2

Referencing the help file for `Invoke-RestMethod:

PS /home/nicholas> 
PS /home/nicholas> $response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/feed/ 
PS /home/nicholas> 
PS /home/nicholas> $json = $response | ConvertTo-Json                                                   
WARNING: Resulting JSON is truncated as serialization has exceeded the set depth of 2.
PS /home/nicholas> 
PS /home/nicholas> $xml = $response | ConvertTo-Xml  
PS /home/nicholas> 
PS /home/nicholas> $xml.OuterXml

How can I convert the response to xml and output it, as above, in a single line?

Nicholas Saunders
  • 684
  • 9
  • 28

3 Answers3

3

The specific URI you're targeting returns XML content, which Invoke-RestMethod automatically parses into XML DOMs (document object models) of type System.Xml.XmlElement (an array of such instances in this case).

A simple way to visualize the output is to access the .OuterXml property:

(Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/feed/).OuterXml

If you really need a single-line representation:

(Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/feed/).OuterXml -replace '\r?\n'

You can work with these XmlElement instances using OOP techniques, relying on PowerShell's convenient adaptation of the XML DOM; for instance, the following extracts the value of the <title> child element from all array elements, using member-access enumeration:

$entries = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/feed/
$entries.title

Note:

  • Because the target URI represents an Atom feed, the feed entries are returned as an array of XML elements rather than as a single XML document.

  • It is more common for web services to return XML that is parsed into a single XML document, as a [xml] (System.Xml.XmlDocument) instance.

mklement0
  • 382,024
  • 64
  • 607
  • 775
1

[xml]$testResult = (Invoke-RestMethod -Uri 'url').OuterXml $testResult.Details.Status

In case xml is 3

user16647678
  • 9
  • 1
  • Please [format your post properly](https://stackoverflow.com/help/formatting). Also, `[xml]$testResult = (Invoke-RestMethod -Uri 'url').OuterXml` is unnecessary - `$testResult = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri 'url'` will do, if the response is XML text, because PowerShell automatically parses it into an `[xml]` instance. I assume that `$testResult.Details.Status` is just an example of how to drill down into the `[xml]` instance, but I suggest you point that out in the answer. – mklement0 Aug 19 '22 at 21:20
0

Just a slight variant:

PS /home/nicholas> 
PS /home/nicholas> $url="https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/feed/"                            
PS /home/nicholas> 
PS /home/nicholas> Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri $url -Body $body -ContentType 'application/xml'

which, despite a specified "ContentType" certainly seems to not be XML at least as printed to the console. Still, interesting.

Nicholas Saunders
  • 684
  • 9
  • 28
  • 1
    What you're seeing is PowerShell's default formatting of the `System.Xml.XmlElement` _objects_ it has automatically parsed the XML response _text_ into. – mklement0 Aug 19 '22 at 21:04
  • 1
    Also, in your call `-ContentType 'application/xml'` is effectively _ignored_, because it relates only to the _request_ data being sent; it doesn't request the _response_ format. – mklement0 Aug 19 '22 at 21:42