Powershell don't catch exception from NewWebServiceProxy - web-services

Question

I have a problem with catching exception from NewWebServiceProxy cmdlet
try {
$myService = New-WebServiceProxy -Uri "http://localhost/someservice.svc"
}
catch {
Write-Log ([string]::Format("Error : {0}", $_.Exception.Message))
}
When I run it i get this unhandled exception : New-WebServiceProxy :
The request failed with HTTP status 404: Not Found. At
C:\Users\SomeUser\AppData\Local\Temp\d052b604-38ad-4827-b952-4ebc66e79c69.ps1:2
char:18
+ $myService = New-WebServiceProxy -Uri "http://localhost/someservice.svc"
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (http://localhost/someservice.svc:Uri) [New-WebServiceProxy], WebExc
eption
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewWebServiceProxy
Somebody could ask me why try catch do not catch this exception ? Thanks for any aswer

Answer 1

This is one of the most common issues while catching an unhandled exception in powershell. You need to use -ErrorAction Stop in the command New-WebServiceProxy
try {
$myService = New-WebServiceProxy -Uri "http://localhost/someservice.svc" -ErrorAction Stop
}
catch [System.Net.WebException]{
Write-Log ([string]::Format("Error : {0}", $_.Exception.Message))
}
Updated: To catch Http exception include [System.Net.WebException] as noted by Keith Hill in the comment below.

Answer 2

What helped me was doing something more like
try{
New-WebServiceProxy -URI $webURL -ErrorAction Stop
}
catch [System.Net.WebException] {
return [PSCustomObject]#{
SOAPStatus = 'Failed'
SOAPException = $_.Exception.Message
SOAPInnerException = $_.Exception.InnerException.Message
}
}
catch {
return [PSCustomObject]#{
SOAPStatus = 'Failed'
SOAPError = $_.Exception.Message
}
}
By catching the inner exception I found I would get the web response as well if there was an issue with it. Which usually in these cases there was something like this for output:
SOAPStatus : Failed
SOAPException : There was an error downloading 'http://webserviceurl.com:1010/SystemServiceQuery'.
SOAPInnerException : The request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.
Of course you could then capture what type of innerexception and give more useful feedback to your users and such.