VB.NET - using textfile as source for menus and textboxes - vb.net

Question

this is probably a bit tense and I'm not sure if this is possible at all.
But basically, I'm trying to create a small application which contains alot of PowerShell-code which I want to run in an easy matter.
I've managed to create everything myself and it does work. But all of the PowerShell code is manually hardcoded and this gives me a huge disadvantage.
What I was thinking was creating some sort of dynamic structure where I can read a couple of text files (possible a numerous amount of text files) and use these as the source for both the comboboxes and the richtextbox which provovides as the string used to run in PowerShell.
I was thinking something like this:
Combobox - "Choose cmdlet" - Use "menucode.txt" as source
Richtextbox - Use "code.txt" as source
But, the thing is, Powershell snippets need a few arguments in order for them to work.
So I've got a couple of comboboxes and a few textboxes which provides as input for these arguments. And this is done manually as it is right now. So rewriting this small application should also search the textfile for some keywords and have the comboboxes and textboxes to replace those keywords. And I'm not sure how to do this.
So, would this requre a whole lot of textfiles? Or could I use one textfile and separate each PowerShell cmdlet snippets with something? Like some sort of a header?
Right now, I've got this code at the eventhandler (ComboBox_SelectedIndexChanged)
If ComboBoxFunksjon.Text = "Set attribute" Then
TxtBoxUsername.Visible = True
End If
If chkBoxTextfile.Checked = True Then
If txtboxBrowse.Text = "" Then
MsgBox("You haven't choses a textfile as input for usernames")
End If
LabelAttribute.Visible = True
LabelUsername.Visible = False
ComboBoxAttribute.Visible = True
TxtBoxUsername.Visible = False
txtBoxCode.Text = "$users = Get-Content " & txtboxBrowse.Text & vbCrLf & "foreach ($a in $users)" & vbCrLf & "{" & vbCrLf & "Set-QADUser -Identity $a -ObjectAttributes #{" & ComboBoxAttribute.SelectedItem & "='" & TxtBoxValue.Text & "'}" & vbCrLf & "}"
If ComboBoxAttribute.SelectedItem = "Outlook WebAccess" Then
TxtBoxValue.Visible = False
CheckBoxValue.Visible = True
CheckBoxValue.Text = "OWA Enabled?"
txtBoxCode.Text = "$users = Get-Content " & txtboxBrowse.Text & vbCrLf & "foreach ($a in $users)" & vbCrLf & "{" & vbCrLf & "Set-CASMailbox -Identity $a -OWAEnabled" & " " & "$" & CheckBoxValue.Checked & " '}" & vbCrLf & "}"
End If
If ComboBoxAttribute.SelectedItem = "MobileSync" Then
TxtBoxValue.Visible = False
CheckBoxValue.Visible = True
CheckBoxValue.Text = "MobileSync Enabled?"
Dim value
If CheckBoxValue.Checked = True Then
value = "0"
Else
value = "7"
End If
txtBoxCode.Text = "$users = Get-Content " & txtboxBrowse.Text & vbCrLf & "foreach ($a in $users)" & vbCrLf & "{" & vbCrLf & "Set-QADUser -Identity $a -ObjectAttributes #{msExchOmaAdminWirelessEnable='" & value & " '}" & vbCrLf & "}"
End If
Else
LabelAttribute.Visible = True
LabelUsername.Visible = True
ComboBoxAttribute.Visible = True
txtBoxCode.Text = "Set-QADUser -Identity " & TxtBoxUsername.Text & " -ObjectAttributes #{" & ComboBoxAttribute.SelectedItem & "='" & TxtBoxValue.Text & " '}"
If ComboBoxAttribute.SelectedItem = "Outlook WebAccess" Then
TxtBoxValue.Visible = False
CheckBoxValue.Visible = True
CheckBoxValue.Text = "OWA Enabled?"
txtBoxCode.Text = "Set-CASMailbox " & TxtBoxUsername.Text & " -OWAEnabled " & "$" & CheckBoxValue.Checked
End If
If ComboBoxAttribute.SelectedItem = "MobileSync" Then
TxtBoxValue.Visible = False
CheckBoxValue.Visible = True
CheckBoxValue.Text = "MobileSync Enabled?"
Dim value
If CheckBoxValue.Checked = True Then
value = "0"
Else
value = "7"
End If
txtBoxCode.Text = "Set-QADUser " & TxtBoxUsername.Text & " -ObjectAttributes #{msExchOmaAdminWirelessEnable='" & value & "'}"
End If
End If
Now, this snippet above lets me either use a text file as a source for each username used in the powershell snippet. Just so you know :) And I know, this is probably coded as stupidly as it gets. But it does work! :)

Answer 1

It'll probably get fairly horrible to debug when you've been away from it for a year and are trying to figure out how it hangs together, but if you're doing it I'd suggest that this might be a good time to use XML, since you can then create a nice structure to the files easily that will be fairly easy to understand.
<commands>
<command>
<name>Cmd1</name>
<buttonText>NiceName</buttonText>
<parameters>
<parameter>textBox1</parameter>
<parameter>textBox2</parameter>
<parameter>comboBox1</parameter>
</parameters>
<code>your code here</code>
</command>
<command>
...
</command>
</commands>
You'd have to be careful if your script code contains any characters that can interfere with the xml though.