Someone on the PowerShell usenet group asked if it was possible to interact with SharePoint lists through our favourite little shell. Marco Shaw responded and put the pressure on by saying this was my bag of tricks. Who am I to say otherwise? so lets take a look at the recipe.

I noticed that my last script could not handle more complex webservices like the MSDN ContentService (unlike WSDL.EXE) for example, so I rewrote it from the ground up. This time, it supports Basic Profile 1.1 and can generate proxy instances for simple ASMX services and more complicated multi-schema services like the MSDN/TechNet Publishing System (MTPS) Content Service.

What's New:

• No need for the .NET 2.0 SDK, just PowerShell
• Auto discovery of all referenced schema
• No need to point it at page.asmx?wsdl any more, just the asmx
• Validation against WS-I Basic Profile 1.1

get-webservice2.ps1.txt (4.28 KB)  (updated 2007/12/19: errant comma in write-progress fixed)

1. #
2. # Get-WebService.ps1 (v2.0 Aug 6, 2007)
3. #
4. # Oisin Grehan <oising@gmail.com> (x0n)
5. #
6. # Usage:
7. #   $proxy = .\get-webservice2.ps1 [-Url] http://site/service.asmx [-Anonymous] [[-SoapProtocol] <Soap | Soap12>]
8. #
9. # to see available webmethods:
10. # $proxy | gm
11. #
12.  
13. # $url = "http://services.msdn.microsoft.com/contentservices/contentservice.asmx?wsdl"
14.  
15. param($url = $(throw "need `$url"), [switch]$Anonymous, [string]$protocol = "Soap")
16.  
17. [void][system.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("system.web.services")
18.  
19. trap {
20.         "Error:`n`n $error";
21.         break;
22. }
23.  
24. #$request = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create($url);
25. $dcp = new-object system.web.services.discovery.discoveryclientprotocol
26.  
27. if (! $Anonymous) {
28.     Write-Progress "Network Credentials" "Awaiting input..."
29.     $dcp.Credentials = (Get-Credential).GetNetworkCredential()
30. }
31.  
32. Write-Progress "Discovery" "Searching..."
33. $dcp.AllowAutoRedirect = $true
34. [void]$dcp.DiscoverAny($url)
35. $dcp.ResolveAll()
36.  
37. # get service name
38. foreach ($entry in $dcp.Documents.GetEnumerator()) { # needed for Dictionary
39.     if ($entry.Value -is [System.Web.Services.Description.ServiceDescription]) {
40.         $script:serviceName = $entry.Value.Services[0].Name
41.         Write-Verbose "Service: $serviceName"
42.     }
43. }
44.  
45. Write-Progress "WS-I Basic Profile 1.1" "Validating..."
46. $ns = new-Object System.CodeDom.CodeNamespace # "WebServices"
47.  
48. $wref = new-object System.Web.Services.Description.WebReference $dcp.Documents, $ns
49. $wrefs = new-object system.web.services.description.webreferencecollection
50. [void]$wrefs.Add($wref)
51.  
52. $ccUnit = new-object System.CodeDom.CodeCompileUnit
53. [void]$ccUnit.Namespaces.Add($ns)
54.  
55. $violations = new-object system.web.Services.Description.BasicProfileViolationCollection
56. $wsi11 = [system.web.services.WsiProfiles]::BasicProfile1_1
57.  
58. if ([system.web.Services.Description.WebServicesInteroperability]::CheckConformance($wsi11, $wref, $violations)) {
59.     Write-Progress "Proxy Generation" "Compiling..."
60.    
61.     $webRefOpts = new-object System.Web.Services.Description.WebReferenceOptions
62.         $webRefOpts.CodeGenerationOptions = "GenerateNewAsync","GenerateProperties" #,"GenerateOldAsync"
63.  
64.         #StringCollection strings = ServiceDescriptionImporter.GenerateWebReferences(
65.         #       webReferences, codeProvider, codeCompileUnit, parameters.GetWebReferenceOptions());
66.  
67.     $csprovider = new-object Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider
68.         $warnings = [System.Web.Services.Description.ServiceDescriptionImporter]::GenerateWebReferences(
69.                 $wrefs, $csprovider, $ccunit, $webRefOpts)
70.        
71.     if ($warnings.Count -eq 0) {
72.         $param = new-object system.CodeDom.Compiler.CompilerParameters
73.         [void]$param.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.Xml.dll")
74.         [void]$param.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.Web.Services.dll")       
75.         $param.GenerateInMemory = $true;
76.         #$param.TempFiles = (new-object System.CodeDom.Compiler.TempFileCollection "c:\temp", $true)
77.         $param.GenerateExecutable = $false;
78.         #$param.OutputAssembly = "$($ns.Name)_$($sdname).dll"
79.         $param.TreatWarningsAsErrors = $false;
80.         $param.WarningLevel = 4;
81.        
82.         # do it
83.         $compileResults = $csprovider.CompileAssemblyFromDom($param, $ccUnit);
84.  
85.         if ($compileResults.Errors.Count -gt 0) {
86.             Write-Progress "Proxy Generation" "Failed."
87.             foreach ($output in $compileResults.Output) { write-host $output }
88.             foreach ($err in $compileResults.Errors) { write-warning $err }           
89.         } else {           
90.             $assembly = $compileResults.CompiledAssembly
91.  
92.             if ($assembly) {
93.                 $serviceType = $assembly.GetType($serviceName)               
94.                 $assembly.GetTypes() | % { Write-Verbose $_.FullName }
95.             } else {
96.                 Write-Warning "Failed: `$assembly is null"
97.                                 return
98.             }
99.            
100.             # return proxy instance
101.             $proxy = new-object $serviceType.FullName
102.             if (! $Anonymous) {
103.                 $proxy.Credentials = $dcp.Credentials
104.             }
105.             $proxy # dump instance to pipeline
106.         }
107.     } else {
108.         Write-Progress "Proxy Generation" "Failed."       
109.         Write-Warning $warnings
110.     }
111.     #Write-Progress -Completed
112. }

For me, this opens up a whole new world of PowerShell interaction with remote servers. No more constructing soap packets - just point it at a WSDL url, and you get back a first-class object with methods that you can call corresponding to remote webmethods. PowerShell's [xml] accelerator automatically wraps the responses so you can easily manipulate the results.

Have fun!

UPDATE: newer more robust version 2.0 available!