Executing vbscript

[lionelv]

Hi all,

I have a vbscript that I would like to execute from java. It takes 4
arguments, and example usage follows:

"C:\cvs_checkout\tool\Projects\UserInterface\utils
\ReplaceWorksheets.vbs" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl\Desktop
\sheet.xml" "Sheet 1,Sheet 2" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl
\Desktop\Test\another sheet.xml" "sheet 1,sheet 2"

Here is the code that I'm using at the moment:

String[] command = {"cmd.exe", argument};
try {
Process mergeProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
} catch (IOException ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();
}

Where argument is the expression I gave above.

If I executre the expression I gave at a prompt it does exactly what I
want, but the java code I gave doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't
throw any exceptions but it appears the script hasn't even run!

Any ideas about how I can get the script to run?

 

[Jeff Higgins]

String[] command = {"cmd.exe", argument};

Not real sure, but works for me with my "test.vbs".

String[] command = {"cmd.exe", "cscript", argument};

 

[Twisted]

Hi all,

I have a vbscript

Ugh ... excuse me ... need to ... *BLEERRRTCH!*

Yep. RIGHT after I finished eating lunch of course.

And here I had been thinking cljp was a fairly safe part of usenet
when on a full stomach, too.

 

[Daniel Pitts]

Hi all,

I have a vbscript that I would like to execute from java. It takes 4
arguments, and example usage follows:

"C:\cvs_checkout\tool\Projects\UserInterface\utils
\ReplaceWorksheets.vbs" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl\Desktop
\sheet.xml" "Sheet 1,Sheet 2" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl
\Desktop\Test\another sheet.xml" "sheet 1,sheet 2"

Here is the code that I'm using at the moment:

String[] command = {"cmd.exe", argument};
try {
Process mergeProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);} catch (IOException ioe) {

ioe.printStackTrace();

}

Where argument is the expression I gave above.

If I executre the expression I gave at a prompt it does exactly what I
want, but the java code I gave doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't
throw any exceptions but it appears the script hasn't even run!

Any ideas about how I can get the script to run?

Why run a VB script from Java? You'll never make a portable
application that way.

Why not rewrite the VB script into Java, or alternatively, write it in
javascript and use the scripting api in Java 6.

 

[Alexey]

Hi all,

I have a vbscript that I would like to execute from java. It takes 4
arguments, and example usage follows:

"C:\cvs_checkout\tool\Projects\UserInterface\utils
\ReplaceWorksheets.vbs" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl\Desktop
\sheet.xml" "Sheet 1,Sheet 2" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl
\Desktop\Test\another sheet.xml" "sheet 1,sheet 2"

Here is the code that I'm using at the moment:

String[] command = {"cmd.exe", argument};
try {
Process mergeProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);} catch (IOException ioe) {

ioe.printStackTrace();

}

Where argument is the expression I gave above.

If I executre the expression I gave at a prompt it does exactly what I
want, but the java code I gave doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't
throw any exceptions but it appears the script hasn't even run!

Any ideas about how I can get the script to run?

Be sure you're reading everything the process object writes into its
streams.

 

[lionelv]

Ugh ... excuse me ... need to ... *BLEERRRTCH!*

Yep. RIGHT after I finished eating lunch of course.

And here I had been thinking cljp was a fairly safe part of usenet
when on a full stomach, too.

Don't blame you. If I could avoid it I would. I have to manipulate
excel spreadsheets, I tried one java library to manipulate excel
spreadsheet saved as xml and it failed miserably. So, I'm stuck with
very bad script (vbscript).

 

[lionelv]

Hi all,

I have a vbscript that I would like to execute from java. It takes 4
arguments, and example usage follows:

"C:\cvs_checkout\tool\Projects\UserInterface\utils
\ReplaceWorksheets.vbs" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl\Desktop
\sheet.xml" "Sheet 1,Sheet 2" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl
\Desktop\Test\another sheet.xml" "sheet 1,sheet 2"

Here is the code that I'm using at the moment:

String[] command = {"cmd.exe", argument};
try {
Process mergeProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);} catch (IOException ioe) {

ioe.printStackTrace();

}

Where argument is the expression I gave above.

If I executre the expression I gave at a prompt it does exactly what I
want, but the java code I gave doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't
throw any exceptions but it appears the script hasn't even run!

Any ideas about how I can get the script to run?

Why run a VB script from Java? You'll never make a portable
application that way.

State the obvious .

Why not rewrite the VB script into Java, or alternatively, write it in
javascript and use the scripting api in Java 6.

I need to manipulate excel spreadsheets. Can I do that with scripting
API in Java 6? Aside from that, the minimum requirements for the user
is Java 5. I didn't take this decision lightly. I was hacking out the
excel xml files by hand at one stage but it just proved to be to much
work and too fragile for when M$ changes their xml format (you know it
will happen ).

I'm able to wrap the whole problem up in verybadscript in about 10
lines of code.

Lionel.

 

[lionelv]

Hi all,

I have a vbscript that I would like to execute from java. It takes 4
arguments, and example usage follows:

"C:\cvs_checkout\tool\Projects\UserInterface\utils
\ReplaceWorksheets.vbs" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl\Desktop
\sheet.xml" "Sheet 1,Sheet 2" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl
\Desktop\Test\another sheet.xml" "sheet 1,sheet 2"

Here is the code that I'm using at the moment:

String[] command = {"cmd.exe", argument};
try {
Process mergeProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);} catch (IOException ioe) {

ioe.printStackTrace();

}

Where argument is the expression I gave above.

If I executre the expression I gave at a prompt it does exactly what I
want, but the java code I gave doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't
throw any exceptions but it appears the script hasn't even run!

Any ideas about how I can get the script to run?

Be sure you're reading everything the process object writes into its
streams.

I did as you said (good point btw) but I get the following
uninteresting output:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.


and then the input stream blocks indefinitely.

Lionel.

 

[lionelv]

Hi all,
I have a vbscript that I would like to execute from java. It takes 4
arguments, and example usage follows:
"C:\cvs_checkout\tool\Projects\UserInterface\utils
\ReplaceWorksheets.vbs" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl\Desktop
\sheet.xml" "Sheet 1,Sheet 2" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl
\Desktop\Test\another sheet.xml" "sheet 1,sheet 2"
Here is the code that I'm using at the moment:
String[] command = {"cmd.exe", argument};
try {
Process mergeProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);} catch (IOException ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
Where argument is the expression I gave above.
If I executre the expression I gave at a prompt it does exactly what I
want, but the java code I gave doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't
throw any exceptions but it appears the script hasn't even run!
Any ideas about how I can get the script to run?

Be sure you're reading everything the process object writes into its
streams.

I did as you said (good point btw) but I get the following
uninteresting output:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

and then the input stream blocks indefinitely.

Should probably have included:

Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
BufferedReader streamReader = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(process.getErrorStream()));
String line;
while ((line = streamReader.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println(line);
}

I did the above for both input stream and error stream. error stream
gives nothing!

 

[Joshua Cranmer]

I need to manipulate excel spreadsheets. Can I do that with scripting
API in Java 6? Aside from that, the minimum requirements for the user
is Java 5. I didn't take this decision lightly. I was hacking out the
excel xml files by hand at one stage but it just proved to be to much
work and too fragile for when M$ changes their xml format (you know it
will happen ).

<OT>
Are you talking about MS's "Office Open XML" format? The last I heard,
that was denied an ISO standard (something about being poorly
documented, too long, and impossible to understand, I think).
</OT>

I know that there are APIs to work with the old formats of Excel
spreadsheets, and there might be some headway into working with the
newer one. What prevents you from converting the VB script into Java and
using those APIs?

If executing the VBscript is important, it might be better to use a JNI
bridge to execute the Windows API to execute the VBscript directly as
opposed to running through cmd.exe (which doesn't exactly do what you
want, AFAIK). Even better would be to directly execute a VBscript
interpreter (there is probably an executable somewhere in
C:\WINNT\system32 that does that).

 

[lionelv]

<OT>
Are you talking about MS's "Office Open XML" format? The last I heard,
that was denied an ISO standard (something about being poorly
documented, too long, and impossible to understand, I think).
</OT>

I know, it's a load of rubbish. And they don't even release the DTD
for it.

I know that there are APIs to work with the old formats of Excel
spreadsheets, and there might be some headway into working with the
newer one. What prevents you from converting the VB script into Java and
using those APIs?

Well I started with the xelem API and it failed miserably creating a
file that excel could not open. Perhaps I should try some others but
it's really a concern if someone uses a newer version of excel that
can't be read by the library that I use. Argh, I wish I didn't have to
deal with it at all!

If executing the VBscript is important,

No, it's not, it just seems the most likely to be successful well into
the future .

it might be better to use a JNI
bridge to execute the Windows API to execute the VBscript directly as
opposed to running through cmd.exe (which doesn't exactly do what you
want, AFAIK). Even better would be to directly execute a VBscript
interpreter (there is probably an executable somewhere in
C:\WINNT\system32 that does that).

I'll see what I can find out about these ideas.

 

[lionelv]

<OT>
Are you talking about MS's "Office Open XML" format? The last I heard,
that was denied an ISO standard (something about being poorly
documented, too long, and impossible to understand, I think).
</OT>

I know, it's a load of rubbish. And they don't even release the DTD
for it.

I know that there are APIs to work with the old formats of Excel
spreadsheets, and there might be some headway into working with the
newer one. What prevents you from converting the VB script into Java and
using those APIs?

Well I started with the xelem API and it failed miserably creating a
file that excel could not open. Perhaps I should try some others but
it's really a concern if someone uses a newer version of excel that
can't be read by the library that I use. Argh, I wish I didn't have to
deal with it at all!

If executing the VBscript is important,

No, it's not, it just seems the most likely to be successful well into
the future .

it might be better to use a JNI
bridge to execute the Windows API to execute the VBscript directly as
opposed to running through cmd.exe (which doesn't exactly do what you
want, AFAIK). Even better would be to directly execute a VBscript
interpreter (there is probably an executable somewhere in
C:\WINNT\system32 that does that).

I'll see what I can find out about these ideas.

 

[lionelv]

<OT>
Are you talking about MS's "Office Open XML" format? The last I heard,
that was denied an ISO standard (something about being poorly
documented, too long, and impossible to understand, I think).
</OT>

I know, it's a load of rubbish. And they don't even release the DTD
for it.

I know that there are APIs to work with the old formats of Excel
spreadsheets, and there might be some headway into working with the
newer one. What prevents you from converting the VB script into Java and
using those APIs?

Well I started with the xelem API and it failed miserably creating a
file that excel could not open. Perhaps I should try some others but
it's really a concern if someone uses a newer version of excel that
can't be read by the library that I use. Argh, I wish I didn't have to
deal with it at all!

If executing the VBscript is important,

No, it's not, it just seems the most likely to be successful well into
the future .

it might be better to use a JNI
bridge to execute the Windows API to execute the VBscript directly as
opposed to running through cmd.exe (which doesn't exactly do what you
want, AFAIK). Even better would be to directly execute a VBscript
interpreter (there is probably an executable somewhere in
C:\WINNT\system32 that does that).

I'll see what I can find out about these ideas.

 

[Joshua Cranmer]

I know, it's a load of rubbish. And they don't even release the DTD
for it.

The DTD would probably be longer than the average file that would use
it! (Then again, the XHTML 1.1 Transitional DTD is ~31.3 KB and many
(X)HTML pages are much smaller than that, so... Granted, however, that
DTD is full of comments and whitespace)

 

[lionelv]

Sorry about the multiple posts! I don't normally use GG but for some
reason everytime I've been pressing refresh it seems to have posted
again for me!

 

[Lew]

Sorry about the multiple posts! I don't normally use GG but for some
reason everytime I've been pressing refresh it seems to have posted
again for me!

No worries. If any community is aware that Google Groups is crap, it's the
readers of this newsgroup.

I think you'll find that people are not prejudiced against GG users here, but
we are highly annoyed by GG itself.

Do your best to work around its flaws if you don't want to piss anyone off, or
better yet, switch newsreaders to another of the free ones out there that
lacks Google Groups's manifest flaws.

 

[Twisted]

Don't blame you. If I could avoid it I would. I have to manipulate
excel spreadsheets, I tried one java library to manipulate excel
spreadsheet saved as xml and it failed miserably. So, I'm stuck with
very bad script (vbscript).

Egads! And I thought nursing, pet store litterbox scooping guy, sewage
treatment, and septic tank servicing were dirty jobs. At least you can
hold your nose or wear a respirator or something in those jobs. Here
you'd have to close your eyes, and then you won't be able to see what
you're doing to do your job. How utterly bletcherous!

 

[Knute Johnson]

Hi all,

I have a vbscript that I would like to execute from java. It takes 4
arguments, and example usage follows:

"C:\cvs_checkout\tool\Projects\UserInterface\utils
\ReplaceWorksheets.vbs" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl\Desktop
\sheet.xml" "Sheet 1,Sheet 2" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl
\Desktop\Test\another sheet.xml" "sheet 1,sheet 2"

Here is the code that I'm using at the moment:

String[] command = {"cmd.exe", argument};
try {
Process mergeProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
} catch (IOException ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();
}

Where argument is the expression I gave above.

If I executre the expression I gave at a prompt it does exactly what I
want, but the java code I gave doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't
throw any exceptions but it appears the script hasn't even run!

Any ideas about how I can get the script to run?

You might try using the new Desktop class. I've found that it is a
great improvement over Runtime.exec() for many things. It is also more
portable.

 

[Daniel Pitts]

Hi all,
I have a vbscript that I would like to execute from java. It takes 4
arguments, and example usage follows:
"C:\cvs_checkout\tool\Projects\UserInterface\utils
\ReplaceWorksheets.vbs" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl\Desktop
\sheet.xml" "Sheet 1,Sheet 2" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl
\Desktop\Test\another sheet.xml" "sheet 1,sheet 2"
Here is the code that I'm using at the moment:
String[] command = {"cmd.exe", argument};
try {
Process mergeProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);} catch (IOException ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
Where argument is the expression I gave above.
If I executre the expression I gave at a prompt it does exactly what I
want, but the java code I gave doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't
throw any exceptions but it appears the script hasn't even run!
Any ideas about how I can get the script to run?

Why run a VB script from Java? You'll never make a portable
application that way.

State the obvious .

Why not rewrite the VB script into Java, or alternatively, write it in
javascript and use the scripting api in Java 6.

I need to manipulate excel spreadsheets. Can I do that with scripting
API in Java 6? Aside from that, the minimum requirements for the user
is Java 5. I didn't take this decision lightly. I was hacking out the
excel xml files by hand at one stage but it just proved to be to much
work and too fragile for when M$ changes their xml format (you know it
will happen ).

I'm able to wrap the whole problem up in verybadscript in about 10
lines of code.

Lionel.

What kind of manipulation are you doing to an excel spreadsheet? Can
you require the spreadsheet to be in CSV, or some other well-defined,
format first?

 

[lionelv]

Hi all,
I have a vbscript that I would like to execute from java. It takes 4
arguments, and example usage follows:
"C:\cvs_checkout\tool\Projects\UserInterface\utils
\ReplaceWorksheets.vbs" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl\Desktop
\sheet.xml" "Sheet 1,Sheet 2" "C:\Documents and Settings\vandenbergl
\Desktop\Test\another sheet.xml" "sheet 1,sheet 2"
Here is the code that I'm using at the moment:
String[] command = {"cmd.exe", argument};
try {
Process mergeProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);} catch (IOException ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
Where argument is the expression I gave above.
If I executre the expression I gave at a prompt it does exactly what I
want, but the java code I gave doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't
throw any exceptions but it appears the script hasn't even run!
Any ideas about how I can get the script to run?
Why run a VB script from Java? You'll never make a portable
application that way.

State the obvious .

I need to manipulate excel spreadsheets. Can I do that with scripting
API in Java 6? Aside from that, the minimum requirements for the user
is Java 5. I didn't take this decision lightly. I was hacking out the
excel xml files by hand at one stage but it just proved to be to much
work and too fragile for when M$ changes their xml format (you know it
will happen ).

I'm able to wrap the whole problem up in verybadscript in about 10
lines of code.

Lionel.

What kind of manipulation are you doing to an excel spreadsheet? Can
you require the spreadsheet to be in CSV, or some other well-defined,
format first?

Removing and inserting worksheets. Unfortunatley CSV is not suitable.
The user has spreadsheets that are highly technical and have several
formatting styles due to their preferences (but at the same time
follow a standard layout). For usability reasons that layout must be
preserved and CSV would lose all of these details.

After seeing the lack of support I'm considering an alternative
whereby I will have 2 spreadsheets. This will allow me to get around
having to do any writes to any spreadsheet. That way I only have to
read the sheets and the Java libraries handle reading sufficiently
well.

Thanks

Lionel.