Reader to Reader: Use a WSH Script to Upload Text Files

My company has a directory that holds thousands of short text messages. Each day, employees add new messages to that directory. I'm responsible for uploading the new or changed messages from the directory, which is on the company's local server, to the company's remote Web server, which is at the ISP's remote Network Operations Center (NOC).

I decided to automate this uploading task. I thought about using a GUI application such as Symantec's pcAnywhere or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition (WTS). However, these applications require manual input to select and transfer files (i.e., they're interactive GUI applications), so I decided to use FTP to upload the files.

Most commercial versions of FTP (e.g., ws_ftp, cuteftp) are also interactive GUI applications, so I decided to use the built-in command-line version of FTP. However, I encountered a problem with the built-in Ftp command. Although you can use the Ftp command's mput subcommand to upload multiple files, this subcommand accepts wildcards and therefore prompts you for input for each filename. As a result, you must sit at the console and respond to every prompt.

I determined that the uploading task was a job for Windows Script Host (WSH). First, I created a staging directory to hold the new or changed messages that I needed to upload. Then, I used the At scheduler service to schedule a recurring task that runs a batch file that, in turn, uses the Xcopy command with the /m switch to copy to the staging directory only those files with the archive bit set (i.e., new or modified files).

For the staging directory, I created the script MsgUp.bat, which Listing 1, page 16, shows. This script performs three important steps:

Listing 2, page 16, shows the section of GenFtpScript.vbs that generates this MsgUp.ftp code.