Web Services and Powershell error: Method can not be reflected

Question

I'm trying to use the VSM 9.1 Web Service API with Powershell, however when I run the New-WebServiceProxy cmdlet it throws an error, the inner exception being "Method InfraAPI.KnowledgeUpdate can not be reflected.", and as such I'm unable to proceed any further with development.
Here's the Powershell output:
PS C:\PS> new-webserviceproxy -uri http://vsmhost/dev/ServiceManager.svc?wsdl
New-WebServiceProxy : Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
At line:1 char:20
+ new-webserviceproxy <<<<  -uri http://vsmhost/dev/ServiceManager.svc?wsdl
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [New-WebServiceProxy], TargetInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewWebServiceProxy
PS C:\PS> $error[0].exception.innerexception
Method InfraAPI.KnowledgeUpdate can not be reflected.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi Chris,
//-- Please read the following as my personal opinion only as it's based only on my own experience using VSM API. I may be wrong of course. --//
As far as I remember there was never a good decision to use VSM API through web service reference.
I had met some problems when referencing VSM services directly through web even using Visual Studio some years ago. Since then I don't use this method.
Recently I have tried to check VSM API services metadata with some soap tools and it appears that it is not completely WS-I compliant - something wrong with namespaces defining ResultSet elements as type of DataSet. Perhaps this is the reason why VSM web services does not work as expected when referencing them directly. Maybe something else...
So the solution, workaround actually, (provided by VMware by the way) is to generate InfraAPI class and use it in your project. So far no problems with this method and we are using VSM API quite a lot.
In any case, it could be really helpful if someone might submit this issue to Alemba to fix it permanently I guess.
Ok, let's go back to your question about using VSM API with PowerShell. I must admit you have really challenged me. It was not so simple but really interesting.
The only way I have made PowerShell working is this:
1. Extract VSM API services class to a file:
svcutil /t:code /language=c# /messageContract http://vsmhost/dev/ServiceManager.svc /out:InfraAPI.9.2.0.cs /config:InfraAPI.9.2.0.config
2. Compile the class to dll file:
csc /t:library /out:InfraAPI.9.2.0.dll InfraAPI.9.2.0.cs
3. Include and use this library in your ps script like this:
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom("C:\_DATA\__SM9\PowerShell\API\InfraAPI.9.2.0.dll")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(“System.ServiceModel”)
$ws_hb = New-Object System.ServiceModel.BasicHttpBinding
$ws_hb.Name = "BasicHttpBinding_IServiceManager"
$ws_epa = New-Object System.ServiceModel.EndpointAddress("http://vsmhost/dev/servicemanager.svc")
$ws = New-Object ServiceManagerClient($ws_hb,$ws_epa)
$ws_login_in = New-Object LoginRequest("VSM_USER_NAME","VSM_USER_PASSWORD","VSM_DATABASE")
$ws_login_out = $ws.Login($ws_login_in)
$ws_login_out.sMessage
if($ws_login_out.Ret.value__ -eq 0){
    "Session ID: " + $ws_login_out.sID
    $ws_logout_in = New-Object LogoutRequest($ws_login_out.sID)
    $ws.Logout($ws_logout_in).sMessage
Shoot your questions if you have any. And could you please let me know if this is working in your environment. Tx.
Regards, Gytis