wsh-appjs

require-js and app framework for Windows Scripting Host JavaScript

Introduction

wsh-appjs provides a small application framework for working with JavaScript and Windows Scripting Host. If, like me, you like writing JavaScript and don't want to learn PowerShell or install Python, then JavaScript is a very capable command prompt scripting language.

However, WSH lacks support for writing modular JavaScript, which is where wsh-appjs comes in. wsh-appjs is a very small framework that provides a require() function that allows the loading of JavaScript modules by other JavaScript modules.

Using wsh-appjs means that code can now be shared and reused. See the lib subfolder for some examples.

Getting Started

git clone https://github.com/redskyit/wsh-appjs

Create a Basic Application (myapp.js)

An app is just another wsh-appjs module that also exports a main() method. Once loaded the main() method is called.

var LIB = require('lib/std');
return {
  main: function(argv) {
    // your app goes here
    DBG("Hello World");
    return 0;
  }
}

Run It

cscript app.js ./myapp

The Module Pattern

All wsh-appjs modules follow the same pattern, are run in their own scope and may or may not return an object, function or other non-zero, null, undefined value. A common module pattern is:

// my module
var LIB = require('lib/std');

var interface = { global: global, VERSIONINFO: "mymodule v1" };

// define rest of interface here

return interface;

But that pattern isn't a the only pattern, a module can return a function (constructor) for instance or even some static data.

Libraries

lib/std

This library provides some standard methods and also some global convenience methods.

var LIB = require('lib/std');

DBG(string)

DBG is a global function that will output the passed string to standard output. It is a convenient shortcut to WScript.echo().

array.indexOf(value)

Adds an indexOf method to array objects.

LIB.CreateObject(name)

Works like Server.CreateObject, it is really just an alias for new ActiveXObject(name).

lib/sendmail

This library provides a sendmail function that uses wither CDO (the default) or Persists.MailSender to send an email.

var MAIL = require('lib/sendmail');

MAIL.sendmail(mailmsg)

Sends a mail based on the supplied mailmsg object. The mailmsg object can have the following properties.

Prop	Description
To	The to email address
From	The from email address
Cc	The CC list
ReplyTo	A reply-to address
Subject	The email Subject
Body	The email body
isHTML	true if the body is an html email message.
id	A message ID
MAILHOST	The mail server to send the message to
MAILPORT	The port number to use (CDO only)

lib/file

This library contains a bunch of convenience wrappers for Scripting.FileSystemObject

fileExists(fn)

folderExists(fn)

fileGet(fn)

readFile(fn)

writeFile(fn, content, charset)

moveFile(from, to)

createFolder(fn)

See also

Scripting.FileSystemObject, FileExists, FolderExists, GetFile, ReadAll, OpenTextFile, Write, ADODB.Stream, WriteText, MoveFile, CreateFolder

lib/db

This library contains a simple SQL interface based on ADODB.Connection and ADODB.Recordset.

open(connectionString)

This returns a database object to the opened database. The object provides the following methods:

method	Description
query(sql)	Run the SQL query and return an ADODB.Recordset instance with the results.
exec(sql)	Run the SQL statement and return an ADODB.Recordset object if successful.
insert(table, cols)	Use a recordset addNew() to insert a record. cols should be a { name: value, ... } hash map.
close()	Close the datebase connection
reopen()	Reopen the datebase connection

quoteString(str)

Quotes a string for inclusion in a SQL string.

blob2Text(blobField, charset)

Converts a database BLOB to text based on charset.

saveBlob(filename, blobField)

Writes a database BLOB field to the named file using ADODB.Stream.

See also

ADODB.Connection, ADODB.Recordset, Open, Execute, AddNew

Limitations

1. At the moment, a require() will only find modules relative to the folder that app.js is located in. See Issue #1. Ideally modules should be loaded relative to the requiring module.