pause/resuming a script when certain text disappears from window

[darren_burgess]

How would one pause a script until a certain text string disappears? I am automating Cakewalk Pro audio to record several short tracks and then export each to wave.

It all works very well, except I have to include a long script Sleep during the export to wave process to prevent the script from continuing before the export is compete. Winwaitactive does not work for some reason.

I want to get rid of the sleep and have the script wait until the cakewalk status text that says "Exporting Audio" disappears.

How would one do that?

Darren

[marfdaman]

I'd have a look at "ControlGetText" and alternatively "WinGetText" in the helpfile.

[james3mg]

Do you already have the status bar text stored in a variable? If you do, take the second line out of this script and replace $status with your variable:

While 1
  $status = StatusbarGetText("Cakewalk")
  If $status <> "Exporting Audio" Then ExitLoop
  Sleep(100)
WEnd

(you can take out the Sleep line, but CPU usage tends to jump up in that tight of a loop). Be sure to replace "Cakewalk" with the actual window title. You can combine the second and third lines, if you want. There's no reason to use the variable except to make your script a little more readable.

Edited August 10, 2006 by james3mg

[darren_burgess]

thanks for your help! I will try those things tonight.

[darren_burgess]

Statusbargettext did not work, because for some reason the Status bar text does not change during the audio export process.

What does change is the color of the status bar, which becomes a blue percentage progress bar indicating how much of the export is complete.

This code did the trick:

While PixelGetColor (153, 1013) <> 15723486 ; waits until export is done by checking pixel color

Sleep(100)

WEnd

Where 15723486 is the normal color of the status bar.

I think WinGetText would have worked as well, since the window text does change according to Autoit Window Info.

Thanks for your help. My script runs alot faster now.

Darren