Visual Basic Scripting in BarTender

Purposes of Scripting

There are basically two types of purposes for which you can use BarTender's internal scripting feature:

• The script output can be used as the data source type for a text, encoder, or barcode object.

  Text, encoder, and barcode objects on a template can receive their data from a number of sources, including your keyboard, data source files, and your computer's time and date functions. Sometimes, however, you may have special requirements. For example, you may need to read data from a file, change it in some special way, and then perhaps combine it in an unusual manner with some other data. By offering the power of Microsoft's Visual Basic Script as a data source type, BarTender lets you process and combine the data for objects on a template in just about any way imaginable.

  To use this feature, you need to set the data source of the object to Visual Basic Script on the Data Source property page. The Edit button on that tab opens the Script Assistant, where you can create the script.

• A script can be used to perform special validation or other processing on data from some other source, such as a database or the keyboard.

  Sometimes your data needs to be validated or processed in an unusual way before printing. At other times, you may want another ActiveX-aware application on your system to react in some controlled way to an event in BarTender. For example, you may want BarTender to cancel print jobs that would produce more than a specified number of copies.

  When this is your purpose, you need to set the data source type of the object to embedded data, database field, time, or date. Then on the Transforms tab, select the icon next to VB Scripting. On the VB Scripting dialog, enable VB Scripting, and click the Edit button to open the Script Assistant, where you can create the script.

BarTender does not support automation for data entry controls. If you attempt to use an Object property in a data entry script (such as the OnPrePrompt or OnPostPrompt events), BarTender will return an error and your script will fail to execute.

How Visual Basic Script is used in BarTender

Visual Basic Script is a subset of Microsoft's Visual Basic programming language. It is specifically designed to add functionality to existing programs, rather than to write programs themselves. When used as a data source in BarTender, a Visual Basic Script can be as simple as a single command or "function." For example, a single line of Visual Basic Script can be used to add or remove one or more characters from an imported data field. Scripts can also be so advanced that they are almost programs themselves (even though they are still used within other programs). Such scripts may test for a number of conditions and then, depending on the results, perform one or perhaps many tasks.

Types of Visual Basic Scripting

To make Visual Basic Scripting accessible to more than just programmers, BarTender provides three levels of complexity for Visual Basic Script users. Each of these levels is summarized below:

• Single-Line Expression. This is the simplest form of a script and can be constructed with little or no programming experience.

• Multi-Line Scripts. Multiple-line scripts require more advanced programming knowledge, but they provide a truly extraordinary degree of custom control over your data.

• Event Control Scripts. Takes the concept of multi-line scripts and, instead of letting BarTender decide when they should be executed, allows you to specify one or more "events" that will cause the script(s) to execute.

Who Should Use Visual Basic Scripts

Although Visual Basic Scripts can be complex enough to be considered "programs," there are times when just a single line of Visual Basic Script may prove quite useful. Simple scripts such as these can be formed using your mouse and BarTender's Script Assistant all without "programming" in the conventional sense. Still, scripting is typically a technique for "power users" and not ideal for computer novices. Whatever your computer skills, you should always be sure that BarTender doesn’t already offer a solution to your challenge before embarking upon a script-based solution.

Related Topics

• A Note on Technical Support for VB Scripting

Open topic with navigation