WMI Explained and How to use with .NET

WMI is not new but as old as windows. WMI full form is Windows Management Instrumentation, which is basically an interface to the Windows OS system settings, drivers ,hardware.... .You can use wmi to intrograte windows system and servers along with network . WMI use scripting language like VnScript,JScript(not javaScript) to interact with windows.

Later microsoft integrated WMI namespace available in .NET. So, we  can use WMI with c#,vb.net(all language which work on .net)
A .NET developer can use WMI to obtain information about drivers installed on the client machine, verify whether the system is licensed or not, check for hardware information of each and every deveice and a lot more.

WMI is a very powerfull tool, and once you know how to get what you need, it can be invaluable as a time saver. When developing Windows applications, developers often need information a system, either local or remote, that although commonplace, can be very tough to get. There is using the remote registry, but I myself do not allow remote registry access as do many network admins. WMI is usually wide open on networks, assuming you have the required rights to query it .

WMI Architecture

The purpose of WMI is to present a uniform interface to any local or remote applications or scripts that need to access management data from a computer system, network or application. Thanks to WMI, programs do not have to talk to a wide variety of operating system APIs which can be particularly inconvenient for scripting languages.
All WMI interfaces are based on the Component Object Model (COM), however it is possible to access WMI from .NET thanks to the COM Inter-Op mechanism, as our diagram shows.

The main parts of WMI are as follows:
Managed objects and providers: A WMI provider is a COM object that monitors one or more managed objects for WMI. Like a driver, a provider extracts WMI data from a managed object and is responsible for passing messages from WMI back to the managed object.
WMI infrastructure: As a Windows component WMI consists of the Windows Management service, which includes the WMI Core, and the WMI repository. The service acts as an intermediary between the providers and the repository. Only static data about objects, such as the classes defined by the providers, are stored in the repository.
Management applications and scripts: A management application queries management information either by calling the COM API for WMI or through the Scripting API for WMI.

Assume you have to Query a database, you will choose SQL to query it likewise  we have WQL to Query a windows system

If you know the provider classes and the fields available, then you can get the info very easily.  For instance, if you wanted to get a list of logical drives from a system you would use the following query:

Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk

You can, however, refine the search by using where clauses and getting specific "fields" in the query. The following query gets the amount of freespace, the size, and the name of all fixed disk drives:

Select FreeSpace,Size,Name from Win32_LogicalDisk where DriveType=3

As you can see, constructing a simple WMI query is quite easy.  To get results, you need and interface, and in .Net it is provided by the System.Management namespace.  To make it work all you need is a query, and a little bit of code, just as if you were querying a database.

Note : while starting working with WMI make sure you set refrence to system.management.instrumentation. namespace

What Is WMI Provider?

WMI Provider is a software component that functions as a mediator between the CIM Object Manager and managed objects. By using the WMI APIs, providers supply the CIM Object Manager with data from managed objects, handle requests on behalf of management applications, and generate event notifications.

Microsoft WMI Code Creator

The Microsoft WMI Code Creator application  here. once downloaded and ran locally,you will see below screen
 
 “The WMI Code Creator tool allows you to generate VBScript, C#, and VB.NET code that uses WMI to complete a management task such as querying for management data, executing a method from a WMI class, or receiving event notifications using WMI.”.I you will see below ,it generates code as per your choice
 
 CONTINUE....
Further readings http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms257353%28v=vs.80%29.aspx

Uploading and Importing CSV file to SQL Server using WebAPI

Uploading and Importing CSV file to SQL Server  using WebAPI

Assumption: Basic knowledge of MVC and WebApi
Download Source code:
Few weeks ago I was working with a WebAPI services . These services are consumed by multiple devices like IOS,Andriod....which involves uploading CSV file to Sql Server database and thought I'd share the simple implementation that I did on the project which i will believe will save somebodies time. In this post I will demonstrate how to create WebApi and upload and import CSV file to SQL Server database.

 Step 1: Create WebApi Service Application using your favourite IDE like shown below

Step 2:Modify Web.Config with sql connection details

Step 3: Modify UploadController with below class

public class UploadController : ApiController
    {
        [Route("api/Device/PostUpload")]
        [HttpPost]
        [ActionName("PostUpload")]
        public string PostUpload()
        {
            string individualExtractPath = null;
            StreamReader sr = null;
            try
            {
                HttpRequest request = HttpContext.Current.Request;
                //making file unique,you can use GUID also
                string fileName = request.Files[0].FileName + "_" + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy_MM_dd_HH_mm_ss");
                string DeviceId = request.Form["DeviceId"];
                //check for column key id
                if (DeviceId == null || "null".Equals(DeviceId.ToLower()))
                {
                   return "UnRegistered";

                }   
                string strFileExtractPath = HttpRuntime.AppDomainAppPath;
                strFileExtractPath = Path.Combine(strFileExtractPath, "UploadExtract");

                if (!Directory.Exists(strFileExtractPath))
                {
                    Directory.CreateDirectory(strFileExtractPath);
                }

                individualExtractPath = Path.Combine(strFileExtractPath, fileName);
                Directory.CreateDirectory(individualExtractPath);
                request.Files[0].SaveAs(individualExtractPath + "\\" + request.Files[0].FileName);
                string strUnzipedFilesLocation = Path.Combine(individualExtractPath, "unzipedFiles");
                Directory.CreateDirectory(strUnzipedFilesLocation);
                ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory(individualExtractPath + "\\" + request.Files[0].FileName, strUnzipedFilesLocation);
                ArrayList fileList = new ArrayList();
                // Get the files in the Directory
                string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(strUnzipedFilesLocation);

                int len = files.Length;

                for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)
                {
                    string filename = files[i];

                    // Add into the ArrayList
                    fileList.Add(System.IO.Path.GetFileName(filename));
                    FileInfo uploadFile = new FileInfo(filename);
                    sr = new StreamReader(filename);
                    DataTable oDataTable = null;
                    int RowCount = 0;
                    string[] ColumnNames = null;
                    string[] oStreamDataValues = null;
                    //using while loop read the stream data till end
                    while (!sr.EndOfStream)
                    {
                        String oStreamRowData = sr.ReadLine().Trim();
                        if (oStreamRowData.Length > 0)
                        {
                            oStreamDataValues = oStreamRowData.Split(',');
                            //Bcoz the first row contains column names, we will poluate 
                            //the column name by
                            //reading the first row and RowCount-0 will be true only once
                            if (RowCount == 0)
                            {
                                RowCount = 1;
                                ColumnNames = oStreamRowData.Split(',');
                                oDataTable = new DataTable();
                                //using foreach looping through all the column names
                                foreach (string csvcolumn in ColumnNames)
                                {
                                    DataColumn oDataColumn = new DataColumn(csvcolumn.ToUpper(), typeof(string));
                                    //setting the default value of empty.string to newly created column
                                    oDataColumn.DefaultValue = string.Empty;
                                    //adding the newly created column to the table
                                    oDataTable.Columns.Add(oDataColumn);
                                }
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                //creates a new DataRow with the same schema as of the oDataTable            
                                DataRow oDataRow = oDataTable.NewRow();
                                //using foreach looping through all the column names
                                for (int c = 0; c < ColumnNames.Length; c++)
                                {
                                    oDataRow[ColumnNames[c]] = oStreamDataValues[c] == null ? string.Empty : oStreamDataValues[c].ToString();
                                }
                                //adding the newly created row with data to the oDataTable       
                                oDataTable.Rows.Add(oDataRow);
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    //close the oStreamReader object
                    sr.Close();
                    //release all the resources used by the oStreamReader object
                    sr.Dispose();
                    //Creating two additinal columns dynamically because mobile trip file doesn't provide that

               
                    DataTable dtFinal = oDataTable;
                    //Class Bulk Insert here
                    BulkInsertTripFile(oDataTable);

                }

                return "File SuccessFully Posted";
            }
            finally
            {
                try
                {
                  
                    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(individualExtractPath) && Directory.Exists(individualExtractPath))
                    {
                        //If any such directory then creates the new one
                        DeleteDirectory(individualExtractPath);
                    }
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    throw ex;
                }
            }
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// After uploading file ,just need
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="target_dir"></param>
        private static void DeleteDirectory(string target_dir)
        {
            string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(target_dir);
            string[] dirs = Directory.GetDirectories(target_dir);

            foreach (string file in files)
            {
                File.SetAttributes(file, FileAttributes.Normal);
                File.Delete(file);
            }

            foreach (string dir in dirs)
            {
                DeleteDirectory(dir);
            }

            Directory.Delete(target_dir, false);
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// Method for Trip Detail bulk insert with datatable as parameter
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="dt"></param>
        private void BulkInsertTripFile(DataTable dt)
        {

            string connString = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["BulkDemo"];

            // Copy the DataTable to SQL Server
            using (SqlConnection dbConnection = new SqlConnection(connString))
            {
                dbConnection.Open();
                using (SqlBulkCopy s = new SqlBulkCopy(dbConnection))
                {
                    s.DestinationTableName = "TripTable";
                    foreach (var column in dt.Columns)
                        s.ColumnMappings.Add(column.ToString(), column.ToString());
                    s.WriteToServer(dt);
                }
            }
        }
    }

step 4:Create view based on html page or you can create android or ios page for uploading/posting file

Hope this helps ... Shabir