Help catching STDIN in background

[rekcut01]

Is there a way to catch <STDIN> from a background process running in windows? I want to write a service that loops, running it in the back ground and just listen for <STDIN>, when it gets input go automatically and run a perl program.

#!c:/dwimperl/perl/bin/perl.exe 
# PERL MODULES WE WILL BE USING 
use strict; 
use warnings; 
use integer; 
use CGI; 
use Win32::OLE; 
use Win32::OLE qw(in with); 
use Win32::OLE::Variant; 
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel'; 
use Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Worksheet; 
use Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::SaveParser; 
use Spreadsheet::WriteExcel; 
use Time::Piece; 
use Data::Dumper; 
use 5.010001; 
 
 
 
 
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"; 
 
while (1) 
{ 
	#my $input = <STDIN>; 
	my $input; 
	if (-t STDIN) 
	{ 
		print "hello"; 
		$input = <STDIN>; 
		$input =~ s/\r\n//; 
	} 
 
	#$input =~ s/\r\n//; 
	my $global_col; 
	my $global_row; 
 
	my $parser   = Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::SaveParser->new(); 
	my $workbook = $parser->parse('C:\Users\tuckerri\Desktop\Report.xls'); 
	if ( !defined $workbook )  
	{          
		die $parser->error(), ".\n";  
	} 
	my $worksheet = $workbook->worksheet(0); 
	for my $worksheet ( $workbook->worksheets() )  
	{ 
 
		my ( $row_min, $row_max ) = $worksheet->row_range(); 
		my ( $col_min, $col_max ) = $worksheet->col_range(); 
 
		for my $row ( $row_min .. $row_max )  
		{ 
			for my $col ( $col_min .. $col_max )  
			{ 
				my $cell = $worksheet->get_cell( $row, $col ); 
				next unless $cell; 
 
				my $cmp_string = $cell->value(); 
				 
				#print "$row $col \n"; 
 
				if ($cmp_string eq $input) 
				{ 
					my $out_time = localtime; 
					my $n= &mod_spreadsheet($row, $col); 
				} 
			} 
		} 
	} 
 
} 
 
sub mod_spreadsheet() 
{ 
	my $sub_row = $_[0]; 
	my $sub_col = $_[1]; 
	my $date = localtime->strftime('%m/%d/%y %H:%M', localtime); 
	print "$date \n"; 
	 
	#my $sub_out_time = $_[2]; 
	#my $out_time = sub main::localtime; 
	#print $sub_out_time; 
 
	my $parser1   = Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::SaveParser->new(); 
	my $workbook1 = $parser1->Parse('c:\Users\tuckerri\Desktop\Report.xls'); 
	if ( !defined $workbook1 )  
	{          
		die $parser1->error(), ".\n"; 
	} 
	my $worksheet1 = $workbook1->worksheet(0); 
	my $cell1 = $worksheet1->get_cell( $sub_row, $sub_col + 1 ); 
 
	$worksheet1->AddCell( $sub_row, $sub_col + 1, $date ); 
	## Write over the existing file or write a new file. 
	$workbook1->SaveAs('c:\Users\tuckerri\Desktop\Report.xls'); 
}

I would like to put this in the background listening for <STDIN>.... the PC I have this on has no keyboard, mouse or monitor so the only input will be from the scanner.

Is there a way to make this happen?

Thanks in advance
-Rick

 

[PinkeyNBrain]

This isn't an elegant solution, but I've used this idea / concept in a couple of programs.
Read the documentation on GuiTest and some of this will make more sense.

- Start your program and give it an easily identifiable title
- use Win32:GuiTest ;
- $hWnd = FindWindowLike('your program title') ; # See documentation on GuiTest
You'll get a window handle out of this (possibly @hWnd if the name is generic)
- ($l,$t,$r,$b) = GetWindowRect(hWnd) ; # Get the coordinates of your window
- Each time you want to look for STDIN use
($x,$y) = GetCursorPos() ;
- check to see if ($x, $y) are in the borders of your program window
- If so, break out for generic: print "What now? " ; $response = <STDIN> ;
type input retrieval. If ($x, $y) are not in your borders - just keep
doing what you were doing before.
*** Caution:
- Generate a function that will test the state of the window $hWnd.
If the user moves it, ($l,$t,$r,$b) values will change

 

[MikeLacey]

Hi Rick,

I've not written this kind of Perl script for Windows but you do something similar to this in *nix when you write a daemon process - you close and then reopen stdin, stdout and stderr. I'll have a look around.

Mike

 

[MikeLacey]

My answer (above) is complete twaddle...

I don't think you can *quite* do what you're asking, but there's probably a way around it.

Can you start the process on the end of a pipe and then block until there's something to read?

open(P, 'scanner_proc |')
while(<P>){
#  do whatever you're going to do with the scanner output
}
close(P);

Mike