Specifications

Language reference

Comprehensive reference and introductory information about VBScript can be found on the

Microsoft web site and in widely available literature. Use the search term "VBScript" when looking

for information on the web. Don't confuse VBScript with the Visual Basic programming language

(a full-featured programming language and development environment offered by Microsoft)

which is quite distinct from VBScript.

A good starting page regarding VBScript on the Microsoft web site is the page on Windows Script

in the Microsoft MSDN section. This page links to a full VBScript language reference and to a script

repository that contains numerous practical example scripts.

Extensions reference

Switch provides a number of Switch-specific classes and functions to support accessing key Switch

variables and functions, including the metadata context of the job being processed. Refer to the

Switch scripting API for reference documentation about these extensions.

The Switch scripting API reference documentation uses the JavaScript syntax and semantics to

describe its various classes and functions. In almost all cases, there is a straightforward

correspondence with VBScript syntax and semantics. The following sections highlight some issues

to keep in mind while reading the scripting API documentation.

API restrictions

Not all of the classes and functions described in the scripting API are available when using

VBScript. Specifically, the classes and functions in the "Utility", "XML", "Database" and "Network"

modules are not available. If you need the functionality in these modules, you have to use the

native VBScript capabilities.

For example, the "Utility" module provides "File" and "Dir" classes to work with files and folders.

In VBScript this functionality is available through the "FileSystemObject".

Functions versus procedures

In JavaScript there is no difference between calling a function (something that returns a value)

and calling a procedure (something that does not return a value). In VBScript there is a difference

and this is one of the most common pitfalls when translating JavaScript code into VBScript.

For example, here's how to call two of the Job class functions (defined in the Switch scripting

API) in JavaScript:

job.addEmailAddress("test@test.com");theResult =

job.getPrivateData("key");

In VBScript procedure calls do not use parenthesis to enclose the arguments, so the above

translates to:

job.addEmailAddress "test@test.com"theResult = job.getPrivateData("key")

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