Vista - Retrieving an array from JScript / MSScriptControl

I am sure this has been covered, but right
now I can't seem to track it down via Google.
I'd like to know what the most direct way is
to return an array to VBScript from JScript.

Let's suppose that the JScript lives in an
MSScriptControl. The obvious way of passing
an array back from the script control to
VBScript yields a comma separated string.
This is not such a good thing if your array
may contain commas.

One could, of course, go through the JScript
array, and somehow escape all the commas,
but this is not so good if you have multi
dimensional arrays.

The following is a really hacky way to do it,
but it would be real nice to have a direct way
to pass the object back.

Dim ie, oScript, code, out, aRay
Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
ie.Navigate2 "about:blank"
ie.document.parentWindow.execScript("window.aRay=1;")

Set oScript = CreateObject("MSScriptControl.ScriptControl")
oScript.Language = "JScript"
oScript.addObject "ie", ie
code = "function retAr(ie) { " & _
"ie.document.parentWindow.aRay=['foo,bar', 'bob']; }"
oScript.AddCode code
oScript.Eval "retAr(ie)"

MsgBox typename(ie.document.parentWindow.aRay)

set aRay = ie.document.parentWindow.aRay
out = "Size: " & aRay.length & vbCrLf
For each idx in aRay: out = out & idx & vbCrLf: Next
MsgBox out


Any tips appreciated,
Csaba Gabor from Vienna

"Csaba Gabor" <danswer@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:cfa9eaac-5f51-484a-a82f-6e47f08be66a@xxxxxxFirst, I think that anyone who tries this script should add a statement to
make the IE object visible, like:
ie.Visible = true
This will remind the person that each time they run it, an IE object is
being created, and that this object will be running and use memory until the
computer is rebooted or a script is run to terminate the orphanned IE
objects.

I played with this problem several years ago and never found a satisfactory,
general purpose way to pass info between languages. One general purpose
object that VBScript and JScript share is the dictionary object, but I don't
know if this will help you.
If you know of a character that your data will never contain, you could use
that as a separator instead of a comma. If JScript strings use 16 bits per
character, perhaps some Unicode character could be used as the separator.

-Paul Randall

Csaba Gabor wrote:hi Csaba,

You can find an answer (whether it will satisfy you
or not is problematical) in my reply to Sarah Ilyas
posting in the news://microsoft.public.scripting.wsh
newsgroup of 1/29/09 entitled: "Microsoft Script Control".

It involves "exchanging calling cards". That is, you
send in to the script control an object, which in my
case was the parent form object -- but any container
object will do. With that, you can then call (from
the script running in the script control) the methods
and properties of the parent object.

cheers, jw
____________________________________________________________

You got questions? WE GOT ANSWERS!!! ..(but, no guarantee
the answers will be applicable to the questions)

Thank you (both) for your comments, a few of my own are
interspersed.

JW, your comments about the thread below got me
thinking, with a reply there.
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...4834f273df21d/


On Feb 18, 5:25 pm, "Paul Randall" <paul...@xxxxxx> wrote:Invisible IEs that were created during a .vbs run tend to get cleaned
up.
For example, rerunning my original code a few times with the following
at the top would be a good way of checking the window count:

swCnt = 0
For each oWnd in CreateObject("Shell.Application").windows
swCnt = swCnt + 1
Next
MsgBox "Total ie/explorer windows: " & swCnt

Nevertheless, with some environments (such as PHP) the window
cleanup is not so guaranteed and orphaned objects may indeed be
left lying around. I would therefore recommend an explicit ie.Quit
to be on the safe side.
Yes, I thought that I'd seen this covered many years ago,
perhaps with discussions about GetRef, MemCopy and those
types of functions. But I couldn't find anything when I searched
recently.
As far as I'm concerned, JScript's generic object (var myObj = {} ) is
a
dictionary. But of course, it's even worse to get that back to
vbscript
than an array. I think the hokey technique I illustrated wasn't
enough
to get the keys back. So the formal Scripting.Dictionary object
definitely provides a way of transfering an array and more.

Note to self: obtain via
var oDct = new ActiveXObject(“Scripting.Dictionary”)