Question

I am using the following code under ASP.NET 4.0 framework to obtain the version of MSI file from a web app:

string strVersion = "";

try
{
    Type InstallerType;
    WindowsInstaller.Installer installer;

    InstallerType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("WindowsInstaller.Installer");
    installer = (WindowsInstaller.Installer)Activator.CreateInstance(InstallerType);

    WindowsInstaller.Database db = installer.OpenDatabase(strMSIFilePath, 0);

    WindowsInstaller.View dv = db.OpenView("SELECT `Value` FROM `Property` WHERE `Property`='ProductVersion'");

    WindowsInstaller.Record record = null;

    dv.Execute(record);

    record = dv.Fetch();

    strVersion = record.get_StringData(1).ToString();

    dv.Close();
    //db.Commit();
    System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(dv);
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(db);
}
catch
{
    //Failed
    strVersion = "";
}

It works fine except that when the code finishes running it holds an internal MSI file handle so when I try to move or rename the MSI file I get the error that the file is still in use. This continues until I actually navigate away from the ASPX page that calls the method above.

My question is, I obviously didn’t close some handle or object in the code above. But what could that be?

PS. I’m testing it in a development IDE from VS2010.

EDIT: Edited the code like it should be after Adriano’s suggestion. Thanks!

Answer 1

The COM object has not been released (it should be auto-released when it goes out of scope but in .NET this doesn’t work really well). Because it does not implement the IDisposable interface you can’t call its Dispose() method and you can’t use it inside an using statement. You have to explicitly call Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject. For example:

try
{
    // Your stuffs
}
finally
{
    dv.Close();
    Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(dv);
    Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(db);
}

Moreover note that you do not really need a call to the Commit() method because you didn’t make any change but just a query.