Active Scripting

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How to run VBScript and get a result? You can RUN(‘file.vbs’) and parse output file to obtain a result, but there is another approach: Active Scripting.
3 scripting engines are installed by default: VBScript, JScript and ChakraJS, and can be easily used in Clarion applications.

VBScript, areas of use:

  • Active Directory
  • ADO
  • Computer Hardware
  • Group Policy
  • IIS
  • Logs
  • Mathematics
  • Messaging and Communication
  • Microsoft Office
  • Networking
  • Operating System
  • Other Directory Services
  • Printing
  • Security
  • Service Packs and Hot Fixes
  • Storage
  • Terminal Server
  • WMI

Demo application allows to run scripts and evaluate expressions.

VBScript examples.

  1. Calculator:
    type an expression like “0.75 / 4” or “sqr(5) + log(13)” and press Evaluate expression button.

  2. Reusable scripts:
    paste following code (the Fibonacci numbers function) into script text box and press Run script button:

function fibonacci(limit)
  dim a,b,c,res
  a=0
  b=1
  res="Fibonacci numbers from 1 to "& limit & vbCrLf

  for i=1 to limit
    c=a+b
    a=b
    b=c
    res=res & c & vbCrLf
  next

  fibonacci=res
end function

then you can evaluate “fibonacci” function many times with different arguments, for example type “fibonacci(10)” and press Evaluate expression button,
next time type “fibonacci(20)” and press Evaluate expression button.

Same is true for JScript and ChakraJS.

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Practical use of Active Scripting: Regular Expressions

Clarion has a very limited support of regular expressions. With javascript we can use the full power of regular expressions:

  • search for a match between a regular expression and a specified string
  • replace some or all matches
  • turn a string into an array of strings, by separating the string at each instance of a specified separator string

An example of replace feature:

var name1 = 'John Smith';
var re = /(\w+)\s(\w+)/;
var name2 = name1.replace(re, '$2, $1');  // expected result: 'Smith, John'

An example of split feature:

var s = 'Harry Trump ;Fred Barney; Helen Rigby ; Bill Abel ;Chris Hand ';
var re = /\s*(?:;|$)\s*/;
var arr = s.split(re);

I wrote a class that implements js regular expressions properties and methods:

  • Test - returns true if match found
  • Exec - returns an array of matches
  • Match - returns an array of matches
  • Search - returns the index of the first match
  • Replace - returns a new string with some or all matches of a pattern replaced by a replacement
  • ReplaceFunction - uses a function to be invoked to create the new substring
  • Split - returns an array of strings, split at each point where the separator occurs in the given string
  • LastIndex - the index at which to start the next match

so examples above can be written in Clarion like this:

  re.CreateNew('(\w+)\s(\w+)')
  name = re.Replace(s, '$2, $1')

and this

  re.CreateNew('\s*(?:;|$)\s*')
  len = re.Split(s)
  LOOP i = 1 TO len
    name = re.MatchedItem(i)
  END
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Practical use of Active Scripting: ADO

For example, let’s see how to extract data from Microsoft Access database using VBScript (you can test it in the demo program):

' open connection
Dim conn
Set conn = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
conn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=address.mdb"

' execute SQL query and get recordset
Dim rs
Set rs = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
rs.Open "SELECT * FROM address", conn

Do Until rs.EOF
  MsgBox "CustomerID="& rs.Fields("CustomerID") &"; Company="& rs.Fields("Company")
  rs.MoveNext
Loop

Set rs = nothing
Set conn = nothing

Here is same task implemented with helper class:

!- open connection
IF ado.conn.Open('Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=address.mdb') = adStateOpen

  !- execute SQL query and get recordset
  IF ado.rs.Open('SELECT * FROM address') = adStateOpen

    !- loop through recordset and store field values into quueue
    LOOP WHILE NOT ado.rs.EOF()
      CLEAR(AddrQ)
      Adr:CustomerID = ado.rs.Field('CustomerID')
      Adr:Company    = ado.rs.Field('Company')
      Adr:Street     = ado.rs.Field('Street')
      ADD(AddrQ)

      !- next record
      ado.rs.MoveNext()
    END
      
    !- close recordset
    ado.rs.Close()
  ELSE
    MESSAGE('Recordset.Open failed')
  END
    
  !- close conection
  ado.conn.Close()
ELSE
  MESSAGE('Connection.Open failed')
END
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Practical use of Active Scripting: WMI

Short list of WMI tasks:

  • BIOS information
  • Display configuration
  • Video adapter configuration
  • Serial ports information
  • CPU information for each processor
  • Disk drives information
  • Physical memory information
  • User accounts
  • Daylight Saving Time
  • Kill the specified program
  • Logoff current user on any WMI enabled computer
  • Ethernet adapters’ link speed
  • List printers with status and number of printjobs, or pause or resume printing on the specified printer(s), or flush all printjobs, or list all printers, their status and number of printjobs
  • Windows Registry
  • Reboot/Shut down any WMI enabled computer on the network
  • Services
  • Startup commands (Startup folder and registry Run)
  • Synchronize your computer’s system time with any webserver
  • Uptime for any WMI enabled computer
  • and many others

With Active Scripting any of above task is just few lines of code. For example, all disk drives information:

  wmi.Connect()
  wmi.ExecQuery('Select * from Win32_DiskDrive')
  
  LOOP i=1 TO wmi.items.Count()
    CLEAR(DriveQ)
    DriveQ:Caption           = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'Caption')
    DriveQ:Description       = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'Description')
    DriveQ:Manufacturer      = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'Manufacturer')
    DriveQ:Model             = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'Model')
    DriveQ:Name              = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'Name')
    DriveQ:Partitions        = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'Partitions')
    DriveQ:Size              = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'Size')
    DriveQ:Status            = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'Status')
    DriveQ:SystemName        = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'SystemName')
    DriveQ:TotalCylinders    = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'TotalCylinders')
    DriveQ:TotalHeads        = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'TotalHeads')
    DriveQ:TotalSectors      = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'TotalSectors')
    DriveQ:TotalTracks       = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'TotalTracks')
    DriveQ:TracksPerCylinder = wmi.items.GetProp(i, 'TracksPerCylinder')
    ADD(DriveQ)
  END

How to terminate running process:

  wmi.Connect()
  !- find all processes with specific caption
  wmi.ExecQuery(printf('Select * from Win32_Process WHERE Caption=%S', pProcess))

  !- terminate each process
  LOOP i=1 TO wmi.items.Count()
    wmi.items.CallMethod(i, 'Terminate')
  END

How to reboot specific computer:

  !- required "Shutdown" privelege
  wmi.Connect(pMachineName, 'Shutdown')

  !- find primary OS
  wmi.ExecQuery('SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Primary=True')

  !- reboot
  wmi.items.CallMethod(1, 'Reboot()')
  IF wmi.ErrNumber()
    MESSAGE(wmi.ErrDescription())
  END

Querying the amount of memory a particular process uses:

  wmi.Connect()
  wmi.ExecQuery(printf('SELECT * FROM Win32_Process WHERE Name = %S', pProcess))
  LOOP i=1 TO wmi.items.Count()
    CLEAR(MemQ)
    MemQ:Amount = wmi.items.GetProp(1, 'WorkingSetSize')
    ADD(MemQ)
  END
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Practical use of Active Scripting: Windows Search

Windows Search is a desktop search platform that has instant search capabilities for most common file types and data types.

Let’s look at some examples.

Search by file name
To find all “setup.exe” files you define “System.FileName=‘setup.exe’” condition:

  ws.Search('SELECT System.ItemPathDisplay FROM SystemIndex WHERE System.FileName=''setup.exe''')
  LOOP UNTIL ws.EOF()
    CLEAR(FilesQ)
    FilesQ:Name = ws.rs.Field('System.ItemPathDisplay')
    ADD(FilesQ)
    ws.MoveNext()
  END

To perform a search by mask (“setup.*”) use ‘LIKE’ operator:

ws.Search('SELECT System.ItemPathDisplay FROM SystemIndex WHERE System.FileName LIKE ''setup.*''')

Search by file content
You can search for words and phrases, below “FREETEXT” predicate is used:

ws.Search('SELECT System.ItemPathDisplay FROM SystemIndex WHERE FREETEXT(''Windows Search'')')

Search by document type
Next example finds all big pictures (image size is greater than 1024x768):

ws.Search('SELECT System.ItemPathDisplay FROM SystemIndex WHERE System.Kind = ''Picture'' AND System.Image.VerticalSize >= 768 AND System.Image.HorizontalSize >= 1024')

You can request not only System.ItemPathDisplay (which actually is full filename), but any type of information: size, modified date, author, image width, color depth and so on.

Windows Search allows requests against remote machine as well, all you need is machine name:
SELECT System.ItemPathDisplay FROM MACHINENAME.SystemIndex

1 Like
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How do I declare wmi to use in Clarion?

7

Serhat,

TVBWMI class for wmi, TJSRegExp for regexp, TVBADO for ado, TWinSearch for winsearch.

wmi TVBWMI

8

Hi Mike,
Do you have a simple/sample code?

9

What’s wrong with the sample code from above part “Practical use of Active Scripting: WMI”?

10

Hi,
I am new here and it seems the demo is not there. any chance of finding a copy anywhere.

with lots of thanks.

11

The demo has been moved here.

12

Thanks a lot. so appreciated

13

Hello Mike,
the test application is an amazing example.

May I ask what is supposed to be defined in the clarion application to be able to use this method.

Best Regards

14

Nothing except INCLUDE active scripting inc file(s).

15

Thank you. but where can I find them?

Regards

16

If you want to buy let me know I will put them on to ClarionShop.

17

May I have an idea about the pricing.

Regards

18

$200 - core classes only, $300 - full package.

19

Hello,
Does it work with clarion 6.3 completely?

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From the home page:
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