How do I get around PowerShell not binding pipeline parameters until after BeginProcessing is called?

Question

I'm writing a Cmdlet that can be called in the middle of a pipeline. With this Cmdlet, there are parameters that have the ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName attribute defined so that the Cmdlet can use parameters with the same names that are defined earlier in the pipeline.

The paradox that I've run into is in the overridden BeginProcessing() method, I utilize one of the parameters that can get its value bound from the pipeline. According to the Cmdlet Processing Lifecycle, the binding of pipeline parameters does not occur until after BeginProcessing() is called. Therefore, it seems that I'm unable to rely on pipeline bound parameters if they're attempting to be used in BeginProcessing().

I've thought about moving things to the ProcessRecord() method. Unfortunately, there is a one time, relatively expensive operation that needs to occur. The best place for this to happen seems to be in the BeginProcessing() method to help ensure that it only happens once in the pipeline.

A few questions question surrounding this:

1. Is there a good way around this?
2. These same parameters also have the Mandatory attribute set on them. How can I even get this far without PowerShell complaining about not having these required parameters?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

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Update

I took out the second part of the question as I realized I just didn't understand pipeline bound parameters well enough. I mistakingly thought that pipeline bound parameters came from the previous Cmdlet that executed in the pipeline. The actually come from the object being passed through the pipeline! I referenced a post by Keith Hill to help understand this.

Answer 1

You could set an instance field bool (Init) to false in BeginProcessing. Then check to see if the parameter is set in BeginProcessing. If it is then call a method that does the one time init (InitMe). In ProcessRecord check the value of Init and if it is false, then call InitMe. InitMe should set Init to true before returning.

Regarding your second question, if you've marked the parameter as mandatory then it must be supplied either as a parameter or via the pipeline. Are you using multiple parameter sets? If so, then even if a parameter is marked as mandatory, it is only mandatory if the associated parameter set is the one that is determined by PowerShell to be in use for a particular invocation of the cmdlet.