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Screen freeze while macro runs in background?


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Can anyone please steer me to a solution on this problem.

On third party applications, I want the screen to remain still while the macro runs around flashing various menus, controls and windows.

@SW_SHOW/HIDE helps a little but if all else fails I was thinking about taking a screen shot (not sure how but hope to figure it out) and then display the shot while macroing in the background. Any suggestions please?

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You can use SplashImageOn to display the screenshot and if you search for screen capture in scripts and scraps you will find one by Lazycat that can take the screenshot for you.


Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time ......T.S. Elliot
Suspense is worse than disappointment................Robert Burns
God help the man who won't help himself, because no-one else will...........My Grandmother

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I am also curious as to what your intentions would be with such a solution. Just first things that come to my mind arent very good.

JS

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Vortex Revolutions Engineer / Inventor (Web, Desktop, and Mobile Applications, Hardware Gizmos, Consulting, and more)

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well why show the menu's at all us @SW_HIDE and controlSend()

The macro runs from a control and @SW_HIDE would hide the parent screen with the menus that are being tested. I want the full screen with all the windows "as is" to stand still if possible.
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I am also curious as to what your intentions would be with such a solution. Just first things that come to my mind arent very good.

JS

What do you mean? What are these first things? This should be a pretty standard problem no?

My intentions are as I said I'm running from a control and I don't want to show a busy screen moving around, opening and closing other windows and controls. I have eliminated much of this but not completely. Unfortuanetly there are some 1 second sleeps that are needed to stop the macro from running away. It looks pretty awful to me with all the flashing etc. Till now I have avoided any external calls other than from _Singleton.

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If you want to see the first versions of this macro and you have QuickBooks Pro go to www.CAfirm.net

It's fantastic - thank you Autoit

Okay I understand what you are more talking about now. I am going to check that out. I am working on converting the QuickBooks SDK to AutoIt, let me know if you have any similar information or anything that would help.

Need some standard XML handling in AutoIt as that would make the SDK that much easier. Sounds like I may have another plugin to write :P.

JS

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File-String Hash Plugin Updated! 04-02-2008 Plugins have been discontinued. I just found out.

ComputerGetInfo UDF's Updated! 11-23-2006

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Vortex Revolutions Engineer / Inventor (Web, Desktop, and Mobile Applications, Hardware Gizmos, Consulting, and more)

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Okay I understand what you are more talking about now. I am going to check that out. I am working on converting the QuickBooks SDK to AutoIt, let me know if you have any similar information or anything that would help.

Need some standard XML handling in AutoIt as that would make the SDK that much easier. Sounds like I may have another plugin to write :P.

JS

I have up to now avoided importing (directly or indirectly) into QuickBooks although I think it should be easy once the import array is setup correctly. I have used http://www.BaystateConsulting.com software and it works well +-$200.

I am focusing on using whatever is available within QuickBooks Pro to correct several issues - the first is that awful Ctl+Q QuickReport which is useless, misleading and not in accordance with GAAP - it has no totals - debits and credits show as all debits or all credits and nobody in their right mind would want such a financial report (except to mislead). I've beg them to change it, I've fought with QB support and written to the Canadian president of Intuit and have also reported them to the Canadian Institute of CA's. Noboby cares. I figured screw you, I'll show you what I'm talking about and wrote the QBGoAcct macro and am giving it away - thanks to Autoit. QuickBooks is an accounting program and they have a chart of accounts but nowhere is there an actual account. They have lists, registers and reports but no accounts. Well now they have one and I hope they change their program soon to make my macro obsolete. The next issue I will tackle is a sales tax problem and once again I don't need SDK. I intend to popup an inbox right next to the QB input fields, do the necessary calculations and then plonk the number into the input field. I think most problems can be sorted out within Quickbooks with none or a minimal of mouse moves - it may take a while to figure out all the angles but if you need help - if I can, I'm here.

P.S. QB support Canada now say they are installing QBGoAcct onto all their computers but who knows. I just want their program to comply with the laws of financial reporting. As far as I am concerned they are assisting in the reporting of false and misleading information with their "showcase" QuickReport.

Edited by 1905russell
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  • 2 weeks later...

You can use SplashImageOn to display the screenshot and if you search for screen capture in scripts and scraps you will find one by Lazycat that can take the screenshot for you.

Thanks for the help. Lazycat's capture and SplashImage works great and easily and cuts out almost all the screen movements behind in the background. Looks a million times better. Thanks again.
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All this talk of modifying figures in real time for an accounting package reeks of potential for fiddling the books. Data integrity is mission critical for accounting.

How will your modifications pass an external audit? Especially if the auditors delve into these forums and discover that AutoIT is a scripting language that is easily disassembled and modified by anybody with mediocre coding skills. How will it survive a silent but deadly 'false positive' removal by anti-virus updates?

I had similar issues with accounting packages during the king years of pre-Y2K conversion (lotsa $$$'s and lotsa challenges) and solved them easily - I just steered the customers to competing packages that were easier to use. The software vendors quickly learnt and picked up their game.

Revenge of the capitalists: Don't punch them in the eye - hit them in the hip pocket. Write glowing reviews for the features offered by their competition in trade publications - they'll soon grow to respect your opinion and soon modify their code.

Have you tried MYOB? http://www.myob.com.au in direct competition with QuickBooks.

Edited by Confuzzled
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I have to be careful here because Ive been accused of making JFK speeches in other forums. I am a Chartered Accountant in Canada (like a CPA) and everything I do is of the highest quality and will pass all audits, not just financial. Dont knock capitalism. I love capitalism compared to the alternatives (so far). I love when my clients to do well so they have more work for me. Capitalism is good thing most of the time. I am licensed and everything I do is certified and I strive to make accounting better for the enlightenment and protection of the public. QuickBooks allows &Modify reports (which is what I am doing) so please complain to them and speak to their auditors.

I am not sure I know to what issue you are referring but in the case of QBGoAcct.exe I am modifying the QB report writer to display a better report. What's wrong with that? I have not changed anything. Auditors will actually celebrate the fact that their clients now have instant, relevant and useful information in real time. To achieve the same thing anybody can (each time) spend about a minute or more going through various screens, moving the curser and mouse, make several choices and type stuff. However, nobody does and so invaluable information is being denied the QB user. With QBGoAcct, they can now run down their list of vendors (or customers) and stop on Confuzzled hit a hotkey and see your full account - which shows them (cumulated) how much they owe you and why and what and when. Im changing reports not the data. No books are fiddled.

The second issue I referred to will require an input box to collect (sales tax included) data before entering in the QB source document. This calculation needs to be performed separately on a calculator before entry anyway. Currently if someone is looking at their expenses and they see fees paid to Confuzzled and they double click, (if you charged sales taxes) they will not find a corresponding amount on the input source document. The reported expense and the source document don't match. I can fix that. So where are these auditors you refer to and why have they allowed these problems to persist? Take a look at any QuickReport and I defy you or anyone else to explain it to me. The public is being bamboozled and where are the auditors? Anyway once again I'm not changing QB data. I'm helping the QB user out because they only have to enter once (no prior calculations) and their reports will now match their source document.

You have raised another issue and I don't want to fight but accountants are the only ones who should be creating accounting systems. If you are talking computer systems coding skills, I'm worse than mediocre and I am absolutely useless at machine language coding. If you are talking macroing, Im better than mediocre Im good. Macroing comes easily to me and if I get stuck - I can always create a GUI (just kidding). Up till now, finding the right high level tools has been the problem. Macroing is here to stay and I believe accountants will eventually take back what they alone have been trained to do because computer programmers have somehow taken over and understandably screwed it all up. I have a license to produce accounting systems, big and small and Im a certified auditor so dont worry about audits and integrity and fiddling books. My license is the most precious material possession I own and it cant be bought or sold.

I cant praise any other accounting programs as you have suggested because QB is the best of a bad bunch for small business. Yes Im familiar with MYOB I have several versions and some of my clients and collogues still use it. QuickBooks bought MYOB out in Canada about 3 years ago and then pulled the plug and shut them down. Just as well because I never liked it anyway - it has inherent systems flaws that are unacceptable to me. They also close off the books at year end which is unnecessary and a hindrance. QB does it right - you just lock all editing up to a fixed date and move on. The worst Ive seen so far is (wait for it) Microsoft Office Accounting for Small Business 2006. How they can group this piece of garbage with giants like Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Access is incomprehensible as it just belittles the other components of Office suite. My website for QBGoAcct is www.CAfirm.net and the next revision will include the above Capture\Splash plus hopefully fix the first run problems. If you have QB try it (not 1.1 unless you are using multicurrency options). Im giving it away in true Autoit tradition. It shows you an immediate subledger Account a vital and crucial piece of information for all businesses. Jackie is calling Ive got to go.

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Chuckles: A fine speech indeed!

Altering report templates and using import/export facilties won't be frowned on - I misunderstood what you wanted to do.

Now I see your frustrations. Sure you can use AutoIT to do a lot of the repetitive keystrokes, but feedback to the developers may be the only way to change for the better long term.

If you are accredited, then they should take some notice.

I certainly have had far better experiences in my country with having things improved - you just have to put it to them in such as way that they can see the benefits - everybody wants to update to a newer version if it has added facilities, and these accounting packages are a licence to print money for the vendors as they lock you in for the long term.

Say Hi to Jackie for me... :P

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Im assuming (from all the clues) that you are from Oz where like the rest of the British commonwealth CAs are highly respected and on the trust level about second behind doctors. Unfortunately, in North America they earn even less than lawyers (say no more). To repeat - I have tried through every channel to get rid of that illegal QuickReport including writing (twice) to the president of Intuit Canada. He never replied. I told him that if he wants to be the system of the future then he better get back on the tracks. Nodoby there understands accounting and it shows. Any other product I would agree with you but not QuickBooks they have bred a strange culture with their annual sales of over a billion. They justify their QuickReport by saying that I should look at it from the transactions point of view. Wouldnt you find it insulting if a total non-programmer told you that a program that didnt work, really did work if you look at it from the bytes point of view.

Ill pass on your greetings to Jackies when she returns from sailing in the Aegean.

Edited by 1905russell
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The user wielding the check book is always right! :nuke:

Or atleast should be!!

JS :P

AutoIt Links

File-String Hash Plugin Updated! 04-02-2008 Plugins have been discontinued. I just found out.

ComputerGetInfo UDF's Updated! 11-23-2006

External Links

Vortex Revolutions Engineer / Inventor (Web, Desktop, and Mobile Applications, Hardware Gizmos, Consulting, and more)

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