Track of an idle application called

[simplyans]

Hi,
I want to do this using VB.
I have executed a command prompt through VB.
After the command prompt completes its process, say in 10-20 minutes time, I want this to be communicated to my VB program.
How can this be done? Moreover, I came across a UIAutomationprovider.dll in .Net which lets this happen via a 'WaitForInputIdle" method.
But I don't want to use .Net.
Can somebody help me out?
Thanks in advance.

[Fedhax]

I want to do this using VB.
I have executed a command prompt through VB.
After the command prompt completes its process, say in 10-20 minutes time, I want this to be communicated to my VB program.
How can this be done? Moreover, I came across a UIAutomationprovider.dll in .Net which lets this happen via a 'WaitForInputIdle" method.
But I don't want to use .Net.
Can somebody help me out?

I think you can do it, but unfortunately, I don't think that you will have a simple, graceful way of achieving this desired goal. Here are a few ideas, and we can build upon it later after you decide to use one of these ideas.

If you want to communicate between programs/processes, you have roughly two choices:

* File I/O
* Memory I/O

File I/O would be for your first program to write to a file when it is done, and the information that you want transferred to be written to the file. Your second (VB) program would periodically look in a pre-determined location for this file. If it isn't found, it will go to sleep for a while and then look for it again. If the file is found, it would open the file, read & parse the contents of the file, and continue its work from there.

Memory I/O would be to run as an ActiveX Service or use a shared DLL with your VB program. At a certain time, it would poll the other processes that were running when it is done, and if it found your VB program, it would transfer the information via Event/Messages to your VB program. Using a shared DLL would be similar, and it would act like the File I/O option stated above.

As I said, there isn't a simple, easy, graceful way to pull off what you want in VB 6.0, but with the right design and use of the Windows API, you can make it happen.

[Rajneesh Noonia]

Write ActiveX Exe to Execute you command with the code given below
Create some events in this ActiveX Exe like CommandFinished

In Your VB.6 Application Create withevent Object of this ActiveX Exe and call its execute menthos to execute you Command.For Asc. Call first set your command and parameters and then call timer to trigger your command.When you call timer the control will immediately return to your vb.6 application and you can contuniue with your application (Doing other things) IN the mean time timer will kick the execute method to start executing your command.When the command is exected the ActiveX exe will raise Event which is trapped by your Vb.6 Application and hence your Vb.6 application cam to know that the command is finished.You can also pass paraments to CommandFinished Event like return code of you command..

Private Type STARTUPINFO
cb As Long
lpReserved As String
lpDesktop As String
lpTitle As String
dwX As Long
dwY As Long
dwXSize As Long
dwYSize As Long
dwXCountChars As Long
dwYCountChars As Long
dwFillAttribute As Long
dwFlags As Long
wShowWindo As Integer
cbReserved2 As Integer
lpReserved2 As Byte
hStdInput As Long
hStdOutput As Long
hStdError As Long
End Type

Private Type PROCESS_INFORMATION
hProcess As Long
hThread As Long
dwProcessId As Long
dwThreadId As Long
End Type

'constant flags for the kernel32 functions
Private Const STATUS_PENDING = &H103&
Private Const PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION = &H400
Private Const NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS = &H20&
Private Const HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS = &H80&
Private Const GWL_WNDPROC = (-4)

Private pInfo As PROCESS_INFORMATION
Private sInfo As STARTUPINFO
Private sNull As String

Private Declare Function WaitForSingleObject Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hHandle As Long, ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function CreateProcess Lib "kernel32" Alias "CreateProcessA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpCommandLine As String, lpProcessAttributes As Any, lpThreadAttributes As Any, ByVal bInheritHandles As Long, ByVal dwCreationFlags As Long, lpEnvironment As Any, ByVal lpCurrentDriectory As String, lpStartupInfo As STARTUPINFO, lpProcessInformation As PROCESS_INFORMATION) As Long
Private Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function TerminateProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As Long, ByVal uExitCode As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)

Private Const STATUS_WAIT_0 As Long = &H0
Private Const WAIT_TIMEOUT As Long = 258&
Private Const WAIT_OBJECT_0 As Long = (STATUS_WAIT_0 + 0)
Private Const WAIT_FAILED As Long = &HFFFFFFFF



pRetCode = CreateProcess(sNull, "Your Command"& " " & "Parameters", ByVal 0&, _
ByVal 0&, 1&, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, ByVal 0&, sNull, sInfo, pInfo)

If pRetCode = 0 Then
'Report Error
End If
pRetCode = WaitForSingleObject(pInfo.hProcess, 1)
pCurrentTime = 1
Do While pRetCode = 258
Sleep 550
pRetCode = WaitForSingleObject(pInfo.hProcess, 1)
DoEvents
If pToBeTerninated Then
pCurrentTime = pCurrentTime + 550
If pCurrentTime > pTimeOut Then
pRetCode = WAIT_TIMEOUT
Exit Do
End If
End If
Loop
Call TerminateProcess(pInfo.hProcess, vbNull) ' This line here will close the program
CloseHandle (pInfo.dwProcessId)
CloseHandle (pInfo.dwThreadId)

Please rate if this helps you

Regards
Rajneesh