Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner Part 22 potx

Windows provides shortcuts as a convenient alternative for executing Windows applications and scripts from the Windows desktop.. For example, just about any new application that you inst

‘Main Processing Section

‘Generate a random number

Randomize

intRandomNo = FormatNumber(Int((100 * Rnd) + 1))

‘Loop until either the user guesses correctly or the user clicks on Cancel

Do Until strOkToEnd = “yes”

‘Prompt user to pick a number

intUserNumber = InputBox(“Type your guess:”,cGreetingMsg)

intNoGuesses = intNoGuesses + 1

‘See if the user provided an answer

If Len(intUserNumber) <> 0 Then

‘Make sure that the player typed a number

If IsNumeric(intUserNumber) = True Then

‘Test to see if the user’s guess was correct

If FormatNumber(intUserNumber) = intRandomNo Then

MsgBox “Congratulations! You guessed it The number was “ & _

intUserNumber & “.” & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & “You guessed it “ & _

“in “ & intNoGuesses & “ guesses.”, ,cGreetingMsg

strOkToEnd = “yes”

End If

‘Test to see if the user’s guess was too low

If FormatNumber(intUserNumber) < intRandomNo Then

MsgBox “Your guess was too low Try again”, ,cGreetingMsg

strOkToEnd = “no”

End If

‘Test to see if the user’s guess was too high

If FormatNumber(intUserNumber) > intRandomNo Then

MsgBox “Your guess was too high Try again”, ,cGreetingMsg

strOkToEnd = “no”

End If

MsgBox “Sorry You did not enter a number Try again.”, , _

cGreetingMsg

End If

Else

MsgBox “You either failed to type a value or you clicked on “ & _

“Cancel Please play again soon!”, , cGreetingMsg

strOkToEnd = “yes”

End If

Loop

Okay, it’s time to run the script and see whether it works as promised (don’t worry, it will) After testing to see whether the script works as expected, retest it to see whether you can break it For example, try feeding it special characters or letters instead of numbers Once you’re satisfied with the operation of the script, keep reading I have one more little goodie for you in this chapter

Creating Shortcuts for Your Game

Up until now you have been running your scripts in one of two ways One is by opening the Windows Command Console and typing in the name of an execution host, followed by the path and filename of your scripts at the Windows Command Prompt The other is by locat-ing the folder in which the script resides and openlocat-ing it (that is, double-clicklocat-ing on it) Windows provides shortcuts as a convenient alternative for executing Windows applications and scripts from the Windows desktop A shortcut provides access to a Windows resource without requiring the user to find or even know the actual location of the resource that it represents For example, just about any new application that you install on your computer automatically adds an application shortcut to the Programs menu located on the Windows Start Menu In addition, most application installation

procedures offer to add a shortcut for the application

on the Windows desktop Some application install

processes go a step further and add a shortcut for the

application on the Windows Quick Launch toolbar

Definition

Shortcuts are links or pointers to

Windows objects These objects can be just about anything, includ-ing Windows applications, folders, files, printers, disk drives, and scripts.

Using VBScript and the WSH, you can

create a setup script that configures

shortcuts for your VBScript games in

any of these locations Of course, you

can always manually create shortcuts

for your scripts, but the advantage of

scripting their setup is that, once

writ-ten, you can re-create these shortcuts

on any computer For example, if you

purchase a new computer, all you’d have to do is copy your VBScripts from your older com-puter and then run your VBScript setup script, and all your shortcuts would be re-created Likewise, if you give copies of your VBScript games to all your friends, all they’d have to do

to set up shortcuts for the scripts is to run the setup script

Examining Shortcut Properties

Windows shortcuts are identified by a small black arrow in the lower-left side of the icon that represents them Shortcuts contain information, in the form of properties, about the Windows resources that they are associated with The most important of these properties is the path and name of the Windows resources that the shortcut represents

You can view the properties associated with any shortcut by right-clicking on the shortcut and selecting Properties The shortcut’s Properties dialog appears Click the Shortcut property sheet to view these properties, as shown in Figure 6.12

Definition

The Windows Quick Launch toolbar is an optional toolbar located on top of the Windows taskbar It provides single-click access to Windows applications Applications typically found on this toolbar include Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Windows Media Player.

Figure 6.12

Examining the

properties

associated with

a shortcut to

the Windows

Notepad

application.

Creating Desktop Shortcuts

As you will see, you can create a desktop shortcut in just five simple steps To demonstrate, let’s create a shortcut for the GuessANumber.vbsgame on the Windows desktop

The first step in creating the game’s shortcut is to establish an instance of the WshShell object The script will need to use this object’s SpecialFolders property to access the folder that represents the Windows desktop In addition, you’ll need to use the WshShellobject to instantiate the WshShortcutobject in order to set shortcut properties

The following statement establishes an instance of the WshShellobject:

Set objWshShl = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)

The second step in creating the shortcut is to set up a reference to the folder where the shortcut is to reside In Windows, everything, including the Windows desktop and Start Menu, is represented as a folder Therefore, to add a shortcut to the Windows desktop, all you have to do is save the shortcut in a special folder called Desktopby specifying a value for the WshShellobject’s SpecialFolderproperty

strDesktopFolder = objWshShl.SpecialFolders(“Desktop”)

The third step required to set up the desktop shortcut is to use the WshShell object’s CreateShortcut()method to define the shortcut and instantiate the WshShortcutobject Set objNewShortcut = objWshShl.CreateShortcut(strDesktopFolder & _

“\\GuessANumber.lnk”)

strDesktopFolder provides a reference to the location of the Windows desktop and

\\GuessANumber.lnk is the name to be assigned to the shortcut

The fourth step in creating the new shortcut is to

configure properties associated with the shortcut

The WshShortcutobject provides access to these

prop-erties, which are listed in Table 6.1

Only the TargetPathproperty must be set to create

a shortcut Configuration of the remaining

short-cut properties is optional The following statement

configures the TargetPathproperty by setting it to

C:\GuessANumber.vbs:

objNewShortcut.TargetPath = “C:\ GuessANumber.vbs”

Definition

Special Folders are a Windows

man-agement tool that is used to organize and manage the contents of a number

of Windows features, including the Start Menu, the Quick Launch toolbar, and desktop.

Property Description

Arguments Sets arguments to be passed to the application or script associated with the

shortcut Description Adds a comment to the shortcut

Hotkey Sets a keyboard keystroke sequence that can be used to activate the

application associated with the shortcut IconLocation Sets the shortcut’s icon

TargetPath Sets the path and file name of the object associated with the shortcut

WindowStyle Sets the window style used when the application associated with the

shortcut is opened (e.g., normal, minimized, or maximized) WorkingDirectory Sets the default working directory or folder for the application associated

with the shortcut

TA B L E 6 1 PR O P E R T I E S O F T H E WS HSH O R T C U T OB J E C T

Examples of how to set other properties are

objNewShortcut.Description = “Guess a Number Game”

objNewShortcut.Hotkey = “CTRL+Alt+G”

The first of these two statements adds a description to the shortcut Once created, this description can be viewed by moving the pointer over the shortcut’s icon for a few moments The second statement defines a keyboard keystroke sequence that, when executed, will acti-vate the shortcut and thus open its associated Windows resources (that is, run your script)

In this case, pressing the CTRL, ALT, and J keys at the same time will run the VBScript The fifth and final step in creating the shortcut is to save it using the WshShortcutobject’s Save()method, like this:

objNewShortcut.Save()

Let’s put all five of these statements together to complete the script

Set objWshShl = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)

strDesktopFolder = objWshShl.SpecialFolders(“Desktop”)

Set objNewShortcut = objWshShl.CreateShortcut(strDesktopFolder & _

“\\GuessANumber.lnk”)

objNewShortcut.TargetPath = “c:\GuessANumber.vbs”

objNewShortcut.Save()

It’s just as easy to delete a shortcut using VBScript and the WSH, as it is to create one For example, create and run the following script to delete the shortcut the previous script created:

Set objWshShl = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”) strTargetFolder = objWshShl.SpecialFolders(“Desktop”) Set objFsoObject = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”) Set objNewShortcut = objFsoObject.GetFile(strTargetFolder & “\\GuessANumber.lnk”) objNewShortcut.Delete

The first statement establishes an instance of the WshShellobject The second statement uses the WshShellobject’s SpecialFoldersproperty to identify the location of the shortcut The third statement creates an instance of the VBScript FileSystemObject The fourth statement uses the FileSystemObject object’s GetFile()method to instantiate the Fileobject and create a reference

to the shortcut, and the final statement deletes the shortcut using the File object’s Delete()method

Understanding How to Work with Special Folders

Windows operating systems use folders for a number of purposes For example, folders are used to store system files You also use folders to store your own personal files As you just learned, the Windows desktop is a special folder Windows XP is loaded with special folders

as shown in the following list:

• Desktop

• Start Menu

• Programs

• Favorites

• Fonts

• NetHood

• PrintHood

• SendTo

• Recent

• Startup

• Templates

• My Documents

T R I C K

By adding and removing shortcuts to and from Windows special folders you can change their contents Finding special folders is easy, just right-click on the Windows XP Start but-ton and click on Explore Windows displays the Explorer folder as demonstrated in Figure 6.13 The Document and Settings folder is automatically expanded A folder containing your personal user profile settings is also expanded From here you can view numerous special folders, including the Desktop and Start Menu special folders

So far, all the special folders that you’ve seen are associated with just one person—you That’s why they were stored in your personal profile What’s nice about this is that someone else who shares your computer can have his or her own custom profile settings without affecting you or any other user of your computer Windows also lets you make configuration changes that can be applied to all users of your computer To do this you must make the con-figuration changes to one of a collection of special folders that are shared by all users You can find these shared special folders by expanding the All Users folder as demonstrated in Figure 6.14

Figure 6.13

You can manually

configure the

Desktop by

dragging and

dropping

shortcuts into

the Desktop

special folder.

A shortcut to the

Windows Script 5.6

documentation

A shortcut to the

Windows Script 5.6

documentation

stored in the

Desktop special

folder

Shared special folders are not as easy to identify as other special folders To locate them you must first know their names, as shown in the following list

• AllUsersDesktop Stores items visible on every user’s desktop.

• AllUsersStartMenu Stores items visible on every user’s Start Menu.

• AllUsersPrograms Stores items visible on every user’s All Programs menu.

• AllUsersStartup Stores items that are automatically started any time a user logs on

to the computer

If you look closely at each of these folder’s names, you will see that they can be derived by appending AllUsersto the beginning of the folder names shown in Figure 6.14

Using Shortcuts to Add Your Script to the Windows Start Menu

To work with the folders that make up the Windows Start Menu, you need to create a refer-ence to the StartMenuspecial folder Using the following script, you can programmatically configure this menu:

Set objWshShl = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)

strTargetFolder = objWshShl.SpecialFolders(“StartMenu”)

Figure 6.14

Any changes to

one of the shared

special folders

affect every user

of the computer.

Set objNewShortcut = objWshShl.CreateShortcut(strTargetFolder & “\\GuessANumber.lnk”) objNewShortcut.TargetPath = “c:\ GuessANumber.vbs”

objNewShortcut.Save

As you can see, other than specifying a different special folder name, this script is no dif-ferent than the script that created the desktop shortcut Create and run this script Figure 6.15 shows the new menu entry added by this script on a computer that runs Windows XP

Using Shortcuts to Add Your Script to the Programs Menu

You can just as easily add shortcuts for your VBScripts to other menus located off the Windows Start Menu For example, the following script adds a menu entry for the GuessANumber.vbs script on the Programs menu

Set objWshShl = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)

strTargetFolder = objWshShl.SpecialFolders(“Programs”)

Set objNewShortcut = objWshShl.CreateShortcut(strTargetFolder & “\\GuessANumber.lnk”) objNewShortcut.TargetPath = “c:\ GuessANumber.vbs”

objNewShortcut.Save

Again, the only thing that changed in this script is the name of the special folder that rep-resents the Programs menu Figure 6.16 demonstrates how the Programs menu now looks with its new shortcut

Figure 6.15

Examining the

Start Menu after

adding a shortcut

to the GuessA

Number.vbs

game.

Guess a Number

Using Shortcuts to Add Your Script to the Quick Launch Toolbar

The Windows Quick Launch toolbar is an optional toolbar located on the Windows taskbar

of computers running Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP It provides single-click access to Win-dows resources The next script demonstrates how to add a shortcut for the GuessANumber.vbs script to the Quick Launch toolbar For the most part, this script is no different than any of the previous examples There is one key difference, however, which I have highlighted in bold Set objWshShl = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)

strQuickLaunchToolbar = objWshShl.SpecialFolders(“AppData”)

strAppDataPath = strQuickLaunchToolbar + _

“\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch”

Figure 6.16

Examining the

Programs Menu

after adding a

shortcut to the

GuessA

Number.vbs

game.

Guess a Number