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At the heart of EzScript is the ScriptObject.
This is what you use to execute script code. Mainly, it has inputs,
outputs and RunScript methods. It has a primary Input (Variant), an Input
parameter collection. Use these if your script needs inputs. You
call one of the RunScript methods to execute a script. Then any outputs
generated by your script is available in the output properties. Below is a
simplified diagram of the ScriptObject, showing its primary methods, input and
output properties.
Uses for EzScript
Lets take a practical example. Suppose you
needed to create an XML document from a database. How would you go about it?
Think for minute. Is it getting messy? Now let's see how easy it would be
with the EzScript ScriptObject. Here is the script you would write if
using the SQLitePlus COM DLL with its sample Northwind database.
<?xml version='1.0'
encoding='Windows-1252' ?>
<%
Dim db, ds, col
Set db = Host.CreateObject("sqliteplus.sqlitedb28")
db.Init "sqlt28_8859_1m.dll"
db.Open Host.MapPath("\test_scripts\northwind.db"), eReadWrite
Set ds = db.Exec("select * from suppliers")
If Not ds.EOD Then %>
<Suppliers>
<% While Not ds.EOD%>
<Name><%=ds("CompanyName")%></Name>
<% ds.MoveNext
Wend %>
</Suppliers>
<% End If
db.Close
%>
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To execute this script, you only need to instantiate a ScriptObject in your
code. If the above script is saved to a file named "gen_suppliers_doc.vbs"
in your application's folder, here is how you would execute it:
Dim scriptObj as new
EzScript.ScriptObject
scriptObj.RunScript App.Path & "\gen_suppliers_doc.vbs"
'the output is now available in scriptObj.OutStream
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As you can see, using EzScript is really
easy. This is why Microsoft ASP has been so successful - its easy to
create complex pages by intermixing script code with text.
Here are some uses for EzScript:
- Generating HTML pages or XML documents.
- Workflow. EzScript is especially well-suited
to Workflow.
- Mail Merges
- Any kind of program where the user needs to
create and/or execute a script.
EzScript Objects
There are two intrinsic EzScript
objects - Host and System. Intrinsic means that these
objects are always there - you don't create them. For example, to write
text to the output stream, you would do this:
<%
Host.Write "some text"
%>
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The Host Object
The Host object represents the containing
ScriptObject. You can access its InParams, OutParams, Input, Output and
most other properties for use in your script. For example, suppose there
is a named Input Parameter, "hiredate". You would access it like this:
<%
Host.Write Host.InParam("hiredate")
%>
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The System Object
The System object is a "service" object,
meant to provide easy access to commonly used Windows services, like the
Registry and File system.
<%
Host.Write System.GetCurrentPath()
%>
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Helper Objects
There are also helper objects,
some of which you cannot create directly - you must obtain them through the
System object. For example, the File object is obtained by calling
System.OpenFile. Using this object, you can easily read and write to
files. Here is an example:
<%
Dim f, val
const eAccessReadWrite=3
const eFileShareRead=1
const eOpenAlways=4
const eNormal=128
const eSeekBegin = 0
const eDataTypeString = 1
set f = System.OpenFile( Host.MapPath("myfile.txt"), eAccessReadWrite,
eFileShareRead, eOpenAlways, eNormal )
s = "This is some data"
f.Write s, len(s)
f.Seek 0, eSeekBegin
f.Read val, f.size, eDataTypeString
host.write val
set f = nothing
%>
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There is also the FindFileInfo object.
You get this by calling System.FindFirstFile and System.FindNextFile.
Two helper objects can be created directly:
StringBuilder and VariantDictionary. The StringBuilder object
is used to efficiently build strings, and the VariantDictionary can be used to
manage collections of data and objects. Here is an example of using a
StringBuilder.
<%
dim sb
set sb = Host.CreateObject("EzScript.StringBuilder")
sb.Write "This "
sb.Write "is "
sb.Write "a "
sb.Write "string!"
host.write sb
%>
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Unicode and Multibyte
EzScript will run either Unicode or
Multibyte script files. EzScript recognizes the Unicode lead character
0xFFFE. (This character will be pre-pended to the data in a file created
by Notepad). If this character is not present, EzScript will attempt to
determine if the text is Unicode or Multibyte. If your Unicode file does
not have the Unicode lead character, or if you wish to be certain your script
file is interpreted properly, you can explicitly specify type text type in the
RunScriptFile method (recommended).
EzScript and EzStor
EzScript can run script files from either the local
file system or from EzStor files. Using EzStor allows you to bundle all of
your script files into a single file to ship with your
application (sort of like WinZip). You wouldn't
want end-users to freely access and modify your script files. For this reason,
EzScript works with EzStor files to access your scripts. EzStor
allows you to put any number of scripts into a single file. Furthermore,
you can include other files from within the EzStor file with #include statements
in your script.
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Database Products
