Vbscript to search string in a directory and output to a tab delimted file

Hi, try this VBS code.  You can set the first 4 lines to suit....

Regards,

Rob.

strSearchStrings = "C:\Temp\Scripts\Strings.txt"
strFolder = "C:\Temp"
strResultsFile = "C:\Temp\Scripts\Results.txt"
Const boolRecurse = True
 
strResults = "Searching for files in " & strFolder & ": " & Now
Const intForReading = 1
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objDict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
Set objInputFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strSearchStrings, intForReading, False)
While Not objInputFile.AtEndOfStream
	strString = objInputFile.ReadLine
	SearchFolder strFolder, strString
	If objDict.Exists(strString) = False Then objDict.Add strString, "Not found."
Wend
objInputFile.Close
Set objOutputFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(strResultsFile, True)
objOutputFile.WriteLine strResults
For Each strSearchString In objDict
	objOutputFile.WriteLine strSearchString & vbTab & objDict(strSearchString)
Next
objOutputFile.Close
MsgBox "Done"
 
Sub SearchFolder(strFolderPath, strSearchFor)
	For Each objFile In objFSO.GetFolder(strFolderPath).Files
		If InStr(LCase(objFile.Name), LCase(strSearchFor)) > 0 Then
			If objDict.Exists(strSearchFor) = True Then
				objDict(strSearchFor) = objDict(strSearchFor) & "," & objFile.Path
			Else
				objDict.Add strSearchFor, objFile.Path
			End If
		End If
	Next
	If boolRecurse = True Then
		For Each objSubFolder In objFSO.GetFolder(strFolderPath).SubFolders
			SearchFolder objSubFolder.Path, strSearchFor
		Next
	End If
End Sub

                                              

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it didn't work

i had some excel and openoffice files with the following text
192.168.1.100
192.168.1.101
192.168.1.103
192.168.1.102
test

and the out put

Searching for files in C:\Temp: 15/09/2008 9:49:56 PM
192.168.1.100      Not found.
192.168.1.101      Not found.
192.168.1.103      Not found.
192.168.1.102      Not found.
test      Not found.

Oh....I thought we were looking for file *names*, not the content of such files.....

I wasn't aware of how to search inside Office files using VBScript, until a few minutes ago, when I found this:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/aug07/hey0827.mspx

which has been around since August 2007, so I missed the boat on that one :-[

Anyway, that does require the Windows Desktop Search 3.0 to be installed, but will definately do this job for you....

Regards,

Rob.

sorry Rob - i did mention XP client machine with no admin rights as such i'm unable to install Window Desktop Search 3.0 and award points. thanks for the comments tho.

I'm sorry, I don't know of any other way to programatically return the results from such a search, without using some additional software.

This is all I could find:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266517(VS.85).aspx

Regards,

Rob.

ok thanks. - is there any way to bump this question to expert or intermediate level

Not sure.  You could try posting a request to have an alert sent to other experts for this question.....

Does this have to be in vbscript?  Could you make an app and install it to be used?  Not all program installs will even need admin rights but can you not install a program for them, as an admin, and then it is there for them to use as their limited user?

To my knowledge RobSampson is exactly right ... vbscript needs help to do this.  Remember those files are binary and in a proprietary format.  It isn't something vbscript can just open and read (or at least make sense of).  RobSampson mention a program you could add that would let you do this in a vbscript.  I know of programs that will do this (e.g. PowerGrep) on their own and allow you to make the tab delimited file of the results.  Let me know if you want more details about that or similar programs, if you think it will be something you can use.

All credit to RobSampson though for most of this since I am just agreeing for the most part.  You can certainly leave this open to see if another expert can think of something that would fit your requirements.  I wanted to post a response so you knew the info you have so far seems very good and accurate.  Let me know if you have a question about any of this and good luck.  Hopefully this helps. :)

bol

It seems to me that one way to approach this is to read the entrie file into a string variable, then use functions such as:

  InStr Function
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wybb344c(VS.85).aspx

  Regular Expression (RegExp) Object
   http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yab2dx62(VS.85).aspx

...to look for matches. I'd try
   OpenTextFile http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/314cz14s(VS.85).aspx
   ReadAll          http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/t58aa4dd(VS.85).aspx

Yes, these files are binary, but they likely contain the text itself in a recognizable form.

One way to quickly test if the above is true, use the following command-line:

FIND "192.168.1.100" c:\mydir\FileToSearch.doc

if FIND can find the text, then VBS probably can.

VM,
Do you not want us to post more until then?  I would think any security issue would just mean our script won't find files the user may want because the machine is "hardened" and the script can't access the files.  I hope my comment below won't be too much but let me know if you have a concern and want us to hold until the Asker responds.

All,
In relation to DanRollins' suggestion I can say from some experience that trying the doc (and other formats) can be a little hard, even though there is some recognizable text.  In the case of a DOC file (in format of Word 97-02) you can see the lines but the new line characters isn't what most scripts would expect.  I believe it is just the CR character (chr 13).  If the script grabs all the contents then that may not matter but trying to read a "line" will not work well on a Windows system expecting CR+LF (or even just LF).  Of course that was just one DOC format (not the Word 2007 formats) and other Office files will be even harder.  I am not saying it won't work or provide what you want but just pointing out a basic issue.  Definitely worth mentioning by DanRollins and may be enough to work. :)

bol

I agree with bol, I would expect that security still holds for the user context running the script or program, as to whether they can access certain files.  Also, in support of whether FileSystemObject methods would work, it seems unlikely (or at least quite complicated), as the Scripting Guys mention here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/aug07/hey0827.mspx

"Windows Desktop Search can open  and search through  all sorts of file types, including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, etc. Without using Desktop Search wed be limited to searching through text files. (OK, in theory we could search other document types, but wed have to include code that identifies, opens and searches Word documents plus code that identifies, opens and searches Excel spreadsheets plus code that identifies, opens and searches  well, you get the idea.)"

The Windows Desktop Search can also be silently installed, and Group Policy controlled, as described in the Notes section here:
http://www.appdeploy.com/packages/detail.asp?id=678

The basic solution I think, is that this functionality requires a third party product (or at least an add-on), and I feel that using a Microsoft product would stick with most organisations guidelines too.

P.S. Thank Vee for the comments, and bol and Dan for the support.

Regards,

Rob.

If a class of users were allowed read-only access to certain folders, some would consider that to be a soundly secure setup.  And there would be no constraints against searching though those documents to look for keywords or other data.

thanks for all the comments.

currently i'm doing a word or text search using windows search tool to solve my problem.
( not desktop 3.0 as i do not have admin rights to install.)

i'm able to find the files easily with a single search, the problem i have is i need to do multiple searches.
and i have a long list and it's going to take me a long time to type in 1 by 1 and gather all the files displayed.

the hardening issue is confusing everyone. sorry-
i have full access rights to the files that i'm going to search.

i just need some code to read thru the list and create another file with the filepaths of documents found.(either vbs or something that can be run on xp pro without installing anything xtra).

if the code can run on my home xp pro computer without installing anything i'll be glad to award points.
even if it doesn't work on my hardened office computer.

i can't copy the data out  - :( its encrypted

anyway i think we've hit a dead end here. so i'm willing to award points if there's any other solutions. (i.e copy the data files out to a machine where i have admin rights)

i just have to find a way to get the data files out decrypted....

thanks once again.

It appears that command-line utilities such as FIND and FINDSTR fail on binary files such as *.doc (these tools expect line-oriented text).  

FWIW, the Visual Studio "Find In Files" command will let you search a branch or sub-tree of folders for files containing a specific text string.  You can limit the search to a list of file extensions.   The output pane shows each occurrence,.. and it does search binary data files.

I'm out of ideas.  On your restricted PC (I assume it's at your work place)....can you get someone who *does* have admin rights to install the WDS for you?  That way, you could use a script.

If it's going to save you so much time, surely it would be in your organisation's best interests to do this for you?  If not, I really don't believe Windows can do it via script "out of the box".

Regards,

Rob.

thanks once again for the comments

i'll award points for a script that works with Windows Desktop Search.
that fits the requirements in my first post.

any idea why  WDS doesn't index and find Openoffice formats even tho it has been specified in the file types?

Hmmm. Not really....perhaps "Microsoft" doesn't know how to search "OpenOffice" files  :-(

hi RobSampson

you code works , however its only getting single files.

for e.g there are 2 files with the searchstring but it only grabs the first 1 filepath.

is it possible for you to tweak the code so that it add the other filepath after a tab.

Hi Matt, during my testing, I found it had the same behaviour, until I opened the full Desktop Search interface, and performed the search manually.  This forced the Desktop Search to index the target folder, and after that, the VBScript worked.  I think by default the Desktop Search is configured to only index when the system is idle, so it would take a while for it to index your file system.

Regards,

Rob.

yes i realised that too. have to rebuild the index.
I also found out that ifilter plugin need to be installed before WDS can index Openoffice formats.
http://www.ifiltershop.com/staroffice-openoffice-ifilter.html

thanks alot for your solution