Implementing MI Provider (3) - Generate Code

In blog Implementing MI Provider (2), we discussed schema definition of MI provider. Upon the schema ready, you can run Convert-MofToProvider.exe tool to generate MI provider skeleton code.

Where to install Convert-MofToProvider.exe tool?

Install windows 8 SDK first, then you could find the tool under SDK installation directory. For example, the file path on my desktop is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\bin\x64\convert-moftoprovider.exe"

Usage of Convert-MofToProvider.exe

NOTE: [Other options] part was omitted, you can run "convert-moftoprovider.exe /?" to get the detail usage.

Generate code

Here are the steps to generate provider code skeleton for "process" provider, one of the sample provider inside MI API sample.

First, setup up a working directory used to generate source code files, say C:\MIProvider

Second, make sure both sample.mof & MSFT_Qualifiers.mof present under working directory, you can copy both files from MI API sample to C:\MIProvider

Third, download DMTF standard schema, which is a zip file contains list of standard mof files. Say CIM Schema 2.26.0, unzip the standard schema to a directory, say C:\DMTF2260

Finally, run the following command line from an elevated command prompt console (cmd.exe)

Convert-moftoprovider.exe -MofFile C:\MIProvider\sample.mof -ClassList MSFT_WindowsProcess MSFT_WindowsServiceProcess -IncludePath C:\DMTF2260 C:\MIProvider -ExtraClass Cim_Error -OutPath C:\MIProvider -SkipLocalize 

This command will,

  - use the MOF file called sample.Mof that in the folder C:\MIProvider

  - use the CIM 2.26 schema located in the folder identified by C:\DMTF2260

  - use MSFT_Qualifiers.MOF located in the folder identified by C:\MIProvider

  - generate skeleton code for the 2 classes following -Classlist

  - include generated schema & types for the Cim_Error class

  - place all output in the folder identified by the -OutPath parameter, i.e., C:\MIProvider

  - skip the generation of resource IDs used for localization 

  - Generated provider will implement 2 classes, MSFT_WindowsProcess and MSFT_WindowsServiceProcess.

Also, the command line generates provider contains schema definition of parent classes and one extra class CIM_Error. Generated code files can be found under C:\MIProvider.

To better understand the generated files and its content, Figure 3.1 shows generated files' list for any MI provider.

Figure 3.1 Generated Files

While Strings.rc is optional , if -SkipLocalize option was specified, then Strings.rc will not be generated. <class name>.h and <class name>.c are generated for all involved classes for MI Provider. Take above command line for example, it is going to generate following classes specific files,

 CIM_ConcreteJob.h
 CIM_EnabledLogicalElement.h
 CIM_Error.h
 CIM_Job.h
 CIM_LogicalElement.h
 CIM_ManagedElement.h
 CIM_ManagedSystemElement.h
 CIM_Process.h
 CIM_Service.h
 CIM_ServiceProcess.h
 MSFT_WindowsProcess.h
 MSFT_WindowsServiceProcess.h

 MSFT_WindowsProcess.c
 MSFT_WindowsServiceProcess.c

Basically, <class name>.c files are only generated for the class name specified with -ClassList option, while <class name>h files are generated for all class names specified with -ClassList option, -ExtraClass option, and all of their ancestor classes.

Next blog will discuss the content of each generated file and its purpose. Thanks.

Haowei Qin

Senior SDE

Standards Based Management