Launching An External Program

[Keith French]

I am trying to launch an external program within Visual Basic 2005 Express.
If it is a simple program it works well with:-

myProg = "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe"
System.Diagnost ics.Process.Sta rt(myProg)

However, the application in question needs various command line arguments
added when it is launched, such as:-

"C:\MyFolder\My App.exe -h 9 -r 55 -j testfile.abc"

When I try this a Win32Exception was handled because it says it cannot find
the file specified. I am sure the problem is in how the arguments are
handled. Any ideas please?

[beaker]

Re: Launching An External Program

Keith French wrote:[color=blue]
> I am trying to launch an external program within Visual Basic 2005 Express.
> If it is a simple program it works well with:-
>
> myProg = "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe"
> System.Diagnost ics.Process.Sta rt(myProg)
>
> However, the application in question needs various command line arguments
> added when it is launched, such as:-
>
> "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe -h 9 -r 55 -j testfile.abc"
>
> When I try this a Win32Exception was handled because it says it cannot find
> the file specified. I am sure the problem is in how the arguments are
> handled. Any ideas please?
>[/color]

Are you just changing your myProg string to include MyApp's arguments?

Have you tried setting the arguments with Process's 'startInfo.Argu ments'?

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Re: Launching An External Program

"Keith French" <keithfrench@bt connect.com> schrieb:[color=blue]
>I am trying to launch an external program within Visual Basic 2005 Express.
>If it is a simple program it works well with:-
>
> myProg = "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe"
> System.Diagnost ics.Process.Sta rt(myProg)
>
> However, the application in question needs various command line arguments
> added when it is launched, such as:-
>
> "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe -h 9 -r 55 -j testfile.abc"[/color]


Check out 'Process.Start( <file name>, <arguments>)' .

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

[Keith French]

Re: Launching An External Program

No I haven't tried that. Can you give me the syntax or point me to a good
web reference please?


"beaker" <blahblah@rhuba rbrhubarbblahbl ah.net> wrote in message
news:en4NVEazFH A.3856@tk2msftn gp13.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> Keith French wrote:[color=green]
>> I am trying to launch an external program within Visual Basic 2005
>> Express. If it is a simple program it works well with:-
>>
>> myProg = "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe"
>> System.Diagnost ics.Process.Sta rt(myProg)
>>
>> However, the application in question needs various command line arguments
>> added when it is launched, such as:-
>>
>> "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe -h 9 -r 55 -j testfile.abc"
>>
>> When I try this a Win32Exception was handled because it says it cannot
>> find the file specified. I am sure the problem is in how the arguments
>> are handled. Any ideas please?
>>[/color]
>
> Are you just changing your myProg string to include MyApp's arguments?
>
> Have you tried setting the arguments with Process's 'startInfo.Argu ments'?
>[/color]

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Re: Launching An External Program

"Keith French" <keithfrench@bt connect.com> schrieb:[color=blue]
> No I haven't tried that. Can you give me the syntax or point me to a good
> web reference please?[/color]

..NET Framework Class Library -- 'ProcessStartIn fo' Class
<URL:http://msdn.microsoft. com/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemdiag nosticsprocesss tartinfoclassto pic.asp>

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

[Keith French]

Re: Launching An External Program

Thanks for that it now handles the arguments fine using:-

'Process.Start( <file name>, <arguments>)

However, the program I am launching is a DOS program and you stop its
display with CTRL-C, which works, the problem is this also closes the
command prompt window it runs it. I need to see some output of the results
of this program and hence need to keep the window open.

Is there a way of doing this as well?


"Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]" <hirf-spam-me-here@gmx.at> wrote in message
news:OgX$szbzFH A.3180@TK2MSFTN GP14.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> "Keith French" <keithfrench@bt connect.com> schrieb:[color=green]
>>I am trying to launch an external program within Visual Basic 2005
>>Express. If it is a simple program it works well with:-
>>
>> myProg = "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe"
>> System.Diagnost ics.Process.Sta rt(myProg)
>>
>> However, the application in question needs various command line arguments
>> added when it is launched, such as:-
>>
>> "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe -h 9 -r 55 -j testfile.abc"[/color]
>
>
> Check out 'Process.Start( <file name>, <arguments>)' .
>
> --
> M S Herfried K. Wagner
> M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
> V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>[/color]

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Re: Launching An External Program

Keith,

"Keith French" <keithfrench@bt connect.com> schrieb:[color=blue]
> However, the program I am launching is a DOS program and you stop its
> display with CTRL-C, which works, the problem is this also closes the
> command prompt window it runs it. I need to see some output of the results
> of this program and hence need to keep the window open.[/color]

You could redirect the application's output:

<URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/dotnet/samples/misc/RedirectConsole .zip>

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

[Keith French]

Re: Launching An External Program

Thanks for that it works now. The only thing is that I have to terminate my
DOS program with CTRL-C, which should just stop it running and not close the
window. This way you can read the results from its run. Is there a way to
keep the window open? What about running "cmd.exe" as the program and my
program as arguments off of CMD.exe?



"Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]" <hirf-spam-me-here@gmx.at> wrote in message
news:OgX$szbzFH A.3180@TK2MSFTN GP14.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> "Keith French" <keithfrench@bt connect.com> schrieb:[color=green]
>>I am trying to launch an external program within Visual Basic 2005
>>Express. If it is a simple program it works well with:-
>>
>> myProg = "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe"
>> System.Diagnost ics.Process.Sta rt(myProg)
>>
>> However, the application in question needs various command line arguments
>> added when it is launched, such as:-
>>
>> "C:\MyFolder\My App.exe -h 9 -r 55 -j testfile.abc"[/color]
>
>
> Check out 'Process.Start( <file name>, <arguments>)' .
>
> --
> M S Herfried K. Wagner
> M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
> V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>[/color]

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Re: Launching An External Program

"Keith French" <keithfrench@bt connect.com> schrieb:[color=blue]
> Thanks for that it works now. The only thing is that I have to terminate
> my DOS program with CTRL-C, which should just stop it running and not
> close the window. This way you can read the results from its run. Is there
> a way to keep the window open?[/color]

I don't know if this is possible, but I assume it's not.
[color=blue]
> What about running "cmd.exe" as the program and my program as arguments
> off of CMD.exe?[/color]

"cmd.exe" doesn't expect a file to run as parameter, IIRC. However, you
could create a batch file which starts the executable and then uses 'PAUSE'
to keep the console open.

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>