Question

I want to read MSI file(Windows Installer Package). I have written a function as below which takes two input parameters : msifileName and Table Name and returns a data table which is one of the MSI table.

public DataTable ReadMsiPropertyTable(string msiFile, string tableName)
    {            
        Type installerType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("WindowsInstaller.Installer");

        WindowsInstaller.Installer installer = (WindowsInstaller.Installer)Activator.CreateInstance(installerType);

        Database database = installer.OpenDatabase(msiFile, 0);

        string sqlQuery = String.Format("SELECT * FROM {0}",tableName);

        View view = database.OpenView(sqlQuery);

        view.Execute(null);

        Record record = view.Fetch();

        DataTable msiPropertyTable = new DataTable();

        msiPropertyTable.Columns.Add("Column1", typeof(string));
        msiPropertyTable.Columns.Add("Column2", typeof(string));
        msiPropertyTable.Columns.Add("Column3", typeof(string));
        msiPropertyTable.Columns.Add("Column4", typeof(string));

        while (record != null)
        {
            int fieldCount;
            fieldCount = record.FieldCount;

            msiPropertyTable.Rows.Add(record.get_StringData(0), record.get_StringData(1), record.get_StringData(2), record.get_StringData(3));                
            record = view.Fetch();
        }
        return msiPropertyTable;
    }

Using above code snippet, the number of rows and columns of Record are not known. SO I am statically returning only four columns. I want to return all the rows and columns of MSI Table which are in record.

So Please let me know how can I convert output of view or record to Dataset and then bind to Datatable. Or is there any other way to return all the rows and columns. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Here’s similar logic using the interop types rather then the DTF types. As you can see it’s a lot more work. It’s also a lot more fragile since COM is involved instead of P/Invoke. Also, if you can eliminate the requirement to create an ADO.NET DataTable, DTF supports LINQ queries and databinding. In other words, I wrote this for fun only. I would NEVER use this method in real code.

 public static DataTable ReadMsiPropertyTable(string msiFile, string tableName)
        {
            DataTable dataTable = new DataTable(tableName);
            Type installerType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("WindowsInstaller.Installer");
            Installer installer = (WindowsInstaller.Installer)Activator.CreateInstance(installerType);
            Database database = installer.OpenDatabase(msiFile, MsiOpenDatabaseMode.msiOpenDatabaseModeReadOnly);

            string sqlQuery = String.Format("SELECT * FROM {0}", tableName);
            View view = database.OpenView(sqlQuery);
            view.Execute(null);

            Record names = view.ColumnInfo[MsiColumnInfo.msiColumnInfoNames];
            Record types = view.ColumnInfo[MsiColumnInfo.msiColumnInfoTypes];
            Record row = view.Fetch();

            for (int index = 1; index < names.FieldCount+1; index++)
            {
                string columnName = names.get_StringData(index);
                string columnSpec = types.get_StringData(index);

                switch (columnSpec.Substring(0, 1).ToLower())
                {
                    case "s":
                        dataTable.Columns.Add(columnName, typeof(String));
                        break;

                    case "l":
                        dataTable.Columns.Add(columnName, typeof(String));
                        break;

                    case "i":
                        dataTable.Columns.Add(columnName, typeof(Int32));
                        break;

                    case "v":
                        dataTable.Columns.Add(columnName, typeof (Stream));
                        break;
                }
            }

            while (row != null)
            {
                DataRow dataRow = dataTable.NewRow();
                for (int index = 0; index < dataTable.Columns.Count; index++)
                {

                    if(dataTable.Columns[index].DataType == typeof(String))
                    {
                        dataRow[index] = row.StringData[index + 1];
                    }
                    else if(dataTable.Columns[index].DataType == typeof(Int32))
                    {
                        dataRow[index] = row.IntegerData[index + 1];
                    }
                    else if(dataTable.Columns[index].DataType == typeof(Stream))
                    {
                       // Insanity has it's limits. Not implemented.
                    }
                }
                dataTable.Rows.Add(dataRow);
                row = view.Fetch();
            }
            return dataTable;
        }