VBScript for Not Yet Techies

"Computer Careers: High Tech Jobs Designing Smart Interactive Web Pages the Microsoft Way"

by Richard Stooker, President Info Ring Press and author of Secrets of Changing to a Computer Career

VBScript is Microsoft's bid to supply the Internet with a web based scripting language. There’s bound to be some confusion here, at first in your computer career, between VBScript and Visual Basic (VB).

VBScript is NOT Visual Basic.

If it were, it wouldn’t have "script" added on to it.

And that added word "script" is a clue. While Visual Basic is a full, compiled language, which means it has long programs, VBScript is a scripting language, designed for small applications. Which means that you may need only a line or two to do what you want.

VBScript is used on web sites in conjunction with HTML

It is program commands that are embedded right in with HTML. If you don’t know HTML, you should learn that before trying to learn VBScript. It will make your life much easier, I promise. VBScript is written on the website right alongside the HTML.

You do not need a compiler or anything fancy. You simply write the commands into the HTML file.

HTML is static and passive. It tells your browser how to display text and graphics on your web site.

If you have ever gone to an "active" web site, chances are good you’ve seen it in action

You ran your mouse cursor over a picture of a bag of money and the words "Click here to learn how to make a million dollars from home" suddenly appeared. That was VBScript. You filled out a form but left out a required field and it immediately informed you of your error. That was possibly it.

You can see what it looks like by going to such websites and clicking on View and then Page Source. Since you already HTML, the unfamiliar commands you’ll see will be the script.

You can use it to ask your web site visitors questions and, based on their answers, give them advice or product information

It can actually give training to people by giving feedback based on their answers to questions.

It is a way to automate your presence on your web site. You control the conversation even though you’re not there, but answer appropriately based on your visitor’s input.

This can save your time, or that of your staff.

Another advantage to it is that, since it is included on the actual web site along with the HTML, it is known as "client side programming."

That means that it runs along with your web visitor’s browser. That means it is on their computer, and therefore it is much faster than the older, CGI programs.

CGI also can create interactive web sites, but they run on your web site’s server. This means that they are often slower, and your web site host will be very particular about your CGI programs. Many will not let you use your own CGI scripts. You must use their pre-written scripts even if they are not exactly what you want or need.

This is a legitimate security concern for the web site host. A badly written CGI script can crash their server. It gives you a lot more flexibility.

Actually, VBScript can be used for server side programming, but that’s not its main value.

VBScript - Page 2

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