Vista - Combobox in windows script host ?

07-08-2009

Hello,

Is it possible to use combobox functionality in wsh using vbscript ?

thanks
Vilius

07-08-2009

> Is it possible to use combobox functionality in wsh using vbscript ?

Quote:

>

Yes. Your question isn't very specific. There's
no native GUI with WSH other than message
boxes. The typical way to create a GUI is with
HTAs/webpages running in IE. With IE 5/6 you
can make that look like anything you like. Starting
with IE7 you can't entirely remove the IE frame.
So without using a 3rd-party control you're limited.

If you mean using a dropdown list, and you
understand about using IE, then you can just use
a SELECT element with a SIZE attribute of 1.

To add items to the list you do something like this:

Set Opt = document.createElement("OPTION")
Opt.text = sItemText
Combo1.add Opt '-- where Combo1 is your SELECT.

-------------

See here for a sample custom message box for IE 5/6:

www.jsware.net/jsware/scripts.php5#msgb
screenshots:
www.jsware.net/jsware/msggal.php5

As you can see from that, the options are almost
unlimited using HTML, CSS and VBS for IE5/6. And one
of the samples includes a "combobox". But those
samples work by setting Fullscreen = True and then
specifiying a size for IE, so that only the actual browser
window shows, with no IE window frame. Microsoft
changed the functionality with IE7 so that you can't
do that anymore. And anything custom is likely to
becomes a morass of dysfunction if you're running
with the permissions complications of Vista/7.

07-08-2009

On Jul 8, 3:41*am, "Vilius Mockûnas" <v_mocku...@xxxxxx> wrote:

Quote:

> Hello,
>
> Is it possible to use combobox functionality in wsh using vbscript ?
>
> thanks
> Vilius

As mayayana said, another application, such as IE, must be used to
display a GUI window. Here is a true Combobox example that uses IE as
its console window ...

' Combo box demonstration script
' Tom Lavedas, July 2009
'
' Start Main

Dim oIE, oDoc, oComboBox1, oShow, bClosing

set oIE = createObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
with oIE
' Configure the IE window
.RegisterAsDropTarget = False
' Remove the 'chrome'
.addressbar = False : .statusbar = False
.toolbar = False : .menubar = False
.resizable = False
' Size it
.width = 450: .height = 200
.Navigate "about:blank"
Do until .ReadyState = 4 : WScript.Sleep 100 : Loop
set oDoc = .document
.Visible = true
end with ' oIE

with oDoc
.open
.writeln "<html><head><title>ComboBox Example</title></head>"
.writeln "<body scroll=no>Make a selection or key new entry "
.writeln "and press Enter key ...<br><object "
.writeln "classid=clsid:8BD21D30-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3"
.writeln "id=ComboBox1 width=400></object><p>"
.writeln "<input type=button id=Show value=Show> "
.writeln "<input type=button id=Close value=Close><br>"
.writeln "<div id=Selections> </div></body></html>"
.close
Do until .ReadyState = "complete" : WScript.Sleep 100 : Loop
set oComboBox1 = .all.ComboBox1
set oShow = .all.Show
set oSelections = .all.Selections
end with

with oComboBox1
.List = Array("Black", "Blue", "Green", "Red")
.AutoWordSelect = true
.focus
end with
oDoc.parentWindow.opener = "Me"
set oDoc.all.Close.onclick = GetRef("Closing")
set oCombobox1.onblur = GetRef("Checkit")
set oShow.onclick = GetRef("showlist")
bClosing = false

on error resume next
do until bclosing: wsh.sleep 100 : loop
oIE.quit

' End Main

sub Closing : bClosing = True : end sub

Sub CheckIt
if len(oComboBox1.Value) > 0 Then
oSelections.insertadjacentHTML "afterbegin", oComboBox1.Value &
"<br>"
oComboBox1.AddItem oComboBox1.Value, 0
oComboBox1.Value = ""
oCombobox1.focus
end if
End Sub

Sub ShowList
Dim arr, i
Redim arr(oComboBox1.ListCount - 1)
for i = 0 to Ubound(arr)
arr(i) = oComboBox1.List(i)
next
msgbox Join(arr, vbnewline)
end sub

Tom Lavedas
***********

07-08-2009

>
<object classid="clsid:8BD21D30-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3"
id="ComboBox1" width=400></object>

Quote:

>

It's hard to see how that's preferable to a SELECT
element. Doesn't SELECT pretty much look and act
the same way as a system combobox? And it also
avoids security issues with ActiveX or unsupported
systems. (I don't know what your object is:
8BD21D30-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3
It's not on my system.)

07-08-2009

On Jul 8, 10:52*am, "mayayana" <mayaXXy...@xxxxxx> wrote:

Quote:

> <object classid="clsid:8BD21D30-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3"
> * * id="ComboBox1" width=400></object>
>
>
>
> * It's hard to see how that's preferable to a SELECT
> element. Doesn't SELECT pretty much look and act
> the same way as a system combobox? And it also
> avoids security issues with ActiveX or unsupported
> systems. (I don't know what your object is:
> *8BD21D30-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3
> It's not on my system.)

I was worried that that object was a later addition to the OS. I
suspect it came along with Win 2K or so. You are still using Win 98,
aren't you? It is part of the Windows Forms collection of objects
provided by a FM20.dll.

The main difference between the Combobox and Select is the ability to
key in items NOT contained in the existing list of items. That is, it
is a combination of Textbox and Select controls. It can be handy in
that the user input can be made reusable. Since the OP asked
specifically for a Combobox, I decided to offer it as an alternative
to your good suggestions.

Also, in scripting (as constructed and as opposed to client side web)
the security issues of instantiating ActiveX objects is non-
existent.

Tom Lavedas
***********

07-08-2009

T Lavedas wrote:

Quote:

> I was worried that that object was a later addition to the OS. I
> suspect it came along with Win 2K or so. You are still using Win 98,
> aren't you? It is part of the Windows Forms collection of objects
> provided by a FM20.dll.
>

Tom, as you probably know, fm20.dll is a licensed control. If you
have any version of office (or ofc2k or later) installed, you will
have fm20.dll installed, because fm20.dll provides the "forms"
capability offered by vba. In addition, ms installs fm20 as part
of a couple of other apps. For example, if you download the ms
"ActiveX Control Pad", you will get fm20.dll:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms968493.aspx

fwiw, the presence (or absence) of fm20 is not related to using
or not using win98. I use win98 and have had fm20 available
since 2000.

Most likely in your environment, everybody does have a copy
of ms ofc installed -- and as a result they will have fm20 too.
But some cantankerous people, who think they can get a
satisfactory office suite for free, will probably not have
fm20, regardless of the system they have installed.

That is, it doesn't come with ms windows, it comes with
just a couple of ms apps. So therefore, for general
usage, the select tag may be more universally available.

cheers, jw

07-08-2009

On Jul 8, 1:45*pm, mr_unreliable <kindlyReplyToNewsgr...@xxxxxx>
wrote:

Quote:

> T Lavedas wrote:

Quote:

> > I was worried that that object was a later addition to the OS. *I
> > suspect it came along with Win 2K or so. *You are still using Win 98,
> > aren't you? *It is part of the Windows Forms collection of objects
> > provided by a FM20.dll.

>
> Tom, as you probably know, fm20.dll is a licensed control. If you
> have any version of office (or ofc2k or later) installed, you will
> have fm20.dll installed, because fm20.dll provides the "forms"
> capability offered by vba. *In addition, ms installs fm20 as part
> of a couple of other apps. *For example, if you download the ms
> "ActiveX Control Pad", you will get fm20.dll:
>
> * *http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms968493.aspx
>
> fwiw, the presence (or absence) of fm20 is not related to using
> or not using win98. *I use win98 and have had fm20 available
> since 2000.
>
> Most likely in your environment, everybody does have a copy
> of ms ofc installed -- and as a result they will have fm20 too.
> But some cantankerous people, who think they can get a
> satisfactory office suite for free, will probably not have
> fm20, regardless of the system they have installed.
>
> That is, it doesn't come with ms windows, it comes with
> just a couple of ms apps. *So therefore, for general
> usage, the select tag may be more universally available.
>
> cheers, jw

OK. Thanks for setting that straight. If MS Office is installed, it
works great. Otherwise, ...

Tom Lavedas
***********

07-08-2009

> But some cantankerous people, who think they can get a

Quote:

> satisfactory office suite for free,

I'm still using Lotus WordPro 96. And I've
got OpenOffice in case someone sends me an
MS Office file. (Though in most cases what I get
is a .doc, and I've got a script on my desktop to
strip the 90% bloat out of that and give me a .txt.
So I don't even need OO very often.)

It amazes me that MS manages to sell so many
copies of Office at such high prices. I read recently
that they made $16B on it last year! Somehow they've
managed to stabilize a vast market of people who
simply never even consider not buying Office, and
who assume that everyone else has it. That's not
so surprising from non-tech people who have to
use Office in their work. Those people often don't even
know that a text file can be saved as anything but
a .docx. What *is* surprising is how many experienced
people assume that everyone uses Office.

07-08-2009

mayayana wrote:

Quote:

> > But some cantankerous people, who think they can get a
> > satisfactory office suite for free,

>
>

I'm still using Lotus WordPro 96. And I've
> got OpenOffice in case someone sends me an
> MS Office file. (Though in most cases what I get
> is a .doc, and I've got a script on my desktop to
> strip the 90% bloat out of that and give me a .txt.
> So I don't even need OO very often.)
>
> It amazes me that MS manages to sell so many
> copies of Office at such high prices. I read recently
> that they made $16B on it last year! Somehow they've
> managed to stabilize a vast market of people who
> simply never even consider not buying Office, and
> who assume that everyone else has it. That's not
> so surprising from non-tech people who have to
> use Office in their work. Those people often don't even
> know that a text file can be saved as anything but
> a .docx. What *is* surprising is how many experienced
> people assume that everyone uses Office.

I don't consider those people experienced. They just use what they were
taught to use (or forced to use by the thugs in IT). It drives me nuts when
someone emails a 15MB, single page, PowerPoint to explain something simple
as how to flip a power switch on, when a few lines of text would suffice.

--
Todd Vargo
(Post questions to group only. Remove "z" to email personal messages)

07-10-2009

mayayana wrote:

Quote:

> I'm more surprised by the extreme dedication of the
> Office users. Awhile back a friend wanted MS Word and
> we found him a legal version of Word97 online for $35.
> At the other extreme is an architecture firm where I
> was meeting a friend for lunch one day. He said he was
> thinking of updating all of their Office 2000 to the next
> version. (Office XP?) At the time the next version had
> recently come out. I asked why he would spend all of
> that money when Office 2000 was working fine. He
> replied that it looked "unprofessional" to be using an
> older version.

This thread is getting way off-topic, but I couldn't
resist commenting on the above...

One would think that clients of an ARCHITECTURE firm
would be more impressed with the latest TECHNICAL
software (for example, the latest-and-greatest AUTOCAD)
rather than the latest in office/admin apps for text
documents and/or spreadsheets.

cheers, jw

07-08-2009	#1 (permalink)
Vilius Mockûnas n/a posts	Combobox in windows script host ? Hello, Is it possible to use combobox functionality in wsh using vbscript ? thanks Vilius
My System Specs

07-08-2009	#2 (permalink)
mayayana n/a posts	Re: Combobox in windows script host ? > Is it possible to use combobox functionality in wsh using vbscript ? Quote: > Yes. Your question isn't very specific. There's no native GUI with WSH other than message boxes. The typical way to create a GUI is with HTAs/webpages running in IE. With IE 5/6 you can make that look like anything you like. Starting with IE7 you can't entirely remove the IE frame. So without using a 3rd-party control you're limited. If you mean using a dropdown list, and you understand about using IE, then you can just use a SELECT element with a SIZE attribute of 1. To add items to the list you do something like this: Set Opt = document.createElement("OPTION") Opt.text = sItemText Combo1.add Opt '-- where Combo1 is your SELECT. ------------- See here for a sample custom message box for IE 5/6: www.jsware.net/jsware/scripts.php5#msgb screenshots: www.jsware.net/jsware/msggal.php5 As you can see from that, the options are almost unlimited using HTML, CSS and VBS for IE5/6. And one of the samples includes a "combobox". But those samples work by setting Fullscreen = True and then specifiying a size for IE, so that only the actual browser window shows, with no IE window frame. Microsoft changed the functionality with IE7 so that you can't do that anymore. And anything custom is likely to becomes a morass of dysfunction if you're running with the permissions complications of Vista/7.
My System Specs

07-08-2009	#3 (permalink)
T Lavedas n/a posts	Re: Combobox in windows script host ? On Jul 8, 3:41am, "Vilius Mockûnas" <v_mocku...@xxxxxx> wrote: Quote: > Hello, > > Is it possible to use combobox functionality in wsh using vbscript ? > > thanks > Vilius As mayayana said, another application, such as IE, must be used to display a GUI window. Here is a true Combobox example that uses IE as its console window ... ' Combo box demonstration script ' Tom Lavedas, July 2009 ' ' Start Main Dim oIE, oDoc, oComboBox1, oShow, bClosing set oIE = createObject("InternetExplorer.Application") with oIE ' Configure the IE window .RegisterAsDropTarget = False ' Remove the 'chrome' .addressbar = False : .statusbar = False .toolbar = False : .menubar = False .resizable = False ' Size it .width = 450: .height = 200 .Navigate "about:blank" Do until .ReadyState = 4 : WScript.Sleep 100 : Loop set oDoc = .document .Visible = true end with ' oIE with oDoc .open .writeln "<html><head><title>ComboBox Example</title></head>" .writeln "<body scroll=no>Make a selection or key new entry " .writeln "and press Enter key ...<br><object " .writeln "classid=clsid:8BD21D30-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3" .writeln "id=ComboBox1 width=400></object><p>" .writeln "<input type=button id=Show value=Show> " .writeln "<input type=button id=Close value=Close><br>" .writeln "<div id=Selections> </div></body></html>" .close Do until .ReadyState = "complete" : WScript.Sleep 100 : Loop set oComboBox1 = .all.ComboBox1 set oShow = .all.Show set oSelections = .all.Selections end with with oComboBox1 .List = Array("Black", "Blue", "Green", "Red") .AutoWordSelect = true .focus end with oDoc.parentWindow.opener = "Me" set oDoc.all.Close.onclick = GetRef("Closing") set oCombobox1.onblur = GetRef("Checkit") set oShow.onclick = GetRef("showlist") bClosing = false on error resume next do until bclosing: wsh.sleep 100 : loop oIE.quit ' End Main sub Closing : bClosing = True : end sub Sub CheckIt if len(oComboBox1.Value) > 0 Then oSelections.insertadjacentHTML "afterbegin", oComboBox1.Value & "<br>" oComboBox1.AddItem oComboBox1.Value, 0 oComboBox1.Value = "" oCombobox1.focus end if End Sub Sub ShowList Dim arr, i Redim arr(oComboBox1.ListCount - 1) for i = 0 to Ubound(arr) arr(i) = oComboBox1.List(i) next msgbox Join(arr, vbnewline) end sub Tom Lavedas **********
My System Specs

07-08-2009	#4 (permalink)
mayayana n/a posts	Re: Combobox in windows script host ? > <object classid="clsid:8BD21D30-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3" id="ComboBox1" width=400></object> Quote: > It's hard to see how that's preferable to a SELECT element. Doesn't SELECT pretty much look and act the same way as a system combobox? And it also avoids security issues with ActiveX or unsupported systems. (I don't know what your object is: 8BD21D30-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3 It's not on my system.)
My System Specs

07-08-2009	#5 (permalink)
T Lavedas n/a posts	Re: Combobox in windows script host ? On Jul 8, 10:52am, "mayayana" <mayaXXy...@xxxxxx> wrote: Quote: > <object classid="clsid:8BD21D30-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3" > * id="ComboBox1" width=400></object> > > > > * It's hard to see how that's preferable to a SELECT > element. Doesn't SELECT pretty much look and act > the same way as a system combobox? And it also > avoids security issues with ActiveX or unsupported > systems. (I don't know what your object is: > 8BD21D30-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3 > It's not on my system.) I was worried that that object was a later addition to the OS. I suspect it came along with Win 2K or so. You are still using Win 98, aren't you? It is part of the Windows Forms collection of objects provided by a FM20.dll. The main difference between the Combobox and Select is the ability to key in items NOT contained in the existing list of items. That is, it is a combination of Textbox and Select controls. It can be handy in that the user input can be made reusable. Since the OP asked specifically for a Combobox, I decided to offer it as an alternative to your good suggestions. Also, in scripting (as constructed and as opposed to client side web) the security issues of instantiating ActiveX objects is non- existent. Tom Lavedas **********
My System Specs

07-08-2009	#6 (permalink)
mr_unreliable n/a posts	Re: Combobox in windows script host ? T Lavedas wrote: Quote: > I was worried that that object was a later addition to the OS. I > suspect it came along with Win 2K or so. You are still using Win 98, > aren't you? It is part of the Windows Forms collection of objects > provided by a FM20.dll. > Tom, as you probably know, fm20.dll is a licensed control. If you have any version of office (or ofc2k or later) installed, you will have fm20.dll installed, because fm20.dll provides the "forms" capability offered by vba. In addition, ms installs fm20 as part of a couple of other apps. For example, if you download the ms "ActiveX Control Pad", you will get fm20.dll: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms968493.aspx fwiw, the presence (or absence) of fm20 is not related to using or not using win98. I use win98 and have had fm20 available since 2000. Most likely in your environment, everybody does have a copy of ms ofc installed -- and as a result they will have fm20 too. But some cantankerous people, who think they can get a satisfactory office suite for free, will probably not have fm20, regardless of the system they have installed. That is, it doesn't come with ms windows, it comes with just a couple of ms apps. So therefore, for general usage, the select tag may be more universally available. cheers, jw
My System Specs

07-08-2009	#7 (permalink)
T Lavedas n/a posts	Re: Combobox in windows script host ? On Jul 8, 1:45pm, mr_unreliable <kindlyReplyToNewsgr...@xxxxxx> wrote: Quote: > T Lavedas wrote: Quote: > > I was worried that that object was a later addition to the OS. I > > suspect it came along with Win 2K or so. You are still using Win 98, > > aren't you? It is part of the Windows Forms collection of objects > > provided by a FM20.dll. > > Tom, as you probably know, fm20.dll is a licensed control. If you > have any version of office (or ofc2k or later) installed, you will > have fm20.dll installed, because fm20.dll provides the "forms" > capability offered by vba. In addition, ms installs fm20 as part > of a couple of other apps. For example, if you download the ms > "ActiveX Control Pad", you will get fm20.dll: > > * http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms968493.aspx > > fwiw, the presence (or absence) of fm20 is not related to using > or not using win98. I use win98 and have had fm20 available > since 2000. > > Most likely in your environment, everybody does have a copy > of ms ofc installed -- and as a result they will have fm20 too. > But some cantankerous people, who think they can get a > satisfactory office suite for free, will probably not have > fm20, regardless of the system they have installed. > > That is, it doesn't come with ms windows, it comes with > just a couple of ms apps. So therefore, for general > usage, the select tag may be more universally available. > > cheers, jw OK. Thanks for setting that straight. If MS Office is installed, it works great. Otherwise, ... Tom Lavedas **********
My System Specs

07-08-2009	#8 (permalink)
mayayana n/a posts	Re: Combobox in windows script host ? > But some cantankerous people, who think they can get a Quote: > satisfactory office suite for free, I'm still using Lotus WordPro 96. And I've got OpenOffice in case someone sends me an MS Office file. (Though in most cases what I get is a .doc, and I've got a script on my desktop to strip the 90% bloat out of that and give me a .txt. So I don't even need OO very often.) It amazes me that MS manages to sell so many copies of Office at such high prices. I read recently that they made $16B on it last year! Somehow they've managed to stabilize a vast market of people who simply never even consider not buying Office, and who assume that everyone else has it. That's not so surprising from non-tech people who have to use Office in their work. Those people often don't even know that a text file can be saved as anything but a .docx. What is surprising is how many experienced people assume that everyone uses Office.
My System Specs

07-08-2009	#9 (permalink)
Todd Vargo n/a posts	Re: Combobox in windows script host ? mayayana wrote: Quote: Quote: > > But some cantankerous people, who think they can get a > > satisfactory office suite for free, > > I'm still using Lotus WordPro 96. And I've > got OpenOffice in case someone sends me an > MS Office file. (Though in most cases what I get > is a .doc, and I've got a script on my desktop to > strip the 90% bloat out of that and give me a .txt. > So I don't even need OO very often.) > > It amazes me that MS manages to sell so many > copies of Office at such high prices. I read recently > that they made $16B on it last year! Somehow they've > managed to stabilize a vast market of people who > simply never even consider not buying Office, and > who assume that everyone else has it. That's not > so surprising from non-tech people who have to > use Office in their work. Those people often don't even > know that a text file can be saved as anything but > a .docx. What is surprising is how many experienced > people assume that everyone uses Office. I don't consider those people experienced. They just use what they were taught to use (or forced to use by the thugs in IT). It drives me nuts when someone emails a 15MB, single page, PowerPoint to explain something simple as how to flip a power switch on, when a few lines of text would suffice. -- Todd Vargo (Post questions to group only. Remove "z" to email personal messages)
My System Specs

07-10-2009	#10 (permalink)
mr_unreliable n/a posts	Re: Combobox in windows script host ? mayayana wrote: Quote: > I'm more surprised by the extreme dedication of the > Office users. Awhile back a friend wanted MS Word and > we found him a legal version of Word97 online for $35. > At the other extreme is an architecture firm where I > was meeting a friend for lunch one day. He said he was > thinking of updating all of their Office 2000 to the next > version. (Office XP?) At the time the next version had > recently come out. I asked why he would spend all of > that money when Office 2000 was working fine. He > replied that it looked "unprofessional" to be using an > older version. This thread is getting way off-topic, but I couldn't resist commenting on the above... One would think that clients of an ARCHITECTURE firm would be more impressed with the latest TECHNICAL software (for example, the latest-and-greatest AUTOCAD) rather than the latest in office/admin apps for text documents and/or spreadsheets. cheers, jw
My System Specs

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