Invoke-Restmethod: how do I get the return code?

Question

Is there a way to store the return code somewhere when calling Invoke-RestMethod in PowerShell?

My code looks like this:

$url = "http://www.dictionaryapi.com/api/v1/references/collegiate/xml/Adventure?key=MyKeyGoesHere"

$XMLReturned = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Method Get;

I don't see anywhere in my $XMLReturned variable a return code of 200. Where can I find that return code?

score 48 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

48

You have a few options. Option 1 is found here. It pulls the response code from the results found in the exception.

try {
    Invoke-RestMethod ... your parameters here ... 
} catch {
    # Dig into the exception to get the Response details.
    # Note that value__ is not a typo.
    Write-Host "StatusCode:" $_.Exception.Response.StatusCode.value__ 
    Write-Host "StatusDescription:" $_.Exception.Response.StatusDescription
}

Another option is to use the old invoke-webrequest cmdlet found here.

Code copied from there is:

$resp = try { Invoke-WebRequest ... } catch { $_.Exception.Response }

Those are 2 ways of doing it which you can try.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

1
1

answered Jul 27 '16 at 20:28

Ali Razeghi

653
1
6
17

17

The first method requires an exception, so it wouldn't work for the asker's scenario of getting a 200 response. `Invoke-WebRequest` is the way to go; it's not "old"; and it doesn't require `try`/`catch` or an exception. You might want to edit the answer a bit to show that, and to explain that `Invoke-RestMethod` just converts the content from JSON to object automatically, which can be achieved with `iwr` by piping the content to `ConvertFrom-Json`. – briantist Jul 27 '16 at 20:46
Thanks will do so shortly. I just meant old as in invoke-restmethod is supposed to replace it at some point, good call on not needing the catch too though! – Ali Razeghi Jul 27 '16 at 21:33
12

`Invoke-RestMethod` and `Invoke-WebRequest` were added at the same time; neither is a replacement for the other (if anything `iwr` supersedes `irm` since it's more versatile). `irm` is a shortcut for what you could do with `iwr` and `ConvertFrom-Json`, to just make things a bit quicker. I will upvote your answer if you improve it. – briantist Jul 28 '16 at 13:30
It's not clear how this piping to ConvertFrom-Json works. I took the Content (which just looks like a stream of bytes) and piped in to ConvertFrom-Json and got a (you guess it) a stream of bytes. So if this is edited, a little more clarification will be required. – Michael Welch Jun 28 '20 at 22:50
@briantist Invoke-WebRequest for a non-success HTTP message needs try/catch blocks. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/invoke-webrequest?view=powershell-7.1#example-7--catch-non-success-messages-from-invoke-webrequest – Vahid Farahmandian Jul 17 '21 at 09:40

Grilse · Answer 2 · 2022-02-11T09:14:39.207

23

The short answer is: You can't.
You should use Invoke-WebRequest instead.

The two are very similar, the main difference being:

Invoke-RestMethod returns the response body only, conveniently pre-parsed.
Invoke-WebRequest returns the full response, including response headers and status code, but without parsing the response body.

PS> $response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -Method Get

PS> $response.StatusCode
200

PS> $response.Content
(…xml as string…)

edited Feb 11 '22 at 09:14

answered Oct 08 '20 at 11:42

Grilse

3,051
2
23
34

I am using PowerShell to download a JAR file from Artifactory, but the response is empty or nothing, so there is no status code. How I can check if the request was successful? – tarekahf Jan 20 '22 at 17:51

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 02 '21 at 03:04

Invoke-WebRequest would solve your problem

$response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -Method Get
if ($response.StatusCode -lt 300){
   Write-Host $response
}

Try catch the call if you want

try {
   $response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -Method Get
   if ($response.StatusCode -lt 300){
      Write-Host $response
   }
   else {
      Write-Host $response.StatusCode
      Write-Host $response.StatusDescription
   }
}
catch {
   Write-Host $_.Exception.Response.StatusDescription
}

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 25 '22 at 06:05

PowerShell 7 introduced parameter StatusCodeVariable for the Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet. Pass a variable name without the dollar sign ($):

$XMLReturned = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Method Get -StatusCodeVariable 'statusCode'

# Access status code via $statusCode variable

score -2 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 07 '22 at 13:31

-2

I saw some people recommend Invoke-WebRequest. You should know that somehow it's based on IE. I get the following error

The response content cannot be parsed because the Internet Explorer engine is not available, or Internet Explorer's first-launch configuration is not complete. Specify the UseBasicParsing parameter and try again.

I know I probably could open IE the first time but the whole idea of writing a script is to avoid dependencies like IE. Invoke-RestMethod does not have this issue.

answered Mar 07 '22 at 13:31

Baruch Fishman

77
1
1

The exception tells you what to do - pass `-UseBasicParsing` to the command. When invoking a REST method, you don't want the `ParsedHtml` property anyway (not to mention that this will cause the Javascript code of the HTML page to run). See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/invoke-webrequest?view=powershell-5.1 . – Mike Rosoft Mar 18 '22 at 09:25

Invoke-Restmethod: how do I get the return code?

5 Answers5

Linked