Provider types
Providers define their basic functionality by changing how the provider cmdlets, provided by
PowerShell, perform their actions. For example, providers can use the default functionality of the
Get-Item
cmdlet, or they can change how that cmdlet operates when retrieving items from the data
store. The provider functionality described in this document includes functionality defined by
overwriting methods from specific provider base classes and interfaces.
Note
For provider features that are pre-defined by PowerShell, see Provider capabilities.
Drive-enabled providers
Drive-enabled providers specify the default drives available to the user and allow the user to add or remove drives. In most cases, providers are drive-enabled providers because they require some default drive to access the data store. However, when writing your own provider you might or might not want to allow the user to create and remove drives.
To create a drive-enabled provider, your provider class must derive from the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.DriveCmdletProvider class or another class that derives
from that class. The DriveCmdletProvider class defines the following methods for implementing
the default drives of the provider and supporting the New-PSDrive
and Remove-PSDrive
cmdlets. In
most cases, to support a provider cmdlet you must overwrite the method that the PowerShell engine
calls to invoke the cmdlet, such as the NewDrive
method for the New-PSDrive
cmdlet, and
optionally you can overwrite a second method, such as NewDriveDynamicParameters
, for adding
dynamic parameters to the cmdlet.
The InitializeDefaultDrives method defines the default drives that are available to the user whenever the provider is used.
The NewDrive and NewDriveDynamicParameters methods defines how your provider supports the
New-PSDrive
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to create drives to access the data store.The RemoveDrive method defines how your provider supports the
Remove-PSDrive
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to remove drives from the data store.
Item-enabled providers
Item-enabled providers allow the user to get, set, or clear the items in the data store. An "item" is an element of the data store that the user can access or manage independently. To create an item-enabled provider, your provider class must derive from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ItemCmdletProvider class or another class that derives from that class.
The ItemCmdletProvider class defines the following methods for implementing specific provider
cmdlets. In most cases, to support a provider cmdlet you must overwrite the method that the
PowerShell engine calls to invoke the cmdlet, such as the ClearItem
method for the Clear-Item
cmdlet, and optionally you can overwrite a second method, such as ClearItemDynamicParameters
, for
adding dynamic parameters to the cmdlet.
The ClearItem and ClearItemDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Clear-Item
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to remove of the value of an item in the data store.The GetItem and GetItemDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Get-Item
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to retrieve data from the data store.The SetItem and SetItemDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Set-Item
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to update the values of items in the data store.The InvokeDefaultAction and InvokeDefaultActionDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Invoke-Item
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to perform the default action specified by the item.The ItemExists and ItemExistsDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Test-Path
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to determine if all the elements of a path exist.
In addition to the methods used to implement provider cmdlets, the ItemCmdletProvider class also defines the following methods:
The ExpandPath method allows the user to use wildcards when specifying the provider path.
The IsValidPath is used to determine if a path is syntactically and semantically valid for the provider.
Container-enabled providers
Container-enabled providers allow the user to manage items that are containers. A container is a group of child items under a common parent item. To create a container-enabled provider, your provider class must derive from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.ContainerCmdletProvider class or another class that derives from that class.
Important
Container-enabled providers can't access data stores that contain nested containers. If a child item of a container is another container, you must implement a navigation-enabled provider.
The ContainerCmdletProvider class defines the following methods for implementing specific
provider cmdlets. In most cases, to support a provider cmdlet you must overwrite the method that the
PowerShell engine calls to invoke the cmdlet, such as the CopyItem
method for the Copy-Item
cmdlet, and optionally you can overwrite a second method, such as CopyItemDynamicParameters
, for
adding dynamic parameters to the cmdlet.
The CopyItem and CopyItemDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Copy-Item
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to copy an item from one location to another.The GetChildItems and GetChildItemsDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Get-ChildItem
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to retrieve the child items of the parent item.The GetChildNames and GetChildNamesDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Get-ChildItem
provider cmdlet if itsName
parameter is specified.The NewItem and NewItemDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
New-Item
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to create new items in the data store.The RemoveItem and RemoveItemDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Remove-Item
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to remove items from the data store.The RenameItem and RenameItemDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Rename-Item
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to rename items in the data store.
In addition to the methods used to implement provider cmdlets, the ContainerCmdletProvider class also defines the following methods:
The HasChildItems method can be used by the provider class to determine whether an item has child items.
The ConvertPath method can be used by the provider class to create a new provider-specific path from a specified path.
Navigation-enabled providers
Navigation-enabled providers allow the user to move items in the data store. To create a navigation-enabled provider, your provider class must derive from the System.Management.Automation.Provider.NavigationCmdletProvider class.
The NavigationCmdletProvider class defines the following methods for implementing specific
provider cmdlets. In most cases, to support a provider cmdlet you must overwrite the method that the
PowerShell engine calls to invoke the cmdlet, such as the MoveItem
method for the Move-Item
cmdlet, and optionally you can overwrite a second method, such as MoveItemDynamicParameters
, for
adding dynamic parameters to the cmdlet.
The MoveItem and MoveItemDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Move-Item
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to move an item from one location in the store to another location.The MakePath method defines how your provider supports the
Join-Path
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to combine a parent and child path segment to create a provider-internal path.
In addition to the methods used to implement provider cmdlets, the NavigationCmdletProvider class also defines the following methods:
The GetChildName method extracts the name of the child node of a path.
The GetParentPath method extracts the parent part of a path.
The IsItemContainer method determines whether the item is a container item. In this context, a container is a group of child items under a common parent item.
The NormalizeRelativePath method returns a path to an item that's relative to a specified base path.
Content-enabled providers
Content-enabled providers allow the user to clear, get, or set the content of items in a data store. For example, the FileSystem provider allows you to clear, get, and set the content of files in the file system. To create a content enabled provider, your provider class must implement the methods of the System.Management.Automation.Provider.IContentCmdletProvider interface.
The IContentCmdletProvider interface defines the following methods for implementing specific
provider cmdlets. In most cases, to support a provider cmdlet you must overwrite the method that the
PowerShell engine calls to invoke the cmdlet, such as the ClearContent
method for the
Clear-Content
cmdlet, and optionally you can overwrite a second method, such as
ClearContentDynamicParameters
, for adding dynamic parameters to the cmdlet.
The ClearContent and ClearContentDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Clear-Content
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to delete the content of an item without deleting the item.The GetContentReader and GetContentReaderDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Get-Content
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to retrieve the content of an item. TheGetContentReader
method returns an System.Management.Automation.Provider.IContentReader interface that defines the methods used to read the content.The GetContentWriter and GetContentWriterDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Set-Content
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to update the content of an item. TheGetContentWriter
method returns an System.Management.Automation.Provider.IContentWriter interface that defines the methods used to write the content.
Property-enabled providers
Property-enabled providers allow the user to manage the properties of the items in the data store.
To create a property-enabled provider, your provider class must implement the methods of the
System.Management.Automation.Provider.IPropertyCmdletProvider and
System.Management.Automation.Provider.IDynamicPropertyCmdletProvider interfaces. In most
cases, to support a provider cmdlet you must overwrite the method that the PowerShell engine calls
to invoke the cmdlet, such as the ClearProperty
method for the Clear-Property cmdlet, and
optionally you can overwrite a second method, such as ClearPropertyDynamicParameters
, for adding
dynamic parameters to the cmdlet.
The IPropertyCmdletProvider interface defines the following methods for implementing specific provider cmdlets:
The ClearProperty and ClearPropertyDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Clear-ItemProperty
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to delete the value of a property.The GetProperty and GetPropertyDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Get-ItemProperty
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to retrieve the property of an item.The SetProperty and SetPropertyDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Set-ItemProperty
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to update the properties of an item.
The IDynamicPropertyCmdletProvider interface defines the following methods for implementing specific provider cmdlets:
The CopyProperty and CopyPropertyDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Copy-ItemProperty
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to copy a property and its value from one location to another.The MoveProperty and MovePropertyDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Move-ItemProperty
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to move a property and its value from one location to another.The NewProperty and NewPropertyDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
New-ItemProperty
provider cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to create a new property and set its value.The RemoveProperty and RemovePropertyDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Remove-ItemProperty
cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to delete a property and its value.The RenameProperty and RenamePropertyDynamicParameters methods define how your provider supports the
Rename-ItemProperty
cmdlet. This cmdlet allows the user to change the name of a property.
See also
PowerShell