Peeking at messages in MSMQ with PowerShell...

Question

Hello,
I am a n00b to PowerShell and I am trying to create some maintenance script to manage our MSMQs ... so go easy on me! :P  I am currently trying to create a filtered list of message IDs by providing a cutoff date.  The problem is when I try to grab
the ArriveTime or SentTime from the message it is always null-valued expression (and coughs up an exception).  Oh, yeah!  The messages I'm trying to sort through are in the journal.
I have written these functions based on various example (C# and PS) on the Net.  There could be some gross inefficiencies and a lot of overkill but I think you get the basic idea.
function PeekWithoutTimeout([System.Messaging.MessageQueue] $q, [System.Messaging.Cursor] $cursor, [System.Messaging.PeekAction] $action)
[System.Messaging.Message] $Return = $null
[TimeSpan] $ts = [TimeSpan] '00:00:01'
try
$Return = $q.Peek($ts, $cursor, $action)
catch [System.Messaging.MessageQueueException]
$ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message
if (!$ErrorMessage.ToLower().Contains("timeout"))
throw $ErrorMessage
return $Return
function GetFilteredMessageList([System.Messaging.MessageQueue] $q, [System.DateTime] $cutoff)
[System.Collections.ArrayList] $list = New-Object -TypeName System.Collections.ArrayList
[System.DateTime] $sentTime = New-Object -TypeName System.DateTime
[System.Messaging.Cursor] $cursor = $q.CreateCursor()
$peekActionCurrent = [System.Messaging.PeekAction]::Current
$peekActionNext = [System.Messaging.PeekAction]::Next
[System.Messaging.Message] $m = PeekWithoutTimeout $q $cursor $peekActionCurrent
if ($m -ne $null)
$sentTime = [System.DateTime]::Parse($m.SentTime.ToString()) #exception here
Write-Host $sentTime #debug statement
if($sentTime -le $cutoff)
$list.Add($m.Id.ToString())
while (($m = PeekWithoutTimeout $q $cursor $peekActionNext) -ne $null)
$sentTime = [System.DateTime]::Parse($m.SentTime.ToString())
if($sentTime -le $cutoff)
$list.Add($m.Id.ToString())
return $list.ToArray()
}$cutoff = [System.DateTime]::Parse("11/7/2013 11:58:30 AM")
GetFilteredMessageList ".\private$\main\Journal$" $cutoff
Is there a better way to do this?
TIA!

Answer 1

If you know MQ then you know ther are no efficiencies in peeking.  It is a utility function.
If it works be set.  The code seems normal.  I see no big issues.
C# examples are a good place to start but be adventurous, apply PowerShell to the task.  Processing messages is a good candidate for the pipeline.
MQ is easy.  It only becomes an issue when you add work flows to it.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯