VBScript is a subset of Visual Basic developed by Microsoft. VBScript is the default scripting language of ASP. The functions of VBScript on the server used with ASP is limited. VBScript is also scripting language of a Microsoft Server. Although VBScript is well supported by Internet Explorer, the level of cross-browser compatibility of VBScript is low, because VBScript is not a standard HTML language. In other words, VBScript can be considered as a server scripting language.

VBScript Code

In general, the applications of VBScript include client-side scripting in Internet Explorer, server-side scripting in Internet Information Services (IIS), and Windows scripting in Windows Script Host. VBScripts of these applications are of different features and specifications. For the client-side scripting in Internet Explorer, all scripts are placed within the <script type="text/vbscript">…</script>. For server-side scripting in ASP of IIS, all scripts are placed within the delimiters <%…%> or the <script language="vbscript" runat="server">…</script> element. For Windows scripting, script is a plain text file with extension of ".vbs". And only the vbscript for the server-side scripting is related to ASP scripting.

Server-Side VBScript Code

For server-side VBScripting, VBScripts inside a web page are interpreted through the ASP engine on the web server. There are two ways to add VBScripts in a web page;

Embedding a VBScript tag:

<‌script language="vbscript" runat="server">…</script>

Integrating with ASP script block:
```
<%…%>
```

Example of VBScript

Example of embedded Server Side VBScript tag, Integrated ASP script block and embedded Client Side VBScript tag for IE10.

HTML Document Input:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Sample Page</title>
        <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="IE=10" />
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>A Web Page Sample</h1>
        <p><%="A client side VBScript for IE10 inside a server side VBScript on "&Now%></p>
        <%Response.Write clientscript%>
        <script runat="server" language="VBScript">
        Function clientscript
           clientscript=("<" & "script language=VBScript  type=text/vbscript>"&vbCrLf)
           clientscript=clientscript&("           a=MsgBox(""test msg"")"&vbCrLf)
           clientscript=clientscript&("           document.write ""<p>Test Msg: ""&a&"&"""</p>"""&vbCrLf)
           clientscript=clientscript&("        <" & "/script>"&vbCrLf)
        End Function
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

ASP and Server-Side VBScripting

Since VBScripts in ASP page will be interpreted through the ASP engine on the web server, no user input and output interface are needed. Therefore the user input and output interface of VBScript features are disabled and the InputBox and MsgBox elements of VBScript are not supported in server-side VBScripting.

Besides, the output of server side VBScript is also manipulated through the ASP engine. The "Response.Write" method of the server Object is used to write the VBScript output to the HTML document before responding to the HTTP request. While the VBScript "Document.Write" method is used as client side VBScript for writing the output of VBScript to the HTML page, the Document object, by the Internet Explorer browser scripting engine before rendering on the display dervice.

In server-side VBScripting, although, both the ASP technology and the VBScript language provide the "CreateObject" Method or Function, however Objects created by VBScript using the "CreateObject" or "GetObject" function or Method of the VBScript language are not compatible with the Objects created by the "Server.CreateObject" of ASP technology. Because the "CreateObject" or "GetObject" function or Method cannot access the ASP built-in Objects of the server. Only instance of Objects created by "Server.CreateObject" can be kept tracked by the server and can participate in transactions. However when the vbscript are working with the Admin Objects of web server or Java monikers, the "CreateObject" method or function is still needed to be used.

VBScripting Reserved Keywords

Since server side VBScripts are integrated with ASP technology to generate dynamic HTML page, keywords of ASP and HTML are also keywords of VBScripting.

Character "&" is the reserved keyword for indicating an HTML character entity in HTML. Replacing a literal & in a HTML web page with an HTML character entity "&" is always a good practice, except for those characters that should be replaced by escaped character "%26" beforehand.
Characters "<" and ">" are the reserved paired keywords for indicating an HTML tag entity in HTML. characters "<" and/or ">" must be replaced with HTML character entities "<" and/or ">" when text bounded by characters "<" and ">>" pair may cause the browser to be treated as a HTML tag. However, replacing literals "<" and ">" in a HTML web page with HTML character entities ""<" and ">" is always a good practice.
Character '"' is the reserved keyword for enquoting character string in HTML, ASP, and VBScript. Characters '"' must be replaced with HTML character entities """ when text bounded by a pair of characters '"' may cause the browser to be treated as a HTML character string. However, replacing literals '"' in a HTML web page with HTML character entity """" is always a good practice. But when the character '"' is used as string delimiter and nested in another string delimiter pair in ASP or VBScript, the string delimiter is repeated successively.
Both "<%" and "%>" are the reserved keywords for indicating the beginning and end of a ASP block. Since the ASP engine always evaluate "<%" and "%> as reseved keywords and reacts accordingly, "<" and ">" must be replaced with HTML character entities ""<" and ">" accordingly when using "<%" and "%>" as literals in a HTML web page. However, when using "<%" and "%>" keywords in a nested script, these keywords must be divided into two parts when reading by the ASP engine.

Examples of VBScripting Keywords

ASP VbScript Command:

Response.Write "<p>&amp;amp; is the HTML character entity of &amp;</p>"
Response.Write "<p>&amp;lt; is the HTML character entity of &lt;</p>"
Response.Write "<p>&amp;gt; is the HTML character entity of &gt;</p>"
Response.Write "<p>&amp;quot; is the HTML character entity of &quot;</p>"
Response.Write "<p>Repeated delimiter double quotation ("""") can be used to represent nested delimiter double quotation (&quot;) in ASP code or VBScript.</p>"
Response.Write "<p>""&lt;%"" and ""%&gt;"" are evaluated as literals.</p>"
Response.Write "<p>""&lt;"&"%"" and ""%"&"&gt;"" are also evaluated as literals.</p>"

HTML Web Page In-line Output:

& is the HTML character entity of &

< is the HTML character entity of <

> is the HTML character entity of >

" is the HTML character entity of "

Repeated delimiter double quotation ("") can be used to represent nested delimiter double quotation (") in ASP code or VBScript.

"<%" and "%>" are evaluated as literals.

"<%" and "%>" are also evaluated as literals.

VBScripting Syntax

VBScripts are also compatible with the standard ASP scripting syntax as an ASP element in an ASP page.

The delimiters "<%" and "%>" can be either on the same line with the scripts
```
<% Response.Write ("<h1>ASP Sample</h1>") %>
```
or on an individual line.
```
<%
Response.Write ("<h1>ASP Sample</h1>")
%>
```
the space between the delimiter and script is not necessary because ASP engine removes white space including spaces, tabs, returns, and line feeds from both VBScript and JScript command of an ASP file. But for other scripting languages, the ASP engine preserves white space so that scripting languages dependent upon position or indentation can be interpreted correctly.
```
<%Response.Write ("<h1>ASP Sample</h1>")%>
```
Comment the script between the delimiters can be done by placing an apostrophe(') at the beginning of a line. And it is better to place another apostrophe(') at the end of a line for better compatibility with JScript. Unlike the HTML comments and client-side scripting comments, the server-side comments are removed by the interpreter during processing and no server-side comment will be sent to the browser.
```
<% ' comment '%>
```
A line break can be used to indicate the end of a script command in both VBScript and JScript command of an ASP file.
```
<% 
Response.Write ("<h1>ASP Sample</h1>") 
Response.Write ("<h2>ASP Statements</h2>") 
%>
```
For a very long VBScript command, the command can go multiple lines by adding a underscore at the end of the line with immediately preceded by a space and immediately followed by a line terminator (carriage return).
```
<% Response.Write "<h1>ASP Sample"&_
"</h1>"
Response.Write <p>6 + _
7</p>%>
```
Multiple commands can also be put on a single line if these commands are seperated by a colon.
```
<% 
Response.Write ("<h1>ASP</h1>") : Response.Write ("<h2>Statement and Comment the VBScrip")%>
```
Comment the VBScript between the delimiters can be done by placing an apostrophe(') at the beginning of a line. Unlike the HTML comments and client-side scripting comments, the server-side comments are removed by the interpreter during processing and no server-side comment will be sent to the browser.
```
<% ' comment %>
```
Inline comment can be done by placing an apostrophe(') after the end of a VBScript command except for the output directive expression.
```
<% Response.Write ("<h1>ASP</h1>")' comment %>
```
Multiple lines comment can be done by placing an apostrophe(') on the beginning of each line.
```
<%' comment line 1 
'comment line 2 
'comment line 3 %>
```
VBScript is not case sensitive. Variable with name, "TempStr" is same as variable with name "tempstr", the two names are refered to same variable. And the "Date" function can also be named "date". Similarly,"response.write" can also be used to refer to the ASP "Reponse.Write" object.

Server-Side VBScript Elements

The elements of the server-side VBScript Language may be grouped as following.

Basic: The fundament components of VBScript Language. e.g. Data Types, Variables, Constants and Keywords.
Errors: The error catalogue of VBScript Language. e.g. List of VBScript run-time and syntax errors
Functions: Build-in functions in VBScript Language
Methods: Build-in methods in VBScript Language
Objects and Collections: Build-in objects and collections in VBScript Language
Operators: Build-in operations in VBScript Language
Properties: Build-in properties in VBScript Language
Statments: Build-in statements in VBScript Language

©sideway

ID: 121200004 Last Updated: 2012/12/17 Revision: 0