Question

Question about using SHELL to launch exe

Asked by: LeeHenry

I am aware that Visual Basic does not support multithreading, but in my vb 6.0 application, can I shell out a seperate exe to handle some seperate code that will run outside the app? That way if numerous instances of that exe are launced, it won't effect perfomance within my vb application.  I'm new to threading so let me know if this makes sense.. Thanks in advance..

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Asked On
2005-02-09 at 07:58:30ID21308013
Tags

shell

,

exe

,

launch

,

vb

Topic

Visual Basic Programming

Participating Experts
4
Points
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Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: Idle_MindPosted on 2005-02-09 at 08:03:17ID: 13265394

It really depends on what you are doing...

The question that must be asked is do the seperate EXEs then need to communicate with each other somehow?

Explain in more detail what you are trying to accomplish and we can give you more options.

 

by: Erick37Posted on 2005-02-09 at 08:03:40ID: 13265397

Here is a workaround to true multithreading using ActiveX exes and a timer:

Multi-Threaded VB Using ActiveX EXEs
http://www.vbaccelerator.com/home/VB/Code/Libraries/Threading/Multi-threading_using_classes_in_ActiveX_EXEs/article.asp

 

by: LeeHenryPosted on 2005-02-09 at 08:22:04ID: 13265640

I have an application that authenticates users before entering the program. During authentication, I query the domain controller to verify that they have a valid account. If they have a valid account on the DC, but are not in my Visual Basic application, I then use some API's to load that user's profile on that machine. The loading of the user's profile is expensive, and there are numeorus places throughout the application where user's can instantiate this process. The exe's simply load the user's profile, and do not need to communicate with anything. In fact, once they execute, I don't even need to know when or if they finished.. Therefore, I figured simply shelling them out, and managing them in the task manager would suffice..

Make sense?

 

by: Erick37Posted on 2005-02-09 at 08:30:24ID: 13265747

You can shell out your worker exe using the Shell function.  If your worker exe needs no user interface, then code everything in a standard module making Sub Main() your startup object.

 

by: LeeHenryPosted on 2005-02-09 at 09:25:43ID: 13266463

Thanks Erick37!

One other thing.. I just realized I will need to pass the authentication info to the external exe. I know that you can pass parameters using the shell command, but i've never done that.. do you know of a quick example I can look at or something..??  

Thanks..

 

by: cool12399Posted on 2005-02-09 at 10:01:00ID: 13266886

Passing Parameter Code:

----------------------------------------

>>>>>>>>
Sub Form_Load()
    'check if something was passed on the commandline
    if COMMAND$ <> "" then
        'if a /F is found then the user passed a filename
        if instr(COMMAND$,"/F") then
            'Parse the filename out and save it
            sFilename = Mid$(COMMAND$,instr(COMMAND$,"/F")+ 2)
        end if
    else
        msgbox "You must pass a filename as /Ffilename.ext"
    end if
end sub

  To pass the filename to a seperate program, just shell out like this

  lResult = shell("OTHER.EXE /F" + sFilename)

 

by: LeeHenryPosted on 2005-02-09 at 10:10:24ID: 13266994

cool12399..

I would like to do that, but not using a filename.. For example.. I know i need to pass 3 parameters.. username password and initials..

Would like to do something like this..

Sub Form_Load()
If COMMAND$ <> "" then

UserName = <Parse COMMAND$ to get username>
Password = <Parse COMMAND$ to get password>
Initials = <Pars COMMAND$ to get initials>


To pass this ..
lResult = shell("C:\MyApp.exe" + UserName + Password + Initials

//Would this work? Is the syntac correct?

Thanks again
   

 

by: LeeHenryPosted on 2005-02-09 at 10:10:51ID: 13267003

i don't want to pass a file in other words

 

by: Erick37Posted on 2005-02-09 at 10:57:22ID: 13267624

You can pass multiple parameters separated with a space or any other control character like "/" or "-"

The use the Split function on the command to split our the 3 parameters:

vntParams = Split(Command, " ") 'split using space

sUser = vntParams(0)
sPass = vntParams(1)
'etc ...

Shell it like this, inserting spaces:

lResult = shell("C:\MyApp.exe" & " " & UserName & " " & Password & " " & Initials)

 

by: vb_elmarPosted on 2005-02-09 at 11:00:40ID: 13267663


If the user entered 3 parameters (e.g. in 3 Textboxes or 3 Inputboxes)
you can use the parameters to start a 3rd VB.exe using shell:

********************************
Shell "C:\MyApp.exe" _
    & " " _
    & UserName _
    & " " _
    & Password _
    & " " _
    & Initials, vbNormalFocus
********************************

   
In the started VB.exe you can use 'Split()'
to get the 3 parameters 'back':
   


Private Sub Form_Load()
    AutoRedraw = -1: FontSize = 24: Dim myArray
   
    myParms = Split(Command, " ") ' the Command Variable contains 3 parameters
                                   'when a VB app starts
   
        Print myParms(0) 'contains 'username'
        Print myParms(1) 'contains 'password'
        Print myParms(2) 'contains 'initials'
   
End Sub

 

by: LeeHenryPosted on 2005-02-09 at 11:18:09ID: 13267876

Thanks guys..

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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