PowerShell: Custom Property XML Tags with ConvertTo-XML Output

Question

I am creating a new object in PowerShell, using a hash table to set property values. I want to then export the object into XML format using the ConvertTo-XML method.

$hash = @{            
    Processor = 'Intel'                
    Disk = '500GB'
    Server = 'ABC'
    Serial = '01234'
}                           

$specs = New-Object PSObject -Property $hash
Write-Output ($specs | ConvertTo-XML -notypeinformation).Save("C:\scripts\export.xml")

The XML output is as follows:

<Objects>
  <Object>
    <Property Name="Serial">a1b2c3</Property>
    <Property Name="Server">ABC</Property>
    <Property Name="Processor">Intel</Property>
    <Property Name="Disk">500GB</Property>
  </Object>
</Objects>

What I want, is for the XML tags to be formatted in the following way:

<Objects>
  <Object>
    <Serial>a1b2c3</Serial>
    <Server>ABC</Server>
    <Processor>Intel</Processor>
    <Disk>500GB</Disk>
  </Object>
</Objects>

And then, if there is a good solution for that, is there also a way to make the Object(s) tags custom as well?

Thank you.

Answer 1

I don't think you can get there with ConvertTo-Xml. However, you can use here strings to do this. It is kind of low tech but still pretty cool:

$hash = @{            
    Processor = 'Intel'                
    Disk = '500GB'
    Server = 'ABC'
    Serial = '01234'
}                           

@"
<Objects>
  <Object>$(foreach ($kvpair in $hash.GetEnumerator()) {
    "`n    <$($kvpair.Key)>$($kvpair.Value)</$($kvpair.Key)>"
})
  </Object>
</Objects>
"@ > C:\scripts\export.xml

You could use the XML DOM to create this document but that would be more work and for such a simple document I think the here string approach works pretty well. It is also good for any sort of text templating.