ShellExecute and wait for completion

[timmappa]

I need to launch some process (typically - another EXE) from VFP program, and wait until this process completes before moving to another command in VFP program. I am using ShellExecute command for this. It will not wait at the moment. How can I do ShellExecute command wait until called program finsih processing? Please help. Let me know if any other way i can do this?

DECLARE INTEGER ShellExecute IN shell32.dll ;
INTEGER hndWin, ;
STRING cAction, ;
STRING cFileName, ;
STRING cParams, ;
STRING cDir, ;
INTEGER nShowWin

 

[Mike Lewis]

Hi Timmappa,

You've got a couple of options.

The easier is not to use ShellExecute(), but to do something like this instead:

oWsh = CREATEOBJECT("wscript.shell")
oWsh.Run("Notepad", 3, .T.)

This will run Notepad in a maxmimised window. Substitute your own application name here. It's the third parameter -- the .T. -- that tells it to run modally, that is, your VFP app will suspend until the other app has closed.

The other possibility is to use ShellExecute() and then to start a loop in which you test for the presence of the launched window. For an example of how to do that, see the article Find out what applications are running on the user's system.

Hope this helps.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[JRB-Bldr]

The biggest task might be for the application to 'know' when the other external application is COMPLETE.

Does the external application do anything special to indicate when it has completed?

If, as Mike has suggested above, the external application will EXIT when complete, the VFP application can loop waiting for the absence of the other application.

Otherwise you will need to find some other means of determining that the other app is done.

Good Luck,
JRB-Bldr

 

[bborissov]

Check the great class from late Ed Rauh API_APPRUN:

http://www.universalthread.com/Repo...D474F7A38446A4A6F3038576D5979336D384C32324567

Borislav Borissov
VFP9 SP2, SQL Server 2000/2005.

 

[timmappa]

Mike’s suggestion is perfect.

oWsh = CREATEOBJECT("wscript.shell")
oWsh.Run("Notepad", 3, .T.)

This works fine. Thanks