If you work with COM dlls a lot as I do, you
often have a need to register / unregister these components conveniently.
Often with only FTP or HTTP access to your remote production webserver,
it would also be convenient to be able to call an ASP page that asks
you for the full path and name of the DLL, and allows you to either
register or unregister the specified component. Fear not! Here I'll
present easy ways to do both. First, lets whip up an ASP page that lets
us remotely register/unregister our favorite DLL: The key to this operation
is to use the RUN method of the WSH WshShell class. First, let's take
a brief overview abstracted from the help file so you'll understand
where we are going with this useful method:
Method: object.Run(strCommand,
[intWindowStyle], [bWaitOnReturn])
-
Arguments: strCommand
-
String value indicating the command line you want
to run. You must include any parameters you want to pass to the executable
file, .e.g. "Regsvr32.exe c:\apps\mydll.dll".
-
intWindowStyle
-
Optional. Integer value indicating the appearance
of the program's window. Note that not all programs make use of this
information.
-
bWaitOnReturn
-
Optional. Boolean value indicating whether the script
should wait for the program to finish executing before continuing
to the next statement in your script. If set to true, script
execution halts until the program finishes, and Run returns
any error code returned by the program (0 for success). If set to
false (the default), the Run method returns immediately
after starting the program, automatically returning 0 (not to be interpreted
as an error code).
Remarks
The Run method returns an integer. The Run
method starts a program running in a new Windows process. You can
have your script wait for the program to finish execution before continuing.
This allows you to run scripts and programs synchronously. Environment
variables within the argument strCommand are automatically expanded.
If a file type has been properly registered to a particular program, calling
run on a file of that type executes the program. For example, if Word
is installed on your computer system, calling Run on a *.doc file
starts Word, and loads the document. The following table lists the available
settings for intWindowStyle.
| intWindowStyle |
Description |
| 0 |
Hides the window and activates another
window. |
| 1 |
Activates and displays a window. If
the window is minimized or maximized, the system restores it to
its original size and position. An application should specify this
flag when displaying the window for the first time. |
| 2 |
Activates the window and displays it
as a minimized window. |
| 3 |
Activates the window and displays it
as a maximized window. |
| 4 |
Displays a window in its most recent
size and position. The active window remains active. |
| 5 |
Activates the window and displays it
in its current size and position. |
| 6 |
Minimizes the specified window and activates
the next top-level window in the Z order. |
| 7 |
Displays the window as a minimized window.
The active window remains active. |
| 8 |
Displays the window in its current state.
The active window remains active. |
| 9 |
Activates and displays the window. If
the window is minimized or maximized, the system restores it to
its original size and position. An application should specify this
flag when restoring a minimized window. |
| 10 |
Sets the show-state based on the state
of the program that started the application. |
Example
The following VBScript code opens the calling VBS script
with Notepad:
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run ("%windir%\notepad" & WScript.ScriptFullName)
The following VBScript code does the same thing, except
it specifies the window type, waits for Notepad to be shut down by the
user, and saves the error code returned from Notepad when it is shut down.
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Return = WshShell.Run("notepad " & WScript.ScriptFullName, 1, true)
So now let's construct our most simple implementation of an ASP page that uses this technique:
<%
Dim Scriptname
ScriptName = "RegUnReg.asp"
if Request.Form("SUBMIT") = "" Then
Response.Status = "401 - Unauthorized"
With Response
.write "<CENTER><FORM ACTION=""" & ScriptName & """ METHOD=POST>"
.write "<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME=FILEPATH SIZE=120>Full Path/Filename to Reg/UnReg<BR>"
.write "<INPUT TYPE=CHECKBOX NAME=ACTIONTYPE CHECKED>Checked=Register; Unchecked=Unregister<BR>"
.write "<INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT NAME=SUBMIT VALUE=SUBMIT></CENTER>"
.write "</FORM>"
end with
else
Set fso = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
RegSrv = fso.GetSpecialFolder(1) & "\REGSVR32.EXE /s "
Set WshShell =CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
runstring = "CMD /C " & RegSrv & " /u "
if Request.Form("ACTIONTYPE")="on" then runstring
= "CMD /C " & RegSrv
Return = WshShell.Run(runstring & Request.Form("FILEPATH"),
1, True)
Response.Write "Result:
" & Return
Set fso=Nothing
Set WshShell = Nothing
end if
%>
Make sure you get all the syntax and spaces in the right
places above, or your script may fail!. If you copy the entire script
above including the <% %> script delimiters, and paste it into Notepad
and save it as "RegUnReg.asp" on your server, it should work
right out of the box. Note the "401 Unauthorized" Response Header
near the top is a good security idea on a production box to help you remember
your own username and password, right? Now the only thing you have to
know is the drive letter, path and name of the DLL. If your development
machine's setup parallels your production box, you could put a dummy "<INPUT
TYPE=FILE" control on there as well, and use that to actually search
your own filesytem to easily get the full path and filename to "Paste"
right into the real formfield.
In addition, and in response to some helpful user comments,
I've included a zip at the link below containing the VB 6.0 project and
compiled DLL for "LoginAdmin.ImpersonateUser" which use the
LogonUSer and ImpersonateUser API's to enable your script to impersonate,
for example, a member of the Power Users group which may be required to
gain access to REGSVR32.EXE through IIS.
Setting Shell Context Menu items to Register / Unregister
COM Dll's via Registry Entries
Another handy tip is to enter the shell
registry command values to enable you to right click on any COM DLL and
either register or unregister it. Copy the entire colored text below to
a file with a ".REG" extension and double click on it. You'll
thank me later.
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\Unregister\command]
@="regsvr32.exe /u %1"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\Register\command]
@="regsvr32.exe %1"
Download
the code that accompanies this article
Peter Bromberg is an independent consultant specializing in distributed .NET solutionsa Senior Programmer / Analyst at
in Orlando and a co-developer of the EggheadCafe.com
developer website. He can be reached at pbromberg@yahoo.com
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