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How to tell when to time-out an application Turn on/off line numbers in source code. Switch to Orginial background IDE or DSP color Comment or reply to this aritlce/tip for discussion. Bookmark this article to my favorite article(s). Print this article
08-Jan-03
Category
Others
Language
Delphi 2.x
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Publisher:
DSP, Administrator
Reference URL:
DKB
			Author: Lou Adler

How can I determine that a user has been inactive for a certain length of time so 
that I may exit the application?

Answer:

This is an interesting question because it introduces one form of security for an 
application, and that is time- sensitive, user activity-based processing. This type 
of "awareness" in a program can usually be found in dialup programs (CompuServe, 
MSN), but they also reside in security log-ins, in which if a response is not made 
within a discrete period of time, the program will close and you'll have to start 
all over again.

In Delphi, this is pretty easy to implement. What you're about to see is not the 
prettiest solution in the world, but it works.

Here's how to implement user activity-based time-sensitivity in your programs:

1. In the main form of your application, set the KeyPreview property to True so the 
form will see keystrokes before any other components (you'll see why when you see 
the code for the OnKeyDown method). And in the FormCreate method, write the 
following code:

1   procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
2   begin
3     TimeOut := 0;
4   end;


2. Drop a Timer component on the form and set its interval to 1000 milliseconds 
(the default).
3. Switch to the editor. Under the implementation section, declare the following 
const and var:

5   const
6     MaxTimeOutValue = 300; {This is 300 seconds, or five minutes}
7   var
8     TimeOut: Integer; {This will be incremented by the Timer}


4. Write the following procedure and declare in the private section of your form:

9   procedure TForm1.ResetTimeOut;
10  begin
11      TimeOut := 0;
12  end;


5. Open up the OnKeyDown method for your form and put the following code:
13  
14  procedure TForm1.FormKeyDown(Sender: TObject; var Key: Word;
15    Shift: TShiftState);
16  begin
17    ResetTimeOut;
18  end;


This calls ResetTheTimer which, in turn, resets the TimeOut variable to zero, then 
disables and re- enables the Timer. The reason we do form-level processing of the 
keystrokes is so that no matter which component the user is typing in, keystrokes 
are always picked up by the form. Otherwise, you'd have to add this code to every 
component, and if you have a lot on your form ... yikes! I'd rather not think about 
it

6. In the OnTimer event of the Timer, put the following code:

19  procedure TForm1.Timer1Timer(Sender: TObject);
20  begin
21    Inc(TimeOut);
22    if TimeOut = MaxTimeOutValue then
23    begin
24      Timer1.Enabled := False;
25      Close;
26    end;
27  end;


This increments the TimeOut variable and compares it against the MaxTimeOutValue. 
If TimeOut equals MaxTimeOutValue, the timer is disabled and Close is called.

So how does this all work?

When the user presses a key while the form is running, TimeOut is reset to 0. This 
means that if the user is constantly typing, there's no way TimeOut can ever reach 
MaxTimeOutValue. However, once the user stops typing, because the timer is always 
enabled, TimeOut will be incremented every second, and will eventually reach the 
value equivalent to MaxTimeOutValue.

This isn't pretty, but it works.

			
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