Powershell database connection error detection and error handling - powershell

Question

I am trying to detect if a database connection succeeded, and if so, do work, otherwise,report the connection error and obviously bypass the DB tasks.
I'm embarrassed that I seem to be failing Syntax 101.
I've tried two different approaches, neither which works.
Approach 1
In this code, I can't seem to get the $connection.State = Open syntax correct. I can see in the debugger $connection.State = Open -- i just can't seem to test for it properly.
$connection = New-Object Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.Client.OracleConnection($conninfo)
Try {$connection.open()}
Catch {Write-Warning "Sorry, DB Connect failed"}
If ($connection.State = Open) {
Write-Output "No Error"
DoWork()
$connection.Close()
}
Approach 2:
In this code, connection errors are caught, but successful connections do not enter the expect "No error block".
$connection = New-Object Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.Client.OracleConnection($conninfo)
Try {$connection.open()}
Catch {Write-Warning "Sorry, DB Connect failed"}
If (!$error) {
Write-Output "No Error"
DoWork()
$connection.Close()
}
}

Answer 1

Try{}Catch{} only hit terminating errors. Try something like:
Try
{
$erroraction = "stop"
$connection.open()
$erroraction = "continue"
}
Catch {
Write-Warning "Sorry, DB Connect failed"
}
of use non-terminating error handling
$connection.open()
if(!$?) #did the last command fail?
{
Write-Warning "Sorry, DB Connect failed"
}
edit: I may have misunderstood the exact question, but if the problem is that $? is incorrectly true on an error, its because it uses only the last command. So your catch block running write-warning is successful, you'll need to store the $? value immediately after the command you expect to fail or set a bool in the catch block directly to trigger your next block.

Answer 2

OK, although it doesn't answer all my questions, here is working code:
try {
$connection.Open()
Write-Debug "No Error"
doStuffHere()
}
Catch {Write-Warning "Sorry, DB Connect failed"}
My failure was not remembering any error occurring inside the try block results in immediately exiting the try block and going to the catch. (Actually, its one of those things I forgot I knew -- I had to be reminded.)
Aside from that though, I'd still like to determine the correct way to test Connection.State to see if the connection is open or closed. Probably need to open another question.