How to GetSearchCenterUrl from UserProfileApplicationProxy

Question

I want to get the my site host's configured search center URL for the user profile applicaiton (UPA), but the UserProfileApplicationProxy class is internal, as all the other UPA classes in the Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration namespace.

How to achive something like this:

SPServiceContext current = SPServiceContext.Current;
UserProfileApplicationProxy proxy = (UserProfileApplicationProxy)current.GetDefaultProxy(typeof(UserProfileApplicationProxy));
string searchCenterUrl = proxy.GetSearchCenterUrl(ServerApplication.CurrentUrlZone, current);

Answer 1

Here is the solution I have used. I adapted it from the following blog post: http://pholpar.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/getting-the-my-site-host-url-from-code/

        /// <summary>
    /// Retreives the search centre URL as defined in the User Profile Service Application
    /// Adapted from http://pholpar.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/getting-the-my-site-host-url-from-code/
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="site">Site Collection</param>
    /// <returns>URL of Search Centre</returns>
    private string GetSearchCentreUrl(SPSite site)
    {
        if (site == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("site", "The Site Collection provided must not be null");
        }

        string searchCentreUrl = null;

        // hack to get the Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles assembly
        Assembly userProfilesAssembly = typeof(UserProfile).Assembly;
        // UserProfileApplication and UserProfileService are internal classes,
        // so you cannot get them directly from Visual Studio
        // like I do with the SPServiceCollection type
        Type userProfileApplicationType = userProfilesAssembly.GetType("Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.UserProfileApplication");
        Type userProfileServiceType = userProfilesAssembly.GetType("Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.UserProfileService");
        Type spServiceCollectionType = typeof(SPServiceCollection);

        // first we call
        // SPFarm.Local.Services.GetValue<UserProfileService>()

        MethodInfo getValueMethod = spServiceCollectionType.GetMethod("GetValue",
                BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance, null, new Type[0], null
                );
        if (getValueMethod != null)
        {
            // get the generic version of GetValue method
            MethodInfo methodInvokeGetValueGeneric = getValueMethod.MakeGenericMethod(userProfileServiceType);
            if (methodInvokeGetValueGeneric != null)
            {
                Object userProfileService = methodInvokeGetValueGeneric.Invoke(SPFarm.Local.Services, null);

                System.Reflection.PropertyInfo applicationsProperty = userProfileServiceType.GetProperty("Applications", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
                if ((applicationsProperty != null) && (userProfileService != null))
                {
                    // Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.UserProfileApplicationCollection
                    Object userProfileApplicationCollection = applicationsProperty.GetValue(userProfileService, null);
                    if (userProfileApplicationCollection != null)
                    {
                        foreach (Object userProfileApplication in (IEnumerable)userProfileApplicationCollection)
                        {
                            // you could compare the id for the service application id
                            // it is useful if there are multiple user profile service application instances
                            // since it is not common I ignore the condition now and exit after the first item

                            //System.Reflection.PropertyInfo pi_Id = userProfileApplicationType.GetProperty("Id", BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
                            //if (pi_Id != null)
                            //{
                            //    Guid id = (Guid)pi_Id.GetValue(userProfileApplication, null);                                    
                            //if (appId == id)
                            //{

                            Type[] parameterTypes = new Type[2] { typeof(SPUrlZone), typeof(SPServiceContext) };
                            MethodInfo getSearchCentreUrlMethod = userProfileApplicationType.GetMethod("GetSearchCenterUrl",
                                BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance, null, parameterTypes, null
                                );
                            if (getSearchCentreUrlMethod != null)
                            {
                                searchCentreUrl = getSearchCentreUrlMethod.Invoke(userProfileApplication, new object[] { site.Zone, SPServiceContext.GetContext(site) }) as string;
                            }

                            break;
                            //}

                            //}
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        return searchCentreUrl;
    }