How to create options dialog with VbScript? - vbscript

Question

I have a third party application that invokes a vsbscript file for certain operations. I would like to put up a user prompt with a choice of options, either a drop down list or checkbox or some such. However, all I can find is the input box option.
I don't think HTAs are an option in my case (unless there is a way to call them from a .vbs file?)
My other thought was some sort of ActiveX control, but I can't locate a built-in one that would be available by default on WindowsXP/Vista.
Anybody have any ideas on how I could accomplish this?

Answer 1

The simple answer is, you really can't. Tmdean's solution is the only way I can think of either. That said, you can spruce up the input box so it doesn't look horrible. Give this a run, I don't think it's an epic fail:
Dim bullet
Dim response
bullet = Chr(10) & " " & Chr(149) & " "
Do
response = InputBox("Please enter the number that corresponds to your selection:" & Chr(10) & bullet & "1.) Apple" & bullet & "2.) Bannana" & bullet & "3.) Pear" & Chr(10), "Select Thing")
If response = "" Then WScript.Quit 'Detect Cancel
If IsNumeric(response) Then Exit Do 'Detect value response.
MsgBox "You must enter a numeric value.", 48, "Invalid Entry"
Loop
MsgBox "The user chose :" & response, 64, "Yay!"

Answer 2

If you would like to use an hta for this it can be done like this.
The VBScript:
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
'Run the hta.
WshShell.Run "Test.hta", 1, true
'Display the results.
MsgBox "Return Value = " & getReturn
Set WshShell = Nothing
Function getReturn
'Read the registry entry created by the hta.
On Error Resume Next
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
getReturn = WshShell.RegRead("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment\MsgResp")
If ERR.Number 0 Then
'If the value does not exist return -1
getReturn = -1
Else
'Otherwise return the value in the registry & delete the temperary entry.
WshShell.RegDelete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment\MsgResp"
End if
Set WshShell = Nothing
End Function
Then design the hta as desired, and include the following methods
'Call this when the OK button is clicked.
Sub OK_Click
For Each objradiobutton In Opt
If objradiobutton.Checked Then
WriteResponse objradiobutton.Value
End If
Next
window.Close
End Sub
'Call this when the Cancel button is clicked.
Sub Cancel_Click
WriteResponse("CANCEL")
window.Close
End Sub
'Write the response to the registry
Sub WriteResponse(strValue)
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.RegWrite "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment\MsgResp", strValue
Set WshShell = Nothing
End Sub
I used a group of radio buttons named "Opt" to make a choice, but you could use any controls you would like.
Because hta's cannot return values, this will create a temperary registry entry. If you are not comforatable messing with the registry, you could also write the result to a temperary text file.
This approach is nice because you can design the hta any way you like, rather than using the supplied inputbox and choosing numbers (thats so DOS).
This could also be nice if you expanded the hta to create itself based on arguments passed to it, like passing in a title, a message to display, an array of options, a set of buttons. That way you could use the same hta any time you needed to get input from the user.

Answer 3

You can use DialogLib to create forms with dropdowns and checkboxes. DialogLib is still in it's ealy stages, but is's allready quite usefull: http://www.soren.schimkat.dk/Blog/?p=189

Answer 4

Try WshShell.Popup. Depending upon your data that may work for you...
Otherwise you could investigate PowerShell.

Answer 5

One option is to script Internet Explorer. You can use VBScript to launch IE and load a local HTML file, and attach a VBScript sub to a form's submit button (or any other JavaScript events), which can then close the IE window as part of its execution.

Answer 6

You can launch an HTA from a VBScript.
Set shell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
shell.Run "Test.hta"
EDIT
Since you have full control of the VBScript, could you make the 3rd party VBScript simply call your HTA? You could put the UI and whatever processing code inside of the HTA.

Answer 7

As an example of #TmDean's suggestion, there's this class that I sometimes use which scripts IE (well, it scripted IE6; I haven't tried the more recent incarnations.)
class IEDisplay
'~ Based on original work by Tony Hinkle, tonyhinkle#yahoo.com
private TEMPORARY_FOLDER
private objShell
private objIE
private objFSO
private objFolder
private strName
private streamOut
private objDIV
private numHeight
private numWidth
private numTop
private numLeft
private sub Class_Initialize()
Dim strComputer
Dim objWMIService
Dim colItems
Dim objItem
Dim arrMonitors( 10, 1 )
Dim numMonitorCount
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objIE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject( "winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery( "Select * from Win32_DesktopMonitor")
numMonitorCount = 0
For Each objItem in colItems
arrMonitors( numMonitorCount, 0 ) = objItem.ScreenHeight
arrMonitors( numMonitorCount, 1 ) = objItem.ScreenWidth
numMonitorCount = numMonitorCount + 1
Next
numHeight = arrMonitors( 0, 0 )
numWidth = arrMonitors( 0, 1 )
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
TEMPORARY_FOLDER = 2
set objFolder = objFSO.GetSpecialFolder( TEMPORARY_FOLDER )
strName = objFSO.BuildPath( objFolder, objFSO.GetTempName ) & ".html"
WriteFileU strName, Join( Array( "<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Information</TITLE></HEAD>", _
"<BODY SCROLL='NO'><CENTER><FONT FACE='arial black'> <HR COLOR='BLACK'>", _
"<DIV id='MakeMeAnObject'></DIV>", _
"<HR COLOR='BLACK'></FONT></CENTER></BODY></HTML>" ), vbCRLF ), WF_CREATE
numTop = 0
numLeft = 0
end sub
Sub Init( strPosition )
'NW, N, NE, W, CENTRE, E, SW, S, SE
Select Case strPosition
Case "NW"
numTop = 0
numLeft = 0
Case "N"
numTop = 0
numLeft = ( numWidth / 2 ) - 250
Case "NE"
numTop = 0
numLeft = numWidth - 500
Case "W"
numTop = ( numHeight / 2 ) - 55
numLeft = 0
Case "CENTRE"
numTop = ( numHeight / 2 ) - 55
numLeft = ( numWidth / 2 ) - 250
Case "E"
numTop = ( numHeight / 2 ) - 55
numLeft = numWidth - 500
Case "SW"
numTop = numHeight - 110
numLeft = 0
Case "S"
numTop = numHeight - 110
numLeft = ( numWidth / 2 ) - 250
Case "SE"
numTop = numHeight - 110
numLeft = numWidth - 500
Case Else
numTop = 0
numLeft = 0
End Select
SetupIE( strName )
Set objDIV = objIE.Document.All("MakeMeAnObject")
end sub
private sub Class_Terminate()
'Close IE and delete the file
objIE.Quit
'~ optionally you may want to get rid of the temp file
end sub
public sub Display( strMsg, numMillisec )
objDIV.InnerHTML = strMsg
WScript.Sleep numMillisec
end sub
Private Sub SetupIE(File2Load)
objIE.Navigate File2Load
objIE.ToolBar = False
objIE.StatusBar = False
objIE.Resizable = False
Do
Loop While objIE.Busy
objIE.Width = 500
objIE.Height = 110
objIE.Left = numLeft
objIE.Top = numTop
objIE.Visible = True
objShell.AppActivate("Microsoft Internet Explorer")
End Sub
end class
here is the missing (from the original posting) WriteFileU function
Const WF_APPEND = 1
Const WF_CREATE = 2
Const WF_FOR_APPENDING = 8
Const WF_FOR_WRITING = 2
Const WF_CREATE_NONEXISTING = True
Const CONST_READ = 1, CONST_WRITE = 2, CONST_APPEND = 8
Const AS_SYSTEMDEFAULT = -2, AS_UNICODE = -1, AS_ASCII = 0
Sub WriteFileU( sFilename, sContents, nMode )
Dim oStream
If nMode = WF_APPEND Then
Set oStream = oFSO.OpenTextFile( sFilename, WF_FOR_APPENDING, WF_CREATE_NONEXISTING, AS_UNICODE )
ElseIf nMode = WF_CREATE Then
Set oStream = oFSO.OpenTextFile( sFilename, WF_FOR_WRITING, WF_CREATE_NONEXISTING, AS_UNICODE )
Else
STOP
End If
oStream.Write sContents
oStream.Close
Set oStream = Nothing
End Sub
and then as an example of it's use
set i = new IEDisplay
a = array("NW", "N", "NE", "W", "CENTRE", "E", "SW","S","SE")
for each aa in a
i.init aa
i.display "Here in " & aa & " of screen", 1000
next
Now that's not immediately useful (especially are there are a pile of calls to my own utility routines in there) but it gives a framework. By modifying what HTML is stored, you could add support for listboxes etc.

Answer 8

I know this is eleven years too late, but it sounds like this would be more along the lines of what the original request would be looking for:
Sub CustomMsgBox(msg)
Dim ie, Style, FormExit
Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
ie.Navigate "about:blank"
While ie.ReadyState <> 4: WScript.Sleep 100: Wend
ie.Toolbar = False
ie.StatusBar = False
ie.Width = 450
ie.Height = 275
ie.document.body.innerHTML = "<title>Choose a Color</title><p class='msg'>Choose an option:</p>" & "<input type='radio' id='myRadio' name='colors' value='red'>Red</br><input type='radio' id='myRadio' name='colors' value='yellow'>Yellow</br><input type='radio' id='myRadio' name='colors' value='blue'>Blue"
Set Style = ie.document.CreateStyleSheet
Style.AddRule "p.msg", "font-family:calibri;font-weight:bold;"
ie.Visible = True
ie.Quit
End Sub

Answer 9

This code worked for me in an HTA file (that I opened from VBS using WScript.Shell Run). The trick was to get the data back to VBS which I accomplished by having HTA create an XML file that VBS read.
Sub CopySelect(sSrcId, sTargetId)
Dim oTarget: Set oTarget = document.getElementById(sTargetId)
Dim oSrc: Set oSrc = document.getElementById(sSrcId)
Dim j, n, o
oTarget.length = 0
For j = 0 to oSrc.length - 1
Set o = oSrc.options(j)
Set n = document.createElement("option")
n.text = o.text
n.value = o.value
oTarget.add n
Next
End Sub