Adding array elements to an array

PowerShell Help
1

Web Developer has created an API where if I can generate a JSON file, we can automatically keep an accurate record of printers on EACH of our Print servers.

His requirements are as follows:

“Make an array of servers in json with a property of “printer”, and have an array with all of the printers in the server in that array”

So I will have an array of Servers and from that array, I need to create a property for each element in the array. That is the part I am stuck on.

I can get create a list of Print server and iterate through each to get a list of the printers installed on each.

$PrintServers = ‘P1’,‘P2’, ‘P3’, ‘P4’, ‘P5’,‘P6’, ‘P9’

foreach ($Server in $PrintServers)
{
   $Printers = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Server -ScriptBlock { get-printer } 
  -Credential $Credential | Select-Object Name

}

I am stuck as to how to add a property to each element in the array and have it as a single property that is an array of printers.

2

I think I have it. If there are alternatives, I would be interested in knowing what they are.

$PrintServers = 'P1','P2', 'P3', 'P4', 'P5','P6', 'P9'
$HostedPrinters = @()
foreach ($Server in $PrintServers)

{
    $Printers = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Server -ScriptBlock{Get-Printer}  -Credential $Credential | Select-Object Name

    $prop = @{
        
        Server = $Server
        Printers = $Printers

    }

     $obj = New-Object -TypeName psobject -Property $prop
     $HostedPrinters += $obj
     #Write-Output $obj


}

$HostedPrinters | ConvertTo-Json
3

Hey Brian,

You could simplify your code a bit, and you’ll want to do the Get-Printer property filtering on the remote computers - currently, the results from Get-Printer on each remote computer includes the default property set, most of which you don’t need.

Instead, just run Invoke-Command against the entire array of $PrinterServers (rather than using foreach loop), filter for only the printer Name, then pipe the final output to ConvertTo-Json:

$PrintServers = 'P1','P2', 'P3', 'P4', 'P5','P6', 'P9'

$results = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $PrintServers -Credential $Credential -ScriptBlock {
    [pscustomobject]@{
        Server   = $env:COMPUTERNAME
        Printers = Get-Printer |
                       Select-Object -Property PortName, @{
                           Name       = 'Printer'
                           Expression = { $_.Name }
                       }, DriverName
    }
} | Select-Object -Property Server, Printers -ExcludeProperty PSComputerName, RunspaceId

$results | ConvertTo-Json
4

How would I accomplish including the DriverName and Portname in my JSON file?

What we need is a Json file that has two Headers “Server” and “Printers”. With the “Printers” Header, the value is an array of JSON objects.

 

Example:

[

{

“Server”: "P1,

“Printers”: [

{“Port”:"10.60.40.34,“Printer”:“Ahasn-BackOffice”,“Driver”;"HP Universal Printing PCL 5(v5.7.0)},

{…},

]

5

Running Get-Printer | Get-Member shows the properties PortName and DriverName which can be included in the Get-Printer | Select-Object pipeline with manipulating the Name property to show as Printer as per your sample. The code has been revised to reflect this.