Documentation

Useful site: Tons of free books online… did I mention free?

I like free stuff. Who doesn’t? And with the price of technology books you can imagine I was amazed when I found a pretty cool site recently, Scribd, that allows you to upload electronic documents. They then add this document to the database they have and make it search-able. Plus, you can search the database for specific subjects or words.

Not only are regular people uploading books and documents, but there are publisher’s uploading books. Sometimes they are just excerpts, but sometimes they are entire books as well like:

ASP Programming for the Absolute Beginner
Beginning ASP NET 3 5 in C Sharp 2008 From Novice to Professional
MSPress Exam 70-284 Implementing and managing Exchange server 2003

There’s even a CCIE Study Guide and my personal favorite the VBScript Complete Reference !

 And Many Many more… so stroll on over there and see what you can find!

Enjoy!

Getting disk usage data with the filesystem object and the Excel.Application object in VBScript

In my previous posting, entitled Working with the Excel.Application object in VBScript to create Excel Spreadsheets, we worked with excel in VBScript to create a excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet wasn’t going to win any awards for complexity or usefulness, but none the less it was a spreadsheet– and more importantly it was generated by a script! I also promised to bring you a script to help you chart disk space usage in my next posting in the series. This posting is the fulfilment of that promise! Also, please note that you will need Excel installed where the script runs for this script to operate correctly– but it does not need to be installed on the system you are pulling disk free space information from since I used the WMI object instead of the filesystem object.

The script below uses WMI’s Win32_LogicalDisk class to grab the drives in the target system, specifically the drive you specify through the use of a where clause in the SQL statement that pulls back the WMI data. (Through the “where deviceid like” section of the SQL statement in the code)

 Also, I didn’t put a lot of effort into the code where the for/next loop is that loops through getting and saving the free space because I didn’t want to create a lot of extra complexity and wanted to create a script that would run through to completion pretty quickly. Currently, the script takes 10 minutes to complete. To test the script while it’s running, just create files in a folder and delete them a number of times. I created a 10Mb and 20Mb file and made a series of copy/pastes during execution– with a smattering of deletes in the mix.

For further customization, you can look at the code from the posting I wrote a while back Reporting CPU usage by saving it to a file with the VBScript filesystem object to get a good feel for how to modify the loop to get what you want. In essence, change the number 2 in “Wscript.Sleep 2″ to a lager number to get a bigger gap between samples and change the 300 in the “For x = 1 to 300″ line to a larger number to get a longer sample period.

Here is the code:
Dim Freespace, CurrentRow, ServerName
Const xlSaveChanges = 1

‘the first row in excel is 1 (not 0)
CurrentRow = 1
ServerName=”.”

Set objExcel = CreateObject(”Excel.Application”)
objExcel.Visible = False
objExcel.Workbooks.Add
For x = 1 to 300 ‘ change 300 to increase your sample duration
     objExcel.Cells(CurrentRow, 1).Value = GetFreeSpace(”C:”,ServerName)
     CurrentRow = CurrentRow + 1
     Wscript.sleep 2 ‘change this to spread out your samples
next

objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs (”C:\excelvbscript.xls”)
objExcel.Quit
Function GetFreeSpace(Drive,strComputer)
     Set objWMIService = GetObject(”winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\”_
         & strComputer & “\root\cimv2″)
     Set colDisks = objWMIService.ExecQuery (”Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk where deviceid like “_
         &chr(34) & Drive & chr(34))
     For Each objDisk in colDisks
         GetFreeSpace = (objDisk.freespace/1024)/1024 ‘ get MB free
     Next
End Function

As always, this code works perfectly. However, sometimes the formatting of the blog breaks the code if you copy and paste it into your editor. So, if you’d like to not type or troubleshoot any syntax errors due to the copy and paste problems– I’ve provided the code for download, plus example output files  from my final tests for you. You’ll find the code and other files available for download from my website’s (www.websystemsadministration.com) File Depot under the ITKE Blog Scripts category. Enjoy and happy scripting!

Easily document group policy objects in Microsoft Word using VBScript with the Microsoft.XMLDOM and Word.Application objects

OK, here is the posting I hinted at in  my previous posting this week entitled, Using VBScript to create Word documents automatically with the Word.Application Object. In that posting I mentioned a project where I had to create a ton of documentation… but I didn’t say what it was that I had to document. Yeah, you guessed it from this article’s title… Group Policy Settings! I had to document settings in a series of policies I was proposing we implement at my employer. Here is the scenario:

I was asked “Can you document all the settings you are proposing in the new policies for the other members of IT? Also, Can you document the name of the setting, what you want it to be and what options are available to change it to? Oh, and what each value means when you set it?…. Do you think you’ll have time to also let us know for each setting what the supported or intended OS version is for the setting? I need it by Friday.”

Now, much like you might do, I said “I’ll try.” and mumbled under my breath later “If you bring me a pound of Lead I’ll turn it to Gold too!”… None the less, after my initial pity party, I began looking at the Information available to me in the Group Policy Management Console (Available here if you don’t have it already.), much to my surprise I found almost everything I needed when I looked at the individual settings… it just wasn’t in a format I could show to people or they could read easily. So I set out to try and copy and paste the information into word… for 20 seconds… and realized this is way to much work! And what do I always say??????   Be Lazy!

Now I looked at the options available to me on exporting the file and CSV was one of them, but unfortunately all the relationships were lost and I couldn’t make heads or tails of how to cobble it back together in a meaningful way after the export. Then I noticed XML and remembered my last post on Microsoft.XMLDOM (Using XML in VBScript via Microsoft.XMLDOM to work with data feeds) and thought, I really need to get back to that… so here we are!

First, Just like my last post– you’ll need Microsoft Word installed where you run this script for it to operate. Then you’ll need to use The Group Policy Management console to export the policy settings to XML. (hover over the icons along the top, it’s the one with the icon that looks like a page of paper with an arrow pointing right, one of the save as options is XML.) Save this file into the location where the script is located (I recommend a descriptive name, because it will be the heading for your document.) and with a single edit of the script you will have a word doc on the root of your C: drive with the same name— only documented in Word!

The script basically opens and reads in the XML Document and creates a Word.Application object to create a Microsoft Word Document at the root of the C: Drive, then writes formatted text to the document to make the data in the XML readable. But, enough of a introduction! On to the script! Here is the script:

 set xmlDoc=CreateObject(”Microsoft.XMLDOM”)
Set objWord = CreateObject(”Word.Application”)
Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Add()
Set objSelection = objWord.Selection

‘This is the actual name of the XML document minus the path and the “.XML” extension, it becomes the word doc header
xmlfile = “Locked Down Desktop Policy”

objSelection.Font.Name = “Arial”
objSelection.Font.Size = “18″
objSelection.Font.Bold = True
objSelection.TypeText xmlfile & VbCrLf

objSelection.Font.Bold = False
objSelection.Font.Size = “10″

xmlDoc.async=”false”
xmlDoc.load(xmlfile &”.xml”)
for each x in xmlDoc.documentElement.childNodes
If x.nodename = “Computer” or x.nodename = “User” Then
For Each y In x.childnodes
if y.Nodename = “ExtensionData” then
For Each z In y.childnodes
If z.Nodename = “Extension” Then
For Each setting In z.childnodes
objSelection.TypeText “______________________________________” & vbCr
DocumentPolicy(Setting)
Next
End if
Next
End if
Next
End If
Next
objDoc.SaveAs(”C:\” & xmlfile & “.doc”)
objWord.Quit
Function DocumentPolicy(Setting)
‘this function basically cleans up the headers of the word document, so they are more human readable
Select Case setting.nodename
Case “q1:Policy”
replacestr = “q1:”
Case “q1:DropDownList”
replacestr = “q1:”
Case “q1:Name”
replacestr = “q1:”
Case “q1:Value”
replacestr = “q1:”
Case “q1:State”
replacestr = “q1:”
Case “q2:Audit”
replacestr = “q2:”
Case “q2:SecurityOptions”
replacestr = “q2:”
Case “q2:EventLog”
replacestr = “q2:”
Case “q2:RestrictedGroups”
replacestr = “q2:”
Case “q2:File”
replacestr = “q2:”
Case “q2:Display”
replacestr = “q2:”
Case “q3:General”
replacestr = “q3:”
Case “q3:HashRule”
replacestr = “q3:”
Case “q3:PathRule”
replacestr = “q3:”
Case “q3:InternetZoneRule”
replacestr = “q3:”
Case “q4:AutoEnrollmentSettings”
replacestr = “q4:”
Case “q4:AutoEnrollmentSettings”
replacestr = “q4:”
Case “q4:RootCertificateSettings”
replacestr = “q4:”
Case “q4:EFSSettings”
replacestr = “q4:”
Case “q5:PreferenceMode”
replacestr = “q5:”
Case “q2:PreferenceMode”
replacestr = “q2:”
Case “q2:ProxySettings”
replacestr = “q2:”
Case “q2:UseSameProxy:”
replacestr = “q2:”
Case “q2:HTTP:”
replacestr = “q2:”
Case “q2:NoProxyIntranet:”
replacestr = “q2:”End Select
objSelection.Font.Bold = True
objSelection.TypeText VbCrLf & replace(setting.nodename, replacestr,””) & VbCrLf
objSelection.Font.Bold = False
For Each Value In Setting.Childnodes
NodeName = replace(Value.nodename,replacestr,””)
If NodeName = “Explain” Then
objSelection.Font.Bold = True
objSelection.TypeText Nodename & “: ” & vbcrlf
objSelection.Font.Bold = False
objSelection.TypeText vbTab & replace(value.text,”\n\n”, VbCrLf & VbCrLf & vbTab )& vbcrlf
Else
objSelection.Font.Bold = True
objSelection.TypeText Nodename & “: “
objSelection.Font.Bold = False
objSelection.TypeText vbtab & value.text & vbcrlf
End if
Next
If isnull(Setting.childnodes) Then
For Each node In Setting.childnodes
DocumentPolicy(node)
next
End if
objSelection.TypeText VbCrLfEnd FunctionNow, when you run this script agains your export there may be some XML tags I didn’t notice because a setting you set is one I didn’t set. Any time you see them in the document you can add a new Case statement in the select case followed by setting the replacestr to the string you want to replace with a null. The lines I’m talking about look similar to this:

  Case “q2:xxxxxxxx”
replacestr = “q2:”

As always, this code works perfectly. However, sometimes the formatting of the blog breaks the code if you copy and paste it into your editor. So, if you’d like to not type or troubleshoot any syntax errors due to the copy and paste problems– I’ve provided the code for download, plus example output files  from my final tests for you. You’ll find the code and other files available for download from my website’s (www.websystemsadministration.com) File Depot under the ITKE Blog Scripts category. Enjoy and happy scripting!

Using VBScript to create Word documents automatically with the Word.Application Object

I recently had a project that required me to create a ton of documentation from data that was already stored in files elsewhere on the network– just not in the format that was required and readable by every day people within IT. (Basically, non-administrators) This project would have required a TON of copy and paste operations or a whole lot MORE reworking of a document, plus I was on a tight deadline. So I decided to use a little VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) knowledge I had picked up in the past to work with the Microsoft Word Application interface and do the job, with only minor reworking after the fact to really tidy up the document.

First, let me clarify. Most of my scripts I use here require nothing more than the items I mentioned in my first posting (Getting Started Writing VBScript to Administer a Windows 2000 or 2003 Network) on this blog… a VBScript editor. (Notepad will do… but you’ll likely quickly want something a bit more powerful before long.) The scripts I discuss in this series are one exception, for these scripts we discuss in the next few articles we will need to make sure you have Microsoft Word installed where ever you run the script. However, for the purposes of this type of work your workstation should work fine and will likely already have Microsoft word installed! Bonus!

The “magic” component we need to call and create an object from is called Word.Application, as you’ll see below, it’s pretty easy to create a word document from VBScript and then have auto generating documentation!

The next sections of code will show you how to do various tasks with in word. Many sections are not scripts on themselves, but in fact snippets that could be placed into the first script prior to the remark for testing. The first snippet, creates a word document and saves it to the root of your C: drive. When you run this it will run, but create a blank word document– much like if you right clicked somewhere and selected New/Microsoft Word Document. Here are some common tasks in word I use:

Create a new (empty) Word Document and save it to c:\testdoc.doc
Set objWord = CreateObject(”Word.Application”)
‘note: if you don’t want word popping up and displaying as this is built– set this next line to False
objWord.Visible = True
Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Add()
’save the Word Document
objDoc.SaveAs(”C:\testdoc.doc”)

Setting the Font type
objSelection.Font.Name = “Arial”

Setting the Font Size
objSelection.Font.Size = “18″

Adding Text
objSelection.TypeText “Add your text here”
objSelection.TypeParagraph()

Setting the typeface to bold
objSelection.Font.Bold = True

Closing the word document (generally done after saving)
objWord.Quit

These should get you started playing with VBScript to create word documents. For more information on working with Microsoft word in VBScript look here at Microsoft’s site, while it’s not related exactly to VBScript– it should give you enough information about the interface to get started.

 Next time, I’ll share a script to document settings in Group policy with a word document through a combination of using Word.Application and Microsoft.XMLDOM.

As always, this code works perfectly. However, sometimes the formatting of the blog breaks the code if you copy and paste it into your editor. So, if you’d like to not type or troubleshoot any syntax errors due to the copy and paste problems– I’ve provided the code for download, plus example output files  from my final tests for you. You’ll find the code and other files available for download from my website’s (www.websystemsadministration.com) File Depot under the ITKE Blog Scripts category. Enjoy and happy scripting!