Call windows api powershell

This straightforward design has made REST services very popular over the last several years. Many of the security and compliance tools I use in my practice make REST APIs available for controlling settings, launching actions and importing and exporting data.

SOAP simple object access protocol is the XML-based data interchange protocol that drove much of the "service-oriented architecture" revolution in web applications a few years ago. The first step to working with any API is to review the documentation which describes the API calls, accepted data types, authentication requirements, response formatting, etc.

It is documented here. This API allows us to make both authenticated an unauthenticated requests, so we'll do a little of each. Imagine that management has asked us to retrieve a list of the most recently closed issues for a particular GitHub repository, and to calculate the mean time to resolution MTTR for the issues. Time to resolution TTR for a single issue would be the number of days which elapsed between the issue being opened and closed.

For this example, we'll use issues from the Microsoft PowerShell repository , since it is pretty active. Upon reviewing the API documentation , we see that we can issue a GET request with query string parameters for the number of issues up to to return per "page" or request, the state of the issues open, closed or all to be returned, and a page number, which tells the API which result page to return.

Armed with that information, we build the PowerShell command to make a test request. We'll start by asking for a single result, using the Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet. We'll save the object to a variable to make it easier to analyze. Then we'll use Get-Member to view the properties of the object. Now that we know how to calculate the TTR for a single issue, let's gather the most recently closed issues and calculate their MTTR. First, we'll make a GET request and save the results into a variable, then we'll count the results to ensure we got a full Then, we can calculate the MTTR.

We'll use a calculated property for the TTR for each issue, and then use Measure-Object to get the average:. The answer to management's question is that the MTTR for the last tickets is 3. The InvokeRestMethod cmdlet took most of the work out of the problem, and allowed us to focus on gathering the needed data!

Many REST calls will require authentication. MultipartFormDataContent object. This feature was added in PowerShell 6. Specifies the client certificate that is used for a secure web request. Enter a variable that contains a certificate or a command or expression that gets the certificate. If the certificate isn't valid or doesn't have sufficient authority, the command fails. Specifies the digital public key certificate X of a user account that has permission to send the request.

Enter the certificate thumbprint of the certificate. Certificates are used in client certificate-based authentication. They can be mapped only to local user accounts; they do not work with domain accounts. Otherwise, the content type isn't specified in the call. Specifies a user account that has permission to send the request.

The default is the current user. Credential can be used alone or in conjunction with certain Authentication parameter options. When used alone, it will only supply credentials to the remote server if the remote server sends an authentication challenge request. When used with Authentication options, the credentials will be explicitly sent. Specifies custom method used for the web request.

This can be used with the Request Method required by the endpoint is not an available option on the Method. Method and CustomMethod cannot be used together. By default, KeepAlive is True. KeepAlive establishes a persistent connection to the server to facilitate subsequent requests. To set how many times to follow relation links, use the MaximumFollowRelLink parameter. When using this switch, the cmdlet returns a collection of pages of results.

Each page of results may contain multiple result items. Form may not be used with Body. If ContentType will be ignored. The keys of the dictionary will be used as the form field names. By default, form values will be converted to string values.

If the value is a System. FileInfo object, then the binary file contents will be submitted. The name of the file will be submitted as the filename. Get-Item can be used to simplify supplying the System. FileInfo object. If the value is a collection type, such as an Array or List, the for field will be submitted multiple times.

The values of the list will be treated as strings by default. Nested collections aren't supported. In the above example, the tags field will be supplied three times in the form, once for each of Vacation , Italy , and The pictures field will also be submitted once for each file in the Italy folder. The binary contents of the files in that folder will be submitted as the values. To set UserAgent headers, use the UserAgent parameter.

You cannot use this parameter to specify User-Agent or cookie headers. Specifies how many times to follow relation links if FollowRelLink is used. A smaller value may be needed if the REST api throttles due to too many requests. The default value is [Int32]::MaxValue. A value of 0 zero prevents following relation links. The default value is 5. A value of 0 zero prevents all redirection. Specifies how many times PowerShell retries a connection when a failure code between and , inclusive or is received.

Also see RetryIntervalSec parameter for specifying number of retries. When you need to bypass the proxy configured in Internet Explorer, or a proxy specified in the environment, use this switch.

Saves the response body in the specified output file. Enter a path and file name. If you omit the path, the default is the current location. The name is treated as a literal path. Names that contain brackets [] must be enclosed in single quotes '.

This parameter is valid only when the OutFile parameter is also used in the command. The intent is to have the results written to the file and to the pipeline. When you use the PassThru parameter, the output is written to the pipeline but the file is not created. For more information, see PowerShell Issue Indicates the cmdlet should preserve the Authorization header, when present, across redirections. By default, the cmdlet strips the Authorization header before redirecting.

Specifying this parameter disables this logic for cases where the header needs to be sent to the redirection location. Uses a proxy server for the request, rather than connecting directly to the internet resource. Specifies a user account that has permission to use the proxy server that is specified by the Proxy parameter. This parameter is valid only when the Proxy parameter is also used in the command.

Indicates that the cmdlet uses the credentials of the current user to access the proxy server that is specified by the Proxy parameter. Creates a Response Headers Dictionary and saves it in the value of the specified variable. The keys of the dictionary will contain the field names of the Response Header returned by the web server and the values will be the respective field values.

Performs a best effort attempt to resume downloading a partial file. The Resume parameter requires the OutFile parameter. Resume only operates on the size of the local file and remote file and performs no other validation that the local file and the remote file are the same.

If the local file size is smaller than the remote file size, then the cmdlet will attempt to resume downloading the file and append the remaining bytes to the end of the file. If the local file size is the same as the remote file size, then no action is taken and the cmdlet assumes the download already completed. You may now call the CopyFile function.

Methods that are added with Add-Type must be public to easily interact with them in Windows PowerShell. I then call Add-Type and provide the C source code, a type name, and a namespace.

The -PassThru parameter tells it to output the type definition. The previous example simply copies calc. These indicate that you are calling a static. NET method. All static methods are called this way in Windows PowerShell.

Copies a file from one location to another including files contained within DeviceObject paths. Specifies the path to the location where the item is to be copied. Do not copy the file if it already exists in the specified destination. An error occured. Display the Win32 error set by CopyFile. The only code in the Copy-RawItem that warrants explanation is the last few lines where error checking occurs. Win32Exception object.

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