can User profile synchronization be started from a web service?

Question

I'm trying to kick off the user profile syc using a web service. Here is what i've tried :

[WebMethod]
        public string runUserProfileService()
        {
            var message = "";

            using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://servernamehere/"))
            {
                site.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
                SPServiceContext context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(site);
                UserProfileConfigManager upcm = new UserProfileConfigManager(context);

                if (!upcm.IsSynchronizationRunning())
                {
                    try
                    {
                        upcm.StartSynchronization();
                        message = "running";
                        return message;
                    }
                    catch (Exception ex)
                    {
                        message = ex.Message;
                        return message;
                    }
                }

                message = "running";
            }

            return message;
        }

Here is the exception that I continue to get:

The security validation for this page is invalid. Click Back in your Web browser, refresh the page, and try your operation again.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks,

Answer 1

Try adding

Context.Items["FormDigestValidated"] = true;
SPUtility.ValidateFormDigest();

to the beginning of your method.

Edit:

Revised code above.