/\/\o\/\/ PowerShelled

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Saving a WMI instance to a XML-file from MSH

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if you want to save all the information of the win32_operatingsystem WMI class to an XML file,it's as easy as this in Monad :

([xml](get-WMIObject win32_operatingsystem).GetText("WmiDtd20")).save("c:\os.xml")

You can open this file in IE to see how it looks, but as you can see below and in the entry "Read the raw Monad XML helpfiles " Monad has also some nice way's to walk the XML

Some more info and examples :

# get methodinfo

MSH>(get-WMIObject win32_operatingsystem).GetText


MemberType          : Method
OverloadDefinitions : {System.String GetText(TextFormat format)}
TypeOfValue         : System.Management.Automation.MshMethod
Value               : System.String GetText(TextFormat format)
Name                : GetText
IsInstance          : True

# get the full Classname

MSH>(get-WMIObject win32_operatingsystem).GetText("foo")
Cannot convert argument "0", with value: "lol", for "GetText" to type "System.Management.TextFormat".
At line:1 char:46

# get the formats

[enum]::getnames([System.Management.TextFormat])
Mof
CimDtd20
WmiDtd20

# get te MOF text

(get-WMIObject win32_operatingsystem).GetText("Mof")

# get the XML text.

MSH>(get-WMIObject win32_operatingsystem).GetText("WmiDtd20")
<INSTANCE CLASSNAME="Win32_OperatingSystem"><QUALIFIER NAME="dynamic" PROPAGATED="true" TYPE="boolean" TOSUBCLASS="false" TOINSTANCE="true"
><VALUE>TRUE</VALUE></QUALIFIER><QUALIFIER NAME="Locale" PROPAGATED="true" TYPE="sint32" TOSUBCLASS="false" TOINSTANCE="true"><VALUE>1033</
...
....

# get the instance to an XML document

[xml]$os = (get-WMIObject win32_operatingsystem).GetText("WmiDtd20")

MSH>$os

INSTANCE
--------
INSTANCE


MSH>$os.INSTANCE

CLASSNAME                          QUALIFIER                          PROPERTY                           PROPERTY.ARRAY
---------                          ---------                          --------                           --------------
Win32_OperatingSystem              {dynamic, Locale, provider, UUID}  {__PATH, __NAMESPACE, __SERVER,... PROPERTY.ARRAY


MSH>$os.INSTANCE.property

NAME                               CLASSORIGIN                        TYPE                               VALUE
----                               -----------                        ----                               -----
__PATH                             ___SYSTEM                          string                             \\puter\root\cimv2:Win32_O...
__NAMESPACE                        ___SYSTEM                          string                             root\cimv2
...
...

# a single property 

MSH>$os.INSTANCE.property[10]


NAME        : BuildNumber
CLASSORIGIN : Win32_OperatingSystem
TYPE        : string
QUALIFIER   : QUALIFIER
VALUE       : 2600


# back to XML

MSH>,$os.INSTANCE.property[10].get_OuterXml()
<PROPERTY NAME="BuildNumber" CLASSORIGIN="Win32_OperatingSystem" TYPE="string"><QUALIFIER NAME="CIMTYPE" PROPAGATED="true" TYPE="string" TO
INSTANCE="true"><VALUE>string</VALUE></QUALIFIER><VALUE>2600</VALUE></PROPERTY>

# count properties

MSH>$os.INSTANCE.property.count
70

# list propertynames

MSH>$os.INSTANCE.property | foreach {$_.name}
__PATH
__NAMESPACE
__SERVER
__PROPERTY_COUNT
__RELPATH
__DYNASTY
__SUPERCLASS
__CLASS
__GENUS
BootDevice
BuildNumber
BuildType
Caption
CodeSet
CountryCode
....

# Save The XML to a XML file 

$os.save("c:\os.xml")

you might think that you can do that from the WMI object also and more easy maybe, but think about it that we are working with a file, you can send it to someone and they can do the same querying with it, or apply formatting.

Also you can process this XML to create a webpage or something, using styles and Xpath.

I thinking about a entry about searching XML from MSH using Xpath etc, and firing up a treeview from MSH but my XML needs a freshup first.

but you can see there are a lot more of uses of having this info in XML format.

gr /\/\o\/\/

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