javascript - Using a WScript.shell activeX to execute a command line

Question

I am working on calling a .exe file with a WScript.shell activeX. The file is wkhtmltopdf.exe and it is used to convert a HTML page to a .pdf. Everything is working well when I am just calling C:wkhtmltopdf.exe in the code. It runs and then closes correctly. But my issue is you need to run it from cmd with the program name then the HTML file name you are reading followed by the .pdf name you want it to be created as.

For example:

c:wkhtmltopdf.exe c:PDFTestPage.html c:TEST.pdf

This will call wkhtmltopdf.exe, read c:PDFTestPage.html, then create c:TEST.pdf. Works fine when I type it into cmd.

Does anyone know an activeX that will not just run and .exe but actually execute a command line?

Here is my code that I am currently using.

function callShellApplication(){
var objShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.shell");
objShell.run('"c:wkhtmltopdf.exe"');
}

Would really like it to be the following.

function callShellApplication(){
var objShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.shell");
objShell.run('"c:wkhtmltopdf.exe c:PDFTestPage.html c:TEST.pdf"');
}

Also side note. For some reason I cant launch the .exe from an absolute path. I have to move to the directory and then just type in wkhtmltopdf.exe. The fill path is:

C:Program Files (x86)wkhtmltopdfwkhtmltopdf.exe

I really only work with UNIX so I'm not sure about spaces in the path. I can do a chdir with the spaces but I cant use the fill path when executing it. Any information would be helpful. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

According to the following:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d5fk67ky%28v=vs.84%29.aspx

You should be able to pass the commands directly as part of the strCommand param, you'd probably be better off getting rid of the extra quotes wrapping the entire command and arguments:

function callShellApplication(){
  var objShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.shell");
  objShell.run('c:wkhtmltopdf.exe c:PDFTestPage.html c:TEST.pdf');
}

Also you should be able to handle spaces in paths by wrapping each item in quotes, like so:

function callShellApplication(){
  var objShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.shell");
  objShell.run('"C:Program Files (x86)wkhtmltopdfwkhtmltopdf.exe" "c:PDFTestPage.html" "c:TEST.pdf"');
}

You should also keep in mind whether you want to bWaitOnReturn or not, and which intWindowStyle you need (some executables may benefit from a particular style).

Also just as a cautionary note — it's been a while since I've used WScript.shell — but you may need to escape your backslashes in your paths. So a path may need to look like the following:

objShell.run('"C:\Program Files (x86)\wkhtmltopdf\wkhtmltopdf.exe"');