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

190 ‘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 Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition 191 Chapter 6 • Processing Collections of Data Else 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 opening it (that is, double-clicking 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. 192 Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition 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.vbs game 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 WshShell object to instantiate the WshShortcut object in order to set shortcut properties. The following statement establishes an instance of the WshShell object: 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 Desktop by specifying a value for the WshShell object’s SpecialFolder property. 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 WshShortcut object. 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 WshShortcut object provides access to these prop- erties, which are listed in Table 6.1. Only the TargetPath property must be set to create a shortcut. Configuration of the remaining short- cut properties is optional. The following statement configures the TargetPath property by setting it to C:\GuessANumber.vbs: objNewShortcut.TargetPath = “C:\ GuessANumber.vbs” 193 Chapter 6 • Processing Collections of Data 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. 194 Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition 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 TABLE 6.1 PROPERTIES OF THE WSHS HORTCUT OBJECT 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 WshShortcut object’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() 195 Chapter 6 • Processing Collections of Data 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 WshShell object. The second statement uses the WshShell object’s SpecialFolders property 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 File object 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 TRICK 196 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. Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition 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 AllUsers to 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 StartMenu special folder. Using the following script, you can programmatically configure this menu: Set objWshShl = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”) strTargetFolder = objWshShl.SpecialFolders(“StartMenu”) 197 Chapter 6 • Processing Collections of Data Figure 6.14 Any changes to one of the shared special folders affect every user of the computer. 198 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. Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition 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” 199 Chapter 6 • Processing Collections of Data Figure 6.16 Examining the Programs Menu after adding a shortcut to the GuessA Number.vbs game. Guess a Number . organize and manage the contents of a number of Windows features, including the Start Menu, the Quick Launch toolbar, and desktop. 194 Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, . appears. Click the Shortcut property sheet to view these properties, as shown in Figure 6.12. 192 Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition Definition The Windows. users. You can find these shared special folders by expanding the All Users folder as demonstrated in Figure 6.14. Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition Figure