The Server Scriptlet Package

The Server Scriptlet Package is available from the Microsoft's Web site at the usual address:

http://www.microsoft.com/scripting

Once you download it, you have an auto-extracting file called

scp10en.exe

., It installs, by default, in:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Server Scriptlets

You are, of course, completely free to choose whichever path your heart desires.

The Server Scriptlet Package consists of three basic components:

The Microsoft Scriptlet Wizard
The run-time engine for Server Scriptlets
A few HTML pages of documentation

The wizard is quite similar to the one we built and presented in Chapter 4. There are, however, some differences which will be dealt with in due course. This wizard helps you write both Server Scriptlets and DHTML scriptlets.

The run-time engine is a DLL called

scrobj.dll

that installs in the Windows\System directory. This module is responsible for interpreting the source code of the scriptlet and works as a broker between the clients and the Server Scriptlets. It provides a COM-based interface and builds a wrapper around the script code to make it appear as a compiled and self-contained COM component. It is, therefore, practically undistinguishable from an ATL server or a Visual Basic ActiveX control.

The next figure shows us how the Server Scriptlet Package will appear once installed.