How can you use PowerShell's . (dot) notation to walk through elements with periods in the element name?

Question

PowerShell makes working with XML fairly easy in most cases. However, I'm having trouble using the "dot" notation to walk through a web.config file. Everything works

Import-Module WebAdministration
$site = get-website | ? { $_.name -eq "My Website - 80" }
$WebConfigFile = $site.physicalPath + "\web.config"
[xml]$WebAppXml = Get-Content $WebConfigFile
$webAppXml.configuration.system.web

On the last line, PowerShell uses intellisense to fill in system.web, but if you try to run it, the output is null. I know I can use Xpath or the .NET Xml objects, but I'd rather not if I don't have to.

Answer 1

$webAppXml.configuration.'system.web' 

Answer 2

This works too:

e.g.

$webAppXml.configuration.["system.web"].Identity 

Answer 3

Alternatively, you can use variables:

$subproperty = 'System.Web'
$webAppXml.configuration.$subproperty

I find this to be the most useful technique, because it lets me switch properties easily.

BTW, you can use the same trick to get to a method definition, and not run it.

Hope this Helps