[RESOLVED] Systray icon sending notifications

I have created a small program that sets dates in the registry and then downsizes into the systray / notification area. My program looks at those dates in the registry and if one date is today, popup a notification telling the user. But what I have noticed is my program only works for the first few minutes as the date never gets updated in the app. I can double click the app and it shows but has the today's date as the date I sent it to the systray. I used .refresh() on labels and stuff but not working. How do I get the systray icon to get current date or keep refreshing itself? Once the program gets sent to the systray it starts a timer loop, mainly checking for matching dates. but as I said it appears to keep matching the date when it had when it went to the systray.

How do I get the program to keep refreshing the date when sent down to systray?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by phpman

I have created a small program that sets dates in the registry and then downsizes into the systray / notification area. My program looks at those dates in the registry and if one date is today, popup a notification telling the user. But what I have noticed is my program only works for the first few minutes as the date never gets updated in the app. I can double click the app and it shows but has the today's date as the date I sent it to the systray. I used .refresh() on labels and stuff but not working. How do I get the systray icon to get current date or keep refreshing itself? Once the program gets sent to the systray it starts a timer loop, mainly checking for matching dates. but as I said it appears to keep matching the date when it had when it went to the systray.

How do I get the program to keep refreshing the date when sent down to systray?

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Is the timer being triggered when the app is minimized? How are you comparing dates?

If possible could you post the code that you suspect isn't behaving correctly.

sure thing

Code:

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  Private Sub Form1_Resize(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Resize
      If Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized Then
          NotifyIcon1.Visible = True
          Me.ShowInTaskbar = False
          Me.Hide()
          Dim Todayd As Date = Date.Now.ToString("MM/d/yyyy")
          ';NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Hi from right system tray"
          'NotifyIcon1.Text = Date.Now.ToString("MM/d/yyyy H:mm:ss") ' doesn't update on each mouse over
          If My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "March", Nothing).length > 0 Then
              MarchResDate = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "March", Nothing)
              Dim TDiffm = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayd, MarchResDate)
              'Dim TDiff As TimeSpan = MarchResDate.Subtract(Today)
              'MessageBox.Show(TDiff.Minutes.ToString)
              If TDiffm <= 0 Then
                  NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Time to Reserve Next Trip"
                  NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
                  MessageBox.Show("Time to Reserve For March")
              End If
          End If

          If My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "May", Nothing).length > 0 Then
              MayResDate = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "May", Nothing)
              Dim TDiffmay = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayd, MayResDate)
              ' Dim TDiffmay As TimeSpan = MayResDate.Subtract(Today)
              ' MessageBox.Show(TDiffmay.ToString)
              If TDiffmay <= 0 Then
                  NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Time to Reserve Next Trip"
                  NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
                  MessageBox.Show("Time to Reserve For May")
              End If
          End If

          If My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "July", Nothing).length > 0 Then
              JulyResDate = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "July", Nothing)
              Dim TDiffj = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayd, JulyResDate)
              'Dim TDiffj As TimeSpan = JulyResDate.Subtract(Today)
              'MessageBox.Show(Today.ToString & " - " & JulyResDate.ToString & " - " & TDiff.ToString)
              If TDiffj <= 0 Then
                  NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Time to Reserve Next Trip"
                  NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
                  MessageBox.Show("Time to Reserve For July")
              End If
          End If

          If My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "Sept", Nothing).length > 0 Then
              SeptResDate = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "Sept", Nothing)
              Dim TDiffs = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayd, SeptResDate)
              'Dim TDiffs As TimeSpan = SeptResDate.Subtract(Today)
              If TDiffs <= 0 Then
                  NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Time to Reserve Next Trip"
                  NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
                  MessageBox.Show("Time to Reserve For Sept")
              End If
          End If

          If My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "Dec", Nothing).length > 0 Then
              NewYearResDate = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "Dec", Nothing)
              Dim TDiffd = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayd, NewYearResDate)
              'Dim TDiffd As TimeSpan = NewYearResDate.Subtract(Today)
              If TDiffd <= 0 Then
                  NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Time to Reserve Next Trip"
                  NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
                  MessageBox.Show("Time to Reserve For Dec")
              End If
          End If
          'NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
          Timer1.Start()
      End If
  End Sub

  Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
      'read registry for date
      ' compare to todays date.
      Dim Todayt As Date = Date.Now.ToString("MM/d/yyyy")


      If My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "March", Nothing).length > 0 Then
          MarchResDate = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "March", Nothing)
          Dim TDiffm = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayt, MarchResDate)
          'Dim TDiffm As TimeSpan = MarchResDate.Subtract(Today)
          'MessageBox.Show(TDiffm.Minutes.ToString)
          If TDiffm <= 0 Then
              NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Time to Reserve For March"
              NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
              Timer1.Stop()
              MessageBox.Show("Time to Reserve For March")
          End If
      End If

      If My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "May", Nothing).length > 0 Then
          MayResDate = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "May", Nothing)
          Dim TDiffmay = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayt, MayResDate)
          'Dim TDiffmay As TimeSpan = MayResDate.Subtract(Today)
          'MessageBox.Show(TDiffmay.ToString)
          If TDiffmay <= 0 Then
              NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Time to Reserve For May"
              NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
              Timer1.Stop()
              MessageBox.Show("Time to Reserve For May")
          End If
      End If

      If My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "July", Nothing).length > 0 Then
          JulyResDate = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "July", Nothing)
          Dim TDiffj = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayt, JulyResDate)
          'Dim TDiffj As TimeSpan = JulyResDate.Subtract(Today)
          'MessageBox.Show(Today.ToString & " - " & JulyResDate.ToString & " - " & TDiff.ToString)
          If TDiffj <= 0 Then
              NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Time to Reserve For July"
              NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
              ' Timer1.Stop()
              MessageBox.Show("Time to Reserve For July")
          End If
      End If

      If My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "Sept", Nothing).length > 0 Then
          SeptResDate = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "Sept", Nothing)
          Dim TDiffs = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayt, SeptResDate)
          'Dim TDiffs As TimeSpan = SeptResDate.Subtract(Today)
          If TDiffs <= 0 Then
              NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Time to Reserve For Sept"
              NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
              Timer1.Stop()
              MessageBox.Show("Time to Reserve For Sept")
          End If
      End If

      If My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "Dec", Nothing).length > 0 Then
          NewYearResDate = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(baseKey & "\Camping", "Dec", Nothing)
          Dim TDiffd = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayt, NewYearResDate)
          'Dim TDiffd As TimeSpan = NewYearResDate.Subtract(Today)
          If TDiffd <= 0 Then
              NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Time to Reserve For Dec"
              NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(500)
              Timer1.Stop()
              MessageBox.Show("Time to Reserve For Dec")
          End If
      End If


  End Sub

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You might need to consider using a https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/do...m.timers.timer timer - I have a feeling a minimized form doesn't receive any Windows Messages and therefore a WinForms Timer isn't going to update... Although I could be completely wrong about this.

Then again the problem could be elsewhere, for starters with code like

Code:

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  Dim Todayt As Date = Date.Now.ToString("MM/d/yyyy")

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You are converting a date, to a string, and back to a date and hoping that the conversion works - if you are after the date but not the time then this should work

Code:

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      Dim today As Date = Date.Today

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I would also avoid DateDiff in VB.Net as this is just a hold over from VB6 and earlier, you can simply subtract one date from another to figure out how far apart they are.

Thank you. I will update those piece of code. If a winform doesn't get windows messages, how does a icon in the systray able to send messages?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by phpman

Thank you. I will update those piece of code. If a winform doesn't get windows messages, how does a icon in the systray able to send messages?

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It should still receive Timer_Tick messages when minimized

Thanks for the info guys. I actually fixed my problem when adding the code to this thread. I had missed a variable that I had changed and didn't update it in all the checks and it was checking on an invalid date.

Code:

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Dim TDiffm = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayt, MarchResDate)

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I couldn't be for sure until this morning when the code ran for my test date. It did exactly as I was hoping for.

I also changed this line

Code:

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Dim TDiffm = DateDiff(DateInterval.Day, Todayt, MarchResDate)

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To this instead

Code:

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Dim TDiffm As Integer = DateTime.Compare(MarchResDate, Todayt)

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and took off the ToString on the date.now. I wasn't sure if it would compare correctly if not set in the correct format is the only reason I tried it that way. Thanks for the heads up.

Quote:

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I couldn't be for sure until this morning when the code ran for my test date. It did exactly as I was hoping for.

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You know you can manually change your system clock? Just temporarily of course :D