With xmas round the corner, our sponsor has asked that we add a new digest to share recipes.
Santa’s helper will need to get up and have a pre-breakfast boiled egg, so lets just cut to to the chase and start with some actual data, some json:
{
"title": "How to boil an egg, the Heston Blumenthal way",
"titleImage": "https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/11/5/1415205733799/4bfbd71a-6cd0-4494-833f-eaaed20a15b3-1020x612.jpeg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=ca3a95d7e761d267eff1b79b58cc4849",
"author": "Heston Blumenthal",
"origin": "https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/11/how-to-boil-an-egg-the-heston-blumenthal-way",
"ingredients": [
{
"quantity": "1",
"quantityType": "unit",
"name": "egg",
"type": "Dairy"
}
],
"steps": [
{
"sequenceNumber": "1",
"instruction": "Take a small saucepan with a glass lid and carefully place a single egg (or two, or three) inside it. Burford brown eggs have a nice orange yolk. Fill the pan so the water only just covers the eggs – not even a millimetre more. If you had a centimetre of water covering the egg then you could still get the same result, but you’d have to play with the timing."
},
{
"sequenceNumber": "2",
"instruction": "Put the pan on maximum heat with the lid on and bring to the boil."
},
{
"sequenceNumber": "3",
"instruction": "As soon as the water starts to bubble, remove from the heat. As you take the pan off, set a timer for six minutes; keep the lid on. Make sure you time it exactly, and you’ll end up with the perfect egg."
}
]
}
Some acceptance criteria:
Displays a list of recipes
Each recipe has a title, author and a picture.
And a design for our list item:
Recipe list item design
Because it’s so close to Christmas we couldn’t get our API approved, so we created a simple api client class that mocks the data for the recipe list.
Now we have the data we can display the data items in a list using the ListView widget.
Ta Da
Recipe List
You maybe thinking why didn’t we build the digest list first ?
Because we only have one interest, recipes, we can add the digest list when it is needed.
The focus is on building content that matters and not framework or things we might need.
So on that note, for now, lets just change the tab description:
Better application of styles, including inclusion of Apples design guideline for the TabBar, that state that it should be translucent when items are under it and opaque when at the end of the list.
XP
Use of dio a powerful Http client for Dart, which supports Interceptors, used to inject canned data.
The reason for choosing and using a package now is that it saves us having to create requests and response objects, we will hook it up to a real Api soon.
People
“The speed of the project is the speed at which ideas move between minds”
“or its inverse which is stronger, anything that slows the movement of ideas between minds slows the project down”
Alistar Cockburn_
One more thing
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
Here’s my way, my influences, but feel free to follow any highway…
Naming
Resources are objects, things, so use a noun to specify a resource e.g clients and then use HTTP methods to define actions like get, modify, delete.
If you use verbs like send, get then you are falling into the Remote Procedure Call trap. RPC style endpoints are notorious for specifying the function in the URL e.g. /getClientNameById
Resource names should be plural as this is the most widely adopted approach:
/clients not /client /getClients /user/client
Unless there can only ever be one (0-1, exists or not) e.g. users/1/avatar.
HTTP Methods
Often call HTTP verbs are POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE and OPTIONS.
Considering the resource (Entity) life cycle can help you determine which HTTP methods to allow, in particular where it is stored, db, file and if it can be archived.
Patch & Put
Favor Patch for updating resources, use put when resources are replaced not updated e.g. binary documents.
Do not use Put to create new items.
Be aware that PUT does a complete overwrite of the data, it is a request to replace a resource, PATCH is a request to update part or all of it i.e. a new version.
The difference between the PUT and PATCH requests is reflected in the way the server processes the enclosed entity to modify the resource identified by the Request-URI.
In a PUT request, the enclosed entity is considered to be a modified version of the resource stored on the origin server, and the client is requesting that the stored version be replaced. With PATCH, however, the enclosed entity contains a set of instructions describing how a resource currently residing on the origin server should be modified to produce a new version.
PATCH is less likely to have side affects when a resource is updated frequently because you only update the things that change, whereas PUT will update fields that have not changed with the values retrieved and if another request happens after the retrieval you will reset them. You can/should guard against this at the repository level by checking a resource version and invaliding the update.
Do not use ‘Put’ to create new items, use ‘Post’.
If barn 11 does not exist then PUT /barn/11 should return a 404 and message saying I couldn’t modify it because it doesn’t exist.
Options Verb
The OPTIONS method represents a request for information about the communication options available on the request/response chain identified by the Request-URI. This method allows the client to determine the options and/or requirements associated with a resource, or the capabilities of a server, without implying a resource action or initiating a resource retrieval.
A pre-flight options request is triggered by some CORS requests, see the section on CORS for more details.
However, if I do POST or a PUT and something is created, use 201. Tell me explicitly that the new object was created.
If I do PUT or a PATCH and nothing’s modified, return 304 Not Modified.
If I send the wrong data or use the wrong format request, return 400 Bad Request.
If I haven’t logged in or I sent an invalid auth token, return 401 Not Authorised.
If I try to do something I’m not allowed to do, 403 Forbidden.
404 if the object never existed, or it’s not there. Technically, you want to use the status code for Gone namely, 410 if it once existed, but 404 is traditionally Not Found. DO NOT use this when a GET returns no rows/result, it’s still a 200.
405 represents Method Not Allowed. This goes beyond Forbidden 403 and says, “Hey, you can’t do this for example, delete an object. If you try a different method, that would work.”
415 corresponds to Unsupported Media Type, for example if I request XML but you only support JSON.
Formatting Content
I follow the conventions in the { json;api } specification.
// Articles with fields title, body and author.
GET /articles?include=author&fields[articles]=title,body,author
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json
{
"data": [{
"type": "articles",
"id": "1",
"attributes": {
"title": "JSON:API paints my bikeshed!",
"body": "The shortest article. Ever."
},
"relationships": {
"author": {
"data": {"id": "42", "type": "people"}
}
}
}]
}
The spec has matured overtime and specifies some of our important practices showing us how to format the negotiation between the client and server:
Relationships
Hypermedia
Pagination
Filtering
Sparse fields
Errors
Relationships (Related Resources)
Multiple related resources can be requested in a comma-separated list:
GET /articles/1?include=author,comments.author HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/vnd.api+json
In order to request resources related to other resources, a dot-separated path for each relationship name can be specified:
GET /articles/1?include=comments.author HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/vnd.api+json
To update a related resource include the resource as a relation in the PATCH e.g. request will update the author relationship of an article:
The term “hypermedia” was coined back in 1965 by Ted Nelson, and over the years has dominated the technology industry. Hypermedia, in its most basic sense is an extension of hypertext – something you may recognise from HTML.
Hypertext is essentially text that is written in a structured format and contains relationships to other objects via links.
Hypermedia is just an extension of the term hypertext, hypermedia includes images, video, audio, text, and links.
In a REST API, this means that your API is able to function similarly to a web page, providing the user with guidance on what type of content they can retrieve, or what actions they can perform, as well as the appropriate links to do so.
This in page guidance via links means that your clients do not need to remember much, they can just request a resource and check the response to see how to work with information provided, take appropriate actions, or access related information.
A good example of this is a client reading your site news only needs a single endpoint https://<site>.com/news.
The response would included all of the related articles and actions which you can change daily without coupling the client to news articles in any way.
Hypermedia can be express as links in a JSON API response:
The action links description the content that can be retrieved and the actions that can be performed by user in a response to their request.
This is powerful as it gives the server flexibility to change without breaking the interface with the client.
Use the Accept and Content-Type Headers
We tend to think, “I’m going to build a JSON REST API and it’s going to be awesome.” It works great, until you get that million?dollar customer who needs XML. Then you have to go back and refactor the entire API for this customer. That’s why you should build your API from the start with the ability to add content types in the future.
Give yourself the ability to support multiple specifications without worrying about breaking backward compatibility.
Incoming request may have an entity attached to it. To determine it’s type, server uses the HTTP request header Content-Type. Common content types are:
application/json
application/xml
text/plain
text/html
image/gif
image/jpeg
Similarly, to determine what type of representation is desired at client side, HTTP header ACCEPT is used. It will have one of the values as mentioned for Content-Type above.
Sparse Fields
Sparse fields are key to creating Api’s that can be used by many clients.
If we do not support sparse fields we will force all clients to get the full set of data which will grow we add more functionality, similar to large objects graphs created in our monolith applications.
Use a fieldsTYPE parameter to return only specific fields in the response on a per-type basis.
GET /articles?include=author&fields[articles]=title,body
Here we want articles objects to have fields title, body and author only.
The client is in a better position to tell the server how long it wants to wait before timing out, so generally allow the client to override the default timeout period.
?Timeout=3000
Caching
ETag (entity tag) response header provides a mechanism to cache unchanged resources.
It’s value is an identifier which represents a specific version of the resource. Here’s an example ETag header:
Designing an API – that’s the most difficult part. That’s why you need to spend your time there and say, “Let’s get the design right, and everything else will follow.”
It only takes one tiny little thing, just one mistake in your API that goes to production, to screw things up.
Just like Facebook: they have this issue in production, but it’s in production now and they can’t change it.
Back Burner
Filtering, Sorting & Grouping
Descriptive Error Messages
Automate end-to-end functional testing
Cross Origin Resource Sharing.
Accelerate functional testing from your CI/CD pipelines
Tests to generate realistic load scenarios and security attacks
Remove dependencies during testing and development
This is a good place to start, you can really get going with making your ideas reality, once you can show content and navigate around.
Login, logging and other framework items, although vital can and should wait until later. It’s all too easy to start a project and never get past the login screen, so simple don’t start with them.
I chose to use tab navigation for DigestableMe.
The advantage of the Tab Bar is it is always visible, one click navigation that people with Apple and Android phones are used to, which will give your app a native feel, and good Ux experience.
When you have a larger screen a Side Bar or Menu will provide a better experience. These layouts will be covered in other posts and if you are not concentrating on phone/mobile first you may want to skip this post.
Let’s assume we have analytics showing we should target iPhone users, so we can start by creating a traditional bottom Tab Bar.
In a future post we will then modify the application for Android phones and other devices.
Google recommends up to 5 top level icons and Apple 3-5, so we are going to set the max number of top level items to 5.
DigestableMe will start with these three tabs:
Interests, a list of things to digest.
Friends, people to digest with.
History, recent first list of actions.
The new widget will be called TabbedLayout and will contain a Tab Bar and Content Area.
Tabbed Layout Skeleton Design
Its purpose is to:
Highlight the core functions
Simplify the user journey
We can now add some acceptance criteria to give direction and to know when we are done:
It will contain a Tab Bar
The Tab Bar can contain 2-5 items
The Tab Bar will be anchored to the bottom of the widget
The height of the Tab Bar will be the size of the largest item
Each item will comprise of a title and an icon
Cupertino icons will be used on Apple devices, Material on all others.
There will be a Content Area above the above the Tab Bar
The Content Area will expand to fill the available height.
When a Tab is pressed it displays the appropriate Content
Tab Items and Content are configurable I.e. inputs.
The TabbedLayout widget will expand to fill the available space.
The widget can be themed.
The widget can display as a skeleton when loading.
We had a fundamental belief that doing it right the first time was going to be easier than having to go back and fix it. And I cannot say strongly enough that the repercussions of that attitude are staggering. I’ve seen them again and again throughout my business life.
\<?xml version="1.0" ?\>
\<?job error="true" debug="false" ?\>
\<!--
'============================================================================
' FUSION LOG VIEWER SETTINGS
' FusLogVwSet.wsf
' Travis Illig
' tillig@paraesthesia.com
' http://www.paraesthesia.com
'
' Overview: Enables/disables custom settings for the fuslogvw.exe tool.
'
' Command syntax: (Run "FusLogVwSet.wsf /?" for syntax and usage)
'
'============================================================================
--\>
\<package\>
\<job id="FusLogVwSet"\>
\<runtime\>
\<description\>
FusLogVwSet
----
This script "enables" and "disables" custom settings for the Fusion Log Viewer tool.
Enabling settings will:
* Create a log folder (default: D:\fusionlogs)
* Add HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogPath and set it to the log folder
* Set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogFailures to 1
* Optionally set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\ForceLog to 1
* Optionally set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogResourceBinds to 1
Disabling settings will:
* Delete the log folder and its contents
* Delete HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogPath
* Set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogFailures to 0
* Set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\ForceLog to 0
* Set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogResourceBinds to 0
\</description\>
\<named
name="enable"
helpstring="Enable custom fuslogvw.exe settings."
type="simple"
required="false"
/\>
\<named
name="all"
helpstring="When used with /enable, logs both failures and successes. Only valid with /enable."
type="simple"
required="false"
/\>
\<named
name="disable"
helpstring="Disable custom fuslogvw.exe settings."
type="simple"
required="false"
/\>
\<named
name="logpath"
helpstring="Sets the log path (default is D:\fusionlogs). Only valid with /enable."
type="string"
required="false"
/\>
\</runtime\>
\<!-- Helper Objects --\>
\<object id="fso" progid="Scripting.FileSystemObject" /\>
\<object id="shell" progid="WScript.Shell" /\>
\<!-- Main Script --\>
\<script language="VBScript"\>
\<!\[CDATA\[
]()
'============================================================================
' INITIALIZATION
Option Explicit
'Declare variables/constants
Const SCRIPTNAME = "Fusion Log Viewer Settings"
Const VERSION = "1.0"
Const DEFAULT\_FUSIONLOGPATH = "D:\fusionlogs"
Const REG\_LOGPATH = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogPath"
Const REG\_LOGFAILURES = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogFailures"
Const REG\_FORCELOG = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\ForceLog"
Const REG\_RESOURCEBINDS = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogResourceBinds"
'============================================================================
'PRIMARY CODE
'============================================================================
On Error Resume Next
WScript.echo SCRIPTNAME & " v" & VERSION & vbCrLf
'Parse arguments
Dim argsSpecified
Dim argsEnable, argsDisable, argsAll, argsLogPath
argsEnable = WScript.Arguments.Named.Exists("enable")
argsDisable = WScript.Arguments.Named.Exists("disable")
argsAll = WScript.Arguments.Named.Exists("all")
If(WScript.Arguments.Named.Exists("logpath"))Then
argsLogPath = WScript.Arguments.Named.Item("logpath")
End If
'Validate arguments
If(not argsEnable and not argsDisable)Then
' Must specify either enable or disable
WScript.Echo "\*\*\* You must specify enable or disable."
WScript.Arguments.ShowUsage
WScript.Quit
End If
If(argsEnable and argsDisable)Then
' Can't enable and disable at the same time
WScript.Echo "\*\*\* You must specify EITHER enable OR disable; not both."
WScript.Arguments.ShowUsage
WScript.Quit
End If
If(argsDisable and argsAll)Then
'all is only valid with enable
WScript.Echo "\*\*\* Argument 'all' is only valid with 'enable'."
WScript.Arguments.ShowUsage
WScript.Quit
End If
If(argsDisable and WScript.Arguments.Named.Exists("logpath"))Then
'logpath is only valid with enable
WScript.Echo "\*\*\* Argument 'logpath' is only valid with 'enable'."
WScript.Arguments.ShowUsage
WScript.Quit
End If
If(argsLogPath = "" and WScript.Arguments.Named.Exists("logpath"))Then
'If logpath is specified, must put a value
WScript.Echo "\*\*\* Argument 'logpath' must have a value if specified."
WScript.Arguments.ShowUsage
WScript.Quit
End If
' Output settings
If(argsEnable)Then
If(argsAll)Then
LogMessage "Action: Enable Custom Logging - Failure and Success", 0
Else
LogMessage "Action: Enable Custom Logging - Failure Only", 0
End If
If(argsLogPath \<\> "")Then
LogMessage "LogPath: " & argsLogPath, 0
End If
Else
LogMessage "Action: Disable Custom Logging", 0
End If
' Update settings
Dim logFolder, logFolderObj, regVal
If(argsEnable)Then
' Enable settings
' Create a log folder (default: D:\fusionlogs)
If(argsLogPath = "")Then
logFolder = DEFAULT\_FUSIONLOGPATH
Else
logFolder = argsLogPath
End If
If(FolderExists(logFolder))Then
' The folder already exists; since we're deleting it when we disable
' settings, we don't want to use a pre-existing folder.
LogMessage "Folder " & logFolder & " exists. Custom log folder must not already exist.", 1
WScript.Quit(0)
End If
Set logFolderObj = fso.CreateFolder(logFolder)
If Err.Number \<\> 0 Then
LogMessage "Unable to create log folder" & logFolder, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
Err.Clear
LogMessage "Created log folder " & logFolderObj.Path, 0
' Add HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogPath and set it to the log folder path.
SetRegKey REG\_LOGPATH, logFolderObj.Path, "REG\_SZ"
regVal = GetRegKey(REG\_LOGPATH)
If(regVal \<\> logFolderObj.Path)Then
LogMessage "Unable to write registry key " & REG\_LOGPATH, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
LogMessage "Wrote to " & REG\_LOGPATH, 0
' Set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogFailures to 1
SetRegKey REG\_LOGFAILURES, 1, "REG\_DWORD"
regVal = GetRegKey(REG\_LOGFAILURES)
If(regVal \<\> 1)Then
LogMessage "Unable to write registry key " & REG\_LOGFAILURES, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
LogMessage "Wrote to " & REG\_LOGFAILURES, 0
If(argsAll)Then
' Optionally set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\ForceLog to 1
SetRegKey REG\_FORCELOG, 1, "REG\_DWORD"
regVal = GetRegKey(REG\_FORCELOG)
If(regVal \<\> 1)Then
LogMessage "Unable to write registry key " & REG\_FORCELOG, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
LogMessage "Wrote to " & REG\_FORCELOG, 0
' Optionally set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogResourceBinds to 1
SetRegKey REG\_RESOURCEBINDS, 1, "REG\_DWORD"
regVal = GetRegKey(REG\_RESOURCEBINDS)
If(regVal \<\> 1)Then
LogMessage "Unable to write registry key " & REG\_RESOURCEBINDS, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
LogMessage "Wrote to " & REG\_RESOURCEBINDS, 0
End If
Else
' Disable settings
logFolder = GetRegKey(REG\_LOGPATH)
If(logFolder = "")Then
LogMessage "Unable to read registry key " & REG\_LOGPATH, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
If(FolderExists(logFolder))Then
' The folder exists; delete it and its contents
fso.DeleteFolder logFolder, true
If Err.Number \<\> 0 Then
LogMessage "Unable to delete log folder" & logFolder, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
Err.Clear
LogMessage "Deleted log folder " & logFolder, 0
End If
' Delete HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogPath
If(DeleteRegKey(REG\_LOGPATH))Then
LogMessage "Deleted registry key " & REG\_LOGPATH, 0
Else
LogMessage "Unable to delete registry key " & REG\_LOGPATH, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
' Set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogFailures to 0
SetRegKey REG\_LOGFAILURES, 0, "REG\_DWORD"
regVal = GetRegKey(REG\_LOGFAILURES)
If(regVal \<\> 0)Then
LogMessage "Unable to write registry key " & REG\_LOGFAILURES, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
LogMessage "Wrote to " & REG\_LOGFAILURES, 0
' Set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\ForceLog to 0
SetRegKey REG\_FORCELOG, 0, "REG\_DWORD"
regVal = GetRegKey(REG\_FORCELOG)
If(regVal \<\> 0)Then
LogMessage "Unable to write registry key " & REG\_FORCELOG, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
LogMessage "Wrote to " & REG\_FORCELOG, 0
' Set HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\LogResourceBinds to 0
SetRegKey REG\_RESOURCEBINDS, 0, "REG\_DWORD"
regVal = GetRegKey(REG\_RESOURCEBINDS)
If(regVal \<\> 0)Then
LogMessage "Unable to write registry key " & REG\_RESOURCEBINDS, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
LogMessage "Wrote to " & REG\_RESOURCEBINDS, 0
End If
LogMessage "Log settings update COMPLETE. You must reset IIS for changes to take effect in ASP.NET apps.", 0
On Error Goto 0
Wscript.Quit(0)
'============================================================================
' CreateNewObject
'
' Creates a new object, given a type, and performs requisite error checking.
' Exits the program if the object can't be created.
'
Function CreateNewObject(objType)
On Error Resume Next
'Create a new object
Dim obj
Set obj = WScript.CreateObject(objType)
If Err.Number \<\> 0 Then
LogMessage "Unable to create " & objType, 1
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
Err.Clear
Set CreateNewObject = obj
On Error Goto 0
End Function
'============================================================================
' FolderExists
'
' Returns a Boolean based on whether a folder exists or not
'
Function FolderExists(foldername)
On Error Resume Next
'Create a FileSystemObject object
Dim fso
Set fso = CreateNewObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
'Check for the folder
FolderExists = false
FolderExists = fso.FolderExists(foldername)
Set fso = Nothing
On Error Goto 0
End Function
'============================================================================
' DeleteRegKey
'
' Deletes a given registry key
' Returns true if the delete was successful, false otherwise
'
Function DeleteRegKey(regkey\_name)
On Error Resume Next
'Create a shell object
Dim wshell
Set wshell = CreateNewObject("WScript.Shell")
'Write the regkey
wshell.RegDelete regkey\_name
If Err.Number \<\> 0 Then
'Something else went wrong
LogMessage "Unable to delete key " & regkey\_name, 1
DeleteRegKey = false
Else
DeleteRegKey = true
End If
Err.Clear
Set wshell = Nothing
On Error Goto 0
End Function
'============================================================================
' SetRegKey
'
' Sets the value for a given registry key
'
Sub SetRegKey(regkey\_name, regkey\_value, regkey\_type)
On Error Resume Next
'Create a shell object
Dim wshell
Set wshell = CreateNewObject("WScript.Shell")
'Write the regkey
wshell.RegWrite regkey\_name, regkey\_value, regkey\_type
If Err.Number \<\> 0 Then
'Something else went wrong
LogMessage "Unable to write key " & regkey\_name, 1
End If
Err.Clear
Set wshell = Nothing
On Error Goto 0
End Sub
'============================================================================
' GetRegKey
'
' Retrieves the value for a given registry key
'
Function GetRegKey(regkey\_name)
On Error Resume Next
'Create a shell object
Dim wshell
Set wshell = CreateNewObject("WScript.Shell")
'Read the regkey
Dim val
val = wshell.RegRead(regkey\_name)
If Err.Number \<\> 0 Then
'Either we don't have permission to read the key or the key doesn't exist.
' If the key doesn't exist, it's error -2147024894
If Err.Number = -2147024894 Then
'The key doesn't exist
val=""
Else
'Something else went wrong
LogMessage "Unable to read key " & regkey\_name, 1
val=""
End If
End If
Err.Clear
Set wshell = Nothing
GetRegKey = val
On Error Goto 0
End Function
'============================================================================
' LogMessage
'
' Writes a message to the event log
'
' msgType:
' 0 = Info
' 1 = Error
' 2 = Warning
Sub LogMessage(msgBody, msgType)
On Error Resume Next
'Create a shell object
Dim wshell
Set wshell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
If Err.Number \<\> 0 Then
WScript.Quit(-1)
End If
Err.Clear
'Figure out the error type
Dim msgTypeFull
If(msgType = 0) Then
msgTypeFull = "INFO"
ElseIf(msgType = 1) Then
msgTypeFull = "ERROR"
ElseIf(msgType = 2) Then
msgTypeFull = "WARNING"
End If
msgBody = WScript.ScriptName & " -- " & msgTypeFull & ": " & msgBody
wscript.echo msgbody
'Log the message
wshell.LogEvent msgType, msgBody
'Cleanup
Set wshell = Nothing
On Error Goto 0
End Sub
]]\>
</script\>
\</job\>
</package\>
