Is there an easy way to display all properties/methods of an object?

I understand that some languages like Java allow you to loop through or
otherwise "dump" a list of properties for an object.

I have some classes that I've written in vbScript for my ASP 3.0 pages. It
would be nice if I could programmatically generate a list of all properties
(and methods, if possible).

Is there a way to loop through the items in this way?

Thanks,
Ken Fine

Ato
Sun May 01 15:27:26 CDT 2005

There's a vbs object browser utility in the following link which might be helpful:
http://www.jsware.net/jsware/scripts.html#obbro

"Ken Fine" <kenfine@u.washington.edu> wrote in message news:d53bmr$485$1@gnus01.u.washington.edu...
> I understand that some languages like Java allow you to loop through or
> otherwise "dump" a list of properties for an object.
>
> I have some classes that I've written in vbScript for my ASP 3.0 pages. It
> would be nice if I could programmatically generate a list of all properties
> (and methods, if possible).
>
> Is there a way to loop through the items in this way?
>
> Thanks,
> Ken Fine
>
>

Ken
Sun May 01 21:11:01 CDT 2005

Thank you, Ato. I'm still curious if there is a way to do this in script.

-KF

"Ato Bisda" <atobisda@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23IAkUwoTFHA.2556@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> There's a vbs object browser utility in the following link which might be
helpful:
> http://www.jsware.net/jsware/scripts.html#obbro
>
> "Ken Fine" <kenfine@u.washington.edu> wrote in message
news:d53bmr$485$1@gnus01.u.washington.edu...
> > I understand that some languages like Java allow you to loop through or
> > otherwise "dump" a list of properties for an object.
> >
> > I have some classes that I've written in vbScript for my ASP 3.0 pages.
It
> > would be nice if I could programmatically generate a list of all
properties
> > (and methods, if possible).
> >
> > Is there a way to loop through the items in this way?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Ken Fine
> >
> >
>
>

Joe
Mon May 02 19:55:10 CDT 2005

Hi Ken,

"Ken Fine" <kenfine@u.washington.edu> wrote in message
news:d5427r$kog$1@gnus01.u.washington.edu...
> Thank you, Ato. I'm still curious if there is a way to do this in script.
>
> -KF
>
> "Ato Bisda" <atobisda@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:%23IAkUwoTFHA.2556@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>> There's a vbs object browser utility in the following link which might be
> helpful:
>> http://www.jsware.net/jsware/scripts.html#obbro
>>
>> "Ken Fine" <kenfine@u.washington.edu> wrote in message
> news:d53bmr$485$1@gnus01.u.washington.edu...
>> > I understand that some languages like Java allow you to loop through or
>> > otherwise "dump" a list of properties for an object.
>> >
>> > I have some classes that I've written in vbScript for my ASP 3.0 pages.
> It
>> > would be nice if I could programmatically generate a list of all
> properties
>> > (and methods, if possible).
>> >
>> > Is there a way to loop through the items in this way?
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Ken Fine
>> >

As you can probably tell by the thunderous silence, I don't believe that the
a simple way you want exists. Without knowing exactly how the Java method
that you refer to works, I believe you're talking about accessing Type
Libraries for registered classes. This requires the use of TLBINF32.DLL.
VB can, apparently (by reference, not personal experience), access Type
Libraries simply and directly, but VBS cannot. The utility to which Ato
referred you is at heart a very clever VBS file that performs the inordinant
work necessary to access the data, and you can appropriate portions of it,
if it works for you.

Mark Pryor also used to post an excellent freeware TLViewer utility, but I
can't seem to access his website any longer. If anyone out there knows the
fate of TLViewer, I'd appreciate knowing.

Regards,
Joe Earnest

Joe
Mon May 02 20:05:50 CDT 2005

Oops - my bad - very bad

I should not have said "and you can appropriate portions of it, if it works
for you."

I believe that Joe'Software posts the samples and utility code precisely so
you can do that, but that's not up to me.

Joe Earnest

Lee
Mon May 02 20:03:47 CDT 2005

It would be a bit of "overkill", but since Object Rexx has gone open
source, it is available for free from SourceForge (www.oorexx.org).
It has a BIF call GetKnownMethods which will return all methods and
properties of an object.

Lee

On Mon, 2 May 2005 18:55:10 -0600, "Joe Earnest"
<jearnest3-SPAM@earthlink.net> wrote:

>Hi Ken,
>
>"Ken Fine" <kenfine@u.washington.edu> wrote in message
>news:d5427r$kog$1@gnus01.u.washington.edu...
>> Thank you, Ato. I'm still curious if there is a way to do this in script.
>>
>> -KF
>>
>> "Ato Bisda" <atobisda@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:%23IAkUwoTFHA.2556@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>>> There's a vbs object browser utility in the following link which might be
>> helpful:
>>> http://www.jsware.net/jsware/scripts.html#obbro
>>>
>>> "Ken Fine" <kenfine@u.washington.edu> wrote in message
>> news:d53bmr$485$1@gnus01.u.washington.edu...
>>> > I understand that some languages like Java allow you to loop through or
>>> > otherwise "dump" a list of properties for an object.
>>> >
>>> > I have some classes that I've written in vbScript for my ASP 3.0 pages.
>> It
>>> > would be nice if I could programmatically generate a list of all
>> properties
>>> > (and methods, if possible).
>>> >
>>> > Is there a way to loop through the items in this way?
>>> >
>>> > Thanks,
>>> > Ken Fine
>>> >
>
>As you can probably tell by the thunderous silence, I don't believe that the
>a simple way you want exists. Without knowing exactly how the Java method
>that you refer to works, I believe you're talking about accessing Type
>Libraries for registered classes. This requires the use of TLBINF32.DLL.
>VB can, apparently (by reference, not personal experience), access Type
>Libraries simply and directly, but VBS cannot. The utility to which Ato
>referred you is at heart a very clever VBS file that performs the inordinant
>work necessary to access the data, and you can appropriate portions of it,
>if it works for you.
>
>Mark Pryor also used to post an excellent freeware TLViewer utility, but I
>can't seem to access his website any longer. If anyone out there knows the
>fate of TLViewer, I'd appreciate knowing.
>
>Regards,
>Joe Earnest
>

Joe
Mon May 02 21:34:51 CDT 2005

Hi,

[snipped]

"Lee Peedin" <lpeedinREMOVE@UPPERCASEnc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:jijd71l2ojr0te37f527cbtc19dha0r5jt@4ax.com...
> It would be a bit of "overkill", but since Object Rexx has gone open
> source, it is available for free from SourceForge (www.oorexx.org).
> It has a BIF call GetKnownMethods which will return all methods and
> properties of an object.
>
> Lee
>

Cool. I know nothing about Object Rexx, Lee, except for your posts from
time to time. As I recall, it can be hosted in a WSC file, so the key
method could be cross-called in a separate component in a WSC package. That
would be extremely simple, so long as it was loaded on the host computer.
Do you know if TLBINF32.DLL also has to be installed, or if Object Rexx has
its own cade for accessing objects?

Regards,
Joe Earnest

mayayana
Mon May 02 23:59:56 CDT 2005

> Oops - my bad - very bad
>
> I should not have said "and you can appropriate portions of it, if it
works
> for you."
>
> I believe that Joe'Software posts the samples and utility code precisely
so
> you can do that, but that's not up to me.
>
Yes. People should help themselves and not feel
like they have to make attribution in their own code
or be subject to any other demands. My only request
with those files is that people refer others to jsware.net
to get the code, rather than distributing the whole scripts
themselves.

With VB and TLBINF32.DLL, VB uses that, too.
It can do a bit more than VBS can do with it, but
TLBINF32.DLL makes it easy for both by wrapping the
whole thing in a COM interface. There are just a
couple of slightly funky methods that VBS can't handle
because of the data types. (I think that Matthew
Curland wrote that DLL particularly for use in the VB
and Office IDEs, though I'm not certain about that.)

The only other way to list a COM interface, as far as
I know, would be to read the type library directly. That
might be possible in VBScript but it wouldn't be easy.
I don't know how one extracts and parses an embedded
type library from a file. I suppose there must be
documentation somewhere, but I've assumed that it's
very involved and that that's why TLBINF32.DLL was
written......But maybe doing it with straight VBS will
be a rainy day project some time for Alex
Angelopoulos. :)

Joe Priestley

Joe
Tue May 03 05:47:12 CDT 2005

Hi,

"mayayana" <mayaXXyana1a@mindYYspring.com> wrote in message
news:gzDde.3229$7F4.2761@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
>> Oops - my bad - very bad
>>
>> I should not have said "and you can appropriate portions of it, if it
> works
>> for you."
>>
>> I believe that Joe'Software posts the samples and utility code precisely
> so
>> you can do that, but that's not up to me.
>>
> Yes. People should help themselves and not feel
> like they have to make attribution in their own code
> or be subject to any other demands. My only request
> with those files is that people refer others to jsware.net
> to get the code, rather than distributing the whole scripts
> themselves.
>
> With VB and TLBINF32.DLL, VB uses that, too.
> It can do a bit more than VBS can do with it, but
> TLBINF32.DLL makes it easy for both by wrapping the
> whole thing in a COM interface. There are just a
> couple of slightly funky methods that VBS can't handle
> because of the data types. (I think that Matthew
> Curland wrote that DLL particularly for use in the VB
> and Office IDEs, though I'm not certain about that.)
>
> The only other way to list a COM interface, as far as
> I know, would be to read the type library directly. That
> might be possible in VBScript but it wouldn't be easy.
> I don't know how one extracts and parses an embedded
> type library from a file. I suppose there must be
> documentation somewhere, but I've assumed that it's
> very involved and that that's why TLBINF32.DLL was
> written......But maybe doing it with straight VBS will
> be a rainy day project some time for Alex
> Angelopoulos. :)
>
> Joe Priestley
>

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the response and clearing that up. Yours is an excellent and
really useful website.

The only object that I can think of that might be easy to parse with
text-oriented script for a list of methods and procedures (so long as the
data type or specific codes are not necessary) is a WSC, since it is a text
file and could be searched directly for XML components, method and procedure
declarations. But then, MS also provides context-driven TLB generation for
WSCs, so that's not necessary. Otherwise, (I'd speculate that) one would
need to work through the initial indexing section of DLL and
DLL-library-structured files with a binary, pointer-oriented language.

Regards,
Joe Earnest

Lee
Tue May 03 06:38:35 CDT 2005

Hey Joe,
Yes ObjRexx can be a Windows Scripting Host. I'm not familiar with
the TLBINF32.dll but I'm reasonably sure that it is not a requirement.
The following code (in its simplist form) loads all methods and
properties of Excel in the stem variable methods. (an array like
variable)
myOLEObject = .OLEObject~new('Excel.Application')
methods. = myOLEObject~GetKnownMethods
I don't come to these VB groups to try and convince folks to switch to
Rexx, but rather to glean information; however, as I said in my
previous post the open source version of Object Rexx is now available
for free. So far versions for Windows & Linux have been released and
the Mac OSX version will most likely be release in a couple of months.

Lee

On Mon, 2 May 2005 20:34:51 -0600, "Joe Earnest"
<jearnest3-SPAM@earthlink.net> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>[snipped]
>
>"Lee Peedin" <lpeedinREMOVE@UPPERCASEnc.rr.com> wrote in message
>news:jijd71l2ojr0te37f527cbtc19dha0r5jt@4ax.com...
>> It would be a bit of "overkill", but since Object Rexx has gone open
>> source, it is available for free from SourceForge (www.oorexx.org).
>> It has a BIF call GetKnownMethods which will return all methods and
>> properties of an object.
>>
>> Lee
>>
>
>Cool. I know nothing about Object Rexx, Lee, except for your posts from
>time to time. As I recall, it can be hosted in a WSC file, so the key
>method could be cross-called in a separate component in a WSC package. That
>would be extremely simple, so long as it was loaded on the host computer.
>Do you know if TLBINF32.DLL also has to be installed, or if Object Rexx has
>its own cade for accessing objects?
>
>Regards,
>Joe Earnest
>

Joe
Tue May 03 07:34:05 CDT 2005

Hi Lee,

[snipped]

"Lee Peedin" <lpeedinREMOVE@UPPERCASEnc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:l7oe71pmk96kip96fasenkmhdutcptc0jb@4ax.com...
...
> myOLEObject = .OLEObject~new('Excel.Application')
> methods. = myOLEObject~GetKnownMethods
...

Thanks. I'll play around with it and see what I can do.

Regards,
Joe Earnest

mayayana
Tue May 03 10:57:47 CDT 2005


>
> Thanks for the response and clearing that up. Yours is an excellent and
> really useful website.
>

Thank you. I originally got into programming as a result of
discovering the accessibility provided by VBS, so I get
a kick out of making that available to others - especially
people who are interested but, like myself, are not
attracted to learning things like hardcore C.

> Otherwise, (I'd speculate that) one would
> need to work through the initial indexing section of DLL and
> DLL-library-structured files with a binary, pointer-oriented language.
>
Yes. I think it could be done. I have a sample
on my site that uses only Textstream to parse the
resource table of a PE file and extract all the icons.
Textstream can easily do binary operations as long
as you don't try to "look" at the string while working
with it. If you try to read the string then TS will clip
it at the first null. If you use ReadAll then TS will
only read up to the first null. But if you just use
TS.Read(length) and don't use string operations like
Mid then you can treat a TS string as a string of bytes.
So then one would just need to know how and
where the type library is located in the file.

On the other hand, talking this way, some people
might think we have too much free time on our
hands.

Joe
Tue May 03 12:51:02 CDT 2005

Hi Joe,

[snipped]

"mayayana" <mayaXXyana1a@mindYYspring.com> wrote in message
news:%bNde.3077$pe3.858@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
>
>>
>> Thanks for the response and clearing that up. Yours is an excellent and
>> really useful website.
>>
>
> Thank you. I originally got into programming as a result of
> discovering the accessibility provided by VBS, so I get
> a kick out of making that available to others - especially
> people who are interested but, like myself, are not
> attracted to learning things like hardcore C.
>

...

> On the other hand, talking this way, some people
> might think we have too much free time on our
> hands.

It's all line-drawing. The always-busies never seem to learn anything
(good, bad or indifferent), and there seems to be a thread in the
server.scripting group right now that makes this thread look serious and
productive.

I agree with your approach, which is probably why I find your website so
productive. VBS for the knowledgeable and learning admin and user.
Particularly with the right third-party objects and utilities, VBS is far
more powerful than most people give it credit for.

My background in the 80's and 90's was in machine language, and
cross-compiled QuickASM and QuickBASIC (not QBasic) in DOS. Never much
warmed up to C; cross-compilations with serious ASM usage were more
efficient than C in those days. But things were far simpler then:
286/386/486/586 CPUs with limited instructions, addressing and registries;
direct reads from, and writes to, ISA busses and video memory; direct reads
of anything; circumventing or simply writing one's own hardware handlers;
etc. I don't begin to comprehend the modern Windows system at the machine
level. I've been content to use VBS and mark-up languages for general
utility since 32-bit. Nostalgically, I miss the ability of QuickBASIC to
compile, to slip in and out of short-string ASM, to modify itself behind
itself on the fly, to work in full binary terms, and to cross-compile its
DLLs to ASM for power. But quite frankly, I wouldn't know what to do with
it today. I sorta skipped VB. ;-)

Cheers,
Joe

mayayana
Tue May 03 14:47:53 CDT 2005


> My background in the 80's and 90's was in machine language, and
> cross-compiled QuickASM and QuickBASIC (not QBasic) in DOS. Never much
> warmed up to C; cross-compilations with serious ASM usage were more
> efficient than C in those days.

Funny you should mention that. I just bought an ASM
book last week and started collecting assembly
documentation. I just can't get excited about things like
Java and C#. And it looks like Microsoft may drop, curtail,
or even sabotage VB in their interminably imminent
"LongInTheTooth ShortHorn", so I figured that learning
machine language would at least give me a better
background to branch out from. And it works for any x86
CPU, which includes Linux on PCs.

Michael
Tue May 03 18:52:24 CDT 2005

> Thanks. I'll play around with it and see what I can do.


I have the OORexx install package sitting on my USB stick waiting to be
installed. Now to just find the time to play. Personally, I love REXX and
it's my preferred scripting language on MVS where I've used it a *lot* for
some pretty sophisticated things.


--
Michael Harris
Microsoft MVP Scripting
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Please ask follow-up questions via the original newsgroup thread.

Joe
Tue May 03 18:51:35 CDT 2005

Hi,

"mayayana" <mayaXXyana1a@mindYYspring.com> wrote in message
news:JzQde.4748$V01.266@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net...
>
>> My background in the 80's and 90's was in machine language, and
>> cross-compiled QuickASM and QuickBASIC (not QBasic) in DOS. Never much
>> warmed up to C; cross-compilations with serious ASM usage were more
>> efficient than C in those days.
>
> Funny you should mention that. I just bought an ASM
> book last week and started collecting assembly
> documentation. I just can't get excited about things like
> Java and C#. And it looks like Microsoft may drop, curtail,
> or even sabotage VB in their interminably imminent
> "LongInTheTooth ShortHorn", so I figured that learning
> machine language would at least give me a better
> background to branch out from. And it works for any x86
> CPU, which includes Linux on PCs.

That's great. IMHO, ASM is the only language that doesn't structure you,
you structure it. As I recollect it, programming in ASM can actually make
you feel good. It's like really using your brain.

Since you can construct whatever stock routines you want, however you want
them, when you find good programmers with similar stock routines, you know
it's because it's good programming - not quirks in the language. Good luck
with it.

Hopefully the book teaches you on a 286 (or earlier) chip and then brings
you forward. Otherwise, it can be overwhelming. To show you just how "long
in the tooth" I am, I first learned ASM with all the instruction sets
available on the 8080, 8086 and 8088 chips, which were installed on my
computers at the time. 8-bit and early 16-bit registers (which were
actually 12-bit registers) made learning fundamental ASM *very* easy. I
learned BASIC by memory dumping an MS-programmed 256K ROM chip (which was
huge in those days) and simply tracing the underlying instructions for each
keyword operation. Now, you not only have the massively expanded CPU
instruction sets, but, massively expanded routines for direct calls to the
bridges, network cards, hard drive controllers, serial controllers, video
controllers, sound controllers, and other chips.

Ages ago, MS used to be the main player in ASM, as well as BASIC. They've
really downplayed it, though

There is a microsoft.public.masm newsgroup, but don't expect a lot of
traffic. It actually has an MVP (not exactly talkative). Some other sites
you might want to peruse:

http://www.movsd.com/
http://users.easystreet.com/jkirwan/new/pctools.html
http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/
http://www.masmforum.com/simple/index.php
http://www.masm32.com/

Let me know if its a good book. Although I browse the sites once in a
while, I haven't looked at an ASM resource in at least twelve years. I
might have a tad of catching up to do. ;-)

Regards,
Joe Earnest

Joe
Tue May 03 19:06:55 CDT 2005

Hi Michael,

"Michael Harris (MVP)" <mikhar at mvps dot org> wrote in message
news:OfpWZsDUFHA.3312@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>> Thanks. I'll play around with it and see what I can do.
>
>
> I have the OORexx install package sitting on my USB stick waiting to be
> installed. Now to just find the time to play. Personally, I love REXX
> and it's my preferred scripting language on MVS where I've used it a *lot*
> for some pretty sophisticated things.
>
>
> --
> Michael Harris
> Microsoft MVP Scripting
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> Please ask follow-up questions via the original newsgroup thread.
>

OK, you guys have sold me. It's definitely on the project list. I've just
gotten to where thinking about another round of syntax to learn is ~~~~~~~~

Regards,
Joe

mayayana
Tue May 03 19:26:38 CDT 2005


> There is a microsoft.public.masm newsgroup, but don't expect a lot of
> traffic. It actually has an MVP (not exactly talkative). Some other
sites
> you might want to peruse:
>
> http://www.movsd.com/
> http://users.easystreet.com/jkirwan/new/pctools.html
> http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/
> http://www.masmforum.com/simple/index.php
> http://www.masm32.com/

Thanks. I hadn't found those. I found comp.lang.asm.x86,
where I got some helpful advice. I really have barely looked
at any of it so far. Partly what got me interested was
Matthew Curland's directions for adding assembly
snippets to VB.....I wanted to understand what he's
actually doing with that because it clearly adds a great
deal of flexibility.

The book is "Art of Assembly Language" by
Randy Hyde (who informed me on the newsgroup
that I should have bought his *other* book instead!).
It looks like something I'll find useful eventually
as a reference, but right now I'm just tackling
the basic mechanics to understand how a CPU
works. (Having started with VBS I have a lot of
backtracking to do.)
>
> Let me know if its a good book. Although I browse the sites once in a
> while, I haven't looked at an ASM resource in at least twelve years. I
> might have a tad of catching up to do. ;-)
>
> Regards,
> Joe Earnest
>
>

Lee
Tue May 03 19:43:19 CDT 2005

On Tue, 3 May 2005 16:52:24 -0700, "Michael Harris \(MVP\)" <mikhar at
mvps dot org> wrote:

>> Thanks. I'll play around with it and see what I can do.
>
>
>I have the OORexx install package sitting on my USB stick waiting to be
>installed. Now to just find the time to play. Personally, I love REXX and
>it's my preferred scripting language on MVS where I've used it a *lot* for
>some pretty sophisticated things.

Michael,
You sly fox - had no idea you knew Rexx :-)

I've been begging the ooRexx team to issue a maintenance release to
fix 2 "minor" errors with the first release, but I know these guys are
busy, especially since we all just spent a week in LA at the RexxLA
Symposium.

When you install this first "official" release, you'll need to do 2
things:
1) copy all *.cls file in the \program files\oorexx\oodialog\samples
folder to the \program files\oorexx folder. They must be in the path.
(There's a good explaination as to why this was missed in the first
release that I'd be glad to share if interested).

2) Any script you create that uses ActiveX will have to have the
following line at the end of the script:
::requires 'orexxole.cls'

Drop me a note when you decide to take your Rexx MVS skills to
Windows.

Lee
VP RexxLA

Michael
Tue May 03 20:20:18 CDT 2005

> You sly fox - had no idea you knew Rexx :-)

<VBG>!

>
> I've been begging the ooRexx team to issue a maintenance release to
> fix 2 "minor" errors with the first release, but I know these guys are
> busy, especially since we all just spent a week in LA at the RexxLA
> Symposium.
>
> When you install this first "official" release, you'll need to do 2
> things:
> 1) copy all *.cls file in the \program files\oorexx\oodialog\samples
> folder to the \program files\oorexx folder. They must be in the path.
> (There's a good explaination as to why this was missed in the first
> release that I'd be glad to share if interested).
>
> 2) Any script you create that uses ActiveX will have to have the
> following line at the end of the script:
>>> requires 'orexxole.cls'
>
> Drop me a note when you decide to take your Rexx MVS skills to
> Windows.


Unfortunately, it'll probably be only a hobby for me (but then so was WSH
back in 1998) and not as useful at work. There's little chance of getting
wide deployment (even on the MVS side, there are few IT staff really
conversant in REXX).


--
Michael Harris
Microsoft MVP Scripting
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Please ask follow-up questions via the original newsgroup thread.