Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner Part 11 ppt

Displays text messages in the Windows Console when processed by the CScript execution hosts, and in pop-up dialog boxes when processed by the WScript execution hosts.. Displays text mess

‘Instantiate the VBScript FileSystemObject

Set FsoObject = WScript.CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)

‘Use the FileSystem Object object’s GetDrive method to set up a reference

‘to the computer’s C: drive

Set DiskDrive = FsoObject.GetDrive(FsoObject.GetDriveName(“c:”))

‘Main Processing Section

‘Use the FileSystemObject FreeSpace property to determine the amount of

‘free space (in MB) on the C: drive

AvailSpace = (DiskDrive.FreeSpace / 1024) / 1024

‘Use the VBScript FormatNumber Function to format the results as a

‘whole number

AvailSpace = FormatNumber(AvailSpace, 0)

‘Display the amount of free space on the C: drive

WScript.Echo “You need 100 MB of free space to play this game “ & _

vbCrLf & “Total amount of free space is currently: “ & AvailSpace & “ MB”

The script begins by instantiating the FileSystemObjectas shown here:

Set FsoObject = WScript.CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)

The script then uses this instance of the FileSystemObjectto execute its GetDrive()method and set up a reference to the computer’s C: drive:

Set DiskDrive = FsoObject.GetDrive(FsoObject.GetDriveName(“c:”))

The next statement uses the FileSystemObject object’s FreeSpace property to retrieve the amount of free space on the C: drive:

AvailSpace = (DiskDrive.FreeSpace / 1024) / 1024

This statement divides this value by 1,024, and then again by 1,024, to present the amount

of free space in megabytes

The next statement formats this value further by eliminating any numbers to the left of the decimal point Finally, the last statement displays the final result, as shown in Figure 3.8

For more information on how to use the VBScript FileSystemObject, see Chapter 5, “Condi-tional Logic,” in which I’ll show you how to create and write to Windows files to produce reports and log files In Chapter 8, “Storing and Retrieving Data,” I’ll cover how to open and read from Windows files

Examining Built-in VBScript Functions

One of the real advantages of working with VBScript is having access to its large number of built-in functions In the previous example, you saw how to use the FormatNumber()function There are too many built-in VBScript functions to try and list them all here For a complete list, refer to Appendix B “Built-in VBScript Functions.”

Demo: The Square Root Calculator

By using functions, you can really streamline your scripts VBScript’s built-in functions provide built-in code that you don’t have to write The best way to illustrate this is by two examples

In the first example, I’ve written a small VBScript that prompts the user to type in a number

so that the script can calculate its square root The second script is a rewrite of the first script, using the VBScript Sqr()function in place of the original programming logic Here’s the first example

‘*************************************************************************

‘Script Name: SquareRoot-1.vbs

‘Author: Jerry Ford

‘Created: 11/22/02

‘Description: This script demonstrates how to solve square root

‘calculations using a mathematic solution devised by Sir Isaac Newton

‘*************************************************************************

‘Initialization Section

Option Explicit

Figure 3.8

Using the

FileSystem

Object to access

information about

disk drives.

Dim UserInput, Counter, X

UserInput = InputBox (“Type a number”, “Square Root Calculator”)

X = 1

For Counter = 1 To 15

X = X - ((X^2 - UserInput) / (2 * X))

Next

MsgBox “The square root of “ & UserInput & “ is “ & X

As you can see, the first part of the script displays a pop-up dialog to collect the number, and the last part displays the script’s final results The middle is where the real work results

X = 1

For Counter = 1 To 15

X = X - ((X^2 - UserInput) / (2 * X))

Next

I won’t go into the mathematical logic behind these statements Unless you’re a math major, it’s a bit of a challenge to understand This solution is based on Sir Isaac Newton’s solution for solving square root equations Granted, it only took four lines of code to repro-duce the formula, but would you like to have tried to write these four statements from scratch? I don’t think so

Demo: A New and Improved Square Root Calculator

Now let’s look at a rewrite of the square root calculator script in which I use VBScript’s built-in Str()function to perform square root calculations

‘*************************************************************************

‘Script Name: SquareRoot-2.vbs

‘Author: Jerry Ford

‘Created: 11/22/02

‘Description: This script demonstrates how to solve square root

‘calculations using VBScript’s Built-in Sqr() function

‘*************************************************************************

‘Initialization Section

Option Explicit

Dim UserInput

UserInput = InputBox (“Type a number”, “Square Root Calculator”)

MsgBox “The square root of “ & UserInput & “ is “ & Sqr(UserInput)

As you can see, this time you don’t have to be a mathematician to write the script All you have to know is the correct way to use the Sqr()function, which is simply to pass it a number—

in the case of this script, that number is represented by a variable named UserInput These two examples show clearly the advantage of using VBScript’s built-in functions These func-tions can save you a lot of time and effort and perhaps a few headaches

Figures 3.9 and 3.10 demonstrate the operation of either version of these two scripts

Displaying Script Output

You’ve seen many examples already of how to display output messages in VBScripts Output display is a critical tool in any programmer’s toolbox As a VBScript programmer working with the WSH, you have four different options for displaying script output Two of these options are provided by the WSH in the form of object methods:

• Echo() Displays text messages in the Windows Console when processed by the

CScript execution hosts, and in pop-up dialog boxes when processed by the WScript execution hosts

• Popup() Displays text messages in the pop-up dialog boxes, giving you control over the icons and buttons that are displayed, and, optionally, returning a value repre-senting the button that is pressed

Figure 3.9

First, the script

prompts the user

to supply a

number.

Figure 3.10

The script then

determines the

number’s

square root.

In addition to these two WSH options, VBScript gives you two functions of its own:

• InputBox() Displays a text entry field in a pop-up dialog to collect user input

• MsgBox() Displays text messages in the pop-up dialog boxes, giving you control over the icons and buttons that are displayed, and, optionally, returning a value repre-senting the button that is pressed

The WScript’s Echo() Method

The WScript object’s Echo() method can display text output in the Windows Command Console or in a pop-up dialog, depending on the execution hosts that processes it Table 3.7 outlines the Echo() method’s behavior based on the execution host that processes it Unlike other WSH output methods or VBScript functions, the Echo()method cannot collect user input

The syntax for the WScript Echo()method is as follows:

WScript.Echo [Arg1] [,Arg2]

The Echo()method can display any number of arguments:

WScript.Echo “This message appears differently depending on the “ & _

“execution host that runs it.”

The WshShell Object’s Popup() Method

The WshShellobject’s Popup()method displays messages in pop-up dialog boxes You can cus-tomize its appearance by selecting the buttons and the icon to be displayed You can also determine which button the user clicked on

The WshShellobject’s Popup()method can be used in either of two ways The syntax of the first option is as follows:

Response = WScript.Popup(StrText,[Time],[TitleBarMsg],[DialogSettings])

WSH Execution Hosts Output

WScript.exe Displays text messages in graphical pop-up dialog boxes

CScript.exe Displays text messages in the Windows Command Console

TA B L E 3 7 W SC R I P T EC H O( ) ME T H O D EX E C U T I O N OP T I O N S

Value Button(s)

1 Displays the OK and Cancel buttons

2 Displays the Abort, Retry, and Ignore buttons

3 Displays the Yes, No, and Cancel buttons

4 Displays the Yes and No buttons

5 Displays the Retry and Cancel buttons

TA B L E 3 8 PO P U P( ) ME T H O D BU T T O N TY P E S

The syntax of the second option is as follows:

WScript.Popup StrText,[Time],[TitleBarMsg],[DialogSettings]

Responseis a variable that stores a number representing the button that was clicked by the user StrText represents the message text to be displayed Timeis a value that determines how long, in seconds, the pop-up dialog will be displayed; if omitted, the default is forever TitleBarMsgis an optional message that is displayed in the pop-up dialog’s title bar Finally, DialogSettingsis an option numeric value that specifies the buttons and the icon that are

to appear on the pop-up dialog If omitted, the pop-up dialog box displays the OK button without an icon

To determine what numeric value to specify as the DialogSettings value, you’ll need to reference Tables 3.8 and 3.9 Table 3.8 lists the different collections of buttons that can be displayed on pop-up dialogs created by the Popup()method, and Table 3.9 displays the dif-ferent icons that you can display using the Popup()method

Value Icon

16 Displays the stop icon

32 Displays the question icon

48 Displays the exclamation mark icon

64 Displays the information icon

TA B L E 3 9 PO P U P( ) ME T H O D IC O N TY P E S

For example, to display a pop-up dialog that displays the OK button without any icon, you would specify a value of 0 As this is the default option for the Popup()method, you do not have

to specify this value at all To display a pop-up dialog with the Yes, No, and Cancelbutton and

no icon, you specify a value of 3for DialogSettings To display a pop-up dialog with OK and Cancel buttons and the information icon, you specify a value of 65(that is, the collective sum

of 1 and 64)

If you use the first form of the Popup()method (to be able to determine which button the user clicked), you’ll need to examine the value of Responseas demonstrated here:

Response = WshShl.Popup(“This is a text message”, ,”Test Script”, 5)

If Response = 4 Then

WshShl.Popup “You clicked on Retry”

End If

Table 3.10 lists the possible range of values that can be returned by the Popup()method

The VBScript InputBox() Function

VBScript provides two built-in functions that you can use to display text messages and inter-act with users The InputBox()function displays your text message in a pop-up dialog that also includes an entry field You have already seen the InputBox()function in action in both the Knock Knock game and the Rock, Paper, and Scissors game

The syntax for this function is as follows:

Response = InputBox(StrText[, TitleBarMsg][, default][, xpos][, ypos]

[, helpfile, context])

Value Results

TA B L E 3 10 PO P U P( ) ME T H O D RE T U R N VA L U E S

Responseis a variable that stores a number representing the input typed by the user StrText

is the message that you want to display TitlebarMsg is an optional message that will be displayed in the pop-up dialog’s title bar Defaultis an optional default answer that you can display in the pop-up dialog Xposand yposare optional arguments that specify, in twips, the horizontal and vertical location of the pop-up dialog on the screen Helpfileand contextare also optional They specify the location of an optional context-sensitive help file

The following statement provides another example of

how to use the VBScript InputBox()function:

PlayerName = InputBox(“Please type your name”)

MsgBox “You typed: “ & PlayerName

The VBScript MsgBox() Function

The VBScript MsgBox()function displays a pop-up dialog that is very similar to the pop-up dialog produced by the WSH Popup() method It gives you the ability to customize the appearance of the dialog by selecting the buttons and the icon to be displayed You also can use it to determine which button the user clicked on

The syntax for the MsgBox()function is as follows:

MsgBox(TextMsg[, buttons][, TitleBarMsg][, helpfile, context])

TextMsgis the message to be displayed in the dialog Buttonsis a representation of the but-tons and icon to appear in the pop-up dialog TitleBarMsgis an optional message that will

be displayed in the pop-up dialog’s title bar, and helpfileand contextare optional; when used, they specify the location of an optional context-sensitive help file

Table 3.11 defines the different collections of buttons that can be displayed on pop-up dialogs displayed using the MsgBox()function

Definition

Twip stands for Twentieth of a Point

and represents a value of 1/1440 inch.

Constant Value Description

vbOKCancel 1 Displays the OK and Cancel buttons

vbAbortRetryIgnore 2 Displays the Abort, Retry, and Ignore buttons

vbYesNoCancel 3 Displays the Yes, No, and Cancel buttons

vbYesNo 4 Displays the Yes and No buttons

vbRetryCancel 5 Displays the Retry and Cancel buttons

TA B L E 3 11 V B SC R I P T MS GBO X( ) FU N C T I O N BU T T O N S

Table 3.12 defines the list of icons that you can add to the MsgBox()pop-up dialog

You can use the MsgBox()function in your scripts like this:

MsgBox “Thanks for playing!”

You also can use the MsgBox()like this:

UserSelected = MsgBox(Would you like to play a game?)

The advantage to this last option is that you can interrogate the button that the user clicks

on and use it to drive the execution flow of your script like this:

UserSelected = MsgBox(“Would you like to play a game?”, 4, “Text Script”)

If UserSelected = 6 Then

MsgBox “OK, The rules of this game are as follows:!”

End If

Alternatively, you could rewrite the previous statements as follows:

UserSelected = MsgBox(“Would you like to play a game?”, 4, “Text Script”)

If UserSelected = vbYes Then

MsgBox “OK, let’s play!”

End If

Table 3.13 defines the list of return values associated with the various MsgBox()buttons

Constant Value Description

vbExclamation 48 Displays the exclamation mark icon

vbInformation 64 Displays the information icon

TA B L E 3 12 V B SC R I P T MS GBO X( ) FU N C T I O N IC O N S

Back to the Math Game

The Math Game is played by displaying a math equation and asking the player to provide the solution If the player provides the correct answer, the game ends; however, if the player gets the answer wrong, then the script offers to show the player how to arrive at the correct answer This is achieved in a slide slow or movie-like fashion, in which the script first starts WordPad, then starts the Calculator application, and finally uses the applications to solve the equation while the player sits back and watches When the script is done with its pre-sentation, it ends by closing both the WordPad and the Calculator applications

A Quick Overview of the WshShell SendKeys() Method

Before I jump completely into the design of the Math Game, I need to give you one more piece of information The Math Game’s capability to interact with the WordPad and Calcu-lator application depends on the use of the WshShell object’s SendKeys() method This method is used to send keystrokes to the currently active Windows application

Because it sends keystrokes to the currently active Windows application, it is very important that, when the script is running, the player does not open any new windows (applications) If he or she does, the script will begin sending key-strokes to whatever applications the player opened, causing any of a number of unpredictable problems

T R A P

Constant Value Description

TA B L E 3 13 V B SC R I P T MS GBO X( ) FU N C T I O N RE T U R N VA L U E S