send information to running application

[Mr_Gee]

I'm trying to make an application which does something based on an argument provided in a .lnk flie.

My problem is that the application is slow to load, probably because it has to read the "actions.ini" every time it starts.

Is there a way to talk to an already running program using .lnk files?

I saw this thread, but it is not really what I want, If there is no other solution I can try that one though...

Thanks

[Cableguy]

Originally Posted by Mr_Gee

I'm trying to make an application which does something based on an argument provided in a .lnk flie.

My problem is that the application is slow to load, probably because it has to read the "actions.ini" every time it starts.

Is there a way to talk to an already running program using .lnk files?

Thanks

How big is your "actions.ini"?

See my beta demo ini editor...
it loads a small (10 lines or so" ini file with the most important things....

You could create a smal ini.file containing the file names of the lnk, and have the app "read" them during executions, has needed...
This would problebly cause some files to be read several times, but should not cause a too big lagg time...

[Mr_Gee]

At the moment there are only 4 items in the list, but in theory it could be 400

[Cableguy]

If you want to have an idea of how long it would take to load a BIG ini file, create a dumy ini file ( any textfile will do) and name it something.ini and load it with my app...
In my app the load time is NOT optimum, as I gave a small (50ms) time gap beetween each line read to create the "Load-write" effect..
Still it will be only a few seconds to load such a BIG ini file...

[RandomCoder]

I like to read the whole file into an array list and then search for the item that is needed, like so.....

If FileExist( "Config.ini" ) Then
 AlConfig.Clear    ' Clear the current configuration

 FileOpen( ConfigFile , "Config.ini" , cRead,, cASCII )    ' Open config file and read into the current configuration
 Data = FileRead( ConfigFile )
 Do Until Data = EOF
  AlConfig.Add( Data )
  Data = FileRead( ConfigFile )
 Loop
 FileClose( ConfigFile )

 Index = AlConfig.IndexOf( "CONFIG" )    ' Find start of the config settings
 AlConfig.Item( Index + 1 ) = "AutoSchedule=Enabled" ' Update Autoschedule setting

Else

 CreateConfig    ' If config file is missing create a new file before updating

End If

I find that doing it this way is fast, it also releases the file for other uses and it is easy to find the item you require using IndexOf on the array list which in this example is called AlConfig.
Hope this helps.

Regards,
RandomCoder

[Mr_Gee]

I should've mentioned this in the topic start,
but at the moment I'm reading the actions into a table
using the loadCSV, could this cause the lag?

[Cableguy]

Originally Posted by Mr_Gee

I should've mentioned this in the topic start,
but at the moment I'm reading the actions into a table
using the loadCSV, could this cause the lag?

You can only be sure by trying other methods...
Ramdom's emthod seems simple enought to Append to your project..either as is or as a sub...

[Mr_Gee]

Thanks, I'm going to try RadomCoder' solution, hopefully it works

[RandomCoder]

I hope it works for you but please feed back your experience, good or bad, as it will help others that may have similar applications.

Regards,
RandomCoder