Creating an HTML Application to Convert Text Files to Audio Files

27. May 2015 Bob HTMLA , Scripting , VBScript Comments (0)

I'd like to take a brief departure from my normal collage of web-related and server-management examples and share a rather eclectic code sample.

Here's the scenario: I am presently working on another college degree, and I was recently taking a class which required a great deal of reading.  These assignments were all in digital form: I was using PDF or Kindle-based versions of the textbooks, and the remaining reading consisted of online articles. However, I am also an avid bicyclist, and the voluminous amount of reading was preventing me from going on some of my normal weekly rides. This gave me an idea: if I could convert the digital text to audio, I could bring my assignments with me on my longer rides and have my MP3 player read my assignments to me as I pedaled my way around the Arizona deserts.

I had experimented with Microsoft's built-in text-to-speech features some years ago, so I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to revisit some of those APIs and write a full application to do the conversions for me. That being said, I could have written this application by using C# (which is my preferred language), but I decided to create an HTML Application for two reasons: 1) it is easier for me to share HTMLA applications in a blog, and 2) I keep this application in my OneDrive, so it's easier for me to modify the source code on systems where I don't have Visual Studio installed.

With that in mind, here is the resulting script which will convert a Text File to a Wave (*.WAV) File.

Using the HTML Application

As with most of my HTML Applications, the user interface is pretty simple to use; when you double click the HTA file, it will present you with the following user interface:

Clicking the Browse button will obviously allow you to browse to a text file, clicking the Close button will close the application, and clicking the Write File button will create a Wave file that is in the same path as the source text file. For example, if you have a text file at "C:\Text\Test.txt", the script will create a Wave file at "C:\Text\Test.txt.wav".

That being said, there are a few options which you can set:

  • Depending on your version of Windows and which languages you have installed, you will be presented with a list of available voices in the first drop-down menu; the following example is from a Windows 8 computer:
  • The second drop-down menu allows you to vary the playback speed; sometimes I prefer the playback speed to be slighter faster than normal:
  • The third drop-down menu allows you to alter the volume of the resulting Wave file:

Note: You can modify the script to alter the values that are used in the playback speed and volume drop-down menus, but the list of voices is obtained dynamically from your operating system.

Creating the HTML Application

To create this HTML Application, save the following HTMLA code as "Text to Wave File.hta" to your computer, and then double-click its icon to run the application. (Note that in a few places I added code comments which contain the MSDN URL for the APIs that I am using for this sample.)

<html>
<head>
<title>Text-to-Speech Writer</title>
<HTA:APPLICATION
  APPLICATIONNAME="Text-to-Speech Writer"
  ID="TextToSpeech"
  VERSION="1.0"
  BORDER="dialog"
  BORDERSTYLE="static"
  INNERBORDER="no"
  CAPTION="yes"
  SYSMENU="no"
  MAXIMIZEBUTTON="no"
  MINIMIZEBUTTON="no"
  SCROLL="no"
  SCROLLFLAT="yes"
  SINGLEINSTANCE="yes"
  CONTEXTMENU="no"
  SELECTION="no"/>
</head>

<script language="VBScript">

Option Explicit

Dim blnCancelBubble

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' OnLoad event handler for the application.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub Window_OnLoad
  blnCancelBubble = False
  ' Set up the UI dimensions.
  Const intDialogWidth = 550
  Const intDialogHeight = 125
  ' Specify the window position and size.
  Self.resizeTo intDialogWidth,intDialogHeight
  Self.moveTo (Screen.AvailWidth - intDialogWidth) / 2,_
    (Screen.AvailHeight - intDialogHeight) / 2
  ' Load the list of text-to-speech voices into the drop-down menu.
  ' See the notes in WriteFile() for more information.
  Dim objSAPI, objVoice, objSelect, objOption
  Set objSAPI = CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice")
  For Each objVoice In objSAPI.GetVoices("","")
    Set objSelect = Document.getElementById("optVoices")
    Set objOption = Document.createElement("option")
    objOption.text = objVoice.GetDescription() 
    objSelect.Add objOption
  Next
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Click handler for the Write button.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub btnWrite_OnClick()
  ' Test for a file name.
  If Len(txtFile.Value) > 0 Then
    ' Test if we need to cancel bubbling of events.
    If blnCancelBubble = False Then
        ' Write the input file.
        Call WriteFile(txtFile.Value)
      End If
    End If
    ' Specify whether to bubble events.
    blnCancelBubble = IIf(blnCancelBubble=True,False,True)
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Change handler for the input box.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub txtFile_OnChange()
  ' Enable the Write button.
  btnWrite.Disabled = False
  ' Enable event bubbling.
  blnCancelBubble = False
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Click handler for the Close button.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub btnClose_OnClick()
  ' Test if we need to cancel bubbling of events.
  If blnCancelBubble = False Then
    ' Prompt the user to exit.
    If MsgBox("Are you sure you wish to exit?", _
      vbYesNo+vbDefaultButton2+vbQuestion+vbSystemModal, _
      TextToSpeech.applicationName)=vbYes Then
      ' Enable event bubbling.
      blnCancelBubble = True
      ' Close the application.
      Window.close
    End If
  End If
  ' Specify whether to bubble events.
     blnCancelBubble = IIf(blnCancelBubble=True,False,True)
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' This is an ultra-lame workaround for the lack
' of a DoEvents() feature in HTA applications.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub DoEvents()
  On Error Resume Next
  ' Create a shell object.
  Dim objShell : Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
  ' Call out to the shell and essentially do nothing.
  objShell.Run "ver", 0, True
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' This is an ultra-lame workaround for the lack
' of an IIf() function in vbscript applications.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Function IIf(tx,ty,tz)
  If (tx) Then IIf = ty Else IIf = tz
End Function

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Main text-to-speech function
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub WriteFile(strInputFileName)
  On Error Resume Next
  Dim objFSO
  Dim objFile
  Dim objSAPI
  Dim objFileStream
  Dim strOldTitle
  Dim strOutputFilename
  Const strProcessing = "Creating WAV file... "
  
  ' Define the audio format as 44.1kHz / 16-bit audio.
  ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms720595.aspx
  Const SAFT44kHz16BitStereo = 35
  ' Allow text to be read as well as written.
  ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms720858.aspx
  Const SSFMCreateForWrite = 3
  
  ' Define the output WAV filename.
  strOutputFilename = strInputFileName & ".wav"

  ' Create a file system object and open the input file.
  Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strInputFileName, 1)
  
  ' Disable the form fields.
  optVoices.Disabled = True
  optRate.Disabled = True
  optVolume.Disabled = True
  txtFile.Disabled = True
  btnWrite.Disabled = True
  btnClose.Value = "Cancel"

  ' Test for an error.
  If Err.Number <> 0 Then
      MsgBox "Error: " & Err.Number & vbCrLf & Err.Description
  Else
    ' Store the original dialog title.
    strOldTitle = Document.title
    ' Display a status message.
    Document.title = strProcessing & Time()
    ' Pause briefly to let the screen refresh and capture events.
    Call DoEvents()
    ' Create a text-to-speech object.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms720149.aspx
    Set objSAPI = CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice")
    ' Create a SAPI file stream object.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms722561.aspx
    Set objFileStream = CreateObject("SAPI.SpFileStream")
    ' Specify the stream format.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms720998.aspx
    objFileStream.Format.Type = SAFT44kHz16BitStereo
    ' Open the output file stream.
    objFileStream.Open strOutputFilename, SSFMCreateForWrite
    ' Specify the output file stream.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723597.aspx
    Set objSAPI.AudioOutputStream = objFileStream
    
    ' Specify the speaking rate.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723606.aspx
    objSAPI.Rate = optRate.Options(optRate.SelectedIndex).Value
    ' Specify the speaking volume.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723615.aspx
    objSAPI.Volume = optVolume.Options(optVolume.SelectedIndex).Value
    ' Specify the voice to use.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723601.aspx
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723614.aspx
    Set objSAPI.Voice = objSAPI.GetVoices("","").Item(optVoices.SelectedIndex)
    
    ' Loop through the lines in the input file.
    Do While Not objFile.AtEndOfStream
      ' Test if we need to cancel bubbling of events.
      If blnCancelBubble = True Then
        Exit Do
      Else
        ' Display a status message.
        Document.title = strProcessing & Time()
        ' Pause briefly to let the screen refresh and capture events.
        Call DoEvents()
        ' Speak one line from the input file.
        ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723609.aspx
        objSAPI.Speak objFile.ReadLine
      End If
    Loop
    ' Close the output file stream.
    objFileStream.Close
  End If

  ' Close the input file.
  objFile.Close

  ' Destroy all objects.
  Set objFileStream = Nothing
  Set objSAPI = Nothing
  Set objFile = Nothing
  Set objFSO = Nothing
  
  ' Reset the original dialog title.
  Document.title = strOldTitle

  ' Notify the user that the file has been written.
  MsgBox "Finished!", vbInformation, strOldTitle
  
  ' Re-enable the form fields.
  btnClose.Value = "Close"
  optVoices.Disabled = False
  optRate.Disabled = False
  optVolume.Disabled = False
  txtFile.Disabled = False
  btnWrite.Disabled = False

End Sub

</script>

<body bgcolor="white" id="HtmlBody">
<div id="FormControls">
  <table>
    <tr>
      <td align="left">
        <input type="file"
        style="width:250px;height:22px"
        name="txtFile"
        id="txtFile"
        onchange="txtFile_OnChange">
      </td>
      <td align="left">
        <input type="button"
        style="width:125px;height:22px"
        name="btnWrite"
        id="btnWrite"
        value="Write File"
        disabled
        onclick="btnWrite_OnClick">
      </td>
      <td align="right">
        <input type="button"
        style="width:125px;height:22px"
        name="btnClose"
        id="btnClose"
        value="Close"
        onclick="btnClose_OnClick">
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td align="left">
        <select name="optVoices"
          style="width:250px;height:22px">
        </select>
      </td>
      <td align="left">
        <select name="optRate"
          style="width:125px;height:22px">
          <option value="-2">Slowest</option>
          <option value="-1">Slower</option>
          <option value="0" selected>Normal Speed</option>
          <option value="1">Faster</option>
          <option value="2">Fastest</option>
        </select>
      </td>
      <td align="right">
        <select name="optVolume"
          style="width:125px;height:22px">
          <option value="25">25% Volume</option>
          <option value="50">50% Volume</option>
          <option value="75">75% Volume</option>
          <option value="100" selected>Full Volume</option>
        </select>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Note that I intentionally chose to have this HTML Application convert the text to audio one line at a time; this slows the down the conversion process, but it allows the conversion to be cancelled if necessary. (My original version of this script would convert an entire text file at one time; since there was no way to cancel the operation, the script appeared to hang when converting larger text files.)

Additional Notes

Once you have created a Wave (*.WAV) file, you can optionally convert it to an MP3 file for use in an MP3 player or mobile phone. (Most devices should playback Wave files, but MP3 files are considerably smaller and more portable.) There are a variety of Wave-to-MP3 converters out there, but I prefer to use the LAME encoder, which is an open-source code project that is available on SourceForge. Once you have the LAME encoder project compiled, (or you have located and downloaded a pre-compiled version), you can use LAME.EXE from a command prompt to convert your Wave files into MP3 files.

That being said, I prefer to automate as much as possible, so I have written a batch file which converts all of the Wave files in a directory to MP3 files and renames the source Wave files with a "*.old" filename extension:

@echo off

for /f "usebackq delims=|" %%a in (`dir /b *.wav`) do (
  for %%b in (^"%%a^") do (
    if not exist "%%~db%%~pb%%~nb.mp3" (
      lame.exe -b 128 -m j "%%a" "%%~nb.mp3"
    )
    if exist "%%~db%%~pb%%~nb.mp3" (
      move "%%a" "%%a.old"
    )
  )
)

Note that the above batch file was written for text-to-speech use, and as such it defines a bit rate of 128kbps, which would be pretty low for music files. If you want to repurpose this batch file for higher bitrates, modify the value of the "-b" parameter for the LAME.EXE command.

That wraps it up for today's post.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Cleaning Up Your Windows System When QuickTime Has Screwed Up Your Media Settings

11. April 2014 Bob Scripting , Windows Comments (0)

So here's the deal: I don't use anything from Apple. I have no iPod, no iPhone, no Mac, etc. I buy all of my MP3s through Xbox Music and Amazon. :-] Because of this, I have had no real need to install iTunes or QuickTime in years.

But unfortunately it seemed that I had to install either iTunes or QuickTime at one time or other, mainly because some of my digital cameras recorded video in QuickTime *.MOV format. But over the years I learned to detest both iTunes and QuickTime because of the undesirable ways in which they modified my system; both iTunes and QuickTime would remap all of media settings to open in their @#$% player, which I didn't really want in the first place.

Now that Windows supports the *.MOV format natively, and I can easily convert *.MOV files into something infinitely more useful and universal like *.MP4 format, I really never see the need for installing either iTunes or QuickTime.

However, just the other day I installed a new video editor (which shall remain nameless) and it quietly installed QuickTime on my system. I presume that this was to make it easier to import files in *.MOV format into the video editor, but I was pretty upset when I discovered that QuickTime had been installed. What's more, I was angry when I discovered that QuickTime had once again messed up all of my media settings.

In all of this misery is one saving grace: QuickTime has the decency to preserve your original settings. I am assuming that the backups are for when you uninstall QuickTime and attempt to reclaim your system from being hijacked by Apple, but just the same - that little nicety allowed me to fix my system with a little bit of scripting.

So without further introduction - first the script, and then the explanation:

Const HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT = &H80000000
Const strQuickTimeBAK = "QuickTime.bak"

Set objRegistry = GetObject("winmgmts:" & _
  "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}" & _
  "!\\.\root\default:StdRegProv")
 
objRegistry.EnumKey HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, "", arrSubKeys

For Each objSubkey in arrSubKeys
  If Len(objSubkey)>2 Then
    If Left(objSubkey,1)="." Then
      objRegistry.EnumValues HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, _
        objSubkey, arrEntryNames, arrValueTypes
      If IsArray(arrEntryNames) Then
        For i = 0 To UBound(arrEntryNames)
          If StrComp(arrEntryNames(i), strQuickTimeBAK, vbTextCompare)=0 Then
            intReturnValue = objRegistry.GetStringValue( _
              HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, objSubkey, strQuickTimeBAK, strEntryValue)
            If intReturnValue = 0 Then
              intReturnValue = objRegistry.SetStringValue( _
                HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, objSubkey, "", strEntryValue)
            End If
          End If
        Next
      End If
    End If
  End If
Next

Here's what this script does: first the script enumerates all of the keys under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and looks for file extension mappings, then it looks for mappings which have been modified and backed up by QuickTime. When it locates file extensions which have been modified, it copies the value which was backed up into the default location where it belongs.

All-in-all, it's a pretty straight-forward script, but it sucks that I had to write it.

Updating my HTML Application for Configuring your WebDAV Redirector Settings

20. September 2013 Bob IIS , Scripting , WebDAV Comments (0)

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog that was titled "How to create an HTML Application to configure your WebDAV Redirector settings", where I showed how to use HTMLA to create a simple editor for most of the WebDAV Redirector settings. These settings have no other user interface, so prior to my blog post users had to manually edit the registry in order to modify their WebDAV Redirector settings.

Click image to expand

In the past two years since I wrote that blog, I have found myself using that simple application so often that I now keep it in my personal utilities folder on my SkyDrive so I can have it with me no matter where I am travelling. But that being said, I ran into an interesting situation the other day that made me want to update the application, so I thought that it was time to write a new blog with the updated changes.

Here's what happened - I had opened my application for modifying my WebDAV Redirector settings, but then something happened which distracted me, and then I headed off to lunch before I committed my changes to the registry. When I came back to my office, I noticed that my WebDAV Redirector settings application was still open and I clicked the Exit Application button. The application popped up a dialog which informed me that I had changes that hadn't been saved to the registry, but I forgot what they were. This put me in a quandary - I could simply click Yes and hope for the best, or I could click No and lose whatever changes that I had made and re-open the application to start over.

It was at that time that I thought to myself, "If only I had a Reset Values button..."

By now you can probably see where this blog is going, and here's what the new application looks like - it's pretty much the same as the last application, with the additional button that allows you to reset your values without exiting the application. (Note - the application will prompt you for confirmation if you attempt to reset the values and you have unsaved changes.)

Click image to expand

Creating the Updated HTML Application

To create this HTML Application, you need to use the same steps as my last blog: save the following HTMLA code as "WebDAV Redirector Settings.hta" to your computer, and then double-click its icon to run the application.

<html>

<head>
<title>WebDAV Redirector Settings</title>
<HTA:APPLICATION
  APPLICATIONNAME="WebDAV Redirector Settings"
  ID="WebDAV Redirector Settings"
  VERSION="1.0"
  BORDER="dialog"
  BORDERSTYLE="static"
  INNERBORDER="no"
  SYSMENU="no"
  MAXIMIZEBUTTON="no"
  MINIMIZEBUTTON="no"
  SCROLL="no"
  SCROLLFLAT="yes"
  SINGLEINSTANCE="yes"
  CONTEXTMENU="no"
  SELECTION="no"/>

<script language="vbscript">

' ----------------------------------------
' Start of main code section.
' ----------------------------------------

Option Explicit

Const intDialogWidth = 700
Const intDialogHeight = 620
Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Const strWebClientKeyPath = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters"
Const strLuaKeyPath = "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System"
Dim objRegistry
Dim blnHasChanges

' ----------------------------------------
' Start the application.
' ----------------------------------------

Sub Window_OnLoad
  On Error Resume Next
  ' Set up the UI dimensions.
  Self.resizeTo intDialogWidth,intDialogHeight
  Self.moveTo (Screen.AvailWidth - intDialogWidth) / 2, _
    (Screen.AvailHeight - intDialogHeight) / 2
  ' Retrieve the current settings.
  Document.all.TheBody.ClassName = "hide"
  Set objRegistry = GetObject( _
    "winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\default:StdRegProv")
  Call CheckForLUA()
  Call GetValues()
  Document.All.TheBody.ClassName = "show"
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' Check for User Access Control
' ----------------------------------------

Sub CheckForLUA()
  If GetRegistryDWORD(strLuaKeyPath,"EnableLUA",1)<> 0 Then
    MsgBox "User Access Control (UAC) is enabled on this computer." & _
      vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "UAC must be disabled in order to edit " & _
      "the registry and restart the service for the WebDAV Redirector. " & _
      "Please disable UAC before running this application again. " & _
      "This application will now exit.", _
      vbCritical, "User Access Control"
    Self.close
  End If 
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' Exit the application.
' ----------------------------------------

Sub ExitApplication()
  If blnHasChanges = False Then
    If MsgBox("Are you sure you want to exit?", _
      vbQuestion Or vbYesNo Or vbDefaultButton2, _
      "Exit Application") = vbNo Then
      Exit Sub
    End If
  Else
    Dim intRetVal
    intRetVal = MsgBox("You have unsaved changes. " & _
      "Do you want to save them before you exit?", _
      vbQuestion Or vbYesNoCancel Or vbDefaultButton1, _
      "Reset Application")
    If intRetVal = vbYes Then
      Call SetValues()
    ElseIf intRetVal = vbCancel Then
      Exit Sub
    End If
  End If
  Self.close
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' Reset the application.
' ----------------------------------------

Sub ResetApplication()
  If blnHasChanges = True Then
    Dim intRetVal
    intRetVal = MsgBox("You have unsaved changes. " & _
      "Do you want to save them before you reset the values?", _
      vbQuestion Or vbYesNoCancel Or vbDefaultButton1, _
      "Reset Application")
    If intRetVal = vbYes Then
      Call SetValues()
    ElseIf intRetVal = vbCancel Then
      Exit Sub
    End If
  End If
  Call GetValues()
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' Flag the application as having changes.
' ----------------------------------------

Sub FlagChanges()
  blnHasChanges = True
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' Retrieve the settings from the registry.
' ----------------------------------------

Sub GetValues()
  On Error Resume Next
  Dim tmpCount,tmpArray,tmpString
  ' Get the radio button values
  Call SetRadioValue(Document.all.BasicAuthLevel, _
    GetRegistryDWORD(strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "BasicAuthLevel",1))
  Call SetRadioValue(Document.all.SupportLocking, _
    GetRegistryDWORD(strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "SupportLocking",1))
  ' Get the text box values
  Document.all.InternetServerTimeoutInSec.Value = _
    GetRegistryDWORD(strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "InternetServerTimeoutInSec",30)
  Document.all.FileAttributesLimitInBytes.Value = _
    GetRegistryDWORD(strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "FileAttributesLimitInBytes",1000000)
  Document.all.FileSizeLimitInBytes.Value = _
    GetRegistryDWORD(strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "FileSizeLimitInBytes",50000000)
  Document.all.LocalServerTimeoutInSec.Value = _
    GetRegistryDWORD(strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "LocalServerTimeoutInSec",15)
  Document.all.SendReceiveTimeoutInSec.Value = _
    GetRegistryDWORD(strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "SendReceiveTimeoutInSec",60)
  Document.all.ServerNotFoundCacheLifeTimeInSec.Value = _
    GetRegistryDWORD(strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "ServerNotFoundCacheLifeTimeInSec",60)
  ' Get the text area values
  tmpArray = GetRegistryMULTISZ( _
    strWebClientKeyPath,"AuthForwardServerList")
  For tmpCount = 0 To UBound(tmpArray)
    tmpString = tmpString & tmpArray(tmpCount) & vbTab
  Next
  If Len(tmpString)>0 Then
    Document.all.AuthForwardServerList.Value = _
      Replace(Left(tmpString,Len(tmpString)-1),vbTab,vbCrLf)
  End If
  blnHasChanges = False
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' Save the settings in the registry.
' ----------------------------------------

Sub SetValues()
  On Error Resume Next
  ' Set the radio button values
  Call SetRegistryDWORD( _
    strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "BasicAuthLevel", _
    GetRadioValue(Document.all.BasicAuthLevel))
  Call SetRegistryDWORD( _
    strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "SupportLocking", _
    GetRadioValue(Document.all.SupportLocking))
  ' Set the text box values
  Call SetRegistryDWORD( _
    strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "InternetServerTimeoutInSec", _
    Document.all.InternetServerTimeoutInSec.Value)
  Call SetRegistryDWORD( _
    strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "FileAttributesLimitInBytes", _
    Document.all.FileAttributesLimitInBytes.Value)
  Call SetRegistryDWORD( _
    strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "FileSizeLimitInBytes", _
    Document.all.FileSizeLimitInBytes.Value)
  Call SetRegistryDWORD( _
    strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "LocalServerTimeoutInSec", _
    Document.all.LocalServerTimeoutInSec.Value)
  Call SetRegistryDWORD( _
    strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "SendReceiveTimeoutInSec", _
    Document.all.SendReceiveTimeoutInSec.Value)
  Call SetRegistryDWORD( _
    strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "ServerNotFoundCacheLifeTimeInSec", _
    Document.all.ServerNotFoundCacheLifeTimeInSec.Value)
  ' Set the text area values
  Call SetRegistryMULTISZ( _
    strWebClientKeyPath, _
    "AuthForwardServerList", _
    Split(Document.all.AuthForwardServerList.Value,vbCrLf))
  ' Prompt to restart the WebClient service
  If MsgBox("Do you want to restart the WebDAV Redirector " & _
    "service so your settings will take effect?", _
    vbQuestion Or vbYesNo Or vbDefaultButton2, _
    "Restart WebDAV Redirector") = vbYes Then
    ' Restart the WebClient service.
    Call RestartWebClient()
  End If
  Call GetValues()
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' Start the WebClient service.
' ----------------------------------------

Sub RestartWebClient()
  On Error Resume Next
  Dim objWMIService,colServices,objService
  Document.All.TheBody.ClassName = "hide"
  Set objWMIService = GetObject( _
    "winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\cimv2")
  Set colServices = objWMIService.ExecQuery( _
    "Select * from Win32_Service Where Name='WebClient'")
  For Each objService in colServices
    objService.StopService()
    objService.StartService()
  Next
  Document.All.TheBody.ClassName = "show"
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' Retrieve a DWORD value from the registry.
' ----------------------------------------

Function GetRegistryDWORD( _
    ByVal tmpKeyPath, _
    ByVal tmpValueName, _
    ByVal tmpDefaultValue)
  On Error Resume Next
  Dim tmpDwordValue
  If objRegistry.GetDWORDValue( _
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, _
      tmpKeyPath, _
      tmpValueName, _
      tmpDwordValue)=0 Then
    GetRegistryDWORD = CLng(tmpDwordValue)
  Else
    GetRegistryDWORD = CLng(tmpDefaultValue)
  End If
End Function

' ----------------------------------------
' Set a DWORD value in the registry.
' ----------------------------------------

Sub SetRegistryDWORD( _
    ByVal tmpKeyPath, _
    ByVal tmpValueName, _
    ByVal tmpDwordValue)
  On Error Resume Next
  Call objRegistry.SetDWORDValue( _
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, _
    tmpKeyPath, _
    tmpValueName, _
    CLng(tmpDwordValue))
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' Retrieve a MULTISZ value from the registry.
' ----------------------------------------

Function GetRegistryMULTISZ( _
    ByVal tmpKeyPath, _
    ByVal tmpValueName)
  On Error Resume Next
  Dim tmpMultiSzValue
  If objRegistry.GetMultiStringValue( _
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, _
      tmpKeyPath, _
      tmpValueName, _
      tmpMultiSzValue)=0 Then
    GetRegistryMULTISZ = tmpMultiSzValue
  Else
    GetRegistryMULTISZ = Array()
  End If
End Function

' ----------------------------------------
' Set a MULTISZ value in the registry.
' ----------------------------------------

Sub SetRegistryMULTISZ( _
    ByVal tmpKeyPath, _
    ByVal tmpValueName, _
    ByVal tmpMultiSzValue)
  On Error Resume Next
  Call objRegistry.SetMultiStringValue( _
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, _
    tmpKeyPath, _
    tmpValueName, _
    tmpMultiSzValue)
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' Retrieve the value of a radio button group.
' ----------------------------------------

Function GetRadioValue(ByVal tmpRadio)
  On Error Resume Next
  Dim tmpCount
  For tmpCount = 0 To (tmpRadio.Length-1)
    If tmpRadio(tmpCount).Checked Then
      GetRadioValue = CLng(tmpRadio(tmpCount).Value)
      Exit For
    End If
  Next
End Function

' ----------------------------------------
' Set the value for a radio button group.
' ----------------------------------------

Sub SetRadioValue(ByVal tmpRadio, ByVal tmpValue)
  On Error Resume Next
  Dim tmpCount
  For tmpCount = 0 To (tmpRadio.Length-1)
    If CLng(tmpRadio(tmpCount).Value) = CLng(tmpValue) Then
      tmpRadio(tmpCount).Checked = True
      Exit For
    End If
  Next
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
'
' ----------------------------------------

Sub Validate(tmpField)
  Dim tmpRegEx, tmpMatches
  Set tmpRegEx = New RegExp
  tmpRegEx.Pattern = "[0-9]"
  tmpRegEx.IgnoreCase = True
  tmpRegEx.Global = True
  Set tmpMatches = tmpRegEx.Execute(tmpField.Value)
  If tmpMatches.Count = Len(CStr(tmpField.Value)) Then
    If CDbl(tmpField.Value) => 0 And _
      CDbl(tmpField.Value) =< 4294967295 Then
      Exit Sub
    End If
  End If
  MsgBox "Please enter a whole number between 0 and 4294967295.", _
    vbCritical, "Validation Error"
  tmpField.Focus
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
'
' ----------------------------------------

Sub BasicAuthWarning()
  MsgBox "WARNING:" & vbCrLf  & vbCrLf & _
    "Using Basic Authentication over non-SSL connections can cause " & _
    "serious security issues. Usernames and passwords are transmitted " & _
    "in clear text, therefore the use of Basic Authentication with " & _
    "WebDAV is disabled by default for non-SSL connections. That " & _
    "being said, this setting can override the default behavior for " & _
    "Basic Authentication, but it is strongly discouraged.", _
    vbCritical, "Basic Authentication Warning"
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' End of main code section.
' ----------------------------------------

</script>
<style>
body { color:#000000; background-color:#cccccc;
  font-family:'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial; font-size:9pt; }
fieldset { padding:10px; width:640px; }
.button { width:150px; }
.textbox { width:200px; height:22px; text-align:right; }
.textarea { width:300px; height:50px; text-align:left; }
.radio { margin-left:-5px; margin-top: -2px; }
.hide { display:none; }
.show { display:block; }
select { width:300px; text-align:left; }
table { border-collapse:collapse; empty-cells:hide; }
h1 { font-size:14pt; }
th { font-size:9pt; text-align:left; vertical-align:top; padding:2px; }
td { font-size:9pt; text-align:left; vertical-align:top; padding:2px; }
big { font-size:11pt; }
small { font-size:8pt; }
</style>
</head>

<body id="TheBody" class="hide">

<h1 align="center" id="TheTitle" style="margin-bottom:-20px;">WebDAV Redirector Settings</h1>
<div align="center">
<p style="margin-bottom:-20px;"><i><small><b>Note</b>: See <a target="_blank" href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=324291">Using the WebDAV Redirector</a> for additional details.</small></i></p>
  <form>
    <center>
    <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" style="width:600px;">
      <tr>
        <td style="width:600px;text-align:left"><fieldset title="Security Settings">
        <legend>&nbsp;<b>Security Settings</b>&nbsp;</legend>
        These values affect the security behavior for the WebDAV Redirector.<br>
        <table style="width:600px;">
          <tr title="Specifies whether the WebDAV Redirector can use Basic Authentication to communicate with a server.">
            <td style="width:300px">
            <table border="0">
              <tr>
                <td style="width:300px"><b>Basic Authentication Level</b></td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
                <td style="width:300px;"><span style="width:280px;padding-left:20px;"><small><i><b>Note</b>: Using basic authentication can cause <u>serious security issues</u> as the username and password are transmitted in clear text, therefore the use of basic authentication over WebDAV is disabled by default unless the connection is using SSL.</i></small></span></td>
              </tr>
            </table>
            </td>
            <td style="width:300px">
            <table style="width:300px">
              <tr>
                <td style="width:020px"><input class="radio" type="radio" value="0" name="BasicAuthLevel" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" id="BasicAuthLevel0"></td>
                <td style="width:280px"><label for="BasicAuthLevel0">Basic Authentication is disabled</label></td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
                <td style="width:020px"><input class="radio" type="radio" value="1" checked name="BasicAuthLevel" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" id="BasicAuthLevel1"></td>
                <td style="width:280px"><label for="BasicAuthLevel1">Basic Authentication is enabled for SSL web sites only</label></td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
                <td style="width:020px"><input class="radio" type="radio" value="2" name="BasicAuthLevel" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" id="BasicAuthLevel2" onClick="VBScript:BasicAuthWarning()"></td>
                <td style="width:280px"><label for="BasicAuthLevel2">Basic Authentication is enabled for SSL and non-SSL web sites</label></td>
              </tr>
            </table>
            </td>
          </tr>
          <tr title="Specifies a list of local URLs for forwarding credentials that bypasses any proxy settings. (Note: This requires Windows Vista SP1 or later.)">
            <td style="width:300px">
            <table border="0">
              <tr>
                <td style="width:300px"><b>Authentication Forwarding Server List</b></td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
                <td style="width:300px;"><span style="width:280px;padding-left:20px;"><small><i><b>Note</b>: Include one server name per line.</i></small></span></td>
              </tr>
            </table>
            </td>
            <td style="width:300px"><textarea class="textarea" name="AuthForwardServerList" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()"></textarea></td>
          </tr>
          <tr title="Specifies whether the WebDAV Redirector supports locking.">
            <td style="width:300px"><b>Support for WebDAV Locking</b></td>
            <td style="width:300px">
            <table style="width:300px">
              <tr>
                <td style="width:020px"><input class="radio" type="radio" value="1" checked name="SupportLocking" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" id="SupportLocking1"></td>
                <td style="width:280px"><label for="SupportLocking1">Enable Lock Support</label></td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
                <td style="width:020px"><input class="radio" type="radio" value="0" name="SupportLocking" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" id="SupportLocking0"></td>
                <td style="width:280px"><label for="SupportLocking0">Disable Lock Support</label></td>
              </tr>
            </table>
            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>
        </fieldset> </td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td style="width:600px;text-align:left"><fieldset title="Time-outs">
        <legend>&nbsp;<b>Time-outs and Maximum Sizes</b>&nbsp;</legend>
        These values affect the behavior for WebDAV Client/Server operations.<br>
        <table border="0" style="width:600px;">
          <tr title="Specifies the connection time-out for the WebDAV Redirector uses when communicating with non-local WebDAV servers.">
            <td style="width:300px"><b>Internet Server Time-out</b> <small>(In Seconds)</small></td>
            <td style="width:300px"><input class="textbox" type="text" name="InternetServerTimeoutInSec" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" onblur="VBScript:Validate(Me)" value="30"></td>
          </tr>
          <tr title="Specifies the connection time-out for the WebDAV Redirector uses when communicating with a local WebDAV server.">
            <td style="width:300px"><b>Local Server Time-out</b> <small>(In Seconds)</small></td>
            <td style="width:300px"><input class="textbox" type="text" name="LocalServerTimeoutInSec" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" onblur="VBScript:Validate(Me)" value="15"></td>
          </tr>
          <tr title="Specifies the time-out in seconds that the WebDAV Redirector uses after issuing a request.">
            <td style="width:300px"><b>Send/Receive Time-out</b> <small>(In Seconds)</small></td>
            <td style="width:300px"><input class="textbox" type="text" name="SendReceiveTimeoutInSec" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" onblur="VBScript:Validate(Me)" value="60"></td>
          </tr>
          <tr title="Specifies the period of time that a server is cached as non-WebDAV by the WebDAV Redirector. If a server is found in this list, a fail is returned immediately without attempting to contact the server.">
            <td style="width:300px"><b>Server Not Found Cache Time-out</b> <small>(In Seconds)</small></td>
            <td style="width:300px"><input class="textbox" type="text" name="ServerNotFoundCacheLifeTimeInSec" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" onblur="VBScript:Validate(Me)" value="60"></td>
          </tr>
          <tr title="Specifies the maximum size in bytes that the WebDAV Redirector allows for file transfers.">
            <td style="width:300px"><b>Maximum File Size</b> <small>(In Bytes)</small></td>
            <td style="width:300px"><input class="textbox" type="text" name="FileSizeLimitInBytes" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" onblur="VBScript:Validate(Me)" value="50000000"></td>
          </tr>
          <tr title="Specifies the maximum size that is allowed by the WebDAV Redirector for all properties on a specific collection.">
            <td style="width:300px"><b>Maximum Attributes Size</b> <small>(In Bytes)</small></td>
            <td style="width:300px"><input class="textbox" type="text" name="FileAttributesLimitInBytes" onchange="VBScript:FlagChanges()" onblur="VBScript:Validate(Me)" value="1000000"></td>
          </tr>
        </table>
        </fieldset> </td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td style="text-align:center">
        <table border="0">
          <tr>
            <td style="text-align:center"><input class="button" type="button" value="Apply Settings" onclick="VBScript:SetValues()">
            <td style="text-align:center"><input class="button" type="button" value="Reset Values" onclick="VBScript:ResetApplication()">
            <td style="text-align:center"><input class="button" type="button" value="Exit Application" onclick="VBScript:ExitApplication()">
          </tr>
        </table>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </table>
    </center>
  </form>
</div>

</body>

</html>
Additional Notes

As with the last version of this HTML Application, you will need to run this application as an administrator in order to save the settings to the registry and restart the WebDAV Redirector service.

Have fun! ;-]

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Automating the Creation of FTP User Isolation Folders

28. March 2013 Bob IIS , Scripting , FTP Comments (0)

A customer asked me a question a little while ago that provided me the opportunity to recycle some code that I had written many years ago. In so doing, I also made a bunch of updates to the code to make it considerably more useful, and I thought that it would make a great blog.

Here's the scenario: a customer had hundreds of user accounts created, and he wanted to use the FTP service's User Isolation features to restrict each user to a specific folder on his FTP site. Since it would take a long time to manually create a folder for each user account, the customer wanted to know if there was a way to automate the process. As it turns out, I had posted a very simple script in the IIS.net forums several years ago that did something like what he wanted; and that script was based off an earlier script that I had written for someone else back in the IIS 6.0 days.

One quick reminder - FTP User Isolation uses a specific set of folders for user accounts, which are listed in the table below.

User Account TypesHome Directory Syntax
Anonymous users %FtpRoot%\LocalUser\Public
Local Windows user accounts

(Requires Basic authentication.)

 %FtpRoot%\LocalUser\%UserName%
Windows domain accounts

(Requires Basic authentication.)

 %FtpRoot%\%UserDomain%\%UserName%

Note: %FtpRoot% is the root directory for your FTP site: for example, C:\Inetpub\Ftproot.

That being said, I'm a big believer in recycling code, so I found the last version of that script that I gave to someone and I made a bunch of changes to it so it would be more useful for the customer. What that in mind, here's the resulting script, and I'll explain a little more about what it does after the code sample.

Option Explicit

' Define the root path for the user isolation folders.
' This should be the root directory for your FTP site.
Dim strRootPath : strRootPath = "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\"

' Define the name of the domain or the computer to use.
' Leave this blank for the local computer.
Dim strComputerOrDomain : strComputerOrDomain = ""

' Define the remaining script variables.
Dim objFSO, objCollection, objUser, objNetwork, strContainerName

' Create a network object; used to query the computer name.
Set objNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network")

' Create a file system object; used to creat folders.
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

' Test if the computer name is null.
If Len(strComputerOrDomain)=0 Or strComputerOrDomain="." Then
  ' If so, define the local computer name as the account repository.
  strComputerOrDomain = objNetwork.ComputerName
End If

' Verify that the root path exists.
If objFSO.FolderExists(strRootPath) Then

  ' Test if the script is using local users.
  If StrComp(strComputerOrDomain,objNetwork.ComputerName,vbTextCompare)=0 Then
    ' If so, define the local users container path.
    strContainerName = "LocalUser"
    ' And define the users collection as local.
    Set objCollection = GetObject("WinNT://.")
  Else
    ' Otherwise, use the source name as the path.
    strContainerName = strComputerOrDomain
    ' And define the users collection as remote.
    Set objCollection = GetObject("WinNT://" & strComputerOrDomain & "")
  End If

  ' Append trailing backslash if necessary.
  If Right(strRootPath,1)<>"\" Then strRootPath = strRootPath & "\"
  ' Define the adjusted root path for the container folder.
  strRootPath = strRootPath & strContainerName & "\"

  ' Test if the container folder already exists.
  If objFSO.FolderExists(strRootPath)=False Then
    ' Create the container folder if necessary.
    objFSO.CreateFolder(strRootPath)
  End If

  ' Specify the collection filter for user objects only.
  objCollection.Filter = Array("user")

  ' Loop through the users collection.
  For Each objUser In objCollection
    ' Test if the user's account is enabled.
    If objUser.AccountDisabled = False Then
      ' Test if the user's folder already exists.
      If objFSO.FolderExists(strRootPath & "\" & objUser.Name)=False Then
        ' Create the user's folder if necessary.
           objFSO.CreateFolder(strRootPath & "\" & objUser.Name)
         End If
       End If
     Next

End If

I documented this script in great detail, so it should be self-explanatory for the most part. But just to be on the safe side, here's an explanation of what this script is doing when you run it on your FTP server:

  • Defines two user-updatable variables:
    • strRootPath - which specifies the physical path to the root of your FTP site.
    • strComputerOrDomain - which specifies the computer name or the domain name where your user accounts are located. (Note: You can leave this blank if you are using local user accounts on your FTP server.)
  • Creates a few helper objects and determines the local computer name if necessary.
  • Checks to see if the physical path to the root of your FTP site actually exists before continuing.
  • Creates a connection to the user account store (local or domain).
  • Determines the container folder name that be the parent directory of user account folders, and creates it if necessary. (See my earlier note about the folder names.)
  • Defines a filter for user objects in the specifies account repository. (This removes computer accounts and such from the operation.)
  • Loops through the collection of user accounts, checks each account to see if it is enabled, and creates a folder for each user account if it does not already exist.

That's all for now. ;-]

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Advanced Log Parser Part 7 - Creating a Generic Input Format Plug-In

28. February 2013 Bob LogParser , Scripting , XML Comments (0)

In Part 6 of this series, I showed how to create a very basic COM-based input format provider for Log Parser. I wrote that blog post as a follow-up to an earlier blog post where I had written a more complex COM-based input format provider for Log Parser that worked with FTP RSCA events. My original blog post had resulted in several requests for me to write some easier examples about how to get started writing COM-based input format providers for Log Parser, and those appeals led me to write my last blog post:

Advanced Log Parser Part 6 - Creating a Simple Custom Input Format Plug-In

The example in that blog post simply returns static data, which was the easiest example that I could demonstrate.

For this follow-up blog post, I will illustrate how to create a simple COM-based input format plug-in for Log Parser that you can use as a generic provider for consuming data in text-based log files. Please bear in mind that this is just an example to help developers get started writing their own COM-based input format providers; you might be able to accomplish some of what I will demonstrate in this blog post by using the built-in Log Parser functionality. That being said, this still seems like the best example to help developers get started because consuming data in text-based log files was the most-often-requested example that I received.

In Review: Creating COM-based plug-ins for Log Parser

In my earlier blog posts, I mentioned that a COM plug-in has to support several public methods. You can look at those blog posts when you get the chance, but it is a worthwhile endeavor for me to copy the following information from those blog posts since it is essential to understanding how the code sample in this blog post is supposed to work.

Method NameDescription
OpenInput Opens your data source and sets up any initial environment settings.
GetFieldCount Returns the number of fields that your plug-in will provide.
GetFieldName Returns the name of a specified field.
GetFieldType Returns the datatype of a specified field.
GetValue Returns the value of a specified field.
ReadRecord Reads the next record from your data source.
CloseInput Closes your data source and cleans up any environment settings.

Once you have created and registered a COM-based input format plug-in, you call it from Log Parser by using something like the following syntax:

logparser.exe "SELECT * FROM FOO" -i:COM -iProgID:BAR

In the preceding example, FOO is a data source that makes sense to your plug-in, and BAR is the COM class name for your plug-in.

Creating a Generic COM plug-in for Log Parser

As I have done in my previous two blog posts about creating COM-based input format plug-ins, I'm going to demonstrate how to create a COM component by using a scriptlet since no compilation is required. This generic plug-in will parse any text-based log files where records are delimited by CRLF sequences and fields/columns are delimited by a separator that is defined as a constant in the code sample.

To create the sample COM plug-in, copy the following code into a text file, and save that file as "Generic.LogParser.Scriptlet.sct" to your computer. (Note: The *.SCT file extension tells Windows that this is a scriptlet file.)

<SCRIPTLET>
  <registration
    Description="Simple Log Parser Scriptlet"
    Progid="Generic.LogParser.Scriptlet"
    Classid="{4e616d65-6f6e-6d65-6973-526f62657274}"
    Version="1.00"
    Remotable="False" />
  <comment>
  EXAMPLE: logparser "SELECT * FROM 'C:\foo\bar.log'" -i:COM -iProgID:Generic.LogParser.Scriptlet
  </comment>
  <implements id="Automation" type="Automation">
    <method name="OpenInput">
      <parameter name="strFileName"/>
    </method>
    <method name="GetFieldCount" />
    <method name="GetFieldName">
      <parameter name="intFieldIndex"/>
    </method>
    <method name="GetFieldType">
      <parameter name="intFieldIndex"/>
    </method>
    <method name="ReadRecord" />
    <method name="GetValue">
      <parameter name="intFieldIndex"/>
    </method>
    <method name="CloseInput">
      <parameter name="blnAbort"/>
    </method>
  </implements>
  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript">

Option Explicit

' Define the column separator in the log file.
Const strSeparator = "|"

' Define whether the first row contains column names.
Const blnHeaderRow = True

' Define the field type constants.
Const TYPE_INTEGER   = 1
Const TYPE_REAL      = 2
Const TYPE_STRING    = 3
Const TYPE_TIMESTAMP = 4
Const TYPE_NULL      = 5

' Declare variables.
Dim objFSO, objFile, blnFileOpen
Dim arrFieldNames, arrFieldTypes
Dim arrCurrentRecord

' Indicate that no file has been opened.
blnFileOpen = False

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Open the input session.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function OpenInput(strFileName)
    Dim tmpCount
    ' Test for a file name.
    If Len(strFileName)=0 Then
        ' Return a status that the parameter is incorrect.
        OpenInput = 87
        blnFileOpen = False
    Else
        ' Test for single-quotes.
        If Left(strFileName,1)="'" And Right(strFileName,1)="'" Then
            ' Strip the single-quotes from the file name.
            strFileName = Mid(strFileName,2,Len(strFileName)-2)
        End If
        ' Open the file system object.
        Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.Filesystemobject")
        ' Verify that the specified file exists.
        If objFSO.FileExists(strFileName) Then
            ' Open the specified file.
            Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName,1,False)
            ' Set a flag to indicate that the specified file is open.
            blnFileOpen = true
            ' Retrieve an initial record.
            Call ReadRecord()
            ' Redimension the array of field names.
            ReDim arrFieldNames(UBound(arrCurrentRecord))
            ' Loop through the record fields.
            For tmpCount = 0 To (UBound(arrFieldNames))
                ' Test for a header row.
                If blnHeaderRow = True Then
                    arrFieldNames(tmpCount) = arrCurrentRecord(tmpCount)
                Else
                    arrFieldNames(tmpCount) = "Field" & (tmpCount+1)
                End If
            Next
            ' Test for a header row.
            If blnHeaderRow = True Then
                ' Retrieve a second record.
                Call ReadRecord()
            End If
            ' Redimension the array of field types.
            ReDim arrFieldTypes(UBound(arrCurrentRecord))
            ' Loop through the record fields.
            For tmpCount = 0 To (UBound(arrFieldTypes))
                ' Test if the current field contains a date.
                If IsDate(arrCurrentRecord(tmpCount)) Then
                    ' Specify the field type as a timestamp.
                    arrFieldTypes(tmpCount) = TYPE_TIMESTAMP
                ' Test if the current field contains a number.
                ElseIf IsNumeric(arrCurrentRecord(tmpCount)) Then
                    ' Test if the current field contains a decimal.
                    If InStr(arrCurrentRecord(tmpCount),".") Then
                        ' Specify the field type as a real number.
                        arrFieldTypes(tmpCount) = TYPE_REAL
                    Else
                        ' Specify the field type as an integer.
                        arrFieldTypes(tmpCount) = TYPE_INTEGER
                    End If
                ' Test if the current field is null.
                ElseIf IsNull(arrCurrentRecord(tmpCount)) Then
                    ' Specify the field type as NULL.
                    arrFieldTypes(tmpCount) = TYPE_NULL
                ' Test if the current field is empty.
                ElseIf IsEmpty(arrCurrentRecord(tmpCount)) Then
                    ' Specify the field type as NULL.
                    arrFieldTypes(tmpCount) = TYPE_NULL
                ' Otherwise, assume it's a string.
                Else
                    ' Specify the field type as a string.
                    arrFieldTypes(tmpCount) = TYPE_STRING
                End If
            Next
            ' Temporarily close the log file.
            objFile.Close
            ' Re-open the specified file.
            Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName,1,False)
            ' Test for a header row.
            If blnHeaderRow = True Then
                ' Skip the first row.
                objFile.SkipLine
            End If
            ' Return success status.
            OpenInput = 0
        Else
            ' Return a file not found status.
            OpenInput = 2
        End If
    End If
End Function

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Close the input session.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function CloseInput(blnAbort)
    ' Free the objects.
    Set objFile = Nothing
    Set objFSO = Nothing
    ' Set a flag to indicate that the specified file is closed.
    blnFileOpen = False
End Function

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Return the count of fields.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function GetFieldCount()
    ' Specify the default value.
    GetFieldCount = 0
    ' Test if a file is open.
    If (blnFileOpen = True) Then
        ' Test for the number of field names.
        If UBound(arrFieldNames) > 0 Then
            ' Return the count of fields.
            GetFieldCount = UBound(arrFieldNames) + 1
        End If
    End If
End Function

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Return the specified field's name.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function GetFieldName(intFieldIndex)
    ' Specify the default value.
    GetFieldName = Null
    ' Test if a file is open.
    If (blnFileOpen = True) Then
        ' Test if the index is valid.
        If intFieldIndex<=UBound(arrFieldNames) Then
            ' Return the specified field name.
            GetFieldName = arrFieldNames(intFieldIndex)
        End If
    End If
End Function

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Return the specified field's type.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function GetFieldType(intFieldIndex)
    ' Specify the default value.
    GetFieldType = Null
    ' Test if a file is open.
    If (blnFileOpen = True) Then
        ' Test if the index is valid.
        If intFieldIndex<=UBound(arrFieldTypes) Then
            ' Return the specified field type.
            GetFieldType = arrFieldTypes(intFieldIndex)
        End If
    End If
End Function

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Return the specified field's value.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function GetValue(intFieldIndex)
    ' Specify the default value.
    GetValue = Null
    ' Test if a file is open.
    If (blnFileOpen = True) Then
        ' Test if the index is valid.
        If intFieldIndex<=UBound(arrCurrentRecord) Then
            ' Return the specified field value based on the field type.
            Select Case arrFieldTypes(intFieldIndex)
                Case TYPE_INTEGER:
                    GetValue = CInt(arrCurrentRecord(intFieldIndex))
                Case TYPE_REAL:
                    GetValue = CDbl(arrCurrentRecord(intFieldIndex))
                Case TYPE_STRING:
                    GetValue = CStr(arrCurrentRecord(intFieldIndex))
                Case TYPE_TIMESTAMP:
                    GetValue = CDate(arrCurrentRecord(intFieldIndex))
                Case Else
                    GetValue = Null
            End Select
        End If
    End If
End Function
  
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Read the next record, and return true or false if there is more data.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function ReadRecord()
    ' Specify the default value.
    ReadRecord = False
    ' Test if a file is open.
    If (blnFileOpen = True) Then
        ' Test if there is more data.
        If objFile.AtEndOfStream Then
            ' Flag the log file as having no more data.
            ReadRecord = False
        Else
            ' Read the current record.
            arrCurrentRecord = Split(objFile.ReadLine,strSeparator)
            ' Flag the log file as having more data to process.
            ReadRecord = True
        End If
    End If
End Function

  </SCRIPT>

</SCRIPTLET>

After you have saved the scriptlet code to your computer, you register it by using the following syntax:

regsvr32 Generic.LogParser.Scriptlet.sct

At the very minimum, you can now use the COM plug-in with Log Parser by using syntax like the following:

logparser "SELECT * FROM 'C:\Foo\Bar.log'" -i:COM -iProgID:Generic.LogParser.Scriptlet

Next, let's analyze what this sample does.

Examining the Generic Scriptlet in Detail

Here are the different parts of the scriptlet and what they do:

  • The <registration> section of the scriptlet sets up the COM registration information; you'll notice the COM component class name and GUID, as well as version information and a general description. (Note that you should generate your own GUID for each scriptlet that you create.)
  • The <implements> section declares the public methods that the COM plug-in has to support.
  • The <script>section contains the actual implementation:
    • The first part of the script section declares the global variables that will be used:
      • The strSeparator  constant defines the delimiter that is used to separate the data between fields/columns in a text-based log file.
      • The blnHeaderRow  constant defines whether the first row in a text-based log file contains the names of the fields/columns:
        • If set to True, the plug-in will use the data in the first line of the log file to name the fields/columns.
        • If set to False, the plug-in will define generic field/column names like "Field1", "Field2", etc.
    • The second part of the script contains the required methods:
      • The OpenInput()  method performs several tasks:
        • Locates and opens the log file that you specify in your SQL statement, or returns an error if the log file cannot be found.
        • Determines the number, names, and data types of fields/columns in the log file.
      • The CloseInput()  method cleans up the session by closing the log file and destroying objects.
      • The GetFieldCount()  method returns the number of fields/columns in the log file.
      • The GetFieldName()  method returns the name of a field/column in the log file.
      • The GetFieldType()  method returns the data type of a field/column in the log file. As a reminder, Log Parser supports the following five data types for COM plug-ins: TYPE_INTEGER, TYPE_REAL, TYPE_STRING, TYPE_TIMESTAMP, and TYPE_NULL.
      • The GetValue()  method returns the data value of a field/column in the log file.
      • The ReadRecord()  method moves to the next line in the log file. This method returns True if there is additional data to read, or False when the end of data is reached.

Next, let's look at how to use the sample.

Using the Generic Scriptlet with Log Parser

As a sample log file for this blog, I'm going to use the data in the Sample XML File (books.xml) from MSDN. By running a quick Log Parser query that I will show later, I was able to export data from the XML file into text file named "books.log" that represents an example of a simple log file format that I have had to work with in the past:

id|publish_date|author|title|price
bk101|2000-10-01|Gambardella, Matthew|XML Developer's Guide|44.950000
bk102|2000-12-16|Ralls, Kim|Midnight Rain|5.950000
bk103|2000-11-17|Corets, Eva|Maeve Ascendant|5.950000
bk104|2001-03-10|Corets, Eva|Oberon's Legacy|5.950000
bk105|2001-09-10|Corets, Eva|The Sundered Grail|5.950000
bk106|2000-09-02|Randall, Cynthia|Lover Birds|4.950000
bk107|2000-11-02|Thurman, Paula|Splish Splash|4.950000
bk108|2000-12-06|Knorr, Stefan|Creepy Crawlies|4.950000
bk109|2000-11-02|Kress, Peter|Paradox Lost|6.950000
bk110|2000-12-09|O'Brien, Tim|Microsoft .NET: The Programming Bible|36.950000
bk111|2000-12-01|O'Brien, Tim|MSXML3: A Comprehensive Guide|36.950000
bk112|2001-04-16|Galos, Mike|Visual Studio 7: A Comprehensive Guide|49.950000

In this example, the data is pretty easy to understand - the first row contains the list of field/column names, and the fields/columns are separated by the pipe ("|") character throughout the log file. That being said, you could easily change my sample code to use a different delimiter that your custom log files use.

With that in mind, let's look at some Log Parser examples.

Example #1: Retrieving Data from a Custom Log

The first thing that you should try is to simply retrieve data from your custom plug-in, and the following query should serve as an example:

logparser "SELECT * FROM 'C:\sample\books.log'" -i:COM -iProgID:Generic.LogParser.Scriptlet

The above query will return results like the following:

idpublish_dateauthortitleprice
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bk101 10/1/2000 0:00:00 Gambardella, Matthew XML Developer's Guide 44.950000
bk102 12/16/2000 0:00:00 Ralls, Kim Midnight Rain 5.950000
bk103 11/17/2000 0:00:00 Corets, Eva Maeve Ascendant 5.950000
bk104 3/10/2001 0:00:00 Corets, Eva Oberon's Legacy 5.950000
bk105 9/10/2001 0:00:00 Corets, Eva The Sundered Grail 5.950000
bk106 9/2/2000 0:00:00 Randall, Cynthia Lover Birds 4.950000
bk107 11/2/2000 0:00:00 Thurman, Paula Splish Splash 4.950000
bk108 12/6/2000 0:00:00 Knorr, Stefan Creepy Crawlies 4.950000
bk109 11/2/2000 0:00:00 Kress, Peter Paradox Lost 6.950000
bk110 12/9/2000 0:00:00 O'Brien, Tim Microsoft .NET: The Programming Bible 36.950000
bk111 12/1/2000 0:00:00 O'Brien, Tim MSXML3: A Comprehensive Guide 36.950000
bk112 4/16/2001 0:00:00 Galos, Mike Visual Studio 7: A Comprehensive Guide 49.950000
         
Statistics:  
-----------  
Elements processed: 12
Elements output: 12
Execution time: 0.16 seconds

While the above example works a good proof-of-concept for functionality, it's not overly useful, so let's look at additional examples.

Example #2: Reformatting Log File Data

Once you have established that you can retrieve data from your custom plug-in, you can start taking advantage of Log Parser's features to process your log file data. In this example, I will use several of the built-in functions to reformat the data:

logparser "SELECT id AS ID, TO_DATE(publish_date) AS Date, author AS Author, SUBSTR(title,0,20) AS Title, STRCAT(TO_STRING(TO_INT(FLOOR(price))),SUBSTR(TO_STRING(price),INDEX_OF(TO_STRING(price),'.'),3)) AS Price FROM 'C:\sample\books.log'" -i:COM -iProgID:Generic.LogParser.Scriptlet

The above query will return results like the following:

IDDateAuthorTitlePrice
------------------------------------------------------------
bk101 10/1/2000 Gambardella, Matthew XML Developer's Guid 44.95
bk102 12/16/2000 Ralls, Kim Midnight Rain 5.95
bk103 11/17/2000 Corets, Eva Maeve Ascendant 5.95
bk104 3/10/2001 Corets, Eva Oberon's Legacy 5.95
bk105 9/10/2001 Corets, Eva The Sundered Grail 5.95
bk106 9/2/2000 Randall, Cynthia Lover Birds 4.95
bk107 11/2/2000 Thurman, Paula Splish Splash 4.95
bk108 12/6/2000 Knorr, Stefan Creepy Crawlies 4.95
bk109 11/2/2000 Kress, Peter Paradox Lost 6.95
bk110 12/9/2000 O'Brien, Tim Microsoft .NET: The 36.95
bk111 12/1/2000 O'Brien, Tim MSXML3: A Comprehens 36.95
bk112 4/16/2001 Galos, Mike Visual Studio 7: A C 49.95
         
Statistics:  
-----------  
Elements processed: 12
Elements output: 12
Execution time: 0.02 seconds

This example reformats the dates and prices a little nicer, and it truncates the book titles at 20 characters so they fit a little better on some screens.

Example #3: Processing Log File Data

In addition to simply reformatting your data, you can use Log Parser to group, sort, count, total, etc., your data. The following example illustrates how to use Log Parser to count the number of books by author in the log file:

logparser "SELECT author AS Author, COUNT(Title) AS Books FROM 'C:\sample\books.log' GROUP BY Author ORDER BY Author" -i:COM -iProgID:Generic.LogParser.Scriptlet

The above query will return results like the following:

AuthorBooks
-------------------------
Corets, Eva 3
Galos, Mike 1
Gambardella, Matthew 1
Knorr, Stefan 1
Kress, Peter 1
O'Brien, Tim 2
Ralls, Kim 1
Randall, Cynthia 1
Thurman, Paula 1
   
Statistics:  
-----------  
Elements processed: 12
Elements output: 9
Execution time: 0.03 seconds

The results are pretty straight-forward: Log Parser parses the data and presents you with a list of alphabetized authors and the total number of books that were written by each author.

Example #4: Creating Charts

You can also use data from your custom log file to create charts through Log Parser. If I modify the above example, all that I need to do is add a few parameters to create a chart:

logparser "SELECT author AS Author, COUNT(Title) AS Books INTO Authors.gif FROM 'C:\sample\books.log' GROUP BY Author ORDER BY Author" -i:COM -iProgID:Generic.LogParser.Scriptlet -fileType:GIF -groupSize:800x600 -chartType:Pie -categories:OFF -values:ON -legend:ON

The above query will create a chart like the following:

I admit that it's not a very pretty-looking chart - you can look at the other posts in my Log Parser series for some examples about making Log Parser charts more interesting.

Summary

In this blog post and my last post, I have illustrated a few examples that should help developers get started writing their own custom input format plug-ins for Log Parser. As I mentioned in each of the blog posts where I have used scriptlets for the COM objects, I would typically use C# or C++ to create a COM component, but using a scriptlet is much easier for demos because it doesn't require installing Visual Studio and compiling a DLL.

There is one last thing that I would like to mention before I finish this blog; I mentioned earlier that I had used Log Parser to reformat the sample Books.xml file into a generic log file that I could use for the examples in this blog. Since Log Parser supports XML as an input format and it allows you to customize your output, I wrote the following simple Log Parser query to reformat the XML data into a format that I had often seen used for text-based log files:

logparser.exe "SELECT id,publish_date,author,title,price INTO books.log FROM books.xml" -i:xml -o:tsv -headers:ON -oSeparator:"|"

Actually, this ability to change data formats is one of the hidden gems of Log Parser; I have often used Log Parser to change the data from one type of log file to another - usually so that a different program can access the data. For example, if you were given the log file with a pipe ("|") delimiter like I used as an example, you could easily use Log Parser to convert that data into the CSV format so you could open it in Excel:

logparser.exe "SELECT id,publish_date,author,title,price INTO books.csv FROM books.log" -i:tsv -o:csv -headers:ON -iSeparator:"|" -oDQuotes:on

I hope these past few blog posts help you to get started writing your own custom input format plug-ins for Log Parser.

That's all for now. ;-)

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Advanced Log Parser Part 6 - Creating a Simple Custom Input Format Plug-In

26. February 2013 Bob LogParser , Scripting Comments (0)

In Part 4 of this series, I illustrated how to create a new COM-based input provider for Log Parser from a custom input format:

Advanced Log Parser Charts Part 4 - Adding Custom Input Formats

For the sample that I published in that blog, I wrote a plug-in that consumed FTP RSCA events, which is highly structured data, and it added a lot of complexity to my example. In the past ten months or so since I published my original blog, I've had several requests for additional information about how to get started writing COM-based input formats for Log Parser, so it occurred to me that perhaps I could have shown a simpler example to get people started instead of diving straight into parsing RSCA data. ;-)

With that in mind, I thought that I would write a couple of blog posts with simpler examples to help anyone who wants to get started writing custom input formats for Log Parser.

For this blog post, I will show you how to create a very basic COM-based input format provider for Log Parser that simply returns static data; you could use this sample as a template to quickly get up-and-running with the basic concepts. (I promise to follow this blog with another real-world example that is still easier-to-use than my RSCA example.)

A Reminder about Creating COM-based plug-ins for Log Parser

In the blog that I referred to earlier, I mentioned that a COM plug-in has to support the following public methods:

Method NameDescription
OpenInput Opens your data source and sets up any initial environment settings.
GetFieldCount Returns the number of fields that your plug-in will provide.
GetFieldName Returns the name of a specified field.
GetFieldType Returns the datatype of a specified field.
GetValue Returns the value of a specified field.
ReadRecord Reads the next record from your data source.
CloseInput Closes your data source and cleans up any environment settings.

Once you have created and registered a COM plug-in, you call it by using something like the following syntax:

logparser.exe "SELECT * FROM FOO" -i:COM -iProgID:BAR

In the preceding example, FOO is a data source that makes sense to your plug-in, and BAR is the COM class name for your plug-in.

Creating a Simple COM plug-in for Log Parser

Once again, I'm going to demonstrate how to create a COM component by using a scriptlet, which I like to use for demos because they are quick to design, they're easily portable, and updates take place immediately since no compilation is required. (All of that being said, if I were writing a real COM plug-in for Log Parser, I would use C# or C++.)

To create the sample COM plug-in, copy the following code into a text file, and save that file as "Simple.LogParser.Scriptlet.sct" to your computer. (Note: The *.SCT file extension tells Windows that this is a scriptlet file.)

<SCRIPTLET>
  <registration
    Description="Simple Log Parser Scriptlet"
    Progid="Simple.LogParser.Scriptlet"
    Classid="{4e616d65-6f6e-6d65-6973-526f62657274}"
    Version="1.00"
    Remotable="False" />
  <comment>
  EXAMPLE: logparser "SELECT * FROM FOOBAR" -i:COM -iProgID:Simple.LogParser.Scriptlet
  </comment>
  <implements id="Automation" type="Automation">
    <method name="OpenInput">
      <parameter name="strValue"/>
    </method>
    <method name="GetFieldCount" />
    <method name="GetFieldName">
      <parameter name="intFieldIndex"/>
    </method>
    <method name="GetFieldType">
      <parameter name="intFieldIndex"/>
    </method>
    <method name="ReadRecord" />
    <method name="GetValue">
      <parameter name="intFieldIndex"/>
    </method>
    <method name="CloseInput">
      <parameter name="blnAbort"/>
    </method>
  </implements>
  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript">

Option Explicit

Const MAX_RECORDS = 5
Dim intRecordCount

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Open the input session.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function OpenInput(strValue)
    intRecordCount = 0
End Function

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Close the input session.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function CloseInput(blnAbort)
End Function

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Return the count of fields.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function GetFieldCount()
    GetFieldCount = 5
End Function

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Return the specified field's name.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function GetFieldName(intFieldIndex)
    Select Case CInt(intFieldIndex)
        Case 0:
            GetFieldName = "INTEGER"
        Case 1:
            GetFieldName = "REAL"
        Case 2:
            GetFieldName = "STRING"
        Case 3:
            GetFieldName = "TIMESTAMP"
        Case 4:
            GetFieldName = "NULL"
        Case Else
            GetFieldName = Null
    End Select
End Function

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Return the specified field's type.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function GetFieldType(intFieldIndex)
    ' Define the field type constants.
    Const TYPE_INTEGER   = 1
    Const TYPE_REAL      = 2
    Const TYPE_STRING    = 3
    Const TYPE_TIMESTAMP = 4
    Const TYPE_NULL      = 5
    Select Case CInt(intFieldIndex)
        Case 0:
            GetFieldType = TYPE_INTEGER
        Case 1:
            GetFieldType = TYPE_REAL
        Case 2:
            GetFieldType = TYPE_STRING
        Case 3:
            GetFieldType = TYPE_TIMESTAMP
        Case 4:
            GetFieldType = TYPE_NULL
        Case Else
            GetFieldType = Null
    End Select
End Function

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Return the specified field's value.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function GetValue(intFieldIndex)
    Select Case CInt(intFieldIndex)
        Case 0:
            GetValue = 1
        Case 1:
            GetValue = 1.0
        Case 2:
            GetValue = "One"
        Case 3:
            GetValue = Now
        Case Else
            GetValue = Null
    End Select
End Function
  
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Read the next record, and return true or false if there is more data.
' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function ReadRecord()
    intRecordCount = intRecordCount + 1
    If intRecordCount <= MAX_RECORDS Then
        ReadRecord = True
    Else
        ReadRecord = False
    End If
End Function

  </SCRIPT>

</SCRIPTLET>

After you have saved the scriptlet code to your computer, you register it by using the following syntax:

regsvr32 Simple.LogParser.Scriptlet.sct

At the very minimum, you can now use the COM plug-in with Log Parser by using syntax like the following:

logparser "SELECT * FROM FOOBAR" -i:COM -iProgID:Simple.LogParser.Scriptlet

This will return results like the following:

INTEGERREALSTRINGTIMESTAMPNULL
-------------------------------------------
1 1.000000 One 2/26/2013 19:42:12 -
1 1.000000 One 2/26/2013 19:42:12 -
1 1.000000 One 2/26/2013 19:42:12 -
1 1.000000 One 2/26/2013 19:42:12 -
1 1.000000 One 2/26/2013 19:42:12 -
         
Statistics:        
-----------        
Elements processed: 5      
Elements output: 5      
Execution time: 0.01 seconds      

Next, let's analyze what this sample does.

Examining the Sample Scriptlet Contents in Detail

Here are the different parts of the scriptlet and what they do:

  • The <registration> section of the scriptlet sets up the COM registration information; you'll notice the COM component class name and GUID, as well as version information and a general description. (Note that you should generate your own GUID for each scriptlet that you create.)
  • The <implements> section declares the public methods that the COM plug-in has to support.
  • The <script>section contains the actual implementation:
    • The OpenInput() method opens your data source, although in this example it only initializes the record count. (Note that the value that is passed to the method will be ignored in this example.)
    • The CloseInput() method would normally clean up your session, (e.g. close a data file or database, etc.), but it doesn't do anything in this example.
    • The GetFieldCount() method returns the number of data fields in each record of your data, which is static in this example.
    • The GetFieldName() method returns the name of a field that is passed to the method as a number; the names are static in this example.
    • The GetFieldType() method returns the data type of a field that is passed to the method as a number, which are statically-defined in this example. As a reminder, Log Parser supports the following five data types for COM plug-ins: TYPE_INTEGER, TYPE_REAL, TYPE_STRING, TYPE_TIMESTAMP, and TYPE_NULL.
    • The GetValue() method returns the data value of a field that is passed to the method as a number. Once again, the data values are statically-defined in this example.
    • The ReadRecord() method moves to the next record in your data set; this method returns True if there is data to read, or False when the end of data is reached. In this example, the method increments the record counter and sets the status based on whether the maximum number of records has been reached.

Summary

That wraps up the simplest example that I could put together of a COM-based input provider for Log Parser. In my next blog, I'll show how to create a generic COM-based input provider for Log Parser that you can use to parse text-based log files.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Configuring FTP Client Certificate Authentication in FTP 7

25. April 2012 Bob FTP , Scripting Comments (0)

We had a customer question the other day about configuring FTP Client Certificate Authentication in FTP 7.0 and  in FTP 7.5. It had been a while since the last time that I had configured those settings on an FTP server, so I thought that it would be great to re-familiarize myself with that feature. To my initial dismay, it was a little more difficult than I had remembered, because there are a lot of parts to be configured.

That being said, there are a few primary activities that you need to know about and configure correctly:

I will explain each of those in this blog, although I will defer some of the details for Active Directory mapping to an excellent blog series that I discovered by Vivek Kumbhar.

Configuring the FTP Service

There are several settings that you need to configure for the FTP server; unfortunately there is no user interface for those settings, so you might want to familiarize yourself with the following settings:

At first I had made a batch file that was configuring these settings by using AppCmd, but I eventually abandoned that script and wrote the following VBScript code to configure all of the settings at one time - the only parts that you need to change is your site name and the hash value your SSL certificate, which are highlighted in yellow:

Set adminManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.ApplicationHost.WritableAdminManager")
adminManager.CommitPath = "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST"
Set sitesSection = adminManager.GetAdminSection("system.applicationHost/sites", "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST")
Set sitesCollection = sitesSection.Collection

siteElementPos = FindElement(sitesCollection, "site", Array("name", "ftp.contoso.com"))
If (addElementPos = -1) Then
   WScript.Echo "Element not found!"
   WScript.Quit
End If
Set siteElement = sitesCollection.Item(siteElementPos)

Set ftpServerElement = siteElement.ChildElements.Item("ftpServer")
Set securityElement = ftpServerElement.ChildElements.Item("security")

Set sslClientCertificatesElement = securityElement.ChildElements.Item("sslClientCertificates")
sslClientCertificatesElement.Properties.Item("clientCertificatePolicy").Value = "CertRequire"
sslClientCertificatesElement.Properties.Item("useActiveDirectoryMapping").Value = True

Set authenticationElement = securityElement.ChildElements.Item("authentication")
Set clientCertAuthenticationElement = authenticationElement.ChildElements.Item("clientCertAuthentication")
clientCertAuthenticationElement.Properties.Item("enabled").Value = True

Set sslElement = securityElement.ChildElements.Item("ssl")
sslElement.Properties.Item("serverCertHash").Value = "57686f6120447564652c2049495320526f636b73"
sslElement.Properties.Item("controlChannelPolicy").Value = "SslRequire"
sslElement.Properties.Item("dataChannelPolicy").Value = "SslRequire"

adminManager.CommitChanges

Function FindElement(collection, elementTagName, valuesToMatch)
   For i = 0 To CInt(collection.Count) - 1
      Set element = collection.Item(i)
      If element.Name = elementTagName Then
         matches = True
         For iVal = 0 To UBound(valuesToMatch) Step 2
            Set property = element.GetPropertyByName(valuesToMatch(iVal))
            value = property.Value
            If Not IsNull(value) Then
               value = CStr(value)
            End If
            If Not value = CStr(valuesToMatch(iVal + 1)) Then
               matches = False
               Exit For
            End If
         Next
         If matches Then
            Exit For
         End If
      End If
   Next
   If matches Then
      FindElement = i
   Else
      FindElement = -1
   End If
End Function

Once you have configured your FTP settings, you should have an FTP site that resembles the following in your ApplicationHost.config file:

<site name="ftp.contoso.com" id="2">
   <application path="/">
      <virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="c:\inetpub\ftproot" />
   </application>
   <bindings>
      <binding protocol="ftp" bindingInformation="*:21:" />
   </bindings>
   <ftpServer>
      <security>
         <ssl serverCertHash="57686f6120447564652c2049495320526f636b73"  ssl128="false"  controlChannelPolicy="SslRequire"  dataChannelPolicy="SslRequire" />
         <authentication>
            <basicAuthentication enabled="false" />
            <anonymousAuthentication enabled="false" />
            <clientCertAuthentication enabled="true" />
         </authentication>
         <sslClientCertificates  clientCertificatePolicy="CertRequire"  useActiveDirectoryMapping="true" />
      </security>
   </ftpServer>
</site>

More details about these settings can be found in the configuration reference articles that I mentioned in the beginning of this blog post, and additional information about configuring FTP over SSL can be found in the following walkthrough:

Configuring Active Directory Mapping

The next part of this process is kind of tricky; you need to accomplish all of the following:

  • Obtain and install a client certificate on the system where your FTP client is installed. Hare some additional notes to consider:
    • This may involve setting up your client system to trust the CA that issued your client certificate.
    • This may also involve setting up your FTP server to trust the CA that issued both your client certificate and the server certificate that you are using for your FTP site.
  • Configure Active Directory to map the client certificate to an Active Directory account.
  • Configure your FTP client to use a client certificate when connecting to your FTP server.

That makes it all sound so easy, but it can be very tricky. That being said, as I mentioned earlier, as I was putting together my notes to write this blog, I stumbled across a great blog series by Vivek Kumbhar, where he goes into great detail when describing all of the steps to set up the Active Directory mapping. With that in mind, instead of trying to rewrite what Vivek has already documented, I will include links to his blog series:

I have to give Vivek full credit where it's due - he wrote a truly great blog series, and he included a lot more detail in his blog series than I had originally planned to include in this blog. (In my humble opinion, Vivek's blog series is the best documentation that I have seen for this feature.)

Configuring your FTP Client

To test out client certificates, I used both the SmartFTP GUI-based FTP client and the MOVEit-Freely command-line FTP client; both of which I discussed in my FTP Clients blog series some time ago.

Using the SmartFTP Client

To configure the SmartFTP client, I just needed to enable and specify the correct client certificate in the properties for my connection:

Using the MOVEit-Freely FTP Client

For the MOVEit-Freely FTP client, I just needed to specify the correct parameters on the command line:

ftps.exe -z -e:on -pfxfile:administrator.pfx -pfxpw:"P@ssw0rd" -user:anonymous -password:"someone@contoso.com"

The important settings are the pfxfile and pfxpw values, where pfxfile is the name of the PFX file that holds your client certificate, and pfxpw is the password for the PFX file. (The username and password values will be ignored for the most part, because you will actually be logged in through your client certificate, so you can leave those as anonymous.)

Client Recap

For more information about these two FTP clients, see the following blog posts:

Summary

FTP client certificates are definitely a bit of a challenge to configure correctly, but it's not an impossible task to get this feature working.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Programmatically Flushing FTP Logs

3. February 2012 Bob IIS , Scripting , FTP , Extensibility Comments (0)

I had a great question from Scott Forsyth earlier today about programmatically flushing the logs for an FTP site. Scott had noticed that there was a FlushLog method listed on the following page in the IIS Configuration Reference:

http://www.iis.net/ConfigReference/system.applicationHost/sites/site/ftpServer

Unfortunately there wasn't a code sample for that method; but as luck would have it, I had already written some code to do just that. (I love synchronicity...) With that in mind, I though that I'd post the code in a blog. In keeping with the cross-language samples that I wrote for the topics in the Configuration Reference, I thought that's I'd include several languages in this blog to make it easier for someone else to copy and paste.

C#

using System;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Web.Administration;

internal static class Sample
{
   private static void Main()
   {
      using (ServerManager serverManager = new ServerManager())
      {
         Configuration config = serverManager.GetApplicationHostConfiguration();
         // Retrieve the sites collection.
         ConfigurationSection sitesSection = config.GetSection("system.applicationHost/sites");
         ConfigurationElementCollection sitesCollection = sitesSection.GetCollection();

         // Locate a specific site.
         ConfigurationElement siteElement = FindElement(sitesCollection,"site","name",@"ftp.contoso.com");
         if (siteElement == null) throw new InvalidOperationException("Element not found!");

         // Create an object for the ftpServer element.
         ConfigurationElement ftpServerElement = siteElement.GetChildElement("ftpServer");
         // Create an instance of the FlushLog method.
         ConfigurationMethodInstance FlushLog = ftpServerElement.Methods["FlushLog"].CreateInstance();
         // Execute the method to flush the logs for the FTP site.
         FlushLog.Execute();
      }
   }

   // Locate and return the index for a specific element in a collection.
   private static ConfigurationElement FindElement(ConfigurationElementCollection collection, string elementTagName, params string[] keyValues)
   {
      foreach (ConfigurationElement element in collection)
      {
         if (String.Equals(element.ElementTagName, elementTagName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
         {
            bool matches = true;
            for (int i = 0; i < keyValues.Length; i += 2)
            {
               object o = element.GetAttributeValue(keyValues[i]);
               string value = null;
               if (o != null)
               {
                  value = o.ToString();
               }
               if (!String.Equals(value, keyValues[i + 1], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
               {         matches = false;
                  break;
               }
            }
            if (matches)
            {
               return element;
            }
         }
      }
      return null;
   }
}

VB.NET

Imports System
Imports System.Text
Imports Microsoft.Web.Administration

Module Sample
   Sub Main()
      Dim serverManager As ServerManager = New ServerManager
      Dim config As Configuration = serverManager.GetApplicationHostConfiguration
      ' Retrieve the sites collection.
      Dim sitesSection As ConfigurationSection = config.GetSection("system.applicationHost/sites")
      Dim sitesCollection As ConfigurationElementCollection = sitesSection.GetCollection

      ' Locate a specific site.
      Dim siteElement As ConfigurationElement = FindElement(sitesCollection,"site","name","ftp.contoso.com")
      If (siteElement Is Nothing) Then
         Throw New InvalidOperationException("Element not found!")
      End If

      ' Create an object for the ftpServer element.
      Dim ftpServerElement As ConfigurationElement = siteElement.GetChildElement("ftpServer")
      ' Create an instance of the FlushLog method.
      Dim FlushLog As ConfigurationMethodInstance = ftpServerElement.Methods("FlushLog").CreateInstance()
      ' Execute the method to flush the logs for the FTP site.
      FlushLog.Execute()

   End Sub

   ' Locate and return the index for a specific element in a collection.
   Private Function FindElement(ByVal collection As ConfigurationElementCollection, ByVal elementTagName As String, ByVal ParamArray keyValues() As String) As ConfigurationElement
      For Each element As ConfigurationElement In collection
         If String.Equals(element.ElementTagName, elementTagName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) Then
            Dim matches As Boolean = True
            Dim i As Integer
            For i = 0 To keyValues.Length - 1 Step 2
               Dim o As Object = element.GetAttributeValue(keyValues(i))
               Dim value As String = Nothing
               If (Not (o) Is Nothing) Then
                  value = o.ToString
               End If
               If Not String.Equals(value, keyValues((i + 1)), StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) Then
                  matches = False
                  Exit For
               End If
            Next
            If matches Then
               Return element
            End If
         End If
      Next
      Return Nothing
   End Function

End Module

JavaScript

// Create a Writable Admin Manager object.
var adminManager = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.ApplicationHost.WritableAdminManager');
adminManager.CommitPath = "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST";

// Retrieve the sites collection.
var sitesSection = adminManager.GetAdminSection("system.applicationHost/sites","MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST");
var sitesCollection = sitesSection.Collection;

// Locate a specific site.
var siteElementPos = FindElement(sitesCollection,"site",["name","ftp.contoso.com"]);
if (siteElementPos == -1) throw "Element not found!";

// Retrieve the site element.
var siteElement = sitesCollection.Item(siteElementPos);
// Create an object for the ftpServer element.
var ftpServerElement = siteElement.ChildElements.Item("ftpServer");
// Create an instance of the FlushLog method.
var FlushLog = ftpServerElement.Methods.Item("FlushLog").CreateInstance();
// Execute the method to flush the logs for the FTP site.
FlushLog.Execute();

// Locate and return the index for a specific element in a collection.
function FindElement(collection, elementTagName, valuesToMatch) {
   for (var i = 0; i < collection.Count; i++) {
      var element = collection.Item(i);
      if (element.Name == elementTagName) {
         var matches = true;
         for (var iVal = 0; iVal < valuesToMatch.length; iVal += 2) {
            var property = element.GetPropertyByName(valuesToMatch[iVal]);
            var value = property.Value;
            if (value != null) {
               value = value.toString();
            }
            if (value != valuesToMatch[iVal + 1]) {
               matches = false;
               break;
            }
         }
         if (matches) {
            return i;
         }
      }
   }
   return -1;
}

VBScript

' Create a Writable Admin Manager object.
Set adminManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.ApplicationHost.WritableAdminManager")
adminManager.CommitPath = "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST"

' Retrieve the sites collection.
Set sitesSection = adminManager.GetAdminSection("system.applicationHost/sites","MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST")
Set sitesCollection = sitesSection.Collection

' Locate a specific site.
siteElementPos = FindElement(sitesCollection,"site",Array("name","ftp.contoso.com"))
If siteElementPos = -1 Then
   WScript.Echo "Element not found!"
   WScript.Quit
End If

' Retrieve the site element.
Set siteElement = sitesCollection.Item(siteElementPos)
' Create an object for the ftpServer element.
Set ftpServerElement = siteElement.ChildElements.Item("ftpServer")
' Create an instance of the FlushLog method.
Set FlushLog = ftpServerElement.Methods.Item("FlushLog").CreateInstance()
' Execute the method to flush the logs for the FTP site.
FlushLog.Execute()

' Locate and return the index for a specific element in a collection.
Function FindElement(collection, elementTagName, valuesToMatch)
   For i = 0 To CInt(collection.Count) - 1
      Set element = collection.Item(i)
      If element.Name = elementTagName Then
         matches = True
         For iVal = 0 To UBound(valuesToMatch) Step 2
            Set property = element.GetPropertyByName(valuesToMatch(iVal))
            value = property.Value
            If Not IsNull(value) Then
               value = CStr(value)
            End If
            If Not value = CStr(valuesToMatch(iVal + 1)) Then
               matches = False
               Exit For
            End If
         Next
         If matches Then
            Exit For
         End If
      End If
   Next
   If matches Then
      FindElement = i
   Else
      FindElement = -1   End If
End Function

Summary

Hopefully this gives you an idea of how to call the FlushLog method. You can also use these examples to call the Start and Stop methods for FTP sites; you just need to substitute the correct method in place of the FlushLog method.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Using URL Rewrite to Insert Different Scripts Based on Browser Type

2. February 2012 Bob IIS , Scripting Comments (0)

I just stumbled across a piece of sample code that I had written several months ago for a coworker, and I thought that I'd share it with everyone.

Here's the scenario: my coworker asked me if it was possible to have different client-side scripts inserted dynamically depending on the type of web browser that is being used. If the application was written in ASP.NET or some other dynamic language, then it would be trivial to determine the browser type and return the correct HTML <script> block to the client. Unfortunately, he needed the script for both static and dynamic pages, and he didn't want to modify all of his pages unless absolutely necessary.

This sounded to me like a job for a pair of outbound rules in URL Rewrite.

With the above design requirements in mind, I wrote the following sample configuration for URL Rewrite that accomplishes the following tasks:

  • If you’re using Internet Explorer, it inserts VBScript to display a popup message.
  • If you’re not using Internet Explorer, it inserts JavaScript to display a different popup message.

In order to use this sample code, you need to open the web.config file for your application and add the following code for the URL Rewrite rules. (Note: You need to disable compression in order to avoid an HTTP 500.52 error, and the following sample code does just that.)

<system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <outboundRules>
      <rule name="Add JavaScript" preCondition="IsNotInternetExplorer" patternSyntax="ExactMatch">
        <match filterByTags="None" pattern="&lt;/body>" />
        <action type="Rewrite" value="&lt;script language=&quot;javascript&quot;>alert('You are not using Internet Explorer!');&lt;/script>&lt;/body>" />
      </rule>
      <rule name="Add VBScript" preCondition="IsInternetExplorer" patternSyntax="ExactMatch">
        <match filterByTags="None" pattern="&lt;/body>" />
        <action type="Rewrite" value="&lt;script language=&quot;vbscript&quot;>MsgBox &quot;You are using Internet Explorer!&quot;&lt;/script>&lt;/body>" />
      </rule>
      <preConditions>
        <preCondition name="IsInternetExplorer">
          <add input="{RESPONSE_CONTENT_TYPE}" pattern="^text/html" />
          <add input="{HTTP_USER_AGENT}" pattern=".*MSIE" negate="false" />
        </preCondition>
        <preCondition name="IsNotInternetExplorer">
          <add input="{RESPONSE_CONTENT_TYPE}" pattern="^text/html" />
          <add input="{HTTP_USER_AGENT}" pattern=".*MSIE" negate="true" />
        </preCondition>
      </preConditions>
    </outboundRules>
  </rewrite>
  <urlCompression doStaticCompression="false" doDynamicCompression="false" />
</system.webServer>

The above example is what I sent to my coworker, and I intended it as an easy place to start when you just want a simple chunk of script to be inserted. It works well, but a better example would be to have it dynamically insert code for an external script file based on the browser type. This is illustrated in the following example:

<system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <outboundRules>
      <rule name="For Other Browsers" preCondition="IsNotInternetExplorer" patternSyntax="ExactMatch">
        <match filterByTags="None" pattern="&lt;/body>" />
        <action type="Rewrite" value="&lt;script language=&quot;javascript&quot; src=&quot;other.js&quot;>&lt;/script>&lt;/body>" />
      </rule>
      <rule name="For Internet Explorer" preCondition="IsInternetExplorer" patternSyntax="ExactMatch">
        <match filterByTags="None" pattern="&lt;/body>" />
        <action type="Rewrite" value="&lt;script language=&quot;javascript&quot; src=&quot;msie.js&quot;>&lt;/script>&lt;/body>" />
      </rule>
      <preConditions>
        <preCondition name="IsInternetExplorer">
          <add input="{RESPONSE_CONTENT_TYPE}" pattern="^text/html" />
          <add input="{HTTP_USER_AGENT}" pattern=".*MSIE" negate="false" />
        </preCondition>
        <preCondition name="IsNotInternetExplorer">
          <add input="{RESPONSE_CONTENT_TYPE}" pattern="^text/html" />
          <add input="{HTTP_USER_AGENT}" pattern=".*MSIE" negate="true" />
        </preCondition>
      </preConditions>
    </outboundRules>
  </rewrite>
  <urlCompression doStaticCompression="false" doDynamicCompression="false" />
</system.webServer>

The above sample dynamically inserts an HTML <script> block, and specifies one script file ("msie.js") for Internet Explorer a different script  file ("other.js") for all other browsers.

A simple script for a simple task - just the way I like it. ;-]

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Advanced Log Parser Charts Part 2 - Using Gradient Colors for Area Charts

29. January 2012 Bob IIS , LogParser , Scripting Comments (1)

In Part 2 of this series, I'll show you how to customize the area chart from Part 1 to show the chart area with a gradient. More specifically, there are three different chart gradient methods that we'll take a look at in this blog post:

Before I continue, there is one quick Log Parser convention that you should realize: there are two objects that Log Parser will create and pass to your script. As you look at the sample scripts in this post, you will see these objects in use:

Object NameDescriptionExample
chartSpace This is the base chart workspace object. 
// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;
chart This is equivalent to the chartSpace.Charts(0) object. 
// Change the background color.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#ffffff";

Before I get started, here's a quick review of VBScript that uses Log Parser COM objects:

Option Explicit

' Declare the variables.
Dim objLogQuery, strSQL
Dim objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

' Create the Log Parser objects.
Set objLogQuery = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery")
Set objInputW3CFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.W3CInputFormat")
Set objOutputChartFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.ChartOutputFormat")

' Define the SQL query.
strSQL = "SELECT Date, COUNT(*) AS Hits " & _
    " INTO _Part2.gif " & _
    " FROM *.log " & _
    " GROUP BY Date " & _
    " ORDER BY Date"

' Specify the chart options.
objOutputChartFormat.groupSize = "800x600"
objOutputChartFormat.fileType = "GIF"
objOutputChartFormat.chartType = "Area"
objOutputChartFormat.categories = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.values = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.legend = "OFF"

' Execute the SQL statement to create the chart.
objLogQuery.ExecuteBatch strSQL, objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, you don't have to use the COM objects, but I chose to do so for this blog series because it makes it a little easier to script. That being said, if I use one month's worth of log files from one of my low-volume websites, Log Parser and this VBScript creates the following rather ugly daily hits chart:

With all of this in mind, let's take a look at some simple configuration scripts.

Setting Fonts and Titles and Such...

The above chart really needs some help, so the first thing that we'll do is change a few things. First things first, we need to specify the name of the chart configuration script in the VBScript sample:

Option Explicit

' Declare the variables.
Dim objLogQuery, strSQL
Dim objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

' Create the Log Parser objects.
Set objLogQuery = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery")
Set objInputW3CFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.W3CInputFormat")
Set objOutputChartFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.ChartOutputFormat")

' Define the SQL query.
strSQL = "SELECT Date, COUNT(*) AS Hits " & _
    " INTO Part2.gif " & _
    " FROM *.log " & _
    " GROUP BY Date " & _
    " ORDER BY Date"

' Specify the chart options.
objOutputChartFormat.groupSize = "800x600"
objOutputChartFormat.fileType = "GIF"
objOutputChartFormat.chartType = "Area"
objOutputChartFormat.categories = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.values = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.legend = "OFF"
objOutputChartFormat.config = "Part2.js"

' Execute the SQL statement to create the chart.
objLogQuery.ExecuteBatch strSQL, objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

Next, we need to create the actual chart configuration script, which I wrote in JavaScript; you will need to save this as "Part2.js" in order to use my samples:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#f0f0f0";

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 6;

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 8;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 9;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 7;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 9;

This chart configuration script does several things:

  • Sets the title above the chart to "Hits by Day"
  • Sets a black border style for the chart
  • Sets the background color for the plot area to a light gray
  • Sets the font size for the chart values to 6-point
  • Sets the caption below the chart for the start and end date
  • Sets the font styles and captions for the Y and Y axes

When you run the VBScript, the resulting chart looks like the following:

This looks a little more legible, but now let's look at setting some colors.

Setting a One-Color Gradient

Using the same JavaScript sample from earlier, we just need to make a couple of changes to the chart configuration script in order to use the SetOneColorGradient method:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#f0f0f0";

// Specify the chart gradient styles.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Interior.SetOneColorGradient(
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientHorizontal,
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVariantEnd,
 1.0,
 "#ff0000");

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 6;

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 8;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 9;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 7;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 9;

When you run the VBScript, this renders a chart that looks like the following:

There are four parameters for the SetOneColorGradient method to look at:

ParameterDescription
GradientStyle This is a value from the ChartGradientStyleEnum enumeration, which specifies how the gradient will be displayed. For example: horizontally, vertically, diagonally, etc.
GradientVariant This is a value from the ChartGradientVariantEnum enumeration, which specifies which direction the gradient will be displayed. For example: lighter to darker, from the inside to the outside, etc.
GradientDegree This is a double value from 0.0 to 1.0, which specifies whether the gradient will range from the color to lighter or darker shades.
Color This is a string that specifies the color. This can be a commonly-named color, such as "red," "blue," etc., or this can be an RGB hexadecimal value, such as "#ff0000" (red), "#0000ff" (blue), etc. (See my 216-Color Safe Web Palette blog post for a large series of hexadecimal color values.)

Let's make some quick changes to parameters that we are passing to the SetOneColorGradient method and alter a few of the colors:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#333333";

// Specify the chart gradient styles.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Interior.SetOneColorGradient(
    chartSpace.Constants.chGradientHorizontal,
    chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVariantStart,
    0.0,
    "#00ff00");

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 6;
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Color = "#ffffff";

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 8;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 9;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 7;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 9;

When you run the VBScript, that results in the following considerably cooler-looking chart:

Setting a Two-Color Gradient

The SetTwoColorGradient method offers more color flexibility than the one-color gradient method, and we only need to make a couple of changes to the JavaScript for the chart configuration script in order to use the new method:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#FFFF99";

// Specify the chart gradient styles.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Interior.SetTwoColorGradient(
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVertical,
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVariantStart,
 "#0066FF",
 "#00FFCC");

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 6;

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 8;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 9;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 7;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 9;

When you run the VBScript, this will create the following chart:

There are four parameters for the SetTwoColorGradient method to consider:

ParameterDescription
GradientStyle This is a value from the ChartGradientStyleEnum enumeration, which specifies how the gradient will be displayed. For example: horizontally, vertically, diagonally, etc.
GradientVariant This is a value from the ChartGradientVariantEnum enumeration, which specifies which direction the gradient will be displayed. For example: lighter to darker, from the inside to the outside, etc.
Color This is a string that specifies the first color for the gradient; this can be a commonly-named color, such as "red," "blue," etc., or this can be an RGB hexadecimal value, such as "#ff0000" (red), "#0000ff" (blue), etc. (See my 216-Color Safe Web Palette blog post for a large series of hexadecimal color values.)
BackColor This is a string that specifies the second color for the gradient; this can be a value like the Color parameter.

Using a Preset Gradient

There is an additional gradient method that uses a collection of preset color palettes; this method is appropriately named SetPresetGradient. Once again, we need to make a couple of changes to the JavaScript for the chart configuration script in order to use the new method:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#EEFFDD";

// Specify the chart gradient styles.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Interior.SetPresetGradient(
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientHorizontal,
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVariantStart,
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientFire);

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 6;

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 8;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 9;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 7;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 9;

When you run the VBScript, this will create the following chart:

There are three parameters for the SetPresetGradient method to look at:

ParameterDescription
GradientStyle This is a value from the ChartGradientStyleEnum enumeration, which specifies how the gradient will be displayed. For example: horizontally, vertically, diagonally, etc.
GradientVariant This is a value from the ChartGradientVariantEnum enumeration, which specifies which direction the gradient will be displayed. For example: lighter to darker, from the inside to the outside, etc.
GradientPreset This is a value from the ChartPresetGradientTypeEnum enumeration, which specifies the gradient preset palette.

There are several of preset gradients in the ChartPresetGradientTypeEnum enumeration, and a little experimentation will yield the best results.

Using 3-D Area Charts

For one last sample, I'd like to show you what gradients can do for your 3-D area charts. To do so, we first need to make a couple of small changes the VBScript that will create the chart:

Option Explicit

' Declare the variables.
Dim objLogQuery, strSQL
Dim objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

' Create the Log Parser objects.
Set objLogQuery = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery")
Set objInputW3CFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.W3CInputFormat")
Set objOutputChartFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.ChartOutputFormat")

' Define the SQL query.
strSQL = "SELECT Date, COUNT(*) AS Hits " & _
    " INTO _Part2.gif " & _
    " FROM *.log " & _
    " GROUP BY Date " & _
    " ORDER BY Date"

' Specify the chart options.
objOutputChartFormat.groupSize = "1024x768"
objOutputChartFormat.fileType = "GIF"
objOutputChartFormat.chartType = "Area3D"
objOutputChartFormat.categories = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.values = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.legend = "OFF"
objOutputChartFormat.config = "Part2.js"

' Execute the SQL statement to create the chart.
objLogQuery.ExecuteBatch strSQL, objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

Next, we need to update the JavaScript for the chart configuration script to work with the new VBScript; for the most part, I'm just updating font sizes and chart colors:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Clear the caption for the chart series.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Caption = "";

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#FFFFCC";

// Specify the chart gradient styles.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Interior.SetTwoColorGradient(
    chartSpace.Constants.chGradientHorizontal,
    chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVariantEnd,
    "#00CCFF",
    "#FFFFFF");

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 7;

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 10;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 11;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 9;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 11;

When you run the VBScript, this will create the following chart:

Summary

In this blog post, I've written a lot of code samples in order to show you four different ways to set gradients for your Log Parser area charts. In future posts, I'll show you how to do some more cool things with some other types of charts.

;-]

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/