Disable GUI's "caching" keystrokes

[corgano]

The scenario is thus: You have a button on a gui, and it does an action that takes some time - let's just assume it is a sleep(20000).
The user clicks the button, the script does it's thing. HOWEVER if the user gets impatient and clicks the button again before it finishes, or if they spam the button, you will get an endless looping of the function over and over.

Is there any way that if I had a function that took a while to run, and someone clicked the button to start/restart it again, that I could immediately kill/return the function instead of waiting for it to finnish? Or would there be a way to disable the gui from accepting and clicks or keystrokes until the current function finishes executing? My goal is to avoid the pressing the button twenty times impatiently making it do the same thing over and over.

Edited June 9, 2015 by corgano

[zreo15]

maybe you can make the button change into a loading gif till the function is loading then turn it back 

[spudw2k]

There are a couple of ways that I have handled similar problems.  One method is to disable any controls while your long process runs and then re-enable them when it is complete.  Another method is to create some sort of global variable that denotes whether the program is busy and inspect the variable as funcs are called.  

I'm sure other folks have some good ideas as well.

Some example code that demonstrates a specific scenario would give us more to work with.

Edited June 9, 2015 by spudw2k

[argumentum]

put this code at the point where you'd like to flush the clicking

While GUIGetMsg()
WEnd

 

[Newb]

Fiddled a bit with GuiOnEventMode and GuiGetMsg but the only way I found was what they already told you, otherwise function will be quequed and called for each time you clicked.

Use #include <GUIConstantsEx.au3> and when you call the function use GuiCtrlSetState($YourControl,$GUI_DISABLE) and when finished GuiCtrlSetState($YourControl,$GUI_ENABLE)

 

Or tempoarily replace the button with something not clickable until the function ends.

Edited June 9, 2015 by Newb

[corgano]

maybe you can make the button change into a loading gif till the function is loading then turn it back 

​Considered this, but if the gui has a lot of buttons it becomes annoying to keep track of replacing / enabling and disabling controls.

There are a couple of ways that I have handled similar problems.  One method is to disable any controls while your long process runs and then re-enable them when it is complete.  Another method is to create some sort of global variable that denotes whether the program is busy and inspect the variable as funcs are called.  

I'm sure other folks have some good ideas as well.

Some example code that demonstrates a specific scenario would give us more to work with.

​I've also done something similar to this before, having a global flag to wuit doing whatever and every few lines check if the flag was set and if so return. This seemed excessively messy though, so I was wondering about a better solution.

 

Here is an example script that shows the issue:

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#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <GuiImageList.au3>
#include <GuiListView.au3>

Example()

Func Example()
    Local $hImage, $idListview

    ; Create GUI
    GUICreate("ListView Add Item", 400, 400)
    $idListview = GUICtrlCreateListView("", 2, 2, 394, 268)
    $button = GUICtrlCreateButton("go", 2,280,493,100)
    GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)

    ; Add columns
    _GUICtrlListView_InsertColumn($idListview, 0, "Column 1", 100)
    _GUICtrlListView_InsertColumn($idListview, 1, "Column 2", 100)
    _GUICtrlListView_InsertColumn($idListview, 2, "Column 3", 100)
    _GUICtrlListView_InsertColumn($idListview, 3, "Column 4", 100)
    _GUICtrlListView_InsertColumn($idListview, 4, "Column 5", 100)

    ; Add items
    longfunc($idListview)

    ; Loop until the user exits.
    while 1
      $msg = GUIGetMsg()
      Switch $msg
        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
          GUIDelete()
          Exit

        Case $button
          longfunc($idListview)
      EndSwitch
    WEnd
EndFunc   ;==>Example

Func longfunc($idListview)
      _GUICtrlListView_DeleteAllItems($idListview)
    For $i = 0 to 300
    _GUICtrlListView_AddItem($idListview, "Row "&$i+1&": Col 1", $i)
    _GUICtrlListView_AddSubItem($idListview, $i, "Row "&$i+1&": Col 2", 1)
    _GUICtrlListView_AddSubItem($idListview, $i, "Row "&$i+1&": Col 3", 2)
    _GUICtrlListView_AddSubItem($idListview, $i, "Row "&$i+1&": Col 4", 3)
    _GUICtrlListView_AddSubItem($idListview, $i, "Row "&$i+1&": Col 5", 4)
    Next
EndFunc

put this code at the point where you'd like to flush the clicking

While GUIGetMsg()
WEnd

 

​That never would have occurred to me! actually functions really well, and as far as solutions to clearing any buffered keys this works brilliantly.

Is there any good, simple solution like this for interrupting / stopping the running function immediately?

Edited June 13, 2015 by corgano

[argumentum]

Is there any good, simple solution like this for interrupting / stopping the running function immediately?

​code speak louder than words
 

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#include <ButtonConstants.au3>
#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <StaticConstants.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
#Region ### START Koda GUI section ### Form=
Global $Form1 = GUICreate("my big GUI", 615, 49, -1, -1, -1, BitOR($WS_EX_TOPMOST,$WS_EX_WINDOWEDGE))
Global $Button1 = GUICtrlCreateButton("Button1", 8, 8, 75, 25)
Global $Label1 = GUICtrlCreateLabel("Label1", 88, 14, 500, 17)
GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)
#EndRegion ### END Koda GUI section ###

Global $bStop = False
myTimeIsA_LongFunctionToStop()
While 1
    $nMsg = GUIGetMsg()
    Switch $nMsg
        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            GUIDelete()
            Exit 0
        Case $Button1
            ; run again ?
            $bStop = Not $bStop
            myTimeIsA_LongFunctionToStop()

    EndSwitch
WEnd

Func myTimeIsA_LongFunctionToStop()
    While 1 ; run baby, run
    ; la la la
    ; la la la
    ; la la la
    If GUIGetMsg() = $Button1 Then $bStop = Not $bStop
    If $bStop Then
        GUICtrlSetData( $Label1 , "I'm stopped ?" )
        Return "I'm stopped ?" ; place somethingt like this ?
    EndIf
    ; la la la
    ; la la la
    ; la la la
    ; la la la
    GUICtrlSetData( $Label1 , @HOUR&":"&@MIN&":"&@SEC&"."&@MSEC )
    Sleep(10)
    ; la la la
    ; la la la
    ; la la la
    WEnd
EndFunc