Microsoft Windows Script Technologies

Microsoft® JScript® 5.0, a powerful scripting language targeted specifically at the Internet, is the first scripting language to fully conform to ECMAScript, the Web's only standard scripting language.

Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition, a subset of the Microsoft® Visual Basic® programming language, is a fast, portable, lightweight interpreter for use in World Wide Web browsers and other applications that use Microsoft® ActiveX® Controls, Automation servers, and Java applets.

Windows Script Components introduces a number of new features in this release:

• The run-time now supports events, as well as methods and properties, so you can define your own custom events in a Windows Script Component.
• For Microsoft® Transaction Server and tools support, you can now generate a type library for your Windows Script Components. On the context menu, click Generate Type Library.
• Scalability on the server has been improved: now there's support for caching of script engines and thread local storage.
• Windows Script Components are not just for the server any more; use them in Internet Explorer 5.0 to create DHTML behaviors to add safe components to your Web page!

Remote Scripting

With remote scripting, developers can now create seamless, interactive Web applications in which the browser can call scripts on the server without reloading the Web page.

Prior to remote scripting, developers would have to require the user to reload the calling page, often several times, to interact with the server. This created a slower, disjointed, user experience and inefficient use of the server.

Remote scripting allows for a much more client/server-type interaction between the browser and the Web server. For example, when filling out a form on a Web page, the user must often reload the entire page several times in order for the application to validate the entries. With remote scripting, the Web application can now validate data while the user is still filling out the rest of the form, without having to reload the page. Specifically, the script must first identify a server page to connect to, then transmit the call to the server. Any return value from the call is transmitted back to the originating script.

Script Control

The Microsoft Script Control is an ActiveX® control that provides an easy way for developers to make applications scriptable. Users can extend application functionality through scripts, much as they do with macros today. This control is targeted toward developers who want a quick way to incorporate basic script hosting support in their applications but are willing to trade off performance, for example, developers who create relatively small applications

The Microsoft« Script Debugger is a debugging environment that extends any Microsoft« ActiveX® Scripting host application (for example, Microsoft« Internet Explorer or Microsoft« Internet Information Server). When used in conjunction with IE and IIS, Web developers can browse, edit, and debug scripted HTML pages (.htm, .html, and .asp files) on both the client and the server. It allows developers to more efficiently and effectively develop script applications and provides these features:

• View the source code of the script they are debugging.
• Control the pace of script execution with break points and stepping.
• View and change variable and property values with the Command Window.
• View and control script flow with the Call Stack Window.

Windows Script Host

The Microsoft Windows Script Host (WSH) is a tool that will allow you to run Visual Basic Scripting Edition and JScript natively within the base Operating System, either on Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0. Using the scripting languages you already know you can now write script to automate common tasks, and to create powerful macros and logon scripts.

Binary or Source Code?

As a software developer, you may want to license Microsoft® JScript® or Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition from Microsoft to use as the scripting language in your own applications. JScript & VBScript are available from Microsoft in two forms: as a ready-to-run (compiled) binary for several platforms, or as source code. Which one should you license? The choice depends on what you intend to do.

Scripting Binaries

VBScript is an upwardly compatible subset of the popular Microsoft« Visual Basic« programming system. The VBScript binary is the right choice for you if you simply want to add a widely known scripting language to your application. JScript &VBScript can be integrated into your application using the Microsoft« ActiveX« Scripting standard. Using the JScript or VBScript binary (rather than source code) gives you several compelling advantages:

• If your application is distributed over the Internet, you don't have to maintain your own copies of JScript or VBScript. Your users can download the JScript &VBScript binaries from the Microsoft Web site (www.microsoft.com).
• The users of your application can download the latest version of JScript &VBScript from the Microsoft Web site at any time, giving them the newest features, improvements in performance, and latest bug fixes, all without any effort on your part.
• You can add your own objects and run-time functions to JScript &VBScript, without having to modify these scripting languages. This allows you to treat JScript &VBScript as "black boxs" of functionality that you don't have to spend time learning or debugging.
• Applications using the JScript &VBScript binaries all share a single copy of the DLL in memory. This means that the working set of your application is smaller since it is sharing JScript &VBScript with other applications, such as Microsoft« Internet Explorer 4.0.
• You can integrate the JScript &VBScript binary into your application using ActiveX Scripting, an open standard that can be used by any scripting language. By doing the work to integrate the JScript &VBScript binary, you're doing the work to integrate any language for which an ActiveX Scripting engine is available. The result is that you're not tied to a particular scripting language, and your users can choose which scripting language to use.
• Licensing the JScript &VBScript binary for use in your application is very easy ù simply acknowledge Microsoft in the About box of your application. There is no charge for this license.

All these benefits make using the JScript &VBScript binaries the easiest and most economical way to add a scripting language to your application.

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