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Accessing BING searches with PowerShell

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Once again, my PowerShell class gave me an idea on how to make life easier.  While exploring objects in PowerShell, we very often need to go to MSDN to explore what the properties of an object mean or how to use an objects methods.  The process often goes like this:

1: Pipe the object to Get-Member.
2: Scroll to the top of the member information and get the TypeName.
3: Copy the TypeName into memory.
4: Paste it into Bing and press enter.
5: Click the first link that pops up.

Well, I want to make a way to pipe an object to a cmdlet and have it open my web browser to the MSDN page for that object.  In reality, that was not hard unless the object type was a WMI, CIM or MSFT object. So, it is time to do a little bit more advanced stuff with PowerShell.

First of all, we need to get a BING account key.  I need to thank Svendsen Tech for their posting on how to get the Azure account and the code to get the search information from BING.  I’ve incorporated their code into the cmdlet below.  For the $KEY variable, you will need to insert your own key.

Function Show-MSDNResource
{
[CmdletBinding()]
Param (
    [parameter(Mandatory=$true,
               ValueFromPipeline=$true)]
    [PSObject]
    $InputObject
)
    BEGIN
    {
        $Object = @() # Creates a NULL array to hold potential multiple objects.

        # BING Account Key
        $Key = "<# Insert your BING key here #>"
        $Base64KeyBytes = [byte[]] [Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes("ignored:$Key")
        $Base64Key = [Convert]::ToBase64String($Base64KeyBytes)

        function Get-BingQuery {
            param([string[]] $Query)
            Add-Type -Assembly System.Web
            $Query = '%27' + (($Query | %{ [Web.HttpUtility]::UrlEncode($_) }) -join '+') + '%27'
            # Return the proper string.
            $Query
        }

    } # END: BEGIN
    PROCESS
    {
        # Add theTypeName of each object into the array.
        $Object += ($InputObject | Get-Member).TypeName
       
    } #END: PROCESS
    END
    {
        If ($Object[0] -like "*/*")
        {
            # Creates the query for CIM and MSFT objects
            $Start = 0
            $End = $Object[0].LastIndexOf('/')
            Write-Verbose "$Start --- $End"
            $QueryString = $Object[0].Remove($Start,$End+1)
           
        }
        ElseIf ($Object[0] -like "*\*")
        {
            # Creates the query for WMI objects
            $Start = 0
            $End = $Object[0].LastIndexOf('\')
            Write-Verbose "$Start --- $End"
            $QueryString = $Object[0].Remove($Start,$End+1)
           
        }
        Else
        {
            # Creates the query for .NET objects
            $QueryString = $Object[0]
        }
       
        Write-Verbose "QueryString: $QueryString"

        $QueryString = Get-BingQuery $QueryString
        $Uri = 'https://api.datamarket.azure.com/Bing/Search/Web?$format=json&$top=3&Query=' + $QueryString
        $Results = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $Uri -Headers @{ Authorization = "Basic $Base64Key" }
       

        $Path = $Results.d.results[0].url
        Write-Verbose "Web page: $Path"
        # Open the default web browser to the web page.
        Start-Process -FilePath $Path

    } # END: END

<#
.SYNOPSIS
    Opens an MSDN page for the object produced by a PowerShell cmdlet.

.DESCRIPTION
    Opens an MSDN page for the object produced by a PowerShell cmdlet.
    If MSDN does not have information on the object type, then the
    default "We're sorry, the page you requested cannot be found" page
    will be displayed.


.PARAMETER InputObject
    This is the object that you want to find information on MSDN on.
    You can pass it the output of a cmdlet.

.EXAMPLE
Get-Service | Show-MSDNResource
This will open your default web browser to :
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController

.EXAMPLE
Show-MSDNResource -InputObject (Get-Service)
This will open your default web browser to :
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController

.EXAMPLE
"" | Show-MSDNResource -Verbose
Opens a web page to System.String

.EXAMPLE
123 | Show-MSDNResource -Verbose
Opens a web page to System.Int32

.NOTES
===============================================================================
== Cmdlet: Show-MSDNResource                                                 ==
== Author: Jason A. Yoder                                                    ==
== Company: MCTExpert of Arizona                                             ==
== Date: September 12, 2016                                                  ==
== Copyright: All rights reserved.                                           ==
== Version: 1.0.0.0                                                          ==
== Legal: The user assumes all responsibility and liability for the usage of ==
== this PowerShell code.  MCTExpert of Arizona, Its officers, shareholders,  ==
== owners, and their relatives are not liable for any damages.  As with all  ==
== code, review it and understand it prior to usage.  It is recommended that ==
== this code be fully tested and validated in a test environment prior to    ==
== usage in a production environment.                                        ==
==                                                                           ==
== Does this code make changes: NO                                           ==
===============================================================================
#>
} # END: Function Show-MSDNResource


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