How to build dynamic link list with powershell and WPF?

Question

I have an array of variable length with several website names und corresponding links. I will show them up in a Windows Forms based GUI.

The array will be read from an XML file, but it looks like this

$linklist = @(
("Site 1" , "https://link1.com"),
("Site 2" , "https://link2.com")
)

Then i have a Windows Forms window named "mainform" and create each item in there:

$Link1 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel
$Link1.Text = $sitename
$Link1.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(40,$calculatedPosition)
$Link1.add_Click({ start $sitelink })
$mainform.Controls.Add($Link1)

That could be done manually for each item in my array - so far, so easy, as log i have a fixed amount of items in my array.

But i like to do it dynamically, to handle arrays with customized content.

I tried to use dynamic variables, because every LinkLabel needs a different variable name. I know, Dynamic variable names can be created by the New-Variable Cmdlet, but i have no idea, how manage this new variable for building a LinkLabel.

Thank you in advance for all your helpful ideas...

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 26 '20 at 12:01

I would first create an ordered Hashtable out of your $linklist array-of-arrays to make things easier:

$linklist = @(
("Site 1" , "https://link1.com"),
("Site 2" , "https://link2.com")
)

# convert the array of arrays into an ordered Hashtable
$linkHash = [ordered]@{}
$linklist | ForEach-Object { $linkHash[$_[0]] = $_[1] }

Using that hashtable, creating the linklabels dynamically is not very hard to do:

$linkHash.GetEnumerator() | ForEach-Object {
    $lnk = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel
    $lnk.Text = $_.Name   # set the name for the label
    $lnk.Tag  = $_.Value  # store the link url inside the control's Tag property
    $lnk.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(40, $calculatedPosition)
    # inside the scriptblock, $this refers to the LinkLabel control itself
    $lnk.Add_Click({ Start-Process $this.Tag })  
    $mainform.Controls.Add($lnk)
    $calculatedPosition += 15   # just a guess, you may want different vertical spacing
}

Thank you! Meanwhile, i managed it by myself by simply adding .GetNewClosure() to the Add.Click statement. That worked great for me. But you solution is also great. — Michael, Apr 26 '20 at 12:32

How to build dynamic link list with powershell and WPF?

1 Answers1