PowerShell ConvertTo-JSON with multiple arrays - arrays

Question

I'm trying to convert data to JSON as input for a REST API. The challenge I have is that the data should consist of multiple depths (For a lack of better words). The code I'm using now is:
(#{name = "Contoso"; all_assets = "false"; all_users="false"; rules= #{type="fqdn"; operator="match"; terms=#("contoso") } }| ConvertTo-Json)
the output now is:
{
"all_users": "false",
"name": "Contoso",
"all_assets": "false",
"rules": {
"operator": "match",
"terms": [
"contoso"
],
"type": "fqdn"
}
}
The REST-Api is complaining that the data contains invalid characters. Looking at the output, the section "rules:" contains { } instead of [ ]. I've been trying all kinds of tricks but I can't seem to figure this one out.
Anyone know what I'm doing wrong here?

Answer 1

If you want rules to contain an array of objects instead of an object with properties, enclose everything that goes inside the rules with #().
Because terms then becomes the 3rd level, you need to add parameter -Depth to the ConvertTo-Json cmdlet:
For better readability, I didn't do this as one-liner
#{
name = "Contoso"
all_assets = "false"
all_users = "false"
rules = #(
#{
type = "fqdn"
operator = "match"
terms = #("contoso")
}
)
} | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 3
Output:
{
"all_users": "false",
"name": "Contoso",
"all_assets": "false",
"rules": [
{
"operator": "match",
"terms": [
"contoso"
],
"type": "fqdn"
}
]
}

Answer 2

For what it's worth...
Not the answer to the Unexpected ConvertTo-Json results? Answer: it has a default -Depth of 2 issue, but how you might generally build a PowerShell expression from a Json file using ConvertTo-Expression cmdlet:
'{
"all_users": "false",
"name": "Contoso",
"all_assets": "false",
"rules": [
{
"operator": "match",
"terms": [
"contoso"
],
"type": "fqdn"
}
]
}' | ConvertFrom-Json | ConvertTo-Expression
[pscustomobject]#{
'all_users' = 'false'
'name' = 'Contoso'
'all_assets' = 'false'
'rules' = ,[pscustomobject]#{
'operator' = 'match'
'terms' = ,'contoso'
'type' = 'fqdn'
}
}