VBScript Nothing returns garbage - vbscript

We have to use VBScript as an embedded script engine in our Hospital Information System.
When we use nothing to set the value of a control (textbox/checkbox/...) it worked always fine. Since somepoint it sets now the textbox to "?>".
item("TEXTBOX").value = nothing ' Leads to -> "?>"
It is not completly clear what causes this, maybe a windows update is responsible, every rollup ~ since KB3212646 Win7 2017-01 seems to cause this error.
My Question is now, has someone else also seem this error, so that it is clear that MS causes this error or is our HIS publisher responsible for not handling nothing correct.
I know setting a textbox to Nothing is not best practice instead "" should be better, but since the item object could be more the just a textbox e.g. a combobox/checkbox this seems, from an objectoriented perpsective, better. Or am I completly wrong?

Following #Ansgar comment, you should apparently change everywhere you have = nothing to = "" in your example
item("TEXTBOX").value = ""
Beware to keep the nothing if you have the Set keyword in left
Set some_object = Nothing

Related

How to use formula CASE WHEN on Netsuite Oracle?

Hi Can someone help me with the Saved Search: So I’m trying to create a formula(numeric) that would say:
CASE WHEN {internalid} = ‘32319’ THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
— didn’t work it didn’t even show on the description
I also tried:
CASE {internalid} WHEN 32319 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END — also didn’t work and didn’t show on the description.
Not sure if perhaps using formula on my saved search is disabled on my end if so how can I know or check? Or maybe I did not use to correct syntax for the CASE WHEN? The formula is also grayed out(highlighted).
I managed to find a solution. As it turns out I just needed to put a value of 1 on the textbox for Value to validate the CASE WHEN Statement. Also whether there's a single quote for the numbers or in this case without a single quote, it still worked.
Either of those forms should work but your screen shots show a Formula(Text) rather than Formula(Numeric)

Reading REG_QWORD with VBScript?

I think the question speaks for itself. I have trouble getting some values out of the registry, and I was hoping someone around here might help me.
I'm stuck at IE9, as it is the only one which has some reasonable CSS capabilities, and does support GetObject().
So right now, lets say I'm trying to retrieve the memory size of a GPU at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000\HardwareInformation.qwMemorySize" (as far as I know, this should be a universal path & key).
This is where the problem begins. Either I get no output, or some error saying something is different, or what (my system is running in a different language so I cant offer the right translation).
After some research, I seem to have found the issue - the value I'm trying to read is REG_QWORD, and unfortunately I was only able to find very little covering this topic, and most of the solutions did not work for me.
So right now, I am with this code, which, unsurprisingly, also does not work (the code I had since like the beginning):
for Each oItem in colGPUs
memory = oItem.AdapterRAM / 1048576
If memory < 0 Then
If InStr(oItem.Name, "NVIDIA") Then
Set wssx = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
msgbox CStr(wssx.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\000" + GPUID + "\HardwareInformation.qwMemorySize"))
End If
End If
Unfortunatelly it seems like there is no direct way of retrieving the value - within HTA itself.
I was able to get the value, however I did it using Powershell, executed the command, set its output to a specific file and read it.
Anyways, here is the actual solution I came up with specifically for this issue
wshell.Run "powershell (Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000' 'HardwareInformation.qwMemorySize') | Out-File -FilePath C:\temp\gpu_mem.txt", 0, true
Set f = fso.OpenTextFile("C:\temp\gpu_mem.txt", 1, False, -1)
gpu_mem = CStr(f.ReadAll)
With this method Im directly obtaining the integer and passing it to the VBS

Delete a TestSet in ALM using OTA

So, I'm SLOWLY working my way to having a painful manual process automated in ALM using OTA. My current struggle is deleting a test set. It just doesn't do anything - no error, no deletion, nothing. It's like the line of code isn't even there. Although, it's definitely doing something cause ALM is working funky now.
I've tried different things: Delete, RemoveNode. Any advice is appreciated.
Set qcConnection = QCutil.QCConnection
Set tsFolder = qcconnection.TestSetTreeManager.NodeById(224)
Set tstestList = tsFolder.FindTestSets("", False, "")
If tstestList is Nothing Then
print "No manual tests present", vbOK
Else
For i = 1 to tstestList.Count
Set temp = tstestList.Item(i)
if temp.TestSetFolder.father.name = strMonth then
qcconnection.TSTestFactory.RemoveItem(temp.id)
end if
Next
End If
It seems you use a wrong factory - you need to use TestSetFactory instead of TSTestFactory

Cannot convert Group Description to String Variable

I have the following code:
Set objHoldGroup = GetObject("LDAP://" & objGroup)
strGroupDesc = (objHoldGroup.Description)
WScript.Echo(strGroupDesc)
The variable strGroupDesc returns nothing when echoed. I can output the description directly but I need it for further processing. Thoughts?
Explanation: Apparently your script sets Option Explicit (good), which you didn't tell us about (bad). This option makes defining variables before you can use them mandatory (good). Normally that would raise an "undefined variable" error, though. Since that doesn't seem to happen with your code, you seem to also have an On Error Resume Next somewhere in your code (very bad), which, again, you chose to keep quiet about (bad).
Next time please don't omit parts of your code that are vital for troubleshooting the problem. And don't use On Error Resume Next.
Issue found: I forgot to Dim strGroupDesc.

What's so bad about using button captions as variables in VB6?

I received some justified critical feedback on my last question (How to gracefully exit from the middle of a nested subroutine when user cancels?) for using the caption of a command button as a state variable. I did it because it's efficient, serving two or three purposes at once with very little code, but I understand how it could also cause problems, particularly in the slightly sloppy way I originally presented it.
I feel like this deserves its own discussion, so here's the same idea cleaned up a bit and modified to do it "right" (which basically means defining the strings in a single place so your code won't start failing because you simply changed the text of a command button). I know my variable and control naming convention is poor (OK, nonexistent), so apologies in advance. But I'd like to stay focused on the caption as state variable discussion.
So here we go:
' Global variables for this form
Dim DoTheThingCaption(1) As String
Dim UserCancel, FunctionCompleted As Boolean
Private Sub Form_Initialize()
' Define the possible captions (is there a #define equivalent for strings?)
DoTheThingCaption(0) = "Click to Start Doing the Thing"
DoTheThingCaption(1) = "Click to Stop Doing the Thing"
' Set the caption state when form initializes
DoTheThing.Caption = DoTheThingCaption(0)
End Sub
Private Sub DoTheThing_Click() ' Command Button
If DoTheThing.Caption = DoTheThingCaption(0) Then
UserCancel = False ' this is the first time we've entered this sub
Else ' We've re-entered this routine (user clicked on button again
' while this routine was already running), so we want to abort
UserCancel = True ' Set this so we'll see it when we exit this re-entry
DoTheThing.Enabled = False 'Prevent additional clicks
Exit Sub
End If
' Indicate that we're now Doing the Thing and how to cancel
DoTheThing.Caption = DoTheThingCaption(1)
For i = 0 To ReallyBigNumber
Call DoSomethingSomewhatTimeConsuming
If UserCancel = True Then Exit For ' Exit For Loop if requested
DoEvents ' Allows program to see GUI events
Next
' We've either finished or been canceled, either way
' we want to change caption back
DoTheThing.Caption = DoTheThingCaption(0)
If UserCancel = True Then GoTo Cleanup
'If we get to here we've finished successfully
FunctionCompleted = True
Exit Sub '******* We exit sub here if we didn't get canceled *******
Cleanup:
'We can only get to here if user canceled before function completed
FunctionCompleted = False
UserCancel = False ' clear this so we can reenter later
DoTheThing.Enabled = True 'Prevent additional clicks
End Sub '******* We exit sub here if we did get canceled *******
So there it is. Is there still anything really that bad about doing it this way? Is it just a style issue? Is there something else that would give me these four things in a more desirable or maintainable way?
Instant GUI feedback that user's button press has resulted in action
Instant GUI feedback in the location where user's eyes already are on how to CANCEL if action is not desired
A one-button way for users to start/cancel an operation (reducing the amount of clutter on the GUI)
A simple, immediate command button disable to prevent multiple close requests
I can see one concern might be the close coupling (in several ways) between the code and the GUI, so I could see how that could get to be a big problem for large projects (or at least large GUIs). This happens to be a smaller project where there are only 2 or 3 buttons that would receive this sort of "treatment".
The single biggest problem with this technique is that it uses a string as a boolean. By definition, a boolean variable can have only two states, while a string can have any number of states.
Now, you've mitigated the danger inherent in this somewhat by relying on an array of predefined strings to define allowed values for the command button text. This leaves a handful of lesser issues:
Logic is less-than-explicit regarding current and available states (there are actually four possible states for the form: not-started, started, completed, started-but-canceling) - maintenance will require careful observation of the potential interactions between button text and boolean variable states to determine what the current state is / should be. A single enumeration would make these states explicit, making the code easier to read and understand, thereby simplifying maintenance.
You're relying on the behavior of a control property (button text) to remain consistent with that of the exposed property value type (string). This is the sort of assumption that makes migrating old VB6 code to newer languages / platforms absolute hell.
String comparison is much, much slower than a simple test of a boolean variable. In this instance, this won't matter. In general, it's just as easy to avoid it.
You're using DoEvents to simulate multi-threading (not directly relevant to the question... but, ugh).
The biggest issue i've come accross when working on (very old) code like this [button captions as variables] is that globalisation is a nightmare.... I had to move a old vb6 app to use English and German... it took weeks, if not months.
You're using goto's as well..... a bit of refactoring needed perhaps to make the code readable??
**Edit in response to comments
I'd only use a goto in vb6 at the top of each proc;
on error goto myErrorHandler.
then at the very bottom of the proc i'd have a one liner that would pass err to a global handler, to log the error.
Ignoring the general architecture/coupling problems because you are aware of those issues, one problem with your approach is because VB6 controls do magic stuff when you set properties.
You may think you are just setting a property but in many cases you are causing events to fire also. Setting a checkbox value to true fires the click event. Setting the tabindex on a tab control causes a click event. There are many cases.
If I remember correctly I also think there are scenarios where if you set a property, and then read it immediately, you will not see the update. I believe a screen refresh has to occur before you see the new value.
I have seen too much horrible VB6 code that uses control properties as storage. If you ever find this kind of code you will recognize it because it is scattered with redundant calls to Refresh methods, DoEvents and you will frequently see the UI get hung. This is often caused by infinite loops where a property is set, an event is fired and then another property is set and eventually someone writes a line of code that updates the first property again.
If those issues don't scare you enough then think of this. Some of us just are not that smart. I've been coding in VB6 for over 10 years and have personally written probably around 750K LOC and I keep staring at your example above and I find it very difficult to understand what it going on. Assume that all the people that will need to read your code in the future will be really dumb and make us happy by writing really simple looking code.
I think it's better to decouple the caption text from the state of processing. Also the goto's make it hard to read. Here is my refactored version...
Private Const Caption_Start As String = "Click to Start Doing the Thing"
Private Const Caption_Stop As String = "Click to Stop Doing the Thing"
Private Enum eStates
State_Initialized
State_Running
State_Canceled
State_Completed
End Enum
Private Current_State As eStates
Private Sub Form_Initialize()
DoTheThing.Caption = Caption_Start
Current_State = State_Initialized
End Sub
Private Sub DoTheThing_Click()
If Current_State = State_Running Then
'currently running - so set state to canceled, reset caption'
'and disable button until loop can respond to the cancel'
Current_State = State_Canceled
DoTheThing.Caption = Caption_Start
DoTheThing.Enabled = False
Else
'not running - so set state and caption'
Current_State = State_Running
DoTheThing.Caption = Caption_Stop
'do the work'
For i = 0 To ReallyBigNumber
Call DoSomethingSomewhatTimeConsuming
'at intervals check the state for cancel'
If Current_State = State_Canceled Then
're-enable button and bail out of the loop'
DoTheThing.Enabled = True
Exit For
End If
DoEvents
Next
'did we make it to the end without being canceled?'
If Current_State <> State_Canceled Then
Current_State = State_Completed
DoTheThing.Caption = Caption_Start
End If
End If
End Sub
Apart from removing the GOTos as DJ did in his answer, there is nothing really wrong about your approach. The button caption can have only two states, and you use those two states to define the flow in your code.
I have however two reasons why I would do it differently:
Your method creates problems when you want to translate your program into a different language (in my experience you should always plan for that), because the captions would change in another language
It goes against the principle of seperating the user interface from the program flow. This may not be an important thing for you, but when a program gets bigger and more complex, having a clear seperation of the UI from the logic makes things much easier.
To sum it up, for the case at hand your solution certainly works, and there is no reason why it shouldn't. But on the other hand experience has taught us that with more complex programs, this way can cause problems which you can easily avoid by using a slightly different approach.
Also, I think it is safe to assume that everybody who criticised your example did so because they made a simnilar choice at some point, and later realised that it was a mistake.
I know I did.
This ties your underlying algorithm to specific behavior in your UI. Now, if you want to change either one of them, you have to make changes to both. As your app grows in size, if you don't keep your changes local by encapsulating logic, maintenance will become a nightmare.
If anyone for any reason ever needs to work on your code, they won't find practices and conventions they are familiar and comfortable with, so the boundaries of functionality won't exist. In other words, you are headed in the wrong direction on the Coupling/Cohesion trail. Functionally integrating State management with the UI is the classic poster child for this issue.
Do you understand OOP at all? (Not a criticism, but a legitimate question. If you did, this would be a lot clearer to you. Even if it's only VB6 OOP.)
Localization has the biggest impact on the type of logic OP is presenting. As several people mentioned it - what if you need to translate the app into Chinese? And German? And Russian?
You'd have to add additional constants covering those languages too... pure hell. GUI data should remain what it is, a GUI data.
The method OP describes here reminded me what Henry ford said: "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black".

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