Show Baloon Tip every hour

[FastEddie]

I am trying to show a balloon tip every hour that my form is minimized to the tray. I allready have the minimize part done but how do I set the timer once it is down and then show the message every hour. I have some code I pulled from MSDN but I am not sure how to apply it to my situation. Also I have the timer set to 10 seconds here so that I can see the balloon tip for testing.

Private Sub SetTimer()
        Dim aTimer As New System.Timers.Timer()
        AddHandler aTimer.Elapsed, AddressOf OnTimedEvent
        aTimer.Interval = 10000
        aTimer.Enabled = True
        GC.KeepAlive(aTimer)
    End Sub
    Private Sub OnTimedEvent(ByVal source As Object, ByVal e As ElapsedEventArgs)
        ShowCSABaloon()
    End Sub

Also will this timer have a noticable effect on performance?

[RobDog888]

Hmm, why do you call the GC method on it?

[FastEddie]

This is mostly a copy and paste from the MSDN article and I don't really understand it all yet.

' Keep the timer alive until the end of Main. - However, KeepAlive must be used at the end of Main, to prevent the JIT compiler from allowing aggressive garbage collection to occur before Main ends.

[RobDog888]

Ah this is why...

' Normally, the timer is declared at the class level, so
' that it doesn't go out of scope when the method ends.
' In this example, the timer is needed only while Main
' is executing. However, KeepAlive must be used at the
' end of Main, to prevent the JIT compiler from allowing
' aggressive garbage collection to occur before Main
' ends.

So their example is based in a Modules sub Main and the keepalive is for maintianing the object existance so it doesnt get disposed. Since you are using a form based timer you wont have that problem.

[FastEddie]

Ok that makes sence and I kind of suspected that may be the case but I wasn't sure enough to remove it. So now I have this...

'
    Private Sub SetTimer(ByVal intTimeSpan As Integer)
        Dim aTimer As New System.Timers.Timer()
        AddHandler aTimer.Elapsed, AddressOf OnTimedEvent
        aTimer.Interval = intTimeSpan
        aTimer.Enabled = True
    End Sub
    Private Sub OnTimedEvent(ByVal source As Object, ByVal e As ElapsedEventArgs)
        ShowCSABaloon()
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        SetTimer(3600000)
    End Sub

My code, as is, will pop up the balloon after the first hour but how do I keep it poping up every hour the applications is open?

[RobDog888]

It should keep firing but do you have any other code that may be disabling the timer?

[techgnome]

As long as the timer is enabled, it should keep firing off.

Try a smaller interval, like a minute for testing.

-tg

[FastEddie]

I didn't realize it would keep running in an automatic "loop" like that. I thought I would have to set it to do so. Anyway I have to do a little more testing but it appears that I can set it to start when the form is minimized and it will keep running in the back ground as needed.