Invoke SharePoint 2010 PowerShell cmdlets from VS 2010

Here is the code snippet that would invoke SharePoint 2010 Powershell cmdlets from VS 2010

private void invokeSPCmdlet()
        {
            // create runspace configuration
            RunspaceConfiguration config = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();
  
            // PSSnapIn exception object
            PSSnapInException Ex = null;
  
            try
            {
                //add Microsoft SharePoint PowerShell SnapIn
                PSSnapInInfo pssnap = config.AddPSSnapIn("Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell", out Ex);
  
                //create powershell runspace
                Runspace cmdlet = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(config);
  
                cmdlet.Open();
  
                RunspaceInvoke scriptInvoker = new RunspaceInvoke(cmdlet);
  
                // set powershell execution policy to unrestricted
                scriptInvoker.Invoke("Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted");
  
                // create a pipeline and load it with command object
                Pipeline pipeline = cmdlet.CreatePipeline();
  
                Command cmd = new Command("Get-SPSite"); // Using Get-SPFarm powershell command
                pipeline.Commands.Add(cmd);
  
  
                pipeline.Commands.Add("Out-String"); // this will format the output
                IEnumerable<PSObject> output = pipeline.Invoke();
  
                pipeline.Stop();
                cmdlet.Close();
  
                // process each object in the output and append to stringbuilder
                StringBuilder results = new StringBuilder();
                foreach (PSObject obj in output)
                {
                    results.AppendLine(obj.ToString());
                }
                //set the output to a multi-line text box
                textBox1.Text = results.ToString();
            }
            catch (Exception exError)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(exError.Message.ToString());
            }
        }
 

You have to reference System.Management.Automation and include the following statements

using System.Management.Automation;
using System.Management.Automation.Runspaces;

There are various ways to invoke SP 2010 cmdlets, but the code snippet shows using RunspaceConfiguration to achieve this. On pasting the method into a standard windows form with a command button and text box, this is what the output would look like

The code snippet calls the “Get-SPSite” cmdlet from SharePoint Windows PowerShell.

Gotchas:

Make sure you are targeting Framework 3.5 in VS 2010
Platform target is set to x64

I have used a simple text box to show results. There are many possibilities like feeding results to SilverLight (or) Visio Services…

Hope you find this useful!