Getting to extension attributes of Azure user via PowerShell

Question

I'm trying to get to Azure user extension properties which are synced via AADC (Azure AD Connect) from on-prem to target tenant. As a pre-reading -> good article here : https://www.xtseminars.co.uk/post/azure-ad-schema-and-directory-extensions.

The issue is that those extensions might be or not populated on target user object. So let assume that with single REST API call (https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/users?$select=id,extension_c16821412f864d419a92205ad4820f0c_something&$top=5) I get following response:

$json = '{
    "value": [
        {
            "id": "91c0b90e-4ed0-4c69-8b96-b67c07bbb061"
        },
        {
            "id": "fdcd34dc-e7ab-4045-881d-0fee024c2b55",
            "extension_c16821412f864d419a92205ad4820f0c_something": "INXXXXXX213423"
        },
        {
            "id": "90ebc867-6a67-4cf0-a5d9-e4c07c9d3905"
        },
        {
            "id": "80134f5f-892f-4800-9087-924a0c69b7f1"
        },
        {
            "id": "36fae4de-c685-4da5-9458-e165d99fe670"
        }
    ]
}'

Question is - how to nicely get to note properties which are defined 'optionally' ? As below gives just id:

PS> ($json | ConvertFrom-Json).value

id
--
91c0b90e-4ed0-4c69-8b96-b67c07bbb061
fdcd34dc-e7ab-4045-881d-0fee024c2b55
90ebc867-6a67-4cf0-a5d9-e4c07c9d3905
80134f5f-892f-4800-9087-924a0c69b7f1
36fae4de-c685-4da5-9458-e165d99fe670

Or in general - is it even doable with ConvertFrom-JSON() ?

Might be new PSobject with all properties - it really doesn't matter. The question is - is it expected that Convertfrom-json() trimms down properties which are not visible on every instance of returned JSON response ? — Peter S., Sep 28 '20 at 18:36

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 29 '20 at 09:33

Ok, seems after reading this nice piece - Understanding NewtonSoft in PowerShell was able to figure out the solution using newtonsoft.json module

PS > Import-Module newtonsoft.json
PS >
PS > $json = '{
>> "value": [
>>         {
>>             "id": "91c0b90e-4ed0-4c69-8b96-b67c07bbb061"
>>         },
>>         {
>>             "id": "fdcd34dc-e7ab-4045-881d-0fee024c2b55",
>>             "extension_somedata": "XXXXXX213423"
>>         },
>>         {
>>             "id": "90ebc867-6a67-4cf0-a5d9-e4c07c9d3905"
>>         },
>>         {
>>             "id": "80134f5f-892f-4800-9087-924a0c69b7f1"
>>         },
>>         {
>>             "id": "36fae4de-c685-4da5-9458-e165d99fe670"
>>         }
>>     ]
>> }'
PS >
PS >
PS > $u = ($json |ConvertFrom-JsonNewtonsoft).value
PS > $u

Name                           Value
----                           -----
id                             91c0b90e-4ed0-4c69-8b96-b67c07bbb061
id                             fdcd34dc-e7ab-4045-881d-0fee024c2b55
extension_somedata             XXXXXX213423
id                             90ebc867-6a67-4cf0-a5d9-e4c07c9d3905
id                             80134f5f-892f-4800-9087-924a0c69b7f1
id                             36fae4de-c685-4da5-9458-e165d99fe670


PS > $allRows = @()
PS > foreach($o in $u){
>> $lineObject = New-Object PSObject
>>             add-member -inputobject $lineObject -membertype noteproperty -name "id" -value $o.id
>>             add-member -inputobject $lineObject -membertype noteproperty -name "extension_somedata" -value $o.extension_somedata
>> $allRows+=$lineObject
>> }
PS >
PS > $allRows

id                                   extension_somedata
--                                   ------------------
91c0b90e-4ed0-4c69-8b96-b67c07bbb061
fdcd34dc-e7ab-4045-881d-0fee024c2b55 XXXXXX213423
90ebc867-6a67-4cf0-a5d9-e4c07c9d3905
80134f5f-892f-4800-9087-924a0c69b7f1
36fae4de-c685-4da5-9458-e165d99fe670

Bhargavi Annadevara · Answer 2 · 2020-10-08T14:16:25.660

Yes, you shouldn't need another module as it is possible with ConvertFrom-JSON itself, but with an additional parameter -AsHashtable.

There are some constraints with the ConvertFrom-JSON cmdlet and -AsHashtable helps overcome some of them. Quoting from the docs:

If the JSON contains a list with keys that only differ in casing. Without the switch, those keys would be seen as identical keys and therefore only the last one would get used.

If the JSON contains a key that is an empty string. Without the switch, the cmdlet would throw an error since a PSCustomObject does not allow for that but a hash table does. An example use case where this can occurs are project.lock.json files.

Hash tables can be processed faster for certain data structures.

Do note that this switch was introduced in PowerShell 6.0.

Applying this to the same example that you specified:

PS > $json = '{
>>     "value": [
>>         {
>>             "id": "91c0b90e-4ed0-4c69-8b96-b67c07bbb061"
>>         },
>>         {
>>             "id": "fdcd34dc-e7ab-4045-881d-0fee024c2b55",
>>             "extension_somedata": "INXXXXXX213423"
>>         },
>>         {
>>             "id": "90ebc867-6a67-4cf0-a5d9-e4c07c9d3905"
>>         },
>>         {
>>             "id": "80134f5f-892f-4800-9087-924a0c69b7f1"
>>         },
>>         {
>>             "id": "36fae4de-c685-4da5-9458-e165d99fe670"
>>         }
>>     ]
>> }'
PS >
PS > $u = ($json | ConvertFrom-Json -AsHashtable).value
PS >
PS > $u

Name                           Value
----                           -----
id                             91c0b90e-4ed0-4c69-8b96-b67c07bbb061
id                             fdcd34dc-e7ab-4045-881d-0fee024c2b55
extension_somedata             INXXXXXX213423
id                             90ebc867-6a67-4cf0-a5d9-e4c07c9d3905
id                             80134f5f-892f-4800-9087-924a0c69b7f1
id                             36fae4de-c685-4da5-9458-e165d99fe670

PS > $allRows = @()
PS >
PS > foreach($o in $u){
>>     $lineObject = New-Object PSObject
>>     Add-Member -InputObject $lineObject -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "id" -Value $o.id
>>     Add-Member -InputObject $lineObject -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "extension_somedata" -Value $o.extension_somedata
>>     $allRows+=$lineObject
>> }
PS >
PS > $allRows

id                                   extension_somedata
--                                   ------------------
91c0b90e-4ed0-4c69-8b96-b67c07bbb061
fdcd34dc-e7ab-4045-881d-0fee024c2b55 INXXXXXX213423
90ebc867-6a67-4cf0-a5d9-e4c07c9d3905
80134f5f-892f-4800-9087-924a0c69b7f1
36fae4de-c685-4da5-9458-e165d99fe670

References:

Hello Bhargavi. Indeed - figured out the same in the later stage, that **AsHashTable** provides the same results, but I don't have to use external module. But really appreciate above! — Peter S., Oct 10 '20 at 13:56
@PeterS. Thank you! :) Please [mark the response](https://stackoverflow.com/help/someone-answers) if it helped so it benefits others in the community with similar asks. — Bhargavi Annadevara, Oct 10 '20 at 14:07

Getting to extension attributes of Azure user via PowerShell

2 Answers2