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How to stop an application and make it wait until the BDE is installed 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
Stop an application and make it wait until the BDE is instal 28-Oct-02
Category
BDE
Language
Delphi 2.x
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Publisher:
DSP, Administrator
Reference URL:
DKB
			Author Jonas Bilinkevicius

I have a CD-ROM catalog Paradox application. When it is run, it checks if the BDE 
is installed. If it raises an exception, I do:
1   
2   ShellExecute(handle, 'open', PChar(ExtractFilePath(Application.ExeName) +
3     'BDESetup\Setup.exe), '', nil , SW_SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE);


My problem is, that the application continues to run before the BDE is installed.

Answer:

The following unit contains two functions that might solve your problem.

The two functions defined in the unit below provide two alternative ways to allow 
an application to call another application and wait for it to exit before 
continuing. The called application can be a Win32 app, a Win16 app, or a DOS app. 
To call a batch file or an internal command.com or cmd.exe command, use something 
like: 'command.com' or 'cmd.exe' as the app, and '/c dir' as the parameter.

If you want the user to see the app's window, then pass SW_SHOW as the Visibility 
parameter. If you want to hide it, pass SW_HIDE (defined in Windows.pas).

If the called application cannot be run, then the function returns false, and you 
can use GetLastError to get an error code, and use SysErrorMessage to turn that 
into a text error message, if necessary.

If the called application runs, then the function returns true. If the called 
application runs, but signals an abnormal termination by setting its Exit Code to a 
non-zero value (rare among Windows applications) but common among DOS utilities), 
then this Exit Code can be seen in the final var parameter ResultingExitCode.

The wait loop includes a Windows message loop which explicitly looks out for a 
wm_Quit message to allow the calling application to be closed even if the called 
application hangs.

4   unit Exec;
5   
6   {
7   Author: Bill Sparrow (bsparrow@cix.co.uk)
8   Revision history in reverse chronological order:-
9   13/10/1999  WFS  Original version, tested only in Delphi 3 on NT4 SP3.
10  
11  Acknowledgements: the code borrows heaviliy from two contributions
12  posted on the CIX Conferencing system, one of which in turn borrows
13  from a Compuserve posting:
14  
15    magsys@cix.co.uk cix:borland/3delphi32:3488 29/07/1998.
16    Francis PARLANT CIS : 100113,3015.
17    jatkins@cix.co.uk cix:borland/6delphi:3540 01/11/1998
18  }
19  
20  interface
21  
22  uses Windows;
23  
24  function ShellExecAndWait(App, Params: string; Visibility: Integer;
25    var ResultingExitCode: DWord): Boolean;
26  
27  function CreateProcAndWait(App, Params: string; Visibility: Word;
28    var ResultingExitCode: DWord): Boolean;
29  
30  implementation
31  
32  uses
33    shellAPI, {for ShellExecuteEx, TShellExecuteInfo, etc.}
34    Messages; {for WM_QUIT}
35  
36  {
37  Based on a version from jatkins@cix.co.uk cix: borland / 6 delphi: 3540
38  01 / 11 / 1998
39  }
40  
41  {
42  One advantage of ShellExecuteEx is that it can find the path to the executable 
43  without you having to specify it in full, so long as the app has set a registry key 
44  under the appropriate App Paths branch.
45  
46  Another is that instead of passing an application name plus a document filename as 
47  a parameter, you can just pass the document name. So long as the document file type 
48  has an association, Windows will find the appropriate application to open the 
49  document.
50  
51  ShellExecuteEx is presumably what gets called when you double click a file in 
52  Windows Explorer to open it.
53  
54  Without SEE_MASK_FLAG_NO_UI, if ShellExecuteEx encounters an error, it will display 
55  an error dialog to the user before returning False. Furthermore, the text of the 
56  error dialog may be an inappropriate level for the user. For instance, if you try 
57  to open a document for which there is no association, the error dialog tells the 
58  user to set up an association. Turning off the UI allows us to handle the error 
59  ourselves and put up an error dialog if appropriate.
60  }
61  
62  function ShellExecAndWait(App, Params: string; Visibility: Integer;
63    var ResultingExitCode: DWord): Boolean;
64  var
65    Msg: TMsg;
66    E: TShellExecuteInfo;
67  begin
68    FillChar(E, SizeOf(E), 0); {Superfulous, but what the heck!}
69    E.cbSize := sizeof(E);
70    E.fMask := SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS or SEE_MASK_FLAG_NO_UI;
71    E.wnd := 0; {Still not sure about leaving this at zero}
72    E.lpVerb := nil; {Defaults to 'open'}
73    E.lpFile := PChar(App); {Application or document to open}
74    E.lpParameters := PChar(Params); {Optional Command line parameter to pass}
75    E.lpDirectory := nil; {Defaults to current directory}
76    E.nShow := Visibility; {E.g. SW_SHOW or SW_HIDE}
77    if ShellExecuteEx(@E) then
78    begin
79      repeat
80        while PeekMessage(Msg, 0, 0, 0, pm_Remove) do
81        begin
82          if Msg.message = wm_Quit then
83            Halt(Msg.WParam);
84          TranslateMessage(Msg);
85          DispatchMessage(Msg);
86        end;
87      until
88        WaitForSingleObject(E.hProcess, 50) <> WAIT_TIMEOUT;
89      GetExitCodeProcess(E.hProcess, ResultingExitCode);
90      CloseHandle(E.hProcess); {Prevent leakage}
91      Result := True; {ShellExecuteEx succeeded}
92    end
93    else
94    begin
95      ResultingExitCode := 1; {Just so that it is not left undefined}
96      Result := False; {ShellExecuteEx failed}
97    end;
98  end;
99  
100 {From the Win32 help for CreateProcess...
101 
102 "The created process remains in the system until all threads within the process have
103   terminated and all handles to the process and any of its threads have been closed
104   through calls to CloseHandle.The handles for both the process and the main 
105 	thread must be closed through calls to CloseHandle.If these handles are not needed,
106 	it is best to close them immediately after the process is created."
107 
108 Testing this under NT4 shows a memory leak of 12 K if you don't close the handles.
109 }
110 
111 {Based on a version from magsys@cix.co.uk cix:borland/3delphi32:3488
112 29/07/1998.}
113 
114 function CreateProcAndWait(App, Params: string; Visibility: Word;
115   var ResultingExitCode: DWord): Boolean;
116 var
117   Msg: TMsg;
118   SI: TStartupInfo;
119   PI: TProcessInformation;
120   CommandLine: string;
121 begin
122   FillChar(SI, SizeOf(SI), 0);
123   SI.cb := SizeOf(SI);
124   SI.dwFlags := STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW or STARTF_FORCEONFEEDBACK;
125   SI.wShowWindow := Visibility; {E.g. SW_SHOW or SW_HIDE}
126 
127   {The first whitespace-delimited 'parameter' in the lpCommandLine needs to be the
128   app's path and file name if any following 'real' parameters are to be correctly
129   seen by the called application.
130   Setting lpApplicationName is optional so long as we comply with the above. If
131   we did also set lpApplicationName, however, we would have to ensure that the copy 
132 in
133   lpCommandLine was in quotes in case it contains a space. If we leave 
134 	lpApplicationName as nil, Windows takes care of this problem for us. Also, if the
135    called app is 16 bit, we have to do it this way! On second thoughts, relying on
136    Windows to do the quoting would leave us
137   open to an ambiguity, so do it explicitly.}
138 
139   {If the app's filename contains a space, and is not already quoted, then quote 
140 it...}
141   if (Pos(' ', App) <> 0) and (Pos('"', App) = 0) then
142     CommandLine := '"' + App + '"'
143   else
144     CommandLine := App;
145   {Join the App and the Params into one string with a space between them...}
146   if (App <> '') and (Params <> '') then
147     CommandLine := CommandLine + ' ';
148   CommandLine := CommandLine + Params;
149   if CreateProcess(nil, PChar(CommandLine), nil, nil, False, 0, nil, nil, SI, PI) 
150 then
151   begin
152     repeat
153       while PeekMessage(Msg, 0, 0, 0, pm_Remove) do
154       begin
155         if Msg.message = wm_Quit then
156           Halt(Msg.WParam);
157         TranslateMessage(Msg);
158         DispatchMessage(Msg);
159       end;
160     until
161       WaitForSingleObject(PI.hProcess, 50) <> WAIT_TIMEOUT;
162     GetExitCodeProcess(PI.hProcess, ResultingExitCode);
163     CloseHandle(PI.hThread); {Prevent leakage}
164     CloseHandle(PI.hProcess); {Prevent leakage}
165     Result := True; {CreateProcess succeeded}
166   end
167   else
168   begin
169     ResultingExitCode := 1; {Just so that it is not left undefined}
170     Result := False; {CreateProcess failed}
171   end;
172 end;
173 
174 end.


			
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