Scripting Central--Wishful Thinking--December 2, 2005

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48649.zip

1. Perspectives

2. Scripter's Toolkit

3. This & That

4. Script Watch

5. Events and Resources

6. Featured White Paper

7. Announcements

8. New & Improved

1. Perspectives
by Karen Bemowski, [email protected]

Wishful Thinking
With the holiday season fast approaching, many of us are getting our wish lists ready. If holiday magic could deliver all that we ask for, here's what a scripter's wish list might look like:

With that thought, let me be one of the first people to wish you a happy holiday season. Be safe, be kind, and be there for your family and friends.

2. Scripter's Toolkit

Editor's note: Jim Turner is the second winner of the "My Favorite Function" contest. His VBScript function named LeapYear determines whether the specified year is a leap year. For information about how to enter your favorite VBScript or JScript function in this contest, see the "This and That" section.

LeapYear Function Might Have You Leaping for Joy
The LeapYear function can be a handy little snippet when you code date logic, particularly if you have a user-provided start or end date. For most months, it's relatively simple to determine a valid day entry by checking the maximum number of days in a specific month. You could evaluate the number of days with a simple Select Case statement. The value would be either 30 or 31. If a user entered April 31, for instance, the Select Case statement could correct it to April 30.

But there always seems to be an exception to the rule. In this case, it's the coldest of all months (at least where I'm from): February. Determining the number of days in February requires a little more work.

The simplest way I have found to evaluate February is to get the "day number" for March 1. For example, January 1 is day number 1 and February 1 is day number 32. March 1 is day number 60 in a nonleap year and day number 61 in a leap year.

Here's the code for the function:

   Function LeapYear (pYr)      On Error Resume Next      chkdate = CDate(pYr & "/" & "03" & "/" & "01")      daynum = DatePart("y",chkdate)      If Err  0 Then         Exit Function      End If       If daynum > 60 Then         LeapYear = True      Else         LeapYear = False      End If   End Function 

The LeapYear function takes one argument: any year from 0 to 9999. The LeapYear function concatenates that year with March 1, converts the resulting string to a Date type value using VBScript's CDate function, and assigns that date value to a variable named chkdate. VBScript's DatePart function then uses its "y" parameter (which indicates a time interval of "day of year") along with the chkdate variable to return the day number for March 1 of the given year.

If the user provides in an invalid date, both the CDate and DatePart functions throw an error, which prompts the function to exit. If the user provides a valid date, the day number is evaluated. If the day number is greater than 60, the LeapYear function returns True (i.e., the year is a leap year). Otherwise, the LeapYear function returns False.

Here's how you might use the LeapYear function in a script:

   yr = InputBox("Enter Year", "Valid Years 0 to 9999")    If LeapYear(yr) Then       MsgBox "Is a Leap Year"    Else       If Err  0 Then          MsgBox "Invalid Input... "          Err.Clear       Else          MsgBox "Not a Leap Year"       End If    End If    Function LeapYear (pYr)      On Error Resume Next      chkdate = CDate(pYr & "/" & "03" & "/" & "01")      daynum = DatePart("y",chkdate)      If Err  0 Then         Exit Function      End If      If daynum > 60 Then         LeapYear = True      Else         LeapYear = False      End If   End Function 

This script uses a simple input box to get a year from the user. You can also use the LeapYear function within an HTML Application (HTA). You can download a sample HTA, LeapYearFunctionDemo.hta, by going to http://www.windowsitpro.com/windows/article/articleid/48649/48649.html and clicking the 48649.zip hotlink.

-- Jim Turner

3. This & That

There's Still Time to Enter the "My Favorite Function" Contest
Have you written a VBScript or JScript function that you constantly use in your scripts? Does this function require little or no modification each time you use it, so all you basically have to do is call it into action? If so, submit your VBScript or JScript function to Scripting Central's "My Favorite Function" contest.

Three winners will be chosen (one a month for 3 months), each of which will receive $100 and get his or her function published in Scripting Central and in Windows Scripting Solutions' "Snippets to Go" column. In addition, the three winners will be put into a drawing for another $100. We have one winner so far (see the "Scripter's Toolkit" section).

To enter the contest, send a description of what your VBScript or JScript function does and how to use it in a script (e.g., how to call it). In addition, include the function code. You can email your entry to [email protected]. Please include your full name and telephone number. Look for the third month's winner in the January 6 edition of Scripting Central.

4. Script Watch

The Good, Better, and Best Ways to Obtain Constants and Their Values
The COM technology behind objects such as the Microsoft Scripting Runtime Library's FileSystemObject object and Windows Script Host's (WSH's) WshShell object is what makes WSH scripts so powerful. However, the way this technology works causes scripters significant grief in one area: Scripts don't get access to the crucial constants embedded in objects. Learn about several ways to obtain those crucial values in Alex K. Angelopoulos' article "How to Find Constants and Their Values" in the January 2006 issue of Windows Scripting Solutions.

5. Events and Resources

Get the Most from Reporting Services
In this free Web seminar, you'll learn about innovative ways to extend your reports, reporting from XML-based data, delivering reports with the new Report Viewer, supercharging reports with SQL Server 2005 CLR stored procedures, and more! Register today:
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Get the Facts About Deploying SQL Server 2005!
SQL Server experts will present real-world information about administration, development, and business intelligence to help you put SQL Server 2005 into practice and how to use its new capabilities to improve your database-computing environment. Receive a one-year membership to PASS and one-year subscription to SQL Server Magazine. Register now at:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/roadshows/sqlservereurope/index.cfm?code=1130emailannc

Plan and Implement Highly Available Exchange Systems
Learn about the concepts behind high availability Exchange server planning. Plus, discover how to properly assess the business drivers that affect how you craft your Service Level Agreements. You'll get the tips you need to understand the various options available to you for planning and implementing highly available Exchange systems including: Fault Tolerant design, clustering and what uptime really means! Register today at:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/exchange/?partnerref=1130emailannc

Are You Really Prepared for Disaster Recovery?
Join industry guru Liam Colvin in this free Web seminar and get the tips you need to validate your disaster recovery data. You'll learn if your backup and restore data is worth staking your career on, what type of geo-clustering is right for you, which response to use in crisis situations, and more!
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/disasterrecovery/?partnerref=1130emailannc

Upgrade to Analysis Services 2005
Get the tips and tricks you'll need to upgrade to Analysis Services 2005, including possible upgrade and migration scenarios, pre-planning steps, running the new Analysis Services migration wizard, and more. Plus discover what steps need to be completed after the migration process is complete and explore some of the new features of Analysis Services 2005.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/analysisservices/?partnerref=1130emailannc

6. Featured White Paper

Integrating Fax Servers in MFP Environments
Did you know that wasteful processes can drive the cost of document management and output to as high as 10-15% of your company's annual revenues? Download this free white paper today and find out how you can use fax solutions to achieve cost control, security and compliance, increased workflow and more.
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7. Announcements

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8. New and Improved

Automation Without Writing a Single Line of Code
Network Automation released AutoMate 6, software that automates business processes, regardless of their complexity. Without writing any code, you can automate a wide variety of network and computing operations, including FTP file transfers, event log monitoring, data or file replication, and SQL database transactions. After you build tasks through drag-and-drop operations, you can deploy the tasks in-place with event-based triggers or deploy tasks across the enterprise to other AutoMate installations with only a few mouse clicks. AutoMate tasks are displayed in plain-English sentences. Automate 6 has many new features, including more than 20 new actions, support for Secure HTTP (S-HTTP) and Secure FTP, and integration with Microsoft Excel. For more information, contact Network Automation at (213) 738-1700, (888) 786-4796, or [email protected].
http://www.networkautomation.com

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