Chapter 28

ActiveX Scripting

CONTENTS

• Blending HTML and Programming
  • Script Tag
  • Interface Components
• The ActiveX Scripting Model
  • IE 3.0 Browser Object Model
  • ActiveX Controls and Components
  • VBScript Objects
• The Languages
  • JavaScript
  • VBScript
• Scripting Hosts and Engines
  • Hosts
  • Engines
• Resources
  • Going from VB to VBScript
  • VBScript Language and Runtime References
  • Web Sites
• Summary

First, HTML pages were text. And they were good. Then they were text with lots of fun attributes, and they looked better. Then came images, imagemaps, audio, tables, and so on. Every time you looked, some new tag or new functionality was being added to HTML, but everything was still kind of static. The HTML code itself didn't contain the content or the interactivity; the code just pointed to it. That was then, this is now.

ActiveX scripting is Microsoft's answer to putting the programming language inside the HTML code itself. No longer do basic interactions such as verifying input format have to take place on the server side-all the work can be done on an end user's machine, putting a fraction of the power of distributed computing at your disposal.

Embedding the programming language of your choice in an HTML file can be very useful. Embedding is not quite the way to write your next generation of applications, because everyone can easily view, copy, and modify the source code, but it makes more advanced interaction easy. In this chapter, you look at the ActiveX scripting model and become familiar with the following:

• Blending HTML and programming
• The ActiveX scripting model
• The languages
• VBScript
• JavaScript
• Resources

You don't have to be a programmer to get basic and useful functionality out of ActiveX scripting; you just have to know a little background and be willing to try it.

Blending HTML and Programming

For the better part of its reasonably young life, HTML was static. It was originally designed around the idea of text being the information conveyed, and it did its job quite well. Then images popped in, as was inevitable, and soon more and more capabilities were included as people said, "This is great, but it'd be even better if I could present my information in this other way."

Although you could program on the server side, the desire for distributing the work load to client machines and making it more seamless pushed new ideas of what comprised interaction in HTML right to the forefront. The reason is that people are impatient. You, me, your neighbor-when we're looking for information, we want to get it quickly. We don't want to call and get a busy signal; we want an answer. We don't want to fill out a form, wait a minute or two for the server to think about doing something with it, and then get back a message saying "Sorry, you didn't complete the form correctly." Likewise, if we're doing a job in which we just need simple functionality-like creating basic calculations, working with random numbers, or developing better interactions-sending simple tasks to an overloaded computer just isn't the best solution. When the work is done by our machine, without our ever having to go out and connect to another location, we are saved the time, effort, and frustration. And that savings helps us out.

Like the rest of HTML, though, editing and viewing what's going on in the program should be easy, which means that the HTML can't really be precompiled. It has to be a script that gets interpreted at runtime on the client's machine. There has to be some way for the end user's machine to realize that it has to do something. That's where the SCRIPT tag comes in.

Script Tag

Starting with JavaScript, a new HTML tag was added to separate elements that contained scripts to be interpreted and run. Because it wasn't already taken, SCRIPT was the perfect choice. Just like other tags, you have a <SCRIPT> tag to signal the beginning and a </SCRIPT> tag to signal the end. You put what's supposed to be considered a script in between those tags.

But what happens if the browser doesn't support scripts? Normally, it would get a whole lot of garbage between the <SCRIPT> and </SCRIPT> tags, because the browser would just ignore those tags and move on to the text. The answer to this problem is to trick the browser. You place everything that's supposed to be code inside comment tags within the SCRIPT tags. If the browser can't handle the SCRIPT tags, it just sees all that code as nondisplaying comments and doesn't show it to the end user.

What goes between the two SCRIPT tags? Almost anything. The most basic element you need to include is an identifier for what scripting language you're using, like the following beginning SCRIPT tag for a VBScript:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBS">

You can also include a unique name for the script so that you can run multiple scripts on a page and do specific jobs with different scripts. To include the name for the script, just add it to the first SCRIPT tag, as follows:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBS" NAME="myscript1">

As time goes on, scripting languages may add more tags to control behavior further, but because you can control the behavior in the script as well, adding new tags is not a real priority.

Interface Components

To show how cooperative user interfaces can be with HTML, as well as how dependent they can be, the primary user interfaces for scripts are the same elements that are used by HTML forms: checkboxes, radio buttons, input fields, buttons, and so on. Without them, most scripts are limited to tossing up message boxes and maybe a single box in which the users can type some information. Without the ability to use the HTML forms elements, message boxes and input boxes by themselves would not blend well with HTML.

Because each element on a form can be named, you can use these names to cause events and interpret them. If you have a button named Go, for example, you can include a line in your script to perform a specific action when someone clicks the Go button. If you have an input box named MyText, you can get text from that box as easily as you can send text to it. Using this capability, you can add functionality to your forms and other functions, such as checking for valid e-mail addresses before sending in a form or comparing phone numbers to states to determine what sales office's page they should get directed to for further information.

The components that are available to script functions go beyond just HTML-created components, though; they include aspects of the browser itself. Each part of the browser-the window, any frames, the status bar, the menu bar-is part of the scripting environment and can be controlled. Because each part has its own special way of being named, you can single it out to create an effect on it. If you want to set the status bar to read "Today's specials are…" or create a new browser window, you can do so. You just have to know how scripting-ActiveX scripting in particular-enables you do make these changes.

The ActiveX Scripting Model

The whole concept of ActiveX scripting is that you're using small, interoperable components that work together to get the job done. A browser or other application works like this as well. Applications have child windows, objects, and sets of components that they pass messages between them to make everything work. When you bring ActiveX scripting into the equation, what really makes the application more powerful is the capability to interact with the parent object, such as Internet Explorer, another browser, or whatever container the script is being run as part of.

The interactions with the container in which the script is running can be on two levels with ActiveX scripting: on the container itself or on any elements within the container's ability to control. In the first case, you need to know the Object Model that the container makes available to the script; that is, what are the individual components that container has, and what is it willing to let you use. In the second case, you need to know what other elements could possibly be controlled, such as ActiveX controls being downloaded, or other pieces of functionality.

IE 3.0 Browser Object Model

When you bring a script into Internet Explorer, you can take hold of a variety of hidden pieces. These individual components are treated as separate objects to the script because each has its own unique functionality. Main windows, child windows, frames, links, other scripts-everything is an object unto its own, and you can isolate each object and do neat tricks with it, if you're inclined to.

Figure 28.1 shows the basic levels of Internet Explorer's Object Model-which object relates to which other object and how they all piece together. Certain objects such as scripts, frames, forms, links, and anchors may exist multiple times, with unique names and data for each, whereas other elements have underlying components that end up being dependent on the parent component. Forms, for instance, start out as part of the window, but they are also part of the HTML document. Any elements in the form itself are thus dependent on the form component, which is dependent on the document component, which is part of the window itself. (If you feel like singing "the knee bone's connected to the thigh bone" at any time, feel free.)

Figure 28.1 : The Internet Explorer Object Model for ActiveX scripting.

You can make use of this model to aim your commands accurately at a component. If you want to aim a command at a specific checkbox on a specific form, the chain of reference in the traditional Object.Property chain of command would be Window.Document.Form.Checkbox. In some cases, you can bypass a level or two of this direction because Internet Explorer is smart enough to know that if you don't specify a window, it should just go ahead and use the base window identifier. Many times, however, knowing how the flow of this structure proceeds is necessary to ensure that your script works the way you would expect, especially when you start tossing in frames (if you're so inclined) and new windows. I show just what you can do with the whole Object Model later in this chapter, so you get a hands-on view of what it all does.

ActiveX Controls and Components

In the world of open components being obtained from anywhere, your script may end up with more components to play around with than you thought it had. Some basic system controls such as timers, for example, are built in but not really part of the main container itself. Does this mean they're off limits? Not a chance.

VBScript Objects

VBScript has the option of including its own objects as well as everything else that's built into the browser's object model. In the initial release, the only additional object was the ERR object for getting information about runtime errors in executing the script. Other objects will most likely appear as time goes by, just to extend functionality while preserving the basic Object Model.

The Languages

Microsoft included support for two scripting languages in its first release of the ActiveX scripting container within Internet Explorer 3.0: JavaScript and Visual Basic Script (VBScript or Visual Basic Scripting Edition).

JavaScript

The first of the HTML-embedded scripting languages, JavaScript has a wide base of users who have begun to get familiar with its inner workings. Recognizing that failure to include JavaScript support would be a definite mark against the ActiveX scripting model (and especially against Internet Explorer), JavaScript support was included for compatibility.

There's a lot to be said about JavaScript-so much, in fact, that one of the other chapters in this book covers it exclusively. Because Microsoft's ActiveX scripting implementation allows the use of regular JavaScript applications, it's better that you get the details from Chapter 24.

As a general rule, JavaScript and VBScript work under the same set of limitations and use the same basic methodology for interacting with users through the browsers and the HTML-created environment. Although some of the function names may be different, the end results are close to the same.

VBScript

You shouldn't be surprised that Microsoft decided to make its own Visual Basic language the most hyped implementation of ActiveX scripting. With hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Visual Basic authors in one form or another out there, doing otherwise would have been silly. Because what you can do inside another application over the Internet is more limited for a variety of reasons, Microsoft scaled back the Visual Basic for Applications specification into a more reasonable (though not quite as functional) subset, called Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript)

If you're already a Visual Basic programmer, you can probably use VBScript in your sleep, and knowing what's in (and what's not in) VBScript should help you get a good handle on just how portable some of your work will be from another version of VB. If you're not a Visual Basic programmer, the actual delineation of what functions are and aren't in VBScript may not float your boat, and you may want to move ahead to the examples to see the basics of VBScript at work. In either case, you can find more in-depth reference for what any of these commands do (or don't do) in the VBScript documentation from Microsoft, which is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/activex/

What's in VBScript?

VBScript, which has a lot of features, is straightforward and very functional. Although it does not have the full set of Visual Basic functionality (see the "Resources" section for details), it can certainly hold its own in creating eye-catching applications. You don't need to be a Visual Basic programmer, or really even a programmer at all, to make VBScript work or to get a handle on some sample applications. If you become familiar with the pieces of the whole process, writing VBScript applications won't be any trouble.

The easiest VBScript function to come to terms with is the message box. You've run into message boxes before; you know that they just exist to pop up a piece of information, a warning, or an error in a generic manner. Well, now you can make your own. In the tradition of the "Hello, world!" application, an HTML file with a message box in VBScript is shown in Listing 28.1.

Listing 28.1. A "Hello, World" VBScript sample.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<script language="vbs">
<!--
    MsgBox "Hello, World"
-->
</script>
</HEAD>
You should have seen a message box by now...
</HTML>

As you can see from Listing 28.1, writing basic functions is no problem at all. If you want a message box, you use the MsgBox function. But what if you want to get a little more tricky and make the message box more interactive? Listing 28.2 shows an example of letting a script interact with a form on your page, where users type in their names, and a message box appears and says "Hi" to them.

Listing 28.2. A "Hello, whoever you are" VBScript example.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<script language="VBS">
<!--
  Sub SayHi_OnClick

    Dim username

    username=MyForm.namebox.Value

    username="Hello, " & username name

    MsgBox username
End Sub
-->
</script>
</HEAD>
<form name="MyForm">
Please type in your name: <input name=namebox> <p>
Now click this button to display a message box:
<input type="button" name="SayHi" value="Say Hi">
</form>

Two concepts in the script shown in Listing 28.2 serve as the basis for almost all interactions: referencing by name and referencing by action. Referencing by name means that any item you want to use with something else, be it a CGI script or a VBScript function, should be uniquely named so that other things can get access to it later. When text is obtained for the message box, it looks for the form named MyForm, then for the namebox element in that form, and finally for the Value of that element. You can easily have multiple forms on a page and one big VBScript that handles all of them; you just have to name everything carefully so that there's no confusion.

Referencing by action is more general because it uses the name of an element and then an action that would normally be associated with it. The most common is finding out when a particular button is clicked, which is referenced as an OnClick event. Sub SayHi_OnClick uses both name and action to define when this particular subroutine should be run, not just what its name is.

With good referencing, knowledge of the Object Model of the browser or viewer comes into play. To get something done, you have to know what the name of the function is (if it's available) and how to organize your commands so that they get to the right element and do the right thing. Remember that the Object Model can also include reference for what kind of actions (methods) are supported. You can create buttons that do the navigation for you or combo boxes (like at Microsoft's site, though they don't use VBScript for it yet).

What's Not in VBScript?

People who have been developing with Visual Basic for some time may find that a lot of stuff is not in VBScript. Some elements are missing for security reasons, others for keeping the runtime engine small, and others, well, just because.

First and foremost, VBScript limits the functionality available in the development environment. How much of it? Almost the whole thing. Gone are such useful elements as the editor, the debugger, the project manager, and source code controls. Welcome to your new development environment: Notepad or your favorite text editor. Will this change? Quite possibly. With FrontPage as a front end, Microsoft may decide to turn it into an Integrated Development Environment, providing the tools you need to create VBScript as an add-on feature.

Second, VBScript can't create user interfaces-not a one-unless, of course, you believe that a message box is a good user interface, in which case you can rejoice. You can, however, take control of HTML elements such as listboxes, checkboxes, and other elements mentioned previously to get the components you need.

Last, but certainly not least to VB developers, is that the controls and commands in VBScript are a subset of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which is itself a subset of Visual Basic. Translated, this means that a lot of elements were left out to make VBScript tiny and efficient. If you're an experienced Visual Basic programmer, you may want to look in the "Resources" section to see just what some of these elements are so that you can determine what you have available in your toolbox. If you're not a Visual Basic programmer with prior experience, you can just stick with the VBScript documentation, which will keep you from fretting about what might have been there and ground you on what's actually there that you can use.

Scripting Hosts and Engines

Your ability to run an ActiveX script, regardless of its language, is based on two elements:

1. A host browser or viewer that supports ActiveX
2. An ActiveX control, or engine, for the script language

Although getting one or the other may be easy, without your hard work and these two elements, your script doesn't do anything once it gets where it's going.

Hosts

Although most browsers and viewers easily handle HTML, trying to convince them to deal with a new scripting language can be difficult. Fortunately, any host that allows ActiveX controls to hang on to it is a lot more flexible.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer, as I said earlier, is really just a big container with lots of components added on to make it work. The main executable that starts it all is well under 50K (less than half that, in the early stages of beta), and the majority of the work is done by other DLLs and OCXs, such as MSHTML.DLL (which is several hundred kilobytes, and does almost all the HTML work). The rest of the ActiveX strategy uses this same approach-build in little pieces and add on when you need them. Using this approach keeps containers small and updateable, while still being transparently expandable.

Because it is from Microsoft and able to handle all sorts of ActiveX expansions, Internet Explorer is capable of supporting ActiveX scripting implementations both now and in the future.

Future Hosts

Microsoft is working on removing the distinction between files on the Internet and files on the desktop. As other shells become available with built-in HTML and URL support, chances are built-in script controls will be implemented as well. More value would be added by supporting the scripting information in more hosts as well, such as server-based scripting and other Internet-related authoring tools (just as Visual Basic for Applications is supported in large applications, adding the lighter VBScript version to small applications would be a possibility). All you really need is an engine to attach to the viewer.

Engines

To add support for another scripting language, such as Perl, Tcl/Tk, or Joe Bob's Miracle Script, all you need is another ActiveX control container that the viewer can use. Because you can set up ActiveX controls to download automatically, you don't really need to worry about forcing people to get this container. Make it available where the scripts are, and it can take care of that obnoxious task all by itself. (See "Internet Component Download," in Chapter 27, "ActiveX Controls.")

Creating such a container can be a daunting task. You need intimate knowledge of the language in question and the ability to test every situation that could be encountered, all the functions, and even all the hosts it could be used on. The most likely candidates for their own engines would be popular scripting languages such as Perl and Tcl, because large numbers of programmers who use these languages have the resources to do these kinds of tasks. For a one-person shop or even a two- or three-person shop, creating such an engine would be a Herculean task-but impressive!

Resources

In the pursuit of VBScript excellence, you'll make a lot of stops along the way, as you learn in the following sections.

Going from VB to VBScript

If you're already a Visual Basic programmer, you may want to look for utilities that convert your existing VB applications to VBScript and HTML or ones that can at least use your original VB code to create a starting point. The biggest benefit may not be full conversion, but you may gain an educational tool to let you see how what you do in VB may or may not be transportable. Even if a utility turns out a horrible overall conversion, but has a small portion that works, you can put that component to work and build from there.

VBScript Language and Runtime References

Tables 28.1 through 28.4 show what functions are supported in the first iteration of VBScript and what's not. For these tables, I'm assuming that you're either familiar enough with Visual Basic to make some sense out of what you see listed or that you'll be willing to track down a comprehensive reference on Visual Basic and find the meanings there.

Web Sites

Naturally, a scripting language that is supposed to enhance Web sites has an incredibly large number of sites dedicated to demos and fun examples. You can find one of the best lists at http://www.inquiry.com/thevbpro/vbscentral/gallery.html. Here, you can find an extremely long list that just keeps going and going. It's full of personal pages, so you can see a real variety of ideas for use, and not just the more common ones. Of course, Microsoft maintains a big list of resources at http://www.microsoft.com/vbscript/, where you can always get the latest documentation and improvements. Last, but not least, a general search with the keyword vbscript opens up a growing number of entries.

Summary

ActiveX Scripting is a new area, and it's constantly evolving. The basic premise behind its existence is that you can integrate programming elements right into the HTML code that clients download. All the processing work is then done on their machine, reducing the load on your server that would normally have to be done through CGI and speeding up the response on the client end.

Currently supported languages are VBScript, which is a subset of the Visual Basic for Applications language, and JavaScript, but more languages can easily be added by anyone willing to create a scripting container to hold and interpret the language of their choice. What languages and features will make your pages the most functional? You're only limited by your imagination.