About Using SMSCSTAT.DLL to Create Status Messages

  • Article

Applies To: System Center Configuration Manager 2007, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2

Smscstat.dll is a library of 32-bit C APIs for reporting Configuration Manager 2007 status messages from an application that is running on either client computer. Smscstat.dll is only present and only functions properly on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows Vista computers that have the client software installed on them.

Loading Smscstat.dll

Applications need to explicitly load Smscstat.dll by using the Win32 LoadLibrary() API. LoadLibrary requires the full path to Smscstat.dll.

SMS 2003 Advanced Client

%windir%\system32\ccm

Configuration Manager 2007 client

%windir%\system32\ccm

The logic for finding the path on a given client is as follows:

  1. Read the registry value Local SMS Path in key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\Client\Configuration\ClientProperties.

  2. If last three characters of this path are ccm, then this is the Advanced Client or Configuration Manager 2007 client and Smscstat.dll resides in the path retrieved.

Accessing the Functions in Smscstat.dll

When Smscstat.dll has been loaded, call the Win32 API GetProcAddress() to retrieve function pointers to the status message functions. The three status message functions are:

  • CreateSMSStatusMessage()

  • AddAttributeToSMSStatusMessage()

  • ReportSMSStatusMessage

GetProcAddress() returns a pointer of type FARPROC. For convenience, Smscstat.h (provided with the SMS 2003 SDK) defines C function prototypes for the status message APIs. The application should cast the pointer returned by GetProcAddress() to the appropriate prototype and then call the function through the pointer.

If Smscstat.dll does not exist, as in the case of SMS 2.0 Legacy Clients that do not have Service Pack 1 or a later service pack installed, LoadLibrary() fails. A subsequent call to the Win32 API GetLastError() returns an error code indicating that the file does not exist. Most likely this will be error 126: "The specified module could not be found."

The Win32 API FreeLibrary should be called when access to the functions is no longer need.

Using the Status Message Functions in Smscstat.dll

There are three steps to using the status message functions.

  1. Create a status message object by calling the CreateSMSStatusMessage() function. This function allocates an object and returns a handle to the caller.

  2. Add any needed status message attributes to the object by using the AddAttributeToSMSStatusMessage() function. Status message attributes are optional and are required only if the application needs to integrate with a particular Configuration Manager feature. Most applications will not do this.

  3. Call ReportSMSStatusMessage to submit the status message to the Configuration Manager status system and deallocate the object.