This article will focus on Visual Studio for Applications, or VSA, and explain how it can be integrated with .NET programs. It will also explain a few key areas you must understand in order to successfully integrate VSA into your programs.
Why provide scripting capabilities?
VSA provides an excellent means of providing extensibility to your program by allowing script code to modify your program long after the main object model has been designed and compiled. Allowing your programs to host and run script files is an excellent way to allow others to extend your program in ways you may not have foreseen at its induction. Many times, added functionality is required by end users or high demand clients that require new changes to be recompiled into the old system by its creators. This takes time and money, and is often only necessary because modifications require the use of professional build tools, something many users aren't skilled at using. However, with a solid object model exposed to a scripting interface, anyone capable of writing macros using a text editor and following an SDK can tweak much of the functionality of your program without the major hassles involved with professional build tools.
What is VSA?
VSA replaces the older technology Visual Basic for Applications, or VBA. VSA allows .NET programs to host and compile scripting languages such as VBScript and Jscript. Using VSA, you can create a scripting engine directly inside your .NET programs, and pass your own object instances and assembly references to the engine and script. Using your own custom object model, you can allow the scripts to modify your program after it has been compiled. Anyone with a text editor can follow up and add custom scripts or change existing ones, without having to bother you to make these changes.
Where can I find additional resources?
There is supposed to be a VSA SDK available for download from the Microsoft Script Center, but I cannot find a link to it. Feel free to look for yourself by starting here at the Microsoft Script Center. The MSDN Library contains some help on the topic but it is limited. As usual, my most valued resource ended up being my old faithful friend Google. Just go out and lookup the various interfaces that I will discuss and you will find plenty of helpful articles.
What assemblies do I need to reference?
The following assemblies are distributed with the .NET Framework and should be located in the GAC, or global assembly cache, on your system. Microsoft.Vsa.dll , Microsoft.Jscript.dll , and Microsoft.VisualBasic.Vsa.dll are included with the .NET Framework 1.1, and are readily accessible. Microsoft.Vsa.dll contains the core interfaces and objects needed to implement your own scripting engine and scripting host.
Required References
The following assemblies are your required references:
- Microsoft.Vsa.dll
- Microsoft.JScript.dll
- Microsoft.VisualBasic.Vsa.dll
What scripting languages can I use?
You will need to decide which scripting language your program will support. Microsoft has supplied two engines, one for JScript and the other for VBScript. You may create your own, but that is beyond the scope of this document. The two classes that you may choose from are as follows. Using these classes, you will be allowed to run JScript or VBScript inside your programs. This is the language that you will use to script your program.
Languages Supported
- VBScript.NET
- JScript.NET
Pre-Built Engines
- Microsoft.VisualBasic.Vsa.VsaEngine
- Microsoft.Jscript.Vsa.VsaEngine
Once you have located and added references to the assemblies mentioned above, you need to implement the IVsaSite interface to allow your program to communicate with the script engine. Implementing this interface allows the engine to notify you of compilation errors, as well as request information such as object instances from your program as they are needed. This is an added bonus as you can defer the creation of objects until they are needed by the engine.
Interfaces to Implement
- IVsaSite (fully qualified as
Microsoft.Vsa.IVsaSite)
Here is a code snippet from my example project that shows how you would implement this interface:
/// <summary>
/// Provides a means to execute script code
/// using the IVsaSite and IVsaEngine interfaces
/// </summary>
public class VsaScriptingHost : IVsaSite, IDisposable
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