Creating a Windows PowerShell item provider
This topic describes how to create a Windows PowerShell provider that can manipulate the data in a data store. In this topic, the elements of data in the store are referred to as the "items" of the data store. As a consequence, a provider that can manipulate the data in the store is referred to as a Windows PowerShell item provider.
Note
You can download the C# source file (AccessDBSampleProvider03.cs
) for this provider using the
Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit for Windows Vista and .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime
Components. For download instructions, see
How to Install Windows PowerShell and Download the Windows PowerShell SDK.
The downloaded source files are available in the PowerShell Samples
directory. For more
information about other Windows PowerShell provider implementations, see
Designing Your Windows PowerShell Provider.
The Windows PowerShell item provider described in this topic gets items of data from an Access database. In this case, an "item" is either a table in the Access database or a row in a table.
Defining the Windows PowerShell item provider class
A Windows PowerShell item provider must define a .NET class that derives from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider base class. The following is the class definition for the item provider described in this section.
[CmdletProvider("AccessDB", ProviderCapabilities.None)]
public class AccessDBProvider : ItemCmdletProvider
Note that in this class definition, the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProviderAttribute attribute includes two parameters. The first parameter specifies a user-friendly name for the provider that is used by Windows PowerShell. The second parameter specifies the Windows PowerShell specific capabilities that the provider exposes to the Windows PowerShell runtime during command processing. For this provider, there are no added Windows PowerShell specific capabilities.
Defining base functionality
As described in Design Your Windows PowerShell Provider, the System.Management.Automation.Provider.DriveCmdletProvider class derives from several other classes that provided different provider functionality. A Windows PowerShell item provider, therefore, must define all of the functionality provided by those classes.
For more information about how to implement functionality for adding session-specific initialization information and for releasing resources used by the provider, see Creating a Basic Windows PowerShell Provider. However, most providers, including the provider described here, can use the default implementation of this functionality that is provided by Windows PowerShell.
Before the Windows PowerShell item provider can manipulate the items in the store, it must implement the methods of the System.Management.Automation.Provider.DriveCmdletProvider base class to access to the data store. For more information about implementing this class, see Creating a Windows PowerShell Drive Provider.
Checking for path validity
When looking for an item of data, the Windows PowerShell runtime furnishes a Windows PowerShell path
to the provider, as defined in the "PSPath Concepts" section of
How Windows PowerShell Works. A Windows PowerShell item
provider must verify the syntactic and semantic validity of any path passed to it by implementing
the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.IsValidPath
method. This method returns true
if the path is valid, and false
otherwise. Be aware that the
implementation of this method should not verify the existence of the item at the path, but only that
the path is syntactically and semantically correct.
Here is the implementation of the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.IsValidPath method for this provider. Note that this implementation calls a NormalizePath helper method to convert all separators in the path to a uniform one.
protected override bool IsValidPath(string path)
{
bool result = true;
// check if the path is null or empty
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(path))
{
result = false;
}
// convert all separators in the path to a uniform one
path = NormalizePath(path);
// split the path into individual chunks
string[] pathChunks = path.Split(pathSeparator.ToCharArray());
foreach (string pathChunk in pathChunks)
{
if (pathChunk.Length == 0)
{
result = false;
}
}
return result;
} // IsValidPath
Determining if an item exists
After verifying the path, the Windows PowerShell runtime must determine if an item of data exists at
that path. To support this type of query, the Windows PowerShell item provider implements the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ItemExists
method. This method returns true
an item is found at the specified path and false
(default)
otherwise.
Here is the implementation of the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ItemExists method for this provider. Note that this method calls the PathIsDrive, ChunkPath, and GetTable helper methods, and uses a provider defined DatabaseTableInfo object.
protected override bool ItemExists(string path)
{
// check if the path represented is a drive
if (PathIsDrive(path))
{
return true;
}
// Obtain type, table name and row number from path
string tableName;
int rowNumber;
PathType type = GetNamesFromPath(path, out tableName, out rowNumber);
DatabaseTableInfo table = GetTable(tableName);
if (type == PathType.Table)
{
// if specified path represents a table then DatabaseTableInfo
// object for the same should exist
if (table != null)
{
return true;
}
}
else if (type == PathType.Row)
{
// if specified path represents a row then DatabaseTableInfo should
// exist for the table and then specified row number must be within
// the maximum row count in the table
if (table != null && rowNumber < table.RowCount)
{
return true;
}
}
return false;
} // ItemExists
Things to remember about implementing ItemExists
The following conditions may apply to your implementation of System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ItemExists:
- When defining the provider class, a Windows PowerShell item provider might declare provider
capabilities of
ExpandWildcards
,Filter
,Include
, orExclude
, from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ProviderCapabilities enumeration. In these cases, the implementation of the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ItemExists method must ensure that the path passed to the method meets the requirements of the specified capabilities. To do this, the method should access the appropriate property, for example, the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Exclude and System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Include properties. - The implementation of this method should handle any form of access to the item that might make the
item visible to the user. For example, if a user has write access to a file through the FileSystem
provider (supplied by Windows PowerShell), but not read access, the file still exists and
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ItemExists
returns
true
. Your implementation might require checking a parent item to see if the child item can be enumerated.
Attaching dynamic parameters to the Test-Path cmdlet
Sometimes the Test-Path
cmdlet that calls
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ItemExists
requires additional parameters that are specified dynamically at runtime. To provide these dynamic
parameters the Windows PowerShell item provider must implement the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ItemExistsDynamicParameters
method. This method retrieves the dynamic parameters for the item at the indicated path and returns
an object that has properties and fields with parsing attributes similar to a cmdlet class or a
System.Management.Automation.RuntimeDefinedParameterDictionary
object. The Windows PowerShell runtime uses the returned object to add the parameters to the
Test-Path
cmdlet.
This Windows PowerShell item provider does not implement this method. However, the following code is the default implementation of this method.
Retrieving an item
To retrieve an item, the Windows PowerShell item provider must override
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.GetItem
method to support calls from the Get-Item
cmdlet. This method writes the item using the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.WriteItemObject
method.
Here is the implementation of the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.GetItem method for this provider. Note that this method uses the GetTable and GetRow helper methods to retrieve items that are either tables in the Access database or rows in a data table.
protected override void GetItem(string path)
{
// check if the path represented is a drive
if (PathIsDrive(path))
{
WriteItemObject(this.PSDriveInfo, path, true);
return;
}// if (PathIsDrive...
// Get table name and row information from the path and do
// necessary actions
string tableName;
int rowNumber;
PathType type = GetNamesFromPath(path, out tableName, out rowNumber);
if (type == PathType.Table)
{
DatabaseTableInfo table = GetTable(tableName);
WriteItemObject(table, path, true);
}
else if (type == PathType.Row)
{
DatabaseRowInfo row = GetRow(tableName, rowNumber);
WriteItemObject(row, path, false);
}
else
{
ThrowTerminatingInvalidPathException(path);
}
} // GetItem
Things to remember about implementing GetItem
The following conditions may apply to an implementation of System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.GetItem:
When defining the provider class, a Windows PowerShell item provider might declare provider capabilities of
ExpandWildcards
,Filter
,Include
, orExclude
, from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ProviderCapabilities enumeration. In these cases, the implementation of System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.GetItem must ensure that the path passed to the method meets those requirements. To do this, the method should access the appropriate property, for example, the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Exclude and System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Include properties.By default, overrides of this method should not retrieve objects that are generally hidden from the user unless the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Force property is set to
true
. For example, the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.GetItem method for the FileSystem provider checks the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Force property before it attempts to call System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.WriteItemObject for hidden or system files.
Attaching dynamic parameters to the Get-Item cmdlet
Sometimes the Get-Item
cmdlet requires additional parameters that are specified dynamically at
runtime. To provide these dynamic parameters the Windows PowerShell item provider must implement the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.GetItemDynamicParameters
method. This method retrieves the dynamic parameters for the item at the indicated path and returns
an object that has properties and fields with parsing attributes similar to a cmdlet class or a
System.Management.Automation.RuntimeDefinedParameterDictionary
object. The Windows PowerShell runtime uses the returned object to add the parameters to the
Get-Item
cmdlet.
This provider does not implement this method. However, the following code is the default implementation of this method.
Setting an item
To set an item, the Windows PowerShell item provider must override the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.SetItem
method to support calls from the Set-Item
cmdlet. This method sets the value of the item at the
specified path.
This provider does not provide an override for the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.SetItem method. However, the following is the default implementation of this method.
Things to remember about implementing SetItem
The following conditions may apply to your implementation of System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.SetItem:
When defining the provider class, a Windows PowerShell item provider might declare provider capabilities of
ExpandWildcards
,Filter
,Include
, orExclude
, from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ProviderCapabilities enumeration. In these cases, the implementation of System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.SetItem must ensure that the path passed to the method meets those requirements. To do this, the method should access the appropriate property, for example, the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Exclude and System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Include properties.By default, overrides of this method should not set or write objects that are hidden from the user unless the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Force property is set to
true
. An error should be sent to the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.WriteError method if the path represents a hidden item and System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Force is set tofalse
.Your implementation of the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.SetItem method should call System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.ShouldProcess and verify its return value before making any changes to the data store. This method is used to confirm execution of an operation when a change is made to the data store, for example, deleting files. The System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.ShouldProcess method sends the name of the resource to be changed to the user, with the Windows PowerShell runtime taking into account any command-line settings or preference variables in determining what should be displayed.
After the call to System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.ShouldProcess returns
true
, the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.SetItem method should call the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.ShouldContinue method. This method sends a message to the user to allow feedback to verify if the operation should be continued. The call to System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.ShouldContinue allows an additional check for potentially dangerous system modifications.
Retrieving dynamic parameters for SetItem
Sometimes the Set-Item
cmdlet requires additional parameters that are specified dynamically at
runtime. To provide these dynamic parameters the Windows PowerShell item provider must implement the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.SetItemDynamicParameters
method. This method retrieves the dynamic parameters for the item at the indicated path and returns
an object that has properties and fields with parsing attributes similar to a cmdlet class or a
System.Management.Automation.RuntimeDefinedParameterDictionary
object. The Windows PowerShell runtime uses the returned object to add the parameters to the
Set-Item
cmdlet.
This provider does not implement this method. However, the following code is the default implementation of this method.
Clearing an item
To clear an item, the Windows PowerShell item provider implements the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ClearItem
method to support calls from the Clear-Item
cmdlet. This method erases the data item at the
specified path.
This provider does not implement this method. However, the following code is the default implementation of this method.
Things to remember about implementing ClearItem
The following conditions may apply to an implementation of System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ClearItem:
When defining the provider class, a Windows PowerShell item provider might declare provider capabilities of
ExpandWildcards
,Filter
,Include
, orExclude
, from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ProviderCapabilities enumeration. In these cases, the implementation of System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ClearItem must ensure that the path passed to the method meets those requirements. To do this, the method should access the appropriate property, for example, the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Exclude and System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Include properties.By default, overrides of this method should not set or write objects that are hidden from the user unless the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Force property is set to
true
. An error should be sent to the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.WriteError method if the path represents an item that is hidden from the user and System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Force is set tofalse
.Your implementation of the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.SetItem method should call System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.ShouldProcess and verify its return value before making any changes to the data store. This method is used to confirm execution of an operation when a change is made to the data store, for example, deleting files. The System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.ShouldProcess method sends the name of the resource to be changed to the user, with the Windows PowerShell runtime and handle any command-line settings or preference variables in determining what should be displayed.
After the call to System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.ShouldProcess returns
true
, the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.SetItem method should call the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.ShouldContinue method. This method sends a message to the user to allow feedback to verify if the operation should be continued. The call to System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.ShouldContinue allows an additional check for potentially dangerous system modifications.
Retrieve dynamic parameters for ClearItem
Sometimes the Clear-Item
cmdlet requires additional parameters that are specified dynamically at
runtime. To provide these dynamic parameters the Windows PowerShell item provider must implement the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.ClearItemDynamicParameters
method. This method retrieves the dynamic parameters for the item at the indicated path and returns
an object that has properties and fields with parsing attributes similar to a cmdlet class or a
System.Management.Automation.RuntimeDefinedParameterDictionary
object. The Windows PowerShell runtime uses the returned object to add the parameters to the
Clear-Item
cmdlet.
This item provider does not implement this method. However, the following code is the default implementation of this method.
Performing a default action for an item
A Windows PowerShell item provider can implement the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.InvokeDefaultAction
method to support calls from the Invoke-Item
cmdlet, which allows the provider to perform a
default action for the item at the specified path. For example, the FileSystem provider might use
this method to call ShellExecute for a specific item.
This provider does not implement this method. However, the following code is the default implementation of this method.
Things to remember about implementing InvokeDefaultAction
The following conditions may apply to an implementation of System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.InvokeDefaultAction:
When defining the provider class, a Windows PowerShell item provider might declare provider capabilities of
ExpandWildcards
,Filter
,Include
, orExclude
, from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ProviderCapabilities enumeration. In these cases, the implementation of System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.InvokeDefaultAction must ensure that the path passed to the method meets those requirements. To do this, the method should access the appropriate property, for example, the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Exclude and System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Include properties.By default, overrides of this method should not set or write objects hidden from the user unless the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Force property is set to
true
. An error should be sent to the System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.WriteError method if the path represents an item that is hidden from the user and System.Management.Automation.Provider.CmdletProvider.Force is set tofalse
.
Retrieve dynamic parameters for InvokeDefaultAction
Sometimes the Invoke-Item
cmdlet requires additional parameters that are specified dynamically at
runtime. To provide these dynamic parameters the Windows PowerShell item provider must implement the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.InvokeDefaultActionDynamicParameters
method. This method retrieves the dynamic parameters for the item at the indicated path and returns
an object that has properties and fields with parsing attributes similar to a cmdlet class or a
System.Management.Automation.RuntimeDefinedParameterDictionary
object. The Windows PowerShell runtime uses the returned object to add the dynamic parameters to the
Invoke-Item
cmdlet.
This item provider does not implement this method. However, the following code is the default implementation of this method.
Implementing helper methods and classes
This item provider implements several helper methods and classes that are used by the public override methods defined by Windows PowerShell. The code for these helper methods and classes are shown in the Code Sample section.
NormalizePath method
This item provider implements a NormalizePath helper method to ensure that the path has a
consistent format. The format specified uses a backslash (\
) as a separator.
PathIsDrive method
This item provider implements a PathIsDrive helper method to determine if the specified path is actually the drive name.
ChunkPath method
This item provider implements a ChunkPath helper method that breaks up the specified path so that the provider can identify its individual elements. It returns an array composed of the path elements.
GetTable method
This item provider implements the GetTables helper method that returns a DatabaseTableInfo object that represents information about the table specified in the call.
GetRow method
The System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider.GetItem method of this item provider calls the GetRows helper method. This helper method retrieves a DatabaseRowInfo object that represents information about the specified row in the table.
DatabaseTableInfo class
This item provider defines a DatabaseTableInfo class that represents a collection of information in a data table in the database. This class is similar to the System.IO.Directoryinfo class.
The sample item provider defines a DatabaseTableInfo.GetTables method that returns a collection of table information objects defining the tables in the database. This method includes a try/catch block to ensure that any database error shows up as a row with zero entries.
DatabaseRowInfo class
This item provider defines the DatabaseRowInfo helper class that represents a row in a table of the database. This class is similar to the System.IO.FileInfo class.
The sample provider defines a DatabaseRowInfo.GetRows method to return a collection of row information objects for the specified table. This method includes a try/catch block to trap exceptions. Any errors will result in no row information.
Code sample
For complete sample code, see AccessDbProviderSample03 Code Sample.
Defining object types and formatting
When writing a provider, it may be necessary to add members to existing objects or define new objects. When finished, create a Types file that Windows PowerShell can use to identify the members of the object and a Format file that defines how the object is displayed. For more information, see Extending Object Types and Formatting.
Building the Windows PowerShell provider
See How to Register Cmdlets, Providers, and Host Applications.
Testing the Windows PowerShell provider
When this Windows PowerShell item provider is registered with Windows PowerShell, you can only test the basic and drive functionality of the provider. To test the manipulation of items, you must also implement container functionality described in Implementing a Container Windows PowerShell Provider.
See also
- Windows PowerShell SDK
- Windows PowerShell Programmer's Guide
- Creating Windows PowerShell Providers
- Designing Your Windows PowerShell provider
- Extending Object Types and Formatting
- How Windows PowerShell Works
- Creating a Container Windows PowerShell provider
- Creating a Drive Windows PowerShell provider
- How to Register Cmdlets, Providers, and Host Applications
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