Accessing singleton

[Richard Robertson]

The first program isn't starting the second one. The user starts the program again, and they certainly aren't going to provide extra parameters.

[MilesAhead]

Sorry for the confusion. I've been reworking components controls and ActiveX that are all related. It turns out I changed it so that UserString is a published property. If you assign to it in the secondary instance before calling Execute() it will be copied to the shared memory. The demo just shows a usage from AutoIt. To use to fit your situation is up to the application developer. But the info transfer handled by the control includes: complete command tail as it looked on the command line, complete path to 2nd instance, and event handlers for things like if the Mutex creation fails, File Mapping fails etc.. Granted much more useful in a compile language IDE scenario.

$paramStr = ""
Global $mainInstance = False
Global $usrString = ""
Global $tt = ObjCreate("TellTailXControl1.TellTailX")
If @error Then
    MsgBox(0, "test", "ObjCreate Failed")
    Exit
EndIf

$tt.MapFileName = "{261AE7CC-38A3-4C70-9057-3C4C4D3A47C5}"
$tt.MutexName = "{8D24D263-CAF6-41EA-BA32-5514F8EF7851}"
$tt.Enabled = True
; this should be assigned before Execute()
$tt.UserString = "Clean up and quit"
;2nd instance copies command line info to Memory Mapped File and dies if AutoKill
$tt.AutoKill = True 

If $tt.Execute() And Not $tt.GetErrorCode() Then
    $mainInstance = True
Else
;do something in 2nd instance
EndIf

While $usrString <> "Clean up and quit"
    While Not $tt.CopyData()
        Sleep(50)
    Wend
    $usrString = $tt.UserString
    If $tt.GetParamCount() Then
        $paramStr = $tt.GetParamStr(1)
    EndIf
WEnd

MsgBox(0, "test", "2nd Instance ParamStr(1) is " & $paramStr)
$tt = 0
Exit

edit:

As I look at it the control is much more suited to compiled environments.

I like to use it if I can because it's pretty well debugged... esp. the

shared memory transfer. It is a lot more awkward to use with AutoIt

though. Prolly not the best choice in this situation.

Edited January 6, 2009 by MilesAhead

[TinyBoy]

I have to check the rest of your code, but the OnAutoItExit method is already very usefull! Thanks!

Just run it twice and you'll see, that the first instance may be closed and then, the exitcode of first instance is executed.

Tinyboy

[MilesAhead]

This script shows a bit more how you could use the control along the lines

of Unix fork(). In this one we aren't concerned with command line

params. Just using the Execute() method in the 2nd instance to send

data to the 1st which is listening.

CODE

$usrStr = ""

$mainInstance = False

$tt = ObjCreate("TellTailXControl1.TellTailX")

If @error Then

MsgBox(0, "test", "ObjCreate() Failed")

Exit

EndIf

$tt.MapFileName = "{261AE7CC-38A3-4C70-9057-3C4C4D3A47C5}"

$tt.MutexName = "{8D24D263-CAF6-41EA-BA32-5514F8EF7851}"

$tt.Enabled = True

$tt.AutoKill = False

If $tt.Execute() And Not $tt.GetErrorCode() Then

$mainInstance = True

ShellExecute(@ScriptFullPath) ;launch another copy for grins

EndIf

;when I get here I know if I am in 1st or 2nd instance

;AutoKill is False so 2nd instance keeps running

While $mainInstance

While Not $tt.CopyData()

Sleep(50)

WEnd

$usrStr = $tt.UserString

If $usrStr = "quit" Then

MsgBox(0, @ScriptName, "Main Instance: Got Quit Msg")

ExitLoop

EndIf

WEnd

If Not $mainInstance Then

$tt.UserString = "quit"

$tt.Execute() ;transfer data to shared memory

MsgBox(0, @ScriptName, "2nd Instance: Sent Quit Msg")

EndIf

$tt = 0

Exit

Edited January 7, 2009 by MilesAhead

[MilesAhead]

Here's a link to .chm help with some demos

TellTailHelp

I've been using some form of this component or control since

around 2001. So hopefully the major functions should be

pretty bullet proof.

It used to have a custom property page with .hlp support that

worked in VC++ 6 and VB 6 Dialog Editor, but MS hosed that

in some later version of Visual Studio!! At least the "drop on

the form" mechanism still works in Visual Studio 2008!! Of course

it works in Delphi 5 IDE. Don't know about later Delphi versions

but if stuff works with ActiveX Controls then it should work with

this.

edit: btw I included the .ocx in the just updated help zip file with instructions to install it directly

edit2: Just updated the .ocx to fix a trap if the UserString Property is read but no string was ever

assigned to it. Now it's initialized to the string "(empty)" to avoid the memory access error.

Edited January 9, 2009 by MilesAhead