WScript and ASP question

[jonpfl]

All,

Can I use WScript inside an ASP page to kick off another process and post back to the client while this other process is still running?

The reason I want to do this is because we are creating PDFs and they are taking as long as 2 mins (alot of processing to create PDFs) and we would like to have it as an offline process and email it to them when it is done and not have them waiting at a webpage for completion.

Thx
jonpfl

[jonpfl]

This is what I am doing on my .asp page

Dim WSHShell, WshEnv
Set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set WSHEnv = WSHShell.Environment("Process")
WSHEnv("SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS") = 1
WSHShell.Run(server.MapPath("/credit_reporting/maintenance/jon_test.vbs"))
'WSHShell.Run("notepad")
WSHEnv.Remove("SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS")

And in my /credit_reportin g/maintenance/jon_test.vbs file, I don't have anything right now. I am just testing to see if this is going to work and I am getting an error.

Is there a special format I need in my jon_test.vbs file?

Thx
jonpfl

[DrBunchman]

I think I'm right in saying that once you start to run a vbs script from a shell your ASP code will continue to process but it should be easy enough to test.

What's the error you're getting?

Dr B

[jonpfl]

My dumb mistake of not having the right path!!!

But that leads to another problem. I have the following in my ASP page

Dim WSHShell, WshEnv
Set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set WSHEnv = WSHShell.Environment("Process")
WSHEnv("SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS") = 1
response.Write "jon1"
response.Write WSHShell.Run(server.MapPath("\credit_reporting\maintenance\business_subjects\jon_test.vbs"))
WSHEnv.Remove("SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS")
response.Write "jon2"

And the following for jon_test.vbs

dim Mail
set Mail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")

'fill email fields
Mail.From="xxx@xxx.com"
Mail.To="xxx@xxx.com"
Mail.Subject="test"
Mail.HTMLBody = "test"

Mail.Send  'email this message

set Mail = Nothing

And I never receive and email from the ASP page. If I go onto the server and run the script, I get an email (mind you, I deleted my actual email address).

Any thoughts?

Thx
jonpfl

[jonpfl]

Actually, here is some more info

If I add the following info, the page never returns. I assume this means this is a permission problem since this code is waiting for a return, right?

WSHShell.Run (server.MapPath("\credit_reporting\maintenance\business_subjects\jon_test.vbs"), 1, true)

Any thoughts?

Thx
jonpfl

[DrBunchman]

Correct, the third parameter is a boolean which determines whether your program will wait for the completion of the script.

If it never continues running then there is a problem with your script not finishing. Do you get a window on the server when the script is called?

Dr B

[jonpfl]

Correct, the third parameter is a boolean which determines whether your program will wait for the completion of the script.

If it never continues running then there is a problem with your script not finishing. Do you get a window on the server when the script is called?

Dr B

Should I be getting a window if I have the 2nd param as 1?

What user does an ASP page run under?

Thx
jonpfl

[DrBunchman]

The second paramater IS specifying that it opens a window - whether it will or not I don't know as the script is very short and you aren't writing to the screen.

The name that an ASP page runs under depends on the security settings you specify in the IIS console. If you are using anonymous auth then it will use the IUSR_<machine name> account; if you are using windows auth then it will use the logged in user's account.

Why do you think you're getting permission problems?

Dr B

[jonpfl]

The second paramater IS specifying that it opens a window - whether it will or not I don't know as the script is very short and you aren't writing to the screen.

The name that an ASP page runs under depends on the security settings you specify in the IIS console. If you are using anonymous auth then it will use the IUSR_<machine name> account; if you are using windows auth then it will use the logged in user's account.

Why do you think you're getting permission problems?

Dr B

Because I am setting the 3rd variable to true which means it has to wait for the script to complete before continuing in, right?

Well, when I run this script, it just hangs and the page never returns. I was assuming it was a permission problem

Thx
jonpfl

[DrBunchman]

Yes it should wait.

What happens if you reduce the vbs script to something really, really simple like one line? Does it still hang then?

Dr B

[jonpfl]

Yes it should wait.

What happens if you reduce the vbs script to something really, really simple like one line? Does it still hang then?

Dr B

Yes, I tried putting one line in the vbs page and it still hung (Dim Mail)

These are the two pages I have now :

jon.asp

<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<% Option Explicit %> 

<%
Dim WSHShell, WshEnv
Set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set WSHEnv = WSHShell.Environment("Process")
WSHEnv("SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS") = 1
Response.Write("Starts here<br/>") 

on error resume next 

%> 
<pre> 
<%=now()%> 

</pre> 
<% 

WSHShell.Run server.MapPath("\credit_reporting\maintenance\business_subjects\jon_test.vbs"), 1, true
WSHEnv.Remove("SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS")
Response.write "Passed through<br/>" 

if err.number <> 0 then 
   response.write "Error detected: " & err.number & ": " & err.Description & "<br/>" 
   on error goto 0 
   response.end 
end if 
on error goto 0 
Response.write "Run sucessfully<br/>" 
%> 

<pre> 
<%=now()%> 

</pre> 

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

	<head>
		<title>jon</title>
	</head>

<body onload="">
<table width="100%">
    <tr><td>test</td></tr>
</table>

</body>
</html>

Here is jon_test.vbs

dim Mail
set Mail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")

'fill email fields
Mail.From="xxx@xxx.com"
Mail.To="xxx@xxx.com"
Mail.Subject="test"
Mail.HTMLBody = "test"

Mail.Send  'email this message

set Mail = Nothing

Any ideas from this? Is there something on IIS that could be stopping this from returning?

Thx
jonpfl

[jonpfl]

If you can give me some code you have working for WScript, I can try copying it into my pages to see if it works for me.

Thx
jonpfl

[jonpfl]

Ok, I changed my code to this

sTemp = "cscript " & server.MapPath("\credit_reporting\maintenance\business_subjects\jon_test.vbs")
'WSHShell.Run server.MapPath("\credit_reporting\maintenance\business_subjects\jon_test.vbs"), 1, true
WSHShell.Run sTemp

and I get the following :

Starts here


7/9/2008 2:49:26 PM


Passed through
Error detected: 70: Permission denied


Thoughts?
jonpfl

[jonpfl]

Ok, I got it working. My admin guy gave read/execute permission to the cscript.exe file in the windows/system32 directory.

Now, when I try to execute the script from the server, it creates the file as expected. When I try to create the file via the ASP page, it completes but the file does not get created.

Thoughts?
jonpfl

[DrBunchman]

I'd take out the error trapping from your ASP page - at this stage you want it to break so you can see what's going on.

You need to see whether the problem is the script itself (which it probably isn't as this works when run separately) or the shell.

If you run it without error trapping what happens? Does it still process the page okay or does it error?

Dr B