CS-Script FAQ
- What is the CS-Script?
- Other .NET scripting solutions
- Open-source script editors
- CS-Script .NET2.0
- CS-Script .NET3.0
- Debugging
- CS-Script and COM
- CS-Script and WebServices
- CS-Script and Remoting
- Scripting from Web applications
- Using MS Visual Studio with CS-Script
- CS-Script and Compact Framework
- Is there are 2 way communications between Host and Script?
- Script hosting scenarios
- Integration with the host application
- Can CS-Script be used IE?
- How to fix "Access to the path ...\*.csc' is denied" problem.
- Classlesss scripts.
- Run script by double-clicking
- Interactive Environment for CS-Script
- Runing the script without script file
- MS powershell vs.CS-Script
- App.exe.config equivalent for C# script
- Passing the object between scripts
- Referencing assembly which has non-standard namespace
- CS-Script and other languages
-
How
to uninstall CS-Script manually
- Comercial support
The Answers
- What is the CS-Script?
Q. I kinda curious, why/when do need to use script?
A. CS-Script is a CLR based scripting system which uses ECMA-compliant C# as a programming language. CS-Script currently targets Microsoft implementation of CLR (.NET1.1/2.0). However CS-Script offers limited support for Mono and other CLR programming languages.
CS-Script combines the power and richness of C# and FCL with the flexibility of a scripting system. CS-Script can be useful for the system and network administrators, developers and testers. For any one who needs an automation for solving variety of programming tasks such as:
- analysing and adjusting system configuration
- extending functionality of a software system with flexible scripting
- configuring development or testing environment
- automating software batch build
- automating testing, and collecting test results
- ......
Virtually any type of automation on the system and application levels.
CS-Script as a development system does not compete with other C# based development systems (.NET +Visual Studio, Mono + SharpDevelop, ...). It is just a flexible alternative for the tasks which are hard (or effort consuming) to implement with non-scripting approaches.
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- Other
.NET scripting solutions
Q. ...I am curious about whether or not you will get together with the creator of NScript...
A. I have heard about the NScript for the first time just after my article was published in the CodeProject. It is really good. Looks like it's author was trying to achieve the same (almost the same) objective as me. Probably that is why the internal design of his scripting engine is similar (to the some extend) to mine.
Though all C# scripting solutions that I have seen (including NScript) had some fundamental design problems, even despite of sometimes brilliant implementation. All of them required either custom flavor of C# or extra config files accompanying the script file (e.g. NScript).
On my opinion script must be a self-sufficient distributable software component. Single script file is all what you should need in order to run it on the corresponding script engine. All successful scripting platforms uses the same approach (Python, Boo, JavaScript, Perl, VBScript etc.).
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- Is
there open source editor for CS-Script?
Q. ...I like CS-Script. But, I think its time that it was adapted to use one of the open source editors or an editor was created for it...
A. The CS-Script is a runtime environment only. And as such it is completely transparent to the syntax of the script. Because of this there is no need to develop and maintain any language specific compiler and development tools. The existing development infrastructure associated with the language can be used without any modification.
A good syntax-aware editor is extremely important for development and a number of them are already available. CS-Script uses just standard C# and this is the reason why any C# editor can be used to compose the scripts.
CS-Script can be used with SitePad, Antechinus, TextPad, UltraEdit, open-source SharpDevelop IDE, any edition of VisualStudio and many others. My favorites are Notepad++ and MS VisualStudio Express. They are free and very light for their development tools categories (Notepad++ is an editor and VS is a full scale IDE ). However you can find plenty of others.
The development of yet another C# editor will require significant time and effort and would bring very little extra value to the CS-Script itself.
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- CS-Script
and .NET 2.0
Q. I noticed that C# Script for .Net 2.0...Do you intend to add support for generics?
A. CS-Script does not implement (or duplicate) any .NET functionality. It just allows you to use (in a scripting manner) what ever .NET can offer.
You can script with generics simply because CS-Script allows execution under the .NET 2.0 CLR and generics is a part of the .NET 2.0.
The following script will run just fine:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
class Script
{
static public void Main(string[] args)
{
List<string> myList = new List<>(string);
myList.Add("111");
myList.Add("222");
myList.Add("333");
foreach (string item in myList)
Console.WriteLine(item);
}
}
The same apply to any version of .NET. If you install it and specify it's runtime as a target CLR version in the Configuration console CS-Script.
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- CS-Script
and .NET 3.0
Q. What about support for .NET3?
A. .NET3.0 is based on the CLR 2.0. This means that virtually any script, which can be executed on .NET2.0 can be executed on .NET3.0 as well
.NET3.0 also includes new framework extensions (eg. WPF, WCF...), which relay heavily on the app.config files. Starting from v1.7.0 CS-Script includes support for application configuration files. Practically it means that if you need to execute the script (client.cs) written to exercise WCF functionality, you need to create corresponding config file (client.cs.config or client.exe.config) and use command-line switch /sconfig. This switch will force the script engine to execute the script application in a separate AppDomain with correct config file.
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- Debugging
_access_den
Q. How can I debug my scripts?
A. If you need to debug your script firstly make sure you have a CLR compatible debugger installed. Almost any CLR IDE can be used as such a debugger.
You can start debugging by using one of the these possible approaches:
- Run script from command prompt with //x switch as
the last parameter. This switch is similar to '//x' switch for
Microsoft's cscript.exe (VBScript, JScript engine).
Alternatively right-click the script file in explorer and select "Debug Script". It will append //x to your script command automatically. The corresponding shell extension can be enabled/disabled from the configuration console.
- Right-click script file in Explorer and select
"Open (...)".
This will open your script in the debugger (or IDE depending on what you have installed). Now you can start the script under debugger.
Currently supported debuggers/IDEs are:
.NET Visual Studio 7.1
.NET Visual Studio 8.0
SharpDevelop
MS CLR Debugger
- Put in your code the following string: System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(false);
Use /dbg switch when you execute your script.
This will bring the Assertion dialog at run-time and you will be able to continue execution under the debugger of your choice.
- Run script with /dbg switch. During this execution run your debugger and attach it to the running process (e.g. cscs.exe) by usual means. Of course this approach can be used only if your debugger supports "attach to process" debugging.
All these approaches are described in details here.
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- Run script from command prompt with //x switch as
the last parameter. This switch is similar to '//x' switch for
Microsoft's cscript.exe (VBScript, JScript engine).
- CS-Script
and COM
Q. How can I instantiate a COM object?
A. There are two possible approaches to access COM objects:
- importing type libraries manually
- simplified "Single-line COM access" approach.
It is recommended to use "Single-line COM access" as it provides seamless access to COM (no manual steps are required). It also allows referencing the COM objects by GUIDS, ProgID or file name (.dll/.ocx) directly from the code.
The following script creates (permanently) new Environment Variable by using the WScript.Shell COM object available on any Windows platform as part of the VBScript.
//css_pre com(WScript.Shell, swshell.dll);
using System;
using swshell;
namespace Scripting
{
class Script
{
static public void Main(string[] args)
{
object envType = "SYSTEM";
IWshEnvironment wshSysEnv = new WshShellClass().get_Environment(ref envType);
wshSysEnv["TEST"] = "MyDirectory";
}
}
}
See Using COM tutorial for details.
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- CS-Script
and WebServices
Q. C#Script is a great tool! Is there a way to add web service reference to the script? Can you give some sample on how to use Web Service?
A. In order to access WebService you need to generate service wrapper. Such wrapper (.cs) is generated for you by Visual Studio when you add Web reference. The wrapper can be imported by your script as any other .cs file.
For convenience you can instruct the script engine to create the wrapper automatically thus all can be done from the script code. The following script creates wrapper HelloService.cs for the local WebService Hello.
//css_pre wsdl(http://localhost/hello/hello.asmx?WSDL, HelloService);
//css_imp HelloService;
using System;
using System.Xml;
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine(new HelloWorld().SayHello());
}
}
See CS-Script and Web Services for details.
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- CS-Script
and Remoting
Q. What is the way of accessing Remoting?
A. When you use Remoting your server application exposes it's interface in the following ways:
- interface is defined in the separate class library assembly
- interface is defined in the server assembly
- interface is defined in the class library assembly generated with the SOAPSUDS.EXE utility
Remoting client script application just references the assembly with the interface definition and uses it in usual manner.
This is the example of how you can use Remoting server CountryList (CompanyList MSDN example).
//css_ref CountryList.dll;
using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http;
class Script
{
static public void Main(string[] args)
{
CountryList cLst = (CountryList)Activator.GetObject(typeof(CountryList),
"http://localhost:8086/CountryList",
WellKnownObjectMode.Singleton);
cLst.AddCountry("Australia");
}
}
Interestingly SOAPSUDS.EXE is capable of producing assembly containing the implementation of the CountryList class (proxy assembly). Thus instead of distributing the CountryList class assembly you can recreate it on client site on-fly.
CS-Script is distributed with soapsuds.cs script. Thus generation of the interface assembly can be done automatically as a pre-execution step, what means all can be managed directly from code.
//css_pre soapsuds(http://localhost:8086//MyRemotingApp/CountryList?WSDL, CountryList, -new);
//css_ref CompanyLists.dll;
using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
.....
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- Scripting
from
Web applications
Q. How to use CS-Script from WebService?
A. Generally speaking there is no difference if the host application is a local or Web application. However some security issues may arise depending on your particular runtime scenario.
The following is the code is a fragment of the source file, which Visual Studio creates for a new WebService project:
public class Service : System.Web.Services.WebService
{
[WebMethod]
public string HelloWorld() {
return "Hello World!";
}
..... - Using
MS Visual Studio with CS-Script
Q. I would like to use VS with CS-Script. How it can be done?
A. You can easily use Visual Studio 2003, 2005 or Express to develop your script applications. Visual studio is a preferred IDE for CS-Script as it provides comprehensive set of editing tools, including diseigners and advanced CLR debugger.
You can read about enabling the Visual Studio integration here.
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- CS-Script
and Compact Framework
Q. Does CS-Script work on PocketPC - Compact Framework 1.x / 2.x ?
A. No Compact Framework (CF) is not supported by CS-Script. The reason is that CF does not have implementation of the C# ICodeCompiler. In other words the following code would not compile:
ICodeCompiler compiler = (new CSharpCodeProvider()).CreateCompiler();
If, in any future version of CF, Microsoft includes the CSharpCodeProvider implementation the CS-Script will work on such platform.
Starting from version 1.3 CS-Script supports pluggable custom compilers. It means that if you have third-party implementation of the CLR compiler that can work on CF it can be used instead of the Microsoft compiler.
Basically you need any workable C# compiler either managed or native that would work on CF.
I have tried to resolve the problem by isolating the compiler from full version of .NET Framework and bringing it on CF but did not succeeded. Also I was trying to use third-party compilers (after all it does not matter what software does the conversion C#->IL). The Pocket C# compiler looked promising but I could not get it working. Even despite I have seen some reports dated 2004 that it actually did work.
However CS-Script does provide some limited support for CF (see this article for details).
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- Communications
between Host and Script in both directions
Q. Is there are 2 way communications between Host and Script?
A. Yes there is. Such communication scenario is a case of the "type sharing" pattern described in the documentation.
You can pass to and from the script an object of any type which is known/shared by both the script and the host. That is why, without any extra work, you can pass to the script and get back any GAC type (e.g. System.String, System.Windows.Form).
However if your type (to be shared) is not registered with GAC you will need to reference the assembly implementing this type from the script. Making this assembly available at runtime can be difficult, particularly if this assembly cannot be located by CS-Script easily.
The preferred way of handling such problem is to use Simplified Hosting Model. When the script is executed according this model it has access to all loaded assemblies of the host application (including the host application itself). This CS-Script mode is enabled by default.
using System;
using CSScriptLibrary;
public class Host
{
public static string greeting = "Hello World!";
static void Main()
{
AsmHelper scriptAsm = new AsmHelper(CSScript.LoadCode(
@"using System;
public class Script
{
public static void SayHello()
{
Console.WriteLine(Host.greeting);
}
}"));
scriptAsm.Invoke("Script.SayHello");
}
}
Note that the script code does not even references the host application assembly and yet script engine is capable to resolve this assembly for the C# compiler at compile time and for the CLR at runtime.
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- Script
hosting scenarios
Q. What is the simplest way to host the script engine?
A. The following are some hosting scenarios examples. All of them illustrate usage of scripts in a code form (without having any script file), however samples can be easyly modified to use script files instead.
Make sure you have referenced CSScriptLibrary.dll in you host application project and have corresponding using statement:--------------------------------------------------------------------------
using CSScriptLibrary;
Invoking static methods of a script class.
static int Sum(int a, int b)
{
string scriptCode = "using System;\n " +
"public class Calc " +
"{ " +
" static public int Sum(int a, int b) " +
" { " +
" return a + b; " +
" } " +
"}";
AsmHelper helper = new AsmHelper(CSScript.LoadCode(scriptCode, null, false));
return (int)helper.Invoke("Calc.Sum", a, b);
}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Invoking static methods of a script class with unloading the script assembly.
Note that the compiled script (script assembly) is unloaded after the Subtract() returns.
static int Sum(int a, int b)
{
//this will also unload and delete the compiled assembly file after the execution
string scriptCode = "using System;\n " +
"public class Calc : MarshalByRefObject " +
"{ " +
" static public int Sum(int a, int b) " +
" { " +
" return a + b; " +
" } " +
"}";
string asmFile = CSScript.CompileCode(scriptCode, null, false);
using (AsmHelper helper = new AsmHelper(asmFile, "tempDomain", true))
{
return (int)helper.Invoke("Calc.Sum", a, b);
}
}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Invoking instance methods of a script class..
static int Subtract(int a, int b)
{
string scriptCode = "using System;\n " +
"public class Calc " +
"{ " +
" public int Subtract(int a, int b) " +
" { " +
" return a - b; " +
" } " +
"}";
AsmHelper helper = new AsmHelper(CSScript.LoadCode(scriptCode, null, false));
object calc = helper.CreateObject("Calc");
return (int)helper.InvokeInst(calc, "Subtract", a, b);
}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Invoking instance methods of a script class with unloading the script assembly.
static int Subtract(int a, int b)
{
//this will also unload and delete the compiled assembly file after the execution
string scriptCode = "using System;\n " +
"public class Calc : MarshalByRefObject " +
"{ " +
" public int Subtract(int a, int b) " +
" { " +
" return a - b; " +
" } " +
"}";
string asmFile = CSScript.CompileCode(scriptCode, null, false);
using (AsmHelper helper = new AsmHelper(asmFile, "tempDomain", true))
{
object calc = helper.CreateObject("Calc");
return (int)helper.InvokeInst(calc, "Subtract", a, b);
}
}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Invoking static method of a classless script containing method definition only.
static int PrintSum(int a, int b)
{
var printSum = CSScript.LoadMethod(
@"public static void PrintSum(int a, int b)
{
Console.WriteLine((a+b));
}")
.GetStaticMethod();
printSum(1, 2);
}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- Integration with the host
application
Q. ...So the CSS script must be able to get and set variables, call functions in the class and so on.
My questions is how this class should be designed...How to fix "Access to the path ...\*.csc' is denied" problem.
Traditionally when dealing with the application extensibility scenarios the following three major integration patterns are used: Dispatch, Adapter, Interface.PrintSum
Dispatch
You may be familiar with this approach if you hosted COM object through IDispatch interface. In case of CS-Script it may be illustrated by the following code:
//script code
class Script
{
static public void Calculate(){ /*do something*/ }
static public void Refresh(){ /*do something*/ }
static public int Sum(int a, int b){ /*do something*/ }
}
//host code
AsmHelper script = //compile(load) script code
script.Invoke("Script.Calculate");
script.Invoke("Script.Refresh");
int i = script.Invoke("Script.Sum", 1, 2);
Prons:
Simple, no extra classes are required (just host and script).
Cons:
Some errors (e.g. method name, argument type) cannot be caught at compile time.
Harder to read code.
Adapter (Wrapper)
You may be familiar with this approach if you hosted COM object through MFC wrappers. In case of CS-Script it may be illustrated by the following code:
//script code
class Script
{
static public void Calculate(){ /*do something*/ }
static public void Refresh(){ /*do something*/ }
static public int Sum(int a, int b){ /*do something*/ }
}
//host code
class Script
{
private AsmHelper script = //compile(load) script code
public void Calculate(){ script.Invoke("Script.Calculate"); }
public void Refresh(){ script.Invoke("Script.Refresh"); }
public int Sum(int a, int b){ return script.Invoke("Script.Sum", a, b); }
}
Script script = new Script();
script.Calculate();
script.Refresh();
int i = script.Sum(1, 2);
Prons:
Easy to read code (you may not even know that class Script has dynamic code behind).
Cons:
Extra class declaration is required.
Some errors (e.g. method name, argument type) cannot be caught at compile time.
Changes in the script interface are not handled in the wrapper class automatically.
Interface
WCF uses this technique as one of a few possible configuration options. In case of CS-Script it may be illustrated by the following code:
//defined in host, shared or GAC assembly
interface IScript
{
void Calculate();
void Refresh();
int Sum(int a, int b);
}
//script code
class Script : IScript
{
public void Calculate(){ /*do something*/ }
public void Refresh(){ /*do something*/ }
public int Sum(int a, int b){ /*do something*/ }
public static IScript Create()
{
return new Script();
}
}
//host code
AsmHelper asm = //compile(load) script code
IScript script = (IScript )asm.Invoke("Script.Create");
script.Calculate();
script.Refresh();
int i = script.Sum(1, 2);
Prons:
Easy to read code.
Type safe (all method signatures are checked at compile time).
The relationship between host and script is a clear "can do" contract represented by the interface definition.
Cons:
Extra deployment component (interface assembly) may be required required.
Using interfaces arguably is the best approach, though it requires a bit more initial coding. But of course in any particular hosting scenario another approaches can be preferable.
Interface Alignment (DuckTyping)
This model allows execution the script by "aligning" it to the appropriate interface (DuckTyping). Important aspect of such hosting model that the script execution is completely type safe and such editors as Visual Studio can provide full Intellisense support. However even more importantly the script does not have to implement the interface being used by the host application. The technique can be illustrated by the following code:
//script code
using System;
public class Script
{
public void Hello(string greeting)
{
Console.WriteLine(greeting);
}
void SomeOtherMethod()
{
...
}
}
//host code
using CSScriptLibrary;
public interface IScript
{
void Hello(string greeting);
}
class Host
{
static void Main()
{
var script = CSScript.Load("HelloScript.cs")
.CreateInstance("Script")
.AlignToInterface<IScript>();
script.Hello("Hi there...");
}
}
Prons:
Easy to read code.
Type safe (all method signatures are checked at compile time).
The relationship between host and script is a clear "can do" contract represented by the interface definition.
No deployment penalties (script and host are loosely coupled).
Cons:
Current implementation of AlignToInterface not support remote execution scenarios.
Using interfaces this way is has all benefits of using plain interfaces (previous section). But also it offers architectural benefits of loosely coupled components (script and host).
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- Hosting
the CS-Script in IE.
Q. Can CS-Script be used in scripts in IE?
A. No C# script engine cannot be used in IE. This is because IE uses different engine (VBScript and JavaScript) to compile scripting content of a WEB page. As far as I know you cannot reconfigure it to use something else. If you really want to have it in IE you would need to change the implementation of IE or write your own Browser. Both options are not practically possible.
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- How
to
fix "Access to the path
...\*.csc' is denied" problem.
Q. I noticed that an UnauthorizedAccessException occurs after CSScript.Load() has been invoked and the script is changed on the filesystem.
Unhandled Exception: System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path '....<sctipt>.csc' is denied.
A. This sort of problems usually indicates that hoste application is trying to change and recompile the script which is already loaded and still in the memory.
The samples in the "<cs-script>\Samples\Hosting\Modifying script without restart" folder demonstrate how to handle the problem.
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- Classless scripts.
Q. ...I know many other scripting languages (JS, python, etc) don't require class and function declarations, yet still allow them if so desired. Could your engine do the same?...
A. Yes it is possible. CS-Script offers automatic generation of the wrapper class if the script does not have any class definition. Classless support comes in a few different flavors, which should not be confused:
- Execution
of classless script files with command line switch /autoclass.
This feature is implemented in the CS-Script engine itself. It is to be used with stand alone scripts:
- User cannot control the way auto-class is generated.
- Script must have entry point Main().
Script example:
using System;
void Main()
{
SayHello("Hello World!");
}
static void SayHello(string greeting)
{
Console.WriteLine(greeting);
}
The details can be found here.
- Execution
of classless C# code in script hosting scenarios.
This feature is implemented in the CS-Script engine class library (CSScriptLibrary.dll). It is to be used with C# code dynamically executed from the host application:
- User cannot control the way auto-class is generated.
- Script is a C# code in memory (not a file).
Example:
var code = @"public static void Hello(string greeting)
{
SayHello(greeting);
}
static void SayHello(string greeting)
{
Console.WriteLine(greeting);
}";
var SayHello = new AsmHelper(CSScript.LoadMethod(code))
.GetStaticMethod("*.Hello", ""); //or you can use full name "Scripting.DynamicClass.Hello"
SayHello("Hello World!");
The details can be found here.
- Execution of classless script
files with Alternative compiler.
This feature is implemented in the CS-Script engine extension library (CSSCodeProvider.dll). It is to be used with both hosted and standalone scripts:
- Scripts must have .ccs extension to be handled as classless.
- User can control the way auto-class is generated (namespace and class name) by using //css_classless directive.
Script (script.cs):
//css_classless MyNamespace.MyClass;
static public void SayHello(string greeting)
{
Console.WriteLine(greeting);
}
Host:
CSScript.GlobalSettings.UseAlternativeCompiler =
Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(@"%CSSCRIPT_DIR%\Lib\CSSCodeProvider.dll");
var helper = new AsmHelper(CSScript.Load("script.ccs"));
helper.Invoke("MyNamespace.MyClass.SayHello", "Hello World!");
The details can be found here.
However if you want ultimate flexibility you can implement Alternative Compiler, which can be considered as a "precompiler" doing some source code manipulations/injections prior the actual compilation with the normal C# compiler. You can find the tutorial for implementing Alternative Compilers here.
Standard CS-Script installation contains examples of classless scripts in the [cs-script]\Samples\Classless directory.
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- Execution
of classless script files with command line switch /autoclass.
- Run
script by double-clicking
Q. Is there a way to associate .cs files with cs-script so I can just type the name of the .cs file to run it in the command prompt?
A. Yes there is a way. But you will have to break existing .cs association if any.
Have a look at how .txt associated with notepad.exe in registry. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile\shell\open\command
But I have to discourage you from doing this. Making script execution automatic on "opening" file is a security breach regardless of what scripting language you are using.
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- Interactive
Environment for CS-Script
Q. Does C# Script have an Interactive Environment (like IronPhyton.NET has)?
A. No, full scale interactive environment is not possible for CS-Script. Such style of environment is possible only for truly interpreted languages (eg. Python).
CS-Script is a statically typed non-interpretive scripting environment and as such it has to be compiled fully before the execution. This is the reason why CS-Script demonstrates such good performance. Generally, the CS-Script script application will take a bit longer to start (about 50-70 ms) but after that it will perform with the same speed as it's standalone executable equivalent.
However CS-Script supports classless C# syntax (it was requested by the users at a stage). Such syntax does not require any class declaration and it can be used to execute short code fragments on fly. This feature can be used to implement an environment similar to the Python Interactive Environment. Similar but not the same...
"Script Execution Interactive Environment emulator" (ScriptEE.cs) sample from "Online Samples" librari is an attempt to emulate script interpretation. This simple WinForm application allows execution of the C# code snippets.
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- Runing
the script without a script file.
Q. If I have an application has the script as a resource embedded in the application, is there a way to pass the memory block that contains the script to cswscript.exe directly? I don't want to save it to a physical file and the pass it for security reason.
A. You can use CSScript.CompileCode(string scriptText, ...) and than execute the assembly. However the CSScript will create the script file (in the user Temp folder) and delete it immediately after the compilation. That is why it is almost what you want.
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- MS
powershell vs.CS-Script
Q. What is the advantage compared to the new shell of microsoft? MS powershell code name : monad.
A. Yes, it is a very promising powerful scripting environment. However the only thing, which relates PS and CS-Script is the scripting nature and usage of CLR. Though CS-Script can use any CLR (eg. MONO).
The purpose of the CS-Script is to provide developers with ability to interact with CLR (in a scripting manner) through language, which was designed specifically for CLR. PowerShell is an environment for performing variety of administrative tasks. And it is just happened that it's implementation is a CLR-based. In other words PowerShell is a task-oriented and CS-Script is a CLR-oriented system. I cannot even say that they actually compete with each other, but of course there are a lot of intersections.
The key difference is that CS-Script is a runtime environment which is independent from the language it is using. Basically it is an adapter between CLR and the language, which allows scripting execution.
These are some other differences (you can find more here: Why CS-Script?):
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- App.exe.config
equivalent for C# script
Q. Currently I'm building an .exe and rename my app.config to app.exe.config in order to have xml configuration support. That works. There is unfortunately no chance (besides the debug sln) to integrate an app.config at script level.
A. Starting from v1.7.0 CS-Script includes support for the application configuration files. Practically it means that if you need to execute the script (client.cs), you need to create corresponding config file (client.cs.config) and use command-line switch /sconfig. This switch will force the script engine to execute the script application in a separate AppDomain with correct config file. Note: you casn also create client.exe.config instead of client.cs.config but in the same location, CS-Script will still treat it as a script app.config file.
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- Passing
the object between scripts
Q. Can your C# script engine return an object in the memory after running the script. It might be useful when the returned object from the first script needs to be passed o another C# script?
A. Yes it can. Detailed information on how to do this can be found in the "'Type sharing' pattern" article of the CS-Script documentation or in online help.
The corresponding tutorials are:
Passing well-known type between script and host
Passing custom type between script and host
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- Referencing
assembly which has non-standard namespace
Q. ...I'm trying to use an external dll taglib-sharp.dll within a script.
However once, i load the script it ends up in a CS0246, that the namespace TagLib couldn't be found....
...i've noticed the following: the dll is named taglib-sharp.dll, but the namespace is called TagLib.
A. The problem is quite usual for the development scenarios involving the assembly with the name, which does not match it's root namespace. This is usually the result of using non-standard naming convention by the developer(s) of that assembly.
The common practice is that for a given assembly all three naming identities should match. For example the System.Windows.Forms.dll has the following naming identities:
1. assembly name - System.Windows.Forms
2. assembly namespace - System.Windows.Forms
3. assembly file name - System.Windows.Forms.dll
After the assembly compiled none of it's identity can be changed. Even if you are able to rename the file such an action will interfere with .NET assembly probing.
The proper solution is to reference the assembly by it's file name directly from the script code.
//css_ref taglib-sharp.dll;
using System;
using TagLib;
.....
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- CS-Script and
other languages
Q. It would be really cool if your script engine could be used for VB.NET as well as C#, sorta at the flick of a switch.
A. From the name of the product (CS-Script) you may guess that it is all about C#. The full potential of scripting with the CS-Script engine can be utilised only when using the C# code. However, it is impossible not to recognize that some developers may need to work with other programming languages. Therefore CS-Script also provides some support for other CLR languages (currently JScript, VB.NET, C++/CLI).
This support is provided by the means of plug-n-play compilers (code providers) implemented as an external assembly. It means that you can implement your own compiler for non-C# syntax or use any existing one.
See Alternative compilers for details.
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- How to
uninstall
CS-Script manually
Q. ...I try to run/compile it...and get this as result:
Cannot use alternative compiler
What I do wrong ?
A. This particular error means that the alternative compiler cannot be found by the script engine, what indicates that the CS-Script installation has been altered/broken.
The solution for the problem is to reinstall CS-Script. Uninstalling can be done either from configuration console or by executing css_config.exe with command line argumant /u.
Alternatively, it is possible to remove CS-Script manually (if the configuration console or/and css_config.exe are not available). Manual uninstallation is simple as CS-Script, during the installation, does very few changes to the OS. Do the following steps if you need to uninstall CS_Script manually.
- Remove system environment variable CSSCRIPT_DIR.
- Remove %CSSCRIPT_DIR% component from the system environment variable PATH.
- If
advanced shell extensions enabled unregister shell extensions with
regsvr32.exe
e.g. regsvr32 /u C:\cs-script\Lib\ShellExtensions\CS-Script\ShellExt.cs.{...}.dll
You will need to repeat unregistration for ShellExt64.cs.{...}.dll if you use x64 edition of Windows.
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- Licencing
and
Commercial
Support
Q. I'm thinking to use your CS-script execution engine as a plug-in for one of our commercial product. ... Could we use your product in commercial environment?
A. The all details of the CS-Script licencing can be found here. But to put it simple, the CS-Script is an open-source initiative and as such it is free for commercial and non-commercial use.
You can use it free of charge provided no modifications are made to the original CS-Script engine. Any script engine modifications, if required, must be conducted through CS-Script consulting as part of the commercial support, which attracts some fees .
We already have a successful experience in customising the CS-Script engine according to the customers needs.
Please contact CS-Script support for more details.
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This method can be modified to use the scripting engine for dynamic code execution. Just add reference to the CSScriptLibrary.dll and modify you code:
using CSScriptLibrary;
.....
public class Service : System.Web.Services.WebService
{
static string scriptCode =
"using System;\n" +
"public class Script" +
"{" +
" static public string GetUser()" +
" {" +
" return Environment.UserName;" +
" }" +
"}";
[WebMethod]
public string HelloWorld() {
AsmHelper script = new AsmHelper(CSScript.LoadCode(scriptCode, "", false));
return "Hello World! From " + (string)script.Invoke("Script.GetUser");
}
.....
Of course you can load script file instead of having script code hardcoded. In this case you can even "step in" into the script code when debugging your Web application.
Note \n after using System;. It is required that all using statements were written as a single line of code.
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