Develop Reference

Browser.ExecScript() stopped working after updating windows

I've set up a simple testbed for WatiN (ver 2.1) which reads:
var browser = new IE();
browser.GoTo("http://www.google.co.il"); // webpage doesn't matter really
browser.RunScript("alert(123)");
This works only if KB3025390 is not installed. Installing it breaks the above test with an UnAuthorizedAccessException which has HRESULT set to E_ACCESSDENIED. What gives? Is there any workaround?
Update: Using IWebBrowser2.Navigate2 along with "javascript:console.log(123)" type of scripts works however
it makes me feel uneasy using such a backchannel
the scripts run through this back-channel of .Navigate2() may only have a max length of about 2070 chars (give or take) otherwise they get forcibly truncated to this length leading to javascript errors upon attempting to run them
using .Navigate2(), even with the most trivial script, will clog the ready state of Internet Explorer for good in the sense that it will be set to READYSTATE_LOADING without any hope of getting rid of it. In simple terms this means that once you use this hack, you either have to perform every single subsequent operation in WatiN in a "dont-wait-for-webpage-to-load" fashion (GoToNoWait, ClickNoWait etc) lest your code freezes upon waiting for the browser to turn back to READYSTATE_COMPLETE (which will never come about ofcourse as already mentioned).
there appears to be a much broader issue here in the sense that I can't even access the properties of an IHtmlWindow2 object p.e. window.document throws an unauthorized exception again making it virtually impossible to transfer over to the C# world the return-values of the scripts I'm running (using Expando etc) for documents other than window.top.document (for the window.top.document window there is IWebBrowser2.Document which does the trick)
Update#2: The folks over at the selenium project have also noticed this issue:
https://code.google.com/p/selenium/issues/detail?id=8302
A bug report has been created as well:
https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/1062093/installation-of-kb3025390-breaks-out-of-process-javascript-execution-in-ie11
Update#3: IHTMLWindow2.setInterval and IHTMLWindow2.setTimeout also throw UnauthorizedAccess exceptions. These methods are not marked as deprecated in:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/ko-kr/library/windows/desktop/aa741505%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
yet they have wounded up suffering from the same cutbacks all the same.
Update#4: I gave the approach recommended in this post a shot:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/18546866/863651
In order to dynamically invoke the "eval" method of the IHTMLWindow2 object (or any other method really). Got the same "System.UnauthorizedAccessException" as above. So no joy here either.
Microsoft recommends using "eval" over "execscript" however after the above experiment I suspect that they are refering to accessing "eval" only from within the browser.
As far as I can tell thus far, when it comes to the full-fledged IE11+ using "eval" out-of-process (via COM) appears to have been completely prohibited along with any other function-invocation of the window object, the only exception being the back-channel of the .Navigate2() mentioned above.

It turns out Microsoft eventually backpedaled on its decision to kill off .execScript at COM-level. Just install the latest updates for Windows including kb3025390: One of the updates for IE that came after kb3025390 brings back .execScript functionality at COM-level
Note, however, that .execScript is not accessible through IE's javascript anymore. In that context it's gone for good.

fyi: this one is also not working
ieInstance.Document.Script.<methodNameString>(<commaSeperatedParameterString>)
try this worked for me at some places but not all places
ieObject.Navigate "javascript:<methodNameString>(<commaSeperatedParameterString>)", Null, "_parent"
or
ieObject.Navigate2 "javascript:"<methodNameString>(<commaSeperatedParameterString>)", Null, "_parent"
now trying to find out solution using eval

I have found a way around the problem of an update installing automatically. You can just create a simple batch file with following content.
{code}
#echo off
wusa /uninstall /kb:3025390/quiet /norestart
END
{code}
Then go to task scheduler, create a new task for this batch file to run every one hour or day as per your requirements. Add it as a system task so it runs in the background and does not affect the running automations.

How to use FileSystemObject to read file in JavaScript

I want to read a file with FileSystemObject. My code is as following:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Read json</title>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
function readFile(filename){
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var ForReading = 1;
var f1 = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, ForReading);
var text = f1.ReadAll();
f1.close();
return text;
}
myJSONText = "text.txt";
var myObject = readFile(myJSONText);//eval('(' + myJSONText + ')');
document.write(myObject.name);
</script>
</body>
</html>

First, let me repeat some comments above. I've never seen using ActiveXObject client side extolled as a thing that should be done.
Now, let me say I'm trying to learn how to do this myself. Here are some thoughts (and helpful links, see the bottom) on this question.
The general layout, according to "Much ADO about Text Files" on MSDN's scripting clinic column, is:
Create the object.
Create another object, using the first, that uses
a method of the first object (such as getting a file).
Do things to
the file.
Close the file.
How do you start? According to IE Dev Center (linked here), use an ActiveXObject in Javascript as follows:
newObj = new ActiveXObject(servername.typename[, location])
You've got that when you declare fso in your code. What about this "servername" thing, isn't the file accessed locally? Instead of "servername etc" you've put in Scripting.FileSystemObject. This is actually fine, if the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry key on the host PC supports it (see ref above).
Once the ActiveXObject is successfully declared, and if the browser allows it (IE only), and if the end user agrees to any warnings that pop up ("An ActiveX control on this page might be unsafe to interact with other parts of the page..." etc), then the object allows you to use any of the methods associated with that object. That's where the power of the Windows Scripting FileSystemObject comes into play.
Any FileSystemObject (fso) method is now available to use, which as its name suggests, means file (and directory) interaction on the local machine. Not just reading, as your question is focused on, but writing and deleting as well. A complete list of methods and properties is available at MSDN here. After being used, close out the file using the .close() method.
So, this is dangerous for obvious reasons. But what wasn't obvious to me at first was that these interactions with the filesystem may happen invisibly. There is a good chance that whatever you do, from reading a file to deleting a directory tree, no warnings or command prompts will come up to let you know what's happening because of your few lines of code.
Let me finish by commenting on the last bits of code above. Using JSON in conjunction with data pulled from the FileSystemObject provides a great way to allow JavaScript interaction (JSON .parse and .stringify come immediately to mind). With this, data could be stored locally, perhaps as an alternative to HTML5 local storage (ref this SO thread, which goes more in-depth with this concept, and another SO question I raised about this here).
Here are some links for further reading:
IE Dev Center, JavaScript Objects, ActiveXObject
MSDN JScript Windows Scripting (including FileSystemObject methods, etc)
MSDN Scripting Clinic (older articles, many broken links, but stil a lot of good info on this stuff)

In what situation would document.open() return null?

I'm trying to understand an intermittent script error that I am seeing in a JavaScript intensive thin-client application running under Internet Explorer 6 and Windows XP. The root cause of the problem is that the following function call returns a null value (however it does succeed without an error):
var doc = targetWindow.document.open("text/html","_replace");
Where targetWindow is a window object.
Neither targetWindow nor targetWindow.document is null and so I'm struggling to understand why this call would return null. My interpretation of the documentation is that this method shouldn't ever return null.
This code has been unchanged and working perfectly for many years - until I understand why this is happening I'm not sure either how I might handle this, or what might have changed to cause this to start happening.
What might cause this function call to return null?

According to the documentation you should be passing "replace", not "_replace". Try this instead:
var doc = targetWindow.document.open("text/html", "replace");
Since you say your code has worked for years, then it is likely that something has changed and the above suggestion may not be the issue. However, it is still worth a try.
Have you changed any js files / libraries you are using in your application lately? Also, are you using any browser plugins within the page? It is possible that a newer version of either of these could be somehow affecting your call to "document.open".

document.open() does not have any parameters by W3C standard. Check out this link: http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-HTML/html.html#ID-72161170
I recommend you to use W3C documentation instead of Microsoft's one because with W3C you are sure it works on all modern browsers, while Microsoft is well known for adding extensions that, of course, works only in their own products. It's called EEE (Embrace, extend and extinguish).
Simply use document.open() without arguments. There are ways to manipulate user history, but that's called bad programming practice. History is user's private data and web application should not try to manipulate it.

Send Javascript code to browser

Is there a way to send javascript commands to an open web running in a browser from the shell?
Let's say I have stackoverflow.com open with Chrome. Well, I'd like to send something like
alert('hi!');
from the shell, with something similar to the following:
$ send -t Chrome -w "stackoverflow.com" -c "alert('hi!')"
I was wondering this, because if I can write alert('hi!') on the javascript console of Chrome, I should be able to do the same with a call somewhere, right?
I've seen node.js but I think is not possible with that, please, let me know if I'm wrong.
I know the question could seem weird but I'm curious, thanks in advance :)

You can send JavaScript to Firefox through the jssh extension.
http://www.croczilla.com/bits_and_pieces/jssh/
This is what the Watir testing framework uses to automate Firefox.
I don't know of an equivalent for Chrome.

For IE seems like you can use good old VBScript: http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic7642.html
Worked for me just fine now with IE8. :)
Edit: to open this very question and alert JS value have this code as .vbs file and run it:
Dim oIE
Set oIE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
oIE.Visible = 1
oIE.Navigate "http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4992552/send-javascript-code-to-browser/4992812"
Do While (oIE.Busy)
Wscript.Sleep 10
Loop
oIE.Navigate "javascript:alert(fkey);"

I think it is possible if you write and install some browser addon that would receive your signal, and do the job. Interesting question, ill be tracking it.

It is entirely up to the browser to provide this sort of functionality. In fact, the form of your problem isn't specific even to browsers:
I was wondering this, because if I can [provide some sort of input] to [a program] to make it [do something], I should be able to do the same with a call somewhere, right?
Some programs do indeed provide hooks for scripting, but if they don't, you're out of luck. There is certainly no guarantee that if you can do something via the GUI, then you can trigger the same action from a command line call.
Now the fact that most browsers provide some sort of plugin architecture, makes it much more likely that such a plugin exists that will listen for external input in this way, if this functionality is missing in the base product.
However, this is still going to be very specific to the particular model and even version of the browser you want to control - so if it's something you wanted to release into the wild, you'll need to be very specific with your requirements.

You can send arbitrary code to browser through the address bar! For example in AutoHotKey style，
send F6 //focus the address bar
send ctrl+v //given that your code is in clipboard
send enter
Now there is another question. Can we get the return value of the inject code? The answer is YES!
Assign your return value to document.title, and retrieve the window title from your application.
If the return value is too long (eg. a JSON format string), do the trick that
document.title='calculating...';
document.title=returnValue.subString(0,20);
sleep(10);
document.title=returnValue.subString(20,40);
sleep(10);
document.title=returnValue.subString(40,60);
...
document.title='finished';
Hope it works.

Getting URL of executing JavaScript file (IE6-7 problem mostly)

Hey all, I've been trying to throw together a generic function that retrieves the absolute URL of an executing JavaScript file on a web page:
http://gist.github.com/433486
Basically you get to call something like this:
getScriptName(function(url) {
console.log(url);
// http://www.example.com/myExternalJsFile.js
});
inside an external JavaScript file on a page and can then do something with it (like find the <script> tag that loaded it for example).
It works great in almost all the browsers I've tested (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera v10 at least, and IE 8).
It seems to fail, however, in IE 6 and 7. The callback function gets executed, but the retrieved name is the URL to the main HTML page, not the JavaScript file. Continuing with the example, getScriptName invokes the callback with the parameter: http://www.example.com/index.html
So all I'm really asking is if there's some other way of getting the URL of the current JavaScript file (which could be IE 6 and 7 specific hackery)? Thanks in advance!
EDIT: Also, this won't work in every case, so please don't recommend it:
var scripts = document.getElementsByTagName("script");
return scripts[scripts.length-1].src;
I'd like it to work in the case of dynamically created script tags (possibly not placed last in the page), aka lazy-loading.

A lot of this depends on what you have access to. If, as it appears, you are trying to do this entirely within the JS code, I do not believe that you are able to do it, for some of the reasons shown above. You could get 90% of the way maybe, but not be definitive.
If you are working in a dotnet environment ( which is the only one I know ), I would suggest the use of a module that would intercept all JS requests and add into them the request location, or something of that nature.
I think you need to address this from the server side, not the client side. I do not think you will have a definitive answer form the client side. I think you will also struggle to get an answer from the server side, but you might be more successfull.

Sorry, I suspect you might struggle with this. IE earlier than version 8 typically gives error messages from javascript errors of the form:
line: 342
char: 3
error: expected identifier, string or number
code: 0
url: http://example.com/path/to/resource
where the url is the window.location.href, rather than the URL of the external Javascript resource that contains the problem. I suggest that IE gives the unhelpful URL value since the script URL isn't available to IE at that point, and neither is it available to any Javascript you might write to try to display it.
I would love to be able to link to IE8 release notes which say this bug / feature has been fixed, hence the reason I created this as community wiki. My MSDN foo is pretty weak!