Creating a "brushed up" Task Scheduler UDF?

[mLipok]

I have Au3Check by default with the most restrictive settings, so to check any example..... I must keep an eye on this.

Edited August 28, 2019 by mLipok

[water]

Can we please have a discussion about the format of _TS_TaskPropertiesGet:

At the moment it is a bit hard to read (because I have simply translated a VBS example).
I could modify the 1D array that works with indenting at the moment to a 2D array with the following columns:

• Object: ACTIONS, DEFINITIONS, PRINCIPAL ...)
• The property name (Duration, LogonType, XML ...)
• The property value ("2PT", 4, "<?xml version=1.0 ..." ...)
• Description (if available) ("", "Group", "" ...) 

Example:

This way everyone can format the output the way he likes.
This 2D array format will be the expert format you could use to create a new task (discussion about this will follow soon).

Edited August 28, 2019 by water

[FrancescoDiMuro]

@water
Trying _TS_FolderExists(), and, currently, if the folder does not exist, then no error is set, so, to avoid that, you should /could probably do something like this:

Func _TS_FolderExists($oService, $sFolder)
    Return (IsObj($oService.GetFolder($sFolder)) = 1 ? SetError(0, 0, 1) : SetError(1, 0, 0))
EndFunc   ;==>_TS_FolderExists

[water]

Fixed in version 0.1.1.0:

; #FUNCTION# ====================================================================================================================
; Name...........: _TS_FolderExists
; Description ...: Checks if a task folder exists.
; Syntax.........: _TS_FolderExists($oService, $sFolder)
; Parameters ....: $oService - Task Scheduler Service object as returned by _TS_Open
;                  $sFolder  - The absolute path to the folder to be checked
;                    e.g. \Folder-Level1\Folder-Level2. No trailing backslash allowed.
; Return values .: Success - 1
;                  Failure - Returns 0 and sets @error:
;                  |1 - Error accessing the Taskfolder collection. @extended is set to the COM error code
; Author ........: water
; Modified.......:
; Remarks .......:
; Related .......:
; Link ..........:
; Example .......: Yes
; ===============================================================================================================================
Func _TS_FolderExists($oService, $sFolder)
    Local $oFolder = $oService.GetFolder($sFolder)
    If @error Then
        If @error = 0x80020009 Then ; Folder not found
            Return 0
        Else
            Return SetError(1, @error, 0) ; Some other error
        EndIf
    EndIf
    Return 1
EndFunc   ;==>_TS_FolderExists

@error only gets set when there is a real error. Means: you get 0 or 1 as return value when folder was not found/found. @error is only set when something gets wrong with COM.

Edited August 29, 2019 by water

[mLipok]

Proposal:
 

Func _TS_FolderExists($oService, $sFolder)
   $oService.GetFolder($sFolder)
   If @error = 0x80020009 Then ; Folder not found
      Return 0
   ElseIf @error Then ; Some other error
      Return SetError(1, @error, 0)
   EndIf
   Return 1 ; success
EndFunc   ;==>_TS_FolderExists

 

[water]

That was my intermediate solution as well
I made it a bit more complex because 0x80020009 is a general error and means anything, not just "folder not found".

Hence:

Func _TS_FolderExists($oService, $sFolder)
    Local $oFolder, $oFolders, $sFolder1, $sFolder2, $iPos
    If $sFolder = "\" Then Return 1
    $iPos = StringInStr($sFolder, "\", 0, -1)
    $sFolder1 = StringLeft($sFolder, $iPos - 1)
    $sFolder2 = StringMid($sFolder, $iPos + 1)
    $oFolder = $oService.GetFolder($sFolder1)
    If @error Then Return SetError(1, @error, 0)
    $oFolders = $oFolder.GetFolders(0)
    If @error Then Return SetError(2, @error, 0)
    For $oFolder In $oFolders
        If $oFolder.Name = $sFolder2 Then Return 1
    Next
    Return 0
EndFunc   ;==>_TS_FolderExists

 

[water]

Released version 0.1.1.0

Edited August 29, 2019 by water

[water]

Added another question to the poll.

Remote access doesn't seem easy to implement/debug. The web doesn't help much as well.
So we will not implement this feature when there is no demand!

Please answer this new question so we know where to put our development effort!

[FrancescoDiMuro]

@water
It seems that we can't vote

[water]

I see. Looks like a bug in the forum software.

I will open a new post to summarize the answers.

[water]

POLL - POLL - POLL

For those who answered "Yes" on the poll for a new Task Scheduler UDF I have a new question (the poll does't allow to vote for new questions. Looks like a bug)

Do you need remote access to manage the task scheduler on another machine?

Please add a post with "YES" or "No" - I will add up the replies here.

Result:

  Yes - 2 (FrancescoDiMuro, AdamUL)

  No - 4 (Musashi, seadoggie01, mLipok, water)

Edited August 30, 2019 by water

[FrancescoDiMuro]

10 minutes ago, water said:

Do you need remote access to manage the task scheduler on another machine?

Yes.
Recently, I was trying to use the TaskScheduler object with a remote machine, and I've encountered error of all genres

[Musashi]

It would be a nice-to-have feature but not mandatory. The MS documentation for remote access seems to be really poor.
In short : NO

 

[seadoggie01]

No, I was planning on using it on a local computer for scheduling a router restart.

[mLipok]

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, water said:

Do you need remote access to manage the task scheduler on another machine?

NO

[AdamUL]

Yes.  

[mLipok]

7 hours ago, water said:

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, water said:

Remote access doesn't seem easy to implement/debug. The web doesn't help much as well.

did you look here:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29014726/scheduled-tasks-from-remote-server-using-powershell
https://www.powershellmagazine.com/2015/04/10/pstip-retrieve-scheduled-tasks-using-schedule-service-comobject/
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51535841/schedule-service-erroring-out-while-connecting-to-localhost

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/taskschd/taskservice-connect

?

 

[mLipok]

and of course here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/taskschd/taskservice

[water]

A user on the german forum (Professor_Bernd) tested connecting to another computer using the UDF and Task Scheduler GUI.
Neither worked for him.
Unfortunately I can't test as I do not have access to another computer.

It primarily seems to be a network problem.

I have postponed this subject until all the main functions (e.g. create a task) have been coded and work as expected.

[mLipok]

maybe security / permissions ?

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/29129821/Permissions-needed-for-Schedule-Service-Connect.html