How do I pass variables through a Json body Powershell - json

Question

I want to pass variables in for these values but I cant get them to go for example in user_id I want to pass the variable $userID
This is an example of the Body i'm using:
$body = '{
"data":
[
{
"user_id":$userID,
"type":"manual",
"date":"2021-01-30",
"duration":"150",
"jobcode_id":"15281216",
"notes":"This is a test of a manual time entry",
"customfields": {
"54138" : "IT Services",
"54136" : "Yes"
}
}
]
}'

Answer 1

I would use a double-quoted Here-String for that:
$userID = 'Alex'
$body = #"
{
"data": [{
"user_id": "$userID",
"type": "manual",
"date": "2021-01-30",
"duration": "150",
"jobcode_id": "15281216",
"notes": "This is a test of a manual time entry",
"customfields": {
"54138": "IT Services",
"54136": "Yes"
}
}]
}
"#
$body now contains:
{
"data": [{
"user_id": "Alex",
"type": "manual",
"date": "2021-01-30",
"duration": "150",
"jobcode_id": "15281216",
"notes": "This is a test of a manual time entry",
"customfields": {
"54138": "IT Services",
"54136": "Yes"
}
}]
}

Answer 2

The reason why $userID is not substituted for it's value in your example is because you are using a single quote (') character. PowerShell only substitutes when you use a double quote (") character.
This would give you the challenge that your data already contains double quotes. There Here string from Theo's answers works just fine but as a personal preference I would use a PowerShell hashtable to construct an object and convert it to Json using Convert-To-Json.
Example:
$userID = 'John'
$body = #{
"data" = ,#{
"user_id" = $userID;
"type" = "manual";
"date" = "2021-01-30";
"duration" = "150";
"jobcode_id" = "15281216";
"notes" = "This is a test of a manual time entry";
"customfield" = #{
"54138" = "IT Services";
"54136" = "Yes";
}
}
}
$body | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 3
Output:
{
"data": [
{
"notes": "This is a test of a manual time entry",
"customfield": {
"54138": "IT Services",
"54136": "Yes"
},
"duration": "150",
"type": "manual",
"date": "2021-01-30",
"jobcode_id": "15281216",
"user_id": "John"
}
]
}
EDIT: As robdy mentioned in the comments, the Depth parameter should be used (I've added it). A good explanation can be found here.