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Building a C# Cmdlet with Visual Studio
This document describes steps for building a C# Cmdlet with Visual Studio in 2 ways:
Building a C# Cmdlet for PowerShell Core with Visual Studio
This demonstrates how to build your own C# cmdlet for PowerShell Core with Visual Studio. Targeting for PowerShell Core means that the cmdlet may not work against Windows PowerShell if you take dependencies on new APIs introduced in PowerShell Core.
We will use the free Visual Studio Community 2017.
-
When installing Visual Studio 2017 select
.NET Core cross-platform development
underOther Toolsets
-
Create new C# project
SendGreeting
of typeClass Library (.NET Core)
-
Now we need to setup PowerShell Core reference assemblies. In
Solution Explorer
right click on projectDependencies
and selectManage NuGet Packages...
In the top-right corner of the package manager click on the smallSettings
sprocket icon that is to the right fromPackage source
dropdown. By default, there will be onlynuget.org
package source inAvailable package sources
list. Add another package source with namepowershell-core
and sourcehttps://powershell.myget.org/F/powershell-core/api/v3/index.json
-
In the package manager select new
powershell-core
inPackage source
dropdown, selectBrowse
tab, type inSystem.Management.Automation
in the search and selectInclude prerelease
. It should findSystem.Management.Automation
package, select it and it will show package details; install it usingInstall
button. -
Add the code of cmdlet:
using System.Management.Automation; // PowerShell namespace. namespace SendGreeting { // Declare the class as a cmdlet and specify and // appropriate verb and noun for the cmdlet name. [Cmdlet(VerbsCommunications.Send, "Greeting")] public class SendGreetingCommand : Cmdlet { // Declare the parameters for the cmdlet. [Parameter(Mandatory = true)] public string Name { get; set; } // Overide the ProcessRecord method to process // the supplied user name and write out a // greeting to the user by calling the WriteObject // method. protected override void ProcessRecord() { WriteObject("Hello " + Name + "!"); } } }
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Build solution (F6); The
Output
window will print the location of generated cmdlet DLL: -
Start PowerShell Core, run
Import-Module
on DLL path from previous step and run cmdlet: You can also run the same cmdlet on Linux and other systems that PowerShell Core supports:
Building a C# Cmdlet for PowerShell Standard 3.0 with Visual Studio
Steps below show how to build your own C# cmdlet for PowerShell Standard 3.0 with Visual Studio. Targeting PowerShell Standard 3.0 means that the same module will work against PowerShell Core as well as Windows PowerShell v3 and newer, however, you are limited to a subset of the available PowerShell APIs.
We will use the free Visual Studio Community 2017.
-
When installing Visual Studio 2017 select
.NET Core cross-platform development
underOther Toolsets
-
Create new C# project
SendGreetingStd
of typeClass Library (.NET Standard)
-
On project properties verify that
Target framework
is.NET Standard 2.0
:
-
Now we need to setup reference assemblies. In
Solution Explorer
right click on projectDependencies
and selectManage NuGet Packages...
In the top-right corner of the package manager selectnuget.org
package source, selectBrowse
tab, type inPowerShellStandard.Library
in the search and selectInclude prerelease
. It should findPowerShellStandard.Library
package, select it and it will show package details; install it usingInstall
button. -
Add the code of cmdlet:
using System.Management.Automation; // PowerShell namespace. namespace SendGreeting { // Declare the class as a cmdlet and specify and // appropriate verb and noun for the cmdlet name. [Cmdlet(VerbsCommunications.Send, "Greeting")] public class SendGreetingCommand : Cmdlet { // Declare the parameters for the cmdlet. [Parameter(Mandatory = true)] public string Name { get; set; } // Overide the ProcessRecord method to process // the supplied user name and write out a // greeting to the user by calling the WriteObject // method. protected override void ProcessRecord() { WriteObject("Hello " + Name + "!"); } } }
-
Build solution (F6); The
Output
window will print the location of generated cmdlet DLL: -
Now cmdlet can be run on systems supported by PowerShell Standard;
For example:
On PowerShell Core on Windows: On PowerShell Core on Linux: On Windows PowerShell on Windows (this requires .NET Framework 4.7.1):