RE: vbscript converter runs without producing any output

-----Original Message-----
From: pdk-...@listserv.activestate.com
[mailto:pdk-...@listserv.activestate.com] On Behalf Of Eric
Promislow
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 9:00 AM
To: p...@listserv.activestate.com
Subject: Re: vbscript converter runs without producing any output

> On 3/24/2012 10:04 PM, Phillip Richcreek wrote:> >
myMail.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/confi
guration/smtpusessl") = True
>      $myMail->Configuration->Fields->SetProperty("Item",
'http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpusessl', 1);

My first stab at manually translating the code from the VBScript would
probably be something like this:

$myMail->{Configuration}->{Fields}->Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/c
do/configuration/smtpusessl")->{Value} = 1;

Here is my rationale:
* Hash syntax (->{Configuration}) when using Win32::OLE indicates a
Property
* Method syntax (->Configuration) when using Win32::OLE indicates a
Method.  Win32::OLE will automatically try looking for a Property as
well, but I prefer to be a little more explicit.
* I looked on MSDN for the CDO.Message definition and found
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms526453(v=exchg.10).aspx which
documents the IMessage Interface.
* Configuration is listed as a Property, so I used ->{Configuration}
* Configuration returns an object that implements IConfiguration, so I
then tracked down the IConfiguration interface and it listed Fields as a
Property, so I used ->{Fields}
* Fields is a ADODB.Fields object, so I tracked that down.
* Now we get to the level of Collections, which are always a little
funky in my experience.   Item is technically a Property, but because it
requires an index parameter, we'll use the method call syntax.
Furthermore, if you look at something like
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms675103(v=vs.85
).aspx, you'll see that there's this whole "implicit default property"
and Value seems to be that property a lot.  All I know is that much of
the time I can get away without Value, but that things tend to behave
cleaner (fewer Win32::OLE objects floating around when I really want to
look at a bare value) if I use it.  

Part of the problem is that VB and VBA and VBScript do a lot of
"under-the-covers" work that simplifies the syntax (no syntactic
difference between properties and method calls, a lot of implicit stuff
so that one can dismiss with stuff that must be made explicit in other
languages), and so working straight from VBScript can be iffy and
writing a translator is not necessarily straightforward.  I tend to use
VBScript examples as a starting point for what I'm trying to do, but go
straight to the MSDN references for the components to verify how I want
to write that code in Perl.

Finally, I test every single return value, use Win32::OLE->LastError() a
lot, etc.

Also, when setting values, one must sometimes use Win32::OLE::Variant
and Variant(VT_foo, $data) in order to ensure proper coercion to an
acceptable variant type.  For instance, if the above doesn't work, I
would next try substituting Variant(VT_BOOL, 1) in place of 1 (thus
making sure it gets a Boolean instead of a digit).

Warning!  I did not actually find a box with CDO on it and start testing
- the above is just the syntactic magic that seems to work for me the
best, but your mileage may vary!


Toby Ovod-Everett
AT&T Alaska Information Services
907.264.7620
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