C# Powershell runspace available across methods

Question

Quick question regarding Powershell invokes within C#

I'd like to be able to ask C# to load a powershell module in a separate method, then run Powershell commands in another method.

Currently from my (limited) knowledge of invoking PS in C#, it looks like I cant access the powershell instance from another method - is this correct?

Code example below. I'm looking into usind runspaces, but did not want to burn too much time researching this either.

Any help in best way to access a powershell instance (with module loaded) from other methods within a class would be really appreciated.

namespace Test
{
    public class Test
    {

    public void loadModule()
    {
       using (PowerShell PowershellInstance = PowerShell.Create())
        {
            PowershellInstance.AddScript("Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core");
            PowershellInstance.Invoke();
            if (PowershellInstance.Streams.Error.Count > 0)
            {
                infoBox.Text = "Error loading snapin";
                return;
            }
            else
            {
                infoBox.Text = "Loaded";
            }

            PowershellInstance.Commands.Clear();
        }
     }

     public void someOtherMethod()
     {
           //do some more powershell - without loading module
     }

Answer 1

Depending on how you implemented this with a class variable, you'll probably also want to implement IDisposable to cleanup your PowerShell reference. Otherwise you won't free up all memory\\resources properly.

Something like this:

    public class Test : IDisposable
    {
        private bool disposed;
        private PowerShell ps;

        public Test()
        {
            disposed = false;
            ps = PowerShell.Create();
        }

        public void loadModule()
        {
            ps.AddCommand("Add-PSSnapin")
              .AddParameter("Name", "VMware.VimAutomation.Core")
              .Invoke();

            if (ps.HadErrors)
                infoBox.Text = "Error loading snapin";
            else
                infoBox.Text = "Loaded";

            ps.Commands.Clear();
        }

        public void someOtherMethod()
        {
            //do some more powershell - without loading module

            ps.Commands.Clear();
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
            Dispose(true);
        }

        private void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (!disposed)
            {
                disposed = true;
                if (disposing)
                {
                    if (ps != null)
                    {
                        ps.Dispose();
                        ps = null;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

Note that you can use ps.HadErrors instead of checking the errors stream.