[RESOLVED] launching a program

[stevevb6]

i want to be able have my program launch another program. However this program will obviously be installed in different places on different computers. So i want to be able have the user set the address to the program, so when the launch button is pressed in my program, my program opens the other program.

[smUX]

And your problem is?

"shell text1" should (from memory) work fine, as long as text1 contains the location for a program...or you can use an FSO (file-system object) to get the location and shell it

[stevevb6]

ok thanks. the problem is im new to vb6 and dont know how to go about doing this.

[smUX]

Best way to learn is to play about like most learners do. If you're truly stumped feel free to ask for more help and someone will provide it eventually :-)

The FSO is a bit of a pain to use unless you know how it works and have at least a working knowledge of VB, so I would suggest forgetting that for now...you could have a pre-check on the run line the user inputs by doing a dir() of the location and not shelling it if dir returns "" (meaning the location is invalid :-)). Just do if dir(text1) <> "" then...

[MartinLiss]

Any program of yours that a user uses will probably not work unless they are installed.

[Hack]

i want to be able have my program launch another program. However this program will obviously be installed in different places on different computers. So i want to be able have the user set the address to the program, so when the launch button is pressed in my program, my program opens the other program.

Since you won't know where it is, you need to find it. This should do the trick.

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function SearchTreeForFile Lib "imagehlp" _
(ByVal RootPath As String, ByVal InputPathName As String, _
ByVal OutputPathBuffer As String) As Long
 
Private Const MAX_PATH = 260
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim tempStr As String, Ret As Long
    'create a buffer string
    tempStr = String(MAX_PATH, 0)
    'returns 1 when successfull, 0 when failed
    Ret = SearchTreeForFile("c:\", "TheProgram.exe", tempStr)
    If Ret <> 0 Then
        MsgBox "Located file at " + Left$(tempStr, InStr(1, tempStr, Chr$(0)) - 1)
    Else
        MsgBox "File not found!"
    End If
End Sub

Instead of displaying the location, save it to a variable, and use that to launch the program. To launch the program, I would use the ShellExecute API.

[schoolbusdriver]

You'll also, presumably, need a way of storing the progam paths between sessions. Search for "GetSetting", "DeleteSetting", "SaveSetting" and "GetAllSettings".

[smUX]

Hack and SchoolBus, did both of you miss the line "So i want to be able have the user set the address to the program"?

[schoolbusdriver]

Ah I thought he was creating a multi program launcher. Maybe something to add command line parameters instead ?

[stevevb6]

yeah i want to make a program launcher that will launch an external exe file. The obvious problem is that not everyone will have the exe file in the same dir. So i want the user to search or even copy and paste the dir for the file into a textbox and press an ok button would be fine. Im just not sure what i would need to use to do it.

[RobDog888]

Use a CommonDialog control to allow the user to browse and select the exe file. Then store it in the registry with SaveSetting and read it with GetSetting. The Shell the exe with the complete filepath.

[stevevb6]

is it possible to store it in the program, insted of haveing to make reg entrys?

[smUX]

Once a program is running it is impossible (or next to impossible, as there are ways but you won't be doing them :-)) to edit the program data. You *CAN* store the data in a file in the same folder if you want (or a file anywhere you want), but the getsettings and savesettings APIs do this for you (or is it another API you use to save to INI files?) just as well as you could do it yourself :-)

[RobDog888]

GetPrivateProfileString and WritePrivateProfileString are the 2 APIs needed to read and write to a ini file. But an ini file is nothing more then a textfile so users could open it too.

[stevevb6]

is it possible to launch a file listed in a regular text file?

[smUX]

Didn't I just say that with "You *CAN* store the data in a file in the same folder if you want (or a file anywhere you want), but the getsettings and savesettings APIs do this for you (or is it another API you use to save to INI files?) just as well as you could do it yourself :-)"

Okay, I didn't clearly state it, but yes you can...save each file name with a carriage return (vbCrLf, or vbNewLine...same thing, really) or something and you can load the whole file with the code in my sig then split them using that carriage return (or whatever you use)

[RobDog888]

Just read the file into your program and shell the data read if it contains a filepath to the program's exe.

[stevevb6]

Can you give me an example of how to do this?
Thanks

[RobDog888]

Here are a couple of text file faqs that will help -
http://vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=405051
http://vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=342619

Then to shell the filepath...

Option Explicit
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim strFile() As String
    Dim i As Integer
    'Read the entire file to the strFile string array
    Open "C:\MyPrograms.txt" For Input As #1
        strFile = Split(Input$(LOF(1), 1), vbNewline)
    Close #1
    'Shell each array entry as it contains each program file and path
    For i = 0 to UBound(strFile)
        Shell strFile(i), vbNormalFocus 
    Next
End Sub

[stevevb6]

Thanks for the code. It works great ad the program opens like expected, however i get a runtime error 53. the line " Shell strFile(i), vbNormalFocus" is highlighted in yellow. I dont know whats wrong wih it.

[RobDog888]

What is the array element data? It should be a valid full filepath and name.

[stevevb6]

D:\myapp.exe is what is in the txt file. The program opens, it works just as it should... i just get an error message when there is no apperent error.

[RobDog888]

Could it be that there is an extra blank line at the end of the file?

[stevevb6]

yeah, thats what is wrong, but how do i fix that in the program, to stop it from saving that blank?

[RobDog888]

Post your code for that part. Its probably just an extra vbNewline or something easy.

[stevevb6]

Private Sub Command1_Click()
 
   Dim hFile As Long
   Dim sFilename As String
 
   sFilename = "c:\myprogram.txt"
   
  'obtain the next free file handle from the
  'system and and save the text box contents
   hFile = FreeFile
   Open sFilename For Output As #hFile
      Print #hFile, Text1.Text
      Close #hFile

[RobDog888]

If its only going to print the one item to the textfile then you can use the semicolon to designate that it not enter a newline since no more entries will be made.

Print #hFile, Text1.Text;

[stevevb6]

same thing is happening.

[stevevb6]

i found the problem. saving the location as a .txt file would make an extra line at the end of the path, making it have the error, by makeing up my own extention, it works just fine.

[RobDog888]

Is Text1.Text
a multiline textbox?

[stevevb6]

nope. Its a single line textbox. I think it has something to do with txt files in general. not really sure, but when i sove the textbox as a .rtc file (made up by me) It opened just fine.

[RobDog888]

Weird as the semi colin fixes it for me. The semicolon designates that there will be no new line added after the print statement.

Open "C:\DeleteMe\Test2.txt" For Output As #1
        Print #1, "Test";
    Close #1

Produced a single line text file with no next blank line.