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Exposing Properties

 

You can expose properties in two ways:

  • As simple values   The property is simply a global variable that can be read and written by the script component's user. Because the value is stored in a global value, you can manipulate it in your Windows Script Component file's scripts.

  • As functions   The property is defined using a function. This allows you to calculate a property value, and to control whether a property is read-only, read-write, or write-only.

You can also mark a property as the default value for a script component.

To expose a property as a simple value

  1. Create a <public> element as a child of the <component> element.

  2. In the <public> element, include a <property> element that specifies the variable used to store property value.

  3. To initialize the value of a simple property, create a global variable in the <script> element with a name matching propertyName (or propertyVariable, if you specified that) and assign it a value.

  4. The following script component fragment illustrates two properties (name and tag) exposed as simple values. The properties are initialized using global variables in the <script> element.

    Note

    A CDATA section is required to make the script in the <script> element opaque. For details, see Script Component Files and XML Conformance.

    <public>
       <property name="name"/>
       <property name="tag" internalName="tagVar"/>
    </public>
    
    <script language="VBScript">
       <![CDATA[
       Dim name
       name = "script component"   ' Initializes the value of name property.
       Dim tagVar
       tagVar = "10"   ' Initializes the value of tag property.
       ]]>
    </script>
    

To expose a property using functions

  1. In the script component file's <public> element, include a <property> element that contains a <get> element to define the read function and a <put> element to define the write function. If you do not include the <put> element, the property will be read-only. If you do not include the <get> element, the property will be write-only.

  2. Write procedures in a <script> element outside the <public> element to implement the functions. The function for setting the property's value — the put function — must accept a single parameter, the value to set the property to.

    The names of the procedures must match the internal names you specified in the <property> element. If you did not specify an internalName attribute, the names of the functions must be the name of the function with the get_ prefix for a read function, and with a put_ prefix for the write function.

  3. For example, the following script component fragment is an example of a script component file that exposes three properties: sname, dateOfBirth, and age. The dateOfBirth property is defined by functions so it can include error checking. The age property is calculated, and is therefore defined as read-only.

    Note

    A CDATA section is required to make the script in the <script> element opaque. For details, see Script Component Files and XML Conformance.

    <public>
       <property name="sname"/>
       <property name="age">
          <get internalName="readAge"/>
       </property>
       <property name="dateOfBirth">
          <get internalName="readDOB"/>
          <put internalName="writeDOB"/>
       </property>
    </public>
    
    <script language="VBScript">
    <![CDATA[
    Dim sname   ' Read-write sname property (no functions).
    Dim gDOB   ' Global variable used to store date of birth.
    
    Function readDOB()
       ' Gets value of dateOfBirth property.
       readDOB = gDOB
    End Function
    
    Function writeDOB(newDOB)
       ' Sets value of dateOfBirth property.
       If isDate(gDOB) Then
          'Error checking
          gDOB = newDOB
       End If
    End Function
    
    Function readAge()
       ' Calculates read-only age property.
       If isDate(gDOB) Then
          dobM = DatePart("m", gDOB)
          dobD = DatePart("d", gDOB)
          dobY = DatePart("yyyy", gDOB)
          todayY = DatePart("yyyy", Date)
          age = todayY - dobY
    
          ' Adjust if birthday has not yet occurred this year.
          bday = DateValue(dobM & "/" & dobD & "/" & todayY)
          If DateDiff("d", bday, DateValue(Date)) < 0 Then
             age = age - 1
          End If
          readAge = age
       End If
    End Function
    ]]>
    </script>
    

You can specify a default property for a script component so the host application can get or set the property's value without explicitly naming the property. For example, if you have exposed a property called sname and marked it as the default, you can work with it in either of these ways in Visual Basic:

Set component = CreateObject("Component.MyComponent")
n = component.sname   ' Gets property explicitly.
n = component   ' Gets value of sname as default.

To specify a default property, include an attribute assigning a special dispatch identifier (a dispid) to the method. For more information about dispids, see Exposing Events.

To specify a default property

  1. In the <property> element, include the attribute dispid="0", as in the following example:

    <property name="sname" dispid="0"/>
    

    Note

    This technique can be used to assign either a default property or a default method, but not both. There can be only one element in the script component with the dispid of zero.

See Also

Exposing Events
Exposing Methods
Script Component File Contents
Script Component Files and XML Conformance