How to change certain code inside a VBScript with another VBScript? - vbscript

Question

I have made the script FindAndReplace.vbs which simply watches a folder and finds any desired string in the filenames and replaces that string with a desired string.
Now, What I´m trying to create is a VBScript (ConfigureFindAndReplace.vbs) that will easily configure the following 3 things in the FindAndReplace.vbs code:
Browse and select which folder to watch (targetPath)
Which text string to search for in the filenames of the files inside this folder (strFind)
Which string to replace with (strReplace)
I want the script to be user friendly for users with no programming skills.
And I want the main executable script FindAndReplace.vbs to automatically be updated EVERY time the ConfigureFindAndReplace.vbs is run.
To better help you understand here is th
e link to a .zip file containing both of the above mentioned files. This is as far as I can get and I´ve been stuck for 2 days now:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/to3r3epf4ffyedb/StackOverFlow.zip?dl=0
Hope I explained it properly. If not, let me know whatever you need to know.
Thanks in advance:)
And here are the codes from the files:
ConfigureFindAndReplace.vbs:
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objShell = CreateObject ("Shell.Application")
Set objTFolder = objShell.BrowseForFolder (0, "Select Target Folder", (0))
targetPath = objTFolder.Items.Item.Path
Dim oFSO
Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
sScriptDir = oFSO.GetParentFolderName(WScript.ScriptFullName) & "/"
strFind = InputBox("Add string to find.","String to Find", "")
If strFind = "" Then
Wscript.Quit
End If
strReplace = InputBox("Add string to replace with.","Replace with", "")
Dim VarFind
Dim VarReplace
Dim VarPath
VarFind = strFind
VarReplace = strReplace
VarPath = targetPath
Dim WshShell
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run sScriptDir & "FindAndReplace.vbs /strfolderpath:" & VarPath
WshShell.Run sScriptDir & "FindAndReplace.vbs /strfind:" & VarPath
WshShell.Run sScriptDir & "FindAndReplace.vbs /strreplace:" & VarPath
FindAndReplace.vbs:
'Written by Terje Borchgrevink Nuis on 15.12.2014
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Dim strFind
Dim strReplace
Dim strFolderPath
strFolderPath = WScript.Arguments.Named("strfolderpath")
targetPath = strFolderPath
'Max number of times to replace string
strCount = 999
'Comparison type: 0 = case sensitive, 1 = case insensitive
strCompare = 1
If targetPath = "" Then
Wscript.Quit
End If
strFind = WScript.Arguments.Named("strfind")
If strFind = "" Then
Wscript.Quit
End If
strReplace = WScript.Arguments.Named("strreplace")
Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(targetPath)
fileRename objFolder
Sub fileRename(folder)
Do
Wscript.sleep 10000
'Loop through the files in the folder
For Each objFile In folder.Files
filename = objFile.Name
ext = objFSO.getExtensionName(objFile)
safename = Left(filename, Len(filename) - Len(ext) - 1)
strStart = 1
safename = Replace(safename, strFind,strReplace,strStart,strCount,strCompare)
safename = trim(safename)
On Error Resume Next
'Terminate if filename stop.txt is found
If filename="STOP.txt" Then
result = MsgBox ("Are you sure you want to terminate the following VBScript?" & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & "FindAndReplace.vbs", vbOKCancel+vbSystemModal , "Terminate VBScript")
Select Case result
Case vbOK
WScript.quit
Case vbCancel
MsgBox "FindAndReplace.vbs is still running in the background.",,"Information"
End Select
End If
'Only rename if new name is different to original name
If filename <> safename & "." & ext Then
objFSO.MoveFile objFile.Path, objFile.ParentFolder.Path & "\" & safename & "." & ext
End If
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
WScript.Echo "Error renaming: " & filename.path & "Error: " & Err.Description
Err.Clear
End If
Next
Loop
End Sub

Answer 1

You think you want ConfigureFindAndReplace to change the other script, this is a bad idea.
You don't know it yet, but what you actually want is for FindAndReplace to read those items from a configuration file.
If the config file is well formed and easy to read, then your users can directly update the config file, so you may not even need the ConfigureFindAndReplace script.
How?
Have a text file with 3 lines
Target Folder=c:\DataFolder
String to find=a string
Replace with=Replace a string with this string
Then in FindAndReplace, before doing any work, you open this file and read in the three lines.
Split the lines on the '=' sign. The left half is the setting and the right half is the value.
Math these up to three variables in the script
If configLineLeft = "Target Folder" then REM Each of these should be case insensitive match
REM e.g. lcase(configLineLeft) = lcase("Target Folder")
TargetFolder = configLineRight
else if configLineLeft = "String to find" then
FindString = configLineRight
else if configLineLeft = "Replace with" then
ReplaceString = configLineRight
else
REM REPORT A PROBLEM TO THE USER AND EXIT
EXIT SUB
end if
You'd do the above in a while loop (while not end of file), reading each line and testing to see which setting it is.

Answer 2

As I can't find any VBScript in your .Zip, some general advice. If you want a not-to-be-edited script to do different things
let the script access parameters/arguments and specifying the differences by calling the script with different arguments: cscript FindAndReplace.vbs "c:\some\folder" "param" "arg"
let the script access config data (from a .txt, .ini, .xml, .json, ... file; from a database; from the registry; ...) and use the config script to set these data
use a template/placeholder file to generate (different version of) the script
I would start with the first approach.
After reading your edit:
Instead of calling your script trice with bad args:
WshShell.Run sScriptDir & "FindAndReplace.vbs /strfolderpath:" & VarPath
WshShell.Run sScriptDir & "FindAndReplace.vbs /strfind:" & VarPath
WshShell.Run sScriptDir & "FindAndReplace.vbs /strreplace:" & VarPath
execute it once with proper args:
WshShell.Run sScriptDir & "FindAndReplace.vbs /strfolderpath:" & VarPath & " /strfind:" & VarFind & "/strreplace:" & VarReplace
(untested; you need to check the names and take care of proper quoting; cf here)