Fox 9 Timed Event triggers

You could do this in foxpro by having a timer run every so often, and the first thing it does is check if it is 11pm, and if it is then do what you want.

But I would prefer to use Windows Scheduled Tasks.

Why timer? Why scheduler? Simple FoxPro loop:

DO WHILE TIME() < "23"
  WAIT WINDOW "Waiting for starting time ..." TIME 5
ENDDO

DO YourFoxProgram

If you put the Timer in FoxPro you need to have FoxPro running.

I suggest you use the Scheduled Tasks in the Operating System.

pcelba

a DO WHILE loop will consume a lot of CPU resources that a timer or a scheduled event will not

Yes, pcelba!

I second Tushar on this, the timer is rather meant for this than an endless loop, even though your WAIT ... TIMEOUT 5 will lower CPU usage of course. I'd say WIN API Sleep is even more efficient in lowering CPU usage.

The bigger disadvantage of this loop is, that it stops VFP from doing anything else than waiting. So this needs an exclusive VFP process and if you do that, I'd rather setup a scheduled task, because the scheduled task service is running anyway and you need no further process to wait for some special VFP scheduled task. Scheduled taks also logs the return value it get's and can tell you if the task was successful, it can also kill a task that does not finish after a certain time, eg before it should run again the next day. All this is an extra benefit of scheduled tasks you should not ignore.

Bye, Olaf.

*-- CPU loading for this code is not measurable
DO WHILE TIME() < "23"
  WAIT WINDOW "Waiting for starting time ..." TIME 5
ENDDO

What kind of CPU are you using? :-)

I would agree DO WHILE loop will consume a lot of resources but the WAIT WINDOW inside the loop will cause the CPU loading at 0 (ZERO) %...

*-- This will cause about 60% CPU loading on my notebook
DO WHILE TIME() < "23"
ENDDO

Timer could allow another code running and UI responses but Malibucompany did not ask for such functionality. He just needs FoxPro program to execute at given time, so why to do it more complicated?

Windows scheduler is an option but its disadvantage is a necessity to execute FoxPro.EXE (or run-time) first and this can fail (occassionaly). If the FoxPro is started already, it has almost all resources reserved, it can check if everything needed for the program run is available and inform about problems earlier not at 11pm etc.  

Windows scheduler is an option when you cannot change the application.

I've used scheduler to start my app during working hours and then the app after all necessary checks was waiting for the evening to do its job.

Regarding CPU usage I had the same experience as you, that it only get's up to 60%, if you don't have the WAIT. You're also right that WAIT does lower the CPU usage much.

Still I don't see the big advantage of the fox process already being started.

a) you can test, if the EXE works, runtimes are installed and config is correct aside of a scheduled task - and you should.

That's not a problem. Even if you can have an early warning when starting this far before 11 pm, you'll only get this warning once, if you keep that EXE running for many days, weeks. And it may be at 11 pm, that some network connection is cut or whatever else does not fullfill the requirements you tested earlier, so the same type of problems can occur, if you already started a fox exe.

b) To allow the functionalities the task scheduler offers you'll need to do a lot more programming than just the While loop.

c) If there is some preparation before the real process starts (eg copying some files that then will be processed), you either make that another scheduled task or consider this with an earlier start of the scheduled task.

Bye, Olaf.

I would rather use Windows Schedular than to program my own.

However, I use a DO WHILE like pcelba suggested for very short time when doing specific tasks.

Just thinking why the Task scheduler is not my favorite and reasons are:

1) Task scheduler needs adminstrative rights to define/modify tasks.
2) Task scheduler has no shortcut on my desktop (it took 20 seconds to find it out) whereas VFP has it. But I am not sure if this is a reason or consequence already...

"I want a certain Fox program to run every night say at 11 pm."

What Malibucompany did NOT say is whether or not this 'program' is a stand-alone program contained within its own EXE or if it is one of many 'programs'/operations included within a more comprehensive application.

If it is stand-alone program, then all of your above suggestions and comments are valid.
In this case I have opted for the scheduled task approach and it has worked for me well.

However, if it should be one 'program'/operation which is merely part of a more comprehensive application, then the choices become more limited.

While I admit that I could be wrong, I am not aware of a way for the scheduled task approach to launch an individual part of an over-all comprehensive application without there being some additional specialized application launch code present to support it.

If the 'program'  were not a stand-alone EXE, then the Timer would be my recommendation for the reasons stated above.

Good Luck