Support for custom types is required

[GABRIELNGBTUC]

Description of the issue

We have some bicep/ARM templates that use outputs with a user defined type as the output type.

When trying to create documentation on the compiled ARM file using PSDocs, the command fails with the error Invoke-PSDocument: Object reference not set to an instance of an object..

This only happens if the template both:

• Have an output with a user defined type as the type
• A resource/module is also deployed in the same file

If I either replace the user defined type with object or remove all the resources/modules from the template, PSDocs successfully run

To reproduce

Have a bicep file with the following content:

type test = {
  str: string
}


param text test

resource res 'Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines@2024-03-01'= {
  name: 'myVM'
  location: ''
}


// si custom type + resource => instance of object
output out test = {str: 'test'}

Compile that file with the bicep cli and run the following command

Invoke-PSDocument -Module PSDocs.Azure -InputObject .\main.json -OutputPath $pwd -InstanceName .\main.md -Culture en-GB

The command will fail.

If you either replace the output line with output out object = {str: 'test'} or command the res resource, no error is triggered

Expected behaviour

The command succeed in creating the documentation.

Error output

Module in use and version:

• Module: PSDocs.Azure
• Version: 0.3.0

Captured output from $PSVersionTable:

VERBOSE: [Invoke-PSDocument]::BEGIN
VERBOSE: [New-PSDocumentOption] BEGIN::
VERBOSE: Attempting to read: D:\Users\GNGANDUB\OneDrive - TUC RAIL\Documents\test\test-json\psdoc
VERBOSE: [New-PSDocumentOption] END::
VERBOSE: [PSDocs][D] -- Scanning for source files in module: PSDocs.Azure
Invoke-PSDocument: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
VERBOSE: [Invoke-PSDocument]::END

Additional context

[WillemRB]

The issue is that there is no type property in the output when using user defined types.

You will see something like this in the JSON output when a bicep build is done:

"out": {
    "$ref": "#/definitions/test",
    ...
}

I've tested it by changing $ref to type and then it will work again. If this is fixed there should also be support for rendering the definitions from the module in the output.

[GABRIELNGBTUC]

@WillemRB Thanks for the heads-up on how to fix the issue. I made my own PR to fix my current issue. I'll also look on how to display the custom types using PSDocs since that would be good information and we are also making heavy use of them as well.