Getting value from other other application in runtime

[Rioven]

Hi,
I've made the following event that launch 'section.exe' to generate a value, but before I get the value, it process right away the 'fileOpen' after the shell command. With this, I could not get the right value.

Sub Button1_click

Shell("section.exe")

            FileOpen (c1,AppPath&"\SectionSelected.text",cRead)
           lbsection.Text= FileRead (c1)
	FileClose(c1)
						
End Sub

What is the right way?... or effective solutions?


Thanks,
Rioven

[Cableguy]

From the looks of your code section.exe generates a txt file named "SectionSelected.text", and you are having trouble getting the data because the section.exe is taking more time to create the file...

If so you can use FileExist to check if the txt file already exist...

Sub Button1_click

Shell("section.exe")
Do While FileExist ("myFile.txt") =  False
DoEvents
Loop
'This waits for the file to be present before trying to open it

FileOpen (c1,AppPath&"\SectionSelected.text",cRead)
lbsection.Text= FileRead (c1)
FileClose(c1)
						
End Sub

I would also suggest you made sure that the file is after deleted so that the next time the sub is runned the file is NOT there, or you will load the wrong file (outdated)...

[Rioven]

Hi Cableguy, you got my point , I will try it...and again I've learned new things in a quick way. As a beginner and a limitted time (you can also say lazy ), I'm so greatful that members of this forum are very helpful. Thanks again Cableguy!

[RandomCoder]

Rioven,

You might also want to try using Sleep(2000), to wait for 2 seconds, instead of the Do While loop or alternatively add a count or timer in the loop so that your program doesn't hang if the file does not get created. You could then display a message to the user letting them know that there was a problem creating the file.

Regard,
RandomCoder

[Rioven]

Hi Randomcoder,

Thanks. yes. I thought a small delay is needed on cableguy's solution, because when file is created quickly, the DoEvents fires right away before the 'SectionSelected.text' file closes by section.exe and it causes an error because on the event it tries to open a file which is not yet close.

I'm not really for delays....
You may have other suggestions? or

while waiting... I'll also think of other workaround or strategies on my codes.

[RandomCoder]

I'm not for delays myself, but sometimes its the simplest solution.

Another option would be to catch the error and use a label to go back to trying to open the file. You could count how many times the program loops round and possibly throw up an error message if after say 6 attempts it still hasn't opened.
There is probably other alternatives too

Regards,
RandomCoder

[Erel]

Catching the errors here is not a good solution as there could be many many errors raised in that way.
I think that waiting using a sleep method should do the job. Maybe you should also check the FileSize so you want read an empty or incomplete file.
Two applications could also communicate using the Network library and ip 127.0.0.1 but it will also require a Timer to wait for the data and it is much more complicated.

[RandomCoder]

Erel has in many ways reiterated my previous statement...

Originally Posted by RandomCoder

I'm not for delays myself, but sometimes its the simplest solution.

We should not overlook the simple way of doing things, instead of striving to over complicate the problem.

Regards,
RandomCoder

[Rioven]

Thanks guys for your input.

I've tried the following code,
I created a dummy control 'tb001' to trigger the file reading...

Now it works...No overlaps or error on file reading. Is this code OK??

Sub Section_click
Shell("sectionProperty1.exe")
tb001.Focus
End Sub

Sub tb001_GotFocus
           FileOpen (c1,AppPath&"\"&"SectionFileSelected.txt",cRead)
           lbsection.Text= FileRead (c1)
	  FileClose(c1)
End Sub

[RandomCoder]

Looks good to me, nice work around

Regards,
RandomCoder