WSH, Part 3: Windows Script Components

A Real-World Example
"WSH, Part 2: .wsf Files" presents a WSF script that reports the members of a group. To continue this theme, I decided to present a script component that provides the same functionality. The Penton.GetMembers component provides two write-only properties, GroupName and Domain-Name, and one method, Members. The Members method returns a sorted array containing the members of the group. Listing 2 shows the VBScript implementation of the GroupName and DomainName properties and the Members method. Listing 2 is only an excerpt from the Penton.GetMembers component. You can download the entire component from the Windows Scripting Solutions Web site. Go to http://www.windowsitpro.com/windowsscripting, enter 49092 in the InstantDoc ID text box, then click the 49092.zip hotlink.

At callout A in Listing 2, note how the Members method calls the SortVBArray JScript function, which I created earlier in the component. This function returns a sorted copy of the specified VB safe array. (A safe array, also known as a VB array, is the array type used by VBScript.)

To use the Penton.GetMembers component in a script, create an object instance of it. Next, set the GroupName property to the name of the group (it defaults to Domain Admins). If the group exists in a domain other than the current logon domain, set the DomainName property as well. Finally, call the Members method to retrieve the array containing the members of the group. UseGetMembers.vbs, shown in Listing 3, uses the object to list the members of the Domain Users group in the current domain. (Be sure to execute this script with the CScript host because it uses WScript.Echo to output each member.) Note that the GetMembers.wsc file must be registered on the system before the script in Listing 3 will work.

Creating Your Own Components
This article provides only a brief overview of script components and doesn't cover some of their more advanced features. My goal was to explain the basics and why they might be useful in your own scripting tasks. Use the examples in this article to start creating your own components.