Simple InputBox function

Question

I m aware of a simple pop-up function for PowerShell  e g      function popUp  text  title         a   new-object -comobject wscript shell      b    a popup  text 0  title 0     popUp  Enter your demographics   Demographics    But I am unable to find an equivalent for getting a pop-up to ask for input   Sure  there is Read-Line  but it prompts from the console   And then there is this complex function  which seems overkill for a script that will ask for input once or twice   function getValues  formTitle   textTitle        void   System Reflection Assembly   LoadWithPartialName  System Drawing         void   System Reflection Assembly   LoadWithPartialName  System Windows Forms          objForm   New-Object System Windows Forms Form      objForm Text    formTitle      objForm Size   New-Object System Drawing Size 300 200       objForm StartPosition    CenterScreen        objForm KeyPreview    True      objForm Add KeyDown  if     KeyCode -eq  Enter     x  objTextBox Text  objForm Close           objForm Add KeyDown  if     KeyCode -eq  Escape     objForm Close            OKButton   New-Object System Windows Forms Button      OKButton Location   New-Object System Drawing Size 75 120       OKButton Size   New-Object System Drawing Size 75 23       OKButton Text    OK       OKButton Add Click   Script userInput  objTextBox Text  objForm Close          objForm Controls Add  OKButton        CANCELButton   New-Object System Windows Forms Button      CANCELButton Location   New-Object System Drawing Size 150 120       CANCELButton Size   New-Object System Drawing Size 75 23       CANCELButton Text    CANCEL       CANCELButton Add Click   objForm Close          objForm Controls Add  CANCELButton        objLabel   New-Object System Windows Forms Label      objLabel Location   New-Object System Drawing Size 10 20       objLabel Size   New-Object System Drawing Size 280 30       objLabel Text    textTitle      objForm Controls Add  objLabel        objTextBox   New-Object System Windows Forms TextBox      objTextBox Location   New-Object System Drawing Size 10 50       objTextBox Size   New-Object System Drawing Size 260 20       objForm Controls Add  objTextBox        objForm Topmost    True       objForm Add Shown   objForm Activate           void   objForm ShowDialog        return  userInput     schema   getValues  Database Schema   Enter database schema

User · Answer

The simplest way to get an input box is with the Read-Host cmdlet and -AsSecureString parameter.

$us = Read-Host 'Enter Your User Name:' -AsSecureString
$pw = Read-Host 'Enter Your Password:' -AsSecureString

This is especially useful if you are gathering login info like my example above. If you prefer to keep the variables obfuscated as SecureString objects you can convert the variables on the fly like this:

[Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($us))
[Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($pw))

If the info does not need to be secure at all you can convert it to plain text:

$user = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($us))

Read-Host and -AsSecureString appear to have been included in all PowerShell versions (1-6) but I do not have PowerShell 1 or 2 to ensure the commands work identically. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/read-host?view=powershell-3.0

User · Answer

Probably the simplest way is to use the InputBox method of the Microsoft VisualBasic Interaction class    void  Reflection Assembly   LoadWithPartialName  Microsoft VisualBasic     title    Demographics   msg      Enter your demographics     text    Microsoft VisualBasic Interaction   InputBox  msg   title

User · Answer

It would be something like this  function CustomInputBox  string   title   string   message   string   defaultText      inputObject   new-object -comobject MSScriptControl ScriptControl  inputObject language    vbscript    inputObject addcode  function getInput   getInput   inputbox    message      title        defaultText    end function       userInput    inputObject eval  getInput     return   userInput     Then you can call the function similar to this    userInput   CustomInputBox  User Name   Please enter your name      if    userInput -ne  null       echo  Input was   userInput     else    echo  User cancelled the form       This is the most simple way to do this that I can think of

[function] Simple InputBox function

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