Writing a powershell class callable in powershell

Question

Using Cmdlet, (and/or PSCmdlet), I can create

[Cmdlet(VerbsCommunications.Read, "Blah", SupportsShouldProcess = true)]
public class BlahBlah : PSCmdlet
{
  /// ...
}

Then, in powershell, I can then call the command

import-module .\Blah.dll -Verbose
Read-Blah
...

And everything is fine.

But I would like to create a class rather than a function so I can get an object and then use it in powershell

Something like

import-module .\Blah.dll -Verbose
$myClass = New-Object Blah
$myClass.Read
$myClass.Save -File x.txt
$myClass.BlahBlah
...

Can the above be done in C#? If so, how?

Paolo Tedesco · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-01 12:22:05Z

1

If you want to import a class from a .NET assembly, you need to use Add-Type, and not Import-Module:

Add-Type -Path .\Blah.dll

At this point, all public classes defined in your assembly will be available from PowerShell.

edited Jul 1, 2016 at 12:22

answered Jul 1, 2016 at 6:52

Paolo Tedesco

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5 Comments

Simon Goodman Over a year ago

Ok, thanks, but how to I create the class itself? The example I gave only creates a function, not a class.

Paolo Tedesco Over a year ago

@SimonGoodman: I'm not sure I understand what you're asking... when you talk about a "function" you mean your BlahBlah CmdLet class, right? If you want to create a class in C#, then you just need to declare a public class that does not inherit from CmdLet. Does this answer your question?

Simon Goodman Over a year ago

What I mean is when I create a function [Cmdlet(VerbsCommunications.Read, "Blah"... I will then be able to use it in powershell as Read-Blah but now I would like a class to be available, as in $myClass = New-Object Blah or are you saying that it will be available to powershell as long as it is public?

Paolo Tedesco Over a year ago

@SimonGoodman: if you import the dll with Add-Type -Path, all the public types will be available from PowerShell, yes.

Simon Goodman Over a year ago

Well I feel rather silly, so straightforward... I thought I needed to derive from some other cmdlet or something.

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