this on console (or in ISE for that matter); we've produced the same output in slightly different ways

Your code:

Code:

Session Selection
Which session do you wish to kill?
[] AdobeARMservice  [] AeXAgentSrvHost  [] AeXNSClient  [?] Help (default is "AdobeARMservice"):

I'm after;

Code:

Session Selection
Which session do you wish to kill?
[1] AdobeARMservice  [2] AeXAgentSrvHost  [3] AeXNSClient  [?] Help (default is "AdobeARMservice"):

The user then inputs the number index corresponding to the service/session instead of the actual service/session name.
Make sense?

e:

Not to confuse matters, but I was looking at this as another example but even in this code I cannot fathom how the first letter of each colour is used as the index!

Code:

$red = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription '&Red', 'Favorite color: Red'
$blue = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription '&Blue', 'Favorite color: Blue'
$yellow = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription '&Yellow', 'Favorite color: Yellow'
$options = [System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription[]]($red, $blue, $yellow)
$title = 'Favorite color'
$message = 'What is your favorite color?'
$result = $host.ui.PromptForChoice($title, $message, $options, 0)

when run on console:

Code:

Favorite color
What is your favorite color?
[R] Red  [B] Blue  [Y] Yellow  [?] Help (default is "R"):

To be clear; I'm still after a numbered index as opposed to the first letter of the session name.

darkgen · 19 Jan 2020 at 10:42

Hmm ok thanks. I'll need to rework it slightly as ("&$($index+1) $($a[$index]).DesktopGroupName)", "$($a[$index]).SessionState)") outputs all columns in the array instead of just DesktopGroupName.

darkgen · 19 Jan 2020 at 12:58

Ahh nice one. Thanks!

darkgen · 20 Jan 2020 at 17:35

Interesting; thanks for the different approach. I can see that style being useful where there are many returned records.