passing parameter with space into AWS cli - json

Question

I am trying to pass pass parameter with space to aws cloudformation create-stack aws cli.
The issue is that my parameter has space. I am using powershell for scripting.
Below is example of my parameter
$JsonParameter = '[{"ParameterKey":"name","ParameterValue":"John"},{"ParameterKey":"Occupation","ParameterValue":"Test Engineer"}]'| ConvertTo-Json
This returns
"[{\"ParameterKey\":\"name\",\"ParameterValue\":\"John\"},{\"ParameterKey\":\"Occupation\",\"ParameterValue\":\"Test Engineer\"}]"
cli command is
aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name $stackName --template-url $templateUrl --capabilities $capabilityList --parameters $JsonParameter --region "us-east-1"
The error goes
Error parsing parameter '--parameters': Invalid JSON:
[{"ParameterKey":"name","ParameterValue":"John"},{"ParameterKey":"Occupation","ParameterValue":"Test
From the error, it looks like cli doesn't like the space in the ParameterValue.
How do I escape the space, so that cli doesn't complain about the space in the value?

Answer 1

Remove | ConvertTo-Json.
Your string is already a json string so you do not want to perform a conversion.
$JsonParameter = '[{"ParameterKey":"name","ParameterValue":"John"},{"ParameterKey":"Occupation","ParameterValue":"Test Engineer"}]'
Just use the string as is.
Alternate scenario
Should you be working with a Powershell object rather than a json string, you might want at some point to convert it into a json to pass it as parameter to your aws call.
That's the moment where ConvertTo-Json would reveal itself to be useful.
Take this for instance
$JsonParameter = #(
#{
ParameterKey = 'name'
ParameterValue = 'John'
},
#{
ParameterKey = 'Occupation'
ParameterValue = 'Test Engineer'
}
)
This is a Powershell object, for which you might had, in a different context, built from scratch with the intent of passing it as a json paramerter to your aws call.
Now, to achieve the transition from this state of "array of hashtables" to a valid json string, you need to use the ConvertTo-Json cmdlet.
$JsonParameterString = $JsonParameter | Convertto-json -Compress
The resulting string he same as you had initially, ready to be passed down to aws :
[{"ParameterKey":"name","ParameterValue":"John"},{"ParameterKey":"Occupation","ParameterValue":"Test Engineer"}]
If on the other hand, you had a json string and needed to edit it without fuss, you could use the ConvertFrom-Json cmdlet, then edit the resulting object as needed and convert it back to json again before passing it down.
Additional note
In my Powershell to Json example,
I used the -compress switch parameter. This is optional. This will create a compressed json string (one line) instead of an expanded one.
Reference
Powershell doc - ConvertTo-Json