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Changes to Invoke-RestMethod in PowerShell 7

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The Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet has been with us since PowerShell 3.0. For those of us paying attention to PowerShell during the 2.0 to 3.0 transition, it was a huge release and the inclusion of this new command was only one of the reasons why. From that point forward, we had a built-in, PowerShell way to interact with RESTful Web Services. REST (Representational State Transfer) web services accept HTTP(S) requests, and respond with structured data, often in the form of JSON. This structured data is converted by the Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet into PowerShell objects. The command was greatly improved in PowerShell 6, but today we’re going to focus on the newest changes in PowerShell 7.

If you spent any time in the help file/online docs for Invoke-RestMethod (5.1 and 7.0), then you’ve likely seen the below example. It shows the basic ability of the cmdlet, and returns some worth wild results, too. The below results are created for us after issuing a specific, Invoke-RestMethod command. You can see it below. We first assigned the $Uri variable an exact, URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) value. This complete URI is the combination of the base URI, “https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com,” and the endpoint, “/powershell/feed.” We then used the variable in the Invoke-RestMethod command, which makes an HTTPS request for the data, receives a response, and finally, converts it into PowerShell objects, where it’s then filtered by our Select-Object command.

$Uri = 'https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/feed/'
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $Uri | Select-Object -Property Title,pubDate
 
title                                                     pubDate
-----                                                     -------
Secrets Management Module Vault Extensions                Thu, 06 Feb 2020 22:59:33 +0000
Public Preview of PowerShell Support in Jupyter Notebooks Thu, 06 Feb 2020 21:46:52 +0000
Secrets Management Development Release                    Thu, 06 Feb 2020 20:40:50 +0000
Announcing the PowerShell 7.0 Release Candidate           Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:42:17 +0000
Improvements in Windows PowerShell Container Images       Tue, 10 Dec 2019 00:32:57 +0000
PowerShell 7 Preview 6                                    Fri, 22 Nov 2019 01:20:37 +0000
PowerShell Extension Roadmap                              Mon, 04 Nov 2019 13:19:35 +0000
DSC Resource Kit Release October 2019                     Wed, 30 Oct 2019 20:52:48 +0000
PowerShell 7 Preview 5                                    Wed, 23 Oct 2019 19:11:44 +0000
DSC Resource Kit Release September 2019                   Thu, 19 Sep 2019 18:07:12 +0000

As we continue, do keep in mind that Invoke-RestMethod can do much more than what we’ve seen so far, and what we’ll cover. It can do POST requests, handle pagination, handle multipart/form-data, and it can pass in multiple headers if required. Don’t forget about authentication and credentials; it can handle those, as well.

In PowerShell 7, there are a couple of newer features we’ll cover today. Before we do that, if you didn’t use this cmdlet in PowerShell 6, then do know that there were many changes in that version. You can actually find the PowerShell 6 features in the Invoke-RestMethod PowerShell 7 documentation.

Before we get into the new features, here’s another example of using Invoke-RestMethod. This article has coincided well with some of my AWS research and testing with Lambda and API Gateway. The below image shows some testing against a random number generator that has a REST API in front of it. That’s why there are various numbers in the results.

There are two new parameters for Invoke-RestMethod in PowerShell 7: StatusCodeVariable and SkipHttpErrorCheck.

The StatusCodeVariable parameter allows you to assign the status code, returned by the request to the RESTful web service, to a variable. As the below example was successful, it assigned 200, or an OK successful status response code, to the scv variable.

As mentioned, the other new parameter addition to this cmdlet is SkipHttpErrorCheck. This parameter causes Invoke-RestMethod to ignore an error status. It treats them as though they were successful requests. Without it, however, we received the error, as can be seen in the first Invoke-RestMethod invocation below. It’s not clear by the image, but the value in $Uri has been changed between our successful examples and this one.

The second invocation in the below image appeared that it was (somewhat) successful, but that was thanks to SkipHttpErrorCheck. It wasn’t, and you can gather that from the message that was returned, even though we’ve skipped the error.

The question is, “how might you know for sure if there was an error and you skipped it?” Yep. The StatusCodeVariable parameter and the variable to which you’ve assigned the status code. These two new parameters can be used in conjunction. The final command in the below example, uses both of the new PowerShell 7 Invoke-RestMethod parameters, as part of a single command.

Invoke-RestMethod is a complex command that consists of many ways in which it can be used. A full discussion on everything you can do with Invoke-RestMethod could fill up an entire PSBlogWeek (or two), all by itself. Even so, with the release of PowerShell 7, it made sense that as a group, we helped highlight this command and its two new parameters. It’s just a small offering of all the new additions in the newest version of PowerShell.

Welcome to PowerShell 7.0.

It’s Nearly the PowerShell PSBlogWeek. 2020.

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It feels like it’s been forever. In fact, I had all but forgotten about PSBlogWeek until just recently, when it was reintroduced. So it’s coming; maybe you’ve heard about it before — maybe you haven’t. Some of the best PowerShell minds and their attached authors, come together to do a series of related blog posts — one day after the other, in order to give light to something in our community. It’s a topic, as you, a community member, should know. This time, it’s PowerShell 7.

If you haven’t been paying attention to it, then now’s your opportunity. Get in front of the curve, and pave your mind with the things you’re going to want to know before you need to know them. Before you wish you had just buckled down and read this upcoming content. Don’t be the one that puts this effort off. The goal is to help you, so do help yourself to this upcoming reading. Make a commitment now, to read them all!

At a time like this, I can’t help but think back to 2006 and the introduction of PowerShell 1.0. Back then, I loved Visual Basic Script (VBS). It’s been less embarrassing to admit that over the years, as I’ve put it behind me, and positioned PowerShell in its place. It’s also helpful that scripting and automation is something everyone has (should have, I suppose) to do now. Back then, you could be a Windows Systems Administrator without ever using the command line, much less a scripting language. Luckily, for people like me, that’s just not the case anymore.

The thing is, my move to PowerShell wasn’t immediate. I mostly stayed away from PowerShell for a few years, as it was in its infancy. I missed out on being a part of this community sooner. I missed out on those additional years that I could’ve had under my belt right now. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

You and PowerShell 7 are going to need each other, so don’t, for one .more. minute. pretend as though you’ll have time for this series later. Read each blog post; bring yourself up to speed before it’s a requirement. These authors are some of the community’s finest right now. There isn’t a better time to know and learn this stuff if you haven’t already been paying attention.

PowerShell 7 has been in development for quite some time now. I can’t do much with them, but I proudly have a copy of every preview installer for my system, on my system. I have both release candidates of PowerShell 7, too. As it’s about to go live-live, it’s time for you to try it out, and learn as much about it as you can. Right now. Use it in place of 5.1 and tell someone what doesn’t actually work. Like for real, file an issue on GitHub if something you’re doing in PowerShell 7 isn’t working as you’d expect it would (rc.2).

Beginning right here, right now, follow along. Fill that brain of yours with the things you’re only going to wish you had sooner. The schedule and topics are in the below post. Thank you for reading this introduction, and do know that I’ll be reading right alongside you. I’ll be writing something, too.

A New PowerShell PSBlogWeek is Coming