After you've decided which scripting technologies and object models that you want to learn, you can check out the following resources. This list is not all-inclusive; rather, it's simply a starting point.
ADO
To learn more about the Active Data Objects (ADO) object model, go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library and select Partial Books, Beginning Visual Basic 6 Database Programming, Chapter 11 - Universal Data Access Using ADO, The ADO Object Model. To learn more about how to instantiate and use ADO objects with ADSI to access the Active Directory (AD), see Alistair G. Lowe-Norris, "An ADSI Primer," Win32 Scripting Journal, May and June 1999.
ADSI
To learn more about the Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) object model, go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library and select Platform SDK; Networking and Directory Services; Active Directory, ADSI, and Directory Services; Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI). To learn more about how to instantiate and use ADSI objects, see Alistair G. Lowe-Norris, "An ADSI Primer," Win32 Scripting Journal, January 1999 through December 1999.
Application Object Models
Applications' Help files are often invaluable, as is the case with Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Programming reference guides are also available for popular applications, such as those in Microsoft Office 2000.
CDO
To learn more about the Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) object model, go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library and select Platform SDK, Messaging and Collaboration Services, CDO 1.2.1 or CDO for Windows 2000. To learn more about how to instantiate and use CDO objects in Microsoft Outlook, see Alistair G. Lowe-Norris, "Automate Outlook Messaging," Win32 Scripting Journal, December 1998. To obtain a workaround that lets you use CDONTS on Win9x, see Dino Esposito, Windows Script Host Programmer's Reference, Wrox Press, 1999 (http://www.wrox.com/consumer/store/details.asp?isbn=1861002653).
WMI
To learn more about the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) object model, see Alan Boshier, "Windows Management Instrumentation: A Simple, Powerful Tool for Scripting Windows Management," MSDN Magazine, April 2000 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/0400/wmi/wmi.asp).
WSH
To learn more about the Windows Script Host (WSH) object model, go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting and in the left pane, select Windows Script Host,Documentation, Reference. In addition, see Dino Esposito, Windows Script Host Programmer's Reference, Wrox Press, 1999 (http://www.wrox.com/consumer/store/details.asp?isbn=1861002653). To learn more about how to instantiate and use WSH objects, see Dino Esposito, "Understanding VBScript: Object Management," Win32 Scripting Journal, December 1999; Michael Otey, "An Introduction to WSH," Win32 Scripting Journal, December 1998; and Bob Wells, "Scripting 101," Scripting Solutions, Windows NT Magazine, June 1999 through September 1999.
VBScript
To learn more about VBScript, go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting and select VBScript, Documentation, Language and Run-time Reference. In addition, see Dino Esposito, "Understanding VBScript," Win32 Scripting Journal, June 1999 to May 2000.
XML
To learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML), see the "XML Developer’s Guide" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/isapi/msdnlib.idc?theURL=/library/psdk/xmlsdk/xmls6g53.htm). In addition, see Richard Anderson, David Baliles, Mark Birbeck, Michael Kay, Steven Livingstone, Brian Loesgen, Didier Martin, Stephen Mohr, Nikola Ozu, Bruce Peat, Jonathan Pinnock, Peter Stark, and Kevin Williams, Professional XML, Wrox Press, 2000 (http://www.wrox.com/consumer/store/details.asp?isbn=1861003110). In addition, see the email newsletter XML Update. To subscribe to this free newsletter, go to http://www.winntmag.com/ourproducts/email/index.cfm.
