Tranistion bat file to powershell script - Invoke-RestMethod

Question

I have a basic bat script that uses [curl]( https://curl.haxx.se/). The script takes values from a txt document named location_ids.txt (this file is found in the same folder as the script). I have set it up to check the location_id with 3 different urls. It works well. However, it is very slow! since batch files aren't threaded, and each command will block until it completes. I am aware this can be done with more ease and speed using a powershell script (windows environment) using Invoke-RestMethod. How can I replicate the below in ps? I would like to make the curl calls simultaneous.

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set OUTPUT_FILE=%DATE:/=-%@%TIME::=-%
set OUTPUT_FILE=file_%OUTPUT_FILE: =%.html

for /f %%i in (location_ids.txt) do (
    set LOCATION_ID=%%i
    echo ^<h2 style='color:green;'^>!LOCATION_ID::=!^</h2^> >>%OUTPUT_FILE%
    curl -k -H "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -X GET -d "id=!LOCATION_ID::=!" http://localhost:5000/location_site1 >>%OUTPUT_FILE% 
    curl -k -H "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -X GET -d "id=!LOCATION_ID::=!" http://localhost:5000/location_site2 >>%OUTPUT_FILE%
    curl -k -H "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -X GET -d "id=!LOCATION_ID::=!" http://localhost:5000/location_site3 >>%OUTPUT_FILE%
    echo ^<br^>^<br^> >>%OUTPUT_FILE%
)

EDIT:

My attempt to run multiple web server calls to http://localhost:5000/location_site1 that run simultaneously using scriptblock. The below is not outputting any results.

$runRoutePost =
{ param([string]$id, [string]$fileLocation)
    Write-Host "Accessing site for $id";
    $ResponseData = New-Object PSObject;
    $webclient = new-object System.Net.WebClient;
    $apiParams = "id=$_";
    $ResponseData = $webclient.UploadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site1",$apiParams) |Add-Content $fileLocation;
}

Get-Content location_ids.txt | ForEach-Object {
    Start-Job -ScriptBlock $runRoutePost -ArgumentList $_, $LOG_FILE
}

Jake Bruun · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-25 20:26:23Z

1

To convert your example, you really just need to make a request to the url and specify the location id as a query string parameter. The example below uses string interpolation to set the value of the id parameter. The $_ variable is the current item that is being enumerated within the ForEach-Object script block.

$outputFile = # not sure of your date time format 

Get-Content location_ids.txt | ForEach-Object {
    Add-Content $outputFile "<h2 style=`"color:green`">$_</h2>"
    Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://localhost:5000/location_site1?id=$_" | Add-Content $outputFile
    Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://localhost:5000/location_site2?id=$_" | Add-Content $outputFile
    Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://localhost:5000/location_site3?id=$_" | Add-Content $outputFile
    Add-Content $outputFile "<br><br>"
}

For a GET request you do not need to specify the content-type or method. However, if you need to for other scripts you can use the -ContentType and/or -Method parameters.

Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -ContentType application/x-www-form-urlencoded  -Uri "http://localhost:5000/location_site3?id=$_"

More documentation can be found by running this:

get-help Invoke-RestMethod -full

Since you have a restriction of using PowerShell v2, you can use the .NET WebClient type.

$web = new-object System.Net.WebClient
Get-Content location_ids.txt | ForEach-Object {
    Add-Content $outputFile "<h2 style=`"color:green`">$_</h2>"
    $web.DownloadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site1?id=$_") | Add-Content $outputFile
    $web.DownloadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site2?id=$_") | Add-Content $outputFile
    $web.DownloadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site3?id=$_") | Add-Content $outputFile
    Add-Content $outputFile "<br><br>"
}

If instead you want to send a POST request using WebClient, the UploadString method can be used. However, in this case I'm not sure of how to set the Content-Type header.

$web.UploadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site1","id=$_") | Add-Content $outputFile

Update in response to edit

To run these jobs in parallel and collect the results, you need to wait for all the jobs to complete using Wait-Job and then extract the results using Receive-Job.

$runRoutePost = { 
    param([string]$id)

    Write-Host "Accessing site for $id"
    $webclient = new-object System.Net.WebClient
    $webclient.UploadString("http://localhost:5000/location_site1","id=$id") 
}
$Jobs = Get-Content location_ids.txt | ForEach-Object {
    Start-Job -ScriptBlock $runRoutePost -ArgumentList $_
}

Wait-Job -Job $Jobs

Receive-Job -Job $Jobs | Add-Content $LOG_FILE

edited Feb 25, 2016 at 20:26

answered Feb 19, 2016 at 17:04

Jake Bruun

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9 Comments

Jake Bruun Over a year ago

@Mary - Gotcha, in that case the .NET WebClient type can be used. I'll post an example after lunch.

Jake Bruun Over a year ago

You can definitely make it a POST request. I just assumed your url was setup to only accept GET based on your curl commands.

Jake Bruun Over a year ago

Yeah most definitely. With UploadString you are responsible for making your content match your content-type, so just be sure to separate the values with &.

Jake Bruun Over a year ago

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Jake Bruun Over a year ago

I simplified your script a bit. And fixed an error in your script block where you were setting the params to id=$_.

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