Question

Trying to script exporting Internet favorites, need help.

Asked by: TooKoolKris

Have to do a small migration moving some old NT4 networks into a 2000\XP AD network. One of the little tasks that we have been asked to come up with is to save users Internet Favorites to the My Documents folder which has be redirected to a sever share via a GPO. This is no biggy because their home drive is mapped to where I need it to go so no method is needed to map the drive first. The only thing I have found and looks pretty simple is to use the ImportExportFavorites method and this is good because I can use this to import them back after the migration.

The problem I'm having is trying to find some sample code of how to set this object. All I can find is that it belongs to the Window.External object however when trying to use the CreateObject method to set this up I'm not having any luck with it.

Anyone have some code that I can use to do this simple task. I just need to export the favorites to any place on the server for an example so I can see how to set the object correctly and see that It's works.

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Asked On
2003-12-18 at 11:26:44ID20829774
Tags

export

,

favorites

,

internet

,

script

Topic

Active Server Pages (ASP)

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: DexstarPosted on 2003-12-23 at 16:29:35ID: 9994537

@TooKoolKris:

> Anyone have some code that I can use to do this simple task. I just need to
> export the favorites to any place on the server for an example so I can see
> how to set the object correctly and see that It's works.

Okay, first of all, you've seen this page, right?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/reference/methods/importexportfavorites.asp

Have you tried putting the sample code listed there into a page, and invoking it from say, a form button?  What happens when you do that?

The other thing is that Favorites are just files in the user's profile.  I'm not sure exactly how you want to import or export, but it should be trivial to write a VBScript to iterate the profile directory and manipulate these files.  If you just want to extract the URL, the format is really easy.  It's just a text file that looks like this (for example):

     [DEFAULT]
     BASEURL=http://www.experts-exchange.com/viewMember.jsp?mid=1499285
     [InternetShortcut]
     URL=http://www.experts-exchange.com/viewMember.jsp?mid=1499285
     Modified=D0A443A7BE99C30179
     IconFile=http://www.experts-exchange.com/images/ee.ico
     IconIndex=1

Tell me more about what you're trying to do with these favorites...

Hope That Helps,
Dex*

 

by: TooKoolKrisPosted on 2003-12-23 at 18:15:03ID: 9994838

Yea, that first link is where I got the idea from but if you'll notice on this page there is no reference to the object in which you set in order to be able to call this method. It's a direct method of the External object I get this however this isn't sufficent enough to set the code, if I'm making any sense.

Ex.

'In order for me to shell a run command I would need to Create a WScript.Shell object first.
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

'Then I could say "OK objShell, go start notepad and max window.
objShell.Run "notepad.exe", MAXIMIZE_WINDOW

I wouldn't be able to run this last line if I've neglected to set the object first.

I took a guess and tried this

Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("Window.External")   'Extenal has a parent object as well

objShell.ImportExportFavorites(false, "\\%myserver%\homedr")   'This should export their Favorites to their home drive

the only problem is that this isn't the proper object to set and I'm trying to figure out what is.

I'm guessing if I don't figure out how to get this to work then I'm stuck with the XCOPY procedure in the login script. I'm not going to rest until I see this dam method work however and I'm aware of the fact that it used to be part of an exploit with IE back in version 5, this has long been patched and I need it to work for legit reasons. 2 lines of dam code to export and import the favorites during a migration is a nice incentive.

 

by: DexstarPosted on 2003-12-23 at 18:56:09ID: 9994938

Okay, it doesn't work like that.  There is no object "Window.External".  You won't ever find it.  Window.External is provided by the host of the MSHTML ActiveX control (in this case, Internet Explorer).  So, all you need to do is this:

      <HTML>
      <HEAD>
      <script>
            function DoExport()
            {
                  window.external.ImportExportFavorites(false, "");
            }
      </script>
      </HEAD>
      <BODY onload='DoExport()'>
            Export Test.
      </BODY>
      </HTML>

Save that to an HTML file, open it in IE, and see what happens.  :)

My example is oversimplified, but it should get you started.  Let me know if you run into problems, or need any further input.

Dex*

 

by: TooKoolKrisPosted on 2003-12-24 at 05:08:20ID: 9996303

Oh, didn't realize that I had to have it in ASP format. Yea, I'm not trying to do this from a web page, I'm just using a .vbs file however a web page on their file server could send them right to where I need them to be. Thanks for the insight, I will give this a try and get back with ya.

 

by: TooKoolKrisPosted on 2003-12-24 at 05:14:41ID: 9996324

You see what happens when you flip into class based languages? .Net has me thinking "ALL THINGS ARE OBJECTS", lol.

 

by: TooKoolKrisPosted on 2003-12-24 at 05:34:35ID: 9996382

When I first test this code, it opens a dialog box for me to choose where to save the bookmarks and I give it a file name and say OK. Then it comes back with "Favorites Successfully Exported" however when I go and look at the .htm file it creates it doesn't save hardly any of my favorites, actually it only saves 1 folder of them. I have an extensive favorite collection and it only save one folders worth of them.

 

by: DexstarPosted on 2003-12-24 at 08:19:28ID: 9997088

It isn't ASP.  It is just an HTML document with client side scripting, but no, you can't do it with straight VBS because it is Internet Explorer itself that provides that function.  What you could do is create an HTML document that first exports their favorites and then closes itself.  Then, your VBS file could launch that HTML document.  That's about as good as you're going to get.

window.external IS an object.  It is the object that contains the ActiveX control that renders the HTML.  The object exists even before the Ax control, so that is why you don't need to create it.  In fact, in C++, you can create a window that hosts the MSHTML Ax Control, and you can provide your own "window.external" object, that does WHATEVER you want, that is implemented in C++, and then you can invoke those methods from script in the HTML.  It's pretty cool.

I didn't have that problem.  It exported all of mine no problem.  I don't have tons and tons, but some, with multiple levels, and I didn't notice any of them missing from the resulting "bookmark.htm" file.

If that isn't going to work for you, maybe you should consider using the "CopyFolder" method of the FSO.  Just a thought.

Dex*

 

by: TooKoolKrisPosted on 2004-01-27 at 18:23:48ID: 10215196

I ended up going with the FSO method as the migration is happening from NT4 servers that aren't running IIS. I was planning on setting up a small ASP page with button to invoke the export event and dump them on the server. I was going to send them a link to page via email. They wont let me turn on IIS though so that was out.

I ended up writing a nice little small snippet of code that rips through the pc for any given file extension and copies the files to the server as it logs the location of the file in a log file. I just grabbed the stream from the console and tossed it as an array to the GetFile method. I would post it but I'm not at work presently.
 

 

by: DexstarPosted on 2004-01-27 at 19:58:14ID: 10215650

Well, If you need any help let me know...  :)

Dex*

 

by: fozyletPosted on 2004-11-30 at 22:58:08ID: 12713416

No comment has been added to this question in more than 21 days, so it is now classified as abandoned.

I will leave the following recommendation for this question in the Cleanup topic area:
    Accept: Dexstar {http:#9997088}

Any objections should be posted here in the next 4 days. After that time, the question will be closed.

fozylet
EE Cleanup Volunteer

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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