How to modify/create values in XML files using PowerShell

powershellxml

I would like to know if is it possible to modify/create values in XML files using PowerShell. Basically I'm interested in:

Modify values in the XML file or create them if they don't exist (i.e. I need to search the item, create if not exists and modify the value)
Deal with different XML syntax in the same XML file like those ones:

Syntax 1:

<settings>
  <setting id="Location2" value="Barcelona, Spain"/>
  <setting id="Location2id" value="zmw:00000.1.08181"/>
</settings>

Syntax 2:

<settings>
    <musicplayer>
        <crossfade>0</crossfade>
        <queuebydefault>false</queuebydefault>
    </musicplayer>
</settings>

Syntax 3:

<settings>
    <skinsettings>
        <setting type="bool" name="skin.confluence.HomepageHideRecentlyAddedVideo">false</setting>
    </skinsettings>
</settings>

Any help would be very appreciated.

Thanks.

Best Answer

PowerShell fully supports dealing with XML files.

For example, if we take the first blurb you supplied and just paste it into an XML file named settings.xml in folder "C:\blah", you could get the ID of each setting as such:

[xml]$myXML = Get-Content C:\blah\settings.xml
$myXML.settings.setting.id

Which returns:

Location2
Location2id

And

$myXML.settings.setting.value

returns:

Barcelona, Spain
zmw:00000.1.08181

If we replace the XML file contents with the blurb you provided in Syntax #2:

[xml]$myXML = Get-Content C:\blah\settings.xml
$myXML.settings.musicplayer.crossfade

returns:

To read crossfade, change it (to 2), and save back:

[xml]$myXML = Get-Content C:\blah\settings.xml
$myXML.settings.musicplayer.crossfade = 2
$myXML.Save("C:\blah\settings.xml")

Edit after comments:

To change the XML elements themselves (as in the Barcelona example) is a little trickier, because you're editing the XML structure itself, not the data it contains.

[xml]$myXML = Get-Content C:\blah\settings.xml
$myXML.settings.ChildNodes.Item(0).value = "New York, USA"
$myXML.Save("C:\blah\settings.xml")

For the Skinsettings example, try something like:

$myXML.settings.skinsettings.setting."#text" = "true"

Check out these resources:

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Shell – PowerShell – copying a file to multiple locations

This is just my thoughts and opinion on how I might do this...and I did change around the variables names a bit so they match up to the cmdlets used. You don't have to just made it more readable to me.


# I don't have a domain computer to work with so my local 
#  PC includes the "public" folder you likely want have 
#  this but nice to include just in case. As well the "Default*" 
#  is there because I'm on Windows 8.1 
#  so the upgrade modified the "Default" folder 
#  to be "Default.migrated" for some reason.

# The "-Exclude" allows you to put in the names of those items (directory names
#   or file names) that you want to exclude, it allows wildcard values as well)
#   Then as suggested in a comment using -ExpandProperty FullName allows the 
#   object to be passed as a string instead of a system object which
#   adds on extra characters that some other cmdlet may not like.
$userFolder = Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Users' -Exclude 'Default*','All Users','Administrator', 'Public' | 
   Select -ExpandProperty FullName

# just the file I was playing with here
$sFile = '.\text.txt'


foreach ($uf in $userFolder) {

    $dest = "$uf\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\"

# I want to test for the path to exist first and if it 
#  does then add the file, if it does not then you 
#  would create the directory and copy the file. 
#  I noticed in yours that you created an empty 
#  file and then copied it. Works the same way.

    if (Test-Path $dest) {
        Copy-Item -Path $sFile -Destination $dest -Force
    }
    else {
        New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $dest -Force
        Copy-Item -Path $sFile -Destination $dest -Force
    }
}

As already noted I am on a standalone computer playing with this but the output of the commands I get are here:


New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path C:\Users\Shawn\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\ -Force
Copy-Item -Path .\text.txt -Destination C:\Users\Shawn\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\ -Force

You can also have it output the command it would execute if you want to test it first by just wrapping the commands in double-quotes: "Copy-Item -Path $sFile -Destination $dest -Force"

Change Powershell Execution Policy silently from Batch script

Why not simply run the following via CMD

powershell -command "& {Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force}"

or this directly in Powershell (that's what the command is for after all):

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force

Best Answer

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