WSF - Windows Script File XML Format

VBScript Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - Version 5.20, by Dr. Herong Yang

VBScript Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟WSF - Windows Script File XML Format

This section describes the WSF (Windows Script File) XML format. Multiple script jobs with different scripting language can be defined in a single WSF file.

WSH can run a VBScript code file directly. But it also supports an XML file format called .WSF (Windows Script File). WSF file offers an XML structure to define script jobs and group jobs into a package.

WSF supports the following basic XML elements:

"package" - The root element of WSF file.
"package.job" - The job element defines a script job with the "id" attribute.
"package.job.script" - The script element inserts a segment of script code in the language specified in the "language" attribute.

Here is a tutorial example of a WSF file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<package>
<!-- Windows_Script_File.vbs
 - Copyright (c) 2015, HerongYang.com, All Rights Reserved.
-->
   <job id="VBScriptJob">
      <script language="VBScript">
         WScript.Echo "Hello world! - VBScriptJob"
      </script>
   </job>

   <job id="JScriptJob">
      <script language="JScript">
         WScript.Echo("Hello world! - JScriptJob"); 
      </script>
   </job>
   
   <job id="MixedJob">
      <script language="VBScript">
         Dim sName
         sName = "MixedJob"
      </script>
      <script language="JScript">
         WScript.Echo("Hello world! - "+sName); 
      </script>
   </job>
</package>

Jobs defined in this WSF file can be executed with WSH hosts as shown below:

C:\herong>cscript //Job:VBScriptJob Windows_Script_File.wsf

Hello world! - VBScriptJob

C:\herong>cscript //Job:JScriptJob Windows_Script_File.wsf

Hello world! - JScriptJob

C:\herong>cscript //Job:MixedJob Windows_Script_File.wsf

Hello world! - MixedJob

Note that:

"//Job:..." option must be used to run a job defined in a WSF file, except for the first job.
"JScript" is the Microsoft version of JavaScript.
"MixedJob" shows that multiple script code segments of different language can be used together to perform a single task.

Table of Contents

About This Book

Introduction of VBScript - Visual Basic Scripting Edition

Variant Data Type, Subtypes, and Literals

Arithmetic Operations

Numeric Comparison Operations and Logical Operations

String Operations - Concatenation and Comparison

Variable Declaration and Assignment Statement

Expression and Order of Operation Precedence

Statement Syntax and Statement Types

Array Data Type and Related Statements

Array References and Array Assignment Statements