Replacing with string that contains quotation

[husainaloos]

Suppose that I want to replace a string with a json object.

original file:
<key>old_value</key>

using this json:
"key" : "$(my_value)"

where my_value is a env variable. Suppose that my_value is a string that contains quotation mark, something like
my_value = string"string"maybeJson

When doing the replacement, the json replacement is no longer valid json. I tried escaping the value of my_value but that didn't work because TFS adds double escape. Any idea how to do this?

[sergeyzwezdin]

@husainaloos Thanks for posting. Possible bug. I'll take a look a bit later.

[24mu13]

In the example above, the following transformations do not work:

{ "key" : "value with \""}
{ "key" : "value with """}

When instead, the usual transformation works out-of-the-box:

{ "key" : "value without quotes"}

In case of error, you get the following:

---> System.ArgumentException: Invalid object passed in, ':' or '}' expected. (539): { ... }
at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.DeserializeDictionary(Int32 depth)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4346704Z    at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.DeserializeInternal(Int32 depth)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4347043Z    at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.BasicDeserialize(String input, Int32 depthLimit, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4348031Z    at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize(JavaScriptSerializer serializer, String input, Type type, Int32 depthLimit)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4348362Z    at Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.JsonObject.ConvertFromJson(String input, ErrorRecord& error)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4348640Z    at Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ConvertFromJsonCommand.ConvertFromJsonHelper(String input)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4348908Z    at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessorBase.Complete()
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4349125Z    --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4349399Z    at System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.PipelineBase.Invoke(IEnumerable input)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4349685Z    at System.Management.Automation.PowerShell.Worker.ConstructPipelineAndDoWork(Runspace rs, Boolean performSyncInvoke)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4350013Z    at System.Management.Automation.PowerShell.Worker.CreateRunspaceIfNeededAndDoWork(Runspace rsToUse, Boolean isSync)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4350383Z    at System.Management.Automation.PowerShell.CoreInvokeHelper[TInput,TOutput](PSDataCollection`1 input, PSDataCollection`1 output, PSInvocationSettings settings)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4350752Z    at System.Management.Automation.PowerShell.CoreInvoke[TInput,TOutput](PSDataCollection`1 input, PSDataCollection`1 output, PSInvocationSettings settings)
2018-06-13T13:54:02.4351555Z    at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.Handlers.LegacyVSTSPowerShellHost.VSTSPowerShellHost.Main(String[] args)

[24mu13]

Ideally the only workaround possible is using the following syntax, supported by PowerShell 6:

{ "key" : "value with `u{22}"}

Since currently the VSTS agent is using PowerShell 5.1 no workaround is possible: because of that, eventually, I had to uninstall your plugin and install another one.
Please @sergeyzwezdin reconsider your 2016 commit to replace backslash with double-backslash.

+1. Same situation. I got $x = '<bla"blabla"bla>'
{
"parameter" : "$(x)"
}
and got the same error.
@sergeyzwezdin Any option to escape quotes in json transformation?