I have an application that has 'macro' capabilities. When I map some keys on the keyboard to perform the 'macro', I can also have it launch vbscript instead.
What i'd like to try and do is within my vbscript figure out what keys were used in order to launch the script. Is it posible to do this? Could there be a way in vbscript to figure out what keys were last touched on the keyboard and then I could apply my logic.
The purpose of doing this is to keep the code in a single .vb file instead of several seperate .vb script files(one for each keyboard mapping, possible 3-4). Obviously we are looking to just maintain 1 file instead of multiple files with essentially the same code in each one.
I am leaning towards the idea that this is not possible, but i figured this would be a worthy question for the masses of StackOverflow. Thanks for the help everyone!
What you are asking for is not possible.
Can you change your VBScript to accept parameters and then call it with a different parameter based on which hotkey was selected?
I agree with aphoria, the only way to make something like this possible is if your keyboard mapping software allows you to assign a script/command with parameters/arguments. For example if you used
c:\Temp\something.vbs
then you would change this to
%WINDIR%\system32\wscript.exe c:\temp\something.vbs "Ctrl-Alt-R"
Then in your vbscript code you could collect the argument using the wscript.Arguments object collection to do actions based on what argument/parameter was passed. See the following two links for more info:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z2b05k8s(VS.85).aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/sept04/hey0915.mspx
The one possible approach you may use is to install keylogger and read its log in your VBScript.
For example save script start time in the very beginning of the script
StartTime = Timer()
and then read one log record of your keylogger before this time.
Related
I'm totally new with programming, but have made some scripts for extraction data from .txt files etc. Now I am making a simple script for work, but need a simple GUI so people can run use it efficiently. The script is really simple, and consists of 4 dictionaries and a list with the keys for the values that I want to print from one of the dictionaries. What I need is a GUI that looks like the one posted. There will be 4 buttons, one for each dictionary, and the user can only pick one. On the left will be the keys, and the keys transferred to the right will be put in a list, which will be used to write the values to a .txt file. This is probably really simple, but I have no idea where to start with GUI, so I hope that someone can give me some ideas. In advance, thank you :)
Exaple: https://ci.apache.org/projects/wicket/guide/6.x/img/multi-select-transfer-component.png
It's cool that you are getting into GUI programming. Try tkinter:
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_gui_programming.htm
hi i am interested in making a batch program that allows me to be able to place my cursor anywhere and have the batch program type for me as if i'm typing. i have looked at a lot of different sites for help but it might be it's impossible with batch programming or i just need someone on here to tell me how your input is much appreciated. i have tried to use echo >>etc .text commands but that only inserts input into that specific text document. I would like to know this because it would improve my batch programming and would be a valuable tool to have.
Ok, after a bit of thinking, the only way to do this is to update the clipboard with whatever you want to "type" into the program, and then press "Ctrl + V" to paste it. The way you would go about inmplementing this is up to you, but to place something in the clipboard via batch is:
Clip < file.txt
And you would have to make a batch file which would continuosly update the clipboard with whatever you wanted to paste. The way you do this is up to you.
Other then that, I dont see any other way you could do something like this in batch. Like I mentioned your better off doing this in C#.
Mona
I am trying to write a script that automates other perl scripts. Essentially, I have a few scripts that rollup data for me and need to be run weekly. I also have a couple that need to be run on the weekend to check things and email me if there is a problem. I have the email worked out and everything but the automation. Judging by an internet search, it seems as though using Proc::Background is the way to go. I tried writing a very basic script to test it and can't quite figure it out. I am pretty new to Perl and have never automated anything before (other than through windows task scheduler), so I really don't understand what the code is saying.
My code:
use Proc::Background;
$command = "C:/strawberry/runDir/SendMail.pl";
my $proc1 = Proc::Background -> new($command);
I receive an error that says no executable program located at C:... Can someone explain to me what exactly the code (Proc::Background) is doing? I will then at least have a better idea of how to accomplish my task and debug in the future. Thanks.
I did notice on Proc::Background's documentation the following:
The Win32::Process module is always used to spawn background processes
on the Win32 platform. This module always takes a single string
argument containing the executable's name and any option arguments.
In addition, it requires that the absolute path to the executable is
also passed to it. If only a single argument is passed to new, then
it is split on whitespace into an array and the first element of the
split array is used at the executable's name. If multiple arguments
are passed to new, then the first element is used as the executable's
name.
So, it looks like it requires an executable, which a Perl script would not be, but "perl.exe" would be.
I typically specify the "perl.exe" in my Windows tasks as well:
C:\dwimperl\perl\bin\perl.exe "C:\Dropbox\Programming\Perl\mccabe.pl"
I want to understand if code snippets are what I am looking for here.
I wind up writing the same line of code over and over during a refactoring.
Is there anyway I can create a shortcut that will spit out a line of code that I need?
Another easier option is to drag the code blocks that you re-use frequently onto the general tab of your toolbox area. You could even organize them with their own tab name and all.
alt text http://blogs.telerik.com/Libraries/MetaBlog/WindowsLiveWriter-VisualStudioTooltipsunpluggedDragandDro_EF10-generalTabDragged.sflb
Are you repeating the same line of code over and over on many different days?
Or are you encountering a situation where you have the same line to write many times as a part of a single task, but today's line of code will be different to tomorrows?
If you have the same line/block of code that you use often, a snippet is a good way to capture that in a reusable form (better, IMHO, than copy/paste because you can parameterise them).
However, if you're just looking for a quick way to repeat the same line that's come up now, check out Visual Studio's ability to record keystrokes.
Try this:
Put your cursor on a blank line inside a C# method.
Select Tools|Macros|Record Temporary Macro (often this is Control-Shift-R)
Type "example();" and press return
Select Tools|Macros|Stop Recording
You've just created a temporary macro that you can play back at any time - usually the keystroke for this is Control-Shift-P.
The key to this technique is that the macro records everything you do - with some practise, you can record edits to a line of code and repeat those edits on other lines.
I've used this in the past to create repetative code blocks - like assigning sets of properties from one object to another.
Depending on the code snippet, it would almost always be arguable that this line of code belongs in a util method, rather than copypasta.. But otherwise, yeah - a snippet is probably the best place.
Code Snippets sound like the right approach, although you could investigate Macros inside Visual Studio, which can be very powerful.
One advantage of a code snippet over adding it to the toolbox is that you can define the parts of the code that you want to change. I wrote a code snippet that generated something like the following code:
public class *className*Collection : List<*className*>
Where I only typed className once and it was automatically filled into the other parts.
Background
Lately I've become a fanatic that everything I type while working on a computer should be compatible with "DRY". If there's anything I have to type more than once in any context, I want some kind of user-aware auto-complete option to do some of the work for me -- always -- no exceptions.
Having to work under Windows, I've looked at GUI solutions to make this insane goal a reality.
The (almost) optimal solution
If you have a moment, open up Firefox 3.0 and type a few keystrokes into the address bar. You will notice that it performs a kind of Incremental Autocomplete based on space-separated sub-strings of whatever you type. Another place in Firefox that does something similar is the about:config URL.
This is sub-optimal, because I don't want this in Firefox only. I want to use this everywhere.
The Question
Does anyone out there know of a widget or app that does nothing but insanely good incremental auto-complete that can be used as a general purpose "run everywhere" tool? Something that allows the user to: 1) maintain one or more "completion candidate files"; 2) pick one of those files as the source for Firefox 3.0 style completion; 3) return the result (or blank if the user canceled), and do those three things only?
Details
Here's how it should work:
STEP1: user saves or more csv file(s) (or other easy-edit format) somewhere in his hard-drive
STEP2: user creates a Windows Script Host script or a batch file (or whatever) instantiates the FilterAsYouType GUI
STEP3: user runs the script file, and the script file instantiates the GUI, telling it which CSV file to use as the source of all potential completions
STEP4: the user either chooses one of the completions, supplies his own text that is not in the list, or cancels out without supplying anything
STEP5: when the user is done the script saves the result to a variable and does something with it
Here is some pseudo-code for the script:
include "GenericTypeaheadWidget";
var gengui = new GenericTypaheadWidget('c:\docs\favorite_foods.csv');
var fave_food = gengui.get_user_input();
if(fave_food != ''){
alert('you chose '+fave_food+'!');
}
The rationale
The goal is to just have a way to always be able to do auto-completions from a list of arbitrary items, even if the list is a couple thousand items, and not have to rely on it being built into some IDE or standalone application that only accepts certain kinds of input or has an overly-complicated API relative to the simplicity of this task.
CSV (or text or sqlite database) would provide a way for me to self-generate "candidate lists" or "history logs" and then just use those logs as the source of the possible completions.
The disclaimer
I've tried several GUI "launcher" programs, command-line engines like power-shell and scripting shells, the regular plain old command-line history with varying degrees of satisfaction. The problem with these is they all do extra superfluous stuff like searching directories or built-in commands. I just want nothing but whatever is in the CSV file I happen to be pointing at.
I'm wondering if there is any simple tool that does nothing but what I'm describing above.
UPDATE: It looks like this question is very closely related to Graphical Command Shell, which captures the essential idea presented here.
You should really try Launchy - it's exactly what you're looking for, a "run anything" with intelligent autocompletion. It completely changes the way you interact with a Windows PC.
And it has open source-code, so you can borrow its autocompletion code if you want to roll your own interface.