VBScript - Overview

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VBScript stands for Visual Basic Scripting that forms a subset of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). VBA is a product of Microsoft which is included NOT only in other Microsoft products such as MS Project and MS Office but also in Third Party tools such as AUTO CAD.

Features of VBScript

  • VBScript is a lightweight scripting language, which has a lightning fast interpreter.

  • VBScript, for the most part, is case insensitive. It has a very simple syntax, easy to learn and to implement.

  • Unlike C++ or Java, VBScript is an object-based scripting language and NOT an Object-Oriented Programming language.

  • It uses Component Object Model (COM) in order to access the elements of the environment in which it is executing.

  • Successful execution of VBScript can happen only if it is executed in Host Environment such as Internet Explorer (IE), Internet Information Services (IIS) and Windows Scripting Host (WSH)

VBscript – Version History and Uses

VBScript was introduced by Microsoft way back in 1996 and its first version was 1.0. The current stable version of VBScript is 5.8, which is available as part of IE8 or Windows 7. The VBScript usage areas are aplenty and not restricted to the below list.

  • VBScript is used as a scripting language in one of the popular Automation testing tools – Quick Test Professional abbreviated as QTP

  • Windows Scripting Host, which is used mostly by Windows System administrators for automating the Windows Desktop.

  • Active Server Pages (ASP), a server side scripting environment for creating dynamic webpages which uses VBScript or Java Script.

  • VBScript is used for Client side scripting in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

  • Microsoft Outlook Forms usually runs on VBScript; however, the application level programming relies on VBA (Outlook 2000 onwards).

Disadvantages

  • VBscript is used only by IE Browsers. Other browsers such as Chrome, Firefox DONOT Support VBScript. Hence, JavaScript is preferred over VBScript.

  • VBScript has a Limited command line support.

  • Since there is no development environment available by default, debugging is difficult.

Where VBScript is Today ?

The current version of VBScript is 5.8, and with the recent development of .NET framework, Microsoft has decided to provide future support of VBScript within ASP.NET for web development. Hence, there will NOT be any more new versions of VBScript engine but the entire defect fixes and security issues are being addressed by the Microsoft sustaining Engineering Team. However, VBScript engine would be shipped as part of all Microsoft Windows and IIS by default.

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