Which is best? VBScript or Javascript?

[TigerDivision]

Hi all

I thought of posting this here in order to get some feedback. I mainly administer W2K3 servers and would like to learn a scripting language in order to automate certain admin tasks, gether info, etc. Which scripting language would you recommend I use?

Thanks

 

[kaht]

Javascript, VBScript is only supported in IE.

-kaht

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[cLFlaVA]

Javascript. Hands down. Wider browser support.



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[TigerDivision]

Thanks. Do you happen to know of a good Javascript tutorial?

Thanks

 

[cLFlaVA]

if you're looking for an overview, you might consider buying a book on javascript. otherwise, if you're looking for specicic functionality, a simple search describing your concern would yield numerous results.

for example, google for "javascript form validation".



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[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.coryarthus.com/[/url]

 

[tsuji]

What has browser to do with administration script, I wonder? But, if you don't know any of both, start with javascript won't waste your precious time. If you want to know the meat of administration, vbscript is a good gate opener.

 

[TigerDivision]

I was going to ask the same question. Can I use Javascript to create admin scripts to administer Windows servers? I think VBscript is more suited to such tasks.

Thanks

 

[tsuji]

You can both just relative peer support. But, you know, fashion changes... the essence of the thing will stay.

 

[snowboardr]

http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp

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[rac2]

See

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/guide/default.mspx?mfr=true

I wonder whether Javascript has any application to system administration. It runs in browsers. True JScript is very similar and runs on IIS web servers, such as with ASP. But I dont think of that as a means of automating server administration. Can it even run from a command line?

Dont get me wrong, I use JScript and Javascript almost exclusively. Only venture into VBScript, Perl, or PHP when maintaining sites others have developed.

Perl can be installed on Windows machines and is quite powerful. It can be used to automate system adiministration tasks or in dynamic web sites plus communication between servers using all the internet protocols, ftp, http, smtp, etc, but you might not want to go down that road.

 

[tsuji]

Jscript, it can.

 

[jmille34]

When you say javascript versus vbscript, that implies that everything is going to run in a web browser, which doesn't sound at all like what you're asking. You want vbscript in standalone .VBS files that will run through windows native parser.

Another *EXCELLENT* utility for doing all kinds of automation is AutoIT

http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3.

You can use it to simulate keyboard and mouse input while reading text files and things of that nature. My autoit masterpiece program runs based on a collection of text files and runs on average for 30-45 minutes straight and does what would take me 8 hours by hand.

However, .VBS will still hold a huge advantage in that you can use it to instantiate windows based objects such as a MS Outlook object or a Word object, and script against functions built into those applications. However, IMHO, this crosses significantly into the realm of VOODOO, and I like to consider myself more of an artist. With .VBS it seems like I am perpetually searching for some mystical microsoft magic word that just does some weird thing but isn't documented, and it's just more hassle than it's worth. With autoit, you know the capabilities up front, and it is very well documented.

Anyway, there is always a best tool for the job, so if you can be more specific about some of the jobs you have in mind, I can tell you if Autoit can do it to avoid having to research it yourself.