Interactive Picklist with JSON object in Powershell

Question

Here is my issue - I have a Powershell script that calls a bunch of information from an API, that comes in as JSON.

As an example (not the actual output, but good enough for my issue):

{
"fruit":[
        {
            "Type": "Apple",
            "ID": 1
        },
        {
            "Type": "Bannana",
            "ID": 2
        }
]
}

The API that is called has a search variable that is specified by the user, depending on what they specify, the API could return No results, a single result or multiple results.

What I want to do is to present the user with a list of Fruit, based off of the type field and an option: e.g.:

Press 1 for Apples Press 2 for Bannanas Press 0 to enter a new search field

If there are more options then obviously Press X for XXXX until all the options are accounted for.

I suspect I will have to do some form of loop through the JSON list to populate a set of fields, - I've never had an interactive section like this in a PS Script.

Answer 1

So - in the end, this was what I did to fix it - thanks to the commentors who pointed me in the right direction:

$variablearray = @()

$i = 1

foreach($_ in $fruitnames){


New-Variable -Name "$i" -Value $_

$variablearray += $i

$i = $i +1

}


$optionsarray = @()

$optionsarray += $Zero

foreach($_ in $variablearray){

$word = Convert-NumbertoWords $_

$tmp2 = (get-variable -name $_).value

$tmp = echo $word[1].trim()

$tmp3 = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription "$tmp", "$tmp2"

New-Variable -Name $tmp -Value $tmp3

$optionsarray += $tmp3

}

#Combine the options array to an actual options object

$options = [System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription[]]($optionsarray)

#prompt the user for the choice

$title = 'Select the Fruit'
$message = 'Hover over each option to check what the description is'
$result = $host.ui.PromptForChoice($title, $message, $options, 0)
}

It loops through all the JSON Elements, creates a set of variables (this is needed for other parts of the script and for ease of use) and then creates an options array and then prompts the user for input.