excute code after task is complete

[dark_shadow]

hi all i have my program that creates a task that runs 10 min after the time its created and i was wondering how i could have the program monitor till when the task is run then excute the rest of the code

[RhinoBull]

What type of "task" is it?

[dark_shadow]

a task using the task scheduler that open up another program at the specified time

[gavio]

Try something like this...

Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
   Private Sub Command1_Click()
      'start code
      Sleep (60000 * 10) 'in milli-seconds
      'contnue code
   End Sub

[RhinoBull]

a task using the task scheduler that open up another program at the specified time

Is it your program or not?

[Bruce Fox]

Are you Shelling that 'Task' (from your App). If so you may be able to use the WaitForInputIdle() API.

[dark_shadow]

@RhinoBull no the program i'm opening is not my own

@ Bruce Fox i'm creating the task by shelling the "At" command in command prompt

now considering it was a windowed app could i just the program search for the hwnd of the window or the caption of the window?

[RhinoBull]

You can certainly find window if you know its caption but if it's not consistent then you may have trouble looking for one.

[dark_shadow]

ah i think i may have solved the problem i found an example on how to find part of the windows caption, there is one word that is always in the title bar of this window so i'll try it this way and see if it works if not i'll get back to you thanks for the help/suggestions so far guys

[Bruce Fox]

Wow, that is a risk if it is a common word and could appear in other titles

[RhinoBull]

Exactly right Bruce: there could be many Notepad windows with similar captions "Notepad - nobody knows what..." and FindWindow will return first available. Then what...

[dark_shadow]

well in the title it shows the path of where it executes for example to use command prompt as an example it shows C:/Windows/System32/cmd.exe it shows it like that as well so i just search for the last part ( in this example cmd.exe)but as you guys are more experienced than i am i'm open for suggestions on better ways and thanks again

[RhinoBull]

I hope it works for you but it's very risky to use partial caption you may end up executing second part of your main program too early.

[dark_shadow]

so what would be a better way? maybe searching for it by class ?

[RhinoBull]

Try any of the following:

Determine when a Shelled App has Ended (sample 1)
Determine when a Shelled App has Ended (sample 2)
Determine when a Process has Ended

[penagate]

Or, perhaps you could create a wrapper for the other program and use that as your scheduled task instead. Then launch the other program from it using ShellAndWait or something similiar and notify your program when it is finished.

Just a thought.

[Bruce Fox]

I tried a few here too: http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...highlight=wait

[dark_shadow]

the program that is ran by the task needs to stay open i want to check for when that program is open. i think i didnt explain my question well enough, so here's a basic run down of what the program should do : it creates a task using the "at" command that opens an external program in 10 min time from when it application is ran. when the task is completed and the other program is ran then my program should excute the rest of the code. ex: my program is run at 1:00 makes a task for notepad to run at 1:10pm thenit waits until notepad is run then it executes the rest of the code

[Bruce Fox]

You will to sit there and wait till that 3rd party app starts, and reqularily check for an instance of it, possibly using FindWindow etc.

[dark_shadow]

so what would be the best method to do that ? look for the creation of the window? or is there an easier way?

[Bruce Fox]

You could place a Timer on the Form, and set it's interval to 1 minute. Then check for your spawned app (each minute) once identified, disable the Timer and get on with business.

[dark_shadow]

ah so for as for the actual checking for the spawned app what would you suggest using ? looking for the window or looking for the application itself ? i was thinking the application itself acually

[Bruce Fox]

Outa curiosity, what is the name of this App?

FindWindow... or equivalent (as it's Thread specific from memory). Is there a reason you couldn't use similar?

[rory]

Window Title

Module:

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32.dll" Alias "GetWindowTextA" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal nMaxCount As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EnumWindows Lib "user32.dll" _
(ByVal lpEnumFunc As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
 
Private Target As String
Private IsOpen As Boolean
 
Private Function EnumCallback(ByVal app_hWnd As Long, ByVal param As Long) As Long
    Dim buf As String * 256
    Dim title As String
    Dim length As Long
    length = GetWindowText(app_hWnd, buf, Len(buf))
    title = Left$(buf, length)
    If InStr(1, title, Target, vbTextCompare) Or _
        title Like Target Then
        IsOpen = True
    End If
    EnumCallback = 1
End Function
 
Public Function WindowExists(app_name As String) As Boolean
    IsOpen = False
    Target = app_name
    EnumWindows AddressOf EnumCallback, 0
    WindowExists = IsOpen
End Function

Form:

If WindowExists("Notepad") Then
    Debug.Print "Notepad is open"
Else
    Debug.Print "Notepad is not open"
End If

Program EXE

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    If ExeExists("Notepad.exe") Then
        Debug.Print "Notepad is open"
    Else
        Debug.Print "Notepad is not open"
    End If
End Sub
 
Private Function ExeExists(app_exe As String) As Boolean
    Dim Process As Object
    For Each Process In GetObject("winmgmts:").ExecQuery _
    ("Select Name from Win32_Process Where Name = '" & app_exe & "'")
        ExeExists = True
    Next
End Function

[dark_shadow]

@bruce Fox the app i'm trying to open is photoshop