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Designing Your Windows PowerShell Provider

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You should implement a Windows PowerShell provider if your product or configuration exposes a set of stored data, such as a database that the user will want to navigate or browse. Additionally, if your product provides a container, even if it is not a multilevel container, it makes sense to implement a Windows PowerShell provider. For example, you might want to implement a Windows PowerShell container provider if the cmdlet verb Copy, Move, Rename, New, or Remove makes sense as an operation on your product or configuration data.

Windows PowerShell Paths Identify Your Provider

The Windows PowerShell runtime uses Windows PowerShell paths to access the appropriate Windows PowerShell provider. When a cmdlet specifies one of these paths, the runtime knows which provider to use to access the associated data store. These paths include drive-qualified paths, provider-qualified paths, provider-direct paths, and provider-internal paths. Each Windows PowerShell provider must support one or more of these paths.

For more information about Windows PowerShell paths, see How Windows PowerShell Works.

Defining a Drive-Qualified Path

To allow the user to access data located at a physical drive, your Windows PowerShell provider must support a drive-qualified path. This path starts with the drive name followed by a colon (:), for example, mydrive:\abc\bar.

Defining a Provider-Qualified Path

To allow the Windows PowerShell runtime to initialize and uninitialize the provider, your Windows PowerShell provider must support a provider-qualified path. For example, FileSystem::\\uncshare\abc\bar is the provider-qualified path for the filesystem provider furnished by Windows PowerShell.

Defining a Provider-Direct Path

To allow remote access to your Windows PowerShell provider, it should support a provider-direct path to pass directly to the Windows PowerShell provider for the current location. For example, the registry Windows PowerShell provider can use \\server\regkeypath as a provider-direct path.

Defining a Provider-Internal Path

To allow the provider cmdlet to access data using non-Windows PowerShell application programming interfaces (APIs), your Windows PowerShell provider should support a provider-internal path. This path is indicated after the "::" in the provider-qualified path. For example, the provider-internal path for the filesystem Windows PowerShell provider is \\uncshare\abc\bar.

Changing Stored Data

When overriding methods that modify the underlying data store, always call the System.Management.Automation.Provider.Cmdletprovider.Writeitemobject* method with the most up-to-date version of the item changed by that method. The provider infrastructure determines if the item object needs to be passed to the pipeline, such as when the user specifies the -PassThru parameter. If retrieving the most up-to-date item is a costly operation (performance-wise,) you can test the Context.PassThru property to determine if you actually need to write the resulting item.

Choose a Base Class for Your Provider

Windows PowerShell provides a number of base classes that you can use to implement your own Windows PowerShell provider. When designing a provider, choose the base class, described in this section, that is most suited to your requirements.

Each Windows PowerShell provider base class makes available a set of cmdlets. This section describes the cmdlets, but it does not describe their parameters.

Using the session state, the Windows PowerShell runtime makes several location cmdlets available to certain Windows PowerShell providers, such as the Get-Location, Set-Location, Pop-Location, and Push-Location cmdlets. You can use the Get-Help cmdlet to obtain information about these location cmdlets.

CmdletProvider Base Class

The System.Management.Automation.Provider.Cmdletprovider class defines a basic Windows PowerShell provider. This class supports the provider declaration and supplies a number of properties and methods that are available to all Windows PowerShell providers. The class is invoked by the Get-PSProvider cmdlet to list all available providers for a session. The implementation of this cmdlet is furnished by the session state.

Note

Windows PowerShell providers are available to all Windows PowerShell language scopes.

DriveCmdletProvider Base Class

The System.Management.Automation.Provider.Drivecmdletprovider class defines a Windows PowerShell drive provider that supports operations for adding new drives, removing existing drives, and initializing default drives. For example, the FileSystem provider provided by Windows PowerShell initializes drives for all volumes that are mounted, such as hard drives and CD/DVD device drives.

This class derives from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.Cmdletprovider base class. The following table lists the cmdlets exposed by this class. In addition to those listed, the Get-PSDrive cmdlet (exposed by session state) is a related cmdlet that is used to retrieve available drives.

Cmdlet Definition
New-PSDrive Creates a new drive for the session, and streams drive information.
Remove-PSDrive Removes a drive from the session.

ItemCmdletProvider Base Class

The System.Management.Automation.Provider.Itemcmdletprovider class defines a Windows PowerShell item provider that performs operations on the individual items of the data store, and it does not assume any container or navigation capabilities. This class derives from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.Drivecmdletprovider base class. The following table lists the cmdlets exposed by this class.

Cmdlet Definition
Clear-Item Clears the current content of items at the specified location, and replaces it with the "clear" value specified by the provider. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.
Get-Item Retrieves items from the specified location, and streams the resultant objects.
Invoke-Item Invokes the default action for the item at the specified path.
Set-Item Sets an item at the specified location with the indicated value. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.
Resolve-Path Resolves the wildcards for a Windows PowerShell path, and streams path information.
Test-Path Tests for the specified path, and returns true if it exists and false otherwise. This cmdlet is implemented to support the IsContainer parameter for the System.Management.Automation.Provider.Cmdletprovider.Writeitemobject* method.

ContainerCmdletProvider Base Class

The System.Management.Automation.Provider.Containercmdletprovider class defines a Windows PowerShell container provider that exposes a container, for data store items, to the user. Be aware that a Windows PowerShell container provider can be used only when there is one container (no nested containers) with items in it. If there are nested containers, then you must implement a Windows PowerShell navigation provider .

This class derives from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.Itemcmdletprovider base class. The following table defines the cmdlets implemented by this class.

Cmdlet Definition
Copy-Item Copies items from one location to another. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.
Get-Childitem Retrieves the child items at the specified location, and streams them as objects.
New-Item Creates new items at the specified location, and streams the resultant object.
Remove-Item Removes items from the specified location.
Rename-Item Renames an item at the specified location. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.

The System.Management.Automation.Provider.Navigationcmdletprovider class defines a Windows PowerShell navigation provider that performs operations for items that use more than one container. This class derives from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.Containercmdletprovider base class. The following table list the cmdlets exposed by this class.

Cmdlet Definition
Combine-Path Combines two paths into a single path, using a provider-specific delimiter between paths. This cmdlet streams strings.
Move-Item Moves items to the specified location. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.

A related cmdlet is the basic Parse-Path cmdlet furnished by Windows PowerShell. This cmdlet can be used to parse a Windows PowerShell path to support the Parent parameter. It streams the parent path string.

Select Provider Interfaces to Support

In addition to deriving from one of the Windows PowerShell base classes, your Windows PowerShell provider can support other functionality by deriving from one or more of the following provider interfaces. This section defines those interfaces and the cmdlets supported by each. It does not describe the parameters for the interface-supported cmdlets. Cmdlet parameter information is available online using the Get-Command and Get-Help cmdlets.

IContentCmdletProvider

The System.Management.Automation.Provider.Icontentcmdletprovider interface defines a content provider that performs operations on the content of a data item. The following table lists the cmdlets exposed by this interface.

Cmdlet Definition
Add-Content Appends the indicated value lengths to the contents of the specified item. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.
Clear-Content Sets the content of the specified item to the "clear" value. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.
Get-Content Retrieves the contents of the specified items and streams the resultant objects.
Set-Content Replaces the existing content for the specified items. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.

IPropertyCmdletProvider

The System.Management.Automation.Provider.Ipropertycmdletprovider interface defines a property Windows PowerShell provider that performs operations on the properties of items in the data store. The following table lists the cmdlets exposed by this interface.

Note

The Path parameter on these cmdlets indicates a path to an item instead of identifying a property.

Cmdlet Definition
Clear-ItemProperty Sets properties of the specified items to the "clear" value. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.
Get-ItemProperty Retrieves properties from the specified items and streams the resultant objects.
Set-ItemProperty Sets properties of the specified items with the indicated values. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.

IDynamicPropertyCmdletProvider

The System.Management.Automation.Provider.Idynamicpropertycmdletprovider interface, derived from System.Management.Automation.Provider.Ipropertycmdletprovider, defines a provider that specifies dynamic parameters for its supported cmdlets. This type of provider handles operations for which properties can be defined at run time, for example, a new property operation. Such operations are not possible on items having statically defined properties. The following table lists the cmdlets exposed by this interface.

Cmdlet Definition
Copy-ItemProperty Copies a property from the specified item to another item. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.
Move-ItemProperty Moves a property from the specified item to another item. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.
New-ItemProperty Creates a property on the specified items and streams the resultant objects.
Remove-ItemProperty Removes a property for the specified items.
Rename-ItemProperty Renames a property of the specified items. This cmdlet does not pass an output object through the pipeline unless its PassThru parameter is specified.

ISecurityDescriptorCmdletProvider

The System.Management.Automation.Provider.Isecuritydescriptorcmdletprovider interface adds security descriptor functionality to a provider. This interface allows the user to get and set security descriptor information for an item in the data store. The following table lists the cmdlets exposed by this interface.

Cmdlet Definition
Get-Acl Retrieves the information contained in an access control list (ACL), which is part of a security descriptor used to guard operating system resources, for example, a file or an object.
Set-Acl Sets the information for an ACL. It is in the form of an instance of System.Security.Accesscontrol.Objectsecurity on the item(s) designated for the specified path. This cmdlet can set information about files, keys, and subkeys in the registry, or any other provider item, if the Windows PowerShell provider supports the setting of security information.

See Also

Creating Windows PowerShell Providers

How Windows PowerShell Works

Windows PowerShell SDK