Appendix B

Information Resources


CONTENTS


One book can take you a long way, but eventually, you're bound to have more questions or wonder about more related topics than can be addressed in several hundred or even several thousand pages. That's when the World Wide Web's virtually unlimited capability of browsing for information can be a great asset. With the help provided here to point you in the right direction, you should be able to find abundant online information on all aspects of VBScript and related technologies.

The URLs that appear here were active at the time of writing. There is no guarantee that they will still be current at the time you read this because links and sites may change with time. This information will at least give you a taste of the wealth of VBScript-related information available on the Internet and provide a starting point for further online research. The information that follows is divided into two sections: discussion of where you can find the home pages for any needed updates for the examples used in this book and a larger section that discusses URLs for a variety of helpful VBScript or related technology sites.

Update Information for This Book

All the samples used in this book are available on the CD-ROM that comes with the book. That should be your first avenue for exploring the scripts further. Make sure you start with default.htm on the CD-ROM. This will provide you with an overview page that provides links to all other topics and sample programs. However, we might need to update some of these samples over time. Some examples may be revised as the product evolves. In such cases, these files might be available over the World Wide Web at the site listed here. In addition, we'll maintain a list of any late-breaking announcements relevant to the book. Check these sites for current availability at the time you read this; there is a good chance that you will find they are active and contain some information of interest. Your best bet is to investigate and see what's there!

Sams.net Home Page

http://www.mcp.com

This URL will take you to the home page for Macmillan Computer Publishing USA. From here, you can select Sams.net and navigate to the Sams.net home page. Check the book topics there to see if any relevant updates to the samples in this book exist under the official location.

DoubleBlaze Software Consortium Home Page

http://www.doubleblaze.com/vbs21day

This URL is another potential source of information on any updates to the book. Information on VBScript tools may be available as well under www.doubleblaze.com. DoubleBlaze Software Consortium is a small, independent software research and development company of Mr. Brophy. Mr. Koets and his Cockatiel Software company have close affiliations with DoubleBlaze as well. So if you want to see what the authors are up to and if they have any books coming up, this is the place to go. You quite likely will find general information on VBScript tools, and maybe even a cartoon on the site from time to time.

The Internet Services Provider

For more information on CNS Internet Services, an Internet service provider that offers services ranging from Internet connections to Web page hosts, refer to http://gr.cns.net. CNS offers, among other services, Web page hosting if you need a place for your scripts to live on the Internet.

General Information Resources

The following is an index of just some of the multitude of information resources related to the World Wide Web, Web page development, and VBScript.

Carl & Gary's Visual Basic Home Page

http://www.apexsc.com/vb

General Visual Basic information.

CGI Specification

http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/interface.html

Information on the Common Gateway Interface specification.

Lynx

http://www.cc.ukans.edu/about_lynx/

Information on the Lynx browser.

Macmillan Computer Publishing

http://www.mcp.com

Information from Macmillan Computer Publishing, including a link to Sams.net, publisher of leading Internet-related books such as Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days and Teach Yourself VBScript in 21 Days.

Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/intdev

Microsoft provides a variety of information and Internet products from the Web site. Microsoft's products in this arena are evolving rapidly, and locations of information change from time to time. The best strategy to get any kind of information, unless noted otherwise, is to start at www.microsoft.com/intdev. Then, from the Internet Developer's area, use the search boxes to search for your topic of interest. That's the most reliable way to dig up the pages you need quickly!

Microsoft ActiveX Control Kit

http://www.microsoft.com/intdev

At this site you can get ActiveX controls that you can download and install on your system, which enables you to run scripts that utilize these controls with your browser. Eventually these controls will likely be installed with the browser and a separate download may not be necessary.

Microsoft Internet Download Toolbox

http://www.microsoft.com/intdev

From this location you can reach a summary of available Internet tools that you can download over the Web.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

http://www.microsoft.com/ie/

The browser for downloading and related information.

Microsoft VBScript Information

http://www.microsoft.com/vbscript

General VBScript information from Microsoft.

Microsoft VBScript Language Reference

http://www.microsoft.com/vbscript/us/vbslang/vbstoc.htm

VBScript language reference pages from Microsoft.

ncSA Mosaic

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/ncSAMosaicHome.html

The browser for downloading and related information.

Netscape

http://home.netscape.com

From here you can reach the Navigator browser for downloading and related information.

Unofficial VBScript Information Page

http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/bjjohnson/vbs.htm

Summary of VBScript resources from Brian Johnson.

Visual Basic CGI Programming

http://website.ora.com/devcorner/db-src/index.html

Approach for writing back-end Visual Basic and Access programs using Windows CGI, from Bob Denny.

VBScript Observations and Samples

http://www.doubleblaze.com

Under this URL you can reach an area of VBScript observations and samples collected in the course of research and experimentation. Availability and degree of information will vary over time.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Drafts

http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR

A list of W3C working drafts in general.

W3C Objects: "Inserting Objects into HTML" Working Draft

http://www/w3.org/pub/WWW/TR/WD-object.html

The W3C draft standards on "Inserting Objects into HTML."