I am trying to create a VBS file that can extract the content of a ZIP file from a relative path to an absolute file path destination. The reason I am trying to create this VBS file is because my overall goal is to create an EXE file through iExpress that will copy a bunch of code to a user's computer and install nodeJS at the same time.
My thoughts on taking this approach have been to create a batch script that would copy the directory of code to a set position on the user's computer, and then execute an MSI file to install nodeJS. I have been able to get a batch script that can do that, but now I want to package it all nicely into an EXE. For this I believe I need to put the code directory into a ZIP file so I can add it to the EXE file, and then my EXE needs some functionality to extract this.
To add this functionality, my research seems to indicate that VBS is the best option for this (especially considering I am hoping to also compensate for users who have restricted access to PowerShell cmdlets). Searching around seems to indicate that a file of this sort of variety is meant for what I want to do.
ZipFile="test.zip"
ExtractTo="C:\test-install\test"
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
sourceFile = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(ZipFile)
destFolder = fso.GetFolder(ExtractTo)
Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set FilesInZip=objShell.NameSpace(sourceFile).Items()
objShell.NameSpace(destFolder).copyHere FilesInZip, 16
Set fso = Nothing
Set objShell = Nothing
Set FilesInZip = Nothing
This does not seem to work though as on this line...
objShell.NameSpace(destFolder).copyHere FilesInZip, 16
... it complains to me about destFolder needing to be an object. I am not too sure what I am meant to change to fix this error (I am not too familiar with VBS) and most examples on the internet set the ExtractTo variable as a relative file path initially and run a command to turn this into an absolute file path. I don't want to do this though as when iExpress turns it all into an EXE my understanding is that the relative file path starts in some random TEMP folder somewhere.
Any guidance on the error in my VBS file, or indication of a better path to take for extracting ZIP files would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
It seems my inexperience with VBS was the root of my troubles here. The trouble ended up being that on this line:
objShell.NameSpace(destFolder).copyHere FilesInZip, 16
It needed to be this:
objShell.NameSpace(destFolder).copyHere(FilesInZip), 16
I am not sure if this is specific to a certain version of the language or not, because my error was copied from numerous examples of a similar script across the internet, but I haven't really been able to find further details on this (I will edit this answer if more is found).