That being said, for some reason the managed-code APIs that were introduced in later versions of IIS were never fully documented, but we have rectified that problem. With that in mind, the links listed below will take you to the appropriate article for each API.

• FTP Managed-Code Extensibility API Reference
  Describes the managed-code extensibility APIs of the service for IIS 7.5 and later.
  • FTP Managed-Code Extensibility Classes
    Describes the managed-code classes for the FTP service.
    • BaseProvider
      Defines the base provider for FTP extensibility classes.
      • Dispose
        Releases the unmanaged resources used by the class, and optionally releases the managed resources.
      • Initialize
        Retrieves configuration settings for the class.
    • FtpLogEntry
      Contains logging information for use with the IFtpLogProvider interface.
    • FtpPreprocessParameters
      Contains session information for use with the IFtpPreprocessProvider interface.
    • FtpPostprocessParameters
      Contains session information for use with the IFtpPostprocessProvider interface.
  • FTP Managed-Code Extensibility Enumerations
    Describes the managed-code enumerations for the FTP service.
    • FtpAccess
      Defines the authorization levels for use with the IFtpAuthorizationProvider interface.
    • FtpProcessStatus
      Defines the process statuses for use with the IFtpPostprocessProvider and IFtpPreprocessProvider interfaces.
  • FTP Managed-Code Extensibility Interfaces
    Describes the managed-code interfaces for the FTP service.
    • IFtpAuthenticationProvider
      Provides an interface for authenticating an FTP user.
      • AuthenticateUser
        Checks if a user name and password are valid
    • IFtpAuthorizationProvider
      Provides an interface for authorizing an FTP user.
      • GetUserAccessPermission
        Determines the access level for a user.
    • IFtpHomeDirectoryProvider
      Provides an interface for retrieving the path to a user's FTP home directory.
      • GetUserHomeDirectoryData
        Returns the physical path of the home directory for a user.
    • IFtpLogProvider
      Provides an interface for logging FTP activity.
      • Log
        Performs logging activity for the IFtpLogProvider interface.
    • IFtpPostprocessProvider
      Provides an interface for implementing custom functionality after an FTP command has completed.
      • HandlePostprocess
        Implements custom functionality after an FTP command has completed.
    • IFtpPreprocessProvider
      Provides an interface for implementing custom functionality before an FTP command has completed.
      • HandlePreprocess
        Implements custom functionality before an FTP command is processed
    • IFtpRoleProvider
      Provides an interface for authorization and role checks.
      • IsUserInRole
        Checks if a user is a member of a specific role.

And as always, there are a dozen or so articles in the Developing for FTP section of the official IIS documentation that will walk you through the process of creating your own custom FTP functionality for IIS.

I hope this helps!

Anyway, there are many times when I need multiple copies of IIS Express running at the same time on my development computer, and common sense would dictate that I would create a custom batch file for each website with the requisite parameters. To be honest, for a very long time that's exactly how I set things up; each development site got a custom batch file with the path to the content and a unique port specified. For example:

@echo off
iisexpress.exe /path:c:\inetpub\website1\wwwroot /port:8000

The trouble is, after a while I had so many batch files created that I could never remember which ports I had already used. However, if you don't specify a port, IIS Express will always fall back on the default port of 8080. What this means is, my first IIS Express command would work like the example shown below:

CMD> iisexpress.exe /path:c:\inetpub\website1\wwwroot

Copied template config file 'C:\Program Files\IIS Express\AppServer\applicationhost.config' to 'C:\Users\joecool\AppData\Local\Temp\iisexpress\applicationhost2018321181518842.config'
Updated configuration file 'C:\Users\joecool\AppData\Local\Temp\iisexpress\applicationhost2018321181518842.config' with given cmd line info.
Starting IIS Express ...
Successfully registered URL "http://localhost:8080/" for site "Development Web Site" application "/"
Registration completed
IIS Express is running.
Enter 'Q' to stop IIS Express

But my second IIS Express command would fail like the example shown below:

CMD> iisexpress.exe /path:c:\inetpub\website2\wwwroot

Copied template config file 'C:\Program Files\IIS Express\AppServer\applicationhost.config' to 'C:\Users\joecool\AppData\Local\Temp\iisexpress\applicationhost2018321181545562.config'
Updated configuration file 'C:\Users\joecool\AppData\Local\Temp\iisexpress\applicationhost2018321181545562.config' with given cmd line info.
Starting IIS Express ...
Failed to register URL "http://localhost:8080/" for site "Development Web Site" application "/". Error description: Cannot create a file when that file already exists. (0x800700b7)
Registration completed
Unable to start iisexpress.

Cannot create a file when that file already exists.
For more information about the error, run iisexpress.exe with the tracing switch enabled (/trace:error).

I began to think that I was going to need to keep a spreadsheet with all of my paths and ports listed in it, when I realized that what I really needed was a common, generic batch file that would suit my needs for all of my development websites - with no customization at all.

Here is the batch file that I wrote, which I called "IISEXPRESS-START.cmd", and I will explain what it does after the code listing:

@echo off

pushd "%~dp0"

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

if exist "wwwroot" (
if exist "%ProgramFiles%\IIS Express\iisexpress.exe" (
  set /a RNDPORT=8000 + %random% %%1000
  "%ProgramFiles%\IIS Express\iisexpress.exe" /path:"%~dp0wwwroot" /port:!RNDPORT!
)
)

popd

Here's what the respective lines in the batch file are doing:

1. Push the folder where the batch file is being run on the stack; this is a cool little hack that also allows running the batch file in a folder on a network share and still have it work.
2. Enable delayed expansion of variables; this ensures that variables would work inside of conditional code blocks.
3. Check to see if there is a subfolder named "wwwroot" under the batch file's path; this is optional, but it helps things run smoothly. (I'll explain more about that below.)
4. Check to make sure that IIS Express is installed in the correct place
5. Configure a local variable with a random port number between 8000 and 8999; you can see that it uses modulus division to force the random port into the desired range.
6. Start IIS Express by passing the path to the child "wwwroot" folder and the random port number.

One last piece of explanation: I almost always use a "wwwroot" folder under each parent folder for a website, with the goal of managing most of the parts of each website in one place. With that in mind, I tend to create folder hierarchies like the following example:

• C:
  • Production
    • Website1
      • wwwroot
    • Website2
      • ftproot
      • wwwroot
    • Website3
      • wwwdata
      • wwwroot
  • Staging
    • Website1
      • wwwroot
    • Website2
      • ftproot
      • wwwroot
    • Website3
      • wwwdata
      • wwwroot

Using this structure, I can drop the batch file listed in this blog into any of those Website1, Website2, Website3 folders and it will "just work."

Once I got that out of my system, I started experimenting with some simple Java programming and the Raspberry Pi camera module. (It's great that Java is built-into Raspian Wheezy; in the past you had to install it.)

That being said, there isn't any direct I/O control of the camera via Java, although that's pretty much expected. When considering ways to control the camera I came across the Pi4J library, which provides Java-based APIs to control the Raspberry Pi's I/O. This looks like it will be great for me eventually, but for the moment the best idea that I could come up with was to write a simple Java-based wrapper class for the raspistill command line executable.

With that in mind, here's a sample class that you can use to take photos from Java on a Raspberry Pi. I added lots of code comments to explain how everything works, and I'll provide a little more detail after the code sample.

// This class is a very simple Java wrapper for the raspistill executable,
// which makes it easier to take photos from a Java application. Note that
// there are considerably more parameters available for raspistill which
// could be added to this class. (e.g. Shutter Speed, ISO, AWB, etc.) 

public class RaspiStill
{
   // Define the path to the raspistill executable.
   private final String _raspistillPath = "/opt/vc/bin/raspistill";
   // Define the amount of time that the camera will use to take a photo.
   private final int _picTimeout = 5000;
   // Define the image quality.
   private final int _picQuality = 100;

   // Specify a default image width.
   private int _picWidth = 1024;
   // Specify a default image height.
   private int _picHeight = 768;
   // Specify a default image name.
   private String _picName = "example.jpg";
   // Specify a default image encoding.
   private String _picType = "jpg";

   // Default class constructor.
   public void RaspiStill()
   {
      // Do anything else here. For example, you could create another
      // constructor which accepts an alternate path to raspistill,
      // or defines global parameters like the image quality.
   }

   // Default method to take a photo using the private values for name/width/height.
   // Note: See the overloaded methods to override the private values.
   public void TakePicture()
   {
      try
      {
         // Determine the image type based on the file extension (or use the default).
         if (_picName.indexOf('.')!=-1) _picType = _picName.substring(_picName.lastIndexOf('.')+1);

         // Create a new string builder with the path to raspistill.
         StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(_raspistillPath);

         // Add parameters for no preview and burst mode.
         sb.append(" -n -bm");
         // Configure the camera timeout.
         sb.append(" -t " + _picTimeout);
         // Configure the picture width.
         sb.append(" -w " + _picWidth);
         // Configure the picture height.
         sb.append(" -h " + _picHeight);
         // Configure the picture quality.
         sb.append(" -q " + _picQuality);
         // Specify the image type.
         sb.append(" -e " + _picType);
         // Specify the name of the image.
         sb.append(" -o " + _picName);

         // Invoke raspistill to take the photo.
         Runtime.getRuntime().exec(sb.toString());
         // Pause to allow the camera time to take the photo.
         Thread.sleep(_picTimeout);
      }
      catch (Exception e)
      {
         // Exit the application with the exception's hash code.
         System.exit(e.hashCode());
      }
   }

   // Overloaded method to take a photo using specific values for the name/width/height.
   public void TakePicture(String name, int width, int height)
   {
      _picName = name;
      _picWidth = width;
      _picHeight = height;
      TakePicture();
   }

   // Overloaded method to take a photo using a specific value for the image name.
   public void TakePicture(String name)
   {
      TakePicture(name, _picWidth, _picHeight);
   }

   // Overloaded method to take a photo using specific values for width/height.
   public void TakePicture(int width, int height)
   {
      TakePicture(_picName, width, height);
   }
}

The wrapper class should be pretty self-explanatory: calling the TakePicture() method with no parameters will use the application defaults, and calling the overloaded methods will allow you to specify the output filename and the width/height for the image. You specify the image type based on the file extension; (e.g. ".jpg", ".png", ".gif"). There are a bunch of additional raspistill options which you can easily add to the application; see the Raspberry Pi camera module page for more information.

Here's a simple application to test it out:

public class CameraTest
{
  // Define the number of photos to take.
  private static final long _numberOfImages = 5;
  // Define the interval between photos.
  private static final int _delayInterval = 5000;

  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    try
    {
      // Create a new RaspiStill object.
      RaspiStill camera = new RaspiStill();
      // Loop through the number of images to take.
      for (long i = 0; i < _numberOfImages; ++i)
      {
        // Capture the image.
        camera.TakePicture("image" + i + ".jpg",800,600);
        // Pause after each photo.
        Thread.sleep(_delayInterval);
      }
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
      // Exit the application with the exception's hash code.
      System.exit(e.hashCode());
    }
  }
}

Now that I've shared this odd little sample, I'll wander back to my dungeon so I can keep playing with my Raspberry Pi.

For the text in this demonstration I will use Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem titled The Raven, which is one of my personal favorites. (I used to have the poem memorized as a teenager... that might have been when I was going through a Fahrenheit 451 phase.)

Click the above image to download the text file.

Microsoft Anna (Windows 7)

For the first demo we will take a look at the poem as read by the Microsoft Anna text-to-speech voice, which ships with Windows 7. This voice is acceptable, and certainly better than the text-to-speech voices which shipped before Windows 7 was released. But still, it has a few odd quirks to it, and as a result this voice typically sounds unnatural to me.

Click the above image to download the MP3 file.

Microsoft David (Windows 8)

For the second demo we will take a look at the poem as read by the Microsoft David text-to-speech voice, which ships with Windows 8. This voice is considerably more acceptable that Microsoft Anna, and it sounds very natural to me. It is obviously a male voice, and several people with whom I have discussed this subject seem to prefer the Microsoft David voice over all the others.

Click the above image to download the MP3 file.

Microsoft Hazel (Windows 8)

For the third demo we will take a look at the poem as read by the Microsoft Hazel text-to-speech voice, which also ships with Windows 8. This also much better than the text-to-speech voices which shipped before Windows 7, and it has an English accent which makes it fun for converting literary works.

Click the above image to download the MP3 file.

Microsoft Zira (Windows 8)

For the fourth and final demo we will take a look at the poem as read by the Microsoft Zira text-to-speech voice, which also ships with Windows 8. This voice is my personal favorite, as I find it the most-natural sounding of all the text-to-speech voices which ship with Windows 7; this is the voice that I used for all of my textbook reading assignments.

Click the above image to download the MP3 file.

In Closing

As a parting thought, the text-to-speech voices which ship with Windows 8 are extremely good in my opinion; they sound very natural, and they are very easy to understand. As a result, I have a tendency to speed up the playback a little when I am using the script which I shared in my previous blog. That being said, I hope these samples help to demonstrate the various text-to-speech voices that are available in the recent versions of Windows.

Here's the scenario: I am presently working on another college degree, and I was recently taking a class which required a great deal of reading.  These assignments were all in digital form: I was using PDF or Kindle-based versions of the textbooks, and the remaining reading consisted of online articles. However, I am also an avid bicyclist, and the voluminous amount of reading was preventing me from going on some of my normal weekly rides. This gave me an idea: if I could convert the digital text to audio, I could bring my assignments with me on my longer rides and have my MP3 player read my assignments to me as I pedaled my way around the Arizona deserts.

I had experimented with Microsoft's built-in text-to-speech features some years ago, so I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to revisit some of those APIs and write a full application to do the conversions for me. That being said, I could have written this application by using C# (which is my preferred language), but I decided to create an HTML Application for two reasons: 1) it is easier for me to share HTMLA applications in a blog, and 2) I keep this application in my OneDrive, so it's easier for me to modify the source code on systems where I don't have Visual Studio installed.

With that in mind, here is the resulting script which will convert a Text File to a Wave (*.WAV) File.

Using the HTML Application

As with most of my HTML Applications, the user interface is pretty simple to use; when you double click the HTA file, it will present you with the following user interface:

Clicking the Browse button will obviously allow you to browse to a text file, clicking the Close button will close the application, and clicking the Write File button will create a Wave file that is in the same path as the source text file. For example, if you have a text file at "C:\Text\Test.txt", the script will create a Wave file at "C:\Text\Test.txt.wav".

That being said, there are a few options which you can set:

• Depending on your version of Windows and which languages you have installed, you will be presented with a list of available voices in the first drop-down menu; the following example is from a Windows 8 computer:
  
• The second drop-down menu allows you to vary the playback speed; sometimes I prefer the playback speed to be slighter faster than normal:
  
• The third drop-down menu allows you to alter the volume of the resulting Wave file:
  

Note: You can modify the script to alter the values that are used in the playback speed and volume drop-down menus, but the list of voices is obtained dynamically from your operating system.

Creating the HTML Application

To create this HTML Application, save the following HTMLA code as "Text to Wave File.hta" to your computer, and then double-click its icon to run the application. (Note that in a few places I added code comments which contain the MSDN URL for the APIs that I am using for this sample.)

<html>
<head>
<title>Text-to-Speech Writer</title>
<HTA:APPLICATION
  APPLICATIONNAME="Text-to-Speech Writer"
  ID="TextToSpeech"
  VERSION="1.0"
  BORDER="dialog"
  BORDERSTYLE="static"
  INNERBORDER="no"
  CAPTION="yes"
  SYSMENU="no"
  MAXIMIZEBUTTON="no"
  MINIMIZEBUTTON="no"
  SCROLL="no"
  SCROLLFLAT="yes"
  SINGLEINSTANCE="yes"
  CONTEXTMENU="no"
  SELECTION="no"/>
</head>

<script language="VBScript">

Option Explicit

Dim blnCancelBubble

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' OnLoad event handler for the application.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub Window_OnLoad
  blnCancelBubble = False
  ' Set up the UI dimensions.
  Const intDialogWidth = 550
  Const intDialogHeight = 125
  ' Specify the window position and size.
  Self.resizeTo intDialogWidth,intDialogHeight
  Self.moveTo (Screen.AvailWidth - intDialogWidth) / 2,_
    (Screen.AvailHeight - intDialogHeight) / 2
  ' Load the list of text-to-speech voices into the drop-down menu.
  ' See the notes in WriteFile() for more information.
  Dim objSAPI, objVoice, objSelect, objOption
  Set objSAPI = CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice")
  For Each objVoice In objSAPI.GetVoices("","")
    Set objSelect = Document.getElementById("optVoices")
    Set objOption = Document.createElement("option")
    objOption.text = objVoice.GetDescription() 
    objSelect.Add objOption
  Next
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Click handler for the Write button.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub btnWrite_OnClick()
  ' Test for a file name.
  If Len(txtFile.Value) > 0 Then
    ' Test if we need to cancel bubbling of events.
    If blnCancelBubble = False Then
        ' Write the input file.
        Call WriteFile(txtFile.Value)
      End If
    End If
    ' Specify whether to bubble events.
    blnCancelBubble = IIf(blnCancelBubble=True,False,True)
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Change handler for the input box.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub txtFile_OnChange()
  ' Enable the Write button.
  btnWrite.Disabled = False
  ' Enable event bubbling.
  blnCancelBubble = False
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Click handler for the Close button.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub btnClose_OnClick()
  ' Test if we need to cancel bubbling of events.
  If blnCancelBubble = False Then
    ' Prompt the user to exit.
    If MsgBox("Are you sure you wish to exit?", _
      vbYesNo+vbDefaultButton2+vbQuestion+vbSystemModal, _
      TextToSpeech.applicationName)=vbYes Then
      ' Enable event bubbling.
      blnCancelBubble = True
      ' Close the application.
      Window.close
    End If
  End If
  ' Specify whether to bubble events.
     blnCancelBubble = IIf(blnCancelBubble=True,False,True)
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' This is an ultra-lame workaround for the lack
' of a DoEvents() feature in HTA applications.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub DoEvents()
  On Error Resume Next
  ' Create a shell object.
  Dim objShell : Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
  ' Call out to the shell and essentially do nothing.
  objShell.Run "ver", 0, True
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' This is an ultra-lame workaround for the lack
' of an IIf() function in vbscript applications.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Function IIf(tx,ty,tz)
  If (tx) Then IIf = ty Else IIf = tz
End Function

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Main text-to-speech function
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub WriteFile(strInputFileName)
  On Error Resume Next
  Dim objFSO
  Dim objFile
  Dim objSAPI
  Dim objFileStream
  Dim strOldTitle
  Dim strOutputFilename
  Const strProcessing = "Creating WAV file... "
  
  ' Define the audio format as 44.1kHz / 16-bit audio.
  ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms720595.aspx
  Const SAFT44kHz16BitStereo = 35
  ' Allow text to be read as well as written.
  ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms720858.aspx
  Const SSFMCreateForWrite = 3
  
  ' Define the output WAV filename.
  strOutputFilename = strInputFileName & ".wav"

  ' Create a file system object and open the input file.
  Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strInputFileName, 1)
  
  ' Disable the form fields.
  optVoices.Disabled = True
  optRate.Disabled = True
  optVolume.Disabled = True
  txtFile.Disabled = True
  btnWrite.Disabled = True
  btnClose.Value = "Cancel"

  ' Test for an error.
  If Err.Number <> 0 Then
      MsgBox "Error: " & Err.Number & vbCrLf & Err.Description
  Else
    ' Store the original dialog title.
    strOldTitle = Document.title
    ' Display a status message.
    Document.title = strProcessing & Time()
    ' Pause briefly to let the screen refresh and capture events.
    Call DoEvents()
    ' Create a text-to-speech object.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms720149.aspx
    Set objSAPI = CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice")
    ' Create a SAPI file stream object.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms722561.aspx
    Set objFileStream = CreateObject("SAPI.SpFileStream")
    ' Specify the stream format.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms720998.aspx
    objFileStream.Format.Type = SAFT44kHz16BitStereo
    ' Open the output file stream.
    objFileStream.Open strOutputFilename, SSFMCreateForWrite
    ' Specify the output file stream.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723597.aspx
    Set objSAPI.AudioOutputStream = objFileStream
    
    ' Specify the speaking rate.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723606.aspx
    objSAPI.Rate = optRate.Options(optRate.SelectedIndex).Value
    ' Specify the speaking volume.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723615.aspx
    objSAPI.Volume = optVolume.Options(optVolume.SelectedIndex).Value
    ' Specify the voice to use.
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723601.aspx
    ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723614.aspx
    Set objSAPI.Voice = objSAPI.GetVoices("","").Item(optVoices.SelectedIndex)
    
    ' Loop through the lines in the input file.
    Do While Not objFile.AtEndOfStream
      ' Test if we need to cancel bubbling of events.
      If blnCancelBubble = True Then
        Exit Do
      Else
        ' Display a status message.
        Document.title = strProcessing & Time()
        ' Pause briefly to let the screen refresh and capture events.
        Call DoEvents()
        ' Speak one line from the input file.
        ' See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723609.aspx
        objSAPI.Speak objFile.ReadLine
      End If
    Loop
    ' Close the output file stream.
    objFileStream.Close
  End If

  ' Close the input file.
  objFile.Close

  ' Destroy all objects.
  Set objFileStream = Nothing
  Set objSAPI = Nothing
  Set objFile = Nothing
  Set objFSO = Nothing
  
  ' Reset the original dialog title.
  Document.title = strOldTitle

  ' Notify the user that the file has been written.
  MsgBox "Finished!", vbInformation, strOldTitle
  
  ' Re-enable the form fields.
  btnClose.Value = "Close"
  optVoices.Disabled = False
  optRate.Disabled = False
  optVolume.Disabled = False
  txtFile.Disabled = False
  btnWrite.Disabled = False

End Sub

</script>

<body bgcolor="white" id="HtmlBody">
<div id="FormControls">
  <table>
    <tr>
      <td align="left">
        <input type="file"
        style="width:250px;height:22px"
        name="txtFile"
        id="txtFile"
        onchange="txtFile_OnChange">
      </td>
      <td align="left">
        <input type="button"
        style="width:125px;height:22px"
        name="btnWrite"
        id="btnWrite"
        value="Write File"
        disabled
        onclick="btnWrite_OnClick">
      </td>
      <td align="right">
        <input type="button"
        style="width:125px;height:22px"
        name="btnClose"
        id="btnClose"
        value="Close"
        onclick="btnClose_OnClick">
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td align="left">
        <select name="optVoices"
          style="width:250px;height:22px">
        </select>
      </td>
      <td align="left">
        <select name="optRate"
          style="width:125px;height:22px">
          <option value="-2">Slowest</option>
          <option value="-1">Slower</option>
          <option value="0" selected>Normal Speed</option>
          <option value="1">Faster</option>
          <option value="2">Fastest</option>
        </select>
      </td>
      <td align="right">
        <select name="optVolume"
          style="width:125px;height:22px">
          <option value="25">25% Volume</option>
          <option value="50">50% Volume</option>
          <option value="75">75% Volume</option>
          <option value="100" selected>Full Volume</option>
        </select>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Note that I intentionally chose to have this HTML Application convert the text to audio one line at a time; this slows the down the conversion process, but it allows the conversion to be cancelled if necessary. (My original version of this script would convert an entire text file at one time; since there was no way to cancel the operation, the script appeared to hang when converting larger text files.)

Additional Notes

Once you have created a Wave (*.WAV) file, you can optionally convert it to an MP3 file for use in an MP3 player or mobile phone. (Most devices should playback Wave files, but MP3 files are considerably smaller and more portable.) There are a variety of Wave-to-MP3 converters out there, but I prefer to use the LAME encoder, which is an open-source code project that is available on SourceForge. Once you have the LAME encoder project compiled, (or you have located and downloaded a pre-compiled version), you can use LAME.EXE from a command prompt to convert your Wave files into MP3 files.

That being said, I prefer to automate as much as possible, so I have written a batch file which converts all of the Wave files in a directory to MP3 files and renames the source Wave files with a "*.old" filename extension:

@echo off

for /f "usebackq delims=|" %%a in (`dir /b *.wav`) do (
  for %%b in (^"%%a^") do (
    if not exist "%%~db%%~pb%%~nb.mp3" (
      lame.exe -b 128 -m j "%%a" "%%~nb.mp3"
    )
    if exist "%%~db%%~pb%%~nb.mp3" (
      move "%%a" "%%a.old"
    )
  )
)

Note that the above batch file was written for text-to-speech use, and as such it defines a bit rate of 128kbps, which would be pretty low for music files. If you want to repurpose this batch file for higher bitrates, modify the value of the "-b" parameter for the LAME.EXE command.

That wraps it up for today's post.

That being said, in the interests of security, sometime ago I started using a downstream SMTP service which requires user credentials, (that way no one could use the downstream server anonymously). As an additional security step, I use an account which requires that the credentials are changed every 30 days or so. This is always a good security practice for a myriad of obvious reasons, but this meant that I needed to update the SMTP username/password settings in my IIS configuration settings every 30 days.

With that in mind, many years ago I wrote a simple VBScript application which I would use to update those credentials. At first I would simply enter the credentials directly into the script, then I would run it to update IIS, and then I would strip the credentials from the script. Needless to say, this was pretty low-tech - even considering that this was 17 or 18 years ago. I eventually updated the script so that it would use VBScript Input Boxes to prompt me for the credentials, so I no longer needed to store the credentials in the script itself. (Sometime after that I rewrote the script so that it would read the existing values from the IIS settings and pre-populate the input boxes.)

Jumping ahead a couple of years, I decided to rewrite the script as an HTML Application, which offered me considerably more options from a user interface perspective. That script has been serving me faithfully for some time now, so I thought that it would make a good blog subject.

Using the HTML Application

Using the application is pretty straight-forward; when you double click the HTA file, it will present you with the following user interface:

The script will read any existing credentials from your IIS settings and use those to pre-populate the interface. If no existing credentials are found, it will pre-populate the interface with the username of the currently-logged-on user.

Clicking Update will update your IIS settings, clicking Reset will reset the values back to the last saved version, and clicking Close will obviously close the application, but only after it has checked if you have any unsaved changes.

Creating the HTML Application

To create this HTML Application, save the following HTMLA code as "Reset SMTP Password.hta" to your computer, and then double-click its icon to run the application.

<html>
<head>
<title>Reset SMTP Password</title>
<HTA:APPLICATION
  APPLICATIONNAME="Reset SMTP Password"
  ID="ResetSmtpPassword"
  VERSION="1.0"
  BORDER="dialog"
  BORDERSTYLE="static"
  INNERBORDER="no"
  CAPTION="yes"
  SYSMENU="no"
  MAXIMIZEBUTTON="no"
  MINIMIZEBUTTON="no"
  SCROLL="no"
  SCROLLFLAT="yes"
  SINGLEINSTANCE="yes"
  CONTEXTMENU="no"
  SELECTION="no"/>
<style>
<!--
body,input
{
 font-family:calibri,arial;
 font-size:9pt;
 color: #000;
 background-color: #fff;
}
table,td,th
{
 border:none;
}
-->
</style>
</head>

<script language="VBScript">
Option Explicit

' Define the global variables.
Dim objWMIService, objIIsSmtpServer
Dim strRouteUserName, strRoutePassword
Dim blnCancelBubble, blnPendingUpdates

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Initialization method for the application.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub Window_OnLoad

    ' Define the local variables.
    Dim objNetwork

    ' Set up the UI dimensions.
    Const intDialogWidth = 280
    Const intDialogHeight = 220
    ' Specify the window position and size.
    Self.resizeTo intDialogWidth,intDialogHeight
    Self.moveTo (Screen.AvailWidth - intDialogWidth) / 2, _
        (Screen.AvailHeight - intDialogHeight) / 2
        
    ' Enable events.
    blnCancelBubble = False
    blnPendingUpdates = False

    ' Set up some base objects for the local computer and default SMTP instance.
    ' Note that these settings can be customized for a different computer or SMTP instance.
    Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\cimv2")
    Set objIIsSmtpServer = GetObject("IIS://localhost/SmtpSvc/1")
    
    ' Retrieve the current username/password from the SMTP settings.
    strRouteUserName = objIIsSmtpServer.RouteUserName
    strRoutePassword = objIIsSmtpServer.RoutePassword
    
    ' Verify that a username was retrieved; otherwise, use the logged-on user.
    If Len(strRouteUserName)=0 Then
        Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
        strRouteUserName = IIf(Len(objNetwork.UserDomain)>0, _
            objNetwork.UserDomain & "\","") & objNetwork.UserName
        Set objNetwork = Nothing
        blnPendingUpdates = True
    End If
    
    ' Store the username/password values in the UI.
    txtUsername.value = strRouteUserName
    txtPassword.value = strRoutePassword
    
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Implement the missing IIf() function.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Function IIf(tx,ty,tz)
    If (tx) Then IIf = ty Else IIf = tz
End Function

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Click handler for the Close button.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub btnClose_OnClick()
    ' Test if we need to cancel bubbling of events.
    If blnCancelBubble = False Then
        ' Check if there are pending updates.
        If blnPendingUpdates = False Then
            ' If not, then close the application.
            Window.close
        ' Prompt the user to exit.
        ElseIf MsgBox("You have not saved your changes." & vbCrLf & _
                "Are you sure you wish to exit?", _
                vbYesNo+vbDefaultButton2+vbQuestion+vbSystemModal, _
                ResetSmtpPassword.applicationName)=vbYes Then
                ' Enable event bubbling.
                blnCancelBubble = True
                ' Close the application.
                Window.close
        End If
    End If
    ' Specify whether to bubble events.
       blnCancelBubble = IIf(blnCancelBubble=True,False,True)
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Change handler for text boxes.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub Textbox_OnChange()
    ' Flag the application as having updates pending.
    blnPendingUpdates = True
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Focus handler for text boxes.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub Textbox_OnFocus(objTextbox)
    ' Select the text in the textbox.
    objTextbox.Select
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Click handler for the Reset button.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub btnReset_OnClick()
    ' Reset the username/password values in the UI.
    txtUsername.value = strRouteUserName
    txtPassword.value = strRoutePassword
    blnPendingUpdates = False
End Sub

' ----------------------------------------
' 
' Click handler for the Update button.
' 
' ----------------------------------------

Sub btnUpdate_OnClick()

    ' Catch bubbled events.
    If blnCancelBubble = True Then
        blnCancelBubble = False
        Exit Sub
    End If

    ' Verify valid data.
    If Len(txtUsername.value)=0 Or Len(txtPassword.value)=0 Then
        ' Inform the user that they made a mistake.
        MsgBox "An invalid username or password was entered.", _
            vbCritical + vbOKOnly, ResetSmtpPassword.applicationName
        ' Cancel event bubbling.
        blnCancelBubble = True
    Else
        ' Store the username/password values for the SMTP server.
        objIIsSmtpServer.RouteUserName = txtUsername.value
        objIIsSmtpServer.RoutePassword = txtPassword.value
        objIIsSmtpServer.SetInfo

        ' Save the username/password values.
        strRouteUserName = txtUsername.value
        strRoutePassword = txtPassword.value

        ' Flag the application as having no updates pending.
        blnPendingUpdates = False

        ' Cancel event bubbling.
        blnCancelBubble = True
    End If

End Sub
</script>

<body bgcolor="white" id="HtmlBody">
<div id="FormControls">
    <table>
        <tr><td>Please enter your SMTP credentials:</td></tr>
        <tr>
            <td align="left">
                <input type="text"
                style="width:250px;height:22px"
                name="txtUsername"
                id="txtUsername"
                onchange="Textbox_OnChange()"
                onfocus="Textbox_OnFocus(txtUsername)" />
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td align="left">
                <input type="password"
                style="width:250px;height:22px"
                name="txtPassword"
                id="txtPassword"
                onchange="Textbox_OnChange()"
                onfocus="Textbox_OnFocus(txtPassword)" />
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td align="right">
                <input type="button"
                style="width:125px;height:22px"
                name="btnUpdate"
                id="btnUpdate"
                value="Update"
                onclick="btnUpdate_OnClick()" />
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td align="right">
                <input type="button"
                style="width:125px;height:22px"
                name="btnReset"
                id="btnReset"
                value="Reset"
                onclick="btnReset_OnClick()" />
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td align="right">
                <input type="button"
                style="width:125px;height:22px"
                name="btnClose"
                id="btnClose"
                value="Close"
                onclick="btnClose_OnClick()" />
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</div>
</body>
</html>

That's all that there is to it, although you might want to restart your SMTP service after you have made these changes.

Additional Notes

On a related topic, I get asked from time to time why I like to use HTML Applications (HTMLA) for some of my scripting examples, and the answer is quite simple: it is very easy to create powerful scripts in a very short amount of time which have sophisticated user interfaces and no compilation requirements.

I use Adersoft's HtaEdit as my IDE for HTMLA, which allows me to do normal development tasks like configuring project options, setting breakpoints, and stepping through my code.

Note: Click the image above to open it full-size in a separate window.

That being said, I have been experimenting with creating user interfaces in PowerShell, and it looks like it has some real promise for creating great UIs, too. But for now I only use PowerShell to create command line scripts, I use HTMLA to create cool UIs for administrative scripts, and I use C# to create "real" applications.

With that in mind, here is the code for the command-line utility:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace BlogEnginePasswordHash
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      // Verify that a single argument was passed to the application...
      if (args.Length != 1)
      {
        // ...if not, reply with generic help message.
        Console.WriteLine("\nUSAGE: BlogEnginePasswordHash <password>\n");
      }
      // ...otherwise...
      else
      {
        // Retrieve a sequence of bytes for the password argument.
        var passwordBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(args[0]);
        // Retrieve a SHA256 object.
        using (HashAlgorithm sha256 = new SHA256Managed())
        {
          // Hash the password.
          sha256.TransformFinalBlock(passwordBytes, 0, passwordBytes.Length);
          // Convert the hashed password to a Base64 string.
          string passwordHash = Convert.ToBase64String(sha256.Hash);
          // Display the password and it's hash.
          Console.WriteLine("\nPassword: {0}\nHash: {1}\n", args[0], passwordHash);
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

That code snippet should be pretty self-explanatory; the application takes a single argument, which is the password to hash. Once you enter a password and hit enter, the password and it's respective hash will be displayed.

Here are a few examples:

C:\>BlogEnginePasswordHash.exe "This is my password"

Password: This is my password
Hash: 6tV+IGzvN4gaQ0vmCWNHSQ0UQ0WgW4+ThJuhpXR6Z3c=

C:\>BlogEnginePasswordHash.exe Password1

Password: Password1
Hash: GVE/3J2k+3KkoF62aRdUjTyQ/5TVQZ4fI2PuqJ3+4d0=

C:\>BlogEnginePasswordHash.exe Password2

Password: Password2
Hash: G+AiJ1Cq84iauVtdWTuhLk/xBGR0cC1rR3n0tScwWyM=

C:\>

Once you have created password hashes, you can paste those into the Users.xml file for your website:

<Users>
  <User>
    <UserName>Alice</UserName>
    <Password>GVE/3J2k+3KkoF62aRdUjTyQ/5TVQZ4fI2PuqJ3+4d0=</Password>
    <Email>alice@fabrikam.com</Email>
    <LastLoginTime>2015-01-31 01:52:00</LastLoginTime>
  </User>
  <User>
    <UserName>Bob</UserName>
    <Password>G+AiJ1Cq84iauVtdWTuhLk/xBGR0cC1rR3n0tScwWyM=</Password>
    <Email>bob@fabrikam.com</Email>
    <LastLoginTime>2015-01-31 01:53:00</LastLoginTime>
  </User>
</Users>

That's all there is to do. Pretty simple stuff.

At the time of this blog's writing, NetDrive is a for-retail FTP client and redirector which is available from the following URL:

http://www.netdrive.net/

For this blog post I will be using NetDrive version 2.3.2.

NetDrive 2.3 Overview

NetDrive is different from many of the other FTP clients that I have reviewed because it is an Internet protocol redirector, meaning that it allows you to map drive letters to a variety of Internet repositories. When you install and open NetDrive, you are presented with the list of supported Internet protocols and repositories which you can use for mapping drives:

As you can see from the illustration above, NetDrive's list of support technologies is quite extensive: DropBox, Box.net, Google Drive, OneDrive, Amazon S3, Openstack Swift, FTP, SFTP, and WebDAV.

When you add a drive or configure the settings for one of the default drives, you are presented with a dialog box where you can enter the settings for the drive connection; note that there are very few settings for FTP connections:

As you add drives, the NetDrive user interface will display the drives and their current connection status:

As an added touch, NetDrive customizes its drive icons in Windows Explorer, so you can easily see the type of mapped drive for each connection:

I would love to take an in-depth look at all of the supported protocols in this review, but this series is about FTP clients, so I'll move on to the FTP-specific features that I normally review.

Using NetDrive 2.3 with FTP over SSL (FTPS)

NetDrive 2.3 has built-in support for FTP over SSL (FTPS), although it only appears to support Explicit FTPS - and it does so in a confusing way. When you are editing the settings for an FTP drive connection, you need to check the box for SSL/TLS in order to enable FTPS. Unfortunately, when you do so, the dialog box will change the port to 990, which is the port number for Implicit FTPS; however, in my testing I could not get Implicit FTPS to work:

With the above information in mind, I needed to manually change the port number back to 21 in order to use Explicit FTPS with NetDrive:

Using NetDrive 2.3 with True FTP Hosts

True FTP hosts are not supported natively by NetDrive 2.3, and there are no settings which allow you to customize the login environment in order to work around this situation.

Using NetDrive 2.3 with Virtual FTP Hosts

NetDrive 2.3's login settings allow you to specify the virtual host name as part of the user credentials by using syntax like "ftp.example.com|username" or "ftp.example.com\username", so you can use virtual FTP hosts with NetDrive 2.3.

Scorecard for NetDrive 2.3

This concludes my quick look at a few of the FTP features that are available with NetDrive 2.3, and here are the scorecard results:

That wraps things up for today's review of NetDrive 2.3. Your key take-aways should be: NetDrive has some nice features, and it supports a wide variety of protocols with a similar user experience; that being said, NetDrive has very few settings for drive connections, so its capabilities are somewhat limited.

At the time of this blog's writing, WebDrive is a for-retail FTP client and redirector which is available from the following URL:

http://www.webdrive.com/

For this blog post I will be using WebDrive version 12.10.4082.

WebDrive 12 Overview

Before I continue, I would like to begin with some background information: because of my ongoing blog series about FTP clients, one question that I have often been asked is, "Which FTP client do you use?" Usually I have to answer, "That depends." I know that my answer sounds non-committal, but to be honest - I have yet to find an FTP client that does everything that I want, although a few FTP clients have had enough features for me to use them quite often. And with that in mind, I need to point out that I purchased my first license for WebDrive over 12 years ago, and over the years I have periodically renewed my license for later versions. So to partially answer my earlier question - WebDrive is one of the FTP clients that I have used a lot.

That being said, WebDrive is different from many of the other FTP clients that I have reviewed because it is an Internet protocol redirector, meaning that it allows you to map drive letters to a variety of Internet-based repositories. (I'll discuss those various protocols and repositories shortly.)

When you install and open WebDrive, you are presented with a fairly empty user interface:

If you click the App Settings icon, you will be presented with a dialog box that offers dozens of customizable options:

When you click the New icon, you will be presented with a Site Wizard which lists the supported Internet protocols and repositories which you can use for mapping drives:

As you can see from the illustration above, WebDrive's list of support technologies is quite extensive: WebDAV, Secure WebDAV, FTP, Secure FTP, Google Drive, Amazon S3, SFTP, Dropbox, and FrontPage Server Extensions.

When you choose to create an FTP connection, WebDrive launches its Site Wizard, and the initial dialog box is pretty self-explanatory:

However, when you click the Advanced Settings button, you are presented once again with dozens of customizable settings for this specific connection:

As you continue to add sites with WebDrive, their connection types and current statuses are displayed in the user interface:

However, when you view your drives in Windows Explorer, even though network drives which are mapped through WebDrive are displayed with a different icon, you cannot tell the protocol type for mapped drives; this is one of the few times where NetDrive supported a feature that I really missed in WebDrive. (See my next blog entry for more information.)

WebDrive 12 supports command-line scripting, so if you find the features of the built-in Windows FTP client are somewhat limited, you can investigate scripting WebDrive:

WebDrive Command Line Parameters

I would love to take an in-depth look at all of the supported protocols in this review, but this series is about FTP clients, so I'll move on to the FTP-specific features that I normally review.

Using WebDrive 12 with FTP over SSL (FTPS)

WebDrive 12 has built-in support for FTP over SSL (FTPS), and it supports both Explicit and Implicit FTPS. To specify which type of encryption to use for FTPS, you need to choose the appropriate option from the Security Type drop-down menu in the FTP Settings for a site:

Using WebDrive 12 with True FTP Hosts

True FTP hosts are not supported natively by WebDrive 12, and there are no settings that I could find which would allow me to customize the login environment in order to work around this situation.

Using WebDrive 12 with Virtual FTP Hosts

WebDrive 12's login settings allow you to specify the virtual host name as part of the user credentials by using syntax like "ftp.example.com|username" or "ftp.example.com\username", so you can use virtual FTP hosts with WebDrive 12.

Scorecard for WebDrive 12

This concludes my quick look at a few of the FTP features that are available with WebDrive 12, and here are the scorecard results:

That wraps things up for today's review of WebDrive 12. Your key take-aways should be: WebDrive is a powerful redirector with support for a wide variety of protocols. What's more, the WebDrive application and each individual connection contain dozens of options which allow you to customize the environment in hundreds of ways. As is the case with many of my reviews, I have barely presented a fraction of the capabilities that are available in WebDrive 12; you might want to try it out and experiment with all of its possibilities.

A quick note about two-step verification: enabling this security feature adds an additional requirement so that you will need to use a secondary method to verify your identity when you are logging in. (For example, you can use a phone app, text message, or second email account.) However, you cannot use a secondary login method when you are using the WebDAV Redirector, so you will need to create an application password. (Note: More information about two-step verification for your Microsoft is available in the Two-step verification: FAQ.)

Step 1 - Log Into Your OneDrive Account

The first thing that you need to do is to browse to https://onedrive.live.com/ and sign in with your Windows account.

Step 2 - Determine Your OneDrive Customer ID

Once you have logged in to your OneDrive account, hover your mouse over the Files link on the left part of your browser window – this will show your customer number in the status bar on the bottom of your browser window. If you have the status bar disabled, you can right-click the Files link and click Copy Shortcut in the pop-up menu. (Note: Those instructions are for Internet Explorer, but the method should be similar in Chrome or Firefox.)

Your Customer ID is the value that is specified after the "cid=" in the URL; for example: "https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=426f62526f636b73". You will need this value when you map a drive letter.

Step 3 - Generate an Application Password

To map a WebDAV drive to your OneDrive account after you have enabled two-step account verification, you will need to generate an application password which you will use when you enter your credentials. (Note: More information about two-step verification can be found in the App passwords and two-step verification article.)

To generate an application password, you first need to log into your Microsoft account settings at https://account.live.com/:

Once you have logged in, click on Security & password and then Create a new app password:

When the app password page is displayed, copy the password for later:

Step 4 - Map the Drive Letter

Your next step is to map the drive letter, and there are a few ways to do this. I have documented several methods in my Using the WebDAV Redirector article on the IIS.net website, but I will show a few ways in this blog.

Method #1 - Using the Windows User Interface and Wizards

On most of my systems I have the Network and This PC or My Computer icons on my desktop, which makes it easy to simply right-click one of those icons and select Map network drive:

An alternate method on Windows 8 is to open This PC and Map network drive will be listed as an icon on the Windows Explorer ribbon:

Once the Map Network Drive Wizard appears, enter "https://d.docs.live.net/" followed by your Customer ID from Step 2. For example: "https://d.docs.live.net/426f62526f636b73/"

When the Windows Security dialog box appears, enter your email address that you used to log into your OneDrive account in Step 1 and the application password that you created in Step 3.

Once the mapping has been completed, you will be able to view your OneDrive files in Windows Explorer via the mapped drive:

Method #2 - Using the Windows Command Line

You can also map a WebDAV drive letter to your OneDrive account from a command line. The general syntax is listed below:

 
C:\>net use * https://d.docs.live.net/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ /user:"user@example.com" "password"
 

For example:

C:\>net use * https://d.docs.live.net/426f62526f636b73/ /user:"bob@contoso.com" "426f62526f636b73"

C:\>dir
 Volume in drive Z has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 0000-0000

 Directory of Z:\

09/02/2014 10:38 PM <DIR> Applications
09/27/2014 08:43 AM <DIR> Blog Photos
09/29/2014 10:50 PM <DIR> Documents
08/17/2014 03:44 AM <DIR> Pictures
09/22/2014 05:58 PM <DIR> Public
09/29/2014 10:43 AM <DIR> SkyDrive camera roll

C:\>

That wraps it up for Part 2 of this blog series - I hope this helps!