Integrate PowerShell into Visual Studio with a custom Debug Visualizer

A visualizer creates an interface to display a variable or object in a meaningful way.

I am demonstrating an approach for integrating the PowerShell scripting engine into a C# WinForms application and making it available during visual studio debug sessions.

Quick Start

The quickest way to get working is to add these two attributes to your class you want to visualize.

[DebuggerVisualizer(typeof(PoSHVisualizer.PoSHVisualizer))]
[Serializable]

Stepping through your code, any variable defined of this type can be inspected in the visualizer by clicking on the magnifying glass.

The PowerShell visualizer is launched and you have access to the full suite of PowerShell cmdlets, the environment and your object has been injected.

A simple command line editor is presented where you can type PowerShell commands, press F5 and see the results (and errors).

Most importantly your live object is ready to work with in the PowerShell environment and you can act on it directly. Change it, inspect it or Export-Csv it.

Download

I’ve posted the PowerShell Debug Visualizer on CodePlex.